Zucchini Relish Anyone?

Last week my friend and neighbor cooked supper for Jerry and I - she brought pinto beans and rice and cornbread, a real southern meal!  She also brought some zucchini relish to put on our beans.  Her aunt had made it and given her a jar so she shared with me.  It was so good I requested the recipe and made it today.  It would be delicious on anything you use sweet relish for.  Would you like the recipe?

12 cups diced zucchini (she used a food processor but I used a Vidalia Onion Chopper)
              ( I used 6 pretty large zucchini, which ended up being just over 12 cups)
4 cups diced onion
2 green and/or red peppers, diced

Mix this together and stir in 5 Tablespoons canning salt.  Mix well and let stand overnight.  (I left mine about 4 hours).  Drain and rinse well in a colander.  Add this to a pan containing:

2 1/2 cups vinegar
4 cups sugar (you could add more but it's really sweet with just 4)
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
3/4 Teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 Teaspoons celery seed
1/2 Teaspoon black pepper

Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.  I water bath canned this for 15 minutes for my altitude.  It made about 72 ounces.  You can use pint jars but I chose the 4 oz jars because we don't eat that much at one time and I thought these would be a good size to give away.  I also added a teaspoon of diced jalapeno pepper to some of the jars (after I marked the lid!) for my husband.  He loves a little heat but I don't.

Enjoy!

Rain, More Rain, and Rainy Day Activities

It's been raining here since noon Sunday and, according to the weather channel, it will continue to rain through next Sunday.  Since we live on a small lake we watch that pretty closely.  Our water is up but not dangerously so.  I find it hard to get motivated to complete my chores on rainy days - I'd much rather sit and read a good book.  But some things don't wait for me to get motivated!

A local grocery store had bananas on sale so I'm dehydrating 4 trays of them.

Yes those are really bananas and yes, they are really white, aren't they?  I put them in a citric acid solution as I cut them up so that they won't turn brown but these have stayed especially white.  I'll store these in mason jars and will seal the jars with my Food Saver.  Later I'll be able to rehydrate them and use them to make banana bread, or we'll eat the "banana chips" as snacks.

I've canned peaches today too.

These were really beautiful peaches that I found at the grocery store.  The sign said $1.48 a pound but at checkout they rang at $.88 a pound....wish I'd bought more!  They were quite large and had no blemishes so 20 peaches made 8 pints.  These will make great cobblers this winter.

And I finished another patriotic pillow this week too.

I love patriotic patterns and have made several now, but I still have more I want to stitch.  I'm doing a collection I guess...I'll probably put them in a basket in my sun room when I have enough to fill it up.

And finally, school has started here in Arkansas.  Out of my 8 grandchildren I have one who is a junior in college this year, 2 who are seniors in high school, one tenth grader, one fifth grader and one second grader.  Two of my grandchildren are already out of school and working, and one of them, if I have my way, will sometime in the next year or two be starting a family.  I'm ready for a great-grandbaby.  :)  Of course, that grandson hasn't yet agreed to the whole baby thing but he's been married for three years now so I'm sure he'll be ready soon!

What do you do on rainy days?

Boiling Eggs

I bought a dozen eggs yesterday.  Well, actually, I bought 4 dozen because Walgreens has them this week for 69 cents a dozen and they let me buy 4 dozen.  They aren't organic, or cage free, which I usually buy, but for 69 cents I just couldn't pass it up.  Today I boiled a dozen.  That's right...I bought them yesterday and boiled them today.  Everyone knows fresh eggs don't peel well so I rarely ever do that.  But just look at these!

Every single one of them peeled perfectly.  Every.  Single.  One.  How did I do it?  Here's how:

You'll  need an electric pressure cooker, one cup of water, and the eggs you want to boil.  Put the water in the pressure cooker.  Put a rack in the bottom and the eggs on the rack.  Pressure on fish/vegetables/steam for six minutes.  That's it.  I will never boil eggs again!

These will become deviled eggs later today.....who knew I could get so excited over boiling eggs!