Jardiniere

One of my dad's favorite treats is jardiniere.  I remember when he and his friend would open a jar and eat it usually with Mexican food and beer.  Both would become red in the face and sweat would pop out on their foreheads.  I always thought it looked like a painful food to eat, but they both assured me that it was quite good.

For years afterward I had wanted to make jardiniere for my dad but never managed to get around to it.  This year I had so many fresh veggies from my garden that I decided it was time.  This one is for you, Dad!

Good jardiniere starts with fresh ingredients. Well, good anything starts with fresh ingredients, but you know what I mean.  I was lucky enough to get most of the ingredients from my garden, including the herbs.  I omitted the mushrooms, substituting hot peppers (jalapeno and Hungarian hot wax), and added celery I bought from the store.  If I had been thinking I would have picked up some cauliflower as well.  Oops.  At this time I should probably let you know that I started with the recipe in the Ball Blue Book.


 Fresh harvest from the garden, except for the celery
I spent the next hour or so chopping the vegetables into fairly uniform sizes.  The sweet peppers were cut into strips and the onions were sliced. Because I think it looks neat, I cut the hot peppers into rounds.  All of the cut vegetables and herbs were put in a large bowl.  While I was chopping, the cider vinegar and pickling spices were coming to a boil on the stove.  Unless you are seriously congested, do not put your face over the boiling cider vinegar/spice mixture and inhale, it may cause pain.

Ask me how I know this.

After all the vegetables were sliced and the cider vinegar mixture comes to a boil, add the veggies to the pot, stir and heat just until they become tender.  These will be getting a boiling water bath in a bit, so be sure not to overcook them.  Nobody like mushy jardiniere.

Veggies cooking in the pot.

While the veggies were cooking, I put my sterilized jars on the rack suspended above the water in my canning pot to heat them up.  Putting hot ingredients into cold jars can cause breakage, so better to be safe than sorry.

I packed each jar with the veggies and ladled the hot liquid over, leaving about 1/4" of headspace.  Check for air pockets and bubbles, I like to use a clean chopstick to release the bubbles.   Add a little more liquid if necessary, seal and process in boiling water according the the recipe directions.  Times vary according to altitude.  Remove the jars to a towel or tray to cool and admire the pretty colors!

Oooh, pretty!

Bushier Basil

I was amused the other day reading how Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman dislikes picking basil because of a fear of running out.  Ree, I'm totally laughing with you, not at you, because I often avoid picking my basil for the same reason!

While checking on my garden this morning I noticed that the basil is starting to bloom.  In order to keep the leaves tasting sweet, I need to nip this in the bud...literally.   The benefits to pinching back basil are two-fold.  One, the leaves stay tasting sweet and two, the plant starts to grow bushier instead of taller.

This is what my basil looks like while it is blooming.





If I wanted to I could let it go in order to save seeds for next year, but I still want my basil to taste it's best so I'm pinching.  I'll start letting it go to seed in another month or so.  When I pinch back my basil, I pinch off flowers back to the next set of leaves to encourage bushier, not taller growth.  This results in more leaves and more leaves equal more pesto!





Basil is extremely easy to grow and there are some really attractive varieties.  I'm growing Mammoth, Sweet, and Red Rubin, the last of which is a beautiful burgundy color.  What types do you grow and what are some of your favorite uses for basil?