canning...

what do you do with 20 pounds of onions?

I diced up 8 pounds 

added some red peppers

vinegar

sugar

Boil down...

BWB for 15 minutes

sweet onion/pepper relish

we picked a 5 gallon bucket of jalapenos,

aren't they pretty...

again..

dice, (I did clean these, even though some seeds did get in)
 add vinegar and sugar.

boil down...

BWB for 10 minutes

sweet/hot jalapeno relish

Note: the second batch we added some onions too.
because did I mention we had 20 pounds!

Stocking up...

I continue to learn how to STOCK UP and preserve the food which we grow/purchase. We are always scanning the weakly sale adds for the Specials of the Week. The last two weeks we purchased alot of tuna for $.50 a can. I haven't seen that in a while.

I also try to stock up on chicken breasts but find they start getting freezer burn, here is an example of How to can chicken. I also discovered a series of You Tube Videos by Wendy Dewitt, explaining why you should start storing food, how to rotate your food supply and talking about how to cook without electricity (solar) using a Food Saver Vacuum Sealer to extend the life of your dry goods in canning jars (vacuum packing). There are Nine videos in all. Well worth your time to watch them all, so much good information. Her blog is Everything Under the Sun. Check it out.

Also...how would you like for your stove to not only cook but also heat your water and your 1600 square foot home? Check out Homewood Stoves.

Lime pickles...

you can buy this at Wal Mart, but it comes in a bag now...

follow the directions on the back...

soaking in the lime for 24 hours...

finished product, we got 10 pints... a sweet pickle, Amanda and Charles added 1/2 jalapeno to the bottom of each jar for a hot/sweet pickle. VERY GOOD.

good stuff

CHIPOTLE KETCHUP

1 med. sweet onion
1 T olive oil
28 oz can whole tomatoes, or fresh from the garden (skinned)
1/2 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 t molasses, or honey
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
salt to taste

On medium low heat cook onion in olive oil until tender and slightly brown.
Add tomatoes and their juices, crushing tomatoes. I used a potato masher.
Stir in the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
After an hour puree the mixture, then continue to cook on low until desired thickness.

This was awesome...but a little spicy for me, so I added 1 C regular ketchup at the end.

Makes about 1 pint, refrigerate after cooling.
I got the recipe from "Homesick Texan", lots of good ideas...I hope you like spicy!


Kenneth likes mustard, me, not so much...but, this looks interesting

SWEET HOT MUSTARD

2 oz. dry mustard
1/2 brown sugar
1/4 c cider vinegar
1/4 c oil
1 t Worcestershire
1/t lemon juice
pinch salt

Mix all ingredients, whisk until smooth.
Refrigerate in covered jar for a couple of days, to allow flavors to blend, before using.

makes appx. 12 T

from the July 2010 issue of "Texas Co-op Power".

I used it...

we went to home depot one day and I got one of these patio pepper plants, for 99 cents!

the first ones I cut off I froze...
then I remembered the dehydrator I got from Leon and Momma and decided to try drying the next ones. 24 hrs later I have nice dried peppers for cooking up later.

I'm canning...

We have been picking blue lake green beans, squash , purple and Texas sweet onions, herbs: basil, cilantro and peppermint.

this is the cilantro and squash...

I canned the green beans and squash at 10 lbs pressure in the canner and dried the herbs in the microwave. This is the first time I used the canner as a pressure canner everything else I've done (mostly jellies) were done as hot water bath. One thing I've come to realize about water bath canning is it takes a whole lot of water! Pressure canning takes less water but you have to be able to stand listening to the pressure for however long it takes to can things, for the squash this was 40 minutes. But it has been a good experience. I was nervous about using the pressure canner but now I've done it I'm excited about what else I can put up! I just kept reading over all the directions to make sure I was doing it correctly.

Plum jelly...

Kenneth and I went about 1/2 mile from the house and picked sand plumbs. We got about 3/4 of an ice cream bucket. I boiled it down and after cooking it twice ( the first time it didn't set up) and adding pectin, water bath for 10 minutes...voila'...plum jelly.

Salsa

Here is a picture of the salsa I made from the recipe Amanda has posted on her blog. This is so good, I know I will be making more of this using some of the tomatoes I've been putting up. NOTE: the tomatoes and cilantro came from our garden. I halved the recipe thinking I had enough tomatoes for 5 pints, but I only ended up with 3 1/2 pints. This is delicious! Thank you Merrie!

Canning more tomatoes...

OK, Coffee's on...

I pealed the tomatoes yesterday and had to put then in the frig when we went to the bank, so I'm reheating them up a little.

I put the jars right in the canning water to get them hot, then pour out and place on a clean towel to fill.

I heat up the lids and caps in another pan and drain.

We need Lemon Juice, Salt, Tablespoons, jar funnel, jar lifter and a clean towel.

Put 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt into each jar, add tomatoes and pack down with plastic spatula.

Place jars in canner of boiling water for 45 minutes. (its hard to get a picture of steam, but its steaming)

When times up pull jars out and let cool 12 - 24 hours before checking for cap seal, if they don't seal use within a couple days or you can reboil them.

Cranberry-Pepper Jelly

When I first started doing research on canning, I bought the book Canning and Preserving for Dummies. It not only teaches you about canning but also freezing and drying, and it has over 100 recipes included in the book. This is where I found "Cranberry-Pepper Jelly" recipe.

Now that I'm getting my own Jalapeno peppers out of the garden this is the next jelly project.

"Cranberry-Pepper Jelly"

• 2 - 4 jalapeno chillies, halved and seeded
• 1 1/2 cups bottled cranberry juice
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 5 cups granulated sugar
• 3-ounce pouch liquid fruit pectin

Makes 5 half-pint jars.

Prepare your canning jars and two-piece caps (lids and screw bands). Keep the jars and lids hot.

Have your canner on another burner and get your water boiling.

Combine the jalapenos, cranberry juice and vinegar in a saucepan. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour through strainer to remove the peppers. Return 2 cups liquid to saucepan add sugar. Turn the heat to high and bring to rolling boil, one that can't be stirred down. Add pectin and return to rolling boil. Boil for 1 full minute.

Ladle hot jelly into your hot jars, filling to 1/4 inch from the top. Wipe the rims clean and apply the lids, just hand tighten. Place the jars into canner with 1-2 inches of water covering the jars and process for 10 minutes. When finished move to a dishtowel to cool. DO NOT retighten the screw bands, just let the jars cool for 12 - 24 hrs. It may take a few days to thicken or it will thicken up some more in the refrigerator. After they are completely cool check the lids to be sure they have sealed, if the cap top pulls loose its still safe to eat just place in the refrigerator and use within 2 months.

Vary It: Try using cranberry-apple, cranberry-grape or one of the other cranberry juice mixtures.

Note: I doubled the recipe and left the seeds in the peppers when I boiled them up to increase the heat of the jelly, also I stirred in 5 drops of red food coloring just before pouring it into the jars and I ended up with 10 jelly jars of this...

Beautiful!

** I had a request to post another jalapeno recipe for pickles (this isn't my recipe but one I got from Charles Dad so I hope I've got it right).

"Jalapeno Pepper Pickles"

• 1 gallon jar of dill pickles
• 1 jar of jalapenos
• 5 - 6 cups sugar

Drain dill pickle juice into a bowl and save to the side. Pour in the whole jar of jalapenos along with the juice, add sugar, top off the liquid in the jar with the saved pickle juice. Discard the rest of the juice or save for other recipes. Carefully stir the pickles in the jar to dissolve the sugar, place in refrigerator to let set. As you eat the dill pickles out of the jar you can buy smaller jars to refill your jar.

This can be made in smaller quantities if you are unable to find a gallon jar of dill pickles. I made mine with a half gallon and reduced the amount of sugar to 3 cups. You can change up this recipe to suit your tastes by using more or less jalapeno peppers or sugar. Enjoy.

Update on Homemade...

NOTE: Kenneth helped me make up the homemade Vanilla, he said if he knew it had that kind of alcohol in it he would have tried it sooner. :-)

We bought the canner from WalMart, it will also boil water bath canning or pressure canning. I haven't tried it for pressure canning yet.

the ingredients for canning tomatoes

• 1 T Lemon Juice
• 1/2 t salt
• tomatoes to fill the jar
• Pint jars

the tomatoes we canned last night, we did 7 jars and they all sealed. The jar on the right is the one I did last week, they were cooked down then canned. The others I canned whole, just peeled and put in the jar.

"Plum" Jelly