Someone's In The Kitchen
Every fall I start wanting to cook. A lot. Even when it's not so cold outside yet, I get the itch to make stuff. Maybe it's a need I have to hunker down for the long, cold winter. I want to make stuff that looks like this.
I get sick of all my standard recipes and start going through my cookbooks, old Taste of Home and Hometown Cooking magazines and trying new dishes. I peruse the food network website and watch Paula Deen.
The year my daughter was born, we had a garden that produced copious amounts of tomatoes and zucchinis. We couldn't give them away because all the neighbors had gardens of their own. So it happened that when I was eight and a half months pregnant, huge and it was August in El Paso, I spent a weekend making things with zucchinis and freezing them, and canning tomatoes. I think I have never been that hot in my life.
My favorite thing to make in the fall is jam and jelly. I love the berries, I love the jars, the whole process of making the stuff myself. I know, doesn't take much to amuse some people, huh? My favorite part of the jam is putting the lids on and then waiting to hear when the middles start popping in. If you don't make jelly, you probably don't have a clue what I'm talking about. My daughter thinks I'm a little dotty because I like to hear the lids pop. But one day I was watching Paula Deen make jelly. When the lids started popping, she said, "Isn't that just the sweetest sound?" AHA! I'm not the only kook.
But I have to say, when I hand my daughter a piece of warm home made bread slathered with my jam, nobody's laughin' at Mama.
I get sick of all my standard recipes and start going through my cookbooks, old Taste of Home and Hometown Cooking magazines and trying new dishes. I peruse the food network website and watch Paula Deen.
The year my daughter was born, we had a garden that produced copious amounts of tomatoes and zucchinis. We couldn't give them away because all the neighbors had gardens of their own. So it happened that when I was eight and a half months pregnant, huge and it was August in El Paso, I spent a weekend making things with zucchinis and freezing them, and canning tomatoes. I think I have never been that hot in my life.
My favorite thing to make in the fall is jam and jelly. I love the berries, I love the jars, the whole process of making the stuff myself. I know, doesn't take much to amuse some people, huh? My favorite part of the jam is putting the lids on and then waiting to hear when the middles start popping in. If you don't make jelly, you probably don't have a clue what I'm talking about. My daughter thinks I'm a little dotty because I like to hear the lids pop. But one day I was watching Paula Deen make jelly. When the lids started popping, she said, "Isn't that just the sweetest sound?" AHA! I'm not the only kook.
But I have to say, when I hand my daughter a piece of warm home made bread slathered with my jam, nobody's laughin' at Mama.
posted by Mom Thumb at 4:30 PM
8 Comments:
I've never tried any canning before. I think I'd like that sound too though.
heather - You would like it. It's like the jars are applauding and saying, "Yay, you did it!" Way better than glove box squeak.
Yeah, but you know what they say about having too many kooks in the kitchen...
Quite punny! I'm the only kook in my kitchen, but sometimes the banana bread gets a little nutty.
My husband and I love to can, last year we did peaches, jelly, jam and tomatoes in all sorts of recipes. We would count the jars popping and applaud their success. I love that sound, uh and the cork coming out of champagne to which it is a rule at our house to call out, "I love that sound"
carla - It takes a true canner/jelly/jam maker to appreciate that sound. The only thing better is when you eat the fruits of your labor!
I LOVE to make rhubarb jam, but I miss out on the lid-popping part 'cuz I make freezer jam. It's SO easy--just put a batch in a large container (that way you don't fill up the freezer with dozens of little jars) and as you make more jam, just keep adding it to the large container --ice-cream pails are good--until it's full, and then start a new one. When it comes time to re--fill the jam jar in your frig---just take out the pail---scoop out some jam--and drop it into the frig jar!!!Easy!!!
Wow, that does sound cool. I loved your rhubarb pie! Remember when we moved to Duluth and you brought us cookies? Later on, Curtis went to your house and told the cookies "sure went down good!"
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