Dumplings are my Bitch

This is the greatest soup dumpling I know.   I'd give you the recipe for the soup that goes with it, but honestly,  I don't want to limit you like that.   You can drop these into veggie broths,  tomato based broths, chicken or beef broths.   Make your favorite chicken soup, and instead of noodles, drop in the dumplings at the end.  Change the herbs to suit; this version is perfect for a clear broth chicken or vegetable soup.   Double or triple the recipe as needed, but this batch size is meant for a couple quarts of soup.

Fuck Yeah, Dumplins'

Them Apples.

Part Two of our Apple Adventures.

When I told my friend Matt that Emma and I were canning apples, he mentioned that a coworker had given him a jar of apple salsa.   Apple salsa?

Sold.

I texted Emma and told her to bring hot peppers with her.   She did not mess around, and showed up with a beautiful melange of peppers, and we used them all.   Ben says this is the best salsa he's ever had.

Hellfire Apple Salsa

Apples in my Eye. Part One.

Of all the things to can in the whole world, I love the apple most.   You can do almost any kind of sweet preserve with it, and it's cheap to do in quantity. Which is important, because that's kind of the point of canning. I don't know about you, but I can't be fucked to spend three hours boiling and sterilizing shit to end up staring at the three sad pints of jam.   Which are now so precious you can't eat them, as they've come to represent an entire night of work and a filthy kitchen.

Hence, apples.  They are delicious in their own right, have tons of pectin and are a fantastic filler for more expensive fruits.  

Last night, my awesome niece Emma came over straight from the tattoo parlor and with a bag of hot peppers in hand for a canning date.  We had a couple pecks of Haralson apples, a bag of oranges, four bags of frozen blueberries, those peppers, and whatever we could find in the pantry.   

Here's one of the things we made up!  

Blueberry Ginger Apple Jam