Recipes

[sarpy]

My daughter makes tons of salsa with her garden. She gives a lot of it away for Xmas presents. People are always asking her for some.

[lolakimono]

How about gazpacho?

[sue-p]

Italian Refrigerator Pickles

2 cups sliced or chunky cucumbers
1 cup chopped or chunky celery
1 cup sliced or cubed onions
1 cup green or red pepper, seeded and cut lengthwise into strips
1 cups cauliflower florets
1 cup carrot strips-cooked slightly

Put all vegetables in a large, non-reactive bowl. Sprinkle 1 tbsp. salt over all. Mix it up; then let stand for 1 hour on countertop. (can add 1/2 tsp. celery seed).

Mix well: 2 cups white sugar and 1 cup white vinegar. Boil until sugar dissolves.

Pack the mixed vegetables into clean quart size jars with tight-fitting lids.

Pour syrup over the vegetables. Tighten lids. Do not process. Store in refrigerator.
Posted by sue-p 6/18/14

[Dorothy11]

It's much easier to freeze tomato sauce than canning it. I blanch the tomatoes in hot water, peel the skin, and remove most of the seeds. Saute onion, garlic, oregano, basil. add the tomatoes and cook down for several hours until thick. I put it in ziplock freezer bags.

Also - Gazpacho!

[justathought]

Refrigerator pickles-

Could I seal them in small canning jars with my Seal-a-meal, the into the refrigerator?

Thank you.

[RedTop]

We eat a lot of salad made from diced onions, tomatoes and cucumbers, and shredded carrots with either an oil and vinegar dressing, or a simple mayo, sugar and vinegar dressing.

I also make a simple cucumber and onion relish that we love:

16 cups chopped cucumbers, 4 cups chopped onions; mix with 2 Tbsp salt, and drain for 1 hour. Mix and bring to a rolling boil 6 cups sugar, 4 cups vinegar, 2 Tbsp black pepper, 2 Tbsp turmeric. Add cucumbers and onions and bring to a full boil; pack in pint jars, seal, and place in hot water bath for 5 minutes.

[lolakimono]

You could also add sliced cucumber to water, keep in a pitcher in the fridge, and you have yummy infused water all summer.

[Midnight11]

Put a little Italian dressing over them after slicing.

[Donnalona]

Great to hear about the amount of veggies your garden produced. You can cut up extra tomatoes in chunks and store in ziplock or container and freeze for the winter. Use in chili, soups, meatloaf, chicken cacciatore, stews etc. Canning is great also I learned how to can from YouTube videos.

[Campion]

I like Mrs. Wages mixes for cucumber pickles. I think Walmart has them. I use that brand of mix for green bean dill pickles. They always get snarfed down at picnics.

for tomatoes, I like to can them or dehydrate them. Only the Roma style are good (imho) dehydrated. Other tomatoes can be juiced and the juice bottled using standard hot pack canning methods. Or you can can them for sauces, peeled but whole. These are welcome in winter. A good book on handling excess garden produce is Preserving Summer's Bounty which includes dehydrating, canning and freezing.