Tag: simplicity

Tomatillo Overload!

tumblr_mrsalwwBTk1qmywbko1_500The canning begins…

Just as I’m preparing to go back to school for another semester we are reaching a critical point in the season in which Lauren buys a ridiculous amount of produce in an effort to overstock her pantry with Ball jars full of food for the winter.

It’s about to get crazy in that little kitchen in the city.

On a whim, I bought six quarts of tomatillos at the Andersonville Farmers Market from my friends at Midnight Sun and decided it would be a good idea to have enough salsa verde around to withstand the apocalypse…. this is how I did it:

Tomatillo Salsa

(recipe courtesy of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

Ingredients:

  • 5-1/2 cups chopped, cored, husked tomatillos
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup chopped seeded green peppers (your choice of heat… I used a bunch of banana peppers and one jalapeno with a few of the seeds for the whole batch, because I’m not a “burn your face off salsa” kind of  girl.
  • 1/2 cup white vinegar
  • 4 tsp lime juice
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 TB finely chopped cilantro
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes

tumblr_mrsg0rifqb1qmywbko1_500Prepare your canner, jars and lids.*

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat to medium-low and boil gently, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree until semi-smooth.

Ladle or pour hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace in the jars. Gently remove air bubbles by poking into the jar with a knife and adding salsa as needed. Wipe rim, center seal on jar, and screw band down until fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.  Remove canner lid, wait 5 min, then remove jars, cool, and store.

*You’ll need a big soup pot that’s deep enough to submerge your jars in water. Place empty jars in pot and fill with water until jars are covered. Heat over med-high heat while you prepare salsa. This will sterilize the jars and heat them (hot salsa into hot jars to process).  Bands and seals should be gently heated in a small saucepan until ready to use.

Makes about two pint jars.  I, of course, quadrupled the recipe to get the haul you see here…

On Solitude and Spring Break

tumblr_mk5h9d5IYn1qmywbko1_500I’ve been on Spring Break this week, and, for those of you who don’t know, Spring Break for people over the age of 30 typically means sleeping past 6am and catching up on housework.

Both of these I have accomplished, in addition to handsomely chopping down my to-do list.

I’ve also been flying solo with week, with the g/f in Cleveland on a job.  Historically, I haven’t been very good at being by myself for any extended period of time.  I haven’t lived alone in almost 10 years, and I wasn’t very good at it when I did.  Alone time is when all your weird and disordered habits creep into your mind space.  Things like my strange and complicated relationship with food, a preference for 45 minute baths over 10 minute showers, and an affinity for the Discovery Fit and Health Channel, which, by the way, doesn’t even come in HD, making it even more pathetic.

I’m not saying that these habits went away; this week, I still spent a good chunk of time in the bath and in front of DFH.  I went to battle with a bag of dried cranberries and stayed up until 2am watching Dances With Wolves for the 16th time.  But I also felt strangely in control of my behavior. Make no mistake, this is a huge breakthrough for me.  I can’t say whether it’s maturity, confidence, a different living situation, all, or none of the above.  What I can say, is that I’m now able to embrace my weirdness and be comfortable with myself – even when I’m by myself.

Tomorrow I’m taking myself on my first solo hike.  Ok, so maybe it’s a small forest preserve in Crystal Lake, IL and not the Appalachian Trail.  The point is, for a long time I’ve wanted to experience hiking alone but never had the chutzpah to do it.  I’ll be sure to make a full report.

How I kicked cable out of my life, and a realization about The Price Is Right

Apparently crafty runs in my family.

On a visit with my brother I noticed his TV was running off of this funny thing with two long metal tentacles….

omg. They make Digital HD rabbit ears?!? Seriously?

tumblr_mj3ictfqnq1qmywbko1_500We’ve been wanting to ex-communicate cable from our household for awhile, but going down to basic service means losing the HD picture on our very (very) large TV.  That kind of defeats the purpose, so Crafty Bro recommended this beautiful little contraption to pick up the main stations with a crisp HD picture.

Add in a little Hulu and Netflix and it’s all the TV you could want for about $20 a month (plus a small investment up front for the antenna).  I’m not selling out my blog and advertising for Hulu; I’m just seriously excited by the opportunity to stick it to the cable company and still be able to watch Top Chef in HD.

Sounds like a win-win.  Thanks, Bro.

The downside?  If there is one it might be that you can’t record anything to a DVR, so if you want to watch TV live it will be on the major networks with commercials.  That might not be so bad, since I tend to either do pushups, dishes, or both during commercial breaks.

Or it might just mean that I watch less television, which wouldn’t be bad either.

So here’s where I get to my next point.  I was watching CBS for the first time since, oh, 2003 and came across The Price Is Right.  No more Bob Barker; no more Rod Roddy, but same old Price Is Right.

Sort of…

…until dream boat Rob Wilson (the first ever male model on the show) struck a pose and pointed an enthusiastic thumbs up towards a home theatre set in the showcase showdown.  After I picked up my jaw from the floor, I thought ,“Rock on, Price Is Right!  Go on with your bad self.”

I don’t know who’s idea it was to be fair about who can and can’t promote a blender and a trip to Fiji on television.  Maybe this is Drew Carey’s version of having your pets spayed and neutered.  Either way, CBS making the choice to start objectifying both sexes is a darn good one, and a decision that I hope will pay off for them (especially since it’s one of the five channels I’ll now be watching).

Don’t buy “cinnamon coffee”, put cinnamon in your coffee.

Flavored coffees have always bothered me.  I don’t mean coffee with flavored syrup – I mean coffee that has some mysterious chemical layer of something-ness that infuses coffee beans to somehow taste like cinnamon, or french vanilla, or pumpkins.

You know me…. I’m a girl who likes to keep things au naturale.

But I get it.  Sometimes I don’t just want a plain black cup of coffee either.  Instead of buying cinnamon flavored coffee, just add some cinnamon to your coffee.  Grounds, sprinkle of cinnamon, brew, enjoy.  It works for a french press; it works for a drip brewer.  And yes, it’s really that simple.

Ok, cinnamon seems simple enough, but what about those other flavors?  Here are some popular flavors, and my solutions for infusing your coffee instead of coating it with chemicals:

2012-12-31 09.48.27Cinnamon: Duh, we already covered this… add powdered cinnamon, or a fresh grated cinnamon stick

French Vanilla: Pinch of raw sugar and a whole vanilla bean

Hazelnut: Grate a few hazelnut shavings into the grounds

Pumpkin: Sprinkle of pumpkin spice

“Christmas”: Mulling spices (go easy on them… a little goes a long way)

I’m all ears for other ideas…

What do you do to add pizzazz to your daily cup?

Happy New Year 2013!

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Holidays, party of 1. No mom, I don’t actually smoke. Photo credit: Kelly Rose

I’m fairly confident the year was sufficiently rung last night.  The wine flowed, the turkey was delicious, as were all the delectable sides (including mashed potatoes, vegetables, stuffing and my Mom’s creamed corn).  I made a solid batch of deviled eggs and shoved blue cheese into pitted olives for a final touch.

But enough about me.  Most importantly, the meal was shared among friends.  We managed to cram nine people around the table for a family-style dinner, and were totally blessed with a night of laughter and plenty of leftovers.

I’m a little conflicted about making resolutions.  I tend to shape my life goals around the academic year because, well, I work at an academic institution.  Sure, I’ll be joining the pack that returns to the gym (but, to be fair, I went twice last week too).  Lose weight, eat better, let go of all the holiday vices… blah-di-blah…

But if I really had to pin down what I want out of this year, it’s to get my s&*# together.  

I’ve wrapped this up into three smaller goals that look like this:

  1. Meet more deadlines

  2. Find space

  3. Drink Tea

I’m pretty responsible, but the things that either (a) aren’t a priority, or (b) I don’t get paid to do sometimes fall by the wayside.  It happens with writing, and paying bills, and things like student recommendations or taking a ballet class.  In order to deal with all the little details and try to keep on top of managing my life, I need to find space in my brain.  But, I’m also seeking out a physical space so that I can continue to work on dance related projects.  With my change in jobs came a complete loss of free rehearsal space, and soon, I believe I might find the creative home that I’m looking for.

Vicki Crain told me that she was resolving to drink more tea, so this resolution is borrowed from her.  But drinking tea is not just the action of sipping on a overly hot, lightly caffeinated, somewhat tasteless liquid… it’s a life philosophy that I whole-heartedly buy into.  So, good one Vicki.

What, pray tell, are you going to work on this year?

Obligatory Blog Post About Being Thankful on Thanksgiving

If you decide to take a little time today between the food and the family and the football to check the interwebs, I’m sure I will be one of perhaps millions of blog posts appropriately themed on being Thankful.  We bloggers are smart like that in that we’ve figured out that readers generally like posts that are timed well to a particular holiday or event.  So what is going to make my blog post about what I’m thankful for stick out more than any other that pops up in your newsfeed?

Not much. Probably….

But in spite of my self-loathing lack of confidence that I stand out among other thankful-themed posts, and the honest belief that very few people read my blog on a regular basis (thanks Mom and Julie)… I’m going to do it anyway.

2012 has been a year of drastic changes in my life.  I moved. My relationships with friends and family have changed.  My job(s) have changed.  I have withstood heartache, hardship, and more change in one year than a person should be able to handle.  While I’ve alluded ambiguously to some of these over the last several months, a rant on gratitude won’t be the thing that causes me to spill on my personal life, but I will say that the year has brought with it a total shift in my mentality, my self-worth, and ultimately my happiness.

I think I had been craving a life that’s less complicated.  A life where the “stuff” around you doesn’t matter.  A simple life that I can actually afford.  Working an average of 60 hours a week for four months hasn’t exactly brought me to the simple life I envision, but my frame of mind has completely shifted.  I am better able to recognize what I need, and what I don’t.  I’m better able to take care of relationships with the friends who matter, and let go of the “friends” who don’t.  I’m living closer to Earth; eating more vegetables than burritos.  All in all, I’m grateful for who I am, and I feel more comfortable in my own skin than I ever have.

When I started this blog, I’m pretty sure THAT was my ultimate goal… exploring a simple life in a big city and finding myself in the process.

And, let’s be honest, I’m pretty awesome.

Oh, that, and, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be thankful for the meal that is about to make its way to my face in a  couple hours.  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pickled beets, the family’s famous Gulliver’s Corn (don’t worry, I’ve been begging Mom to write a guest post so you can get your hands on the recipe), and a homemade(ish) pie from yours truly.

Apple. With homemade whipped cream.

Delicious.

The Crock Pot (a.k.a. “Old Faithful”) makes tomato sauce

“Old Faithful”

I pseudo inherited my crock pot from my mother while foraging her basement on a Sunday trip to the suburbs.  This 1975 Sears “Crock Watcher” is older than me, but undoubtedly in better condition.

If the 70’s got anything right, it’s the slow cooker.  The idea that I can stick something in there at 6am before I leave for work, cover it  with liquid, and come home to a good smelling house AND dinner still boggles my mind, and I do it about every other week…. sometimes more, sometimes less.

Lately Old Faithful has been working overtime cranking out tomato sauce to stock up for the winter.  I bought 30 pounds of tomatoes from Midnight Sun Farm over the course of three weeks and have made tomato processing an obsession.

After an epic fail on the stove of sauce that was way more juicy than saucy, I revamped my approach.  Ok, it wasn’t entirely a fail, just a misunderstanding between me and the tomatoes, really.  After consulting mom (my go-to for kitchen mishaps) and my friend and fellow canning-enthusiast Toni Camphouse, I opted to try the slow cooker approach, and I’m never turning back.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

  • Tomatoes (duh)
  • Salt
  • Lemon Juice
  • Canning jars and lids

Core and quarter tomatoes and fill your slow cooker.  Prop the lid open with a spoon and cook all day on low.

The great tomato stock-up begins…

Using a blender or immersion blender, puree the tomatoes until smooth.  Pre-fill canning jars with salt and lemon juice.  For quart jars, use 2TB lemon juice and 1 tsp. salt*.  Half those if using pint jars.  Add sauce to jars and fill to 1/2″ from the top.  Cover with lid and band, twisting until hand tight.

Add jars to water bath (making sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch). Once water is boiling, reduce heat to a rolling boil and set time for 30-40 minutes (30 for pint jars, 40 for quart).  Remove from water bath and set on a level surface to cool (don’t shake the jars).  Store for as long as you like, or about a year, whichever comes first.

* You can add seasoning to your sauce before you jar it, but I prefer to do it once I open the jar so the herbs and spices are fresher.