ingrid

The neighbor has pears coming out her ears.  Poor lady is 5 months pregnant with her third kid, (hey, I remember that!), and has pears to pick up off her lawn.  Her nights are punctuated with the loud “plop!” of falling pears followed by the rustle of raccoons seeking a midnight snack.  The pears keep coming down without much stop, so Brad and I tried to help her catch up (at least for one day) and picked a bunch of pears.

I had thought that I would can these suckers, but midway into peeling them, realized that they are a bit bruised and spotty to make that job any fun.  It is a pain in the ass to peel pears.  I think that is the case for any fruit, but these soft suckers were particularly bad.  So I made chutney.

Brad’s mom made chutney about 4 or 5 years ago.  It was delicious!  We loved the stuff, but despite many a blatant hint,(“Hey, if you EVER make chutney again, can we have some?”  ”Wow, we LOVED that chutney!”), chutney was not forthcoming.  The rest of Brad’s local family are not really adventurous eaters, so chutney did not appeal to them.  I finally buckled down and decided to make it myself.  After this experience, I can see why Brad’s mom didn’t immediately embark on making it just for us.  It’s a lot of work!

I peeled and peeled and peeled and peeled.  I had, (okay, so I still have them!), so many pears that I decided to double the recipe.  Did I mention that I have a hard time following recipes?  It is true.  I have a hard time not changing something, and as I am 36 years old, it is time to accept myself.  So change I did.  I added more garlic.  It just didn’t seem like enough!  And I put in some orange peel, because I had it left over from my soap and don’t know what I will do with it.  And some powdered ginger in addition to the fresh ginger.  You can’t have too much ginger can you?  And some sprinkles of chili peppers because they came with the pizza we got last week.  And a pound of plums.

Hey, that picture really was like that!  I didn’t move the bowl or anything!  That bouquet was right there…. really!  That is because I would rather go outside and pick a bouquet to put in my messy kitchen rather than clean it.  Amy Sederis, in her hospitality book, I Like You, has a hilarious picture of her test kitchen.  It is cluttered and chaotic, messy, and her baking sheets and pots are all stained and somewhat rusty.  I think of this picture all the time.  It looks just like my kitchen.

ANYWAY, after several hours and the invariable confusion involved in cooking chutney, starting up the canning stuff, trying to make a lasagna and lunch mid-canning job, I made chutney!  It is beautiful and will be delicious I am sure.  The only problem is that I now need to find out how to go kill a hog, to go with our chutney.

In: food, Projects That I Do With My Clever Little Fingers | | #