Blasted Blight: or What to do with Green Tomatoes

I started the season with ten lovely tomato plants. A few heirloom, some beefsteak, others. All went well for quite a while. We made it through June, July (even with two weeks of neglect while I was at Hamline University), into August. But then the cool nights hit, and the wet days, and the icky constant dampness. Blight set in.

Last weekend I sacrificed nine of my ten beloved lovelies to the fire pit (you can't compost blighted plants), and with St. Nick's help salvaged as many tomatoes as I possibly could. About two thirds of the maters we gathered:

That's a lot of green tomatoes. What on earth would I do with all these absurd green tomatoes? I live in Michigan. We don't fry them up here. I wasn't about to pitch them, though. So, Google to the rescue! I found two lovely canning recipes for green tomatoes.

Imagine an entire day slicing and chopping and cooking and stirring, all the while Dr. D checking in, thinking I'd lost my blinging mind. Lemon and Green Tomato Marmalade? Apple and Green Tomato Chutney/Mincemeat? Was I insane?

Maybe a little.

Or maybe not. Below is the marmalade, which tastes just a bit like lemon drop candies (only better). The original recipe from the NY Times, and mine with just a few alterations:

Lemon & Green Tomato Marmalade

Lemon & Green Tomato Marmalade

1 lemon, seeded and thinly sliced
2.5 lbs (about 5 lg) green tomatoes, cored, seeded, thinly sliced
3 1/4 C sugar
2 T lemon juice
1/8 C water
1/8 C vinegar
pinch salt
2 T liquid pectin (as needed)

1. Boil the lemon slices in water for just a moment, drain.
2. Combine all remaining ingredients and simmer until thickened. The NY Times site says 20-30 minutes, but HAHAHAHAHAHAH! that's funny. It's more like 2-3 hours. The key is to cook it until the jelly/thick sheeting point. If you've never made jam or maple syrup, this may be a new term.

Sheeting is this: when you dip a spoon into the pot and pull it out, the final drips will come together and fall off the spoon in a sheet (vs. individual drips). Watching a boiling pot and checking every thirty seconds for sheeting is an odd and effective torture. I think many governments will be making use of it soon.

3. Fill jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace, process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.

Yield: about 3 half pints.

Zippy Apple and Green Tomato Chutney

And the chutney, zippy and delicious. The original recipe here, mine below:

Zippy Apple Green Tomato Chutney

3 C currants, raisins, dried cranberries (one or a mix)
4 1/2 C chopped green tomatoes (again, cored and seeded)
4 1/2 C chopped apples (peeled)
1 lemon, seeded, quartered, sliced thin + 2 T lemon juice
2 C minced onion
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1/2 C honey
1 C vinegar
1 C water
1/2 t cayenne pepper
2 t ground ginger

1. Combine everything and bring to a simmering boil. Cook until tender, about 30 minutes.
2. Ladle into sterile jars.
3. Process 15 minutes.

Yield: about 9 half pints.

Now, just for kicks I made four half pints of this, then I played with the spices. I added:

1/4 C brown sugar
allspice
cinnamon
a touch more lemon juice

Oh my word. Awesome. Sweetness with a zing. It reminded me of Izzy's Hot Brown Sugar ice cream (one of the best I've ever had, at THE BEST ice cream parlor I've ever visited).

What do you do with chutney? I've heard that some folk serve it over ice cream or mix it in yogurt. That sounds bizarre to me, but to each his/her own. I'd serve with curry, roast, or add it to a coffee cake or quick bread mix. I'd even use it for a mincemeat pie. I have nine jars of it, so I better figure out some way to use it, right? Right.

Theft and Motivation

So, we watched the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie over the weekend and found it even better than the first one. Side-splittingly funny, especially given the plot of brothers - Doug and Rodrick's constant fighting - and Fish/St. Nick's similar inability to get along. The movie got to the part where Mom starts bribing the boys with fake money to spend time together, and Fish/St. Nick got excited. 

"Mom Bucks! Can we do Mom Bucks?"

Huh, why not? Up until now we've been having Marble Races. Each kid has a jar, they do chores and put marbles in the jar. Whoever fills their jar first gets to pick where we go for dinner on Friday night, and the race starts over. Now picking a spot to eat ended up being not enough of a carrot, so we decided each marble would be worth ten cents. The jars took about 100 marbles to fill all the way, so that's $10. With the change, when the race "ended" each child got paid according to their marbles (and the one with the most still got to pick a restaurant).

But St. Nick always seemed ahead - maybe because mowing the lawn earned him, oh, eighty marbles. And Fish/Pie would lose steam with the slow, "one drop in the bucket" filling of their jars.

The solution? Mom Bucks! Stolen blatantly from Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. The boys wanted me to use Monopoly money. Likely so they could sneak more bills out of the game box when I wasn't looking (or buy up old Monopoly games like Rodrick did to have Unlimited Mom Bucks). Hahah. I'm so much smarter than some fictional mom. I designed my own Mom Bucks.

Fun, huh?

Now the kiddos can earn "money" for the work they do around the house. And I get a good excuse to spend a day playing with PhotoShop.

I also bought some mark-down toys and trinkets to set up a Mom Buck store. They can spend their cash at the Mom Shop, or they can trade it in for real dollars. The catch? Each Mom Buck is worth *half* in cash (so 10 Mom Bucks equals 5 dollars). A little lighter on the Mom Wallet.

Devil in the Details

What is up with me? I hate sewing - loathe it - despise it. But here I am, sewing like I'm, uh, I don't even know. Martha Stewart (does she sew? Did they allow sewing machines in prison?).

Here's dress for Pie #2:

The top skirt matches the sleeve and bottom ruffle, the bottom skirt matches the bodice, etc. Not as complicated as it looks. But what really makes it are the little trimmings Pie picked out. A bit more sparkly than my choices, but they're 100% sweet, so 100% Mud Pie.

Dragonflies on the bodice:

Crystal button to set off the rushing on the bottom skirt:

And to think, I only pricked my finger hard enough to bleed once!

Cousins, Identical Cousins

That title is supposed to be sung to the tune of ... oh, what show was that? Ah, Patty Duke (thank you Google). Last week Fish and Mag and St. Nick and I all went to visit cousins about an hour away. My three kids were well matched with the other four - there's a lot of energy in this group, to be sure.

I can't imagine a more perfect day. Warm but not blistering, sunny but not blazing. We had hot dogs and cucumbers and watermelon and iced tea and popsicles. We had a water balloon fight, and finally all ended up in the pool. Yes, even the moms.

The older kids took turns on the diving board. Or rather didn't take turns!

One might think Fish is the swimmer of the bunch, but nope. St. Nick jumped off without floaties or life jacket. Fish, well, he likes to be prepared ...

The kiddos and I also left with a car load of gear for Baby. I drove home in a quiet van with three sleeping children. I was tired too, and grateful for the fellowship of family.

Fruits of My Labors

Here it is! The insane sewing frenzy yielded much cuteness.

A Pink Fig design with an assortment of fabric from an old skirt to some on-sale Joanne buys. A little large, but Pie will grow. I have another dress with wildly different colors and prints cut and ready to sew, just going to put on the finishing touches first! 

Top Things To Do

When you're too weepy and hormonal to tackle any real work:

1. Cry until your spouse suggests you might wake the kids, and it's 1am; go to bed and continue in the morning.
2. Redesign your website (check).
3. Play Plants vs. Zombies (you win! Again!).
4. Look at ultrasound pictures (*smile*).
5. Sew like a maniac despite your hate-hate relationship with your sewing machine (yup, did it).
6. Talk to your grandmother on the phone (*hugs*). 
7. Post inanity to the World Wide Web (ongoing).

Mama Why?

Because I said so!

Uh, no, this is the book, Mama Why? by Karma Wilson (illus. by Simon Mendez), McElderry, 2011

The poet in me loves the rhythm in this gentle story of how snow comes from stardust. It's a sweet, bedtime read aloud. And polar bears! Who doesn't love polar bears? They're Pie's favorite - in fact, this book was hard to get away from her so I could read it on my own.

I did find some rhymes a bit too convenient (there/bear; moonlight/so bright), but the story flows, floats almost like snow drifting down from the evening sky.

The illustrations are ethereal, warm and glowy. Worth studying.

Another Sweet Picture Book

Quiet Bunny's Many Colors by Lisa McCue, Sterling 2010.


As with any picture book, the pictures are the first thing you notice. They were, in fact, what drew Mud Pie to the book at the library and compelled her to yank it off the shelf and stuff it in her over-full library bag. Predictably, she oohed and ahhed, "How CUTE!" through the whole thing.

I enjoyed it too. A pleasant rhythm as sweet little bunny explores the colors of spring, and comes to appreciate his own unique colors. I would have liked the illustrator McCue to shush the author McCue and let the pictures tell a bit more of the story, but Pie certainly didn't mind. The art is truly lovely, and the story happy, delightful.

Question: are blueberries a spring fruit? Not in Michigan, but perhaps elsewhere ... Hmmm.

Buying PINK!

We had the 20-week ultrasound last week. Looks like we'll be shopping for pink!

Mud Pie is beside herself with glee, St. Nick is relieved (I think he considered a boy another rival), and Fish is okay so long as he can teach the baby how to play with Legos.

The first baby picture: