Good Morning, Dear Housewives.
I am up early, straightening the house and thinking of household schedules and menus as I go. Doing the wash, I see I have a couple bath towels that I need to cut up for rags.
I just put some homemade tomato sauce in the crock pot. I made this sauce from my fresh tomatoes. Later on, I will make up meatballs and put these in the sauce, once the sauce is hot and bubbly. Then I will let them simmer for a few hours or more. I will probably brown the meatballs before I put them in the sauce. I have heard that you can buy frozen meatballs. Oh, what will they think of next? To make my meatballs, I will just add the meat in with eggs, bread, and spices and roll them up into balls. The main thing is to make sure that your tomato sauce is bubbly before you put the meatballs into it.
I will make up a big batch of meatballs with just a pound of hamburger ... lots of bread in there? Then I will have made a few extra meals. Jim likes meatball sandwiches. Or just serve the meatballs, alone on the table as a meat dish, and make potatoes and a vegetable to go with it. The extra meatballs, if you have any left, can be frozen in a casserole bowl to use for another meal.
Also, I need to get out there to my herb garden today to cut herbs and bring them in to dry. Have to pull the mint and toss it, as it is all dry and useless. I will stick a lot of it in our outside cat's "dog house." The mint will dry and be like hay for Kitty. He loves the herbs. I don't dry the mint for the winter -- I use it mainly in the spring for iced tea.
I have hot red peppers from my garden and plan to make a hot pepper cooking oil. All ya do is put the peppers in boiling oil on the stove. Then, once it cools, just put it in a jar. I am using the long skinny hot peppers and corn oil. Now, I wouldn't strain the peppers out -- I will just leave them in the oil. I want to make a basil oil, too. Just fill a jar with basil and pour boiling oil over it. Use olive oil if ya have it. I get my olive oil at the Dollar Store. Wild man decided he didn't like my corn oil or olive oil for frying, so I am having a ball using it to make stuff I could never afford to make. Jim bought some just plain vegetable oil and now he thinks we are cooler, I guess.
The hot pepper oil would be fun to fry stuff in like fried potatoes. It would give the veggies a little heat but not a lot. Or to use for cornbread or any dish you want a bit of hot spice in.
I was trying to find some tall fancy bottles at sales to put my oil into, but didn't find any this year. I will just use canning jars ... just the pints.
All you do to make a flavored vinegar is to boil the vinegar and put it over the herbs in a jar. I have made a lot of rose vinegar for my hair to rinse it in. You could take your fresh garden herbs and make a herb vinegar, too. I may do this with some basil this year. Basil is my favorite herb but I don't like it dried. So to preserve it in an oil or vinegar is better for me. Just use a white vinegar or whatever. I guess apple cider vinegar would be good, too. This would be good on a pasta salad or a cucumber salad with onions. Add sugar, the same amount as the vinegar, and a bit of water for the cucumber salad. Add salt and pepper to taste.
I love to cut up tomatoes, onions, and fresh peppers, put this in a Mason jar, put the vinegar and sugar over it, and the spices, and let it sit in the fridge. The longer it sits, the better it is. I just add, like, a fourth cup of vinegar and a fourth sugar. Just stir this up and marinate it. Don't cover the veggies with the vinegar -- it will be too sour. Let the juices from the vegetables sort of make their own juice and mix with the vinegar. Just shake the veggies up in the jar and well? It will all work out. Oh, good night, it's hard to explain.
Anyway, Happy Homemaking.
