Tomato Tarte Tatin
There are days when the entrepreneur with an office in her spare room will find herself, still clad in her pink polka-dot flannel PJs in mid-afternoon (she has been sitting there since 6am) trying to conduct a telephone interview for a story that’s due like right now while two boys attempt to wash a 100 pound dog in the next room, having just spread poo all over him in the back yard.
She may then wind up mopping up a muddy bathroom when she should be working, because her husband has had gout since Wednesday and has a knee the size of a melon. She may run out on an errand without looking in the mirror and remembering she has neither showered nor rid herself of her raggedy-ann eyes (mascara above and underneath) nor brushed her hair for two days, and greasy strands are sticking out sideways all over her head. And then realize she has eaten nothing but coffee, cake scraps from a photo shoot and those little square caramels since 6 am.
There are days when the self-employed mum may end the day applying Malbec liberally to her face by Tim Horton’s cup, sitting in bed with her laptop and a new brace that she hopes will help her plantar fasciitis, but isn’t helping with the prospect of expanding the family any further.
But then there are days when she gets to make a tomato tarte tatin and call it work. This came from a lively (and at times, nasty) debate over whether or not a tomato can be used in purely sweet dishes, like a tarte tatin. Turns out they can, with sublime results. A tarte tatin, if you’re not yet acquainted, is an inverted pie made with caramel and fruit cooked first in a skillet then topped with puff pastry and baked. It’s like pie extreme. The tomatoes are brilliantly different.
Tomato Tarte Tatin
AuthorJulie
Preheat the oven to 425?F and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut an X in the bottom (not the stem end) of each tomato and blanch them for about a minute, plunging into cool water afterward and slipping off the skins. Cut them in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.
Set a heavy 9" cast iron skillet over medium high heat - add the butter to the pan and swirl it around as it melts and foams. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the bottom of the pan and arrange the tomatoes rounded side down in concentric circles, fitting them tightly together and filling the pan (don't worry if you have leftovers). Place the skillet over medium heat and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the juices are released from the tomatoes, then bubble and cook down and turn golden. (Lift the tomatoes up occasionally and let the caramel run underneath them to keep them from sticking and burning.) Meanwhile, roll the pastry out to about a 9" round.
Remove the pan from the heat, drizzle the vanilla over the tomatoes and cover with the pastry, tucking in the edges (no need to be neat about it). Cut a few slits in the top and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden and bubbly around the edges. Cool for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate (do it while the tart and pan are still quite warm or the tomatoes will stick) - replace any that don't come out of the pan, and scrape any caramel and juices that have stayed behind over top.
Serve warm, with ice cream or whipped cream.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425?F and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut an X in the bottom (not the stem end) of each tomato and blanch them for about a minute, plunging into cool water afterward and slipping off the skins. Cut them in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.
Set a heavy 9" cast iron skillet over medium high heat - add the butter to the pan and swirl it around as it melts and foams. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the bottom of the pan and arrange the tomatoes rounded side down in concentric circles, fitting them tightly together and filling the pan (don't worry if you have leftovers). Place the skillet over medium heat and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the juices are released from the tomatoes, then bubble and cook down and turn golden. (Lift the tomatoes up occasionally and let the caramel run underneath them to keep them from sticking and burning.) Meanwhile, roll the pastry out to about a 9" round.
Remove the pan from the heat, drizzle the vanilla over the tomatoes and cover with the pastry, tucking in the edges (no need to be neat about it). Cut a few slits in the top and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden and bubbly around the edges. Cool for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate (do it while the tart and pan are still quite warm or the tomatoes will stick) - replace any that don't come out of the pan, and scrape any caramel and juices that have stayed behind over top.
Serve warm, with ice cream or whipped cream.
And yes, I’ve remembered that it’s Free Stuff Friday, and I have some loot! The folks at Bernardin sent over a pretty marvy canning set – an enamel canning pot filled with all your canning needs – a canning rack, jar lifter, funnel, lid lifter, bubble remover/headspace gauge, 4 mason jars with lids, pectin, and canning DVD. And ’tis the season.
I’d love to hear all about what you’re preserving, or making for dinner, or cleaning off your dog. As always, I’ll pick a name from the comments at random next Tuesday.
Canning…did about 40 pints of tomatoes already, and 14 pints of salsa. Jam making – saskatoon rhubarb done, and concord grape jelly, but raspberry and blackberry jelly will have to wait till there’s time to tend to frozen berries – after holidays to a warmer place! Supper tonight was butter chicken (courtesy of Daksha’s Gourmet Spices), basmati rice and stir fried Swiss chard.
Still trying to get the image out of my head of the boys first smearing the dog with poo then the calamity of trying to bathe said pooch. Glamorous life you lead my dear 😉
Having spent my day heading to Calgary, waiting in the Passport office queue, then beetling home to beat the girls’ bus home, and then working ’til 9:30pm… I’m now up roasting tomatoes, red peppers and carrots and onions to make soup for a dinner club party tomorrow night. I’ll also make some cheddar crackers to go with.
I also want to make a dessert – using local honey and saskatoons – ideas anyone?
Canning – I canned 24 pints of my MIL’s Thousand Island Pickle last weekend. This year I graduated to assistant pickle maker. She let me can the 2nd and 3rd batches, after she supervised the vegetable grinding. It’s about time – she’s 92. I hope I am still as feisty at that age.
I don’t need the free stuff prize this week – I already have most of it.
I’ve never canned or even made jam. But my coworker keeps talking about what she canned/jammed/pickled each wknd and I would love to have a basement cold room full of home made goodies to eat and share
Thankfully my little white doggie has never been covered in poo, but has more baths than he’d like in the muddy springtime.
Supper last night a new yogurt I found at community natural. Vanilla greentea
A batch of Mark Bittman’s tomato jam and a batch of bread & butter pickles made w/zucchini,summer squash from the garden and cukes – turned out very well.
I’d love to win this prize!
1. I looked at that tartin recipe in Bon Appetit but passed it by. I may have to reconsider.
2. “…isn’t helping with the prospect of expanding the family any further”—ha!
3. I’m not cooking anything today, and I’m not eating anything either, seeing as today is the day that I’m turning 35 AND belly dancing at a festival AND showing my belly that I got painted with henna—because if I were to eat anything, my belly would fall all over itself in its unbridled excitement and I’d rather it remained a bit reserved, size-wise, for its few minutes of exposure, so I’m going hungry this birthday morning, AND I’m not cooking anything later either, and I don’t know what I’m eating since I’ve placed that ball firmly in my husband’s court, seeing as it’s my birthday and all.
4. There. I can write long sentences too!
We didn’t do any canning this year instead we froze many many ziplock bags of tomatoes from our garden and will freeze the rest of the peppers this weekend. Thank you for offering such a fun give-away!
My favourite thing to make that’s considered even remotely canning is strawberry jam. Time didn’t allow me to make any this year and I’m completely bummed. I may have to resort to buying frozen strawberries and making some “out of season”.
Most recently, I made your leek and potato soup and it was delish! Served it with some bacon sprinkled on top (cooked in the oven) and with thick slices of hearty rosemary bread.
I’d love to can and took a canning course last Feb, but haven’t had the funds to lay out to purchase the items I need. Instead I pick up jars from the local Goodwill (scored a dozen 1/2 pint jars for $3) and wait for a chance to do some canning, esp pickling, since my 5 yr old daughter has been in love with pickles since her first tooth appeared.
Dog? No dog, but said daughter was found rolling in the playground dirt the other day.
Well this year, once again i’ve sucessfully canned tomatoes, and was unsuccessful at blackberry jelly. Actually the blackberry was sucessfull if you call it syrup. For some reason, if you want to make jelly without commercial pectin, you really need to follow the recipe…
Tomatoes, on the other hand are much more forgiving. I roast them first – slice in half, putting cut side down on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with coarse salt and olive oil and roasting either overnight in the warming drawer, or at 200 degrees for a couple of hours. (until they smell so delicious, you have to take them out) Can as usual. MMMM.. you can also sprinkle some unhusked garlic cloves to roast with the tomatoes. Slip off the hulls and skins, add a sprig of rosemary or basil in the jar before you process them. Come winter it’s a summer delight to open them!
Pears in Amaretto…now that is taking canning to another level.
I do it every year because there is nothing better!
As for canning this year, I did apricot jam, vanilla plum jam and huckleberry jam – delicious. A friend gave me a jar of her homemade brushetta which I am also now inspired to make.
My children and I love pepperdews , but seeing that the jar we brought back from SA lasted a week and they doesn’t seem to be available here I decided to make my own. I bought picante peppers from the farmers market and after salting them put them in a pickling solution with a whole red chili , garlic and ginger. Kids love them and work well to add to school lunches.
Last night for dinner was a kind of black bean soup stew over rice, with some leftover chicken thrown in for the husband because he “doesn’t do” meals without meat.
I would love to start canning, but I haven’t even made fridge pickles this year. I blame inter-state moving.
I have never canned anything, but I have three bags of tomatoes ripening in my cupboard right now and I’m itching to make next year my inaugural canning year. We shall see!
I can’t get over the poo. Oh my goodness. I’m so thankful I haven’t had to clean that off the dogs this week. I have had to give them impromptu sponge baths in the back entryway several times, when they came to the door caked in mud. I’m so glad things are starting to dry out. All my clothes are covered in muddy pawprints. I’ve stopped changing to go out because the second I do the puppy just jumps on me anyway and I’m back to square one.
“(…) and a new brace that she hopes will help her plantar fasciitis, but isn’t helping with the prospect of expanding the family any further.”
Love it. Persevere. Those writing genes must be passed on.
Have you tried the “Strasburg Sock” for your plantar faciitis? My husband tells me that it is the best thing for your injury. He’s a runner and used it himself last year!
I love canning peaches… but I’m not doing it this year. There are too many kids plus a one year old dog that is almost worse than a kid. I love reading your posts because you remind me that my life is just like everyone else’s – that I’m not the only one who feels that if you wipe those mascara smudges just right they kind of look like eye-liner and that Malbec can provide a lovely tint to your lips as well as bring a fresh glow to your cheeks… Who needs MAC?
Would love a canning set so I can start canning! Last night was chicken pot pie made from roast chicken leftovers from the night before. So good I think I might go have some right now for breakfast!
My Dad (the King of Canners!!) had his own separate ‘Canning Kitchen’ on the farm (since he made such a mess when he did his annual massive canning of everything from mushrooms to tomatoes to 12 varieties of pickles… all from produce grown in their huge garden). I used to can every autumn in my New Zealand days but since coming back to Canada have been caught up in ‘life’. I am now getting back into canning in preparation for our (my hubby and me) 6 month sailing voyage back to New Zealand (in our own 37′ sailboat)! My Dad’s heart would swell with pride if he were still with us 🙂
I’ve done some plum chutney and some applesauce so far this year (with plums and apples from backyard trees). I had grand plans for peach ginger jam, but those peaches were so tasty that we ended up eating them all before we got to jam making time.
preserving: 25 pounds of slow-roasted plum tomatoes and 5 pounds of roasted cherry tomatoes (one of my favorite crostini toppings); canning: strawberry/balsamic and plum/rosemary jam; dinner: a big crockpot full of kidney beans & turkey sausage with mustard and a cupful of beer because this weekend is the first fall weather we’ve had!
I’ve never canned (did make marmalade once though, which was lovely 🙂 ), but for dinner, things have been haphazard and simple, as we’re all at some stage of being sick. Last night it was pizza.
Chili hasn’t gotten into anything lately, but one of our cats was playing with a grasshopper last night. No idea how she got it though.
Sorting recipes right now to deal with the two giant bins of apples in my garage from our backyard tree. Maybe I could can some apple sauce? Never tried but have always wanted to (you always make it sound so easy). Wish me luck.
Wow, the swag this week is awesome Julie! My canner is starting to wear out after 20 years of boiling its brains out.
Canning: Beets, roasted tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, regular tomato sauce, and salsa…many many hours of peeling, seeding and chopping!
Preserves: Raspberry jam (3 batches), Kayben Black Currant Jam (27 jars worth and more in the freezer still).
Supper last night: Fresh tomato sauce over whole wheat spaghettini with chunks of parmigiano reggiano and torn fresh basil….we suffer!
I will be attempting to use up last years huckleberries by making some liqueur to give away at Christmas – hopefully – if I get through the quilt (my first for my m-i-l’s birthday on Thursday) finish the website that is due on Thursday and paint the bedroom! oh and clean the rest of the house too … maybe the vodka will be repurposed ha ha
Canning – rhubarb chutney early on, pickled beets with red onion and caraway, strawberry sauce (tried in slow cooker, didn’t thicken), red pepper sauce (meant to be jelly, tried two different batches, with extra boil on second batch) but it’s FAB with samosas, sausages, etc., strawberry vanilla jam … whew. Guess I did accomplish something after all. Supper tonight will be “deconstructed caesar salad” yum!
I haven’t canned yet this year but I’ve got my sights set on some tomato jam (and crabapple jelly). I tried tomato jam for the first time at Charcut this week and it knocked my pantyhose off! I would love if my kids ate tomato jam instead of Heinz ketchup. Well that’s my goal for now..
Hi Julie
Love the post, love your blog. For those days when you’re not getting paid to make tarte tatin – this too shall pass.
I’m canning salsa this year, just like last year.
Was pricing all that just yesterday. Hmmm.
I have done peach chutney, crabapple and cranberry chutney am lining up to do a vegetarian mincemeat with cranberries, high bush cranberry catsup and rose hip and apple jam, but I’m dreaming of trying potted chicken. You have not lived … .
The best preserve I did this year was a strawberry balsamic black pepper jam (the epicurious version not the Canadian living version) I served it with your raincoast crisp crackers and goat cheese to great reviews!
I’ll be roasting a pile of veggies later today. And making some hummus. Not sure what else dinner will entail. I haven’t done much canning, but would love start.
Going out looking like a disaster is something I did too much of when I was raising kids and working.
Making kids clean the dog they’ve covered in something icky sounds too familiar – as is cleaning the swamp that used to be a bathroom. I’ve even done that with grandchildren!
Afraid that the brace is detracting from adding to your family – had you considered that his knee might have slowed him down?
I don’t want the prize this time, but the dinner last night was home-made stew, from beef bones browned and cooked until the marrow was added, browned ‘cubes’ of veal, pork, and beef, and gently simmered onions, garlic, celery, carrots, sweet potatoes, and purple potatoes.
I was gushy and falling apart, and just exactly what I was looking for on a cold and rainy night.
I did intend to make biscuits, but ended up chunking the left over home-made bread into it. 🙂
That means making a new loaf today.
oooo, I would just love that canning kit as this is my first year attempting to can as I have always felt slightly daunted by the process for some reason. I just bought my bushel of tomatoes from my farmers market and have a sauce on the go as a place to start. as for cooking, today I am making blueberry lemon scones, salted chocolate shortbread cookies, and some kind of curry for dinner, maybe cauliflower, with some lovely samosas from our local Indian corner store. yum!
Apple butter with a ton of apples that we brought back from Peachland…come to think of it, peaches would be good too. Also love to put up roasted red peppers, they come in handy for soups and stews all winter.
I Can’t claim to have made this, but I was truly inspired to try preserving lately by a friend’s gift of pear, ginger, spice jam. Truly delicious. Screw the toast. I think I will eat it over ice cream and warm gingerbread cake!
Laughed out loud at your post Julie.
My garden was a bust this year with all the rain & flooding we’ve had so not much to can there but I did can a case of peaches this year. Just finished eating a jar and they were yummy.
Now off to brush the dog…
I’ll share two dog mess disasters. Though not as bad as yours, they are comical none the less (it only took about 5 years to think they were funny!).
1. Taking a puppy to the vet for their very first check up…happens to also be their first time in a car…you get where this is going. Barfed up puppy chow all over my chest, undigested kibble and all!
2. Taking a puppy for another first car trip (you’d think I’d have learned my lesson) in my brand new car. Took him for a walk before he got in to do his business. Put him in the back seat for a 5 minute car ride. Get to Petland and look in the back seat, and discover poop EVERYWHERE! How does that even happen?!
I’ve been super into cucumber pickles lately. My favorite spice combo is celery seed and cinnamon stick. It works surprisingly well!
I helped can some pears in syrup and canned some tomatoes. I would love to make some kind of jam to store up for the winter. Julie, I don’t know how you do it all…there are not enough hours in a day for you.
I’ve canned some pears, peaches, tomatoes, pickles and I hope to do some salsa while tomatoes are in season.
A few weeks ago I made spicy pickled beans for Caesars to take on a roadtrip down to California. They were so delicious and we had quite a time trying to ration them so they would last the whole trip!
I’ve been wanting to try canning, especially jam. This week I made some spiced peach butter in the slow cooker to pretend that I did make jam.
I’ve just finished a batch of plum jam. Nothing else on the horizon. I love tarte tatin and will have to try the tomato one. It sounded so yummy when you were talking about it on the radio! Crossing my fingers for the canning stuff. What a great prize!!
Julie get Mike on the cherries. Any kind canned, frozen, juice etc. They are great for helping eliminate the crystals in joints when you have gout. Hope he is better soon.
pickled carrots and cukes so far…hope to do some beets. made tomatoe sauce and canned it. would love, love a proper canning set! thinking about making an apple (from our yard) and zucchini cake tomorrow or some pumpkin hermits (your recipe)
Julie,
I tried making your crab apple chutney recipe from a couple weeks ago (using the slow cooker) and it was a big hit! This was my first time ever making some type of preserve; I even got the jars to seal properly so I was very excited about that. A fantastic way of using the nature’s bounty from my friend’s apple tree, especially since he doesn’t use them at all.
Now I just need to find a baked apple fritter recipe…
writing a cowboy story. it’s way fun! ramsay is featured in it, too.
Easy Dinner tonight 🙂 Mushroom Cheese Burgers and fries It was a long day my 2 boys had 6 soccer games today. I was going to do some canning this year but I didn’t have the stuff for canning I would love to win this. I was just out in my green house trying to figure out what am I going to do with all the tomatoes 🙂
tonight was a stir fry with chicken, shrimp and vegetables. Oh yum and so easy.
Don’t put my name in the canning sweepstakes….. I have not had success at all with canning! If anything were to turn me back to the canning dark side it would be pickled carrots. 😀
So far this week, I’ve canned several jars of peaches, and made a few jars of pickled beets. Bought two more boxes of peaches yesterday, so will be canning them this week when they’re ready. Dinner was a salmon salad, with cukes and tomatoes from the garden.
I am in the middle of canning apples picked through The Calgary Urban Harvest Project –
http://www.calgaryharvest.com – a group of volunteers who will harvest unwanted fruit from backyard trees. They might not be the prettiest apples, but they are making incredible apple butter!
Just bbq’d a huge chicken which I marinated with garlic, fish sauce, lemongrass, lime and soya sauce. Served it with Taber corn. 3 kids and hubby are stuffed, so all is well in the world.
AJ – very cool! Love that concept! I talked about it on CBC a few weeks ago. Brilliant!
Tonight for supper we had my mom’s meatloaf(ground beef, sausage meat, onion soup mix, etc – family fav)fresh wax beans, broccoli salad and finished off with your fabulous pear gingerbread upside down cake. It was the crowning touch. Love your recipes, Julie! (and your blog!)
Take heart Julie, despite our wish to direct life, it reveals and unfolds itself as it should.
Obviously there are many creative and talented women out there — guess I’m not cut out to can and preserve despite attempting crab apple jelly a few years ago. Couldn’t believe it took SO much sugar, thus attempted to substitute honey and created a syrupy disaster. Whatever, life is waaaay too short to attempt to be anywhere near perfect, so will just enjoy the journey.
Your blogs are creative, inspiring, and fun. Our lives don’t need to be complicated, we should all simply relax and enjoy the time we have.
Jam, jam and more jam! And canned peaches too. Our neighbour dropped off 10lbs of apples today, so I think some applesauce will soon be in order. I just started canning this year and am positively addicted.
Ooooh Jessica! Hold the phone! guess what I’m making tomorrow? Browned butter and rosemary applesauce. Oh yes, the cat’s out of the bag. I’ll let you know how it turns out in case you want to commit some of those apples!
mixed fruit jam. Didn’t have enough fresh fruit left (thanks to a fruit munching monster in the house) so I added dried apricots. Might be the best jam I ever made.
I would never think to make a dessert with tomatoes… but of course! They can be SO sweet & delicious! My 15 mth daughter actually signs “berry” for the little cherry kind- so cute! I haven’t canned before… but I have great hopes that down the road I will be a canning guru & be eating my own home grown fruits and veggies year round (I tried my first garden this year, and it was a complete flop… but I learned a lot, and hopes are high for next year. I was going to attempt a fall garden, but the rain storms are hitting a bit hard for that these days- I live on Vancouver Island).
OOoooh. I hope I hope I hope I win that set. I’m sure I could beg/borrow/find at second hand stores… BUT wouldn’t it be FUN?! It would definitely be motivation to get going on this important life skill!
I’ve been canning tons of stuff this year. Peaches, pears, apple sauce, apple pie filling, saskatoon pie filling, tomato sauce, apple juice, apple cider, rhubarb juice, strawberry jam, pickles, pickled beans, pickled carrots. I still want to try pressure canning something – maybe tomato sauce out of the blighted tomatoes if there is anything that can be salvaged. Or green tomato salsa or green tomato pickles. Or green tomato sauce for pasta? More pears are ripening in the basement as well.
Oh your latest post sounds just like my day. We have canned tomato sauce, two kinds of salsa, two kinds of pickles, zucchini relish, and pear mincemeat. yum! labour-intensive, but worth it. especially in those middle-of-winter months.
I preserved some peach butter. It was delicious.
I have a lot of apples, both McIntoshes and some crab apples and I’m planning on preserving them, maybe as apple butter.
Hey Julie – I do believe you and I are living the same life, 2 provinces away from each other! I have also found myself hauling dogs and accompanying children into a bathtub and have ended up coming out with them clean and me covered in….well, you know how it goes! Dinner last night was a bit non-existent, as we spent the day out and about with the family and various errands, ended up standing in the cold rain watching the 11 year old’s first ever football game. We did manage to scoff some apples, almonds and crackers in an attempt to eat a “balanced” meal! This year was my first belonging to a CSA and thanks to hot banana peppers in EVERY SINGLE SHIPMENT, I have canned a LOT of red pepper jelly, in various permutations, which fortunately I love and also plan to include in Christmas gifts. I have also made lots of pesto, which I have frozen, and salsa, neither of which I have attempted to “can” because I am afraid of poisoning my loved ones if I do it incorrectly – so my freezer is packed!Thanks for all you do, Julie – you are my “go to” source for all things food! (in fact I have my first batch of homemade yogurt lovingly wrapped in a sweater in my oven right now!)
That tomato tart tatin looks interesting, very interesting. Must try it soon! Also, that canning kit looks awesome. I’ve been wanting to start (better yet try out) canning for some time now, but still haven’t gotten myself to go out and buy equipment.
I haven’t had any dog/child/wash-up calamities, but spent my weekend waxing a BIG hardwood floor. And packing boxes. I’ll be moving in less than 2 weeks now and I still have tons and tons of boxes to pack. The house is about ready to mov in to now though, so that’s good!
We didn’t have a bumper crop this year but in the past we’ve canned salsa, spaghetti sauce, jam and pickles. Only 2 little cucumbers grew this year…how sad…
I made my first go at canning during the Daring Cooks’ challenge last month and I was so impressed with the results that I decided to try again. A friend gave me 100 pounds of apples…so I’m canning apples. Apple butter, applesauce, apple jelly, and apple pie in a jar. I stood in front of the canning supplies looking hopeless..what size lid does a 250mL jar need? Why can’t I use pectin instead of natural fruit pectin? What is the difference between brands of jars?
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I can make something edible.
made 22 jars of NanKing Cherry Jelly all from our tree. 🙂
I preserved 15 pints of pickles that are too salty! Thinking I may have to wash them off and grind them up for relish. Also strawberry freezer jam and apple jelly.
I would love the canning set as I tried to can the pickles in my biggest pot this year and it just wasn’t big enough. The lids were barely under the water. They sealed up ok so I’m hoping they will be good. I guess time will tell.
I’m going to a local Apple Fest, to get apples and then to make applesauce! After that, I’ll be making fresh country white bread, my mom’s spiced pecans, strawberry freezer jam, and auditioning a pumpkin spice cake recipe for my upcoming birthday! All this while cleaning, filling out my application for grad school, and reconnecting with friends and family this beautiful fall Sunday while my husband studies his giant law school books!
The mental pictures, Julie, the tears and cackles that result when I read some of your posts!! The kids, the long-suffering Lou, the poo! Not having had kids that would conjure up such an endeavour but having had a dog who loved to “roll”…you have my sympathies! Indeed, canning season is upon us but my garden yielded very little. Tomatoes were prematurely frozen out in August and yet it was +27.5 yesterday. Go figure. Still, I would soldier on with a new outfit of canning supplies. Thanks for the opportunity.
We just moved to CA and have been enjoying all the glorious fruit. As newlyweds, but from familys of canners, we don’t have all the equipment but we were bound and determined to try! With a large pasta/potato drainer pot that we got for our wedding, we have managed to can about 12 quarts of peaches and 6 quarts of pears. But it takes so INCREDIBLY long with a pan that only holds 4 jars!
As far as cooking, we’ve been enjoying the bounty of our garden: TONS of basil, peppers, and yellow squash. It’s been fun to creatively use the yellow squash that has been pouring forth!
I can remember my friend’s grandma putting sugar on her tomatoes. I thought she was so WEIRD,ha! I totally want to try tomatoes in a sweet way now that I’m older and wiser.
I was canning pickles,kosher dills but I wrecked them so now I’m looking for something new to can..I’m thinking pickled fire roasted peppers.
P.S….not meant to be another “entry”! I recently had a chance to sample something called “Frog Balls” from a company in Arizona. They are spicy pickled little brussels sprouts…anyone heard of them or have a recipe? They are wonderful!
This year I made jam for the first time – lots of it – cherry, apricot, strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb. Have also made pickles, canned tomatoes and salsa – most of it with borrowed canning gear as I have yet to get my own. The salsa I did with a large stock pot with newspaper in the bottom (my mom’s suggestion) to keep the jars off the direct heat – it worked, but it was a huge mess of pulp at the end. Oh well – live and learn.
Anyway – love your blog. We’ve had a lot of inspiration from it!
My favourite canning food is my mother’s peaches and my father in laws pickled beets and my grandmother’s crab apple relish which we eat on roastbeef. I should really keep those traditions alive –
I’m just learning to can, and I’m in love. I just made a ridiculous amount of salsa, some relish and dills. Tonight it’s some jalapeno pepper jelly :o)
Today we are selling furniture on kijiji and getting ready for next week’s lunches, which means stews to be divided up and frozen, and cookies to tuck into lunches. Remind me again when Sunday was the day of rest?
I’ve yet to try my hand at canning but I”m interested. Today I’m dealing with a sick kid. On my second load of laundry for his bedding….just got our bed back together. Dinner plans have gone astray. Frantically making applesauce for the sick kid and thinking about what to make the adults that fits into the BRAT diet.
Washing off dog? Well our neighbours skipped out on their rental and took their wretched cat with them. We’re still trying to figure out how to get the cat spray smell out of her.
At times I envy your life….
I have been freezing and drying herbs. Not much, I know but it needs to be done and I will be glad for it later.
I can at least one thing a year, this year it was salsa. In past years I have done jam, chile sauce and a few family recipes.
I started by trying to keep up with the fruit in the backyard – raspberry jam, nanking cherry, more raspberry with apple jam – but I have now moved to the local BC fruit truck at the market. Several batches of salsa, grape jam and soon chutney. I have taken your ‘frying pan’ jam to heart and on occasion made a small amount from fruit that seems to lounge in my frig.
Hey, Julie–the last thing I canned was a version of your slow-cooker chutney. I used apples and pears and dried cherries instead of the crabapples and cranberries. Turned out quite lovely.
Oh How I love to can. I just made this great wonderful batch of borscht, but have done a lot of reading and have been scared off of cannig it. I did in fact can peaches, and now am working on apple sauce from wind falls my husband and son went and picked them selves.. I also added those yummy little Italian prunes and made stewed prune/applesauce so yummy. thanks for all the great recipes!
I made jam for the first time ever this year. With delicious BC berries, I created three different varieties of jam. Rewarding and delicious, I am in love with canning/preserving!
OMG, Julie. I feel your pain……
Julie, I’ve had a few bouts of plantar fasciitis over the years – and learned a lot in the process. here are some suggestions that may work for you:
1) but water in a plastic pop/water bottle and freeze. Once frozen role back and forth under your arch for 5-15 minutes – do this several times a day.
2) strengthen your arch – put a towel under your foot, and grab onto the towel and scrunch it up with your toes. repeat a pile of times
3) massage your arch – often – with your thumb or recruit a friend to help. Or buy one of those wooden foot roller type things and roll your foot back and forth on it when you are sitting down at your desk/table.
4) never be barefoot. ALWAYS wear sandals with good arch support or runners in and out of the house. (some people have good luck with chaco, sole or birkenstock sandals – all have pretty good arch support). Put the sandals/shoes on before your foot touches the floor when you get out of bed. some suggest even wearing water-friendly sandals with support in the shower. Key thing is to NEVER be barefoot without arch support
5) if you don’t have orthotics you may need some (less expensive off the shelf orthotics instead of custom orthotics work for some).
6) if you often wear shoes without much arch support, you’ll want to re-evaluate your foot ware = be sure that you always have some good arch support
7) some people have good luck with accupuncture in the foot
8) stretch your calves well
9) lose weight if one is overweight
10) taping the foot can help quite a bit. Your physio can show you how
I’ve been trying to preserve the luscious figs I’ve scavenged/foraged from trees overhanging the public alleys of Sacramento CA. So far, the best recipe is for a jam, seasoned with oranges, lemon juice, a few (wild) fennel seeds, and a couple of leaves of California bay laurel–Mediterranean summer in a jar, and a lovely color. Delicious on crisp sourdough toast over a smear of soft goat cheese.
Oh man, I’m so jealous of all of the above canners! I am a total newbie to canning; last year i made freezer raspberry jam (with assorted mason jars scrounged from previous farmer markets) and was petrified that I did it wrong and would kill me family with botulism/mystery goo. So far there have been no deaths . . . but i would love to try a proper jam or pickles (eek love pickles).
Oh man, I’m so jealous of all of the above canners! I am a total newbie to canning; last year i made freezer raspberry jam (with assorted mason jars scrounged from previous farmer markets) and was petrified that I did it wrong and would kill my entire family with botulism/mystery goo.
I had the bad luck to go and clean out my grandmother’s dirt cellar that was filled to the brim with years of canning – like 200+ jars, the majority of which were cloudy white and oozing evil foam out the top. Scarred me for a while. So far there have been no deaths . . . but i would love to try a proper jam or pickles (eek love pickles).
Post FAIL – my apologies!
50 lbs. of perfect mangos from
my very special tree. Canning mangos chunks, mango jam, mango/vanilla sauce to put
on ice cream, panna cotte and pound cake.
And maybe some mango purée . The corgi got
her bath yesterday and I’m still getting attitude. Dinner will be with friends having left over Coq au Vin.
Good day in the neighborhood.
I just transferred from overseas (moving transcontinentally with two kids is not something I’d like to repeat) and now work from home so found your description hilarious and a little disconcerting– how did you know I was still in my jammies too?
Dinner tonight is whatever comes home from the farmer’s market …. and maybe some breaded fish for the kindergarten set.
Would love the canning stuff as my supplies mysteriously disappeared after we moved overseas.
This year’s canning has involved going out to the Bearspaw farmer’s market and purchasing canned items from others. We left all of our canning supplies at the cottage so a replacement set would be welcome!
Ooooohh…. Canning supplies. I’ve always wanted to learn.
Hope everyone feels better soon! When you get that toilette-paper-roll-necklace figured out – let the world know. We all want one!
Souvlaki and tzatziki for supper last night….
Kosher dills and strawberry rhubarb jam is all I’ve made so far this year…Oh, and tons of applesauce and apple crisp mix, but I just freeze that.
Am I too late for FSF? I want to can in the worst way and boy would love to score some Bernardin stuff! I made Michael Smith’s orange/mustard pork tenderloin, fresh green & yellow beans, mashed potatoes & gravy. In the afternoon I made Julie’s california rolls (sushi) and they were excellent. Dessert was an amazing apple crisp sprinkled with skor bits & caramel sauce!
I no longer can anymore, my husband has taken over that job, after peering over my shoulder one night a few years ago. He makes an AMAZING blueberry jam, and it often becomes our go to host/hostess gift and stocking stuffer. Not sure what is for dinner tonight, will think about that a bit later. However, my pretty awesome 10-year old son made a delish batch of Potatoe Risotto, last week. I do a Thursday Night Supper club with the kids, as they are pretty tired near the end of the week, and it is a great way to slow down, and re-connect and enjoy my kids, . . .althought, not sure there is enough wine in the house, when my son cubes potatoes, yikes!!
Julie, I want to thank you for your blog, it one of my favorite reads and you inspires me. Hope everyone is on the mend soon.
Please visit my website http://www.minimakmakings.com to see my latest post about my spicy dill pickles!
My husband and I can dill pickles every year!
Mmmmm!
Canning? Mince meat (my grandmother’s recipe), and spiced crab apples, with lots of honey, cinnamon, cloves and alspice. My favorite canned fruit.
I have never canned anything in my life. My husband and I often talk about learning, but have never tried. We were going to get a lesson from a friend and her mother, but they were called away to a family emergency out of town. I look forward to learning.
Canning – have canned or jammed nearly every summer for the past 36 years. My husband and I started the very summer we were married. I would love this ‘starter kit’ for our daughter who very much would love to start canning, but of course, needs all the equipment. She has a tiny garden on Vancouver Island with tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, and of course, an abundance of blackberries in the neighbor’s yard! She’d be terribly excited and eternally grateful if you picked her name!
PS – I get a chuckle from your storytelling – they do my heart good!
I just bought a 20 lb. box of peaches and they were (mostly) juicy and sweet. But even with teenagers in the house, we couldn’t polish them all off with out-of-hand eating. So I made peach chutney in my crockpot. It was yummy!
I have an amazing twenty something cook in my family, who has all the raspberries from the summer crop – and they were good this year – waiting to be turned into jam. She already made some brilliant hot and sweet pickled carrots – no recipe – just naturally gifted – I am sure if she won the canning set, she would share a jar of carrots.
Really enjoy your website – have sent many of my cooking friends your way.
Best regards,
Jane
Hi Julie. Most recently I’ve been canning peach chutney and orange peach conserve, which is heavenly over vanilla frozen yogurt! My grandma gave me the advice of crumbling up tin foil and putting it in the bottom of a canning pot, so that the jars don’t touch the bottom, which also works for Christmas pudding – but the Bernardin set looks fabulous (and tidier then crumpled tin foil)!
Hi Julie. This was my very first year canning!! It was alot of work for one person. 30lbs of roma tomatoes into tomatoe sauce, with onion, garlic, and my own successfully grown basil!! I had to borrow all of the canning equipment to get it all done, but it was so worth it. I’m looking forward to different types of canning (jams) in the future. That canning set would be amazing to have!!
I haven’t learned how to can or preserve anything yet, but i’m all signed up for a course to learn how next month. I am very excited to make my own mustard pickles because so far, no luck finding them in Calgary. I also have a tree full of crabapples that are beckoning me…
Hi Julie, I am likely too late to qualify for the canning set (which I desperately need by the way) but it can’t hurt to try!
I made fig jam for the first time! It is so tasty! AND I entered it in our local fall faire and won first prize if you can believe it!
Love your recipes and especially love your stories!
Jam jam JAM! High and low bush cranberry, trying to make it more appealing to the kid by adding blueberries. Its past canning season here, but we did blanch all the chard and beet greens and managed to pack ’em in the freezer. Along with a 17 inch grayling! Should be nice come November and 30 below….