Recipe for the Fiesta Zucchini relish

Hello everyone,

I am flattered as I received quite a few  emails about the Zucchini relish.  Gosh, it isn't fancy but tasty. Thank you for your inquiries. My grandmother would blush.

Now, I really don't follow recipes to the book, but just follow general guidelines. My grandmother did not follow recipes hardly at all, so I learned from her, working around her methods.   This is so very similar to pickle relish, you can use a pickle relish recipe you have  and just substitute shredded Zukes and adjust your spices and vinegar.

I got about 6 cups of Shredded zukes, and then I shredded a couple of sweet peppers I had left over from last summer's garden.  I also shredded a couple of Gypsy peppers, which have a a nice pepper punch to them, though they are not hot, and I shredded a couple of Garden Salsa peppers which have a tiny bit of heat to them but they are not hot either.  I also shredded a couple of carrots also for color, to make up for the pepper color.

The peppers you can use for this is unlimited, please use your imagination and your palate.  Adjust your seasonings to your family or tongue.  If you want a flaming relish, add a more hot pepper.  Please do not be afraid of what you can do with this.  If you are timid, just use sweet peppers and carrot and then next add a spicier pepper and adjust. Something that will add zing is a red onion, which is what I am going to do next batch. For this batch, I added a white onion. I used a medium onion and just diced the whole onion in this batch.

I took the shredded zukes, and put in an ice cream bucket about a 1/1/2 gallon size along with the peppers, onion and put cold water in and added salt, about 2-3 tablespoons, if you are a salt restricted diet, just use cold water and I soaked this mixture overnight in the frig.

The next morning, I drained the water from the zuke mixture in a large colander and then rinsed good, and then let drain in the sink for several hours.  While this is draining, I started my vinegar and spice mixtures in a large pot, if you have a stock pot or a maslan pan, use this, heat your vinegar mixture up, and adjust to your taste.  I started with about 2 cups of apple cider vinegar and added about a 3/4 cup of sugar, again adjust to your taste.  Then I added 1 tablespoon each of dill seed and celery seed, and mustard seed,  in the pot and let simmer, but I did not boil this, just heat up good.

Then I added my zuke mixture and stirred up to make sure all the relish mixture is covered well and then I let this simmer for about an hour, then I tasted the mixture and adjusted to my taste, if you need to add more vinegar, splash some in, I also added a couple of splashes of red wine vinegar to this and I liked the taste.  I did use vinegar for canning, which is 5% acidity, which is what you need for canning.  I had to add a little more sugar, a tablespoon at a time, till it was where I wanted it.  I also added a little more of celery, dill, and mustard.  If you wish, omit any of these spices to your taste if you do not like it,  again, experiment with the taste, and think pickle relish.

Then I canned this mixture.  General canning directions for this:  Wash your jars and then keep hot, keep your lids and bands hot, and I used a  mix of pint and half pint jars with a tiny 4 oz for the last bit I had left over.  Then I used my pressure canner as a water bath canner, not employing the pressure regulator, just letting the steam come out the spout, I found this so wonderful as it did not heat up my kitchen like my big water bath canner does.  So I am using this method to water bath can my relishes and pickles, and tomatoes.

I processed for 20 minutes, then turned off the heat, let the steam settle down for about 10 minutes and then took the lid off, please when you do this, please lift the lid away from your face,  as you will get a intense facial steaming if you don't and a nasty steam burn, please follow the rules when canning for safety.

Well, I hope that this helps, again, forgive me for not having an "exact recipe", but I find recipes sometimes restricting, please have fun with this, and play with your food, you have my permission.  If you aren't sure, email me or post a comment, and I help you along.

Have fun
Hugs

canning produce from the getto garden

A very short post and photos of what I am doing this weekend...Canning the first tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers from the getto bucket brigade garden.

I am going to do a fiesta salsa, which has some colored sweet peppers and then some mildly hot garden salsa peppers.  And then a few cucumbers for pickles.   This is just a very small start.  Everything in the garden is slow, but is doing well beside the fact we had terrible cold and wet weather throughout the spring here and then intense heat and humidity.  I got some of the larger Zukes done for relish yesterday.

I am planning to go to Farmer's Market Saturday and see if my vendor has colored sweet peppers.  I just need a few for my fiesta salsa, it brightens up the mix and makes a pretty and colorful gift.  The peppers around here are pretty late just like everything else. Oh well, best laid plans of mice and men.

Well, I need to get going and go see if I can find some Pickle Crisp and a few other things for canning over the weekend.
Please take care all and have a wonderful and productive weekend, in whatever you plan.

Hugs

First processing of the season.

Not much to post about today, but I managed to process the first Zucchini of the season into a sweet/mildly hot relish.  I let it sit in the frig for about 24 hours, and then processed it this morning before it got too hot to do so.
I really do not have a recipe for the relish, its my grandmothers and I think that I used about 2 cups of apple cider vinegar and about a 3/4 c. of sugar and about 1 TLBSP each of mustard and celery seed, and a half of a large white onion.  There was about 6 cups of Zucchini shredded.  I used my electric food processor, but you can shred by hand with a cabbage shredder.  I am going to look into a hand shredder, a good one.

I still have small Zucchini and small crookneck squash and some gold Zucchini.  I would like to slice these lengthwise and process these with the pressure canner.  Anyone have a recipe for these?  Either pickled or pressure canned?

Mommy cat and babies are starting to simmer down some.  Still skittish and hissing but they don't run away as much when I go into the bathroom to check on them.  It will just take time.

Well that is about it for this uneventful day.  Have a great day all!

Busy in the kitchen, possum chasin' new kittens

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Well I hope that all are surviving the heat, or drought or both.  It is still very hot here and I'm busy in the kitchen at the present time, trying to keep up with the Zucchini and the start of the cucumbers.  I shredded some larger Zucchini one of my house neighbors gave me into a relish,  its a sweet/hot mixture.  I will see tomorrow if the spices and vinegar are ok and then process it.  I put a few sweet, and mildly hot peppers I had from last year in this batch, so I will see if its worth canning.  I am trying to round up my jars and lids.  I am tempted to try the Tattler reusable lids.  Hopefully, around the first, I will order some and try them.  Has anyone every used these lids? Let me know.
I also got some hamburger patties made and frozen.  I can hardly wait until I get my beef order and start making my ground beef fillings, and my stew meat.  Since I got my pressure canner, and I'm not afraid of it, it seems I have lost out on a lot of good food because I was a pussy about a pressure canner!

I am chasing a very large possum around the trailer park.  The other morning, around 4:30 am, I was up and the dog had to go out, and Belle, went around the corner where she usually goes and I heard some very intense "hissing", and it sure didn't sound like a cat, so I had my flashlight, and shined it where the sound was coming from, and lo and behold, a very large, ( I guessing about 25 lbs) possum  was by my north neighbor's back step.  It was not a happy camper, and I suspect its a male just by the size.  I brought the dog in as I don't want her torn up and by the time I went back out, it disappeared around the back.  So, I have my two traps set at night, but as of yet, nothing.  I will keep trying, as I don't want that around here at all.

The neighbor from hell clear to the north trailer left a mom cat and three kittens in the trailer, they have been in there with all of this heat, and one other trailer neighbor who lives next to this trailer, came over and told me he heard kittens crying.  So, Saturday night,  I snuck in a back window when it got dark and found them.  Mom has been around for a while, but I didn't know where she came from or what.  These babies are pretty wild, but I was able to corner them, and get them rounded up,  I de-fleaed them and mom, and for a few days, I had them on my porch, but it was getting just too hot, and I  finally brought them into my large bathroom in the big wire cage I use.  Mom is pretty easy to handle, but the babies will take a little time, they are 2 blacks and a black/tan tabby female, the blacks are a male and female.  I will try to get a photo of them, but usually they run and hide when I come in. Mom is a garden variety grey and very thin. But with a little food, she will be ok..  I was not expecting more cats,  and I am getting very tired of cleaning up other stupid people's messes.  I am not sure what to do with them at the moment, but right now, my goal is to just get the kittens tamed down and mom filled out, I will cross this bridge when I get there. 

Well, that is it for right now.  Just wait though, something can happen here in a New York minute.  I am going out a little later to water the garden and then come in and make supper.  I think boneless pork chops and fried potatoes with cucumber salad and tomatoes in on the menu tonight.
I will try to take photos of the garden.  The cherry tomatoes I have are over 6 feet tall now.
Take care all
Hugs

Busy critter

Good Morning Everyone,

Well,  I finally caught this little guy.  This possum has been around here for a few months and I finally caught it.  It wasn't a happy camper either, when I took the photo, it was growling and hissing and have general ill will towards me.  I will take it this morning down the road from my house to an area that has a creek and pastures and he is big enough to live on its own.  Glenda,  yours is bigger than mine, LOL.  If you check out Glenda's blog at  Living and Gardening in the Ozarks, you will find she trapped a possum that I'll bet was getting in the corn. 
Well, that is it for this morning's frivolities,  I will water a little, and then I have got to get to this house and all the work that is in here, AFTER I take this little guy back out into the wild, first.
Have a great day,
Hugs

Tarragon harvest

D and I just got done with stripping Tarragon leaves that I dried.  I dried the entire Tarragon bush, and cut it clear back, it may sprout a few more but with the heat, I really doubt it.  I hung this Tarragon under my carport and it took about a week to dry, it really helped with the very hot air we have.  So now I have Tarragon in the freezer for winter for my fish and chicken recipes.
I like my herbs dry but not to the point where they do not have their green color.  This Tarragon is just right for me.
Take care all and I will see what else I can come up with.  I need to pick Basil, so I may do this and process this and post photos.
Take care and don't get too hot in the garden.
Hugs

Look Ma! I didn't blow up the house

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful, productive weekend.  From the blogs I am reading, it looks like summer is in full swing with drought, and hot and everyone trying to keep everything going.  First its cold now hot, go figure.

Well, with the encouragement from several "mommy" bloggers I have, I took the big step and bought a small 6 qt pressure cooker, and about a week later, I bought a larger 16 qt pressure canner.
They are both Presto brand, and I have used the small 6 qt for several things to ease into using this "scary" equipment, or so I thought.
I did potatoes for potato salad Sunday afternoon, wow, just a few minutes and done!  No heating up the kitchen or anything.   And I DIDN'T BLOW UP THE HOUSE. 
I think that in a earlier blog posting I mentioned that when I was in Jr high, in home ec class, I put a very large commercial canner lid into the ceiling tiles of the school kitchen.  I should mention that it wasn't all me that did it, but a general fear of the canner in general, in which I was the one put into the position of handling it as I was the only one in my class that had any knowledge of canners simply because I helped my grandmother can, but I was not an experienced helpmate, I was just learning too, but you know 13-14 yr old girls, no one wanted to touch it, so I was the sacrificial lamb so to speak, and since then, I have been so terrified of them.  And this school canner was an antiquated one at that, what do you expect in 1973.
I bought the 16 qt canner through Amazon, for 64.76 + the 12.00 shipping.  My Ace Hardware had the same thing for 114.00 without tax which is 7%.  So I did save some money. And Amazon had it here in 5 days  by FedEx so I was pleased.
I am planning here in a few days to fire it up and give it a test run to check pressure, and then I am planning Zucchini, as I have it running out of my ears now, and then sometime next month, I am going to get some of my beef from the processor in a small town about 60 miles from me.  I am just ordering ground beef, and meats I can use for stew and soup and a few briskets, and that is about all I use.  I am not a big steak fan, I usually grill small steaks on the Holidays and birthdays, but that is as far as I go with beef.  I really do not need a whole beef or half beef, but feel I buy what I use and I don't waste anything.  And I am going to can a lot of this beef for Mexican cooking and stews and such.  I don't have a lot of freezer space but I will put some in the freezer and can the rest.
I will be making taco/enchilada fillings mostly, and some seasoned ground beef for some other recipes, and then seasoned stew beef for soups and stews.

The garden is doing ok, it is so blasted hot now, it hit 99 here yesterday, (Sunday) but the heat index was in the 105 to 108's which is pretty hot for us here,  I know my southern readers get it worse, so I do all of my work in the am, mowing and watering and then I work in the house in the afternoon.  That is about it.
My cucumbers are slow, I am getting a few but nothing major.  I am slowing getting tomatoes but nothing to toot my horn over either, but the plants are really loaded, and so are the cucumbers, so if they do grow, I will have them coming out of my ears also.

Just a recap of the neighbors from hell update,  the one NFH to the north has been kicked out, the NFH to the back of us has been kicked out, but the b**** next to me is still here. Damn!  I am hoping as all of us are, that she will move as her b**** sister who was in the north trailer who is now gone, she will follow her, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.  I will keep you all posted.

Other than just trying to stay above water to pay bills and keep everything going, everything is fine, I quess.  I lost 2 chef clients, as they were having problems too, so my extra money was cut off somewhat.  I am somewhat depressed, with all that has been going on, it seems the budget crisis, and just things at home, just trying to keep a roof over your head, it takes all of your energy, and with it being so hot, it makes it worse.  I keep the tv off quite a bit, as I am so very tired of hearing the political crap you hear, it  just wears you out.  Its the same, day after day.  I am trying to keep my parents calm, as they are so worried about their social security,  I have no answers.  I guess, just stand fast, and damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

Well, I had better get outside, I need to mow real quick and then water a little and then I am done.  Then I will move in the house and put potato salad and slice some zucchini to get them ready to process in a few days.
I wish everyone a wonderful week, hang in there, and I will post later if I can.

Hugs to all