Mikey and I ended up making salsa verde. What a success!

Cilantro is one of my most favorite things, ever.

Well, summer is over but it was very productive. Jenny and I canned 40 pounds of peaches on Saturday..

There is a lot of work in peeling and prepping, but fun when you add my brother in law’s homemade beer to the mix.

The two little jars were for my 90 year old patient. His wife died a few years back and he misses her and has fond memories of her canning, especially his favorite, peaches. He was thrilled.

We picked 10 pounds and spent the afternoon canning. We made a family recipe handed down from my great grandma of raspberries in a heavy syrup  which we put on crepes (we call them big pancakes) every Sunday morning growing up.

It was a very domestic afternoon, spent emailing my siblings photos of the product.

My best friend came over and took a jar which she announced would go perfectly with vodka. Reading her FB posts this morning, I think that’s what she did.

While Easter shopping I found a deal on strawberries. I came home and made a huge batch of jam in these cool jars from my mother & mother in law.

I am now on a mission to find more of these Atlas Mason jars. They are so cool.

1 cup buttermilk

add 1 1/4 tsp baking soda to it.

Add 2 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp salt.

Add to this: 1 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal & 3/4 cup flour.

7 Tbsp LARD, yes LARD. I melted 7 tbsps butter instead.

Bake in greased 8 or 9 inch pan 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Thanks to my Hollywood info-mercial best friend, this was filmed (sadly) in our house, in  the 104 degree heat of July. The white dog is my Davey. This paid for our Brady vacation with 8 kids. No Alice.

Time consuming, but so worth it.

For 9 pints or 4 quarts: (I doubled it and added grilled chicken)

6 c. frozen corn

1 quart chopped peeled cored tomatoes

2 cups chopped tomatillos

1 cup sliced carrot

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

3/4 cup chopped and seeded long green pepper

1/4 cup chopped seeded hot pepper

3 tablespoons minced cilantro

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

6 cups tomato juice

1 cup water

4 teaspoons hot pepper sauce.

Now I was liberal with spices and added cumin and used chicken stock instead of water. So good.

Can for 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure for quarts.

My first time with tomatillos.

The chopping of all of the vegetables took forever.

My poor dogs didn’t get out for a walk, so they lurked wherever I was.

See Corey lurking. For God's sake, go chase a squirrel.

The end result from pressure canning is never as pretty as before.

So we went to do our typical Saturday errands, and we bought a bag of frozen mixed berries. I made jam. We are running low and tomorrow is pancake-for-dinner-night.

How did this come to be? Growing up, my mom always made “big pancakes” which are just crepes, for breakfast every Sunday morning. My mom would can her own raspberry sauce for them, she even had her own raspberry garden at home, for this reason. Every June my grandma and grandpa would fly out from Florida just for raspberry season, to get the magical ingredient for these special cakes.

They have now become a favorite of my family’s. We eat them on Sunday night, however, like the Dutch do. The boys are Dutch and you know what they say. Well, there is no saying but I like to keep the pannekoeken for dinner idea going. The only thing I do differently is use my own berry preserves because my mom has yet to teach me how to make the raspberry sauce. She says she will in June.

Because I only had 500 things to do on Sunday, I decided to can as well. I really don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve just been wanting to make chicken stock for a long time and I wanted to can on my new stove.

I did contemplate changing the name of my blog to Faces of Winco. I saw a bearded man dressed in a flowery sundress, wearing purple flip-flops with painted toes, when I was there doing my weekly shopping on Saturday.

Anyway, back to the stock. It’s boring, I am well aware. But it satisfied my need to can.

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cans (14 ounces) chicken or vegetable broth or stock
• 2 cups orzo pasta (enriched rice may be substituted)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano or Romano
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat a 8 inch pot with a tight fitting cover over moderate heat. Add oil, onion and garlic and saute for 2 or 3 minutes. Add broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Stir in orzo and return broth to a boil. Cover pot and reduce heat to simmer. Cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until liquid is absorbed and pasta tender. Remove lid and stir in cheese. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. You favorite fresh herbs may also be stirred into the orzo or rice to strengthen the flavor even more.

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