I think I may be done ... at least for this week

I had another preserving frenzy day yesterday and I think I need to take a break for a couple of weeks!

We have a huge apple tree in our yard.  I can't even begin to describe how big this thing is or how many apples it produces.  I can estimate thousands; a large number of which fall before they are ripe.  I think in the process of picking up all of the windfalls, we provide endless entertainment for the neighbours and provoke curses from the garbage guys.  Thankfully our town has a composting program.

So, given my new canning energy and my feelings of guilt over the thousands of apples that don't get used by anyone and end up as compost, I decided to get cooking.  I should tell you that I did try to give the better apples away to a food charity a few years ago but by the time the agency came to pick them up (they didn't encourage drop offs), they were rotting on the front porch (they last about one day off the tree).  It should also be noted that the apples in the photo aren't actually at full ripeness but very few stay on the tree until they are fully ripe so I generally use them for cooked applications.

On the bright side, this year there are a large number of apples within my reach so I was able to pick them off the tree instead of the ground which meant fewer bruises and fewer worms.

And just to keep up, the zucchini continues to sneak up on me, becoming massive before I can blink an eye.  Three zucchini went to neighbours and these guys went into more relish, pickles and a zucchini butter from Food 52. I couldn't find the energy to make the muffins I had planned.  Since I'm going to get the oven going tonight for a roasted ratatouille, I think I'll make them then.

Anyway, back to the apples, Food in Jars had quite a few interesting apple recipes and I made two kinds of apple jam and apple sauce.  The first, a honey lemon apple jam, tasted quite nice on toast this morning.  Regarding the second, apple almond honey conserve, I'm still a bit on the fence.  The applesauce tasted quite nice, spicy, sweet and apple-y.

That is all for this weekend.  I have basically been relaxing today, making progress on some knitting, reading and now watching Milos get soundly trounced by Nadal in Montreal.

As for canning, by the time the tomatillos are ripe, I might be ready to get the engine going again.  Until then, I'm listening to podcasts and out knitting on the deck.

Just thought I would check

I have been making bread since we moved back into our new kitchen.  The only bread I have bought from the store has been the occasional baguette.  I like making bread because I know what's in it and nothing tastes like homemade bread fresh from the oven.  But I was also operating under the assumption that baking bread was saving me money.  I finally decided that I should check it out.  So, ala Squawkfox I decided to do the math.  And I'm mostly right.

The kind of bread that I usually buy, the artisan bread from the bakery costs $1.34 more per loaf than my price per homemade loaf.  This doesn't include the impact of the cost of electricity to bake the loaves but my prices assume that nothing is on sale and I'm buying name brands.  The house brand of whole wheat flour at Longo's for example is almost $2 cheaper than the name brand version.


Homemade cost
Yeast                       0.94
Buttermilk               1.12
Honey                     1.08
Canola oil                0.32
Whole Wheat flour  1.22
Bread flour               1.62
cost for 2 loaves       6.30

for 1 loaf                   3.15

Grocery store cost                                                     Savings/cost
Artisan bread from Longo's bakery            4.49 -1.34
Artisan pre-packaged bread                        3.39 -0.24
Pre-packaged sliced bread                          2.99            0.16

So, in addition to really, really liking homemade bread, I feel even better for having confirmed that the price is right too.

Apologies for the funny alignment of the numbers.  I can't figure out how to cleanly copy tables into the blog.

And it continues

The lovely overabundance of produce in the garden continues.  The garlic in this picture is the leftovers after using 1 3/4 pounds of the stuff to make pickled garlic.  I have no idea what pickled garlic will be like but when you have 1 3/4 pounds plus of garlic, you make it.  And hopefully like it because some of the leftovers will are headed for a fall planting in advance of next year.  The recipe says to use the pickled garlic in pasta, in antipasto platters and in salads.

The other preserving done today was a wild blueberry peach jam.  I was going to make wild blueberry and peach separately but both jams would have used up all of my fresh fruit and I would like to actually eat it as is too.  So I combined it.  Since blueberries and peaches go well in a bowl, in my opinion, I thought a tasty jam was pretty much guaranteed.  And I was right.  Yum.  The only sad thing, is that it only makes 2 1L jars.  Since my dad, who is visiting, spent the fortune on the wild blueberries and helped me with the jam and the garlic, one will be going home with him so I really will savour the one that will be left with me.

Maybe I'll try using the tame blueberries in the coming weeks to make some more.  I can't imagine that it will be as good but it might come close enough to satisfy.

And happy birthday to my dad's cousin Norma who was 90 yesterday and you would never know it.  I hope I got her genes in the lottery and look forward to the future birthday celebrations that my cousins are very good at planning.

Lots of Listening

On my vacation, I've been taking a long walk most days and listening to podcasts.  While I have several standbys (Q, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Stuff You Missed in History Class, The Splendid Table, The Dinner Party Download and I could go on), I recently downloaded a number of knitting podcasts and this has gotten the motivation in high gear.  I've been sampling a bunch but the ones I've been sticking with are:  Prairie Piper (which had a good rating on iTunes so I downloaded it).  She led me to Down Cellar Studio who sent me to Never Not Knitting.  Not sure which of the above sent me to 2 Knit Lit Chicks.  Prairie Piper got me interested in a pattern designed by Alana of Never Not Knitting before I knew about her podcast so it is all quite circular.  Anyway, I find all of  these podcasts have good conversation about patterns and yarns and I have been marking quite a few patterns as favourites on Ravelry lately.  I've also picked up a couple of books at the library based on the 2 Knit Lit Chicks recommendations.  Enjoyable all around.