Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Multi-Tasking Day

Windy and cool here today, but the real cold is coming tomorrow night....31°.

On tap for today was processing the peppers, making bread, making chili, and setting up the hoop cattle frame over the salad patch.

This required some serious planning.

Step l. I gathered all the canning equipment from the Milk Parlor where I had stored it thinking I was through for the year. Filled canner with water to begin heating for water bath for peppers.

Step 2. Set out 2 lbs of hamburger for the "big" pot of chili using yesterday's leftover beans. I thaw this on a heavy cast aluminum griddle and it thaws very fast.

Step 3. Start bread. I did a new recipe from Allrecipes called Westrup Whole Wheat Bread. While it is on the first rise I washed and prepped the peppers. I used a recipe from Colorado State U. I wish I had used my Sis's recipe that calls for more sugar.I guess I can add that later when I open a jar.

I put the wide mouth pint jars in the dishwasher to wash while prepping the peppers. While that is washing, I got the pot of chili going in the Presto electric pot. I can turn it really low and just forget it.

I wish I had used small mouth jars so the peppers wouldn't float so badly. And I forgot Ilene's advice about not tightening the lids too tight....I think I did and lost some pickling solution out of the jars.

Got them in to process.

Back to the bread: Punched it down formed loaves and set it to rise in bread pans. Preheated oven to bring up temperature in the kitchen for the bread.

Pickles processed (even though they lost juice); bread done, lunch finished.
I made enough chili to freeze some.

The bread was very tasty. I wanted to try it because it has l cup each of wheat bran and wheat germ, lots of fiber and sounded very healthy.
Texture is about what you would expect for whole wheat bread (mine anyway).
From Food
From Food
From Food

After a rest we rigged up the not so lovely hoophouse over the lettuce. I don't know how the plastic will last through strong winds. Nothing ventured; nothing gained.I hesitate to show this. Thankfully, it doesn't show from the drive!
The white blob in the back is the hoophouse. Please ignore the tall weeds still in this side of the flower bed. It requires the chainsaw and company took precedence over yard work last week.
From October 2010

7 comments:

  1. It is supposed to get down into the low 20's tonight, with an air temp of 16*.
    I assure you it is coming your way.
    Bread looks fabulous and the peppers look gooooood.
    I thought I was done canning too, got another very late batch of tomatoes and will try to tackle them tomorrow, I am going to use the smaller canner instead of the monster one so I don't have to lift heavy stuff, my back is in a terrible amount of pain, and after this, I am "canned " out till next year. I'm pooped.
    I will sneak over to All recipes and see if I can find the bread recipe and try it.
    Take care and have a great week.

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  2. Glenda,
    I think you have multitasking down to an art form. :o) Your peppers are pretty, and the bread looks yummy. I need to make some bread again. It's been a long time since I made any. I used to make all of our bread.

    I hope your hoop house holds up well. One of these days, I'd like to put one together.

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  3. It ALL looks wonderful to me! :)

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  4. Wow, you have been busy.

    I dug my sweet potatoes, picked all my peppers, put my potted plants in the garage. ONly got to 45 last night but tonight's going to be the night, with 29 forecast. Today I need to pick the Roselle and maybe mulch the turnip bed. The seed planted in the lettuce bed came up sparsely and something's been eating what did come up, so not much point in trying to save it. I'm not prepared, anyway.

    Going to the grocery store today. Painting my living room. I don't think I can tolerate those dark brown walls all winter. Not sure I like the peach color I chose but maybe after it's done... Hubs "fixed" my paint roller, now the roller pad won't stay on. I have to get a new one today while I'm out. *sigh*

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  5. Gosh, Glenda. I wish our government could multi-task as easily as you do! LOL What a day for you. The bread looks good enough to show at the fair - lovely color, nice texture and apparently very healthy to boot. Are you going to grow greens in the hoop house this winter? Or maybe you only need to put the plastic on in Spring so the winter winds won't damage it?

    Still very VERY windy here. Impossible to work with the leaves Tue/Wed & it's kicking up again today. Cold coming, so I'm pulling up annuals (zins, salvias, etc) so I can mulch those beds. I'm losing all my color - so drab.

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  6. Well, I'm worn out from just reading all you did yesterday! The peppers are just beautiful in the jars and will be so good with beans or alongside a roast. Grandma used to always serve some form of pickle with supper. Thanks so much for coming by Granny Mountain for a visit and I will post a recipe for dumplings soon. I have my Aunt Joy's recipe for the flat dumpling which are my husband's favorite. Simple and so good! We are to be down in the 20's tonight so a hard freeze. Oh well, we knew it was coming! Hope you have a great day...

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