It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
I just bought a house that came with a small greenhouse and found your site while doing research on ways to set it up. I love your idea for using galvanized guttering to grow salad leaves but no one where I life sells it. South Carolina/North Carolina border region. The only place I could find online charges over $300.00 for three 10 foot sections with the shipping. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Roby
I think almost every gutter I’ve purchased has been from a hardware store. I know around here you can find them for cheap at Home Depot. Less than $10 each if I remember correctly. That’s so frustrating if they don’t sell them in hardware stores near you, but sadly I’m not sure where else to get them! Also, have fun with your green house. I LOVED mine.
Hi. I need help or ideas. For some reason I have a lot of canned kidney beans, besides chili what else can I make with that? Also canned pears. Please help.
~Emanda
I love this Asian Farro Salad, this Pasta E Fagioli Soup and even this traditional Vegetable Soup w/ Beef. This White Bean Chicken Chili calls for white kidney beans, so it might work depending on the variety you have. As far as pears go, try this Pear Vanilla Jam, this Pear and Ginger Applesauce or this Cranberry Cinnamon Pear Sauce. So many good recipes, so little time!
My parents are avid gardeners. They have recently come across the wood chip method ‘back to eden’. It may be something you’d be interested in researching, if you haven’t already;)
~Heather
I just spent entirely too much time watching videos! I’ve heard of the Back to Eden method before but had never researched it. It’s awesome! And you can watch the full Back to Eden video for free on his site. Keep us posted on their results if you would!
I am wondering if you have a recipe for salsa using tomatillos?
~Patricia
Unfortunately, I don’t {fingers crossed one of my lovely readers does, though?!}. I don’t often cook with tomatillos, but when I do, I cook this Chili Verde Soup recipe. The HH can’t get enough of this recipe and I can’t blame him. It’s so good! So maybe instead of salsa, you cook soup. Ha!
Mavis do you have any suggestions for London hotels, we are going in April.
~Mina
I have 2. If you want to SPLURGE, The Beaufort Gardens Hotel in London is my all time favorite place to stay. It’s in Knightsbridge {and spendy!} but the location cannot be beat and it is in an incredibly safe part of town {just around the corner from Harrods and the tube}. The Beaufort Gardens Hotel haa the best afternoon tea and scone service {all included in your stay} as well as free cocktails if that’s your thing. The Girl and I have stayed there 3 times.
If you want a budget friendly hotel in a safe part of town and you don’t mind a tiny room {because HELLO, it’s London, why are are using your room for anything but sleep} the BEST WESTERN Cromwell is in a great location as well. We’ve stayed there twice.
Have fun and don’t forget to pack your stretchy pants for all the yummy desserts you’ll want to try.
~Mavis
Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
Tisha says
The Ball book of canning has a recipe for a roasted tomatillo and tomato salsa that uses chipotles. It is wonderful. I believe it is also on the Ball website.
Tammy says
I LOVE that recipe. It is so good! It is still a red salsa though, not really what you think of when you are wanting salsa verde.
Carrie says
I just moved in September but at my last house I used the Back to Eden method for one year. It worked really well at keeping weeds out of the garden and I hardly watered my plants at all. I do recommend putting the wood chips down in the fall and not planting until spring. I didn’t come across this method until February and I jumped right in. My plants did ok – I do think that the wood stole some nitrogen from the soil. I have always mulched my garden with something, either straw, leaves or wood mulch, so it just seemed right to use the longer lasting wood chips. Watch the movie with Paul and you may never go back!
Peggy Stenglein says
I really loved the Back to Eden documentary, I watched i last summer. I had a big pile of wood chips at our family farm and have put hem down them in my 4 raised beds and a pretty big area in the bottom 1/3 of my garden this fall to be ready for spring planting. I have another friend that said I can get some from her giant wood chip pile too, so I’m hoping to have that area of the garden covered with wood chips for the planting area and I am putting leaves in between the rows. I can’t wait! And I figure if the wood chips aren’t decomposed enough, I can reverse things and plant where I placed the leaves. 🙂
Mavis says
I’m so eager to try it! Let us know how it goes!
Diana Cox says
I’ve got several yummy tomatillo salsa recipes! I live in Central Texas & just finished picking the last of my tomatillos 2 weeks ago before it froze the first time. I wash and freeze them in zipper bags until I’m bored in winter (January-February) and then I can salsa!
Basic Tomatillo Salsa recipe:
5 1/2 cups chopped tomatillos
1 cup chopped onion (I use white onions – use yellow for sweeter salsa)
1 cup chopped green chili peppers (I use jalapenos + long green chilis, but if you want it milder, use poblano)
1/2 cup white vinegar
4 T. lime juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped (sometimes I used roasted garlic – yum!)
2 T. chopped cilantro
2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 hot pepper flakes (or more if you like it hot!)
Combine everything in stainless steel pot; boil gently for 10 minutes; can in water-bath canner( in 8oz. jars) for 15 minutes. YUMMY on chicken enchiladas!
My favorite new recipe came from the book “Ball’s Complete Book of Home Preserving”. It takes quite a bit of work but OMGosh it is SO GOOD. I have to hide the jars from my sons so they don’t all disappear!
Roasted Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa
*preheat broiler
12 dried chipotle chili peppers, stemmed
12 dried cascabel chili peppers, stemmed (hard to find – I use dried red chili’s or ancho’s)
2 lbs husked tomatillos
2 lbs Italian plum tomatoes
2 small onions
1 head garlic, broken into cloves
1 Cup white vinegar
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
1. In a large dry skillet, over medium heat, working in batches, toast chilies on both sides, about 30 seconds per side, until they release their aroma and are pliable. Transfer to a large glass or stainless steel bowl. When all chilies have been toasted, add 2 cups hot water. Weigh chilies down with a bowl or weight to ensure they remain submerged, and soak until softened, about 15 minutes. Working in batches, transfer chilies and soaking liquid to a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade and puree until smooth. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, under a broiler, roast tomatillos, tomatoes, onions and garlic, turning to roast on all sides, until tomatillos and tomatoes are blistered, blackened and softened, and onions and garlic are blackened in spots, about 15 minutes. Set onions and garlic aside to cool. Place tomatillos and tomatoes in paper bags. Secure openings and set aside until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Peel tomatoes, onions and garlic. Finely chop onion and garlic. Set aside.
3. In a blender or food processor, puree roasted tomatillos and tomatoes and reserved pureed chilies until smooth. Set aside.
4. Prepare canner, jars & lids.
5. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine tomatillo puree, roasted onion and garlic, vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened.
6. Ladle hot salsa into jars, wipe rims and attach lids & screw-bands. Process in water-bath canner for 15 minutes.
Enjoy!
Diana
Mavis says
Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Crystal says
This is my favorite tomatillo salsa recipe. http://patismexicantable.com/2015/04/chile-de-arbol-and-tomatillo-quick-salsita/ . It is delicious and so easy!!! Only takes about 20 minutes to make. If you can’t find the chile-de-arbol (I could only find it at WalMart as a HUGE bag of dried peppers, which I bought anyways) you can use other peppers like serano or even jalapeno instead. I only use 2 of the chile-de-arbol peppers and the salsa is spicy, so if you don’t like super spicy a milder pepper might be better. I love spicy though!
Mavis says
20 minutes sounds like my kind of recipe. I might just have to give it a try! Thanks!
Jane says
Hi, there! I couldn’t help jumping in and making another canned pear recipe suggestion. I use canned pears regularly for this Upside Down Pear Gingerbread recipe and it is so easy and delicious. http://www.thyhandhathprovided.com/2013/09/upside-down-pear-gingerbread.html
Mavis says
How could I forget this recipe? It’s one of my favorites of yours!
Aunt G says
I’ve been doing the Back To Eden garden thing for three years now with great success. If you haven’t tried it at least in part of your garden you should. I do a lasagna garden topped with wood chips because my soil is rocky and hard. No tiling and I only watered once in a long hot dry summer to get the plants started. Fantastic yields.
Jenny says
My family hates pears but loves your vanilla pear coffee cake.
Patty P says
I started my Back to Eden garden this past summer after watching the documentary over the winter. The garden started out slow (we had a really wet spring), but once it got going, I was in love. Very few weeds…great yields. I even doubled my BTE garden size for the spring. I’ve even found sources for compost and woodchips for FREE….so I’m set! Give it a try….you will love it! And it looks good too!
sandra fisher says
Back to Eden changed my gardening methods forever. It makes so much sense. Last year was my first time and I did part of the garden. I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t do the whole thing.
Laura says
As far as London hotels go, I highly recommend the Premier Inn chain. I had a huge room (by London standards anyway) that had three beds in it and room for a twin air mattress (the hazards of traveling with 3 kids, lol). It had a tea kettle, private bath en suite, everything but a fridge (which would have been handy). We paid less than $100 for this with their pay-in-advance deals. Highly recommend it.
We purchased the breakfast (free for three kids) and it was fantastic. They had a latte machine and I helped myself to three on the first morning to jump start my day. They have lots of hotels in lots of great locations and they are very highly rated on Tripadvisor. Check them out!!
Gardenpat says
Here’s the recipe link that I used to make several batches of green chili salsa verde sauce with tomatillos. It is amazing!!!!
http://www.sbcanning.com/2011/05/happy-mothers-day-to-me-tomatillo-salsa.html