When you want to serve pickled beets for dinner and there are beets in the garden, one thing can lead to another.
Risa went out and picked about half the year's beets, a mixed lot of Chioggia and Detroit Dark Red, and "strangled" them, i.e. wrung off the leaves, which she tossed over the fence to the chickens, and brought the roots in to wash.
She's finally got a saucepan, a really big one that kind of resembles a wok, which she knows will make seven pints of canning contents if filled to within an inch or so of the top.
So she cut up the beets, along with an onion, and threw in some honey and some homemade vinegar and spices, right up to the rim of the pot almost, and set it all to simmer while lifting more potatoes and weeding in the greenhouse. Later, she got out the smaller of the two water-bath canners and swapped it onto the burner that was cooking the beets, then filled seven jars from the pot, lidded, ringed and labeled them (she just writes on the lid -- "BEETS 11/11" in this case), set them in the water bath, and there in the bottom of the pot were the pickled beets she wanted to serve with dinner.
She'll rinse the pan, pour out the rinse into the compost bucket, and set it aside to wash, then take the jars off the boil, set them out to cool, and use the hot water from the canner to wash some dishes. Oh, and stop to take a portrait of the jars: pickled beets have a particularly sunny smile, she finds.
I like your way of doing things.
ReplyDeleteIn a complete non sequiter, have you got any train travel advice? Am contemplating following in your tracks, and taking the train to Florida, to visit an elderly aunt. Have to take a plane back -- bleagh -- don't have enough time off work to spend 7 or 8 days traveling and still have an actual visit... but 3 or 4, I might manage.
NM
There are a few hints in an earlier post -- http://risashome.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-get-there.html. The remarks apply to coach. Basically, it's lots of food, a book, loose clothing, water bottle, small blanket, electronic entertainment, and low expectations. Avoid holiday travelers -- a partly empty train is more comfy. Bring one bag for the overhead rack and one for at your feet. The one at your feet has the food and the book, mostly. Intercontinental travel is designed for the sleeper cars -- most miles are at night -- so I carry movies to watch. During the day I'm in the observation car, chatting and watching stuff go by. There are a lot of deer, for one thing...
ReplyDeleteYour best purse for this is a belly bag or a little one with a cross-body strap. Or in your at-your-feet bag, which should go with you to the observation car. But crime rates are very low on trains, it seems. Hang onto ticket receipts, they're very keen on seeing them, with your ID, on the Silver Meteor for some reason. The Meateor doesn't do checked baggage, BTW, which is why I only carry on anywhere. -- if you have/need more stuff, mail it ahead or buy when you get there.
ReplyDeleteMeteor not Meateor. Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Hungry?
ReplyDeleteThank you for the advice; all helpful to know. Also answers the question whether you use the sleeper car, which, apparently adds considerable expense, but they hide how much on the website just to be difficult. Or possibly avoid inducing heart attacks.
It will be my first train trip; am interested to see whether I can read on a train, being highly subject to motion sickness. Candied ginger is high on the list of items to bring...
Also interested to see something of the country, rather than just flying over the top of it.
NM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nN7SsXwMUM
ReplyDeletehttp://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=553457
ReplyDelete