Elderberry Cordial

Over the 4th of July my mother and I started some Elderberry Cordial using the recipe in "Cordials from Your Kitchen". I've made this before, and it's wonderful! The berries were some Mom had picked last year and frozen. We put the frozen berries straight into the mix. Per instructions I've shaken the containes (quart and other such jars) every few days.

Yesterday was the day to strain the cordial. It sure is lovely. Dark, rich purple, and the smell is heavenly. A week of settling then I'll rack it and put it into nice bottles.

Showtime Rotisserie

A couple months ago my husband purchased a countertop rotisserie. The idea was to use it to roast coffee, as well as to cook. We've used it quite extensively, and I highly recommend it. I think it's about the best way to cook most meats. It will roast 2 chickens at a time, or the basket can be used for steaks, veggies or other flat items. It takes no longer than using the regular oven, doesn't heat up the whole house, and the food is wonderfully tender and juicy.

There are several additional things that it either can come with, or that you can get separately, including 2 sizes of baskets and skewers. Some packages come with a warming try that can be put on top.

A lot of thought went into the design. The drip tray is square, so there's no 'wrong' way to put it in. The spit can go in either way, so you just use it. It comes with a gray plastic disk that takes the gear shaft and holds the spit vertically, allowing you to position the foods/baskets on it without it falling over, and which will protect the table/counter when taking food off.

All in all, I highly recommend these rotisserie ovens. They take up about the same amount of space as a breadbox, coming in several sizes to suit your needs.

Vegetable Stock, a nice side effect of canning corn

We recently spent a day canning. Started first thing in the morning in the garden, picking corn and shucking it. Nice activity for a lovely summer morning. Then on into the house to cut and can the corn.

The corncobs seemed like too much goodness to just put back in the compost, so we made vegetable stock. Got two big stockpots for the cobs, added a few tomatoes, some green beans, kohlrabi, onions, carrots including their greens, fresh herbs and a few dried. Used our new 21,000 BTU burner and the side burner on our grill to make the stock. Let it cook slowly over several hours, took the stock off, added more water and did it again. And again! In the end we had 26 quarts of stock. We mixed the 3 different batches together so they would all be about the same concentration.

Wonderful start to some soups this winter!

Brined Zucchini Pickless Need More Work

Well, I'm not satisfied with how the brined zucchini pickles turned out. More experimentation is needed. Some possibilities are that they were cut, not whole, and that I may not have had a strong enough brine solution. When I get a chance I'll try some more with other solutions.

Brining Zucchini Pickles

On Friday I started some brined zucchini pickles. I happened to stop at a local discount store and saw a lovely, large glass vase. Clear glass, with a sort of swirled pattern, about 18-20 inches tall, lovely shape, narrowing down to an opening still large enough for me to put my hand in. Hmmm, looked perfect for pickles! And only $5.00. Home it came. I cleaned it, then tried to decide how to use all the lovely zucchini.

I decided on spears, since the zucchini's were pretty good sized (say mostly 3-day zuke's). We chunked them into spears about 3.5 to 4 inches long, either quartering each section, or cutting it into 8ths, depending on how big they were. As I layered the spears into the jar I added a pickling mix that we had purchased. I'd just found out the day before that pickling mixes were initialy intended for brined pickles, and this was my chance to try this one out.

Mixed up brine and put it over the full jar. I then used some of the remainder in a sandwich baggie, double bagged, which I put on top to keep the new pickles under the brine. It started bubbling by the next day. The spears are reducing in size, I presume as the salt pulls the water out of the spears. They sure look good. They should be ready in about 2 weeks.

Zucchini makes great pickles

Busy weekend pickling again. Last summer was the first I had made pickles, thanks to "The Joy of Pickling" by Linda Ziedrich. The Zucchini Bread & Butter recipe I liked even better than either of the other two Bread & Butter recipes, so this year we didn't plant cucumbers, instead planting lots and lots of zucchini and summer squash.

Well, those of you familiar with growing squash will know, when one has zucchini, one has lots of zucchini! We started picking the first of them this weekend. Sunday I canned 9 pints and 12 jelly jars (1/2 pints) of Zucchini Bread & Butter pickles. I used hot water bath canning as it's faster than the pressure canner for these high-acid foods.

I also tried another of the recipes that I'd enjoyed last year, an Asian type pickle. I don't have my book in front of me to verify the name of the recipe, but I think it was Sesame Pickle. This is a fresh pickle, which is ready to eat in just a few hours. One of my kids and I had enjoyed them very much last summer when made with Asian cucumbers.

This time I tried it with zucchini. We made a triple batch from two rather huge zucchini's, cutting out the seed area, and chunking the rest. I was thrilled with the results and will be eating a lot of this kind of pickle. I think I'll go through the book some more and see what else I can convert to use zucchini and summer squash!

Elderberries

In the part of the country where I live the elderberries are blooming. From the time I was a child I've always watched to see where the elderberry plants are during the blooming season so I'll know where to find the berries when they are ready.

These days I'm lucky enough to have elderberries growing in our garden. I've been tending them closely and have learned some things that I hadn't known before. Elderberries seem to live 2 years. They will flower both years, but then seem to die off. They spread by sending runners underground, so a new shoot will pop up out of the ground some distance from the base of the main plant. Over time a thicket can grow up, spreading each year.

To keep things tidy I've been removing the dead branches/stalks every year. New shoots come up and the plants are doing well.

This year I'm hoping that I'll get enough berries to make some things. I also plan to talk to a neighbor who has a lot of elderberries in the fence line if I can pick them.

My family doesn't eat much jam or jelly, so I won't make any of that. We will eat a pie once in a while, and I love elderberry pie! There are two other things that I made from elderberries two summers ago that I'm hoping to make more of: wine and cordial. Both of these came out extremely well, and I sure hope I get enough to make more.

One very nice thing about elderberries is that they freeze wonderfully. Whatever I don't get put up I'll be freezing for later use.

Sugar Snap Pea Pickles

Today my first batches of sugar snap pea pickles are done. Last night I just had to try them, though.

First I tried the brined peas. These were made using a recipe for brined green beans. The peas came out well, but I don't think I'll use dill as a flavoring for peas next time. Maybe tarragon. Perhaps I should put in a little of that cinnamon mint? More experimentation is needed. The flavor is good, and the texture a bit crisp.

Next we got the jar of vinegar pickled peas opened, which took a bit of wrestling. These pickles had been put in a jar with the flavorings, the cooled pickling solution poured over them, then left in the fridge for 2 weeks. Trying these immediately after the brined peas was a bit of a shock. The sourness of the wine vinegar was in direct contrast with the fermented brined peas.

However, while very different, they are also very good. We've been getting rain so with luck I'll be able to do another batch of sugar snap pea pickles before they're done for the season.

In the next day or so I'll move them from the pickling jars into small jars and hot water bath can them. Otherwise I'd have to keep them all in the fridge, which would in large part negate the advanages of pickling them!