Goulash

Here's another simple recipe for those times you can't think what to cook at five o'clock in the evening.

Dump a bunch of cans of stuff in a kettle, heat it through and serve it up!

We called it goulash when I was growing up. My family really likes it. I served it with cheese slices, cornbread and applesauce the last time I made it. Toasted cheese sandwiches would be good if you're bread eaters.

Here's what you need... 
1 qt cooked pinto beans
1 qt tomato chunks
1 qt green beans
1 pack of hot dogs, cut in coins

That's the basic recipe. You can tweak it how you will. I used a can of baked beans plus the pinto beans. I also added a bit of leftover salsa. All because I didn't even have one qt of tomatoes.

Then I like meat that is a little more real than hot dogs so I used some uncured Polish sausage I found at the discount grocery store.

So there you have it. Plain and simple and oh so good!

Recipe for Canned Salsa

1/2 bushel of tomatoes, peeled, diced (or chopped with a Kwik Cut) and drained in a colander.
8 large bell peppers, diced or chopped with a food processor.
3 (or more if desired) jalapeno peppers, diced. Leave the seeds in for more heat. Be sure to use gloves to cut these up.
6 large cloves garlic, minced or pressed.
4 large onions, diced or chopped with a food processor.
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 Tablespoon of each of the following ingredients-

Morton's seasoned salt
celery salt
onion salt
garlic salt

Place all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. Boil down to desired consistency, or thicken as desired with cornstarch, dissolved in water. Fill canning jars, clean the rims, put lids on and boil for 20 minutes in a hot water bath. Turn off the heat, remove the jars from the water and allow to cool. 

You can reuse jars from the grocery store,
that you have emptied. 

What is your favorite canned salsa recipe?

What do you use salsa for?

Thank God for lots of tomatoes this year! And peppers! And onions!

Applesauce

The European hornets, yellow jackets and bald
hornets like apples too.
Which ones are you seeing here?

The taste of warm fresh applesauce is the taste of Fall. We awoke to cool air this morning. Jacket weather. Everything says Fall. Tomorrow is the last day of September. Oh, where did it go?

You can tell I don't do many selfies. Lol

We began cutting the apples last evening. After baking 7 fruit pies and 10 loaves of zucchini bread. The boys are working hard these days. (The two youngest are my helpers. The others are out on the job, staining decks.)

That's four bushels or more.

After delivering the baked goods to market this morning we drove to Delray to deliver milk to the family who shares the milk cow and picked up lots more tomatoes. They had so graciously picked them for us.

You mostly see Golden Delicious (deer apples) here.
We had gotten some from Delray earlier and we're mixing the two.

We cut apples again until time to leave for P.E. at school. Upon returning the boys cut more while I began cooking them. Then it was cooking, straining, putting in jars, repeat and repeat. We put most of it in plastic "jars" for the freezer. 

There is still a ways to go. But another day. Tomorrow I will again see how much of the house I can clean. It feels like I'm majorly spinning my wheels these days. Now it's time to enjoy a cup o' tea.

This blueberry green tea is really delicious.

Here is a de-cluttering video it might pay to watch.

How was your day?

Fall Bounty & Beauty

Our friends in Delray recently blessed us with apples, tomatoes and peppers. We picked them with their help.

 The tomatoes were turned into canned chunks, salsa, juice and soup with the help of my mother. 

 The tomatoes and peppers are so large and beautiful. Planted in wood chips as Back to Eden suggests.

 Watermelon crop from our garden. Obviously there are potatoes in the pail. The boys keep bringing me a bucket at a time as needed. About once a week. So nice to have food from the garden!

 The peppers (from our garden) were useful in making salsa. We also put halves in the freezer for four or five meals of stuffed peppers.

The onion crop has been a blessing. It is fast disappearing.

 A day's labor- tomato juice and applesauce. A friend taught me to cook tomatoes and then use the blender to make juice. I think she runs the final product through a sieve but I just put it in the jars, seeds and all, for a thicker juice. I make soup the same way.

 The Crepe Myrtle was filled with blooms this year.

 And this bush that I haven't yet figured out. A type of hydrangea possibly?

Have you had a bounteous summer/fall?

Do you expect a hard winter? 

It is sometimes difficult to just enjoy all these good things when people in other parts of the world are suffering from hurricanes, wars, earthquakes and fire.