Cooking & Baking

and the late hour last night. I saw half pint and read half cup. The final count is 10 half pints, not 18+. That should last us a while and I'm happy.

In November, I looked at the election results and started thinking about what's going to become unavailable. I also have full pints of salsa verde (tomatillo, poblano, cilantro) canned up and found more poblanos at the farmers' market a couple weeks ago. They're sitting in jars, just canned plain, as well. My go-to place for supplies is a Mexican grocery - I usually use a particular one about 10 miles away, but there are a lot around here. I think there are three or four in my neighborhood I could walk to easily.

It seems silly to preserve condiments, since they don't really qualify as food, at least not in the same way as staples do. But it preserves the material nonetheless, and will make a better quality of life. I like cooking and I like good ingredients. I used 6# of tomatoes from the farmers' market to make a batch of tomato ketchup. DH won't use it on his hamburgers, as his palate is set to Heinz, and I'm not a big ketchup user on burgers. But it does improve a meatloaf and is good in cooking generally. I also enjoy that every time I make it and have him check it for sweet/sour balance, he exclaims "Wow, that's really good". And promptly forgets about it the next time we have hamburgers. He does the same thing with bread and butter pickles - I still get to eat all of them.

Regarding the tomatoes - I was looking for half-bushel flats to can plain. The only stand that had them was from a big commercial-type operation (although they are technically local) and was overpriced. I asked at another stand and she blamed the amount of rain we'd had this year. Only smaller baskets were available. It could be partly the rain, but I wonder if labor is also a factor. They're not likely to discuss it if it is, as they don't know who they're talking to. (Side note - it's really strange to see MAGA gear at a farmers' market, but whatever...) And I'm now stocking up on store-bought canned tomatoes whenever I find them on sale.

We're using one of my staples tonight. DH always used a lot of cream in his coffee and got to prefer evaporated milk when camping. He hates the powder and the evap lasts longer than fresh. So over several months, I stocked up on three cases of evap from the co-op. Then, out of the blue, he decided to start drinking his coffee black.

We can't drink it (a 'cooked' flavor is kinda weird), but I'm using it in cooking and baking. Tonight it turns out it makes a really good batch of egg custards.