Author Archives: Sarah

Sep4

Yum! Fresh Salsa!

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How spicy do you like your salsa? Mildly spicy? Sweet? Or does your mouth need to be tingling with pulsating agony from the peppers?

I’m one of those people who like spicy foods, but I draw the line at hiccuping over hot sauce.

My husband has an uncle who collects hot sauce. We got him some crazy hot sauce for Christmas one year, and it was so spicy that ONE DROP ON A CRACKER caused his eyes to water and gave him the hiccups. Strangest reaction to hot sauce I’d ever seen.

You can adjust the heat in this salsa by removing the seeds from the jalapeño for less heat, or leave them all in for maximum heat.

Pair some homegrown tomatoes with some onion, jalapeño, and cilantro, and you have a fresh, flavorful salsa.

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Just a whirl in a food processor and a dash of salt, and you are done!
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This salsa is delicious with tortilla chips or with your favorite Mexican meal.

I could consider this lunch- what about you?

Sep1

How to Keep Basil from Going to Seed

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Basil is a very hardy herb that loves the heat of North Florida.

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Around August, it starts to send out flower stalks. If you have harvested all the basil you need for the year, this is a good time for you to let it complete its life cycle and go to seed.

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However, if you still want more basil, you can extend the productivity of the basil by pruning off the flower heads located where the flower head meets a node. Look for where other basil stalks are trying to emerge.

In the above picture, my thumb is right above a node.

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Snip off the flower head, and leave the two smaller branches to grow. As the plant gets older, the basil become more insisting on bolting and eventually you’ll just have to let it go to seed. Good news: you can save those seeds for next year!

However, this one little trick of pinching back your basil flowers can extend the life of your basil for a few more weeks of delicious fresh pesto!

I just love the smell of fresh basil, don’t  you?

Aug26

Is it time for fall decorations yet?

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It’s a cool 87 degrees today- fall must be close! I saw a sign advertising Pumpkin Spice Lattes; that confirms it. The summer garden is a wreck, and it is time to start over with the fall garden.
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My leafy crops that I started a few weeks ago are starting to get their true leaves, and the yard long beans are finally putting out beans, desperately trying to remain intact through the transition.
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I think I’ll let them stay. 🙂
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I made spiced muffins with some gingery sand pear sauce, and the aroma was very autumnal. That’s a real word, by the way, autumnal.

I have reserved pears for a special recipe: Nana Clement’s Conserve.

Fall decorations, time to emerge from the depths of the shed! It’s time to decorate for fall!

Aug25

So… I washed my husband’s silk tie.

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I entertained a moment of panic pulling the laundry from the washer to the dryer. My husband’s new silk tie was tangled up in the wet laundry. He had worn it exactly once.

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My first thought was, “I really wish that he had taken his tie off before he put his clothes in the laundry.” Then I remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m the one who pulled it out of his sports bag and put it in the laundry basket myself. Bummer.”

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Then I wondered, maybe I could salvage it somehow? Maybe I could iron it? Hey, I had nothing to lose. It was already ruined anyway. So I pulled out the iron.

Hey, I really liked this tie, OK?

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At first, I tried ironing it on the silk setting, with a thick cloth between it and the iron. That proved to be inefficient at removing the wrinkles, so I removed the cloth, and worked on the wrinkles with the iron set on low.

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Within a few minutes, the wrinkles were gone and the tie was straight. It was still a bit damp, so I hung up to dry. I wonder if he’ll notice? It looks pretty good to me.

Honey, are you reading this? Did you notice?? Worked out pretty good, didn’t it? 🙂 Remember the Pilot G2 pen that fell apart in the wash? This tie was from that same load, but I’m glad the ink cartridge didn’t open. ALL the clothes would’ve been doomed then. Sigh.

Readers, have you ever washed a tie before? What did you do?

Aug24

Sand Pear Recipe: Florida Pear Preserves with Pineapple

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Wondering what to do with a huge harvest of sand pears? I have really enjoyed working my way through my laundry basket of pears. My most recent project has been these preserves. Sand pear, juicy pineapple, and tart lemon combine in a spread that is delicious and makes good use of a windfall of sand pears.

When I first started looking for sand pear recipes, I found a recipe on Oysters and Pearls that sounded intriguing. It called for the addition of pineapple and lemon. It is an old recipe, using paraffin wax for sealing(no longer recommended!), but the flavor combination inspired me to create a preserve with those flavors.

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Ingredients: 8 cups peeled diced sand pears, 22 oz can crushed pineapple in juice, 3 cups sugar, finely chopped flesh of one lemon, approx 3 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice for canning.

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Combine all ingredients except bottled lemon juice in large stockpot, and simmer until it passes the gel test. For more information on how to test for gelling, click here.

I ended up with approximately 5 half pints of preserves. Canning guidelines for sand pears call for the addition of 1 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice per pint. I like to round up for safety!

Process in boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

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Enjoy! If you are fortunate enough to have access to sand pears, I highly recommend this recipe. The grittiness of the pears is not the focus, and the pineapple adds a nice accent flavor.

So far I’ve made Spiced Pear Butter and these Florida Pear Preserves.

Next post on the sand pears will be… Nana Clement’s Pear Conserve! I have been entrusted me with a family recipe that I am so eager to try. It has walnuts in it, which means that I may just eat it out of the jar with a spoon, or pour it over ice cream. How do you like to eat a yummy conserve?

Look for that sand pear recipe soon!

Aug20

Sand Pear Recipe: Spiced Pear Butter

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Sand Pear Recipe: Spiced Pear Butter

Wondering what to do with a bounty of sand pears? If you have never had a sand pear, I would have to describe them to you as a fruit with the crisp crunchiness of an apple, the flavor of a Bartlett pear, and textured with the tiny bits of grittiness that give them their name.

I have had a laundry basket of them setting on my kitchen table, slowly but steadily ripening.

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First plan: Spiced Pear Butter. This is a great way to use up the pears that need to be preserved right away. It takes a large amount of pears and turns them into a delicious product thanks to some easy cooking done in the Crock-Pot.

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Ingredients: 14 cups peeled sliced sand pears, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 cup sugar, lemon juice for canning

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Place pears in Crock-Pot and cook on low overnight or for 12 hours.

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In the morning, puree the pears until smooth. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar, then cook on low for another 4 hours with the lid cracked so the excess moisture can evaporate. At the end of four hours, taste the butter to see how sweet it is after all the cooking down time. I only needed 1 cup of sugar. You may want to add more, based upon your personal taste, or the relative sweetness of your pears. At this point, the butter was not quite as thick as I’d like, I so I let it cook on low for another hour with the lid cracked.

Sand pears are also known as Asian pears, and do not contain enough natural acidity to be canned alone. The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends that lemon juice be added to Asian pears before canning, at the rate of 1 tablespoon per pint.

To be sure that it would be acidic enough, I measured the amount of the final product (5 cups), then added the appropriate amount of bottled lemon juice (2.5 tablespoons).  You may have more or less, depending on how juicy your pears were, how thick you wanted your pear butter, etc.

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Spiced Sand Pear Butter Recipe

If you decide to can your butter, process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Won’t this be delicious on hot biscuits? Or on some roasted pork chops?

Next: Florida Pear Preserves!

These preserves are made with sand pears, juicy pineapple, and a bit of lemon. Really tasty. Look for that recipe soon!

Aug18

I Have a Laundry Basket of Sand Pears

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Remember the 75 pounds of peaches? Well, now I am happy to be swimming in pears.

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These are sand pears: crunchy, crisp and (hence the name) slightly gritty.

I was glad I didn’t have one fall on my head as I was picking them; those pears are big and pretty heavy too!

I’m not as panicky about getting them processed as I was about the peaches; sand pears ripen much more slowly.

I have found that the grittiness is reduced as they ripen.

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Right now I have a batch of spiced sand pear butter in the Crock-Pot; look for that recipe soon!

Other plans include a gingery pear jam and pear cobbler mix.

Do you have any favorite sand pear recipes? I’d love to hear your ideas. It seems that many have never even heard of these pears.

You can comment below or join me on Facebook!

Aug17

Freezing Peaches for Smoothies

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When you’re finally looking at the end of 75 pounds of peaches, and you feel as though you’re losing the race against time; just freeze them! This is the easiest process for preserving huge quantities of very ripe peaches. I didn’t do anything special to the peaches, I just washed, pitted, sliced, froze on cookie sheets, then stuck them in freezer bags. They will be delicious later on in smoothies! I already canned some spiced peach pie filling, but if I run out of that, these will do nicely for a quick cobbler.

Of course, if I reach the end of my beloved peach jam (AHH!! PANIC!!), I may have to dig into this stash and make a small batch. 🙂

Now I’m working on a laundry basket full of sand pears! Recipes and tips coming soon!

Aug14

North Florida gardeners, it’s time to start seeds for the fall garden!

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Even now it’s still so hot outside, it is time to start thinking about the fall garden.

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Here’s some seeds I started this week: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, kohlrabi, and Swiss chard.

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Some of the seeds have already started coming up, 5 days later! Even though it’s still so hot, the seeds germinate quickly in the warm weather, and will be ready for transplant when it finally starts cooling down a bit.

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I also planted a few patty pan squash. I may also plant some zucchini and yellow squash too.

Next month I plan to direct sow my mustard greens, turnips, rutabagas, and even try some carrots again. It seems like I try carrots multiple times a year, and something always seems to destroy them. I also need to get some herbs started this week: dill and cilantro.

I also want to have plenty of fall and winter bedding plants, so I’m going to start snapdragons & pansies from seed. For the cost of a few packets of seed and my time, I hope to have plenty of color through the winter.

I am really anticipating the kale and mustard greens. The kale is so good for you and I love it sauteed with a little bit of butter and garlic as a side dish. The mustard greens are fabulous in stir fries. Oh, and I really want some turnips too. Turnips, although a root vegetable that I don’t see often used, is really good, especially roasted.

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That reminds me, I need to plant some radishes next month too. Maybe for Thanksgiving I can make some Colorful Roasted Turnips, Carrots and Radishes.

Do you live in a climate where you get to have a fall garden? What are you planting?

Aug10

Morning Jog Bonus: Blueberries and Grapes!

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Who takes baggie on their morning jog? Well, I wouldn’t exactly call my morning excursion a jog. It’s more like a walk / jog / hobble / lumbering  gait down the road. I took a bag with me this morning, because I had noticed some grapes growing by the side of the road a few days ago. Blueberry season is really over in this area, but there are a few hanging on in some bushes by the side of the road on my walk. It was a good excuse to take a break.  🙂

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Have you ever found anything edible on a walk?