Relish and other goodies

Living without appliances or a kitchen sink presents certain challenges, none more so than preserving our summer bounty of cucumbers and squash.  My solution thus far has been to pull the chest freezer into the equation and freeze things instead of canning them.

This will allow me to can them later on, should I wish, and will let me put up what I need for winter.

This morning was relish-making.  I had about 10 pounds of cucumbers and decided freezer relish was something I could accomplish easily.  I used a pre-made relish base (hated to do it but, again, the lack of a kitchen loomed large) and added the pulverized cucumbers, cooking it all on the side burner of the barbecue until it was ready for jars.  Into the jars it all went, and into the freezer they went after cooling.  The plastic bags were used over the jars as a precaution in case they burst and broke, but I'm happy to say all went well and the jars held up just fine.

I may re-batch it all and water-bath can it later on, but this has at least preserved our harvest for now.  I've been really lucky that we are having an extremely late tomato season, and most of my tomatoes are set, but still green.  What a blessing.  But the tomatoes I do pick will also go straight into the freezer, to be thawed and canned at a later date.

And squash was shredded and frozen for quick breads and my famous zucchini chocolate cake.  It will be nice to have it available throughout the year, since it's kind of a family favorite.

All in all, we're surviving without a kitchen, and hopefully, we'll be back into a new and better kitchen soon!