Gifts From the Garden

I returned home today after a long day of work. I started on my usual routine of cleaning up the kitchen, taking care of some chores around the apartment, managing my mail and starting dinner. Not too long after I arrived home so the the bf and he came bearing gifts! :)

After his long day at work, he made a stop over to our garden (I don't think we've been there in two weeks) and completed some much needed tending to the garden. He made a great harvest to bring home to me as well.

Yep, that's FOUR eggplant, at least 6 dozen jalapeno peppers, a couple tomatoes and a watermelon! There were also a few bell peppers but they got washed and chopped up for dinner before I got around to snapping this photo of today's haul.

I was also thrilled to have my gifts from the garden accompanied by the good news that there are still more eggplants to be picked and plenty of green tomatoes!

A Busy Tuesday Night....

Last night was busy busy busy! After a long and wonderful holiday weekend I was back home last night and our kitchen (and fridge especially) was looking neglected. After three hours of hard work of washing, peeling, chopping, freezing and cleaning up things started to feel like they were back in order.

Although the garden has been struggling due to this summer's heat and lack of rain it keeps producing and I keep harvesting. After a picnic on Monday I made another harvest to bring home and upon washing and going to put everything away I quickly realized we were not eating up our produce fast enough - as I found some bad tomatoes and eggplant in the fridge. :(

So rather than let the remainder of what we had gathered go bad I began chopping and freezing! Although I enjoyed canning tomatoes the other week - the process was long and I didn't have enough tomatoes to work with this time around so into the freezer they went - yellow pear and cherry tomatoes!

Did you know you can freeze whole tomatoes? Even big boys and beef steak can be frozen whole (although they may fit in the freezer better if halved or quartered). Tomatoes freeze well, although when thawed they do not keep their crispness so you will not be able to slice them up for a sandwich, but they do retain their flavor and are perfect for cooking up in sauces and fall/winter stews!

I blanched and froze the rest of the lima beans and also managed to deseed and chop up about 50 jalapeno peppers. I remembered to wear gloves this time so my fingers stayed in tact!

Our jalapeno plants are producing like crazy and they are spicier than ever this year! I read somewhere that the more you stress a hot pepper plant the spicier the peppers it produces will be. I saved a few from our most recent harvest and whipped up some jalapeno poppers to have with dinner last night - needless to say our mouths were on fire!

There is still more veggies to be dealt with, but tonight is food shopping night so we'll see what kind of time I have left after I get home and get everything put away...it may have to get pushed off till tomorrow.

Canning Tomatoes

I had every intention of posting this yesterday, but by the time I was done I was completely unable to type or do much of anything else really...I'll explain...

I shared the other day that we made a great harvest from our garden.

Problem was our tomatoes were so ripe they were beginning to split and weren't going to last very long so I decided to can them rather than let them go bad.

So Friday morning I headed over to my parents house to borrow my mom's canning pot (I didn't have any what were deep enough). I also grabbed a few books on the how-to's of canning since I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. So I set up shop in the kitchen and got to work...

I washed and prepped all my pots, jars, lids and utensils!

I blanched all my tomatoes so they would be easier to peel - easy enough.

Here is pic of all my tomatoes peeled, cored, and quartered!

And this is the messy after math of chopping tomatoes (I had even already started to clean up when I snapped this shot) - who knew this was such as messy process? WOW!

I got to cooking up all my tomatoes - there were two batches, one of just plain tomatoes and I also tried my hand at salsa - which turned out to be one of the most painful experiences of my life thanks to jalapenos! You see, as my lengthy clean up process began, my hands began to burn slightly (nothing new I had handled jalapenos before) so I thoroughly washed my hands with luke warm very soapy water. They felt better but began feeling very dry so I put on some lotion. Shortly thereafter the fires of hell began to rip through my fingers! I finished canning and cleaning up and stuck my hands into a bath of ice cold water which made them feel 100% better. The problem was, every time I removed them from the water they began to burn again. So I turned to my trusty laptop and googled ways to stop the burning. MILK - everywhere I looked said turn to milk, so I did. It helped too, but again when I would take my hands out of the milk bath and dry them the burning ensued. So the bf suggested aloe. Tried that too - helped for a while - actually better than the others but still no cure. "Fight Club" happened to be playing on the TV and as I watched them neutralize chemical burns with vinegar I decided to give that a go too, it could only help! No luck though - actually I think it made it worse because my hands were still burning like mad and now everything smelled of vinegar! I quickly found that the more I kept myself moving and the busier I was the less they hurt - or at least the less I noticed it, so busy I became. I unclogged the bathtub drain, cleaned the bathroom spotless, did laundry, cleaned the bedroom, groomed some plants on the balcony, made dinner, prepared my shopping list and so on and so on - then suddenly after HOURS of horrific pain they just up and stopped burning. Well, lesson learned, when handling jalapenos ALWAYS wear gloves!

And finally my final product! It was all worth it - I feel like my first canning experience was a success and thankfully all the jars sealed properly - but I was surprised that all those tomatoes cooked down to so few jars.

B1G1 Home Depot Garden Coupon

Are you a member of the Home Depot Garden Club? If so, check you inbox for a B1G1 free Spring-Blooming bulbs printable coupon! I always take advantage of these to score great deals for the garden.

If you're not a member yet, coupons like this come out frequently so sign up here! It doesn't cost anything to join in on the savings!

Harvests From My Garden

After finishing today Rite Aid trip I hurried home to drop off my bags, change into yard-work clothes and headed over to meet the bf at the garden (a garden that we planted at my bf's parents house - which is conveniently down the street)!

Here is what we harvested today:

We brought home more tomatoes than I'm sure what to do with (i'm sure you'll be hearing about my canning attempts later this week), loads of cherry and yellow pear tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans, hot peppers, and lima beans!!! I washed and dried all the veggies while getting tonights dinner together (which was a quicky breakfast for dinner - always a favorite!).

After we finished dinner I got to work shelling lima beans and here is what I ended up with:

They look so yummy and beautiful, I couldn't help but eat a few raw and boy they are tasty! I'm planning on mixing them up with some of the corn we harvested earlier this month (before the squirrels all decided to help themselves to my garden like its their own all you can eat buffet, grr!) and create some yummy in my tummy succotash!

So all in all I'm feeling pretty good about my harvest today, as well as my rite aid deals I scored - Oh and I also found this surprise in the mail today....

Full size freebie of Gain dish soap that I signed up for maybe two weeks ago. I'd be lying if I said this one didn't get me really excited!

A good day - but now that my veggies are cleaned and preped and my purchases are put away I'm ready for a good night sleep!