Local Treats

My friend Sareen is part of The Splendid Table Locavore Nation. For one year, she and her family are trying to eat 80% of their foods within 500 miles of her home. Tough, but tougher (in my opinion) because she has a child under 1 and is pregnant.

On Friday, we went over for an appetizer dinner and to sample some homemade beer. Num.

I love challenges. So, I made very midwestern appetizers.

First up, deviled eggs:
The eggs were 100% local and so was the horseradish. Unfortunately, the mayo, mustard, and paprika were not...

Next up, pickles rolls:

The pickles were handmade by me last summer. The cream cheese is from Wisconsin. The pastrami was bought at Farm in the Market, and local also.

Tasty Pickled Eggs

The famous bar food pickled eggs... Do they make good Christmas gifts? I think so.

Start with two dozen eggs and boil them.

After they are done, peel and rinse them.
CJ and I both suck at peeling eggs. Some were lost. Some are misshapen. Sadness.

Prepare the pickling liquid.
There are tons of recipes out there. Some with beets, some with balsamic vinegar, some needing to sit a day, some a month, it is sort of crazy. I made up my own recipe.
4 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
A few cloves garlic
Some slices of ginger
A small handful of pickling spices.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Pack the eggs into the sterilized jars.

Process with your normal canning procedures.

The Homemakers

My new neighbor Tisha and I spent a large part of the holiday weekend canning and pickling. While we knew it was a lot of work, we really had no idea how much it would be.

On Saturday morning, we went to the St. Paul Farmers' Market. We bought a box of tomatoes, a bin of cucumbers, and a lot of shallots, cauliflower, chilies, peppers, and other such things.

Have you ever peeled a box of tomatoes? It takes HOURS. Ever peel shallots? Hours again.
(Not even close to a box of tomatoes)
(That's a lot of shallots to peel)

Luckily the cucumbers only needed to be soaked, for 12 hours.

After two days of work, we finally ended up with this:
Not Shabby.

There are pickles, two bottles of which have become refrigerator pickles because they didn't seal.
Here's a close up:
Unfortunately, some of the garlic turned blue:

We also made Acharro, or something like that. Sri Lankan for various pickles.

We made two kinds of tomatoes. Regular, without spice:
And some made as a Sri Lankan spicy pickle:

A lot of work, but it was worth it, I hope. As long as no one gets sick or dies, I'll call it a success.