355 Days

Wife, mechanic, gardener, animal lover, artists, cook and student of life. I like to talk about all of it.

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Baby Tomato Ketchup

My husband grew up like Beaver Cleaver.  His parents stayed married, his father was a Baptist minister and his mom was like June Cleaver.  She kept the home, was active in the women's auxiliary and by all accounts was the best cook south of the Mason-Dixon line.  You could say that I have big pots to fill.  Sadly she isn't around to teach me her recipes. I've tried to replicate his favourite meals from childhood with limited success.  For years he's talked about Mom's Homemade Ketchup.  She used it in everything so every recipe has this unobtainable item at it's core.
We've been married 9 years (this Saturday!) and at every opportunity I've asked his family if anyone has the recipe for the famous ketchup.  No one has it.  When she passed away the lady's church group put together a book of her recipes but they only included the recipes in her recipe box.  Not the ones that were in her head because she made them all the time.  So 9 years later I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and try making any homemade ketchup.  At least I'll have a base so he can tell me more of this or less of that.  Here is my attempt at homemade ketchup.  Since it's not mom's recipe I shall call it "Baby Tomato Ketchup"  If you've seen Pulp Fiction you remember Uma Thurman's character telling the old joke, "three tomatoes are walkin' down the street.  Papa tomato, mama tomato and baby tomato.  Baby tomato starts lagging behind and papa tomato get really angry; goes and and squishes him; says 'catch up'. "  There is inspiration everywhere!

The Ball Blue Book provided me with the recipe for Tomato Ketchup. 
4 quarts chapped, peeled, cored tomatoes (about 24 large)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup chopped sweet red capsicum/pepper (about 1/2 medium)
1 1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp whole allspice
1 tsp mustard seed
1 stick cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp paprika
1 1/2 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

I have never peeled and cored tomatoes before so I went on YouTube to learn how.  It turns out to be quite easy.  I think I'll be using fresh tomatoes a lot more.  











Here are some of my beautiful love apples. They will be cored and blanched. 



Coring is quite easy just cut a little cone around the stem area on each tomato.  It should just pop out if you get it right.  If you miss some material don't worry you can clean it up later when you quarter the tomato and remove the seeds. 


If you cut a little "x" in the bottom of each tomato the skins will be easier to peel off.  After they have been prepared drop them in a pot of rapidly boiling water for 5 to 30 seconds.  You'll know it's time to remove them when the skins start to peel.  Then you put them in a container of cold water.  This stops the cooking process and cools them for handling. 



The tomatoes will look like this after the bath.  The skin just pulls right off.





 Once the skins are removed you quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds and the white part of the flesh.  It was hard to get a good photo because my hands were covered in tomato juice but the one on the right here has the unwanted material removed.  I used a paring knife to slice off the centers and then my thumb to remove the membrane and seeds. Into the pot they go.




I added my sweet red capsicum/pepper and onion to the pot and cooked it until the tomatoes were tender. 








This is my Christmas present that I opened early so I could puree the mixture.  I love my new food processer!  I cooked the pureed mix until it had reduced by half and was nice and thick.  





The whole spices went into a spice bag (which is just a muslin drawstring bag).  The sugar, vinegar, salt and paprika go right into the mix.  Then you let it simmer until it's thick.  It needs to be stirred often so it doesn't stick. Once it's cooked the spice bag comes out and the sauce gets put into hot jars and water bathed for 10 minutes. 

I ended up with about 4 1/2 pints.  I water bathed 3 1/2 pints for storage and then I put the rest in these flip top jars that will go right into the fridge for immediate use.  

My Baby Tomato Ketchup is sweet and tangy.  I am VERY pleased with the result and so is my hubby.  We will start testing it out and see if any changes are needed in the future. 





Happy 9th Anniversary to the best husband in the whole world! 
I love you more than ever.




Sunday 16 December 2012

Strawberry Vodka

A recent trip to Costco yielded a huge basket of strawberries so I decided to make a special treat for Christmas.  Strawberry vodka!






The basket wasn't really huge but the berries were.  Look at this monster!  The best part was that they were super sweet and juicy.



I washed the berries, trimmed the stems and cut some of them to fill a pint jar.  We aren't big drinkers in my house. There was a bottle of vodka in the freezer that must have been three years old.  I used what was left to cover the berries.




For two weeks they sat in my cupboard.  Every few days I'd give them a shake and watched as the vodka turn pink.   After two weeks the berries look like this.  Kinda gray and icky.  When I opened the jar it smelled just like jam.




I poured my berry mix through a strainer.  Look at the beautiful colour of the vodka. The berries were really plumped up.  They were full of my vodka so I had to get it out.





 I mashed the berries to extract as much liquid as possible.  Then poured it through a coffee filter into my jar.





The result!  I took this photo outside so you could see how bright the colours are.  It's really pretty, smells devine and tastes like candy.  I can't wait to mix it with a bit of sparkling soda and a squeeze of fresh lemon on Christmas day.

Friday 7 December 2012

Laundry Detergent

I've been absent from my blog for several months but recent events have encouraged me to come back.

My facebook friends are always asking about the homemade cleaners I make, the recipes I'm cooking and my food storage.  I've learned to can food safely (I'm still learning!) and I'm a student of sustainable living.  They ask me how I do these things and are really encouraging about my learning.  I'd love to share the things I've learned so that others can learn too.

Today I post one of my most favourite things.  Homemade laundry detergent.  I have tried several different "recipes" and this is one that is the easiest to make, has a wonderful result and takes up very little space in the laundry room.  I used to make liquid detergent but it was in 5 gallon buckets and it never got my husbands shirts really really clean.   So here is my tried and tested (for more than 2 years in my home) laundry detergent.

I usually make a big batch every six months or more.

1 cup Washing Soda
1 Cup Borax
1/4 cup BiCarb Soda
1 bar of grated soap

Washing soda can be found in the laundry isle.  It's usually in a bag on the bottom shelf.  Borax can be found in a lot of grocery stores with the cleaners but I find it's cheaper and sold in bigger quantities at Bunnings.  Bi-Carb or Baking Soda is also at the grocery store in the baking isle.

When it come to bar soap you can use any soap you like.  BUT it has to be real soap.  The moisture bars that they sell will not work.  An example of a moisture bar is Dove.  I have tried all sorts of soaps some more environmentally friendly than others.  My goal wasn't to make a 100% green detergent.  It was to make a good detergent that was cheap.   I found that the best soap for me was Sard Wondersoap.  It cleans everything.  In my house we are mechanics and grease, oil and fuel are not a problem with this detergent.


Washing soda is currently $3.90 a kg
Borax at Bunnings is about $8 kg
Bi Carb is about $3.00 a kg at the grocery store but if you get it at Costco it's MUCH cheaper.
Sard wonder soap $2.50 a bar


If you figure that if we made 4x a regular batch it would cost (there are a little more than 4 cups in a kilo of powder so this is an estimate.)

Washing soda  3.90
Borax               8.00
Bi Carb              .75
Sard x4          10.00

Total            $22.65

This would make about 13 cups of detergent or 208 tablespoons.  I use one tablespoon for a regular large load and two if it's heavily soiled.  It costs 11 cents a tablespoon.  So a load of laundry will cost from 11 to 22 cents.
My little jam jar.  Without shelves I've
made use of an old shower shelf.  The
coffee scoop clips on and is one Tbsp.
The other jar is my "you left this in
your pockets" jar. 
Here is an example of a bulk portion of powdered detergent for sale at a local shop .  They say it's concentrated and their 7 kilos will yield 160 washes.  At a price of $39 that makes it 24 cents per wash.  Also they use 7 kilos to do 160 washes where my homemade detergent will yield from 104 to 208 washes with less than half as much detergent.  What are they using as "filler" to make up all that extra product I wonder?  Do you feel like you get a better deal if there is more bulk of something?

My laundry room doesn't have a large shelf in it.  When I make my detergent I use a little 5 litre bucket with a lid.  That bucket goes under my folding table and I have a little jam jar that I use to keep some near the machine.  The jam jar gets refilled every few weeks or month depending on usage.  Since I'm only using a tablespoon per load it makes sense to have a little container for easy access. I like that I'm not spilling detergent by taking a scoop from a bucket on the floor up to the machine.



This is what it looks like all mixed up.

The 5 litre bucket really is too big for
the batches I make but it's what I had.

















Happy washing!