Labor Day is Northfield's big holiday, and our little town celebrates with three days of events, kicking off on Saturday with a 5K road race. This is fun because the turn-around is right in front of our house, so we always stand out there to cheer on the runners. This year Austin did the run, so we could cheer for him. And get a picture.
Sunday afternoon was a Salsa contest. I entered a new, secret-ingredient salsa that Gavin has named James and the Giant Peach Salsa. (Can you guess what we are reading right now?) My salsa took 2nd place! Admittedly, this is not a big town, and New England isn't known for its salsa, but still! And no, I don't have a picture of me proudly accepting my ribbon. I forgot and left the camera at home. But the ribbon is proudly displayed on my refrigerator, lest anyone forget my mad skillz as a domestic goddess.
Monday was the Labor Day parade. It's a funny little small-town parade, with homemade floats and lots of antique cars and tractors. Still, it's fun to go, since we end up knowing a lot of the people marching by. Austin liked the bagpipers, Lucy liked Santa riding a Harley, Gavin liked the float with the giant inflatable pig, and I loved the Shriners with their little red hats riding around on go-karts. Though the roller-derby ladies and the farmers leading decorated baby calves were close behind in the voting for me.
 |
| Lucy and her pals waving at the floats. |
 |
| Gavin and his buddy. They look like twins to me. |
The highlight of the weekend for Lucy and Gav had to be the face painter. They showed up at her booth first thing to get a number for later in the day. We got there just in time -- the kids took two of the last three available numbers and their turn didn't come up until 3:00 in the afternoon. But it was worth it, they looked really amazing.
 |
| Painting eyeballs on Gav's eyelids. Creepy. |
 |
| Eyes closed. |
 |
| Eyes open. |
The other big activity of the weekend was canning a huge vat of salsa. It pretty much took all weekend. Saturday I picked buckets and buckets of tomatoes and peppers, Sunday I peeled and chopped the tomatoes, and today I added the other ingredients (thank goodness for food processors), cooked, canned, and processed it all. The salsa filled my huge stockpot almost to the rim, and I ended up with 29 pints when I was done. Yeah, that should see us through winter.
For any that might be interested, here are the recipes I've been using for canned salsa, based on recipes in the Ball Book of Home Preserving.
Award-winning James and the Giant Peach Salsa
4 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes. (I run the chopped tomatoes through the salad spinner to remove as much liquid as possible, then freeze the liquid for making soup later.)
2 cups chopped, peeled peaches
2 cups chopped, peeled pears
1 red pepper
1 cup chopped onion
4 jalapeno peppers, chopped (I like it spicy so I leave seeds in)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup honey
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 T chopped fresh mint
Bring chopped veggies and fruits to a boil, then add the honey, lemon zest and juice and vinegar. Reduce heat and boil gently until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Add cilantro and mint at the end. Can and process 20 minutes.
Garden Salsa
7 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes, run through salad spinner to remove liquid.2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
8 jalapeno peppers (I add a few more, and leave seeds in)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 6oz. can tomato paste
3/4 cup lemon or lime juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (add after cooking)
Combine all ingredients except cilantro. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add cilantro. Can and process 20 minutes.
