Jams, Preserves, and Pickles
I got this recipe from mom, who said she got it from Jane. I have made a lot of batches of these. I can almost taste how good pork roast marinated in juice from these pickles then baked in the oven tasted.
For Christmas 1994 Jonathan gave Elbert a gift he really enjoyed. It was a bag of potting soil, 12 pots, and a note telling him that each month he would receive some seeds. As a bonus, he got some for that month as well. They were for “hot peppers”. Those hot peppers were his most treasured plants. They were started in the house, then transplanted and kept on the deck for the summer. Elbert watched them closely, then harvested the 14 peppers that were produced. In the late fall, he and Gwen chopped them up for a triple recipe of this salsa.
Our neighbor lady on Riverton made this a lot in the fall. It smelled so good as the smell wafted over (through) the chain link fence on those cool late summer evenings..
We really enjoy this lemon spread for our toast or bread. It is a good way to use some zucchini when there is an abundance. I also peel, slice, and measure the zucchini and freeze it. Then in the winter when lemons are a good price and I have some extra time, I can make a batch.
The chef at the New Orleans School of Cooking said there are two trinities. The Divine one we knew, and the other, he said, gives a divine flavour and is found in many of the world’s favourite dishes. It is a combination of onion, celery, and sweet pepper. Add tomato and oregano and it is Italian. Add chili and tomato for Spanish or Mexican. Add curry for Indian. Add cream for French. By making a blender puree of those four vegetables, and then canning it, I use up a lot of end-of-the-season garden produce and have a head start on many sauces. The kids don’t pick out the chunks.
This is the Hodnefield way of preserving corn. It has a good sweet flavor and when eaten in the middle of winter, almost seems as good as fresh.
There are a lot of crab apple trees around Winnipeg. We can usually get a good supply of apples for the picking. Some varieties (esp. the Rescue crab) are good for apple sauce and jelly.