Dinner last night was lamb shoulder chops, covered in a nice, creamy pan sauce, and roasted potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes.
Lamb in Pan Sauce with Roasted Veggies
Oven at 450 degrees. Potatoes skinned and roughly chopped. Tossed with extra virgin olive oil, garlic salt, pepper, and herbs de provence. Potatoes placed in roasting pan in oven while other veggies were prepped.
Zuchinni halved, and fresh garden tomatoes quartered and put on a cookie sheet. Sprinkled with garlic salt and pepper, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
Veggies joined potatoes in oven. Timer set for 35 minutes.
Once there was only about 20 minutes left on timer, I seasoned the chops with salt, pepper, dried rosemary, and herbs de provence. I pan seared the lamb chops using a small amount of butter (little less than a tablespoon) to keep chops from sticking and allow the natural fat from the chops to do most of the work.
Once chops were done, I took them out to rest, and started work on the pan sauce.
I added some flour to soak up the fat and make a roux, adding some chicken stock to deglaze. I didn’t have much stock, so I also added a bit of water. After a few minutes, I tasted the pan sauce to determine seasoning, added a bit more garlic salt and let the sauce reduce. Once reduced, I added about a tablespoon or more of cream cheese to finish the sauce, which thickened the sauce up and made it creamy.
At that point, the lamb was ready to serve, and the veggies were done.
I was explaining to T the other day that all this canning research and jam making is teaching me a lot about the cost of food and simple measurements.
In my fantasy world, I plant my very small plot of ground (about 11′ x 11′) and am able to produce most of the food my family will eat all year long. I figure we eat a ton of canned corn and canned greenbeans. We eat fresh, if available and I’ve had time to go to the farmer’s market or store and it doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount. So, I figured we eat at least 1 can of corn and 1 can of greenbeans a week. That being said, I figured I would need to can 50 jars of each.
In my little plot of ground, I’ve learned over the past 3 years that corn just does not grow in my garden well, is a nitrogen hog, and takes up too much space without any return. So, in reality, my garden will not produce any corn let alone the amount I’ve reasoned I’d need to jar. However, I figured I’d simply obtain the corn we’d need from working a community garden and buying the rest at the farmer’s market.
For greenbeans and other such things, namely tomatoes, I planted what I considered to be a reasonable amount.
However, I’ve discovered, already, that I might have not understood the real ramifications of what I aimed to do.
As I’ll discuss soon, when canning and jamming apricots, I realized two things:
1. It takes much longer to prep. what you will can or jam than expected.
2. What you prep. fills far fewer jars than expected.
Which got me to thinking about all I had learned about sizes, conversions, and prepping food by hand.
As I’ve learned time and time again when tackling a fabric project, the cost of making something does not necessarily mean a less expensive product. Hence with food.
So, I started calculating and wondering how much, for instance, would corn have to be for it to be worth my while to can the corn rather than buy the corn already canned. Of course, there are benefits to canning your own corn (pride, health, peace-of-mind in knowing exactly what’s in your food, etc), but if the cost of canning is substantially more, is it worth the time and energy for me to do. Basically, can I really justify the expense?
After all, I work full time, have two kids and a husband, etc., and am still working on my writing, etc. That is to say, I need to protect my time and energy, and not invest myself too insanely in too much more than I already do.
Here’s a conversation via messenger I had with my husband regarding this very thing:
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J: if 12 ears of corn = 8 cups of corn,
J: that’s 4 pints of corn.
J: Or, 3 ears per pint of corn.
J: or 16 ounces,
T: interesting
J: if the corn is roughly 33 cents per cob
J: that means a pint of corn is about a dollar.
T: But is a pint the same size as a can of corn
J: No.
J: A can is 12 ounces.
J: So, a pint is about a dollar, which makes it about 6 cents an ounce.
J: So a can of corn ( 12 ounce from the store) should be about 75 cents.
T: But it seems like you can get cans for less than 75 cents.
J: Yes and no,
J: but what that means is, I have to find a better price for corn than 33 cents each.
J: In order to make canning cost-efficient and worthwhile.
T: yeah
J: So, if I find prices where it’s closer to 10-12 cents a cob, then …
J: that’d make a pint about 36 cents,
J: or about 2 cents an ounce,
J: or 27 cents for a normal store-bought can.
J: Which you can’t find, even when the name-brand goes on sale around Thanksgiving.
J: I’ve seen it that inexpensive already this year, around the fourth of July,
J: and the corn wasn’t even completely in the main season yet.
J: Corn season is this month.
T: oh
J: Wow. How’s this for perspective? :
J: 200 ears of corn at 12 cents each would be $24.
J: That would equal about 50 pints of corn,
J: which would be about 1 pint of corn per week,
J: which is about how much we eat of corn.
J: A year’s supply of corn for $24.
J: And mind you, a pint is 4 ounces more than a can.
J: Out of season, if we take the 75 cents per can gauge, a year’s supply of canned corn would cost $37.50. However, 75 cents isn’t the norm.
T: hmm
J: That’s 800 ounces of corn for $24,
J: as opposed to 600 ounces of corn for $37.50.
J: A difference of 12.5 pints, or 16.50 cans.
J: Yey for math.
T: yey
J: Bottom line:
J: I need to find corn for 10-12 cents an ear.
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(I think a can of corn is roughly 11.5 ounces, but I rounded up to 12 ounces for easier calculations.)
The problem though is that I’ve calculated that I’d need roughly 200 ears of corn to make just 50 pints of canned corn. That’s a lot of corn for one person to husk, wash, blanch, and can.
In one video I watch online of a woman canning corn, she mentioned that she’s already canned 300 jars of corn for that summer alone, which is about how much she likes to can every year! That’s basically a can of corn every day of the year, and that’s a lot of ears of corn. (See said video(s) below.)
Luckily, I just discovered last night that a close friend of mine also has the canning bug, so at least now we can partner up and make much of the work slightly less crazy and hard.
However, I’m still doubting whether I can actually do 50 pints of corn, let alone any, let alone any of, say, greenbeans.
It remains to be seen… We’ll see what happens.
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Canning Corn Video(s):
(I’m jealous of her ability to go outside and harvest all the veggies she needs to can.)
One thing I love about the Internet is the ability to discover how to make just about everything (good things, rather than crazy, bad-guy things). I found this video when looking for various ways and techniques for making strawberry jam. The video shows the lovely Sheila Black making her Old Fashion Strawberry Jam; she doesn’t add pectin.
The recipe from my notes is as follows.
Ingredients:
— 1 to 1 ratio of fruit to sugar. 4 cups of fruit = 4 cups of sugar
— 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
— 1 pullet-egg-sized piece of butter (I approximate this at about 2.5-3 tablespoons)
Recipe from video:
1. Put fruit and half the amount of sugar into pan and warm to a rolling boil, watching and stirring to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn. Sheila Black warns that a burnt mix will result in a total loss. (Tip: She also mentions that the smaller the berry is, the better the jam.)
2. When mixture is at a rolling boil, set the timer for 5 minutes. Sheila Black provides the tip that a rolling boil is one that cannot be stirred down. (This tidbit I added to my toolbox.) While boiling, skim the surface of foam and discard into boil.
3. Once the five minutes have elapsed, add the rest of the sugar, the lemon, and the butter, and stir. Sheila Black notes that her grandmother would add the butter to keep the mixture from foaming again. (I found that the butter adds a richness to the jam.) She also noted that the lemon is added to help the mixture jell.)
4. Return the contents to a rolling boil.
5. Once at a rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes. (Place saucers in freezer to test consistency later. She doesn’t say to do this at this point, but she’ll use them later. Just FYI, as I was/am so novice, I didn’t know this step was coming.)
6. Once time is up, you can check the consistency. Pull out saucer from freezer and dribble a bit on the plate. Sheila Black says others say that when you blow on it and it shimmers the jam is ready. She mentions that this never worked for her. (I found that this worked for me later when I made apricot jam; see future post to come.)
7. Once desired consistency is achived (I’ve read elsewhere that this is called the ‘setting point’), remove from heat or turn off heat and let the jam settle for five minutes.
8. Once the jam is settled, put the jam into jars.
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Lessons Learned:
– The first time I made this, I had the jam on the heat as I was canning. I thought that this would help me keep the mix hot, as I’d seen elsewhere that I needed to make sure the mixture was hot and stayed hot while I canned it. The result was that the last jar or so resulted in a thick goo, much thicker than I’d like my jam, which resembled more of a taffy, candy-like sludge.
– 5 cups of fruit results in about 5 cups of jam. I filled 5, 8 ounce jars. This measurement has held true so far in the other jams I’ve made as well.
Strawberry Jam
— Silly, logical thing I learned: Not everything should be placed into hot boiling water to make super clean.
The thing to remember is that the spatula does not exist.
— Awesome thing I discovered: When strawberries reach rolling boil, they break the sound barrier.
Staying up late night after night means that our continued P90X journey continues to be put on hold. I am tired, yes, but I can’t help but try and squeeze just a little bit more in my day each night, which means I am all too often up until 2am. I might as well call this blog “2AM Creations” or “2AM Obsessions” or some such thing.
Last Friday my pressure cooker/canner came in.
Pressure Cooker/Canner vs. Small Sauce Pan
I’d been searching for one for weeks, ever since I’d seriously taken up the idea of canning this summer, and considering half of what I ‘plan’ to can are low-acid foods like green beans and corn, a pressure canner was crucial. (And besides, who can resist the idea of making perfect ribs in about an hour? Hence, it had to also duel as a pressure cooker.)
I found this one on Amazon, which I’d been checking every few days until I got a price I wanted.
I’m really glad I didn’t order the ‘big’ one. This is the 16-quart pressure cooker/canner, and considering its massive size, I can’t even begin to imagine the size of the 32-quart.
First order of business, I wanted to test it simply by canning a small batch of raspberry jam. (The cooker/canner also can work as a water-bath canner, which makes it perfect for our purpose. I don’t like, and can’t really justify, single-purpose pieces of equipment, unless it’s sometime that only can be single-purpose and perfect because of it. I speak here of my lovely pasta maker. ) So, Saturday morning, while making a normal eggs, bacon, and potato breakfast, I made and canned raspberry jam.
I used the recipe included in the instruction manual that came with the pressure canner/cooker. The jam turned out well. Delicious and bright. I intend to try several different recipes and other fruits over the course of the summer. For now, here’s Raspberry Presto Batch #1.
It’s that time again: theses-crunch time, which is what I call those 2 weeks or so every semester/session in which I need to complete my review of theses and dissertations for that terms’ graduating graduate students. As a result, it’s project time. Maybe it’s a way of decompressing, or good ole insanity, but either way, bring on the random productivity.
Top View of Pin Cushion
So, I made a giant pin cushion. The fabric is dear to me because it reminds me of my little grandma. I don’t know why, but something about it just triggers her in my mind, like she’s physically present when I see this cloth. I couldn’t decide what material to use for the pin cushion, but then I came across this cloth again, it was decided. This cloth is like J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye in Conspiracy Theory; every time I see it, I have to buy it. I have only fat quarters of the stuff because I can’t seem to find the roll of it when I go to the fabric store, only the fat quarters. But anyway. I envision a future box full of fat quarters of only this material, or dozens of projects robed in this same cloth, like Kathy Bate’s cabinets and tables of pig figurines.
I used a dark purple embroidery thread, a wooden button for the top, and a small green button for the bottom. A small project to get back into practice for my machine work later.
The practice is for a quilt I’m making for my friends’ baby. I began the quilt a few weeks before A.B. (not Alton Brown for you foodie fans) was born; at least, that is when I, late one night, cut out the squares, half squares, and 1/3rd squares. Whenever I thought about her, I always envisioned greens and green blues. Hence, the main color themes of the blanket. Now that she’s here, the same holds true.
I’ve been attempting to organize the quilt blocks for weeks. I drew up multiple plans, but when I got the pieces on the floor to put them in order, they never quite came together like I had envisioned. I wanted the pattern to be organic, but not messy. But each time I laid them out, it just felt forced.
Quilt Top in Process
After a few weeks, when I was finally able to work on the quilt again, the blocks started to come together. A revision through distance. As they ceased to be what I had envisioned from before, they were allowed their own pattern.
Here’s what I have so far.
I still need to border it. I’m using a deep teal-blue pattern on the edges to bring everything together, and I have a blue-backed flannel with birds for the back of the quilt. Then, I’ll just need to sew it together, edge it, and bind it. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll bind using embroidery thread spaced over the top, or by actually quilting them together. We’ll see when I come to it.
In the meantime, I’ve been attempting to not set up any sort of ridiculous timeline, which I usually do. I’m just trying to get the project done, and learn and enjoy the process.
I always feel the need to work with my hands. And for whatever reason, the more chaotic things are, the more I seem to want to do. I don’t know if this is some sort of fatalist/masochistic thing I have going on or what. The more I can’t manage things, the more I take on to manage.
Anyway, last week I decided to make pasta for dinner. But no, I can’t just boil dry noodles and dump out a can of tomato sauce. I made the marinara from scratch and let it simmer while I made the noodles.
First, I took four large, super-ripe tomatoes, and blanched them just enough to make the skins easy to take off. Then, I put them into cold water, and then removed the skin and removed the greens. I chopped them roughly.
While I blanched the tomatoes, I roughly chopped a small onion, and put it with some olive oil into a sauce pan to sweat and caramelize a bit. I added a bit of salt to help with the sweating.
Once my onions were nice and soft, and were browned slightly to add some sweetness, I added the tomatoes. I also minced some garlic and added it to the mix, and added some dried Italian herbs. Then, I just let the sauce simmer, stirring occassionally, but overall just let the sauce do its thing.
While I let the sauce simmer, I cleaned. I had time. I wanted the sauce to really meld.
Once I had a nice and clean work area, I started on my noodles. I mixed roughly a cup and a half of flour, three whole farm-fresh eggs, and a bit of olive oil. I worked the mix until it came together, then kneeded the dough until it was smooth. I took out my pasta machine, split my dough into four, and began to flatten the dough using the machine.
As my guide, I had viewed these two videos. The first one is awesome because of the family and the four generations helping with the process. The second is great because it reminded me that I didn’t have to use my machine to actually cut the flattened dough into noodles, plus I used the flouring techinque to not make my noodles stick. In the past, I ended up with hard noodles stuck to the backs of chairs where I’d tried to keep them seperated. This method was much easier.
On Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives this last week, I noticed another method I’m eager to try in which a machine is not at all used to flatten the noodles. A man and his wife used a rolling pin and a broom stick to make the noodles. He used the rolling pin, and she the broom stick, which is an area of contention for the two. Her broom stick method made thinner noodles by far. They also employed the knife method for cutting the noodles.
Anyway, I used the machine to flatten the noodles, heavily floured the flattened dough, rolled the dough, and sliced it into noodles. I ended up with that whole plate full (see picture above) of noodles. At that point, I tasted my marinara and added a bit more salt, and it was ready. I then plated it.
Fresh noodles make all the difference, and this was the first time I’d made marinara from scratch. Usually, I make most of the sauces we have with noodles from almost-scratch: which is to say, I use can tomatoes.
We ate the whole thing among the three of us: my husband, my two-year old daughter, and I.
My daughter kept going in for more, which is always lovely.
The whole process took about an hour to an hour and a half. I’m sure once I get the hang of all of it, the noodles will take less time. Most of the time went to letting the marinara simmer as much as possible.
We still ate by 7:30pm, which is something I’ve been shooting for: for us to eat by 6:30-7:30. We’ll see how it goes.
This time I used tomatoes I got from the Farmer’s Market, but this summer I hope to make some sauce from the tomatoes in my garden. I might even try to can some.
A lot has happened since the last post. I finished the fitted sheet and comforter for E’s Elmo bed. (I still need to do the pillow case, and maybe a regular sheet.) And, I gave birth to J. And I returned back to work.
In the meantime, I’m attempting to feel normal in my skin again. This pregnancy seems to have taken a great deal more out of me than the last one. My strength just feels zapped. I discovered this more closely when trying to lift bags of dirt. Bags of dirt used to be heavy, but I could still manage them. Now. Not so much. It’s a great deal more strain, and my back hurts afterwards. Rather, my shoulder muscles and the places they attach to feel stretched out like taffy. Likewise, going on walks in the evening, my legs and feet feel like lead. I know that I’m carrying J in my Moby, but the effort feels a great deal more than I remember. I just need to give myself time and patience to keep healing.
I’m hoping this will be a space of all my varied expenditures—an outlet of hands mediating through paper, fabric, food, etc—a means of raw cutting. Time is limited yes, but this space organizes in particles, bringing together moments to make a whole.
My efforts towards poet-ing, sewing, food-ing, living, reviewing, editing, viewing, here, reading, scholaring, and of course, niner. We’ll see how it goes.
And once my body is capable, and my organs re-center, the sculpturing of muscle.
ThreadBarePoet 