Not a Hallowe'en Mystery

We're cleaning off the front porch because the roof has sprung a leak. All the loose canning jars are going into storage but the two partial boxes get to stay close by. Because now it's time to can pumpkin butter.

Yeppers, apple butter, peach butter and pear butter are enough in my buttery world.

Because pumpkin butter is healthy and yummy.

It didn't take you gazing into a crystal ball to know there'd be a little more canning this season, now, did it?

Cheese! The quest for cheese!

Here are some pics of cheesemaking--

mixture curdling:

at the end of the first draining:

My sister-in-law is looking for the perfect cheese for the perfect cannoli cream. Apparently that cheese is ricotta impastata and we are having no luck in acquiring this super-smooth cheese.

It became a holy quest.

She lives in a much larger city than I, so I am now leaving it to her. But yesterday I thought I'd try making my own ricotta and compare the texture to some cannoli cream my husband brought back from New York last week. His mother touts it as the best, so it seemed like a good time to compare textures.

Here's the recipe--

1/2 gallon whole milk

1C heavy cream

1 tsp salt (I used fleur de sel)

Bring this to a slow boil, over medium heat, stirring frequently. Set aside and stir in 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice. Leave undisturbed for 10 minutes, then pour into a cheesecloth-lined sieve over a deep pot. Let drain two hours. Turn out into a bowl and whip with a mixer until very smooth. Return to cheesecloth and drain 24 hours.

Makes about 2 cups. At least I think it does. It might make more but I had a cheesetaster who kept putting a spoon in.

You know, quality control.

What I Did With Those Wee Tomatoes

I washed them, chopped them up, threw in some onions, jalapenos and crushed pineapple.

Tossed all that with a slotted spoon and tasted it.

Added some big-grained salt.

Tasted again and pronounced it good, though it could use some chopped cilantro, which I don't have. I'll pick some up at the tailgate market tomorrow and add it in.

Very tasty stuff.

I used some Conny's Romas, Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple and a yellowish pear tomato whose name I don't know.

The freshness is almost overwhelming. Fresh food is the best food. And fresh food from your own garden is sublime.

I am filled with grief about this being the end of the tomato season. Truly.

Soup, Soup, Soup

Soup of the evening, beautiful soup.

Tonight it was turkey kielbasa, sauteed in olive oil with mustards greens. Into that some summer squash all cooked up and pureed.

It's October now and I have to do something besides apple butter, pear butter or peach butter.

Next, with any luck this week--a batch of hard cider.

I Don't Have Time For This--Marzipan

I was in a local funky grocery store called Amazing Savings today. They have returns on interesting products that we don't see in many stores around here and I've found it's a good place to buy interesting teas at very reasonable prices.

They also carry lots of local, mostly organic, produce and an extensive collection of bagged chips.

Go figure.

I wandered through the teas-and-cookies aisle and noticed boxed tubes of marzipan. My daughter and I love to do marzipan at Yuletide--the picture above shows our efforts from a couple of years ago.

But I don't have time right now for this kind of fun, do I? I still have apples to prep and cook, as well as putting down a batch of cider to get hard and delicious for the next vintage of "Sumbitch Groundhog Hard Cider."

Also, I'm writing a book, and I have a couple of articles due rather soon.

What I want to do, however, is get out the food coloring and create tiny apples and oranges, perfect sweet strawberries and even edible babies.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Hoover and Cortland

Apples, of course. I can barely think of anything else right now.

Okay, not true. I'm also thinking of pumpkins.

I stopped by a local fruit stand earlier this week to ostensibly pick up cider. No, I will not make apple juice one apple at a time with that lame juicer this year. I have some plans to have a portable cider press made by a friend's little husband but until then I'm buying sweet cider and fermenting it for my own evil pleasure.

(insert evil laugh here)

I got a big bag of Cortlands and Romes and wandered around the corner of the table and saw a big, firm red with some green apple. It had a big good smell and its name is Hoover. I got a bunch of those, too, because they looked like they might be a little tart.

They are.

Hooray!

Will the Butters Ever Be Done?

Yes, probably.

I canned the last of the peach butter tonight and as soon as the jars are labeled, they'll join the pear butter and apple butter on our pantry shelves. I will probably do more apple butter because it is too darned yummy but my next quest is for organic apple cider, from which we will make hard cider.

Yes, that's the good stuff.

Lovely, lovely scrumpy.