My Newest Canner!

A while back, I posted about introducing my daughter to the art and science of pickling vegetables. During our Christmas visit to her house, my nine year old grand-daughter, pickled her very own cucumbers:

I made these all by myself!

I think she did a great job! Her Mom is going to have to invest in a boiling water bath canner soon!

Canning Plums

Our hacienda has a lot of fruit trees, most of which are fairly young and just starting to bear. Our Santa Rosa plum tree, however, was here before us. I am not sure just how old it is, but it consistently bears a great crop. This year is no exception!

Beautiful aren’t they? The two green globes are ripe pluots. These trees are quite young and only bear two or three fruits each so far. They are so good that we eat them as soon as we pick them!

With my grandson visiting, we decided that this summer he would learn how to can plums. I have never canned fruit before. Jams, jellies, and marmalades, yes, but whole fruit? No! We decided that it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. It was a grand success!

Here is my junior chef in action:

He is preparing a very light syrup to pour over the plums in the jars in the background. Since this was my first time canning whole fruit, I thought that the fruit would somehow shift and settle lower into the jars. That is why the jars look so full. There is nothing like a learning curve!

The fruit did not settle but the jars sealed well and remain sealed after two months. Here is a picture of our finished product:

Don’t they look like jewels? I can hardly wait to taste them this winter!!

Boys Baking Bread

This summer Mr. M and I are hosting only one of our grandchildren, so far. A far cry from the summer we had five grandkids… It seems that the recession has put a crimp in the Mexico vacations for the kids.

The one we have is our thirteen year old grandson. He has made friends with the thirteen year old boy that lives across the street from us. The friend is bilingual, and is helping our grandson learn some Spanish. They play soccer (called fútbol here) in our cul-de-sac, watch the world cup together, and yesterday they learned how to make pan, or bread, in my kitchen.

The bread is wonderful fresh garlic-cheese flat bread, easy to make because there is no kneading. After all, I am not sure I would enjoy eating bread after two thirteen year old boys  had their hands in it­­… They had a ball using my extra sharp chef’s knife to chop the fresh garlic cloves and the cheese. I know they could have used the kitchen shears, but the element of danger is so much more exciting! I think it is an excellent safety lesson for teens and pre-teens to actually learn the proper way to use knives in the kitchen.

The two did all of the measuring and preparation for the dough, with a little guidance from me.  My Kitchenaid mixer did most of the work, but they really had a ball stirring the cheese and garlic into the dough at the end and were surprised when two strapping teens couldn’t stir the dough as easily as one Grandma!

Teamwork!

The photo is blurry because they were moving so fast and furious, trying to beat the additions into the batter.

Here is what it looked like when we poured it into the pans:

The dough is ready to rise

The color of the dough looks kind of dark because it is half whole wheat flour. The yellowish liquid id olive oil that is poured into the pan prior to the dough. It gives the bread a nice crispy crust after it is baked. Surprisingly though, it doesn’t prevent the bread from wanting to stick to the pan. I think it is because of the cheese!

Here is the end result:

Hot out of the oven!

Notice the yellow crust? It is from the olive oil. The bread was garlicky, cheesy and impossible to resist! I think the boys did a great job!

You can find a the recipe that inspired us here, at the King Arthur website. We made a few “secret” changes, like using grated Parmesan cheese and homegrown herbs in the dough and doubling the recipe, but basically the process was the same. We doubled the recipe so that our grandson’s friend could take half home to his family.

What did two thirteen year old boys do while waiting for the bread to rise? Played fútbol and video games, of course!