Hot or not so Hot Pepper Relish

Today it was back to the kitchen for more fun with the peppers and I found a recipe for Pepper Relish. Initially I was a little leary, I like to taste my peppers and not have my tongue numbed by the heat.. My solution was a combination of jalapeno peppers and banana peppers, about half and half, with just a few bhut jolokia peppers, aka ghost peppers, tossed in for a little real heat. No matter what kind of peppers you use, you should have 2 quarts (8 cups) of peppers when they are cleaned and chopped.

Here is a chart that will help you choose your peppers. Peppers are rated on what is called the Scoville Scale. The higher the Scoville number the hotter the pepper.

http://www.eatmorechiles.com/Scoville_Heat.html

Peppers can vary in heat depending on a lot of different factors. The biggest factors are how mature they were when they were picked and how many seeds are left or not left in the peppers when you clean them. Don’t get me wrong here, a hot pepper is a hot pepper, no matter how you slice it or how many seeds you leave in or take out.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Peppers naturally contain capsaicin that gives the pepper heat. When you are cleaning hot peppers you will get capsaicin on your hands or gloves. It is very important not to touch your face, eyes or any place else you don’t want to be irritated while you are cleaning the peppers. Wearing waterproof gloves is a good idea here. 

Once the peppers are cleaned and chopped very fine you will have 2 quarts of chopped peppers. Add 2 tablespoons of pickling/canning salt to the mash and let it sit for 3-4 hours. Mine looks more like a mash because I used the chop setting on my blender

Pepper mash

When the pepper mash is done sitting around, just cook the whole mess up with the 2 cups of white sugar and 2 cups of white vinegar for about 45 minutes. Stir it often enough that it doesn’t burn or scorch. Put the relish from the pot to the jars to the canning bath for 10 minutes. Of course, the taste will depend on what pepper combination you started with. Mine ended up nice and mellow with a little bit of bite that catches you by surprise.

Pepper Relish in the Jar-O

The recipe:
     2 quarts finely chopped peppers                    2 tablespoons of pickling/canning salt
     2 cups of white sugar                                    2 cups of white vinegar
http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/canned/hot_relish.html

Pickled Beets

Back to the little corner kitchen to do some canning today and today's star of the show... beets. I have already done beets once this year but I do not turn away any fresh goodness from the farm and this year must have been a good year for beets.

Since I have quite a few beets in the freezer, this offering of the wonderful ruby red root will be pickled in the old farm style way. Simply, with vinegar, sugar, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Here is the recipe I intend to use:

10 lbs of beets (about)
2 cups of white sugar
1 Tablespoon of pickling salt (it is very important to use pickling salt)
1 quart (4 cups) of white vinegar
1/4 cup whole cloves
Stick cinnamon

While making pickled beets is fairly simple, it is also time consuming but well worth it.

The very first thing you need to do is boil up your fresh beets till they are done enough that the skins slip off. When they are done, drain and let them cool enough to handle. I generally don't worry about washing the beets first unless I am planning on using the juice for something. In this case, no juice is required. I just don't sweat a little dirt in the water because the beets come in their very own wrapper of sorts and the dirt will boil off in the cooking.

Hot steamy beets chillin' in the dish drainer. yes, a dish drainer can double as a mega strainer sometimes.

Now you can slip the skins off the beets and cut them into slices, about a quarter inch thick. The smaller beets I slice whole while the large beets I half or even quarter and then slice them. You want the slices to be small enough to go into the jars without too much trouble. Put the sliced beets in a bowl for now.

Put the rest of the ingredients, except the spices for now, in a large kettle. (I used my gross grandma's old dutch oven because I think it brings the spirit of her kitchen to mine). This is called a brine. For the spices there are several ways to go here. The easiest would be to divide the cloves among the jars and then tuck a cinnamon stick into the beets after they are in the jar. You can also tie up the cloves and cinnamon in a piece of cheesecloth and simmer them in the brine. I usually used a clean piece of cotton cloth because I never seem to have cheesecloth around. I am thinking I might just tie up the cloves and simmer them in the brine.
 I have always liked cinnamon sticks tucked in jars so that is what I will be doing with these beets as well.

After the brine is is done, but the sliced beets in hot sterile jars* with any spices you have decided to add to them in the jar. I use pint jars because around here a pint jar seems to be just about the right size for a snack for the two of us. Cover the beets with brine and seal. Once they are sealed you will want to put them in a hot water canning bath for 25-30 minutes. As I have posted before, when the time is up, I simply turn the canning kettle off and let them sit over night if I can. If I need the canner for another batch of something, I take the jars out hot and turn them upside down on a towel on the counter. This is where they will sit without moving overnight so you will want to think about that and place them somewhere kind of out of the way.

*To heat and sterilize your jars, a dishwasher works great. Otherwise a wash in some hot soapy water and a good rinse in hot water works well too. If I want to do this ahead of time, I will then put the jars in pans and just hold them in a warm oven. Usually the lowest setting keeps them plenty hot.

Pumpkin Butter

Rainy days here in Southern Minnesota as fall begins. Perfect weather for the last of the canning. The apples, grapes, squash and pumpkins to name a few. I also picked up some gourds this year and will be drying them and hopefully crafting with them in the spring, sooner if I am lucky. That is another post though.

For now I am filling my time with pumpkins. This year I made something I have never made before, have never even heard of before. Pumpkin butter. Every year I do apple butter, one of Dad's favorites, but pumpkin butter is new to me.

For Starters One Medium Roasted Pumpkin

After some internet research for recipes appropriate for canning up for the winter, I found one I was satisfied had a high enough acid content to be safe for winter canning. After roasting a nice pie pumpkin it was simmered in the crock pot until it was thick and yummy looking. I figured when a wooden spoon stood up straight in it, it was probably thick enough.

Simmering Away in the Crockpot

It was put into jars, given a hot water bath and there you have it. Cinnamony, citrusy, yummy pumpkin butter for a cold winter's night.

Pumpkin Butter in the Jar-O

The recipe I used for this yummy stuff is below.

3 c pumpkin puree
3 c brown sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon of cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.

Mash everything together and put in a covered crock pot on low. Do not uncover for 1 hour. Next, uncover and continue the simmer for 2 more hours. Put into hot clean jars and put into a hot water bath for 25-30 minutes making sure you have 1 inch of water over the top of the jars. (When I used my water bath canner, I just turn it off when time is up and leave the jars in the canner overnight.) You should end up with about 2 pints of butter plus a partial jar to eat right away.

Here is the recipe/instructional I got my base recipe from and it also has good directions on the actual canning process.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Pumpkin-Butter/?ALLSTEPS

And now here is the disclaimer. Many sites talk about the dangers of botulism due to the low acid content of pumpkin. One of the reasons I chose this recipe was because it used a fairly large amount of lemon juice which along with the sugar, raised the acidity.  As always, when canning anything,  be ultra clean and careful. If you are concerned about the acidity of this butter, the finished product can be refrigerated for several weeks or frozen for several months.

Open Letter to my United States Representative

Dear United States Representative,

Wish I could believe the BS that all of you politicians are spouting, I used to believe in all of you and trust all of you. I don't anymore and I feel like a total idiot for ever being that naive. Congress, the Senate and you Mr Obama, should not be getting paychecks after letting this happen AGAIN! You all fight and bicker like a bunch of little kindergartners. I know if I had your kind of work history and work ethic, I would not only lose my paycheck but my job as well.

Personally, I am sick and tired of seeing the taxpayers being your financial pawns. Our government sends troops to other countries to fight oppression while our government oppresses our hard working citizens right here and for some reason that is okay. This makes me feel like I don't matter at all except to give more and more tax dollars to the government. I am pretty sure that if any company in the private sector handled other people's money the way that the government handles our tax dollars, they would be or are in prison. I KNOW that if I handled money the way the government does, I would be destitute and homeless in a country that could care less.

Washington DC, grow up and run this country like you were hired by the taxpayers to do!

Sincerely,

One of many taxpayers who pays your salary

Beautiful Fall Day

It is a beautiful fall day here in Southern Minnesota and a great day for a drive. Met up with family and friends in the big town of Cleveland, Minnesota. Lo and behold there was a little Hey by George pumpkin patch set up at the one and only local convenience store and gas station.

They had a wide variety of pumpkins and gourds, some of which I had never seen before. There were also books about Hey by George and home grown popcorn, corn shocks and straw bales.

Since I live in an apartment, the corn shocks and straw bales are pretty much out. I did get some of the home grown popcorn, a couple of gourds and another pumpkin. We love popcorn and the gourds were just too cool to pass up, at least I limited myself to 2 of them. Just had to have another pumpkin too. After all, you pretty much need a pumpkin for carving and a pumpkin for eating... right? All these treasures for under $15, not a bad deal at all.

Thinking the eating pumpkin is going to turn into pumpkin butter. Will let you know how that turns out. By then I will have had a chance to try the popcorn too.

Closing with a picture of my treasures from the farm and the pumpkin patch.

Bittersweet

Part of bringing the harvest home is remembering to bring home into the harvest and leave little seasonal reminders around your nest.

One of my favorite fall reminders, absolutely love it!

Shorter Days Cooler Autumn Nights

Here we are once again, closing in on the Wiccan New Year (Samhain). After a wonderful warm summer the nights become blessedly longer and cooler. Lazy days turn to days of getting the last of the summer activities done and preparing for the dark and restful winter days.

Back to work with a new hip and it is going ohhh so much better. It was one of those things where you didn't know just how much you hurt until it didn't anymore. After being back to work now for over a month, I realize that my hip had been deteriorating for longer than I thought. It simply came to a head when it actually collapsed. Even though I feel like a new person, I have been told that it will probably be a full year before I am totally and completely healed. I still am having some very strange reactions to the surgery that have nothing to do with my hip and I am hoping that these will all be gone by next May. Friends have come and gone through my recovery and I am sure will continue to do so. That might be best left for another post.

Besides work, I have been able to get back to my beloved cemetery walks, honoring my ancestors and the ancestors of others who have asked me for photos through Find a Grave. I don't always find who I am looking for but I always find someone who wants to be found and remembered. My latest 'project' has been the resting places of the young children. They can be so easily forgotten and lost in time due to their short stay here on this Earth. Planted on Earth to bloom in Heaven, author unknown.

On a more mundane level but no less rewarding level, it is canning season. A time to put away all the lovely fresh garden foods I can lay my hands on for the winter. So far this year I have preserved sauerkraut, spicy red cabbage, beets, beet jelly, tomato jelly, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, pepper sauce and salsa. That is so far, coming up soon will be apple butter, grape jelly and pumpkin butter. Even though I might get sick of it now, I will be glad that I continued on around January.

Closing this post with a photos of pepper sauce in the pot and in the jar along with a wonderful batch of salsa.

Thoughts and Memories

So... a little over a week ago I had major surgery to repair/replace my collapsed hip. For the week or so prior to and ever since the surgery I have been experiencing bouts of depression. 

Those bout I had before the surgery I chalked up to fear of surgery and the bills it will be laying at my door step. I believe I have come to terms with these fears. I have decided that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a chair if there is something I can do about it, even if I will be paying the bill for the rest of my life.

The bouts I have been having since surgery seem to be triggered by a number of different things and before I continue I will say this. I did quit smoking a few days before the surgery and have been trying to stay quit since so I have been tobacco free (more or less) for over two weeks now. Anyway, back to my train of thought here. The bouts since having surgery seem to be brought on by a number of things.

Initially, I have spent time being angry that my body has betrayed me so in such a short time. Up until now I have been fairly healthy and able to do the things I enjoy doing, all active and done outside and on foot. To suddenly have my body ground me as it has is a bitter pill. It is getting better but I still wonder if I will be back to where I was before the collapse. 

Next came the wondering and questioning of things are are. Is my life really as it appears or are there undercurrents that I either can't see or don't want to see. I have felt very isolated and deserted since the surgery. It feels like I have had to deal with it all alone while everyone who has called themselves friend and family go their merry way with hardly a thought spent on how I am doing. I do realize how selfish and self-centered this sounds on my part and that just proves to exacerbate the depression brought on by this crazy phenomenom.

Now in the past few days, I have spent time thinking about old friends and lives that are long gone. Not sure why but it what I do know is that it makes me feel like an old lady sitting around waiting to die. Not really where I want to be. Hopefully this is just a phase I need to work through.

The solution to all of this is simple and complicated at the same time. I have done it before but that was years ago when I was younger and a bit stronger all the way around. I am thinking I need to start over... again. Not just thinking, I know this is what needs to be done. I need to take a good hard look at my life and decide who and what will stay and who and what will go. I do have a pretty good idea of who and what needs to go and almost all are already gone. 

All that I plan to keep I still have but getting up and going on starting over is not as easy as it may sound. Some of the things I have not been able to keep have left some deep and painful holes in my life. I don't know if filling those holes is even an option. I think it is best to know the holes are there, know that I love those who used to live where the holes are and go on with life. 

Others will come and others will go. Sadly it seems like the more often this happens the easier it is to deal with. my goal is to be level and have things under control before the first snow. The first snow has always been a point of change for me but that is best left for another posting.

This past weekend I tried to make some sort of sense of the tragedy in Sandy Hook. I couldn't. It was a senseless tragedy and while I believe in everything happening for a reason, I cannot fathom any reason for this to have happened. 

It seems that almost everything I read online or hear on the TV is later disputed. I am not sure what more anyone needs to know other than that 26 human lives were senselessly cut short, 20 of them were children ages 6 & 7. The other 6 were courageous teachers who did their best to protect the children in their classrooms and paid for that with their own lives while managing to save some young lives if not all. 

Why does this story need to be dissected and rehashed unmercifully? Is this how some folks deal with their grief? By going on the attack and nit picking the facts apart? "That teacher didn't do what the news said she did, it was really another teacher who did that". Does the fact that a teacher died shielding her students with her own body rather than hiding them in closets, cupboard and bathrooms make her any less a hero? Come on!

And there is the Facebook user who posted a piece about glorifying all the rampaging shooters there have been this year, thus giving an explanation of why they think it continues to happen. They then attributed the commentary to Morgan Freeman. It was later disclosed that Morgan Freeman didn't release the statement at all. I say, So what, perhaps he should have released the statement! I completely agree that the shooters get more press than any of the victims and this has got to stop. Let them die a "sad nobody". 

On that note, I close with the names of the Sandy Hook victims as read online in the Huffington Post on Sunday, 12.16.12 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/sandy-hook-shooting-victims-names_n_2307354.html>

- Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female
- Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male
- Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female.

- Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female
- Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female
- Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female
- Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06, male
- Dawn Hochsprung, 06/28/65, female
- Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06, female
- Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06, female
- Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male
- Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06, male
- James Mattioli , 3/22/06, male
- Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05, female
- Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female
- Emilie Parker, 5/12/06, female
- Jack Pinto, 5/06/06, male
- Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male
- Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06, female
- Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06, female
- Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female
- Lauren Rousseau, 6/1982, female (full date of birth not specified)
- Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56, female
- Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female
- Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male
- Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06, female

Dear Facebook Friends

Dear Facebook Friends,

This morning I saw a picture posted on my wall of a young woman disrespecting our military dead at Arlington National Cemetery. (No I am not going to share the link because I do not believe in attention for bad behavior.) After seeing this, my mind was reeling on so many different levels.

Just to set the records straight. I consider myself a bleeding heart liberal, always have, always will. I take great offense at people who use the excuse that they are liberals to cover up for rude, lewd, inappropriate and disrespectful behavior. Actually, I take offense at the use of any belief, political or otherwise, as an excuse for rude, lewd, inappropriate and disrespectful behavior.

I believe in respecting and caring about my fellow human beings. I believe that everyone has the right to live their lives in peace and voice their opinions RESPECTFULLY without fear of retaliation. This has nothing to do with religion or spirituality. This has everything to do with common decency towards those we share this planet with. I think there are simply too many, people out there who have either lost site of this concept or have never been taught this concept. To me it really is this simple.

Pvt. James Brown, USMC

Sep 21, 2012

Today is National POW/MIA Day. I never knew that since I used to wear a POW/MIA bracelet. That made every day POW/MIA Day.

I remember when the war came home to our neighborhood in Garden Grove, California. Buddy Miller, 18, was KIA. His family lived just a few houses down the street from us and this made the war more real than it had ever been, even though my father was in the Navy. I have no idea whether my father lost friends in Vietnam, he was very closed mouthed about work when he was home. I suspect that he did even though he never saw action out of country. I think what made it different with Buddy was that he was only four years older than I was and I was friends with both of his brothers.

As a result, my father took me to a large hanger at the Los Alamitos Naval Air Base where he was stationed at the time. I still remember walking into that big hanger and seeing rows of banquet tables full of boxes containing the bracelets with names of those soldiers who were POW/MIA. I could not even guess how many boxes there were but I am sure there were thousands and thousands of bracelets. My father told me I could choose one to wear.

The soldier I choose was Pvt. James W. Brown, USMC. He went MIA on April 5, 1966 at the age of 19. The Viet Cong shot down the helicopter he was riding in and he was the door gunner. I know this much as a result of a letter that I wrote to his mother in Texas. She wrote me a nice letter back describing her son to me and telling me what the government had told her. She sounded so very proud of her son and seemed to be particularly proud of the fact that he was a door gunner. The letter has since gone to pieces as a result of years of wear for I read it often.

When the war ended and the newspapers began publishing the POWs as they were released. Back then when you wore a bracelet you didn't know if the soldier had been captured or not. Everyday I checked the newspapers for Pvt. James Brown, USMC. Every day he was not there. Years passed and each time I would hear about prisoners being released or remains being found I would check the list of names. Pvt. James Brown, USMC, has never come home and is still listed as missing in action. Although the bracelet has broken, I still keep it in my jewelry box and I have never forgotten.

Today I found a site where you can order POW/MIA bracelets. I found Pvt. James Brown and have ordered a replacement for the broken bracelet. I don’t usually tout selling sites anywhere on the web but this seemed important enough or me to do that so here it is: http://www.memorialbracelets.com/powmia.php

Settled In

Been a while again. Not as long as the last time though. All moved to North Mankato and settling in, the humans and the furballs. It has been interesting living in North Mankato which really does qualify as a small town and still has that small town atmosphere. I suspect the residents of this town work hard to keep it that way. The strange part is that all you have to do is drive across the bridge over the Minnesota River and you are in downtown Mankato which is quite a large city compared to North Mankato. It does make it an interesting drive to the grocery store as Mankato is such a diverse city, especially now that  MSU is in session, kind of a mini melting pot. More on that later, hopefully with pictures.

Once again, it's been a while since I have posted but there has been a lot going on that has spurred me to do a lot of thinking. This photo was taken of a sunset the night before I sat down to do some soul searching about my health and my spiritual growth. Kind of a sunset on the way things have been for the last several months.

It is definitely time to get back to my spiritual growth and quit worrying about the mundane world quite so much. In other words it is time for me to get back to caring for myself a little bit more, both physically and spiritually. 

Physically, Wii Fit here I come again! Spiritually, back to the plethora of books I have, both read and unread. Due to the move I opened the first box of books I came across and picked the book that sat right on top. This method might sound strange to some but it has never failed me. The book is an older one, The Inner Dance; A Guide to Spiritual and Psychological Unfolding by Diane Marie Child with Shuli Goodman.

Now I have a bad habit of annotating my personal books and am planning on doing the same with this one, however, I will do my level best to share insights and annotations on this blog as I have time. 

The living room is getting there too. MScot did a lot today and it has occurred to me that once the pictures come down it will look more like we are truly moving. There is a definite echo about the place up front. I am hoping to get everything up front to the point of moving the last of it out on moving day. Then I can get busy in the bedroom. Not a whole lot left in there but am figuring on getting dressers and most clothing out yet this weekend. The plan sounds so good as I write these words and I know that it will not go as smoothly as I expect. Can only hope that it goes more smoothly than it would of if we hadn't planned and been somewhat organized.

Living before today.

MScot working on the living room, getting the big stuff out.

Living room after today, almost there.

Worked on completing the kitchen today. Before (bottom) and after (top) pictures don't show a lot of difference but all the cupboards except one with a few dishes are empty, stove is clean and the oven is cleaning itself. As I look at these pictures I realize what a tiny little kitchen it is. I am not sure that the new kitchen is much bigger but I do know there are more cupboards and drawers and I am hoping it will look a lot neater than this one ever did.

So here we go... 5 days to vacating this place and hopefully 4 days to moving into the new place. Doesn't look like too much is done, at least to me because I am here all the time. Some big items are moved out into the garage already and all cupboards and closets are empty except for the kitchen. Ahhh, the dreaded kitchen. For some reason I hate moving the kitchen. Probably because this is where I tend to squirrel things away because I might need them someday. Today is the day kitchen!

Sunday we were off to New Ulm, Minnesota for the baptism of my youngest grandson Aiden. After baptism is was off to my son's farm near Gibbon, Minnesota. It was a wonderful Mother's Day here!

Took a break from packing today and spent some time relaxing on a farm by the lake with friends. A good time was had by both two leggeds and four leggeds. I also found some very cool pictures of time past. Not sure what the old wheels are from but I suspect they might have once held a portable saw mill. Back in the day, farmers would all have these portable mills as well as a section of land that was wooded. Many houses, especially farm houses, were heated with wood burning furnaces before the advent of fuel oil and our modern hearing systems.

So it begins. For reasons unknown other than the time felt right, I started doing some packing tonight in the kitchen and worked my way down the hallway. The place is a fright right now and I need to get past that as I continue to prepare to move. I keep telling myself that in less than 4 weeks we will be in our new place and I can't wait. The grand plan is to pack everything we don't absolutely need and store it ALL in the garage for maximum efficiency when moving day arrives, hoping that loading will go more quickly than if we were hauling it all out of the town home on moving day. My ulterior motive is that I don't have to dodge packed boxes for the next three and a half weeks.

Of course the furballs are starting to get a little skittish. They know about moving but I don't think that cats have very long memories. The best I can do for them is keep their basket bed where they can get at it when they are feeling insecure. Right now they are just going around snooping in anything and everything they can. They are especially enjoying shelves and the tops of cupboards as they become empty. Gotta love cats.

This is the leading edge of the wall cloud that rolled through Nicollet County this evening. It was quite spectacular and energizing. Although it did bring some large hail with it, no tornadoes were spawned that I know of at this point in time. Crazy weather, went from near freezing temperatures a few days ago to nearly 80° today. Last night, instead of temperatures going down they just kept rising all night. Gotta love Minnesota, if you don't like the weather just wait a few hours and it will change.