Keeping busy on the weekend

We went to the local farmers' market and picked up half bushels of red peppers ($12) and tomatoes ($10), and a few more ingredients we needed. The entire weekend has been spent doing preserves for the winter :) Here's the tally:

Roasted red peppers: 8 cups, frozen in 1-cup portions
This is an easy one, if you haven't done it before. Just stick whole peppers under the broiler, turning about every 5 minutes, until they are blackened on all sides. Put them in a bowl, cover in plastic wrap and let cool. When they are cool enough to handle, core and remove the seeds, slip off the skins and slice into 1" strips. Save the juices if you can; adding the juice gives a lot of extra flavour to salad dressings, soups, sauces or even dips. The peppers are great on pizza, blended into soups or dips, or even just on bread or a cracker with a bit of cheese.You can store the strips and juice in the freezer for a few months, in the fridge for a week or so (covered with a thin layer of olive oil), or make some or all of them into...

Pickled Roasted Red Peppers: 7 250mL jars
This recipe's from The Complete Book of Year-Round Small Batch Preserving. I'm a big fan of this book and recommend it to anyone interested in preserves, from the beginner to the experienced.

White Wine and Herb Jelly: 9 250mL jars
I can't remember where I got this recipe. It's a pretty jelly with a sprig of your favourite herb inside - it makes lovely Christmas gifts (and for double the gifts, use smaller jars! lol). I used thyme from the garden and a Yellowtail Chardonnay, but you can play with different combinations. This with a bit of Brie on a cracker... Yum!

Tomato Fruit Pickle: 7 250mL jars
This is a recipe passed down from my great-great-grandmother. It's been loved in my family for over 100 years! Amazing, right?! It's a delicious combination of tomatoes, peaches, and mango (our modern substitute for pears and apples), great on crackers.

Chili Sauce: 16 250mL jars
This is my aunt Marilyn's recipe. It's another one great on crackers, sort of a chutney. We made a double batch!

Salsa: 6 500mL jars
Another from my aunt Marilyn. We added corn to the recipe - I love salsa with corn in it!

Lots of goodies for the pantry. It was a lot of work, but my husband and I did this all together which made it easier and more fun!

l-r: Tomato Fruit Pickle, Chili Sauce, White Wine and Herb Jelly, Pickled Roasted Red Peppers.

If you would like me to share any of these recipes, just leave a comment and let me know which one(s)! The only one I wouldn't share is the one from the cookbook; I imagine that's copyrighted and if you want it, it is so worth the investment to pick up the book - you could even use Swagbucks to get it for free from Amazon.