Tomato Chow Chow

50 Garden Tomatoes

What do you do with an abundance of tomatoes from the garden? I have a tomato and pepper garden just outside my kitchen door. The pepper plants are growing but not yielding peppers yet. More water? Surely not more sun. On the other hand, the tomato plants are yielding an abundance of tomatoes in spurts. One afternoon this week I noticed a lot of red in the garden. Too excited to go grab a bag or basket, I filled my hands with as many as they could hold and took them to the kitchen. After a couple of times, I took a plastic bag out to the garden for the rest. When I came back to the kitchen, my husband was sitting at the table counting tomatoes. He said, "You have 49 tomatoes!" I said, "I'll go get one more so we'll have 50."
One person has a limit to the tomatoes he or she can eat in a salad for lunch or a sandwich. What would I do with all these tomatoes? I could give some away. Ah, I know. I'll make Chow Chow. Both my grandmothers made Chow Chow. If you've never tasted it, you have missed out on some good 'ole southern eating. Chow Chow is a relish that my family ate with black eyed peas, cream peas, all kinds of peas except English peas. It is delicious. So I've decided to make some Chow Chow. Here is a Chow Chow recipe like one of my grandmothers often made:

Ingredients:

• 5 cups coarsely chopped green tomatoes (about 5 tomatoes and can use red tomatoes)
• 5 cups coarsely chopped cabbage (about 1 1/2 pounds cabbage)
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped yellow onion or sweet onion
• 1/3 cup kosher salt or pickling salt
• 2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon celery seed

Preparation:

Combine the vegetables into a large bowl, and stir in salt. Cover and let stand for 4 hours or refrigerate overnight. Prepare canner and jars. Add water to canner with rack and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer. The level of water should be about an inch above the filled jars. Wash jars and heat water in a small saucepan. Place the lids in the saucepan, and bring almost to a boil. Turn heat on low to keep the lids hot.
Drain vegetables and rinse.
In a large bowl, bring the vinegar, brown sugar, spices and seeds to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes. Add drained vegetables and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes.
Pack the hot drained vegetables into the heated jars. Cover vegetables with the pickling liquid. Leave 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch space at the top. Secure the jars with the flat lids and the rings. Be sure not to over-tighten the rings. Place jars into canner. Bring to a full boil. Cover and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the jars of Chow Chow and cool completely.You'll know the jars are ready when you hear them pop as they are cooling.
Makes about 4 pints.

I'm so happy that you came to visit today!

Quick and Easy Meals and Desserts for Two

Officially, summer is over! Sad for some, I'm sure, but it's a happy time for me because I love fall. At the beginning of summer I made plans for a salad summer and actually managed to make salads often. I love salads. You can add one or two ingredients different than the last time you served a salad and have a completely different taste. Honestly, I intended to blog more about the salads throughout the summer. However, I do have a confession to make. My hubby and I  were on the go so much that we ate out quite often. You can do that if it's just the two of you especially if you save coupons and actually use them instead of letting them get lost in your mail stash on the counter. You just can't beat two-for-one Subway sandwiches for less than $10 or two six-inch subs for less than $5. The two of us made it quite successfully through the summer with our quick and easy meals. We ate salads, sandwiches, chicken dishes, and many ground beef dishes. We like those ground beef dishes especially because you can mix in a variety of veggies and top with cheese then make a burrito out of it.
Mix some of these ingredients with your ground beef for a quick meal in a burrito:

1. frozen diced onions
2. green onions
3. fresh garlic
4. tomatoes
5. Ro*Tel tomatoes and diced chilies
6. serrano peppers
7. jalapeno peppers
8. green, red, and/or yellow bell peppers
9. yellow summer squash
10. zucchini
11. Velveeta cheese
12. cheddar cheese
13. spicy Monterrey Jack cheese
14. corn
15. black beans
16. chili beans
17. Kidney beans
18. hominy

For a quick and easy salad, try these variations:

1. lettuce
2. spinach leaves
3. tomatoes, sliced or diced
4. cucumbers, sliced thin
5. carrots, shredded
6. crumbled blue cheese
7. crumbed tomato and basil feta cheese
8. drained can of tangerines
9. green or red seedless grapes
10. green onions
11. pickled beets
12. garbanzo beans
13. English peas
14. strawberry slices

Now for dessert, my most favorites of the summer were Orange Cow and Purple Cow. My husband and I were visiting our friends one evening. The hostess asked me if I had ever had Orange Cow or Purple Cow. I hadn't. Orange Cow is vanilla ice cream with orange juice poured over it. Purple Cow is vanilla ice cream with grape juice poured over it. They are both absolutely de-licious! A variation I tried and liked was the green mint ice cream with grape juice poured over it. I guess you would call that variation Purple Green Cow.

Enjoy mixing up these varieties of quick and easy meals and desserts.
I'm joining these linking parties:

• Tasty Tuesday
• Nothing But Country

Hawaiian Chicken Salad

Hawaiian Chicken Salad

Hawaiian Chicken Salad makes a refreshing and tasty summer salad.

Ingredients include:

• One or two fresh garden tomatoes
• Spinach leaves (as many as you like)
• Lettuce
• 1 can of White Chunk Chicken
• 1/2 to 1 can pineapple chunks 
• Small carrots slices

 Variations:

1. Use Mandarin oranges instead of pineapple
2. Add beans of your choice
3. Add Macadamia nuts

I made up this salad yesterday, and it tasted delicious even without dressing added to it. I'm eager to try it
again with some of the variations. It's perfect for a light appetite on a hot summer day.

Kitchen gardens especially come in handy for summer salads such as this one. I picked two pretty red tomatoes yesterday and can't wait to make another salad this evening to go with dinner. Whether you make a Hawaiian, Mexican, Italian, Greek or American salad, you can always add tomatoes. Even a juicy tomato from the kitchen garden is a quick refresher. Take a break from your to-do list and enjoy a tomato sprinkled with salt and pepper - YUM!

I'm linking to:

• Wow Us Wednesday

Chicken Salads

Search yard sales, thrift stores, and antique shops for vintage cookbooks that have chicken salad recipes. That's one of my hobbies - collecting vintage cookbooks, especially if they have a chicken salad recipe. My mother could make the best chicken salad. "Chop the apples and onions real fine," she'd say. Funny thing is my aunt, Mother's older sister, always liked her chicken salad with chunky onions and apples. It's all good however the apples and onions are cut. One of the most refreshing lunches is a chicken salad sandwich.

I'm including a few chicken salad recipes from my vintage cookbooks for this salad summer mission. It took me awhile to get going on this mission in case you didn't notice a gap in my posts. My daughter is getting married this month, so life has been busy for us lately. 

1959

1987

Today I'm featuring the Fruited Chicken Salad from the Farm Journal's Country Cookbook:

• 2 c. cooked chicken, cut in cubes
• 1 orange, peeled and sectioned
• 1/2 c. grapes, halved and seeded
• 1/2 c. toasted almonds or pecans
• 2 medium bananas, peeled and sliced
• 1 c. mayonnaise or salad dressing

1. Put chicken (preferably white meat) in bowl; add other ingredients, tossing lightly. Chill.
2. Serve on crisp greens; garnish with whole strawberries (if in season). Or serve on pineapple slices with perky sprigs of water cress or Bibb lettuce. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Featured from The Eyes of Texas Cookbook is:

Hot Chicken Salad

• 1/4 cup cooked and chopped chicken
• 3/4 cup celery, sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon minced onion
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Salt and pepper
• 4 slices bread

Combine all ingredients except bread, and mix well. Toast bread on one side. Butter untoasted side and spread with chicken salad. Bake on cookie sheet for 12 minutes at 425°. Serves 4.

Lanelle Jolly

Texas City, Texas

I'm linking to:

• Tasty Tuesdays

Garden Tomato Blue Cheese Salad

Make a fresh summer salad with a tomato from your kitchen garden. Yesterday I made a tasty green salad mixed with veggies including two Roma tomatoes from my kitchen garden. Ingredients included:

• lettuce
• spinach
• carrots
• red bell pepper
• blue cheese crumbles
• two Roma tomatoes
• cheddar cheese, cut in small squares
• croutons

Garden Tomato Blue Cheese Salad

My Kitchen Garden Roma Tomato

Today I'm planting a hot pepper mini garden in a huge pot with jalapenos and serrano peppers to add to my kitchen garden. That will make some mighty spicy salsa!

Have a sunny and beautiful Sunday!

I'm linking up with:

• Tough Cookie Mommy 

Salad Mission

Healthy Salads

Got exciting recipes for delicious and healthy salads? Share them here, for I'm on a mission. With your help, just maybe I can work on eating light and healthy this summer. Once upon a time my dear dad told me, "Honey, you'll be like me and have to watch your weight all your life." Dad is now 86 and still works out at the YMCA, eats just enough and looks healthy and fit.

My mission? My daughter is getting married at the end of July, and I want to trim up a little, get rid of a few extra pounds. Since summer is near, I am planning to eat more salads like I usually do because of summer heat. Too much meat makes one lethargic and miserably stuffed in the heat of summer. I love salads, all kinds of salads. I make them with different vegetables mixed with greens, mixed with fruit, beans, tuna, chicken, and whatever sounds good. It is common for me to be asked by my friends to bring a salad to special functions. I invite you to add to my salad variations. New ideas for salads will make this mission easier to do.

My mission includes healthy eating including salads, fruit, vegetables, some meat, and occasional healthy breads and desserts when I feel like I just have to have them. This mission includes one more thing - exercise. Walking is my choice. In fact, I hear the birds as I write and will go walking after I end this blog post.
This morning's breakfast at 5:30 was hours ago. It was scrambled egg and Velveeta cheese burritos, two for hubby and one for me...and fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh from an acre of orange trees yesterday. Delicious! There's nothing like sweet fresh orange juice. Squeezing the oranges this morning reminded me of my mother-in-law who passed away four years ago May 23rd. She told me once about her experiences working in the orange groves when she moved to California. She would work hard all day and go home with the black smut on her face from the smudge pots. My morning's orange work was easy with my little manual juicer which works great, much easier than the old smudge pots.

I'll look forward to seeing your recipes for salads mixed with fruit, vegetables and occasionally meat or beans for my summer mission.

Vegan Cabbage Soup

Vegan Cabbage Soup

1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 tsp. curry
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 yellow summer squash, diced
5 carrots, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes

Place all ingredients in crockpot, cover with water, and cook on high for about two hours. Turn to low and cook all day.
What I like about this recipe is how easy and healthy it is. The chicken bouillon cube and curry add a rich taste. This recipe is similar to the cabbage soup diet. The key to the cabbage diet, however, is eat plenty of green vegetables and the cabbage soup. You may add or leave out some of the spices or vegetables to suit your taste. Shredded cooked chicken breast would also make this soup very tasty if you get tired of just vegetables. As summer nears, however, heavy meat makes me feel quite sluggish and overly full. This cabbage soup is filling, and the chicken flavor satisfies the craving for more than just vegetables.