What's in your Kitchen?

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Matthew323

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Made chunky baba ganoush & chickpea hummus this morning. Had roasted 3 large Italian eggplants yesterday in the oven. No grill.

Both with tahini, garlic, lemon juice, chopped parsley, ground cumin, fresh ground black pepper, and a smidgen of ground cayenne pepper. Didn't feel like cleaning the food processor, so I made both by hand using a dinner fork.

Broke down, & crushed 20 bananas for future use.
 
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Right now, "Management" wife is in her canning mode as the garden is winding down. Kitchen is being used to make pepper jelly at the moment, following on the heels of violet, dandelion, wild plum, strawberry, grape, cherry, chokeberry, blackberry, elderberry, and soon-to-start paw-paw jelly. Saurkraut is fermenting nicely in jars on the porch.

Green beans have been canned, spuds dug, onions sacked, and okra pickled as have dill, bread 'n' butter, peppers, salsa, tomato juice, and some other stuff. Fall mushroom season's starting - chanterelles, oyster, and shittake's. Fresh herbs, spices make store-bought taste like truck-bed dust. Then there's the meat, fish, etc....We eat well.
 
The BEST tomato juice I've ever had is that which I made by running tomatoes through a SQUEEZO machine that I bought back in 1984. Along with a 21.5 qt. All American pressure canner. Bought both from the same, now long defunct, kitchenwares store in the Towson Mall in Baltimore, Maryland.

The surplus from my first organic, Mel Bartholomew SQUARE FOOT-style garden required both tools. The hand-cranked SQUEEZO machine breaks down raw tomatoes & cooked apples faster than anything else except motorized professional kitchen equipment. Really speeds up getting tomato pulp ready for canning. The seeds & skins go straight out the end of the auger, and the pulp goes out the side into a bowl. The company sold two other screens, one for cooked squash/pumpkin seeds, and one for berry seeds. Never tried those screens as cooked pumpkin/winter squash was never my family's favorite thing. And, never had a source for inexpensive berries.

https://www.squeezostrainer.com
Once I get a good raised bed garden established, a new SQUEEZO machine, along with a 30qt All American pressure canner is at the top of my lists of things to purchase. Since tomatoes have been mostly eliminated from my diet due to acid reflux, I'd like to try my hand at some of the open pollinated, old school, low-acid, heirloom tomatoes that have become popular lately. Want to try my hand at home fermentation to try and get natural probiotics back into my diet as well. Things other than traditional sauerkraut.

https://www.allamericancanner.com/All-American-30-Quart-Pressure-Canner.htm
 
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The BEST tomato juice I've ever had is that which I made by running tomatoes through a SQUEEZO machine that I bought back in 1984. Along with a 21.5 qt. All American pressure canner. Bought both from the same, now long defunct, kitchenwares store in the Towson Mall in Baltimore, Maryland.

The surplus from my first organic, Mel Bartholomew SQUARE FOOT-style garden required both tools. The hand-cranked SQUEEZO machine breaks down raw tomatoes & cooked apples faster than anything else except motorized professional kitchen equipment. Really speeds up getting tomato pulp ready for canning. The seeds & skins go straight out the end of the auger, and the pulp goes out the side into a bowl. The company sold two other screens, one for cooked squash/pumpkin seeds, and one for berry seeds. Never tried those screens as cooked pumpkin/winter squash was never my family's favorite thing. And, never had a source for inexpensive berries.

https://www.squeezostrainer.com
Once I get a good raised bed garden established, a new SQUEEZO machine, along with a 30qt All American pressure canner is at the top of my lists of things to purchase. Since tomatoes have been mostly eliminated from my diet due to acid reflux, I'd like to try my hand at some of the open pollinated, old school, low-acid, heirloom tomatoes that have become popular lately. Want to try my hand at home fermentation to try and get natural probiotics back into my diet as well. Things other than traditional sauerkraut.

https://www.allamericancanner.com/All-American-30-Quart-Pressure-Canner.htm
Best tomatoes we've had for the last three years are from our Amish neighbors, grown from seed in wood-heated greenhouse. They don't sell online (of course) and the fruit wouldn't probably sell at Wally World because they look "odd" beside the artificially produced, pesticide-laden, "perfect" ones in the produce department. But there's nothing comparable we've found. I eat 'em like an apple - standing in the garden.
They're grown from seeds they've saved over the years and are acclimated to where we live. You're on the right track. Try to add some henhouse "fertilizer", it helps.
 
We had dahl and jeera aloo last night. Don't kind a vegetarian night if it's Indian. My wife's dahl made from scratch is bloody good eating.
 
Wife was in the kitchen brining salmon fillets for the smoker and once again they turned out freaking awesome!
Half of them done in a teriyaki marinade and the other half and just a basic smoke. And I don’t have to lift a finger until it’s time to eat 😁

Greg
 
Wife was in the kitchen brining salmon fillets for the smoker and once again they turned out freaking awesome!
Half of them done in a teriyaki marinade and the other half and just a basic smoke. And I don’t have to lift a finger until it’s time to eat 😁

Greg
How do you brine your salmon fillets for smoking?

At one of the restaurants that I worked at we took a mixture of kosher salt, dark brown sugar, crushed black peppercorns, and fresh thyme (or rosemary); and gently rubbed the mixture into the flesh side of skin-on king salmon fillets. These were set into an 18" × 24" × 2" deep, Lexan insert that was set inside of an 18" × 24" × 4" deep Lexan tub that was filled with ice to a point just below the perforated insert and covered with a flat Lexan lid. We generally refrigerated the treated salmon fillets for at least 2 days before we smoked them over cherry wood.

The finished salmon fillets were sold as carved to order appetizers by the senior bartender for both bar food, & fine dining.
 
Gonna have to bake up a couple of 4" × 8" loaf pans of my banana-walnut-raisin bread that I use full fat coconut milk & baking stevia to make.

Got an order for two loaves at $10.00 a piece.

There's 1/2 cup each of raisins & walnuts, 1/2 of a 13.5oz can of coconut milk, 1 cup of the baking stevia, 2 large eggs, and 2 large bananas in each loaf. Plus vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves, in addition to the all purpose flour, baking soda, salt, & baking powder.
 
Canned 35 Lbs tomato sauce in my National #7 last week and got 7 Qts. Soon to do another batch. I have a variety of 'Maters. Ace, yellows, some big heirlooms, some Romas. Skin 'em in boiling water, throw them in the stock pot to reduce for 4-5 hours.
My daughter can't take the acidity of the red varieties, but the yellows are working fine.
My boss uses the sauce as a base for her marinara pasta sauce. I "tolerate" it:dance:actually, it's better than my Mom's sauce. My Mom was 100% Italian, and my Wife is a Hungarian-Sweede, go figure.
Peppers will be good and red for my hot sauce in a week or so, usually make 12 Qts. and hand out to friends throughout the year, except the 4 Qts. I use myself.
 
The wife and I are just about done in the kitchen,
50 quarts spaghetti sauce,
60 pints tomatoes,
48 pints tomatoes/ green chillies
50 pints sweet corn
50 pints green beans
54 quarts potatoes
Just waiting for our peaches to ripen, then we're done. Lots of work but definitely worth it
 
Made chunky baba ganoush & chickpea hummus this morning. Had roasted 3 large Italian eggplants yesterday in the oven. No grill.

Both with tahini, garlic, lemon juice, chopped parsley, ground cumin, fresh ground black pepper, and a smidgen of ground cayenne pepper. Didn't feel like cleaning the food processor, so I made both by hand using a dinner fork.

Broke down, & crushed 20 bananas for future use.
I used to work in a Mediterranean restaurant. Baba, hummus, tabbouleh, MMMM MMMM you made my mouth water
 
I am hoping to make some squirrel enchiladas this weekend. Ill be sure to post a pic if I do. Usually just make squirrel potpies but going to try something new. To get the meat off the bone I usually just braise in chicken stock for a couple hours then let cool and then pick it clean. Then use it however I want. Also want to try making squirrel burgers. Braise as described, then mix with breadcrumbs, egg or two, seasoning. Pan sear until cooked through (think crab cakes made with squirrel) then eat on burger buns with the fixings
 
I am hoping to make some squirrel enchiladas this weekend. Ill be sure to post a pic if I do. Usually just make squirrel potpies but going to try something new. To get the meat off the bone I usually just braise in chicken stock for a couple hours then let cool and then pick it clean. Then use it however I want. Also want to try making squirrel burgers. Braise as described, then mix with breadcrumbs, egg or two, seasoning. Pan sear until cooked through (think crab cakes made with squirrel) then eat on burger buns with the fixings
Are you going to add Old Bay Seafood Seasoning to the squirrel patties?

https://www.mccormick.com/old-bay/products/seasonings-and-sauces/old-bay-seasoning
 
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The wife and I are just about done in the kitchen,
50 quarts spaghetti sauce,
60 pints tomatoes,
48 pints tomatoes/ green chillies
50 pints sweet corn
50 pints green beans
54 quarts potatoes
Just waiting for our peaches to ripen, then we're done. Lots of work but definitely worth it

That's a lot of work. We can pickles, tomatoes, green chili sauce for enchiladas and we are working on the peaches now. My wife canned 54 quarts of peaches the last two days with 3 more bushels to go. I do the gardening and she does the canning. She taught a friend to can tomatoes and after 4 quarts the friend has decided she would rather buy canned tomatoes.
 
People that don't grow up canning, freezing, and preserving their own food have no concept of the amount of time, and hard sweaty work that is involved in such an enterprise.

The housewives of the early industrial age, through into the 1960's, spent all of their waking hours from about mid-August until early November preserving the harvest so that the family could eat well until late the following spring.

Only those that have canned food in a non-air-conditioned kitchen for long hot hours can appreciate the labor of love that is required.
 
I do jumping carp cakes.
I cut out the lateral line (that's the dark meat up the sides) which I fry separate; it tastes like fried clams.
I send the carp through the grinder twice; the bones stay in the grinder. Then I send through ginger root and garlic. I beat in egg and corn masa to keep the mixture dry but cohesive, and fry very hot in avocado oil.
Sometimes I use either taco seasoning or curry powder instead of ginger.
You don't know jumping carp? Put CARPAGEDDON into the Youtube search bar.
 
People that don't grow up canning, freezing, and preserving their own food have no concept of the amount of time, and hard sweaty work that is involved in such an enterprise.

My tomatoes went wild this year even though we have very dry conditions here. 21 gallons of tomatoes were done up as spaghetti sauce and ten gallon-sized freezer bags of whole tomatoes were froze. This was done with out standard tomatoes. We left for a week at the cabin the day after Labor Day and the Romas needed picking so I called the daughter-in-law so she could use them. Yesterday I picked another 7 gallons of the Romas and made four meals-worth of brueschetta without the cheese and oil, bagged and froze plus a big freezer bag of tomatoes for chili. Then I pulled the plants. lol
 
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