Pardon the Garden

Confessions of a lazy wannabe homesteader

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Preserving a family tradition

March 4, 2012 Marie 1 Comment

The pungent scent of vinegar and onions waft through the air. The stove gently ticks and creaks as my thrift store canning pot processes my latest project. It’s been a long time since I’ve preserved anything, and every time I come back to it I wonder why I took any break at all. Especially when I remember how stupidly quick and easy it is.

Today’s preserve du jour is a much needed replacement of a store-bought-now-discontinued beloved favorite: corn relish.

Most people have no idea what I’m talking about when I wax poetic about its perfect combination of sweet and tangy. I don’t know that anyone outside of my immediate family will understand how homemade tacos never taste the same without it. That perfect bite of sweetness, complementing the kidney beans, cheese, ground beef, and salsa so flawlessly.  The story, as I’m told, is that the way we do our tacos today came from another family when my mom was a child – corn tortillas fried in vegetable oil until a little crispy, ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, dark red kidney beans, cayenne pepper sauce, and corn relish on top. Since then my grandparents have made them this way, my parents have made them this way, and I’ve made them this way (though I skip the fried corn shells and leave mine soft… trying to be somewhat healthy, after all).

This recipe is my first attempt, and it does seem quite promising. I substituted frozen green peppers for the red, as they were cheaper since fresh aren’t in season yet. Though this substitution clearly lacks the wonderful color the red peppers bring (as well as a bit sweeter flavor).  The sugary-sweet vinegar/sugar/tumeric liquid tastes pretty spot-on to what I remember. I’m excited to see how the whole batch turns out later this week and finally have my family’s tacos restored to their full glory.

Posts family, food, preserving

Comfort Foods

February 25, 2012 Marie 1 Comment

Breakfast: Tea with honey and a piece of buttered toast.

Second Breakfast: chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. Yes, you read right. Second Breakfast. Apparently I’m a hobbit. Also, chicken noodle soup. For breakfast. With homemade noodles. I’m sick and cranky and it’s comfort food, so shut it. (That’s an herb mincer, by the way, that I used to cut the noodles with.)

Dessert/snacks/stuff my face with carbs: Tuscan Lemon Muffins. I was really iffy on these as I made the batter. But after baking and trying I’ve decided that they’re worthy of making again. Light and not overly heavy on the lemon flavor.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go take some more medicine, chug some more orange juice, stuff my face with another muffin, and crawl in bed and try to break this fever.

Posts food

Late night cravings

February 25, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

NyQuil lies, y’all. LIES, I tell you. Here I am, exhausted, achy, congested, and absolutely miserable and all I want is a few nice, peaceful hours of sleep. But no. I’m awake. Wiiiiiiide awake.

What’s a girl to do with zero energy late at night? Troll food recipes, of course. Which isn’t helping the fact that didn’t even eat dinner tonight, or the fact that my teeth hurt so bad from today’s trip to the dentist that the idea of grinding my teeth to eat gives me chills. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll feel better and take on something from this list?

  • Tuscan Lemon Muffins to use up the ricotta I made
  • Orange Walnut Cake, though I wonder how lemon would taste instead? Especially with fresh whipped cream.
  • Chocolate granola bars because I’m nearly out of my bulk-sized box of store-bought ones.
  • Homemade bagels
  • Homemade biscuits, which I have yet to get the hang of enough to feel comfortable with whipping up a batch for Breakfast Sundays.
  • Galette, to use up the frozen raspberries from my parents’ garden.
  • Coconut muffins. Because I’m addicted to coconut and I’d have these suckers all to myself.

There seems to be a trend here: carbs, carbs, and more carbs. I should probably go eat a piece of toast now.

Posts food, link love

Brownies

February 20, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Brownies. The trouble with them is that everyone has their own preferences, much like chocolate chip cookies. So when you go looking for a perfect recipe you can easily be disappointed. Everyone thinks that their recipe is the best. The perfect blend of blah blah blah.

I’ve only tried brownies from scratch a small handful of times with much disappointment. But… this recipe? Not disappointing at all. I’m not going to say that these are THE brownies of choice in our household, or even that you’ll love them (maybe cake-like brownies are more your thing?)… I still have more recipes I want to try. But they’re pretty damn close.

Posts food

Breakfast Sunday.

February 19, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Breakfast Sunday. Sausage, onion and corn mixed into scrambled egg, topped with cheese and salsa on homemade tortillas.

I love making tortillas at home. They’re easy (chances are anyone who bakes has all the ingredients they need in their pantry already), they’re not filled with a lot of weird chemical stuff like the ingredients list on the back of the store-bought variety, and they’re thicker and so much tastier. I use this recipe multiple times and I’ve been quite happy with it. Always with bacon grease in place of the vegetable shortening, and rolling them out by hand instead of with a tortilla press.

Posts food

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