Sweet zucchini relish

I have been having a hard time with my careras as of late, so I apologise for the delay in posts....again! The Wednesday befor my father-in-law passed, the kids and I headed to the farm with buckets of zucchini and an armload of sweet spices to go can with my grandma. Most of you know my grandmother rents a home on my husband's farm, so we got to see the whole family, with the added bonus of extra hands in the kitchen to shred the zucchini.

We had a wonderful time. The kids and I got to spend that time with Papa too, three days before the accident, so this relish is not only delish, but holds extra special memories too!

Any one who gardens, knows you tend to get an abundance of squash. If your family is anything like mine, there is a number of people who do not care for squash. I love it...steamed, fried, grilled, in stews, soups, (I even sneek it into my spaghetti sauce and lasagna). It comes in in sroves, and I just can't eat it and share it fast enough. So the plan was to make relish before we headed off on our yearly camping trip.

Here's what we loaded the truck with to go spend the day canning at NanE's house.
12 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
4 cups chopped onion
5 tablespoons canning salt
1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 green/yellow bell pepper, chopped
6 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
I also like to bring a jar of pickling spices the steep in the reducing pot
(This makes about 4-6 16ounce jars, we doubled everything)

It's best to prepare all your zucchini and your onion the night before. So, here's how to do that(Place the zucchini and onion in a large, non-metallic bowl, and sprinkle the salt overtop. Use your hands to evenly mix the salt throughout the zucchini. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. The following day, drain the zucchini in a colander, and rinse well with cool water. Squeeze out excess water and set aside.)
Place the red and green bell pepper, sugar, vinegar, and cornstarch into a large pot. Add the nutmeg, turmeric, celery seed and pepper. Stir to combine, then add the drained zucchini. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, sterilize 7 one-pint jars and lids to hold relish. Pack relish into sterilized jars, making sure there are no spaces or air pockets. Fill jars all the way to top. Screw on lids.
Place a rack in the bottom of a large stockpot and fill halfway with boiling water. Carefully lower jars into pot using a holder. Leave a 2 inch space between jars. Pour in more boiling water if necessary, until tops of jars are covered by 2 inches of water. Bring water to a full boil, then cover and process for 30 minutes.
Remove jars from pot and place on cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, until cool. Once cool, press top of each lid with finger, ensuring that seal is tight (lid does not move up or down at all).

Now, onto my amazing sweet zucchini relish canning day at my Grandma "NanE's farm house kitchen.

We had been unusually busy in early July. Some of the zucchini had grown too large and over ripe. We did peel these to keep the relish from being chewy. The younger, more tender ones met the greater with the skin on. It's such a pretty color, and with the red peppers, it has a great contrast.

We peeled the older zucchini, and seeded it too. The seeds can become massive in the more mature or over ripe squash, and that just will not do for a good relish.

we split up the zucchini into 4 batches. I'd prep half of the first batch while NanE preped half. Here's my first half of zucchini...

...and here is my grandmother's. At 84, she is the wisest, most competent, amazing woman alive. I was setting the little ones up to color, and have a snack, while NanE got started on her half. Look at her hands. The years haven't always been easy on her, but this incredible woman is a pillar. Constantly moving, sewing, quilting, crochetting to keep her fingers agile. I see strength, commitment, and nurturing in these fingers. My grandma is a treasure!

my bowl! I am not getting off to a good start. My two youngest kept asking for things, running around, needed to make a Potty stop...NanE was shredding at 10 times my pace!

Ha ha!! NanE's turn to be distracted!! Kaylee ran in for a hug! Maybe I could have greated like a mad woman to try to catch up, but decided I needed to snap a few more pictures instead.

Oh well, she beat me by a mile! Here is all of her greated zucchini, wrung out and in the pot waiting to be pickled, and spiced up. She's already onto her second batch.

Here's my bowl. What a sad amount of zucchini I've shredded! Looks like we are going to be here a while. Who says slow and steady wins the race? Well, slow might, but too many interruptions made steady possible. It was taking me so long, NanE was teasing me about my greater starting to rust!

Well, pausing the zucchini shredding, yet again, I chopped the other veggies, added the rest of the relish ingredients to NanE's pot, and set it to boil. Back to my bowl, time to shred some more.

in the photo above, you see NanE's relish after simmering, steeping and softening for 3o minutes. Below, is my batch of relish, FINALLY ready to hit the stove top. The kitchen was HOT. My fingers were wrinkled up from being wet for so long. My feet hurt, my back ached, and the whole while NanE stood with me, shreddng, chopping, chatting, laughing, and sweating. It was so wonderful. Canning with my grandma, cooking, baking, playing in her flower garden, or her coming over to play in my vegetable garden, all of it a blessing I will cherish forever.

And here we have it. Cooked, sealed, and ready for your hotdogs, hambugers, and tuna salads. Yes, there's one can with way too much head space. I know, we didn't seal that one. My grandma wanted that jar for herself, and made tuna salad that night for dinner. It really is sweet, with a vinegar kick. Very tasty, and no zucchini wasted.

Whatever it is your doing in your kitchen, playing with new recipes, making breakfast, preparing a Holiday dinner or scrubbing the dishes, look around you. You're in the heart of your home. The food you fix, might feed your belly, but if you can bring your family into the cookin', you will be feeding your soul!!
So grab an apron, kick off your shoes, and come on in! You are always welcome in this "Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen."

Fish tacos

After traveling to Mexico many summers as a teen, I fell in love with fish tacos. Our youth group used to go down to the ghettos of Tecate and Tijuana to build or repair orphanages and small churches. The local families would cook for our group. Often, giving up more than a months salary per family, to prepare one meal. Their hospitality heart breakingly touching. The food, hand made, and as authentic as it comes, was always superb. Although I can cook, I have never been able to duplicate a tortilla. Corn, flour, doesn't matter they're tasty but always pale in contrast to the warm, soft, hand made delights served to me off a cast iron skillet, prepared by a beautiful, poverty stricken, smiling woman with her grandbaby on her knee.

That being said, I bought the corn tortillas! I have been craving fish tacos for days. Normally I have an abundance of sea food. Unfortunately, we had a terrible mishap last month. We have a deep freezer in the garage. Somehow, the freezer plug got bumped just enough to shut it off, but not enough for anyone to notice it was unplugged. I went into the garage to get a popcicle for Logan, and every thing in the freezer was thawed. About $1000.00 of bulk purchased meats, spoiled, ruined, into the trash!! So, we have no back stock. No reserves. None of my children like sea food, so as of now, I am rebuilding our other meat stock. When I get a urge for fish, I have to head to the market.

Well, with fresh fish and corn taco size tortillas in hand, I head home to my favorite room in the house. Let's scadadel to the kitchen, and get to cooking!

This step is where you control the spice or heat in the tacos. In a food processor, add a few chipotle peppers and the juice of two limes. If you do not want any heat, use one pepper, completely deseeded. If you'd like some heat, use two or three peppers still removing the seeds. For intense heat, leave the seeds in the chipotle peppers. Process the peppers and juice until its is the consistency of lumpy paste.

To make the sauce mix one cup of mayo, the juice of a lime, and desired amount of chipotle paste. I used about 3Tbs. Mix well.

To get the most of each lime, let it come to room temp, and then roll the lime firmly under your hand on the counter top. This brakes up the cells in the lime, and help you get the maximum amount of juice out. Cut a lime into wedges, and shred white cabbage for the tacos, and set aside.

Now we get to the fun part, I love dreging and frying. Maybe its my Okie roots, maybe it is because I was born into a generation, where everyone suddenly shouldn't eat eggs, needed to use margarne (bleck!!), and switched to low or non-fat reduced sodium foods. Whatever the reason, I love to fry foods, almost as much as I love to eat fried foods!

Prepare a frying pan with about an inch of vegetable oil and bring it to 350 degrees.

For the batter beat 3 eggs. Whisk in about 8oz COLD dark beer. Add 2 tsp dry mustard, 1 Tbs dark chili powder, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp sugar. Keeping the mixture moving with a wisk, slowly add about 1 1/2 cups flour.

Soon as your oil is hot and your batter is made, try to work quickly. The cold beer hitting the hot oil causes little explosions in the batter, giving you a lite crispy fried fish.
I found beautiful codd and rushed it home to the frying pan. Rinse the fish in cold water, then blot with a paper towel. Lightly dust in flour, then go directly into the batter. Fry the pieces about 4 minutes on the first side, and about three minutes on the second side. Fry just until golden brown.

A lot of people suggest draining fried foods on a paper towel. I really don't like to do this, however, because the side of the food that comes into contact with the paper towel always becomes soggy. I place the food on a cooling rack, with paper towels underneath to catch the drips.

On a gas range, or a bbq grill, you can throw the tortillas on a flame. Warm just until the tortilla is pliable. You can also wrap a small stack in wet paper towels and warm them about 30 seconds in the microwave. No matter how you warm them, soon as they're warm get them wrapped in foil or place them in a tortilla dish with the lid on. Keep them warm!

Finally, place two stacked tortillas on a plate. Add a dollip of the chipotle lime mayo and spread it over the tortilla. Place a piece of your beer battered codd in the center, and add a bit of shredded cabbage. Fold in half, and garnish with a wedge of lime, and a small sprig of fresh cilantro (which I stupidly forgot, and left sitting in the fridge).

Enjoy, and play with your food. Change it up. Adjust the heat. Make each dish your own. Come back, and share here, what you did, what your favorite dishes are, or if there is something you would like to know how to make, let me know. I'll research, experiment, and do my dead-level best to refine and post any request. No matter what, have fun in your kitchen, and eat well. See you soon in this Fried Okie's Suburban Kitchen!! (((Hugs)--

Tuscan bread

This one was fun. I knew we were going to have Italian for dinner, so I wanted to come up with a bread that would support the rich flavors of the meal. I started off with mostly as a sourdough, but tweeked it a bit. So...let's bake!

4 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp onion powder
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup starter
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 stick herbed butter. (You can purchase pre-made varieties, or mix in an herb combination on your own. The herbs I used here were...
Rosemary
Thyme
Sage
Basil
Bay
Marjorum *about 1/4-1/2 tsp each)

I just pile the flour in, and add the salt and onion powder, off to the side of the bowl.

I feed my starter this morning and my little one, Logan, stirred it for me.

I put the blended herbed butter off to the side as well. I try to leave the top of the flour "hill" free for yeast and warn liquids.

I was out of buttermilk, so I soured whole milk to use as a substitute. I poured about 1 Tbs of white vinager into the bottom of a measuring cup, then filled it up to the 1 1/2 mark with whole milk. Then I microwaved it for about 45 seconds.

In truth, it works wonderfully, but it is terrible looking stuff!

I poured the small amount of starter around the edge of the bowl also. Then I made a little well in the center of the "hill" where I put the yeast.

I poured the warm "buttermilk" over the top of the yeast well, and let it sit about 3-5 minutes.

Hand mix, and then knead until smooth and elastic. This can take anything from 5-20 minutes. Cover with a towel, and allow it to rise until double in size, about an hour.

Do not Preheat the oven. Punch down the dough, and divide into two. Place each ball in an oiled bread pan. Bake at 415 for 35 minutes. In the last 3 minutes, brush the top of the bread with melted butter, or, what I did, was salt a tiny bit of cream, and brush the loads with this. I was looking for a softer crust so as soon as I pulled it out of the oven, I turned it out of the pan, placed it on a cooling rack, and covered it with a towel, to prevent the crust from crisping.

Here they are! They were wonderful! We had a small serving of veggie spaghetti, and delicious chicken picatta with it. Watch for that post to come soon!

Enjoy, take your time, and let me know what you though, and how it turned out;)

cinnamon pull-apart bread...aka monkey bread

Okay, you are having company. You want something to serve, warm with coffee for dessert, or in the morning, after your guests have caught up on their beauty sleep. This one is a bit time consuming, but super simple. The time is in waiting for each proof, or rise. So plan ahead, unless your in the habit of getting up between 3:30-4:30am, then you can have it ready in plenty of time for breakfast!

There are 7 of us here, and we do not finish it, so it makes plenty. Cinnamon pull-apart is one of our favorites around here. So, let's bake!

Ingredients for dough~
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs butter
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 eggs


Ingredients for filling~
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2-3 Tbs melted or browned butter

Ingredients for icing (optional)
1 cup cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix water sugar and yeast. Allow to sit, and for yeast to dissolve, and become almost frothy, about 5 min. Add the rest of the dough ingredients, and knead until smooth and elastic. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

While the dough is rising, mix filling sugar and cinnamon, and set aside. After the dough has risen, punch down, and knead again, for about 5 min. Let the dough proof, or rise again until doubled again, about an hour.

Turn dough out onto well floured surface. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the top of the ball of dough. I also like to put a bit of flour on the rolling pin, to keep it from sticking.

Roll the ball into as large of a rectangle as you can, keeping the thickness at about 1/4 inch. Mine tends to be about 9x11".

I prefer to brown my butter for this, but just melting it would work fine. Brush the ENTIRE surface of the dough with the butter. Use it all, its dessert!!!

Spread the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over the butter. Cover every inch of the dough, all the way to the edges. It may seem like a lot, but remember, you will only eat a few slices, not the entire loaf, so go for it.

Now slice the dough into 6 even strips. Stack them as evenly as possible, without spilling all the sugar and cinnamon off! It's no easy task!!

Now cut the strips into six smaller piles.

From here, lay the stacks in their sides in a bread pan. I can't ever fit them all length wise, so the few left I squeeze on the sides, into any available space. Set in a warm place, and allow loaf to rise in the bread pan for about 20-30 minutes. I always pour the sugar and cinnamon that fell off the strips off the cutting board, and onto the loaf. Preheat oven to 350, and bake about 30 minutes.

As soon as bread is finished baking, run a knife along sides of pan to loosen the loaf. Turn the pan over and with a clean potholder protecting your hand(or use a second plate), catch the loaf. Have your serving platter handy, and transfer the loaf right side up. Allow to cool just til you can handle it. "Pull apart" the loaf as you all dive in, ripping your serving off, and inhaling it before someone else does!!

Now, I prefer not to use the icing, but most of the kids, and my hubby, demand the icing. Simply toss the sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla into a food processor, and blend until smooth and runny. Serve in little dipping cups. Enjoy!!!

I am dying to know if you've tried any of these. If you have, send me a comment, let me know how it turned out, and how your family liked it! Got a favorite recipe? Share it!!! I'd Loe to get your favorites, too.

Come on back to my kitchen soon, there's always room!! (((Hugs)))

For the requests, baccon chicken rounds

Hi guys. Been a long time. Due to the unexpected passing of my amazing, and sorely missed precious father-in-law, I not only haven't blogged, I haven't been really cooking, for any other reason than survival. Just this week, four of my 5 children (one my honorary foster) has started school. I find myself alone with just my toddler. I can keep the house clean, keep up on laundry, weed the gardens, and still feel like I an not getting much done. Then, a few days ago, I grabbed my favorite apron, and decided it was time for me to get my rear end back to the kitchen. Batches of breads, a blueberry pie, and baccon chicken rounds were the end result of that decision. After sharing a picture of the chicken, a few friends asked for the recipe. So, I'll share it here, as well.

Let's cook!

Ingredients
4-6 chicken breasts
16 slices of baccon
Minced garlic
6-10 Tbs greated parmesan
1/2 white onion or a large shallot

Fold plastic wrap over each chicken breast.

I like to use large pieces so as the chicken spreads out, it doesn't get uncovered.

My meat mallot mysteriously disappeared, so I used an old rolling pin to pound the chicken breasts as thin as possible.

In between thinning the chicken, cook the baccon until cooked, but don't crisp it up, it will need to bend later!

And of course, drain the baccon on a paper towel, so we can pretend we are removing enough grease to say its not as fattening. But be sure to save the baccon drippings in the pan. You'll need them two more times.

Slice onion/shallot and sautee in the reserved baccon grease. Open plastic and lay 2-2 1/2 slices of baccon on the widest side of chicken breast. Add a bit of minced garlic, some sauteed onion/shallot, and greated parmesan.

Using the plastic wrap to help, roll the chicken up around the baccon like a burrito.

Use a toothpick or two to secure the chicken roll, and seal and brown all sides in the baccon grease. Place in a 300 degree oven. Bake about 20 minutes, until chicken breasts are cooked through.

Boil up your favorite pasta, while the chicken bakes. I found a really wonderful multi-grain corkscrew pasta for this.

In the baccon pan, I warmed a spaghetti sauce and crumbled up remaining baccon to add to sauce.

When chicken is fully cooked remove from oven and allow to rest about 5 minutes.

Lay each chicken roll on a cutting board, and cut into 1" rounds.

Lay over pasta. Today, we used my 2year olds plastic plate for the pictures. No idea why...

Smother with sauce. Alfredo, marinara, spaghetti, or white wine sauce all work.

top with more greated parmesan, and serve with garlic bread, and something green and crisp!
Lastly, please enjoy. It feels good to be back in the kitchen. It's been about a month, and now I feel I'm slowly finding myself again, after the loss of my best friend. Next few post, one will have my father-in-laws famous bbq marinade. Look for it. I hope to see you soon. There is a comment box below, feel free to ask questions, give feedback, or just say hi!