Halloween 2009 - Attack of the Killer Carrot!

This isn't one of John's black and white horror films... this killer carrot was harvested from our garden Halloween 2009.

To preserve our harvest, we sliced all of the carrots not destined for salad and dried them in the dehydrator. I will enjoy many months of carrot in soup!

We look forward to planting more carrots in the spring.

Canning 2009 - Rounds 2 & 3

September 25, 2009

Repeated August 16th salsa batch, made 11 pints.


October 17, 2009

Repeated August 16th salsa batch with one exception – used Habaneros in place of Jalapeño peppers for Extra, Extra Hot version. Made 5 quarts and 2 pints.

Also made batch of Green Hell (recipe follows)

6 cups chopped Anaheim peppers
4 cups apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons canning salt

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into pint or quart jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in boiling water canner 20 minutes (Rio Rancho altitude). Made 5 pints.

We like to used the Green Hell as a salsa or in dishes such as Chicken Enchiladas.

Yucky Bug 2!

I'm not a bug person. I don't like bugs. Some people are fascinated by them. On a scientific level, I agree. On a personal house guest level, I don't.

John and I were watching television one evening and I got up and used the bathroom. When I came back to the sofa and sat down I felt a strange prickly trickle run down my back. I jumped and thrashed back at my shirt and grabbed a fistful of cloth. John knew something was up. I struggled to figure a way out of my t-shirt without letting go of the fistful of shirt. Honestly I was ready to cut it off. John inspected the fistful and coaxed me to open my hand and drop the contents. Damn if a centipede didn't fall out of my hand. Quick as they are, John managed to kill it - in flip flops even. I should have won an award for the ensuing oogy-dance - it was something John won't soon forget. Naked (of course!) I went off to the bedroom and shook every piece of clothing I own. I redressed and returned to the livingroom. I no sooner sat down then felt another prickly trickle low on my back. Another shreak, another dance! This time it was a clothing label followed by a stiff drink.

Home to Maine

We went home to Maine September 16th - 23rd to visit family and attend Ray's wedding (John's brother) to Anne.

During our visit we enjoyed all of our favorites - this was truely a gastronomic vacation! We enjoyed Italian sandwiches from George's twice, had two HUGE lobster and steamer dinners (thank you again, Claire and Leo! and Mom & Bob!), a wonderfully sinful dinner of fried seafood at Ken's, a beautful family dinner with Denise, Jamie and my buddy Ethan, a classic Old Port dinner of smoked seafood chowders at Three Dollar Dewey's, and (of course) pizza at Pizza by Alex. We also enjoyed one of the best reception dinner's I've ever had at Ray and Anne's wedding.

Food wasn't the only thing we enjoyed. The wedding was beautiful! It was really wonderful to meet Nicholas and Emma, and see them not only members of the wedding party, but included in the ceremony. Seemingly thousands of photos were taken. (I'm told some of the photos of attendees were scandalous. Yes Claire, I'll keep my hands to myself.)

We also enjoyed a lovely ride through Biddeford Pool, Kennebunk, Kennebunk Port, and a drive up into New Hampshire - through Conway and on to Cathedral Ledge. We visited with friends - It was really great to see Roger, Joanne & Vic, Janet, Mike & Jane, and Jay & Debbie. We miss you all and you are all welcome to visit us here in New Mexico. It was wonderful to see all the familiar places and faces, and amazing to see how much some things had changed.

Life with John...

Once again, John mercilessly exploits Jessica's gullibility.

A couple of his favorites...

"It was sliced so thin it only had one side."

• "My peripheral vision is so good I can see my own ears."

"The bottle says I should have used gloves." -pretending to read off a foot lotion bottle!

He claims he does it to entertain me... I think he's entertaining himself. Either way, it's funny and it only makes me love him more.

Canning 2009 - Round 1

John and I completed Round 1 of our annual canning. We purchased a full bag of roasted extra hot chilies this year from Wagner's. Processing those (removing skins and most of the seeds) took about two hours and resulted in 9 cups that we used in our salsa recipe, plus 26 cups we froze for future use. We canned 11 pints of very hot salsa and 2 quarts of dilly beans.

This year we did the actual canning in the front garden. We simply connected the grill's propane tank to our camp stove. While researching pressure canning for future projects, we stumbled on a notation about water bath canning on ceramic and flat glass cooktops that basically said we'd be risking cracking our stovetop. We can't seem to remember if we had the new stove during canning last year, but if we did, we got lucky. I actually preferred doing the process outside - it kept the house a lot cooler.

Much of the salsa has been allocated away as gifts. We figure we will make 2-3 more batches once more of our tomatoes come in. We will most likely try pickles again. I'm hoping to can some savory jellies, too. We've purchased a pressure cooker/canner and are planning to experiment in canning soup as well.