Chow Chow and Salsa

So we continue to put up the harvest around here.  The gardening is becoming more challenging since we haven't had much rain and the next few days are going to be in the triple digits.  The first crop of cucumbers were starting to get yellow so we pulled them up and are hoping the second crop will give us some cucumbers in a couple of weeks.  We picked the green cabbage from the garden but left the purple to grow a little bigger.  The Cabbage Loopers don't seem to prefer the purple cabbage as much as the green.  I will be planting more purple cabbage next year and using a floating row cover to help manage the Loopers better.  I made Chow Chow with the cabbage and extra cukes.

I chopped and sliced Cabbage, Yellow squash, cucumbers, onions, hot peppers, sweet peppers and a few red and yellow tomatoes for color into a big bowl.  This was salted and placed in the fridge overnight.  The next day I drained the juice and started heating the vinegar solution.  Once this was hot, I added the chopped mixture, brought it to a boil and spooned the hot mix into sterilized jars that I sealed.  I have a recipe for the vinegar solution but don't really worry about the amounts of chopped vegetables.  I like to just use up what I have and make extra solution if I need to.  What I have found is that I normally have extra solution left not extra chopped \vegetable since they kind of cook down.  

Chow Chow Solution:
2 cups vinegar (I prefer Apple Cider Vin.)
1 and 1/2 half cups sugar (I sometimes use honey at 1 cup)
2 tsp turmeric
1tsp ginger powder
2tsp mustard seed and mustard powder
2tsp celery seed (I use one since we don't care for a lot of celery seed)
1Tablespoons crushed red pepper (if you are making sweet/hot chow)

If you are just making a sweet chow then exclude the chopped hot peppers in the beginning.  We eat this on sandwiches and I put it in potato and macaroni salad.  It is really good with BBQ too.

I wanted to try a new salsa recipe using chopped zucchini to see how the family would like it so when I was done chopping for the Chow I went ahead and chopped zucchini, salted it, and put it in the fridge overnight.  Not to put the cart in front of the horse the family loved it and didn't complain about the zucchini in the recipe.  Now I have another way to use up the zucchini and provide good food for my family.  I don't have a salsa recipe that I use but can share with you what I put in the mix for our salsa.  I can a  lot of salsa every year since we eat tortilla's and salsa as a snack quite often throughout the year.

3 large Chopped Zucchini (salted and left overnight) drained
Jalepeno's
green peppers
onions
tomatoes (we use all colors)
smoked chipotle peppers
salt (to taste)
vinegar/lemon jc (about 1 cup in a huge bowl of salsa)
paprika (approx. 1/2 c)
Chili Powder (approx. 1/4 cup or a little less)
Tomato paste to thicken
This is for a huge bowl of salsa.
 ~Very Important~ A bag of chips to test the results as you work and also to keep up your strength doing all that chopping.

We have tried different methods over the years but like the results from hand chopping the ingredients so that is what we do.  Once done fill sterilized jars, put lids on, and seal in a hot water bath.  It is also important not to can all the salsa but to keep some to eat for the next couple of days.  Did I mention that I do the canning on the downstairs porch with a Propane stove?  Wonderful not to heat up the house during these hot days.