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The weekend's work...
Aug. 10th, 2015 10:08 amI dedicated Saturday to sewing but I had to run a few errands in the morning to be able to do that. I got to my machine about noon and left the machine at 7:00 with only hand work to do on a new dress. I had lots of kitty interferance. Apparently Simon thought it was his day to be cuddled all day and he objected strenuously to me trying to get anything done. The pictures are fuzzy because he was coming up whether I wanted him to or not and there was a bath to be had as well.
.
I left the sewing room at 7:00 to make a run to ScandiFest, mostly to see if I could find something I could eat. I did but it was rather disappointing and expensive. I had a pulled pork sandwich that was essentially chewy smoke, fries with no salt and minimal flavoring and a diluted lemonade for $15. I walked through the exhibits but missed the dancing. Then came home and set about doing the hand sewing on my dress.
I finished the handsewing at midnight, a little later than I had hoped. I was glad to be able to wear it on Sunday but I didn't get any pictures yet.
Sunday I spent the mid day working on canning. I had tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and apples to process. I processed the tomatoes to make tomato paste/compote. It's a weird process that involves squeezing the juice and seeds out and trying to maintain the rest of the pulp. It went into the crockpot on high for two hours with the lid up.
Then I chopped up all the cucumbers, onions, and peppers to make a double batch of sweet pickle relish. It has to sit in brine for two hours so into the big bowl it went. I have to say I'm very grateful for my food processor! While it was sitting, I put peppers in brine to make pickled peppers (tonight). They are supposed to sit in brine for 12-18 hours but they'll get a little extra time.
Then I worked on pealing and cutting up the apples that were left from the wind falls on Monday last week. We'd finished one bucket on Tuesday but I still had half a bucket of the older apples to process. I simply pealed, cored and sliced so that they could go into ziplock bags to make into apple sauce later. I had a little over a gallon ziplock when I finished. By then the relish had had it's 2 hours in brine so I drained and rinsed it.
It's quite colorful! I should have started the syrup while I was working on the apples because my stove takes forever to heat up that quantity of liquid. I only barely got the relish into jars before I had to leave for my 5:00 meeting.
After that, I had dinner with a friend at a little cafe in Cottage grove that has an allergy free menu, of sorts. There were really only a few dairy free items on the menu and only one I was interested in eating. I had chicken strips and sweet potato fries with a delicious marionberry lemonade that was entirely too small! There was a ton of food but all breaded and deep fried. It was gluten free also so my friend Lisa could also eat it and did, with onion rings instead of frieds. Both of us were feeling the grease but it was so tasty!
At about 8:45 we called it a night and I went home to can the relish and the tomato paste. It was another late night but I got it done.
I got three half-pints of tomato paste and 13 jars of relish. the relish seems to want to float in the syrup so I strained some syrup out and combined a couple of jars. I think it will settle as it cools but I don't remember it doing this last time. It was too late to stay up to do the dishes or wipe down everything so the kitchen is sticky in about every location and the dishes are piled in the sink. Ah well.
Tonight I have to water the yard and garden at mom and dad's and will likely have more produce from the garden and trees. I picked five more tomatoes from my garden this morning when I emptied the wash bucket and I see I have several cucumbers that are about ready. This time of year it just keeps going and going but I'm not complaining. Once I finish at Mom and Dad's I need to finish the pickled peppers and get them canned.
.I left the sewing room at 7:00 to make a run to ScandiFest, mostly to see if I could find something I could eat. I did but it was rather disappointing and expensive. I had a pulled pork sandwich that was essentially chewy smoke, fries with no salt and minimal flavoring and a diluted lemonade for $15. I walked through the exhibits but missed the dancing. Then came home and set about doing the hand sewing on my dress.
I finished the handsewing at midnight, a little later than I had hoped. I was glad to be able to wear it on Sunday but I didn't get any pictures yet.
Sunday I spent the mid day working on canning. I had tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and apples to process. I processed the tomatoes to make tomato paste/compote. It's a weird process that involves squeezing the juice and seeds out and trying to maintain the rest of the pulp. It went into the crockpot on high for two hours with the lid up.
Then I chopped up all the cucumbers, onions, and peppers to make a double batch of sweet pickle relish. It has to sit in brine for two hours so into the big bowl it went. I have to say I'm very grateful for my food processor! While it was sitting, I put peppers in brine to make pickled peppers (tonight). They are supposed to sit in brine for 12-18 hours but they'll get a little extra time.
Then I worked on pealing and cutting up the apples that were left from the wind falls on Monday last week. We'd finished one bucket on Tuesday but I still had half a bucket of the older apples to process. I simply pealed, cored and sliced so that they could go into ziplock bags to make into apple sauce later. I had a little over a gallon ziplock when I finished. By then the relish had had it's 2 hours in brine so I drained and rinsed it.
It's quite colorful! I should have started the syrup while I was working on the apples because my stove takes forever to heat up that quantity of liquid. I only barely got the relish into jars before I had to leave for my 5:00 meeting.
After that, I had dinner with a friend at a little cafe in Cottage grove that has an allergy free menu, of sorts. There were really only a few dairy free items on the menu and only one I was interested in eating. I had chicken strips and sweet potato fries with a delicious marionberry lemonade that was entirely too small! There was a ton of food but all breaded and deep fried. It was gluten free also so my friend Lisa could also eat it and did, with onion rings instead of frieds. Both of us were feeling the grease but it was so tasty!
At about 8:45 we called it a night and I went home to can the relish and the tomato paste. It was another late night but I got it done.
I got three half-pints of tomato paste and 13 jars of relish. the relish seems to want to float in the syrup so I strained some syrup out and combined a couple of jars. I think it will settle as it cools but I don't remember it doing this last time. It was too late to stay up to do the dishes or wipe down everything so the kitchen is sticky in about every location and the dishes are piled in the sink. Ah well.
Tonight I have to water the yard and garden at mom and dad's and will likely have more produce from the garden and trees. I picked five more tomatoes from my garden this morning when I emptied the wash bucket and I see I have several cucumbers that are about ready. This time of year it just keeps going and going but I'm not complaining. Once I finish at Mom and Dad's I need to finish the pickled peppers and get them canned.
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