CANNING QUEENS

Yep. That's us. Kiki and I on our next adventure. If you don't remember, we have tried Spotted Dick, made cheese, tamales and raviolis. But I have to tell you....this my friends is da bomb!

CANNING TOMATOES!

First, you start with lovely black gloves that Kiki is modeling......

Next, you gather tomatoes. (We have 55 pounds of organic lovelies here.)

Next, you boil them in water until their skins split......

Throw them in an ice bath and remove their skins..........


Pour in lemon juice.....


Stuff those babies into a hot, sanitized jar......



Run a knife around the tomatoes to get out any air bubbles.....

If you are getting bored now, you aren't alone. Miz Bourbon didn't seem impressed.....Pour in hot water.........Wipe lid and screw on lid........

Put in huge-ass canning pots and boil........
Results? 30 quarts of beautiful tomatoes!

And to celebrate our success, we tried another new thing........

Peach Framboise. It's a Belgian beer and sweet Jesus, it is nectar from the God's!

Apparently, a large number of people out there hate canning. Kiki and I really enjoyed it though and plan on canning anything we can get our hands on. Next week it's peaches. What I love about canning is that is totally and completely brain-dead kind of work. You get in to a rhythm of mindless work and your body and brain go ZEN. It's awesome!

CULINARY EXPERIMENT #2

Life's been totally kicking my ass lately. So I will instead, keep a positive attitude and post some pictures of my dear friend Kiki and our latest experiment......

RAVIOLIS

It was great fun and the ravioli's were delicious. We had fillings like pork and pesto and various cheeses and roasted red peppers and mushrooms.


Rolling out the dough is fun and this is a great project to do with your kids!



We didn't perfect this process though so I'm sure Kiki and I will be trying it again with our new-found knowledge.

Next food experiment......SPRING ROLLS!

CULINARY EXPERIMENT #1

Remember my neighbor Kiki's New Year's Resolution? To try a new food every month.

A couple of weeks ago, I took Izzy to preschool, made a batch of Margarita's and Kiki and I went to work on making tamales. Then I picked up Izzy from school and he decided to eat a bowl of shredded chicken. See below.....Here are the tamales steaming. We made Jesus chicken tamales with green sauce.

Izzy took this wonky picture of us.....
And see that beautiful smile on Kiki? She looks like that all of the time. She is the most positive person I know.

The final product!

The tamales were a little bland, and we didn't put enough masa (a.k.a: spackle) on the inside of the tamales, but the kids loved them....even with the green sauce and cilantro.

We had a lovely time making the tamales. This is definitely a food to make with kids or several friends or family members. One person spackles the corn husk, one fills it and one can fold up the tamale. It's great fun!

Next project: Homemade pasta: Ravioli's!