The heat has broken and with the cooler temperatures has come rain, badly needed and very welcome. We made pigs of ourselves last night, feasting on the first ears of corn, while marveling at a huge double rainbow. It’s amazing how the heat saps my energy and the cooler weather makes me quite sure I can tackle anything. Perhaps that explains my insanity over the canner and dehydrator these past few days.I’ve put up raspberry jelly, mixed pickles and relish. The dehydrator has run non-stop. I dried fruit leather yesterday and I just pulled out a load of cauliflower.
I love to dry cauliflower. I looks terrible just out of the Excalibur. All yellow and shriveled, it looks like anything but food. Give it 30 minutes in some simmering water and it comes back to life, indistinguishable from fresh. I’m teaching a dehydrating class for Berkshire Botanical Gardens today and I’ll be carting along a bunch of my home-dried food so I can show off just how easy it is to prepare.
I have a cauliflower recipe for you to try. I made this last night and it was a hit, even with folks who don’t generally like cauliflower. I steamed about 3 cups of flowerets they were just tender. I popped the flowerets in my blender and added some Parmesan cheese and a hunk of butter and blended. I needed to add some of the cooking water to get the right consistency. You want it to be like mashed potatoes. My daughter, Neddy, gave me the recipe. She is trying to lose some of the leftover baby weight. I’m afraid all the cheese and butter helped the cauliflower but not the calorie count.
If you have some time you can check out my web site. It still under construction but the first videos are on my YouTube channel. The link is http://www.youtube.com/user/preservingabundance. I won’t get an Emmy for the presentation but I hope I can pass on some skills to people who want to learn and don’t have friends or family to teach them.
We have big plans for the site. We will have teaching videos, a store, a blog and a book and movie review section. I plan to post videos on all of my preservation equipment and do product reviews. I want to do demonstrations on how I put together preparation kits and how to organize space. It’s a ton of work and it wouldn’t happen without Maggie. A tech guru I’m not. There will be some advertising on this site as I need to make enough money so I can least pay Maggie for her time. I hope you will visit the YouTube site. The more traffic the better although there won’t be much to see for a few more weeks.
July 27, 2011 at 7:50 am
Glad to see you are expanding your reach. You’ve been so helpful just with this blog!
July 27, 2011 at 7:52 am
Kathy & Maggie………..
Thanks for doing these videos! It’s nice to have the info from someone I trust. I watched all three videos. They were clear, to the point, and informative. I thought they were great!
I know what the lemon juice and pectin do in the recipe but what is the calcium water supposed to do? Why do you add it?
Looking forward to more of your videos. Thanks again!
July 27, 2011 at 8:31 am
Kathy – I can’t wait to look at your Youtube channel. What a great idea!
July 27, 2011 at 9:04 am
I am a YouTube prepper addict, so I’ll be sure to stop by and sub to you! I’d make videos, but I can’t even figure out how to improve my page, let alone do videos.
I like cauliflower, but forgo growing it in favor of brocolli, which more of the family like better. I am waiting for my cabbage to get big so I can do my first batch ever of home made saurkraut.
July 27, 2011 at 10:53 am
Kathy,
Good job on the videos. I am looking forward to others in the future.
I, too, wondered what the calcium water is for. I have never heard of using it in all the years I have been canning and making jelies and jams. Also, did you mix it up yourself to keep in the frig? Do you use it for other things as well?
July 27, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Thank you (!) for your comments on dehydrated cauliflower. I dried some for the first time earlier this week. I usually am struck by how dehydrating preserves or enhances the color of veggies, but when I saw the yellowed, discolored cauliflower…….. I wondered if it could possibly ever be re-hydrated into something I would want to eat. Now I can rest assured.
July 27, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Kathy, the videos look great, and your step-by-step approach is sensible and witty. You may actually help me find the courage to can something from the garden this year. Brava!
July 29, 2011 at 12:04 am
I watched the fruit leather video and I really enjoyed it! Can I have your kitchen? Seriously, it was great..the fruit leather looked so yummy – Kathy, please let Maggie know that she did a fantastic job on it – you two make a great team! Looking forward to more!