November 11

Today is two years since my sweet little granddaughter Dakota Rose was born! Happy Birthday to her!

Two years ago, I was living in Ohio and working 60+ hours a week.
I didn't get to meet my Dakota until the end of December.

The past week has been a very busy one at O'Reilly's. Inventory is TODAY at my store, and we have done a lot to make sure it goes smoothly.

We finally had our first hard freeze of the year... and then rebounded into the pleasant mid-sixties. This evening, our first big winter cold front it supposed to come through, driving temperatures into the tees. Depending on whose forecast you hear, we might (or not) have snow and/or ice. But then the rest of the week, the temperatures go back to well above freezing.

Yesterday, I was looking for something to do with the remainder of our green tomatoes. There were way too many to rely on using them up as fried green tomatoes, and I have no place to keep them spread out to slowly ripen. Tom suggested maybe some sort of tomato/pepper relish. All the recipes I have seen were fro sweet relishes, and the guys just do NOT like sweet relish. So I Googled tomato pepper relish, and the very first one I found said "No Sugar" right in the headline. I gave it a try. It was great! (I took the time to read through comments, hints, and updates and modified the recipe a bit, according to suggestions made.
Personally, I do NOT like the flavor of green tomatoes one little bit- and I like cilantro even less. The guys sampled the salsa for me, and seemed quite pleased with the taste. I tried some.
Oh.
 my.
The rest of the green tomatoes went into a second batch!  For my own touches, I used very little red bell pepper, substituting the called for weight in bell peppers for jalapeño peppers. I added most of the  jalapeño at the beginning cook time of the recipe, but reserved about 1/2 cup to add at the end, when  the cilantro is added. I also used 1/2 cup apple cider and 1/2 cup cider vinegar, rather than the 1 cup of cider vinegar. I added 1/2 tsp. of cumin, and 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika to the original recipe. I used the food processor at the end, instead of the blender, as I don't have a hand blender stick, and my blender carafe was broken. I pressure canned my jars, 10 minutes @ 10 lbs. for the 1/2 pint jars. (I am thinking I will repost the recipe with my modifications to my cooking blog. We really love this stuff!)
Today, I have fresh sage in the dehydrator... I bought a sprig of fresh sage at the grocery store, because dried sage was outrageous- over $4 for a small jar. I decided fresh would dry just fine for me, as I don't need much! (I don't need it YET, but like to have it when I need it, hence, drying it.)
I also am TRYING drying some sliced  jalapeño peppers- once they finish, I will grind them to pepper sprinkles.
Mr. C was commenting on how busy I have been staying at the preserving of our garden- I told him, I hate to see any good food go to waste simply because I was too lazy to deal with it. He worked hard all summer to grow the garden. We have been very blessed by the bounty from it.
That's about all from here! Have a blessed day, Thanks for reading!