Although we're still having warm weather, it's getting cooler each evening. I still have lots of blossoms and green tomatoes on our plants but I know many of them will not have time to ripen on the vine. Recently I found a recipe for canning green tomatoes (to become fried green tomatoes in the future), that was so simple, I figured could do this while Handsome and I baked bread. Yes, we finally got around to baking bread.
There are only three ingredients: green tomatoes, lemon juice, and boiling water. The tomatoes are cleaned and sliced and then placed in wide mouth canning jars (that of course, were clean and hot). Add a teaspoon of bottled lemon juice to each jar, and fill with boiling water, leaving a 1/2" headspace. Clean rims with vinegar, top with a prepared canning lid and ring. Place into a water bath for 40 minutes (45 minutes at our altitude), and then let sit 24 hours. You can see that raw packing (not precooking the contents) frequently causes the contents to float, rather than sit top-to-bottom in the jar...
but by bedtime, the tomato slices had mostly settled in the jars. I'll likely do more as the season winds down, but I'm hoping some of the 'maters will still ripen so I can process them for other things. Even so, it will be lovely tasting summer in the depths of our Wisconsin winter. All the work now will certainly be worth it come those blustery days.
As I said, we also made bread and rolls, but I figure you're probably getting sick of seeing bread photographs, so I thought I'd spare you this time. No promises in the future, though. lol
This afternoon I'll be taking another class with Clara. This is for her koi brooch class. I probably already have this technique down, but I do so enjoy her classes, and well...I'm sure there's more than a little I don't know. I mostly take notes, so I can't promise I'll have anything to show you of our first session. If I do, it will be on Monday. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
