Crazy Work Week

This has been a particularly stressful week at work - the emergency department launched a new electronic medical record system 4 days ago, going almost completely paperless in one fell swoop. And it wasn't just our pediatric emergency department, it was the entire group: 3 departments on 2 separate campuses. People have been very patient and supportive of each other, and I'm so proud of everyone for making it work.

Yesterday was the last day in which food was provided around the clock for staff. Food always makes things easier. So today I'm going in for a support shift followed by a clinical shift and I'm bringing 3 jars of jam and some stuff to serve as jam vectors: crackers, pound cake, and so on. I've selected 1 pint of blackberry jam, 1 pint of spiced plum jelly, and one half-pint of the cherry/peach/apricot jam.

Wish us luck - now that the company's support staff is no longer on site, it gets harder for a little while!

New Foods

We have an almost-5-year-old who is, shall we say, limited in the food variety category. Despite requests, pleading, bribing, begging, you name it, there has been very little improvement of this. So you can imagine my glee yesterday when I heard, "Give me something new," in response to my question, "What do you want for lunch?"

I heated up a pint of the beef and barley soup, a favorite of our 8-year-old.

"That's not what I meant, Mommy."

After 4 very reluctant bites, the rest of the bowl went to the older sibling.

Chicken and Root Vegetables

Yeah, I know. Another soup. For the record, I'm bored with them, too. But I don't really have a lot of options right now. We have tons of jams, there's not really anything to pickle that's fresh from the farm, and we really should be eating what we have stored up. Which we're trying to do, but there is a LOT.

So, here were are. With a roasted chicken and a need for more chicken stock. I was down to my last 2 pints! For the stock: the leftover chicken plus the bones, 6 pts. of water, 4 ribs of celery, 4 carrots, 1 onion, salt, peppercorns, and a bay leaf. After removing 5 pints of stock (20 minutes, 10 lbs of pressure) I separated the meat from the bones, removed the peppercorns and celery, then returned the meat to the pot with:

the rest of the stock (about 1 pt.), with carrot, celery, and onion bits
4 pts. of water
3 parsnips and 1 more carrot, scraped and chopped
1/2 of a large turnip, peeled and chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
kosher salt
thyme
(4 quarts, 10 lbs pressure, 90 minutes)

It's actually very sunshiny: white potatoes and parsnips, yellow turnip, and orange carrots in a bright yellow broth.

Mushrooms and Marsala

My mom made this soup the other day, and we liked it so much we took a picture of it.
(By "it" I mean the recipe. Who writes things down anymore?)

I took the day off of work today, sort of a "personal regeneration" kind of day, and I'm spending it making a double batch of this soup to put up. Variations from the recipe: using chicken broth instead of beef broth, and not putting in the cream (see "Dairy is Taboo") - we can add the cream when we heat up the soup.

Soaking the mushrooms - because I had to take a child to day care, they soaked longer than 30 minutes. Not a problem.
Chopping the shallots and garlic gave me an excuse to use the ulu. Why I need an excuse to use the ulu, I do not know.
Straining the mushroom liquid took a long time. That was unexpected. I finally had to force the liquid through the filter because I was getting impatient.
Everything simmered on the stove, as I do not have a slow cooker large enough for a double batch of anything. I think, by the time everything got going, it simmered for 2 hours. I decided not to let the mushrooms get really tender because I was just going to can the soup anyway, so the time in the pressure canner would likely make the mushrooms softer. I ended up with 12 pints and a little bit for lunch. I'll be giving some of this away shortly (see "Helping Hand").

(10 lbs, 75 minutes in the canner.)

Hilltop Soup

Today's recipe utilizes leftovers from last night's dinner at the Hilltop Steak House. When I was little, we would drive up to Saugus, MA, from RI, go to the butcher shop and fill up a few ice chests full of meat, then eat dinner and go home. I don't remember what I used to order, but I do remember drinking Shirley Temples every single time. Then we'd drive all the way home and form an assembly line of sorts to package the meat in freezer paper, label it, and put it in the big freezer. This event occurred a couple of times a year and I always looked forward to it. Ah, childhood.

Now we live closer, but it still takes us at least 40 minutes to get there....so it's not often we get there for dinner. However, eating the salad with the house dressing makes me feel like a little kid again.

Hilltop Leftovers Soup
Leftover roast beef and grilled beef
Leftover cooked carrots, chopped up
1 onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 leek, sliced
1 T. oil
1 1/2 c. pearled barley
1 pint of potatoes, quartered, with the liquid
1 bay leaf
worcestershire sauce
kosher salt
pepper
5 pints of water

Simmering away...

After dinner, I added 1/2 c. of red wine to the rest (seemed like the right thing to do) and I am not(!) canning it - 10 c. of soup into the fridge this time.

Helping Hand

Another reason why this hobby is great is that I can prepare food for people and it won't go bad sitting on the shelf. In other words, when someone is under the weather and people are showing up with food, mine won't take up precious fridge and freezer space. Such is the situation now, so I made a double batch of khoresh and put up 2 quarts which were delivered yesterday. I'm glad to be able to help.

We had company last night for dinner (which is why I made a double batch) and, as a side dish, I put out a pickle tray: toorshi, dilled carrots (spicy!), bread & butter pickles (the ones with the rice vinegar), and pickled fiddleheads. I also set out a bowl of the 3-bean salad with the beets. When I'd made that particular recipe with golden beets, the color leeched out of the beets. I thought the red beets wouldn't do that, but they did. Strange to see white beets and know that they used to be red! But it was a perfect accompaniment to the khoresh and rice. Kind of like having a chutney. Which I didn't remember I had, or I would have served that, too!

Rainbow!

Aren't they beautiful? I couldn't resist modifying a ham and navy bean soup recipe by using this package of "16 Bean mix" instead. Don't ask me what all the beans are. I just know they're pretty. Although, I must admit they aren't as colorful once they're cooked.

I made a double batch of this (recipe on page 216 of 1001 Delicious Soups & Stews), which is a lot. Fortunately, I had enough pint jars (10) that I could get all the soup canned, and I am trying the double-decker approach to the pressure canner for the first time. I'm nervous, but I hope it will be alright. It seems very FULL.

(Later) They are all fine - and now I can go to sleep!