Sally's GF3 thread

[Sally PB]

We haven't heard much from John recently. We've kept in touch, but he's still running a business.

That company has changed/grown/shrunk/grown/shrunk over the 43? 44? years it's been around. The photo industry changed monumentally with the advent of digital photography. The company moved in 2007, and they didn't take the film processing machines to the new location. These were state of the art when new, probably over $250K for the three of them, at least, and that was pre-1990. C41 (color negative), E6 (slides), and B&W film.

The machines went into the dumpster. No one wanted them, because film was on its way to the dumpster too.

Now, they don't even do any wet process anymore, ie, photographic paper development in a darkroom/machine. It's all ink. Sigh. Excellent (ink) printing looks nice, but I can tell the difference between that and a photographic print made with a negative at a glance, and I usually prefer the photo, if the images are of equal quality.

It's like when photography came on the scene, and people wanted to compare it to paintings, I suppose. It took awhile for photography to be accepted. Plus ça change...

 

[Sally PB]

Thinking of everyone who died or lost someone on 9/11. Our world changed that day.

 

[Sally PB]

Speaking of 9/11... And knives...

When I used to co-teach the NRA basic pistol class for people to get their CPL, my part of the lecture was about what happens after you shoot someone in self-defense. This is a topic that really needs about 8 hours to cover. I got 45 minutes. Anyway.

I told students NOT to speak to specifics. "How close was the assailant? Close enough to kill me. How big was the knife? Big enough to kill me."

I'd tell them that I once heard a surgeon say that he could reach just about any part of the human body in 5 seconds with a scalpel. The blade of a a scalpel (the cutting part, anyway) is probably less than an inch long. Then I'd say to the class, "Boxcutters changed the course of history." How big was the knife? Big enough to kill me.

 

[Sally PB]

The last batch of hubby's blowtorch level salsa is in the canner. The air still has hints of habanero to it. I'll make some wimpy green salsa for me tomorrow. Then maybe some applesauce...?

I'm tasting varieties of apples to dehydrate. Honey Crisp are fantastic, but at $35/half bushel, they're over twice what all the others cost. Empire are really good dried, but they aren't out yet.

I tried Paula Red. Possibly a good candidate. I have a Sweet Tango to try tomorrow. Zestar was WAAAAAY too mushy. Part of the whole dehydrating thing is cutting them into slices and handling them. The mushy ones tend to be a PITA to handle.

I'm almost out of dried apples, so I need to do about a bushel of them this year. Maybe more, as friends hint that they are well loved Christmas gifts.

 

[Sally PB]

Yay! They all sealed. Pip, pop, pip, pop!

 

[NanaK]

Then maybe some applesauce...?

Yep, because your hubby will need some after the:

blowtorch level salsa

I'd have to have the wimpy stuff!

 

[Sally PB]

Here's the recipe for hubby's salsa.

Core and cut out any bad spots in ripe tomatoes. Chop them up in a food processor. Actually, they're pretty liquid by the time they're all chopped up. Cook it down to about half the volume.

Put about 32 oz of cooked down puree into a blender. Add:
3 habaneros, whole, with just the stem removed
2 jalapenos, same
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 (ish) cup onion, roughly chopped
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Puree in blender to liquify. (On my blender, I use the "batter/sauce" button.) Keep making batches until you run out of tomato puree.

4 quarts of tomato puree with the salsa ingredients added made about 9 pint jars and 3 half pint jars. I had to stack them in the canner, so I needed shorter jars on the top layer.

Lids/rings, and waterbath process for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, wait 5 minutes, and then take the jars out of the canner. Let them sit and cool. If you have a jar that doesn't seal, put it in the fridge for immediate use.

I used to puree the tomatoes and other ingredients together, then cook everything down. With all those habaneros, you could feel it in your throat and eyes. So now I cook down the tomatoes first, then add the other stuff.

This time of year, I really wish I'd planted more sauce style tomatoes. It takes a loooong time to cook down all that puree.

 

[Sally PB]

Here's my green tomato salsa, wimpy level heat.

Core and cut out any bad spots on green tomatoes. They can be slightly ripe or hard as rocks green. Puree in food processor. Dump into the stock pot as you get batches pureed. I was aiming for 4-5 quarts.

The rest of the stuff:
90 grams of garlic. Yup, I weighed it. Just... cuz. It was 6 good sized cloves.
1/2-1 cup chopped onion.
3-4 jalapenos, seeded. The membrane and seeds inside are where most of the heat is. If you want more heat, leave them in.
3-4 green peppers, seeded
Chop this all up in the food processor and add it to the pot.

Stir in:
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup lime juice.
Taste. Add whatever you think is missing, like more hot peppers or salt. Or garlic. Actually, this was good with this amount of garlic, which perfumed the kitchen as it heated up.

This seemed plenty thick, so I just heated it up in preparation for canning. Mistake... I should have cooked it down a bit, as it was runnier than I thought.

Pour into hot jars, lids, bands, waterbath can for 20 minutes.

This made a lot. I used almost all the narrow mouth jars I had left: 3 pint jars, 4 "cup and a half" jars, and 9 half pint jars. And then I was out of lids and had to put the last quart-ish or so into 3 of the peanut butter jars I saved for storing dried apples. They're in the fridge. Except for...

 

[Sally PB]

...the one I used for this recipe.
Lentil Stew in the Instant Pot

I love my Instant Pot. Love, love, love it. If hubby ever leaves me, I will still have my Instant Pot.

I said the same thing about chocolate once, and he heard me. He said, "When Hell freezes over!" Ummmm... dear, you do know there is a town in Michigan named Hell, right? (Yes, he knew.) Oh, the jokes you can make about that town... Been to Hell and back. Go to Hell. I wonder if the local school's mascot is a Devil? Yeah, we beat Hell's Devils in last night's football game. What fun. But I digress.

I have a recipe for lentil soup in the Instant Pot (IP). I didn't have some of the ingredients, like bone broth, so I figured I could make it up as I went along. This is what I came up with.

1 pound lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 quart of home canned tomatoes, undrained. Or store equivalent. It's been a long time since I didn't have home canned tomatoes, so I don't know how many cans that is.
1 peanut butter jar of salsa from making green tomato salsa and running out of lids
1 half pint jar of same that didn't seal (all together, about 3 cups)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced carrots
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 large handfuls of spinach
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Put olive oil in the IP, and using the saute function, saute the onion for about 3-4 minutes. Add the carrot, saute another 3 minutes. Add the garlic, go another 1-2 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes and salsa. Add the lentils, bay leaf, spinach, salt and pepper. Turn off IP, put lid on, and cook for 8 minutes on high pressure. Use natural pressure release.

This was too thick to call soup. And oh man, is it good. I'm glad hubby doesn't like lentils (at all), as I don't really want to share. Dinner tonight. And lunch tomorrow. And dinner tomorrow night. And lunch on Sunday. Yeah, I skipped Saturday. Because...

 

[Sally PB]

Today through Sunday is the Michigan Irish Music Festival. Hubby goes for all 4 days, I go just for Saturday. Thursday and Friday are half days starting aroung 5pm. Saturday goes from 10 am to about 10 pm. Sunday 10-5ish.

Our favorite band, Crossbow, will be there. Dang, those kids are good.

Another favorite duo, Moxie Strings, will be playing their last performance Saturday. They're moving on to other things in their lives, and we surely will miss hearing them.

So if anyone is going to be anywhere near Heritage Landing in Muskegon, MI... It is very much worth the price of admission. $35 at the gate, I think. There are 5? 6? stages, and 3 or 4 bands playing at any one time. They're under large tents, so if the rain they said would hold off doesn't, nobody has to get wet.

There is also a vendor's tent with lots of stuff for sale that is Irish related, at least tangentially. Or maybe the vendor is Irish. Or their second cousin's best friend is. We usually find something beautiful to take home.

Lots of food vendors. Lots of beer too. And whiskey, of course.