September 2021 “In My Kitchen”

Welcome to the September edition of “In My Kitchen,” hosted by Sherry’s Pickings.  

I almost didn’t even write a post for this month but when I started looking through my photos, I decided I did have a few things to say.

I found out this summer that I was a finalist in the Taste of Home Ready, Set, Bake! contest.   (Thanks to all of you who voted for me!)  I didn’t win but I was a runner-up.  Out of the money, but I did receive this as a prize.  

I have yet to delve in to it but as the weather becomes cooler (hopefully) it will be time to pull out the slow cooker recipes.

I’m still getting lots of tomatoes.  I canned some Harissa and some Antipasto Relish (both from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving).  This a great book for canning recipes.  My sister put me on to the Harissa recipe (284).  It’s delicious (even though I screwed it up a bit and didn’t mash my garlic in with the pepper paste).   Honestly, this book is worth the purchase price for just this recipe alone.

Antipasto Relish on the left. Harissa on the right. I love the deep color of the Harissa.

I had not tried the Antipasto Relish (224) before.  It contains brown sugar, vinegar,  garlic, oregano, bay, tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, celery, and onion.   I think it will be good on a charcuterie board but it is a bit sweet.  I used a bit of the leftover to blend up into Bloody Marys.  Again, drinkable but too sweet.  We’ll see if I can come up with other ways to use this condiment.

I just picked a huge basket full of tomatoes this morning.  Since jar lids are so hard to come by, I decided I would just roast them (along with some onions, garlic, and one jalapeno), blend them up and then freeze the sauce.  I love this technique.

The skins can be removed so easily and I just put the whole thing in the blender.   This tastes so fresh and delicious and will be great to pull out of the freezer this winter for soups and sauces.

We got some really nice Romanesco in the last farm bag.  I decided to make some veggie tacos with them.  I don’t have a picture of the finished product but…

The coating is on the bottom left (hot sauce, olive oil, seasoned bread crumbs, parmesan, smoked paprika and garlic powder).   The sauce for the tacos is on the right (yogurt, mayo, sour cream, chives, hot sauce, garlic and onion powder).   I based the recipe on one found here.    We topped them with some red cabbage slaw.  Really delicious!

On a recent trip with mom and Sis, I swiped a plant cutting.  It’s in the kitchen now starting to root.  If anyone knows what this is, please let me know.  It was growing in a beautiful hanging basket so it should spread.  (Please note that I did not harm the original plant in any way.)  🙂  Mom says I didn’t swipe it, I re-homed it.

On the same trip, I did purchase this on-the-rocks glass.  I love all things Frida.

I was beyond excited to learn that the Philbrook Museum of Art is bringing this exhibit to town next summer.

I will be first in line!

For another curveball, I have become a bit obsessed with this…SV Seeker.   A guy (and the internet) built this behemoth in his back yard in Tulsa.  In mid-August, they craned it over his house and trucked it to the Port of Catoosa.  They were supposed to splash it on August 21 but apparently there are some insurance and liability issues.   Wouldn’t you think about that before you moved it?   Anyway, if you need a diversion, you might keep up with this saga.   The solutions for getting it into the water are hilarious…check out their Facebook page.

Also check out the rest of the posts for September IMK at Sherry’s link.