Adventures in Preserving.... Enchilada Sauce

I've been buying enchilada sauce in cans for years, but recently I've wanted to try making it from scratch.  I searched for various recipes on the Internet, which range from mixing oil, flour, chili powder and other spices (no thank you!) to the more authentic or traditional Mexican grandmother's way of toasting ancho and pasilla dried chiles, roasting aromatics and then pureeing them with other vegetables and spices.  Because I wanted to have my enchilada sauce on hand in my pantry for the winter months, I finally turned to a canning jar company's website for a recipe and found this one along with instructions on how to process the enchilada sauce.  

I went to a nearby ethnic market and bought dried chiles.  I decided to use 12 Guajillos and 6 Chile New Mexico pods.  I then poured boiling water over the peppers along with a cinnamon stick to soften for 20 minutes.  I reserved the hot liquid, removed the stems but not the seeds from the softened chiles as well as the cinnamon stick, and put it into a blender.

I had also charred red onions and garlic in a cast iron grill pan and added them to the blender.

I have a bumper crop of heritage tomatoes, and so I also added a few tomatoes to the blender along with cumin seeds, Mexican oregano, thyme, and marjoram.  I wish I had remembered to add a bay leaf to the soaking water of the peppers, but next time.  I whirred this mixture until it was a smooth paste like below. 

I then cooked the pureed chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, cumin, marjoram and thyme and 2 teaspoons of salt until the sauce was less watery or to the thickness I wanted to preserve.  Did I mention the bumper crop of heritage tomatoes from the garden?  And so I had a pot of marinara sauce simmering next to the enchilada sauce.  

Lastly I processed the enchilada sauce with the marinara sauce in pint jars....the enchilada sauce needed only 50 minutes in the water bath but they ended up with the marinara in the same canning pot for an hour and 25 minutes.

A Breakfast Burrito

This breakfast burrito is definitely going into my Sunday brunch rotation.  Below are the ingredients:  soft scrambled eggs, chipotle cream (sour cream + chipotle peppers in adobo sauce), pork sausage, jalapenos, tomatoes, and onion.

Melt cheddar or jack cheese on to a tortilla.  Pile on the rest of your ingredients and roll (or fold into a taco like I had to because I overstuffed it).

BLT Construction

My favorite meal other than a Caprese salad with the summertime bounty of heritage tomatoes is a BLT.....and wouldn't it be fantastic to throw a dinner party that was a Bacon Lettuce Tomato Sandwich bar?  Start with Miracle Whip for him and Duke’s for me (or good ole Best Food's or Hellman's if you're on the East Coast) to spread on your favorite bread.

Most important are in-season tomatoes, and heritage varieties are really the best. Below are a Mirabon ($14 for the seeds!)tomato and a Black Triffle tomato, sliced with a sprinkling of sea salt.

And bacon! I bought what was on sale at the supermarket.  I fried it up to include both crispy for the hubs and a little chew for me. But thick cut heritage pork would amp up a sandwich.  And the vegetarians at a party would omit the meat altogether though turkey bacon might work for those who don't do the other white meat.

Lastly, I also bought Beckmann’s California sourdough, and mixed greens with arugula (also from the garden)though big leaf lettuce for the paleos and gluten free eaters would have to be there at a buffet.  My BLT was delicious y'all!

Putting Up Heirloom Tomatoes: In Own Juices & Marinara

What I love about summer besides the quality of the natural light flooding my condo, is the bounty of heirloom tomatoes from our plot at the Beresford Community Garden.  August is when my galley kitchen goes into the mode of preserving heirloom tomatoes that I haven't already eaten in a Caprese salad or Mexican salsa.

This year I decided instead of just making Italian marinara to can, I would also preserve quart and pint jars of tomatoes in their own juices for use in other tomato dishes such as paella, cioppino, or other dishes without the oregano, thyme, marjoram, onion, garlic and olive oil though I did also can on this day pint jars of marinara.  Below a jar of tomatoes prior to processing.

I don't have a pressure canner, and so I used the water bath process which at sea level means boiling for an hour and half.

Below waiting to hear the popping sound of the vacuum effect from the water bath which creates a pressure within the jars and means the seals on the lids have closed tightly over the jars.

Later in the afternoon, I pureed tomatoes in a Vitamix blender and then added aromatics and herbs to boil down into a marinara.  I added fresh sprigs of basil at the top of the sauce before processing.

Heirloom tomatoes for cooking throughout the season until they run out just before summer or to give as holiday presents.

Whole Cloth Baby Quilt

I didn't get to finish this in time for a baby shower I attended over the weekend.  Finally a couple days earlier I finished quilting and binding and then managed to mail this unicorn whole cloth baby quilt yesterday to the mother-to-be.  I backed it with minky and used a low loft batting.  I tried to echo the clouds on the ombre blue sky and thought I was going to free motion stars to parallel the gold stars in the print.  Nope.  It was much harder than I thought it would be even though I had spray basted and pinned this small quilt.  I told the new mom that it will look better when it's washed gently and dried on a low setting and all those tiny charming crinkles appear.  I used my domestic machine and the walking foot and basically my whole body to maneuver this quilt under the needle. If I ever sew another baby quilt, I would hand quilt it with a running stitch.

Quilting: Personal Throw Quilt

I'd had some of these Amy Butler fabrics from a sewing project of sachets and then started collecting from that theme of cocoa blooms and folk hearts other favorite motifs of skulls, hearts and stripes, fans, cityscapes, arrows, midcentury backgammon stars and flowers in other fabric lines to raw appliqué of hearts and hugs and kisses to finally free motion stitching on my domestic machine more hearts and matchstick lines as well as hand quilting running stitches.  I forgot the deadline for submitting my quilt to the county fair, and so decided to hang my quilt outside to take a decent picture.  I love it.

Quilting: 50th Birthday Present

I recently celebrated my friend, Meral's 50th birthday party in NYC, and I wanted to give her for that milestone a quilt.  I had foundation paper pieced already in a red, orange, coral, and pink color way a scrappy Valentine quilt.  Meral and I have this running comment or joke in the ceramics studio, where we're always making wall hearts with beautiful surface textures and text especially during the Valentine holiday.  She once worked as an assistant for a sculptor and derided his heart sculptures, calling them "fucking hearts."  However, she has come to realize what I already know--hearts are lovely and people, and more importantly, we makers, like 'em.  

Below are the array of threads I had to choose from for quilting Meral's quilt.  

And below is the quilt top rolled on to the long arm.  

I decided to free motion a different filler stitch that I watched on an Angela Walter's video: the flower meander.

Elmo wagged his tail in approval.

Text, Fabric, Embroidery Floss, Hoop and Needle Projects

I love irreverence as well as clever and pithy phrases in all my sewing arts.  And so of course, spying this embroidered hoop, I feel the need to emulate.



Cooking: Cherry Pepper Relish

We attended a family barbecue yesterday where hamburgers, chicken sausage sandwiches and spareribs were being served.  I always contribute a vegetable side dish, and I decided to make a cherry pepper relish inspired by a delicious Sheboygan I ate at Kenji Lopez Alt's Wursthall.

I chopped and diced one red bell pepper, half a medium red onion, a jar of cherry peppers and also set out 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons hot sweet mustard (I didn't have the grainy mustard the recipe called for, and so I substituted), and 1/2 cup red wine vinegar with some splashes of white vinegar thrown in to make the full measure needed.

In a tablespoon of olive oil, sauté the onions until translucent and then add the red bell pepper and then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on medium heat for 8 minutes or so....you don't want the bell pepper to retain a little firmness or not get too soft.  I rather love the bright red color here.

After cooling, here's what the relish looks like; the mustard has added a caramel yellow tinge.

Jarred and ready to set in the fridge or top a chicken apple sausage  in a bun--it was zingy because of the sweet hot mustard.

Valentine Quilt Work in Progress

My ceramics buddy, Meral is turning 50 this July.  I had racked my brain about what kind of ceramic piece I was going to make her, but while making this quilt, I thought of course!  Meral and I make wall hearts, especially around the February holiday, and we joke about our "fucking hearts."

I'd been stitching the blocks together to make rows before I go to work.

On this Memorial Day Sunday I finished the top.  It takes up all the open floor space of my condo living room.  At 82 1/2" x 83 1/2" it should cover the top of her full size bed.

Japanese Quilts

I checked out this book from the public library the other day, and I'm thinking of making my sister-in-law's quilt using its designs.

I love a Tansu chest, an Isamu Noguchi coffee table, my husband's bonsai trees, and Lecien fabrics, so of course I would love a Japanese-inspired quilt. And it's not so improvisational outside my comfort zone.

Mighty Lucky Quilt

I am almost done with sewing hanging sleeves and quilt labels on my local county fair entries, and so I can get back to this Mighty Lucky Quilt.  Even though I haven't sewn my wonky crosses (and don't know how improvisational and ruler-less I will be when it comes time to sewing them), I colored and am trying to envision what this quilt will look like.

I then auditioned on paper my color palette the outer side blocks. I thought I might inject other colors like indigo, red, aqua, and pink.  But no.  I'll stick to my two warms (mango and yellow), two cools (lilac and chartreuse), and two neutrals (gray and rust). 

Ceramics: Porcelain Vases

I love this little Frost porcelain vase.  However, I didn't score and pinch enough and there's a tiny bit of daylight I can see at the  bottom of the vase.  I'm going to ask my friend Zan, the ceramics teacher at one of my high schools if I can pour a little more glaze into the vase and fire again. I also want to adhere a decal to its front which might then require a separate firing.

I made sure that this bud vase didn't leak before I stuck this commercial decal of a robin on it.

Quilting is Done on My Funny Valentine....but that doesn't mean it's finished

I am aiming for dynamic contrast in this quilt and decided to combine walking foot and free motion machine quilting with the hand quilting.  I stitched matchstick and not so thin and not so dense lines in the lilac sashing.

Once I finished the walking foot quilting, I installed the darning foot and practiced stitching stenciled patterns on these sandwiches.

I decided to not rip out these free motion stitches on my "final draft" because 1) if I went for perfection or even better enough I’d never finish a quilt; 2) this quilt is a record of my first stab at free motion quilting; and 3) good enough is fine by me.

I tried out the machine embroidery letters on my machine to perhaps create a quilt label, but didn't like the fancy font.  I still have yet to bind My Funny Valentine as well as create and baste a hanging sleeve (which I'll remove later as this quilt is just for me) and make a quilt label.  I also realized that I need to create labels for my Day of the Dead: Amar por Siempre that I entered into the Fine Arts category and Frida into the Art Quilts category

Cooking: Pork Posole

What I love about cooking is the informality of it (no need to be exact on your measurements unlike baking...you can just eyeball and guesstimate portions.  I bought a 6 pound pork shoulder, and halved it for this posole--I also left that layer of skin and fat on the other half to roast later into a porchetta)

The recipe I found online called for a cup of flour into which I also added a teaspoon of salt and pepper.

I had cut the pork into 1 1/2" pieces and then dredged it in the flour mixture.

Next I fried the pork in two batches, using a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of lard for each frying.

I sampled the fried pork, and I could've stopped there, it was so delicious.

I had chopped one yellow onion and four small cloves of garlic, which I sweated in olive oil until translucent and fragrant.

To scrape up the rest of the bits of fried pork with the sweated onions, I poured 4 cups of water and 1 cup of chicken broth into the pot, along with the fried pork, a couple of bay leaves and a teaspoon of Mexican oregano.

Simmer for a couple hours.

Then simmer for another hour, but for that last hour of time add 6 chopped tomatillos and a couple of jalapeños.  You could also toss in some chopped cilantro and a can of green chiles for extra green flavor.

I also added in a can of hominy with the green fruit for that last hour of cooking.

My posole is done cooking, but wait there's more.

I like a fresh and raw vegetal element to a meaty and rich stew, like sliced radishes.

 And chopped cilantro and chopped green onion.

Oh and the recipe called for roasting and adding fresh corn, which I forgot to add to that last hour of cooking.  Instead I added frozen sweet white corn to the stew which will cook when reheating.

Must not forget limes for a nice acid kick.

 And last but just as important is shredded green cabbage to top the stew along with all the other fresh vegetables for garnish.  

This is a great dish to bring to a potluck to feed a lot of people.