Digging Up The Daylilies

I haven't been doing a lot of the cooking lately, but I did a couple of frivolous things today.

First I made yogurt. After scouring the internet I found the simplest method possible. Heat 4 cups of milk to 180F, drop it back down to just below 120F and stir in 2 Tbsp of yogurt. Pop that in a clean quart canning jar and put it in a small cooler with a companion jar of hot water. It should be ready later this evening. I did this with Sassy Cow milk, which comes from about 10 miles from my house.

This evening I went outside to tell Drew that we're in a tornado watch zone. Not a big deal, since as I was taught, it's the R in Warning that means Run. A watch just means "Clean up the back yard so that the sheets of foam board insulation don't end up down the street". As I was out there I noticed the dandelion greens. I came back in for a bowl and then picked a whole salad spinner full of dandelion greens. Tomorrow night I'll steam them and serve them with lentils and barley. Tasty and easy springtime dinner!

Summer is coming to an end. Our tomatoes and tomatillos are going berserk. So last night I canned the first 3 quarts of our tomatoes. There are another 2 quarts of tomato juice & bits; those will wait until I have pint jars. Putting Food By says not to can quarts of juice.

I also bought pickling cucumbers last week. I must remember to make pickles this weekend. I picked most of the kale from the garden. That needs blanching and freezing.

It's interesting, the actual canning and freezing is easy. It's the prep that takes forever. Like peeling 15 pounds of tomatoes (drop 5 in boiling water for 3 minutes, put into cold water bath, put 5 more in, peel the tomatoes in the cold water, repeat), and then chopping them. Once they were in the cookpot (PFB said to boil for 5 minutes before packing) it was easy.

If you're looking for a resource for food preservation and you have a scientific bent, definitely look at Putting Food By. There are nice scientific explanations of why to do X, Y, and Z. I feel a little safer following these instructions since I understand why to do what.