If you’re looking for a summertime chili then this might be it. I made it a couple of nights ago now and we are still enjoying it for lunches, it’s super tasty and very light. I confess that I omitted the fresh chilies because I reckoned the kids would refuse to eat it otherwise so I spiced mine up in the bowl with a little hot sauce, but you can do whatever you like.
It’s easy to make if you first prep the onions and garlic, then cook up the turkey and you’re ready to go. I should add that as with many flavourful stews and soups the flavour improves if you let it sit in the fridge for a day or two before you eat it.

White Turkey Chili Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped small
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 Jalapeno peppers, diced
1.5 tablespoons mild chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano, or couple sprigs of fresh
1 can of pinto beans
1 can navy beans
1 can great northern beans
1lb ground turkey, cooked
1 litre/ 4 cups Chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 medium tomato, diced
handful chopped cilantro
couple of fresh limes

METHOD
1 Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan and then saute the chopped onions until soft, then add the garlic, Jalapenos, chili powder, cumin and oregano and cook for one minute more. At the same time in a separate frying pan or skillet cook the ground turkey with a little oil if needed.

2 Rinse the beans in a colander and then add them, the cooked turkey and chicken stock to the pan, put the lid on and simmer for 15 mins.

3 Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste, then the chopped tomato, cilantro and freshly squeezed lime to taste, enjoy!

So, canning without cans? It seemed like a novel idea to me when I moved here four years ago, but I’m not really sure what else you could call it, ‘jarring’ doesn’t really roll off the tongue in the same way.

No one that I know of back in Britain ‘cans’ fruits, vegetables and preserves in the way that it’s done here. For starters the jars and canning equipment are not readily available, and the types of fruit and vegetables that are traditionally grown there such as apples and root vegetables don’t require preserving in that way. Jams, marmalade and chutneys are commonly made there, most people just save old jam jars and don’t bother with the water bath method for that. My granny made the best rhubarb jam ever, and she just put a little wax disk on the top of the jam and then the lid on it, it would keep for a long time like that without spoiling.

So I decided that this year would be THE year that I finally get around to canning some tomatoes. I’ve thought about it before and even bought the jars, but last year the tomatoes were all gone before I got my act together. Last week I was given a large box of tomatoes from a friend and so I simply had to get on with it.

How to Can Tomatoes

If you’ve never done this before then please go to the Ball website and read the Introduction to Canning. I don’t have a fancy water bath canner, just a cheap tall enamel pan that I found in Walmart along with a metal steamer basket that I already had to keep the jars of the bottom. You will need either pint or quart jars along with the correct sized lids, wide mouth jars are the easiest to work with for this. A Ball Utensil Set will make your life so much easier, especially if you plan to can again in the future.

I had a large box of tomatoes, about 20lbs I think. Before you start you’ll need to prep your jars, I used 24 pint jars, you can run them through the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle before you start with anything else. Then I took a large pan and brought some water to a boil on the stove and then reduced the heat right down so that it was just simmering, I also put my canner on at the same time, half filled with water, to come up to temperature. Get a large bowl or another pan and fill it with iced water, then you can go ahead and put a bunch of tomatoes in the simmering water for about 1-2 minutes. With a slotted spoon lift them into the iced water, the skin should slip off easily  and you can cut the tomatoes into quarters. I found it easier to skin the whole lot in batches before moving onto the next stage.

Then get your jars ready by adding one tablespoon of bottled lemon juice per pint jar or two per quart jar, this is supposed to help retain colour and reduce the odds of spoilage, but I have several canning friends who don’t bother with this step. Spoon in the your tomato pieces and then top up (leaving an inch of space at the top) with boiling water. Make sure there are no air bubbles in there, you can use a plastic utensil to poke around the sides to release the bubbles. Check that the tops of the jars are clean, then you can put the lids and rings on.

Boil the jars in your canner with at least an inch of water covering them for 35 mins for pints and 45 minutes for quarts. If you live at high altitude then you will need to adjust the canning times, you can read about some more here

Once done remove the jars from the water leave them to cool, this takes hours. You may hear popping sounds as the jars lids seal. Once they have cooled you can check the seal by pushing gently on the center of the lid, if it moves up and down then it is not sealed properly. I would just refrigerate that jar and use it from there, some people put it back in the water bath, but you would need a new lid to do that.

Could there be anything more Southern than a cool tall glass of iced tea? We moved here in 2008 from the United Kingdom, over there iced tea doesn’t really exist except perhaps imported in a bottle. No one back home would countenance drinking iced tea any more than you would choose to eat a cold fried egg.

But when faced with Mississippi’s excessive heat and humidity for months on end, cold tea with ice suddenly seemed like a very appealing prospect and so I embraced it and all its sugary goodness. These days I try and avoid the sweet version (and boy, do they like it sweet here!) or I sweeten it with a little honey instead.

Recipe

1 quart/ 1 litre boiling water
2 family size teabags or 4 regular
1/3 cup/80mls lemon juice
1 cup/ 200gm sugar
1 cup/ handful mint leaves
1 quart/ 1 litre cold water

Add the sugar, teabags and mint to the boiling water, stir well until the sugar is dissolved then cover and let the whole thing steep for about an hour. Remove the teabags and mint and add in the lemon juice and the remaining cold water, enjoy!

If you’re looking for something a little different than your regular cup of tea then some Chai tea just might hit the spot. There are many ingredients to choose from so I’ll just go ahead and share with you the ones that I like, this will make a mug of tea.

So first of all you need to boil your water, then add in your teabag and remaining ingredients. After a minute or two remove the teabag before it becomes too dark and leave the remaining ingredients in for a few more minutes or more. Some people like to add milk, but I like it black, it’s really up to you.

1 teabag
1/4 inch fresh ginger, cut into small pieces
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
5 green cardamom pods
couple of cloves
honey to taste

I thought I was home and dry once I’d finally got to grips with the ins and outs of a gluten and dairy free diet, but I really hadn’t given much thought to other non-food items that I might be ingesting. Finding hidden gluten in food is a challenge but it’s considerably easier than trying to find out if it’s in your personal care items.

Unfortunately there’s no continuity between cosmetics companies and no laws that require them to list gluten in non food items. Any gluten that is in these products isn’t usually listed as such  (it’s usually some chemical name)so it’s very hard to know if your lipstick, shampoo or medicine is safe for you to use.

I’ve found gluten in probiotic that I bought in a health food store, too bad I didn’t read the label before I got it home! I’ve had to call shampoo and cosmetics companies to ask about their products, a frustrating endeavor that sometimes left me wanting to bang my head on the desk. Most I’ve discovered do not have a go to list of their products that are gluten free, especially the cosmetics companies. Usually it helps to have a specific product in mind when calling and then you might find the answer that you want, maybe.

The received wisdom is that as long as you are not ingesting it then gluten in your mascara or face cream doesn’t matter, but I’d rather not take any chances. I’ve been sick for a couple of years and finally feel like I am turning a corner now, I don’t want to suffer a setback because of my cosmetics!

Rhubarb is an infrequent visitor to the grocery stores around here in north Mississippi, but it does occasionally put in an appearance.  Usually it’s in a ‘blink and you miss it’ kind of way, some years I don’t see it at all. But last week, finally, there were several bunches of the familiar long pink stalks for sale.

My grandmother who lived on the Hebridean island of Lewis used to make jam with it when I was a child, delicious served on large slabs of crusty bread and butter. I didn’t have nearly enough to attempt a jam making session, and besides, I’m trying to cut back on refined sugar these days so I opted to ‘stew’  what little I had instead.

It’s a bit of a stretch to call this a recipe really, so I’ll simply detail for you what how I cooked and ate it.

Before I start you ought to know that the leaves (not usually attached to the stalks  in the grocery store) are toxic and must not be consumed. I trimmed the top of the stalks to remove remnant of  leaves that were there, I don’t know if that small amount of leaf could cause problems but I wasn’t taking any chances.

Wash the stalks and then just cut into inch sized pieces, put in a little pot with a very small amount of water in the bottom.  I didn’t measure the water, but you don’t want to cover the rhubarb, you almost want to steam it, so for about 4 or 5 stalks you probably only need a half cup of water, maybe a little more. Add in some sugar at this point, perhaps a quarter to a half cup depending on your taste. Put a lid on and cook on a low heat, It will take 5 minutes or more to get soft and if you over cook it you’ll have a mushy mess but it will still taste fine. If you prefer to use honey then it works better to add that in after a few minutes once the rhubarb has started to cook down.

You can eat is as it is, hot or cold.  If you have any home made custard it is delicious served with that, whipped cream works nicely too if you can tolerate dairy.

Celiac Awareness Month starts today! The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness are beginning a month of guest posts regarding various aspects of living gluten free covering topics such as ‘Avoiding hidden gluten’, ‘What questions to ask when dining out’, ‘Gluten Free challenges at School’, and many other helpful topics.

You can read the posts daily for the next month at the Celiac Central: Bits and Bites blog