Canning Tomatoes, Steamed Buns, and Garlic (Not Necessarily Together)

The CSA from which I get veggies every other week sent out an email last week saying that they had extra tomatoes for sale, so I decided to buy 25 lbs. and try my hand at canning crushed tomatoes. Now I've done jam (in pints) in this apartment before, but I wanted to can the tomatoes in quarts and that meant I had to change my tools.

First, I had to borrow a HUGE pot from the playground at work. Of course, that's what you would do, right? I could peel and briefly cook the tomatoes in batches in a regular stock pot, but the canning required a pot which could contain quart jars plus space above these for another inch or two of water. And because the pot was so big, I had to make use of 1 1/2 burners in order to get the water up to a boil.
I eventually got all of the jars processed and they seem to have all sealed well. I'm looking forward to good tomato sauce all winter long!
And... tonight I tried my hand at steamed buns (Korean or Japanese?) If you haven't had them before, steamed buns are a sweet dough traditionally filled with pork, but mine were a mixture of veggies and chicken. The dough is wrapped around the filling and then all of the cooking is done in a steamer. I have to say that they turned out pretty darn good and there were plenty of leftovers to throw in the freezer for later!

If you want to see how to make them or just see some fun videos on Japanese cooking , check out Cooking With Dog. No, it's not what you think.

And lastly, the funnest (yes, funnest) video on how to peel a whole head of garlic in under 10 seconds.

New Roommate!

Ok, first you have to play find the kitty...

On Friday, Tina came to visit and brought a friend with her. She told me a while ago about a cat for which some neighbors were trying to find a new home. They have a daughter and recently found out that she is very allergic to cats and I guess they decided to keep the kid instead of the cat! The cat is nine years old and may be named Curie or Moose, but I've decided to make it Kyrie. I don't think it really matters as she responds better to finger snaps and scratchy noices better than any of the names. She took a little while to get comfortable and not want to hide all of the time, but now she's quite social (although she still likes to hide under the covers when no one is home). Now I just need to train her not to pat my arm all night long.

Memorial Day Weekend

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend up in Door County staying at my friend Julia's mom's house. They've owned a cottage up there for 40 years and 6 years ago, her mom tore down the old and built this beautiful house.
The house is in Jacksonport, which is a small town on the east side of the peninsula. They are away from a lot of the touristy stuff, but wake up to views like this every day.

We spent a lot of time cooking and eating good food, watching the waves and visited the town of Jacksonport for some small-town festivities. Every Memorial Day weekend, they have a Maifest celebration. We missed the big (little) parade, but were able to see the Belgian horse pull as well as the 4-H hurse drill team exhibition. Anyone else remember the 4-H pledge?