The wedding invitations are sent out and I am rewarding myself by doing a short pictorial of the canning we have done this year. First up were the canned peaches, recipe and instructions courtesy of the informative and knowledgeable Mrs. Zen at TennZen.
We then graduated to peach jam, with real vanilla beans. Yumm.....
We canned two different kind of pickles. The one on the left is pickle chips with a "Rodale spice mix" which includes bay leaves, mustard seeds, ginger, coriander, allspice, peppercorns and dried chilis. The one on the right is dill pickle spears with dill, mustard seeds and garlic cloves.
The chips are responsible for banning me from using the (new) mandolin..... I am so smart stupid that I did not feel the need to use the holder that comes with it, and promptly sliced off a nice chunk on one finger. Nice work. Even better was when I, a mere 2 days later, did it again on the next two fingers on the same hand. Apparently I don't like to learn from my mistake, and again felt that I was so smart stupid that I didn't need the holder. Then Sean banned me from the mandolin. But I know where he hid it.
The gracious and wonderful Mrs. JP over at "The Little Dog Shelter in the Holler" shared her recipe for salsa, and Sean and I spent an entire evening making LOTS of salsa with my pinieapple tomatoes. Hence the orange color salsa. We made a medium spicy for me, and a spicy version for him.
Now I just have this to work on. 96 small jars that are waiting on strawberry jam, blueberry jam and maybe a tomato marmalade. These will be the favors for the wedding, and I've found the most adorable little labels to put on the outside.
In case it seems like I never blog anymore, this is why.
The DIY AMAYC (As Much As You Can) wedding is only 8 weeks and 2 days away!
(Excuse me while I run off and scream into a pillow)
It's not that bad, really. But there are a lot of things to do. Kane may just not get a lot of training in the next two weeks. My garden might feel a bit neglected. I'm feeling bad already.... :-)
The favors have to be done, the bread bakes, the porta-pottys ordered (thanks, hon!), the shrug knitted, the invitations mailed, the shoes must be found, the decorations decided on and aquired.....
The most important thing is that we have a date, we have a minister and we are ready!
What else do we need, right? (well, yes, a license would be good to make it all official and all, I know)
It's going to be very busy, but fun at the same time. Sean is such a wonderful guy, I can't wait to make things official! :-)
Sean does not appreciate the minimaters the way I do, so his 40% is without.
Here's a slightly homegrown thrown together pizza recipe that we made the other weekend. I was hungry for some homemade pizza, and our garden is just overflowing with basil, and mini-maters, so I created this:
Basil Pesto pizza with Kalamata Olives and Mini Tomatoes
The basil pesto recipe I have is an adapted version from a Jamie Oliver cookbook:
Toasted pinenuts (toast in cast iron pan on stove for a few minutes - keep your eyes on them, or they WILL burn)
A few handful of washed, dried basil leaves
1 garlic clove
Salt and Pepper
Mix all this in a foodprocessor. Add olive oil and handful of parmesan cheese until you get the right "pasty" consistency.
Set your oven to 450 Fahrenheit.
I have a few different pizza-dough recipes I like, but Here is the one I used this time.
I finagled (that's right, finagled!) the dough into the right thickness and shape, placed it on the hot baking stone, spread the pesto out evenly, dribbled on some mini maters, sliced kalamata olives and then.....more shredded parmesan cheese (the real kind, mind you, not the stuff from a can).
I popped it in the oven for 8-10 minutes (depending on your oven). Watch for a golden crust and melted parmesan cheese.
As you can (not) see, it was so good that we promptly ate it and completely forgot about taking a picture of it. :-)
Have a great weekend everyone! My best friend is in town and Sunday is my BRIDAL SHOWER!!!! :-))))
ps. No we did not have pizzasalad with this pizza. :-(
We then graduated to peach jam, with real vanilla beans. Yumm.....
We canned two different kind of pickles. The one on the left is pickle chips with a "Rodale spice mix" which includes bay leaves, mustard seeds, ginger, coriander, allspice, peppercorns and dried chilis. The one on the right is dill pickle spears with dill, mustard seeds and garlic cloves.
The gracious and wonderful Mrs. JP over at "The Little Dog Shelter in the Holler" shared her recipe for salsa, and Sean and I spent an entire evening making LOTS of salsa with my pinieapple tomatoes. Hence the orange color salsa. We made a medium spicy for me, and a spicy version for him. 
Now I just have this to work on. 96 small jars that are waiting on strawberry jam, blueberry jam and maybe a tomato marmalade. These will be the favors for the wedding, and I've found the most adorable little labels to put on the outside. 
