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."

Butter

Okay, I'll admit an addiction in our family. While most people will readily admit to a sweet tooth, I have a savory tooth! The saltier, butteryier, the better! So, as a first post we will start with a foundational ingredient. It's pretty, smells wonderful, its creamy...its butter.

At over $3.50 a lb in stores, for butter that's been handled who knows how, and salted to different levels, I really got sick of wasting my money on it. We use a lot of butter. A sweet sister on mjf suggested I make my own a simplier way than with an old fashioned churn. This has saved my an amazing amount of time, and the results are fantastic, and the butter, delicious!!



I do try to watch for sales on whipping cream, but dairy doesn't go on special often. The cheapest places I've found it so far are Costco and Winco.

You need to let the whipping cream at least come to room temp, but its even better if you can let it sour a bit before you make your butter.

It's so easy!! To begin, all you need is a food processor, two containers, and salt if you want salted butter. Simply poor whipping cream to max liquid mark on your processor, and go! The length of time you need to whip changes. It's all determined by weather it is sour, what the date is on the carton, and what temp it is. Whip until you see it separate, and bits of butter swirling around. Watch closely at this point...as soon as these bits start to clump together, stop the machine.

Take the lid off, and the blade out. Starting at the center, use a rubber spatial and push the solid butter up and around the sides, essentially packing the butter, and wringing the buttermilk out. Pour off the buttermilk into one of your containers, to use for baking or drinking! Push the butter back down off the walls of the processor and replace blade. Sprinkle salt to taste, and give it a quick whirl to distribute the salt.

I put about 3/4 of the butter into a shallow tuperware bowl, and chill. Once set, I slice into three equal sticks of butter, and wrap them in waxpaper. The last 1/4 of butter stays in the processor for one more quick spin. I add 1/2 tsp of olive oil to the butter, and whip it in. This butter is spreadable right out of the fridge. I put this on a airtight container, and toss it in the fridge.

The more you do this, the better each batch turns out. If you stop too soon, the butter isn't as creamy, and you will not get as high a yeld. If you process too long, you will cream the buttermilk back into the butter. The taste is amazing. And for about $3.00 you have a lb of butter, about 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, and a bit of whipping cream left to toss in the processor with powered sugar, and make your own whipped cream.

Once you get it down, you'll never go back to storebought again.
Better baking days to all from this Fried Okie!