Cooking rut

Although I've been doing a few big canning projects (the results of some of which I've shared here), I've had a hard time sticking to a cooking plan and budget in the last few months.  The combination of a full-time job and my dissertation has made it difficult to have energy for anything more complex than throwing a few things in a pan.  Even that doesn't always come together, so we end up going out more or eating random stuff.  Mu has done a lot to pick up the slack, but he also has a full-time job, so take-out happens more frequently than we'd like. 

I will be defending my dissertation in less than a week (weee! eeeeeek!), so I think and hope that starting next month, I'll be more able to get back to cooking regularly.  I think I'd like to do a challenge of some sort, since that kind of structure helps me stick to a plan, but I haven't decided what exactly.  There are a few options that other people have done, and of course I can always create my own.

Eating Rules, one of the food blogs I enjoy, does a yearly project called "October Unprocessed," which encourages people to pledge to eat only unprocessed foods, with no ingredients that can't be reasonably made in a home kitchen, for the whole month of October (or for as much of it as they can manage).  I did part of it last year, but it just wasn't happening this year, between the dissertation and work and all.  However, I'm wondering if this might be a good project for me to do next month.  It would help me focus on cooking and also combine with my desire to eat more locally anyways.  I'd have to cut out my red bulls (or make a specific exemption for them) and figure out a few other substitutes, but it shouldn't be horribly difficult.  It wouldn't be super easy, either, so it may be just the balance I need.  The downside would be that I wouldn't be able to use anything with sugar, which includes my own canned goods.  I could make a specific exemption for that, of course, but the point of the challenge is to not make too many exemptions!

Another project I'm contemplating, though this seems like it would take more planning and perhaps more effort than I'm able to give right now, is the Snap Challenge (very brief summary here). Since I would be doing it less to raise awareness and more as a personal challenge, I would probably modify it a bit and make some exceptions to allow for more flexibility.  Still, I'm not sure I can do it in November -- not enough mental space between now and then for the necessary planning.  Also, given that Thanksgiving is coming up and we're probably hosting people, this wouldn't be very reasonable.

Alternately, I could always do what I attempted when I was starting this blog several years ago, which is to cook a certain amount of new dishes over the course of the month.  I had originally tried to do 30 new recipes, but I don't think that would be feasible given my work schedule.  I could set a goal of 15, perhaps, and see how it goes.  The upside of this challenge is it would get me experimenting in the kitchen again, which I enjoy.  The downside is that I do like the ease of cooking old favorites.  I suppose I could make the goal more broad, like cooking 15 different dishes rather than 15 brand new ones (or make it 20 if I'm not doing the brand new thing). 

Anyways, that's what I'm contemplating right now.  Suggestions are welcome!

More canning adventures and observations

My haul of tomatoes

Saturday, I went to another canning workshop, this time on tomatoes.  I've been both excited and scared about tomatoes -- they seem to be some of the most useful and versatile things to can, but also the most associated with the possibility of botulism.  So, I've been reading and doing research (there's a super handy infographic here if anyone is interested), but I also wanted to go to an actual class so I could ask specific questions of a knowledgeable person.

The class was great for a couple of reasons.  First, as expected, I got to ask specific questions and get some food safety reassurance.  Second, I learned that canning tomatoes can actually be super easy!  I was expecting to have to spend a lot of time pre-cooking or making sauce, but it turns out that, while you can do those things, you don't have to -- you can just pack whole tomatoes (peeled and cored and with added acid) and then turn them into whatever you need later.  Both methods have upsides and downsides, of course.  This way is quicker on the front end, and a little more versatile, but does require more work and thought on the back end.  The trade off was worth it for me, though.

Coring and scoring!

So, on Sunday, I went to the farmer's market in search of tomatoes for canning and found a farmer who sold me 27 lbs of tomatoes for $15, which comes out to about 55 cents/lb!  That was great, even though I had to lug it all home, uphill. :)  I spent pretty much the rest of the day, on and off, working on the tomatoes.  It was about 3 hours of hands-on work spread out over about 9 total hours.  Lots of time, but I got 25 pints out of it!  I just learned that I could've used the peels and cores to make a few pints of thick tomato sauce, but I didn't know that at the time.  Ah, well, next year.  I think it was worth it, despite all the effort. 

I have some more observations about the whole canning thing.  :)  Some of these are from the tomato canning, some are from things I'm reading, and some are just thoughts from the past month.

Mountain of peels and cores, and some peeled tomatoes waiting to be packed

• Tomatoes are a lot less scary than they seem.  From the reading I've done (and the info from class), it looks like there are 2 main things to worry about -- botulism due to acidity levels not being high enough and general spoilage from not having a good seal.  The seal bit isn't actually that worrying -- mold and other nasty things of that nature are easy to notice, so if your seal is bad, the outcome is annoying but easy to see.  Your food will have issues you can see or smell, so you can avoid eating it.  The botulism risk is scarier since it can be invisible, but it's actually pretty easy to solve -- make sure your tomatoes are sufficiently acidic!  The official USDA recommendation is to add either citric acid (which I didn't have) or bottled lemon juice to make sure it's a standard acidity.  I went for the latter, but I really don't like the taste of the stuff.  In the future, I think I'll get litmus paper so I can use fresh lemons and just make sure the juice is acidic enough.  The other strategy is to use a pressure canner, but they're expensive and take up space, so I'm unlikely to get one any time soon.
• There's a lot of conflicting information out there!  One reason I'm not putting any recipes here is that I'm by no means an expert, and I don't want to add to the amount of random-seeming stuff that exists when one searches for canning (or tomato canning specifically).  My take away has been to use recipes developed and tested after the mid-80s because that's when the USDA issues its home canning guidelines. The USDA itself has good resources, as does the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I think canning is a lot like baking -- you have to be relatively precise, but once you know what you're doing (and really understand the process on a deeper level), you can do some improvisation. 
• Tomatoes take a long time to process.  In the class, we did raw whole tomatoes packed in water, and those needed to be processed at a boil for 45 minutes (that doesn't include the time spent in the water as it gets up to a boil).  At home, I did raw whole tomatoes packed in their own liquid, which means they were more densely packed and had to be processed for 85 minutes!  It wasn't too bad, since I had other things to work on while the tomatoes processed, but it's certainly not a quick activity. 
• I don't know about tomatoes, but jam makes for great host gifts!  Mu and I have stayed at several people's places and brought them jam, and everyone seems happy about it (though I suppose they could be faking, heh).  I suspect it may also make good holiday gifts. ;)
• Wide mouth jars are more convenient for whole tomatoes than regular jars.  The class used the former, and it was messier and more difficult to pack the tomatoes in, especially without squishing them.  I had the latter at home, by accident, and I intend to keep using them in the future.  The only downside is that the half-pint jars I've been using are regular mouth, so I can't use the same lids for both sets.

Final outsome: 25 pints!

I'm done with tomatoes for the season -- while I could probably use more (I use a lot of canned tomatoes when I cook), I simply don't have time to do more canning before they're gone.  Next up is a workshop on apples!

Adventures in canning

So, um...it's been a while.  I'm in a different part of the country, doing different things, and working a full-time job like a real adult (except without the real adult salary, but there we are).  Anyways, I make no promises about the keeping of this blog, but I've discovered a new set of projects for myself, and it seems sad not to write them up.  My latest thing?  Canning!

I'd been thinking about learning how to can for a while, and then there was a local (to Baltimore) kickstarter for a series of canning workshops, and the rest was proverbial history.  There, I learned some basics about how to can and practiced making blueberry jam (which I haven't tried yet because it seems sad to open it now).  Since then, I've done peach/nectarine jam twice, and have plans to do more workshops and more canning in the fall.  I want to learn how to do tomatoes and apples, and also how to pickle things.

I figured what I'd do here is write about what I've learned so far, both as a reference for myself and in case anyone else is interested.  I'm keeping fairly detailed notes in a google doc (which I'm happy to share with anyone), so this will be general observations.

So, then, what have I learned about making stone fruit jam so far?

• The bigger the fruit, the easier to deal with it (and then less is wasted when it's peeled and pitted)
• What the recipe thinks the yield should be isn't necessarily what the yield will be.  We've made the suggested amount for 10 half pints each batch, and so far, the batches were 7, 8, 7, and 7 half pints.
• Peeled stone fruits are slippery buggers!  Not a surprise, that, but I hadn't really thought about the logistics of chopping a peeled round thing with a pit inside.  Heh.
• It takes a lot of space to can!  We had to be really creative in our tiny kitchen, using every possible surface to hold things.  I knew, distantly, the amount of stuff necessary, but it hadn't really registered what that would look like in real life.
• Although it feels like it takes a long time, it doesn't really -- we made 3 batches in about 3 hours.  It's not a minor project, but we didn't actually use the whole day, either.

At this point, it's unlikely that we'll do more stone fruits this summer.  We have a lot of jam as it is!  I think tomatoes are next, after another workshop and some more reading.  Perhaps I'll put up a list of resources I've been finding helpful, if anyone is interested.