and still more on Green Tomatoes

Because I don't type very fast, and the cat keeps coming and wanting to
cling, and I'm an even worse typist with a cat balanced precariously on one
shoulder and down my arm, which I then have to hold out horizontally, to
keep her from sliding off and tearing the flesh from my bones with her
desperate limpet claws....

Green Tomato & Apple Chutney

3 LB completely green tomatoes
2 LB firm, tart apples
2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups diced onions
2 tsp. finely minced garlic
2 cups (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. pickling or other fine non-iodized salt
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar, plus a little more if needed
3 to 4 Tbsp. finely minced fresh ginger, to taste
1 1/2 Tbsp. mustard seed
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. finely minced fresh hot pepper, 1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes, or
1/4 tsp. (or to taste) Cayenne pepper

1. Rinse and drain the tomatoes. Cut out the stem scars and any blemishes
and cut the tomatoes into 1/2 inch chunks. You should have about 8 cups.
Place the tomatoes in a preserving pan.

2. Peel, core, and cut the apples into 1/2 inch chunks; add them to the
tomatoes. Add the raisins, onion, garlic, sugars, salt and vinegar. Mix the
ingredients well and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce the heat and boil the mixture slowly, uncovered, stirring it often,
for 30 minutes.

3. Add the ginger, mustard seed, coriander, cinnamon, and hot pepper. Return
to a boil, adjust the heat, and continue to cook the chutney uncovered at a
slow boil, stirring it often, until it holds a mounded shape when lifted in
a spoon. Taste it carefully, remembering that the balance of flavours will
improve as the chutney mellows in the jar; add, if needed, more vinegar,
sugar, and/or salt.

4. Ladle the boiling hot chutney into hot, clean pint or half-pint canning
jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Seal the jars with new two-piece
canning lids according to manufacturer's directions and process for 10
minutes in a boiling water bath.
Cool, label, and store the jars. Let the chutney mellow for a few weeks
before serving it with a curry, cold meat, or any other dish needing an
uplifting accompaniment. [I like that phrase!]

More Recipes for Green Tomatoes

Green Tomato, Apple, & Pear Mincemeat

(Straight from the jar, a pint will fill an 8-inch pie adequately. With the
addition of diced fresh apple, some nuts, perhaps a few snipped dried
apricot, and an added tot of rum or brandy, a pint will fill a 9-inch pie.)

3 quarts coarsely chopped completely green tomatoes, scrubbed and trimmed of
stem scars
1 Tbsp. non-iodized salt
1 1/2 quarts diced, peeled, and cored firm, tart apples, the firmer the
better
1 quart diced, peeled and cored firm, slightly underripe pears
2 1/2 cups dark seedless raisins
Grated zest and chopped pulp of 1 large or 2 medium oranges
Grated zest of 1 1/2 large lemons
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup undiluted frozen apple concentrate, thawed
3 1/2 cups (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup dark rum, preferably Jamaican

1. Stir the chopped tomatoes and salt together, then scrape them into a
colander and let them drain for two hours.

2.Combine the drained tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients, except the
rum, in a preserving pan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
Lower the heat and cook the mincemeat, uncovered, stirring it often, until
it is thick enough to mound in a spoon when a sample is dipped up, about 1
hour. Be careful to stir often enough to prevent sticking toward the end of
the cooking.

3.Stir in the rum and ladle the boiling-hot mincemeat into hot, clean pint
canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace; remove any air bubbles. Seal
the jars with new two-piece caning lids, according to the manufacturer's
directions, and process them in a boiling-water bath for 25 minutes. Cool,
label, and store the jars. Let the mincemeat mellow for a month before using
it.

Alternatively: Store the mincemeat, covered but unsealed, in refrigerator.

Yield: about 8 pints

Green Tomatoes

I didn't manage to get any tomatoes planted this year, so I don't have green
tomatoes to deal with, but Karen does.

Years and years ago I had access to green tomatoes, and made this chutney.
In fact, it was one of the reasons I ended up special-ordering a copy of the
cook book for myself. And a few years ago a friend had more than enough
green tomatoes in her garden to give me some, and I made it again.

Green Tomato Chutney
(It's a British cookbook, and I'm useless for spontaneous understanding of
measurements, so I'll include everything they list.)

4 LB (1.8 kg) green tomatoes, washed and chopped
1 1/2 LB (700 g) shallots or onions, peeled and chopped
1 LB (450 g) cooking apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 pint (575/600 ml) vinegar
8 red chilies
1 oz (25 g) dried root ginger
8 oz (225 g) seedless raisins or dates, chopped
2 tsp salt
1 LB (450 g) sugar

Put the chopped tomatoes, shallots or onions and the apples in a large,
heavy-based pan with half the vinegar. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently
for about 30 minutes until tender.
Tie the chilies and root ginger in a muslin bag, bruise with a hammer, and
add to the pan with the raisins or chopped dates. Cook, stirring from time
to time until mixture thickens, after about 1 hour.
Add the salt, sugar and the rest of the vinegar, stirring well until the
sugar dissolves. Continue cooking, pressing the bag of spices occasionally
with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is thick. Remove the muslin bag
before potting and sealing. Leave to mature for 6 weeks.

Blech!!!

Our deck. October 12th, 2006.

Infidelity

I'm feeling consumed with guilt.

Awkward about my feelings.

I've always been very much a one-anything woman. It seems to be the one
aspect of life I'm focussed in. It's not that I can't be caring of other
people, other things, other situations, it's just that when my emotions are
really involved, it's a single focal point.

There's been a kind of quandary for the last number of years anyway, but
I've found ways of compartmentalising it, and maybe justifying it. Somehow
making it okay, and not hurtful to the parties involved. (Or so I tell
myself.)

But these last few months have been really tricky.

Way back in the beginning of May, Coco arrived. Stray cat. Kind of neat
stray cat. Great big extra thumbs, like she's wearing black oven mitts. I
call her Lobster Paws sometimes.
Turned out she'd wandered here from a nearby farm, where she'd recently
been adopted from an animal shelter as a barn cat. The lady was all excited
that we might give her a chance at being a housecat again. (Coco is a four
years + cat, who apparently has been constantly returned to the animal
shelter as a "bad" cat with inappropriate bathroom habits, though I've now
heard that's one of the *code* phrases used when people just don't want to
keep an animal.)
She was neutered and had her shots, and we'd had her around for several
weeks before we found Mary, who'd given her her most recent home.

So we decided to give it a try.

*NOT* that we needed a cat! We already have three. In fact we already have
one more than we'd planned on having. When the kittens were born about 8
years ago, (of an abandoned mom), we arranged for a home for the mother,
decided we'd keep a kitten each, and proceeded to find homes for the other
two kittens. The last kitten was slow to find someone, and by then we were
getting fond of him. So when his new people brought him back a day later
because the husband didn't want to inconvenience his dog while introducing
the kitten, we were secretly happy.

And Bear turned out to be a pretty happy-go-lucky kind of cat, who didn't
mind being shared, and while infinitely loving, didn't seem to need the same
single person devotion the other two wanted.

But, so I already have a bit of guilt about Bear.

Then along comes Coco into our lives, and damned if she doesn't turn out to
be one of the sweetest, most charming and amusing cats it's been my luck to
know!
It's a little bit like someone (aliens?) were watching us and our cats, and
secretly recording all the things about our cats that most amused and
charmed us. Then they programmed it all into this little alien cat with
thumbs. And they planted her here to conquer us.

And she really is appealing. And seems to care for us.
I still can't see why no-one along her path seemed to feel she was worth
trying to keep. She seems one of the better-behaved cats I've met in life.
(Except for being just a teeny bit bossy, and terrorising our other cats.
"what big hands you have!" "all the better to smack you with....")

She has a little muttery voice, and wanders about to check on us, making a
little rolly mrrrr sound. And her purr is HUGE! It's almost scary how loud
her purr is. And I love her big hands. I've been trying to take some
pictures of her, but black cats are really hard to photograph. And what
pictures I have taken are trapped on a different computer. Maybe at the end
of the month, when my old computer comes home again, I'll manage to post
pics once more.

But I guess I'm just doomed now to spend all my days trying to not look
like I'm playing favourites. That I don't love any cat more than another. Or
that I love them for different reasons, and there's no competition involved.

And I wonder how winter with four cats is going to be. This house already
seems small in winter! (And they're making that nasty 'S'-word prediction
for the Dundalk highlands in the next day or so. Sigh....)

Wish me luck.

v