Pantry Raid

I make a point of cleaning out the pantry twice a year, once in January and again in the early fall.  A few years ago we had a terrible infestation of pantry moths (which I suspect rode in on some bulk grains from Whole Foods, although I can’t prove that).  Suffice it to say that I no longer store flours and grains in their original wrappers.  Everything goes into airtight containers, which are checked regularly for little larvae.  During the biannual pantry raid* , I remove everything from the cupboards and wash the whole inside of the pantry with a good disinfecting soap.  All the containers get wiped down, too, just in case some wayward worm has managed to survive the regular onslaught of chemical and mechanical cleaning. We haven’t seen any in at least two years, but I’m still scarred from the experience.  One can never be too careful with pantry moths.

Since I’ve been doing this more regularly, the pantry purge no longer results in a huge trash bag of stale croutons and outdated relish.  Cooking seems to be easier with an organized pantry (would you believe it?)  And shopping is a breeze, because I keep two of everything we use most often (flour, ketchup, etc).  When I open one, it gets written on the shopping list.  This way, I still have a spare in reserve in case we finish the open one before getting to the store.  The pantry is probably THE ONLY part of my life that is, has been, and will continue to be reasonably organized (by my own loose standards, of course).  But, hey, you gotta start somewhere.

So if you want to instantly make your kitchen look small, cluttered, disastrous and disorganized clean out your pantry properly, you must take the plunge, set aside an afternoon, make a pot or two of coffee, and just do it. Viciously remove every item from your food cupboard.  Pile the items up on the counters in precarious stacks as best you can.

You must cover every horizontal surface in the kitchen and surrounding areas for maximum effect.

Try to group things into “collections” to make the putting-away process a little smoother. For example, this is my “poser gourmet’s vinegar collection”.

You will find, of course, several items that you will not remember ever purchasing, let alone putting into the pantry. You will also find several of those “what the heck was I thinking?!” purchases, such as the Pound of Chili Powder:

the quarter-pound of Bay leaves:

or the post-apocalyptic quantity of peanut butter:

But once you’ve purged, wiped, and organized your thoughts,

you can put the whole shebang back together without a terrible fuss.  And not only will you enjoy the luxury of a clean and organized pantry, you will be able to fool people into thinking you are really amazing simpy by finding an excuse to open your pantry door.  One glance at your shelves, and they will think things like, wow, not only does she live like Martha Stewart, but she must know how to cook.  Look at that vinegar collection.

Or, she must be very healthy. Look at those organic soups and beans. There’s not a single can of Chef Boyardee to be found.

You can see how this could be very useful in advancing one’s social status.

But in the end, we keep house for ourselves and our families, right? And there’s nothing better than a sparkly, shiny, odor-free cuboard when you’re scrounging for something to eat in the wee hours.

And once you have finished, and everything is put back together, take a moment to be smug and admire your success.

Because sooner or later, you’ll have to open the freezer.

*yes, I totally cheesed that from Alton Brown.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/motherme/4279058810/” title=”Grains and pasta by MotherMe, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2705/4279058810_b4c8559443.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”Grains and pasta” /></a>

Time Out

Today, I took the girls to a preschool program at our local nature center.  That part’s not very relevant, although it does sort of set the stage for the seemingly-minor sequence of events that took place today.

There were about seven kids at the program, all between three and five years of age.  S5 was the oldest, most of the other kids were 4, and a few were just three.  They all behaved fairly well, with just the occasional extraneous wiggle.  S5 blurted out answers a few times.  O4 did, too.  But everyone did a pretty good job at keeping focus and joining in on the activities, participating without distracting the rest of the group.

Everyone, that is, except for Erica.

Erica, an older and very verbal three-year-old, was there with her grandparents.  Erica did not want to sit with the group.  Erica did not want to be quiet during the story.  Erica had plenty to say about things not even related to the program or the current activity.  She wandered.  She blurted.  She distracted everyone, including the ranger running the program.  At storytime, she stood up in front of the book (“Cactus Hotel”, if you are wondering) and stuck her little face into the page so that only she could see the pictures.  At one point, she even knocked the book out of the ranger’s hand.

The ranger was very kind, but she was obviously getting frustrated.  The other kids were getting frustrated, too.  “Sit down, Erica!” everyone said half-a-dozen times.  The grandparents joined in the chorus of people admonishing her to park her behind, too, but otherwise did nothing to correct the situation.

Finally, after sternly telling Erica to sit down for what must have been the tenth time, and giving a pointed glance at the grandparents (who still had not moved to correct their little charge), the ranger finished the story and moved on to the next activity.  Erica loudly announced that she wasn’t interested in holding on to a picture of a desert animal while we sang a song.  She threw herself on the floor and complained that she was tired.  We kept going around her, ignoring the tantrum and trying not to get too distracted by this very obnoxious behavior.

Ad nauseum.

Now, I really don’t have a problem with Erica’s behavior.  Every child has off-days and rough moments where they simply cannot behave, whether it’s because they’re tired, or they had too much sugar at grandma’s that morning, or maybe their clothes are itchy, or their bodies are changing and adjusting, or the stimulus is too much, or whatever.  It happens to everyone.  Every parent has, at one time or another (sometimes many times, if we’re going to be honest here) been the parent of that child, the one who disrupts the entire scene and makes his mother want to crawl into her diaper bag and hide there until everyone else has gone home.

The thing is, most of us will reach out to our child during these little episodes and try to help them refocus.  We will scoop them up, look them in the eye, and let them know that what they are doing is not acceptable.  And then we will let them try again, maybe once or even twice.  But if it’s obvious that Preschool Nature Hour is just not happening this morning, we’ll stick them into their little boots and coat and take them home.  It’s not only the considerate thing to do for the rest of the group, but the kids need that kind of reinforcement.  They need to know when they are behaving out of bounds.  And they need someone to take them out of situations that they aren’t prepared to handle.

No, it wasn’t Erica’s behavior that was immature and irresponsible.  For a three-year-old, she behaved completely normally.  It was her grandparents who needed the time out.

On Being Cold

It’s cold here. I mean cold. Okay so if you are reading this from northern Canada, or possibly the South Pole, you might look at my measly 21 degrees F (-5 C) with something of a sneer.  But really, when I tell you it’s cold I know what I’m talking about.  It’s freezing.  Below freezing, even.  This sucks. And it’s not going to get better anytime soon.

Mobile Weather Information | En Español Last Update: 1:03 pm EST Jan 4, 2010 Forecast Valid: 3pm EST Jan 4, 2010-6pm EST Jan 10, 2010

This Afternoon Snow Hi 23 °F

Tonight Snow Lo 16 °F

Tuesday Snow Hi 25 °F

Tuesday Night Chance Snow Lo 17 °F

Wednesday Slight Chc Snow Hi 27 °F

Wednesday Night Mostly Cloudy Lo 14 °F

Thursday Chance Snow Hi 22 °F

Thursday Night Snow Likely Lo 12 °F

Friday Chance Snow Hi 22 °F

I’m not sure why the cold has started bothering me the last few years. Winter has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I get to wear baggy clothes, drink lots of hot beverages and hide in my house for days on end. This is my kind of thing.  But maybe I’m venturing into that stage of life where cold is no longer fun. I’m starting to see the reason the snowbirds flee to Florida and points south when the flakes start to fly.

At least the days are getting longer. Summer, maybe you are not my enemy after all.

The Beginning-Again Ritual

Yep, it’s a new year.  I was in the grocery store today and, while the candy aisle was noticeably empty, I could barely get through the produce department’s enormous shopping-cart traffic jam.  Everyone had cases of diet soda, fresh vegetables, “lite” commercial products, and cartons of yogurt in their buggies.  At the checkout, I noticed very few cookies or chips, but saw lots of healthy and pseudo-healthy things being rung up.   There were coupons everywhere for diet, low-fat, fat-free, sugar-free and whole-grain products.  I think several people were wearing track suits.

Now I am not going to be snide here, because I’ll freely admit that my own shopping cart – which usually carries pretty healthy products anyway – was loaded up with some ambitious quantities of fresh produce.   I have enough spinach and romaine to make salads for a week (which is about how long this conscious-eating effort will likely last).   I also parked at the end of the parking lot so I’d have to walk some extra steps.

Why do we find the new year so inspirational for trying new things, making healthy improvements to our lifestyle and just generally ’starting over’?  What is it about a fresh calendar year that motivates us to do things we ought to be doing all along?

And most importantly, why does the honeymoon end so quickly?

More Advent Fun and Letters to Santa

Wow, I post about the new advent calendar and all of a sudden, there are only two pockets left to do and Christmas is practically here.

Time flies when you’re [not] blogging.

I liked the calendar quite a bit, by the way.  The girls adored it.  S5 even made a few of the notes herself.  My favorite:

“It’s 12! Move the star!  Find your candy!  TWELVE!!!”

The only downside to the calendar is that the pockets are a little bit too small for anything more than a couple of Tootsie Rolls.  We also discovered that the kids don’t care for peppermint candy canes.  Fortunately, there’s now a Sweet Tart variety of candy canes, and since my girls are all about Sweet Tarts that works out well.  I also think S5 would enjoy a pickle for her treat but haven’t figured out how to do that without making a hell of a mess.

S5 made a very nice note for Santa Claus this year.  It says:

“Dear Santa, I want a doll house, a toy hello kitty, and a control plto*.  From S5 to Santa.”

*a control plto is a “remote control pluto”, which isn’t really remote control but is actually this:

The little controller thing can make Pluto wag his tail, walk around, shake his head and bark.  She saw it in a store last month and decided all of a sudden she wanted it.  Um, sorry kid.  Santa’s not bringing you one of those this year.  But we can probably work something out with Hello Kitty.  In fact, the UPS driver whispered something into my ear about how Santa has a fondness for all things Hello Kitty.  I believe her, since the package she was delivering came from Sanrio.

O-almost-4 has been insisting she wants a kitchen.  “A kitchen and a choo-choo train,” she says whenever anyone asks what she wants Santa to bring her.  Amazingly, Santa knows of a mom in her his playgroup whose kids were done playing with theirs.  Amazingly, Santa managed to finagle said kitchen from said mom without any of the children knowing about it.  Don’t tell anyone, but Santa has stashed it in the garage.  Hey, it’s a little big to fit on the sleigh, okay?

Fortunately, the two kids in the photo do not come with the kitchen.  They are very cute, but I already have plenty of my own.

As for me, I’ve asked Santa to bring me a cup of Irish coffee, easy on the coffee.  And perhaps a good night’s sleep.

Advent Calendar Day 1

We started using our Advent Calendar today and the girls just loved it.  S5 read a little poem I wrote, and O3 placed the star on today’s pocket.  Here’s what she read:

It’s the first of December!

Time to count down

to the day when old Santa

rolls into town.

Each number you see

represents one more day

closer to Christmas

and the big holiday!

So place the gold star

on pocket Number One.

Look inside for a treat,

then the countdown’s begun!

There were two little chocolates in the pocket, which the girls devoured.  They are really excited about tomorrow already.  I may have created a monster here!  How will I come up with 23 more bits of verse?  Better get working…

 

Advent

One of my favorite Christmas memories (and we’ll just ignore the fact that the last blog post was October 1 at the end of CSA season, right?) growing up was doing an Advent calendar with my siblings.  I remember we had a paper calendar, with little doors that you popped open to reveal a cute little holiday-themed picture.  There were, of course, 24 doors, one for each day of December until Christmas.  The last one had a picture of Santa in it.  I can’t remember now if my mom bought a new one every year, if she got them from church or something, or if we reused the same one.  But it sure did heighten the anticipation for Christmas all December long.

I’ve been wanting to make an advent calendar for my girls ever since my artist auntie showed me the one she made for her boys when they were young.  While the paper doors were fun, my aunt’s version was handmade, reusable and incredibly personal.  Into the pockets for each date in December she put little notes and poems, left clues for prizes, stuck in candy or sweets, and generally had a lot of fun helping her sons look forward to the big day.

Well, this year I’ve finally gone and done it.  I feel a tiny bit embarrassed about this project, because I practically copied it verbatum from The Purl Bee’s version.  But my plate is so full with things to do/places to be/ stuff to bake and make for the holidays already that I figured it was better to make someone else’s design and use it than spend all my time daydreaming about what I’d like to make (and never finishing it).

Anyway, here it is hanging up next to where the tree will (soon) (hopefully) be:

And here is some slightly better lighting:

The pockets consist of a 2 1/2″ square, embroidered with a number and stitched to a 3″ square of a different color felt.  The larger square is then sewn as a patch pocket onto the felt background.  Fairly straightforward, really.  Actually, my pockets aren’t exactly “straight”.  I wanted it to feel homemade and not in the least bit commercial, so I did all of the placements by eye.  I am noticing that everything sort of slants to the right as a result.   Honestly, it looks much better in person.

Let the anticipation begin!

(By the way: thank you, Purl Bee, for such a cute idea. I didn’t mean to suggest your project was an embarrassment, only that I’m not the type to just blatantly copy someone else’s stuff… even if it is a free pattern!)

CSA Week 18

It looks like this is the third-to-last CSA box for the season. I’m sad because we’ll soon miss seeing our Amish friends each week, and we won’t be getting fresh produce regularly. But – most of all – I’m sad because this means pleasant weather is just about over. But for three more weeks at least, we’ll ignore the impending winter and enjoy all the beautiful colors and flavors that have been developing since spring.

This week’s box includes:

• a loaf of freshly-baked bread (it was still warm in the bag when we got home)
• a yellow onion
• a pumpkin
• four bell peppers: two red, two green
• six large red potatoes
• a jar of pickles
• a quart of cherry tomatoes
• a dozen ears of corn
• one large and one small eggplant

We have *ahem* already eaten our half of the bread. DH and the girls polished it off and I was lucky to get half a slice. Our portion of the cherry tomatoes are about wiped out, too. They are sweet as candy and S5 is eating them as such.

Salsa

Tonight I am making a second batch of “Zesty Roasted Pepper & Garlic Salsa”. It’s really, really damn good. In my opinion, of course. But if you were to eat some, I’m fairly sure it would be your opinion, too.

The recipe is based on the “Zesty Salsa” recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (Judy Kingry, Lauren Devine) and was the perfect way to use up the overabundance of peppers and tomatoes on my counter.

At a friend’s suggestion (yes, yes, you get credit for this, L!) I roasted most of the peppers, some of the onion, and all the garlic (using one head of roasted for each clove of minced that the recipe called for). The results were smooth, smoky, rich and comfortably spicy. It’s so fine, I feel completely compelled to share.

Zesty Roasted Pepper Garlic Salsa

• 10 cups peeled, diced tomatoes (about 6-7 pounds tomatoes)
• 7 1/2 cups chopped peppers: I used approximately 5 cups of a combination of roasted, skinned jalapenos, hot cherry peppers, hot italian frying peppers, yellow and red peppers. The rest were unroasted, seeded and diced semi-hot peppers.
• 5 cups chopped onion: I used about 1 cup roasted red onion, 3 1/2 cups chopped fresh yellow onion, and 1/2 cup chopped fresh red onion
• 5 heads of roasted garlic
• 1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 T dried cilantro flakes (totally optional)
• 1 T salt (I like kosher, but use what you have)

A few notes on the ingredients:

If you can, use Roma (or a similar paste-type) tomatoes. Globe tomatoes are pretty watery, which means your salsa will be watery, too. However, both paste and globe tomatoes are tasty, and I don’t mind watery salsa. You can also squeeze your tomatoes before measuring them if you want to reduce the amount of liquid.

To roast peppers, you can hold them over the flame of your gas stove or put them on the grill, but I like the oven. I can do a lot of peppers at once without a lot of hassle. Basically you just put your peppers in a single layer on a baking sheet, stick them in the oven at 400 degrees F for 20-30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so, and that’s it. The skins will turn blackish in spots and will split and blister. This is perfect. Let them get mushy and look like used-up balloons. Take them out of the oven and put them directly into a paper bag, close up the bag, and steam them for about 10 minutes more before peeling/seeding and chopping them. A tip: cover your baking sheet with aluminum or tin foil before roasting to make clean-up easier. Oh, and wear gloves when you’re peeling and chopping them.

To roast garlic, I whack off the top of the garlic head so that I can see a little bit of each clove. Place the trimmed heads in the center of a piece of foil, close up the foil to make a little packet, and stick that in the oven along with your peppers. It takes about 40-50 minutes to roast the garlic this way. Remove the packet from the oven and let it cool. Open the foil, take one of the garlic heads and squeeze the base of it gently to push the garlic pulp up and out of the skins. The garlic will be soft and practically spreadable (some people do like to use roasted garlic as a spread, in fact).

If you are one of those insane hot-foods people you can also add some hot pepper sauce to your salsa, though I think the best flavor comes from using hot peppers instead.

To make your salsa, dump all of the ingredients into a big pot. Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the flame and let it cook at a strong simmer/gentle boil for about 10 minutes. The salsa will thicken a bit. Cook it until it’s the texture that you like (though I’d advise against cooking it terribly long, as it will just get mushy and icky).

Put the hot salsa into prepared canning jars, cover them with lids and rings, and process. I did the first batch in a water bath canner for 15 minutes, and the second batch in the pressure canner at 10 psi for about the same time. I like to use the pressure canner just to get all the processing done at once, though it’s plenty acidic to do in the boiling water-bath. The recipe makes 8 – 9 pints.

Enjoy!

Put Up or Shut Up

Old timey folks like to call canning and preserving the act of “putting up” food. And I’ve been putting up with a lot lately.

Before getting the pressure canner, I mostly stuck with tomatoes and peaches. They’re pretty easy to do and readily available in our area this time of the year.

I recently came into a collection of glass canning jars, which was very exciting. They look really cool, especially with some home-canned produce inside of them.

A few weeks ago, we ended up with a plethora of peppers in our CSA box.

I roasted them with some garlic heads from the garden, and turned them into salsa.

We bought a bushel of peaches at a local market, along with three bushels of tomatoes since my garden has been (til just now) pretty much devoid of any tomato-life to speak of.

The peaches went into several recipes, including plain old peaches in syrup, spiced peaches in a honey syrup, and – my favorite – gingered peach preserves. Good lord, that stuff is like sex in a jar. Good sex in a jar.

We’ve got a nice pantry-ful of yummyness (and a freezer-full, too) that I’ve been putting up all summer and fall. I’ve kept a little list, and realized that there’s quite a lot of food here.

June

12 quarts strawberries yielded

• 5 half-pints strawberry-rhubarb jam
• 3 half-pints strawberry jam
• 2 half-pints strawberry syrup
• plus several cups of frozen strawberries

July

Blueberries: 10 1/2 pounds, all frozen

August

Peaches: 4-quart box yielded 12 cups sliced (frozen with honey syrup)

Corn: 7 ears blanched yielded 1 quart frozen kernels (we have a couple of these)

September

Tomatoes: 3 bushels yielded

• 24 quarts sauce
• 6 pints tomato halves
• 4 pints and 3 half-pints diced tomatoes
• 5 half-pints catsup
• 4 pints and 1 half-pint sweet salsa
• 5 pints seasoned sauce
• 3 pints and 10 halfpints zesty roasted pepper-garlic salsa (used CSA peppers and some other jalapenos for this recipe)

Peaches: 1 bushel yielded

• 15 pints and 4 quarts peaches in syrup
• 7 half-pints gingered peach preserves
• 7 pints spiced peaches
• 7 pints summer fruit cocktail (also used 1 quart of pears for this recipe)

Pears: 4 quarts yielded

• 6 pint jars of pear quarters in light syrup

Bushel carrots yielded 22 pounds diced blanched carrots (frozen)