What does one do with a Tomatillo....and a Mango?????

I've had several projects going.  One is a set of placemats and table runner to give a special someone as a thank-you.  I'm using the Ocean Shimmer block and some Seminole piecing for a purple/southwest theme.

I found this block in one of my quilting magazines, unfortunately, I neglected to note which one!  It's paper pieced, which is fun to do but I think it wastes a lot of fabric, which bothers the scrooge in me.

It was called 'Ocean Shimmer'

I am making up the placemats as I go but I intend to put a 3" flying geese strip and a plain dark purple strip above this 6" block.  Then alongside a 12 x 12 seminole pieced block for a 12 x 18" placemat.  

The insane craziness of trying to 'put up' continues.  This week from Bountiful Baskets I got 2 boxes of these:

White Sweet Corn from Olathe, Colorado!!

Part of it I froze on the cob and then I cut it off the cob and froze it in pint freezer bags.  Now I was pretty excited about the cutting part because I had this corn cob cutter that I was DYING to use.  It was brand new and it was a HUGE BUST...it wouldn't shave off one single darn kernel and I resorted to the knife...

A pile of sweet corn in my old enamel pan.  What did they do before enamel pans??

The corn cutter with the knife I finally resorted to.  BUSTED technology. In fact I think this is old technology, both of them.

I also got a 21 lb box of grapes, they were Thompson Seedless.  That is the kind they use to make raisins.  But fresh,  WOW!!!  We've eaten a great deal of them and the rest I canned for fruit salads this winter.

Canned Grapes

They also had a Mexican pack which contained several kinds of peppers, limes, cilantro, onions, garlic, jalepenos, and tomatillos.    SO I found a recipe for tomatillo salsa which included all of this stuff.

We'll have to see if we like this salsa.  My husband does not like hot food at all so I only put in one jalapeno in the whole batch.  It's a pretty green salsa and you can really smell the lime in it!

Here's the recipe I used from my Ball Canning Book:

Tomatillo Salsa

5 1/2 cups chopped cored husked Tomatillos (I grilled mine first on the gas grill)

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green chili peppers (I had 3 varieties including the jalepeno)

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons minced cilantro

2 teaspoons cumin*

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red pepper*

1 cup vinegar

1/4 cup lime juice

Combine all ingredients in large saucepot.  Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Ladle into jars, leaving 1/4 (I had more) headspace.  Process 15 minutes in boiling-water canner.  Yield 2 pints

*Mine wound up cumin-less as a)I have no cumin b)I have no clue what cumin tastes like, and c) when you live 60 miles north of nowhere you don't run to the store to get cumin.  For the red pepper I put in chipolte chili powder.

The regular baskets from Bountiful Baskets this week contained Mangoes.  Now what the heck do you do with Mangoes????  I found a recipe for Mango Salsa so I guess I'll try putting that up maybe mid-week.  I don't think my Mangoes are ripe yet.

The insanity continues.....................................