Menu Plan Monday #32

Off to another week of menu planning to retain my sanity. Luckily this week will be less busy, but next week - look out! Crazy is coming! (and clearly the crazy came a little early since I didn't get around to actually posting this until Saturday!)

I have already found a couple of recipes I want to make next week and am planning what to do with the fresh ripe contents of my CSA box. I won't receive it until next Friday, but really that works perfectly with my schedule because I'll have the weekend to try out my new recipes!

Monday: Autumn Risotto with Chicken & Cranberries (replace chicken w/TVP for Meatless Monday). Going to try to lighten this recipe  for WW. As written it is 11 ppv per cup! Yay! With revisions I have it down to 8ppv!

Tuesday: BBQ Chicken drumsticks & veggies

Wednesday: picking up a friend at the airport - dinner in Anchorage.

Thursday: Salmon Thursday

Friday: probably out.

Saturday: Gone All Day Dinner - Fix It & Forget It Lightly cookbook

Sunday: Potato Soup


Coming in my CSA box is a batch or 2 of tomatillos! I also made sure to add in a bunch of cilantro. As you know I've become addicted to canning recently and if this tomatillo salsa recipe works it will be canned! I also came across this one for Tomatillo, Black Bean, Avocado, Cilantro & Lime salsa, but I don't think you can can (ha ha the can-can!) avocado, so I would just stir in the avocado when it's ready to serve.

It already feels like fall in Alaska. The leaves are starting to change, the crab apples are almost ripe, and we've turned the heat back on in the house. I'm ready to start making some comforting fall food, and I found several cans of pumpkin in the pantry. This recipe doesn't use much of the pumpkin, Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal Pecan Cookies, but I can also make Gina's Pumpkin Butter recipe and . . . can some pumpkin butter! I'm going to have to get more canning jars very soon! Wouldn't it be fun to give out jars of pumpkin butter for Thanksgiving?!

I don't think I'll make this one this week, but here is a Marshmallow Molten Lava cake for you to drool over. Sounds decadent and evil! 

Garden Fresh Salsa

What do you do with all the tomatoes that come ripe at the same time? Get creative - use them in this beautiful summer vegetable tian recipe, like i did last night. Put them in your salad of course. Make a caprese salad. Put them on a BLT! Stuff them like I did in this recipe for Ricotta-Basil Stuffed Tomatoes. You still have some left? Make this great salsa! I followed a basic salsa recipe and changed it up a little. I didn't have jalapeno at the house, so I used a can of diced green chilis and went from there. I didn't know how many small to medium tomatoes it would take to get 8 cups of chopped tomatoes, so I used every last one I had picked a few days ago in my mom's greenhouse. She's out of town, so someone needed to tend to the tomatoes, right? And besides there are still a ton over there that will be ripe in a day or so for her. You can even use the little mutant-looking tomatoes that I think are super cute!

Home Canned Salsa
adapted from SalsaGarden.com

8 cups chopped fresh Tomatoes
1 small can diced green chilis (this is where you can adjust your heat level)
1 large White Onion, diced
6 cloves Garlic, minced
1 cup chopped fresh Cilantro, divided
1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin
1 TBS Salt
¾ cup Cider Vinegar
¼ cup fresh Lime Juice

Combine all ingredients, except 1/2 cup cilantro in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes. Just after you pull it off the heat add your additional cilantro. Pour hot salsa into hot, sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal jars with two piece caps. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. 

The Review: With my changes I thought this turned out great. I was able to can 7 half pints and have another 2 1/2 cups of salsa in the fridge that we are working on. I did use mild chilis because we are really wimps with heat, but probably could have used medium and been okay too. You could definitely up the chilis to a larger can or 2 cans. The chilis and cumin were my changes to the recipe and added a nice smokiness in the background.

Menu Plan Monday #31

 Happy Labor Day! I'm enjoying the extra-lazy day off. I didn't even get dressed until noon. But, tomorrow we are back to a busy schedule. Luckily, I don't think the menu planning will be very complicated.

Monday: One last hurrah at the State Fair.

Tuesday: Crockpot TVP Taco Soup - my regular taco soup recipe but replacing the meat with 1/2 cup dry TVP. - this was really tasty and an easy way to have a "meatless" meal.


Wednesday: Halibut


Thursday:  Dinner in Anchorage following a board meeting

Friday: Hmmm. Regular Friday dinner out

Saturday: Something leftover or from the freezer


Sunday: chili ?



New things I'm hoping to try this week:

Canning: I have a bunch of tomatoes and I want to can them into either Salsa or Bruschetta

Peach Souffle or Peach Cobbler


Blueberry Oat Bars - these have been on here before, I just haven't gotten to them yet.


My "to try" list is pretty much endless, so I'll stop here for now.

Recipe Review: Plum-Kissed Pear Jam

I've been bitten by the canning bug. I had no idea making your own jelly and jam was so easy, and could turn out so tasty. Earlier this week I had a few very ripe pears on hand and was looking for something interesting to do with them. After scouring the internet I decided on this recipe for pear jam with a hint of plums. I made a few tweaks to the original recipe, and have a few more I'll make if I make this again. It's not that often that I have a bunch of pears that are super sweet and ripe and ready to use.

Plum-Kissed Pear Jam
adapted from Allrecipes.com

3 cups chopped ground pears (although if yours are as ripe as mine were you wouldn't need to grind them up - mine boiled away into oblivion)
1 cup of chopped ground plums (I used 2 small plums and a pluot. I think apple would be good here too, but wouldn't add the pretty pink color I had from the plums)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice - next time I would add another Tbsp.)
1 pkg pectin (Sure Jell)
4 cups white sugar (this should be reduced by 1/2 cup or so)
1/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1 tsp. Penzey's Vietnamese Cinnamon (this could be increased to 2 tsp. or even 1 Tbsp. if you like cinnamon)
*Hot water bath & clean, sterilized canning jars, rings, and tops

Wash, peel, core, and chop up 3 cups of pears. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Wash, peel, pit, and chop 1 cup of plums. Place in a large stock pot. Add pkg. of pectin and bring to a boil. Add white sugar and boil for 1 minute. Skim foam off top of pear/plum mixture, remove from heat and stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Quickly ladle into prepared canning jars. Boil in hot water bath for 10 minutes. Pull from hot water and place on a kitchen towel. Allow to set 24 hours. Check seals.

*Follow safe canning procedures for preparing canning jars, rings, and tops.

I got 4 8oz. (1/2 pint) jars and 4 4oz. jars from this recipe.

This is the yummy sample that wouldn't fit in a canning jar. Mmmm. As I tasted it I was wishing for a fresh made scone or biscuit to put it on.

Next on the list is homemade bruschetta. What could be better than fresh summery tomatoes, mixed with garlic and spices and canned for winter! Oh dear. I see a possible need to convert one of my pantry shelves to just home canned items. I think I'm hooked! This is going to be fun!

Alaskan Fireweed Jelly

Growing up in Alaska I thought fireweed was "our weed." (note: first photo of bouquet was taken at about 8:45pm - our sunset is still after 11pm at this time in the summer) It's everywhere here, I just didn't think it was anywhere else (yes, I need to get out more). On a recent trip to Washington state I found it grows there too. Then I found a review of a book that talks about wild edibles and mentions it grows in Canada too. This all makes perfect sense I just hadn't thought it through. It probably grows in other Northwest locations, I just haven't taken the time to look that up yet.

The fireweed here is about 3/4 through blooming right now. It starts with a green stalk with long leaves and usually grows a couple of feet high before it starts blooming. The blossoms start 6-12" below the tip of the stalk and bloom from there to the top over a couple of weeks. All over Alaska you'll see fields of bright pink fireweed. You'll also see it growing along side the highway, or in a yard or garden, or in the park. Go to an outdoor summer wedding and you'll see vases of freshly picked fireweed decorating the tables. Go to the farmers market and you'll find fireweed honey and jelly. I also found this blog that talks about eating the shoots when they start to come up (that will have to be next year). Even the big box stores and chain drugstores here sell fireweed edibles, lotions, teas, and candles in their souvenir section.

Short on time, but always with a long list of things I want to try, I knew if I was going to make fireweed jelly it was now or never. Not really never, but I would have to wait until this time next summer anyway. So last night I picked a bunch of fireweed. Then I thought about how I probably didn't have enough, so I picked a bunch more. The second batch I picked at my nieces house and found that she has some fireweed along her driveway that is over 6' (yes feet!) tall!

It took about a 1/2 hour to remove the blossoms from the stalks, and another 20 minutes or so to boil the blossoms into this beautiful deep purple stock. I refrigerated the juice overnight simply for time sake. It was late by the time I had gotten to this point. The juice refrigerates well and can also be frozen for a later date. I love the progression of color loss in the petals as it cooks out. The strained petals have almost no color left in them!

My jelly came together quickly. I haven't made jelly before and was surprised at how simple it was. I can see a lot of homemade jellies in our future. :-)

I found several very similar recipes online, but ended up using this one from food.com. It was quick and simple. I've already made 2 additional batches of juice, including one with lavender buds added to the fireweed blossoms. I'll post a pic of that one when it's done. The straight fireweed jelly is fantastic. It has a very subtle floral flavor, something I haven't had before and can't really describe well. I hope the lavender doesn't overpower the fireweed in the other batch. I think I may enter one or both into our state fair that is coming up in a few weeks.

Fireweed Jelly
original recipe from Food.com
makes 4 half pint jars

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups fireweed juice*
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon butter
1 (1 3/4 ounce) packages dry pectin - Sure Jell for best results
3 cups sugar

Directions

*For fireweed juice:
Harvest about 8 packed cups of fireweed flowers. Rinse thoroughly and put in 2 quart pot. Add just enough water to make water level just below top of packed flowers. (Juice should be a deep purple color when finished. If too much water is used in boiling process, juice will be a brownish color. More water can always be added after flowers are boiled to increase amount of juice.) Boil flowers in water until color is boiled out and petals are a grayish color. Ladle juice into jar through cheesecloth to strain.

For fireweed jelly:
Warm fireweed juice, lemon juice and butter on stovetop.
Add Sure-Jell, bring to boil and boil hard for one minute.
Add sugar and bring to full boil for one minute. Skim top of jelly.
Pour into pitcher(makes it easier to fill jars)and skim again.
Fill sterilized jars leaving 1/8 inch space at top.
Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Remove from water bath and cool completely at room temperature.