Use it or Lose it - Ham, Berries & One (formerly) Grumpy Rooster

We're doing our traditional end-of-Summer freezer clean out. Right about this time, when all of the garden goodies, berries, and -when we're lucky- fish and shellfish, are rolling in, I try to make room by using up the dregs of last year's bounty.

In addition to the Summer boom of veggies and fish, we're getting half a pig from husband's Aunt & Uncle. This is the second time we've bought their home raised pork and it is AMAZING. However, that means that I need to make even more room in the freezer. So, this is a no-holds-barred round of UioLi. Here we go!

What I need to use-

*5 pounds ham (from last year's pig)
*1 - 6 pound rooster
*Untold amounts of frozen berries - blueberries, blackberries, huckleberries, Oregon Grapes, Salal, etc.

Magically transformed into-

*Sliced ham for lunchmeat
*Ham bone broth
*Roast chicken - I learned the hard way that a cranky old rooster makes for incredibly tough meat, no matter how hard you try to cook him up right. :(
*Chicken Stock
*Blueberry and Marionberry Buttermilk Waffles
*Goat Cookies (uses berries)
*Fruit Leather

The ham has been baked and sliced, and the remaining odd bits - the bone, skin, fat, etc., have been set to simmer with celery, carrots, onions & fresh thyme. I also added a dash of homemade apple cider vinegar to help de-mineralize the bones, releasing the nutrients into the broth. I'm then freezing the broth in silicone freezer trays, then bagging up the broth blocks for use later in soups and sauces.

The leftover roasted rooster bits are also simmering with a shallot and some celery, and turning into a nice, rich broth. If I can scare up the ingredients, I might have to make some pho soup with this guy. :)

Jammin' 'til the jam is through

Oh yeah! We be jammin' alright. Cherry jam and raspberry jelly so far this week, and apricot and peach are up next. My organic fruit man at the Farmer's Market says that he can get me a sweet deal on a case of #2 apricots for jamming and canning - $24 for 24 pounds. That's going to be a lot of 'cots!

I've had a little help with my preserving efforts. Here we have Scarlet working the Cherry Chomper -



Which resulted in -


12 Pints of Skeena Cherry Goodness

Factoring in the price paid for the cherries (organic), sugar (also organic) and pectin, my cost per 1/2 pint jar ends up being somewhere around $2.58. Not bad, but I could have done better if I had taken the time to go to Costco for 10 lb bag of organic sugar instead of using a bunch of 2 lb bags from my neighborhood grocery store. (I should also mention that, with both the raspberries and cherries, we ate some of the fruit plain, which, if I could subtract that from the cost of the ingredients, would lower my price-per-jar a bit.)

The raspberry jelly was my first attempt at a jelly, having always made jams previous to this. The price per half pint on it came out a bit higher, at $2.72 per half pint.



It gelled very well and came out only slightly cloudy, because I apparently squeezed the berries too much, according to the pectin package. Um, how does one juice a berry without squeezing it in some way or another?

Anyway, slightly cloudy or not, we now have a total of 30 half-pints of preserves put up so far this year. Brace yourselves, people. By fall's end I'll be giving this stuff away left and right.

Aunt Ethel's Cobbler

Having recently stumbled upon a massive cache of frozen blueberries, I've been mulling over how to best use them - ice cream? sorbet? maybe pie? Then I came across the Huckle Buckle recipe contest over at Fat of the Land and knew immediately what I wanted to do with all of those lovely berries - make up a batch of Aunt Ethel's cobbler.



Aunt Ethel was the baker in my Grandmother's generation. She made this incredible cobbler for every family reunion and I remember passing up the home made ice cream for seconds on cobbler. Oh the calorie-careless days of youth...

Anyway, this is my version of Aunt Ethel's recipe. You can use just about any fruit that you want with this cobbler batter, but I most often use berries (blueberries, huckleberries or blackberries, typically) or, once in a while, peaches. My absolute favorite thing about this recipe - besides the taste! - is that it is SO quick and simple to make. I have mentioned my ineptitude at baking many times, but my success with this cobbler proves that foolproof recipes do exist, and if you're really lucky, you also have a really cool Great Aunt to give them to you. ;) Without further ado, Aunt Ethel's Cobbler-

Batter-
1/2 Stick Butter
1 1/2 c. Sugar
2 c. flour
1 c. milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder

Fruit-
1 1/2 c. blueberries (or just about any fruit)
1 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a 11x7 (or similar size) casserole dish in the oven. Remove and let butter cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flour, salt & baking powder well.

In a separate bowl, measure out your berries or other fruits and sprinkle them with the tablespoon of sugar. Toss well.

Finally, add milk to the flour mixture and mix well until a thick batter forms. Pour the batter into the buttery casserole dish. Some butter will come up over the batter, that is ok. Lastly, sprinkle/drop the sugared berries into the batter - do not stir. Bake @ 350 degrees for about 1 hour, checking every so often to ensure that the top doesn't get too brown before the middle has had a chance to set-up. If you see this happening, you can put a piece of foil over the top to slow things down a bit. Check for doneness with a toothpick. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

This tastes AMAZING with vanilla ice cream, but is pretty fantastic all by itself.

I'm not the only one...

...who appreciates a good late-season raspberry or three.



Go, Bob, go!