Pomegranate....Best Trick Ever!

Luscious red seeds, safely ensconced in wicked, wicked pulp.  Taste good and are so good for you, but such a pain to get out.  What's a seed craving person to do?  Whack em out!

 

I demonstrated this neat trick to an audience a few weeks ago and received rounds of applause.  My Grandma was astonished.  It's actually because of her expressing a desire to eat them, but feeling sad that pomegranates are so difficult to release their seeds, so she doesn't eat them, that I demonstrated this technique.

Supplies needed: 

Pomegranate, cut in half.  

Large bowl filled halfway with water.   *****EDIT****  I just learned that you do not, in fact, need to fill your bowl with water.  Click here to see another post on whacking the seeds out of a pomegranate. 

Wooden spoon.

Place pomegranate, cut side down in the palm of your hand.  Hold fruit over bowl of water.  Commence beating outside, not too hard, mind, with wooden spoon.  Watch in wonder as the seeds begin to rain down, plopping harmlessly into the water.  The reason for the water,  is so the seeds don't jounce everywhere, like they would if they were landing in just a glass bowl.  Bouncy little suckers.  

Turn the fruit over every once in a while so you can get an idea of where you need to beat it for best results.

Go at it from the side and all over the top.  You don't want to hit too hard, because you can split the skin.  But not too soft either.  You want results.

Some of the white pulp will fall out, but not much.  It is so much easier to pick out the tiny bit of pulp attached to the seeds this way, then by pulling the flesh apart with your fingers.  You also don't get pink hands from this method.  Strain the water out and Ta-Da....pomegranate seeds, the easy way.  

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Stewed Tomatoes...ABC's

Have you heard the term locavore?   It means that you try and eat locally and seasonally as much as possible.  You get food that hasn't traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles to make it your table, so this helps save the Earth.  Good.  You also know you're getting the freshest product available, that has been allowed to ripen naturally and not get gassed into ripeness.  Good.  You get to help support the farmers and economy in your area.  All good.

Now, when you combine the locavore movement with the DIY movement...what do you get?  Bottled tomatoes.  True. It's science.  So, I am excited to be a small part of both.  Also, the best thing about preserving your own food, you know what's in it.  Want to know what's in my tomatoes?  Tomatoes.  And a dash of lemon juice because the FDA says so.

But, what do you do if you've never bottled tomatoes before?  I was thinking about this and figured there are probably people out there, who want to try it, but where the hell do you start, when you're starting from the very beginning?  The beginning.  So, come along, let me give you some canning know-how, hard-earned from a life of helping my mom and grandmother's preserve food.

First thing though, you will need some equipment.  You need at least two large pots.  One of those two needs to be extremely large.  We are talking large.  My largest pot is a 21 quart capacity.  I didn't always have a pot that large, so if all you've got is an 8 quart, that's okay...as long as you have several other bowls and pots you can dump cooked tomatoes into.  You need a small pot. You also need a canner, whether this is steam or boiling water, it's okay, just follow the instructions.  You need quart bottles, lids and rings.  These need to be washed and ready to go.  You need a liquid measuring cup, a funnel, a pie tin and a 13 x 9 inch casserole dish.  Yes, a casserole dish and pie tin are essential when it comes to making bottled tomatoes.  Now, come along and see how to do it!!

Canning is a dirty, messy, long process.  Don't be fooled by all the beautiful pictures of rows and rows of bottled goods.  Don't wear your best clothes, be prepared to stand for hours on end and expect a giant mess when you're done.  Fair warning.  It's worth it, but, be it's nice to know what you're getting yourself into.

Step 1: Sort and wash your tomatoes.  Start with a clean sink, and begin going through the box of tomatoes, discarding any that are particularly unpleasant, and washing the good fruit and placing it in the sink for later.  My family just uses one of the tomato boxes as a garbage can.  Don't be afraid of tomatoes that have cracks in them.  These can be cut around.  In fact, if you purposely buy the cracked tomatoes, also known as the seconds, they'll cost you half as much.  Insider trick.

Step 2:  Imagine the pot on the left was filled with tomatoes, gently simmering for a few minutes, until the skins break a bit and you can peel them easily...I forgot to take a picture of that happening.  Sorry.  Once you've washed your tomatoes and  are ready to begin, start some boiling water.  They only boil for a few minutes to soften the skins.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the tomatoes from the boiling water to...

Step 3:  Your casserole dish.  This is where you place all the hot tomatoes and let them cool for a bit, amongst the discarded skins from the previous batch of tomatoes you've just peeled.  Once this gets too full of skins, toss the skins.  It's just easier to work in this one spot.  You can set your tomatoes down and clean them all in the same spot.  As you can see, next to my casserole dish is a large bowl where I put my peeled tomatoes.  Once that gets full I dump them in the stewing pot as seen above next to the simmering water.

Step 4: Peel your tomatoes. Here you go, a step by step on how I do it.  1. Make sure the tomatoes are cool enough to handle.  2.  With a nice sharp paring knife, cut out the core.  Don't cut yourself and don't burn yourself.  3.  Slurrp!  The tomato slipped right out of its skin.  It's not always that easy, but nice when it happens.  4.  Quarter the peeled tomato and toss it into bowl.

Follow a proper canning guide book regarding amount of time to cook.  My Mom, and therefore me, likes to cook our tomatoes longer than is strictly necessary.  Make sure you stir your tomatoes so they don't scorch on the bottom!

Step 5:  In your clean bottles, measure out the appropriate amount of lemon juice.  According to new guidelines, you should put 2 Tbl. lemon juice or vinegar per quart bottle.

Step 6:  Get your pie tin, measuring cup and funnel and place them next to your cooking tomatoes.  Place your empty bottle in the pie plate, put funnel in and start  scooping up tomatoes in measuring cup and carefully pour into bottle.  It will splatter.  Beware.  The reason for placing your equipment in the pie tin is to keep the mess from going everywhere.  It helps....minutely.   Set filled bottle aside and continue filling bottles until you have 7...which is how many you can can at once.

 

Step 7: In small pot of simmering water, place the necessary amount of un-used rings and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 8: Using a damp paper towel or cloth, wipe the rim off.  If there's anything here, the lid will not seal properly!

Step 9: Now, just follow the canning guidelines.  Pay special attention to altitude!  If you're like me and live at a higher elevation, you need to process for a longer time.

Step 10: Label it.  Using a permanent marker, make note what you've made and what year you made it.  Now, I just put the year, because I know the only thing in quart jars in my pantry are stewed tomatoes.  Other people might have salsa or chili sauce or spaghetti sauce...and in that case it could get confusing.

There you go.  Now you have a little knowledge on what equipment to use and how to use it, I feel secure in unleashing you to the farmer's markets for your own boxes of tomatoes.  And this coming winter imagine all the pots of soup and spaghetti and chilli you get to make, all from your own bottled tomatoes.  It's worth it.

Thanks for reading!

Shared here:
Mellywood's Mansion

Heather

How to make a bunting...Easy...really! Oh, and the winner of the giveaway is announced!

They're everywhere.  Buntings.  They don't look particularly hard, but you've never made one and maybe would like to see how simple they are.  Don't need a template.  Don't need bias tape.  Just some fabric, some ribbon, cutting implements and sewing machine....and baby booties, if ya got em!

Let's get started...

Decide how big you want your flags.  I chose 7 inches long and 5 inches wide at the base.

As long as you can line your ruler up correctly, cutting out these flags is a cinch and quick!

1: Cut your piece of fabric 7" wide, by however long, around 13" or so (depending how many triangles you want to make out of a particular piece of fabric), and square up the end nice and straight.

2:  Line up your fabric as evenly as possible on your mat.  At the top of the fabric, make sure the very edge of the ruler, intersects the very top point of the fabric.

3. Now working at the bottom edge of the fabric... you are going to cut a line 2.5" in from your squared edge, so you need to align your ruler's 1/2" mark 3 inches in, while keeping the ruler on it's angle.  This is so your ruler will be nice and straight and the final cut will be 2.5" in from the edge, and you'll have the first half of a triangle.  We're doing a 5" base, remeber?  So 2.5" is half of 5.  Okay, making sure your ruler is lined up, cut.

4.  Swing your ruler the other way, and commence 2nd angle.  This time make sure the bottom of your ruler sharply intersects the bottom point, make sure the top of your ruler is now 5" to the side of the first cut.  Cut.  You have a perfect triangle.  Continue cutting flags.  Swing the ruler the other way, making sure it's 5" apart.  Line up your points and cut!  Make as many as you need for your bunting.  My ribbon is 6 feet long and I have 9 flags as well as 8 booties.  Adjust accordingly.

5.  Cut backs for your flags.  They need to be double sided.  I may have used this old pillow case.

6.  Pin fronts and backs together.  Sew a straight seam, 1/4" from the edge...I did not sew the top edge, it will get sewn in a minute.

7.  Pink the edges so they don't fray too much.

8.  Evenly space your flags.  Pin in place on your ribbon, making sure they are 1/4" above the bottom edge of the ribbon.

9.  Sew flags in place, using a 1/8" seam. 

10.  Fold over the top edge of the ribbon, and stitch it in place.

You're done.  Unless you want to sew some dangling chads, I mean, dangling baby booties on.

Hang and enjoy.  This project really only took 30 minutes, max.  I was pleasantly surprised by how quick and easy it was.  I will be making buntings for everything, from now on!

Thanks for reading!

Oh wait...you want to know the winner of my sweet 1st giveaway!!

Okay, drum roll please...

Denise M.  Please contact me and let me know your Email address and we'll go from there!!

Thanks again everybody!!

Heather

Dresden Plate Mini Quilt...Picture Tutorial

Sometimes quilting tutorials can be so darn wordy!!  I am going to give you the tutorial that's worth a thousand words.  Click for Dresden Plate Ideas and  Dresden Plate Tutorial...with words and pictures

Maybe the only thing I'm going to say in this tutorial is this:  Cut 20 blocks, 6" by 3"

Proceed...

Shhhhh....this isn't me...I cut my bottom fabric, bat and top fabric 19" x 19". Make it as big or small as you like, though.

:)

Thanks for reading....errrr...looking.

Heather