Bricker and his Cabbage Soup

We used to work on the Orchard Ranch out of Tensleep, Wyoming.  When we were there, they had a handyman named Jim Bricker.  He was a big bear of a man, and as kind as can be.  Always with a twinkle in his eye and ready with his big booming laugh.  My boys loved him, and so did we.  He had a weiner dog female named Killer that was his constant companion.
Bricker lived on cabbage soup.  My friend Amanda reminded me about cabbage soup, and it made me think of Bricker.  Built like a brick house, and always healthy.  He was a bit windy to be around, so that might have contributed to his good health a bit.
Bricker Soup
1 onion diced
2 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
big pinch of red pepper flake
whole head of chopped cabbage
bunch of fresh chopped spinach
1 diced zucchini
2 peeled and diced carrots
1/2 C diced celery
1 whole jug v-8
1 quart of diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
In a large stockpot, brown the onion and garlic in oil with the red pepper flakes.  Add the rest of the vegetables and stir until they are opaque.  Add the juice, tomatoes and herbs.  Bring to a boil and salt and pepper to taste.  If you plan on eating, not canning, simmer until vegetables are soft, and serve.
This soup makes a ton, but if you live on it like Bricker did, it will go fast. I will just can this soup in the pressure canner. Yes you can pressure can cabbage.  It is a green, and processes for 75 minutes for pints, and ninety for quarts.  It is not usually recommended, as it gets strong tasting when canned, but like turnips, and collards, we like them the way they come out, and can them anyway.  I use fifteen pounds pressure, but you will need to check the pressure for your own elevation.

Canned Corn, Corn Syrup, Apple Cider, and Apple Juice

The more foods I make for our family rather than buy, the more I find that I can cheaply and easily make at home.  I canned corn yesterday.  I just canned it plain, and in water, no added salt.  I like canning corn.  It's easy and straight forward.  Shuck the corn, blanch it three minutes, cut it off the cob (my favorite part) and shove it in the jars.  When all the corn is shucked, blanched and in the jars, then pour boiling water over it and wipe the rim of the jars.  You have to vigorously stir it around with a chopstick to get the air bubbles out, and then you can add a hot lid and ring, and process it.  85 minutes for quarts.  From my four dozen ears, I got a thirteen quarts of corn, and a pint to add to the chili that was cooking in the crockpot.
I had done some pints of corn earlier with red and green sweet peppers, celery and vidalia onions.  I have about forty pints of this calico corn.  So we can have corn with our meals at least once a week for a year, and then some.
So today, I have all these cobs that are left from cutting the corn off.  I am going to make corn syrup with them.  The season of making candy is approaching, and homemade corn syrup will come in handy!  I will use my pressure canner as a pressure cooker and quickly make a bunch of stock from my cobs.  In my canner, I'll add the jar rack so the cobs don't scorch to the bottom of the pan.  I'll add a dozen or so cobs, whatever will fill the canner about half way.  I'll add water to cover the corn, and then put on the lid, and process this stock for twenty minutes at fifteen pounds of pressure.  Viola!  In half an hour, I'll have loads of corn stock.
Once the canner cools to room pressure, I'll take off the lid, and strain the stock through a cloth lined colander.  Now I can measure how much stock I have, and figure out how much sugar to use.  For each cup of stock, you will use half a cup of sugar.  So, for eight cups of stock, I'll use four cups of sugar.  I'll bring this to boil in my stockpot, and let it cook until it's thick and syrup-ey.  I'll put it into quart jars, and process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.  Homemade corn syrup can be used in place of store bought syrup in candy making recipes.  It can get crystalized, like honey does, and will turn back into syrup if you place the jar in a saucepan with some water, and gently heat it.
Yesterday, Joel and I juiced about three bushels of tart Northern Spy apples.  We canned this apple cider in my big half gallon jars.  We drink a lot of spiced hot apple cider in the Wintertime.  I have an old glass percolator that we use for that purpose.  It not only tastes wonderful and warms you up when you are chilled, it makes our house smell like home!
I saved the pulp from the juicer, and will add water to cover that, and cook this to extract the apple juice from it.  Once it's simmered about twenty minutes or so, I'll strain it through a cloth lined colander, and bottle it in quart jars.  This apple juice processes for five minutes in a boiling water bath.
Once I'm through extracting the juice from this pulp, I'll feed the stuff that I strain out of the juice to the chickens.
This morning, I'm pulling out a fresh tablecloth, and scrubbing my apple sticky floor.  When my husband comes home from his trip to Montana today, we'll have a sit down supper with cloth napkins, and the good dishes.  I'll put out the jelly into a pretty glass bowl, and pull out some bread and butter pickles, and put them in a refrigerator glass square dish with a pickle serving fork.  I'll get out the glass pitcher, and fill it with tea and ice, and warm the rolls to put into a wicker basket with a cloth.  I already have these nice things, and they should be enjoyed!  It doesn't cost money to live a rich life.

So here it is, my pantry.  Don calls our pantry the vault.  It is a good description, because we have a lot invested in it.  Besides the investment in food that will cost me the same to serve six months from now, as it did the day I grew it or canned it, we have a large investment in time.  Time to provide for ourselves healthy nutritious food with no preservatives or added salt, and time to preserve the traditions that made the homesteader's and pioneers thrive!  It is a proud tradition, and I am proud of the vault.  I have canned more than I ever have in my life this year, and have learned so many new things!

Here is the rest of it.  The dry goods things are stored in another cabinet.  We will have to replace the shelving in the first picture this year.  It isn't big enough for what I want to do, so we will be exploring storage options to get the most use of our small space.

Making Tomatillo Apple Salsa

I am still cannning like a madwoman trying to get the garden all put by.  Counting down the crops until they are all either in the freezer, or the new dehydrator, or in jars in my pantry.  So here is the process for tomatillo salsa.  Tomatillos are a gooseberry relative, and makes it's contribution to the culinary world mainly as salsa and a sauce called salsa verde that is used in green chile, posole and other Mexican food delights.
I am making both tomatillo salsa and salsa verde today.  The tomatillo salsa is a water bath canning method recipe, and the salsa verde requires a pressure canner, because it contains chicken stock.
When we harvested the four tomatillo plants, we came up with three flats of tomatillos.  To use them, the papery husk must be removed.  Here is a photo of the tomatillos in the sink full of cold water.  Besides being enclosed in a husk, they are sticky little buggers, so water is a must.

 So here they are,  Some of them are dinky, and some didn't fill out their little papery husks, but trust me, they will all be delicious! It takes a little time to get them all ready for using, but they are worth it.  We buy canned tomatillos, and use them for posole mostly.  It is a delicious pork stew with hominy and green chiles.  The tomatillos make a wonderful tangy broth to simmer the meat in.
After you are all done de-husking, you should rinse the fruits in cold water again.  Like I said before, these little buggers are sticky.
For my canning today, I used the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens' book You Can Can.  It interested me because it added apples to the tomatillo salsa, and I had lots of apples that needed used.  The recipe called for a Granny Smith apple, but I used MacIntosh, because that's what we had on hand.  Here is what they look like when you get them all cleaned.


Pretty huh?   So I used my food processor to pulse/chop the tomatillos.  Also the onions, the jalapenos, and the peppers.  It is just easier, and my chopping thumb is still sore from the tomatoes I canned diced last week!  I am cooking my salsa in the oven in my huge roaster pan.  I am a notorious scorcher, so I am taking no chances of ruining all my hard work. The salsa will come to a boil and simmer in the oven before I can it in the water bath canner.  I have about eighteen pints of salsa in the roaster.  Here's what it looks like, and may I just say, it tastes delicious.

Fast food, Country Style

Well, I am still in the canning "weeds" as it were, and am canning almost every single day, if not doing the prep and soaking portions of the canning process.  Besides sixty pounds of tomatoes, today I have a canner load (eight quarts) of chicken stock that I need to do something with.  I can't decide if I want to make: chicken soup or just can the broth.  I am leaning towards the soup, even though it requires more effort and processing time.
A quart of chicken soup is a platform for so much yumminess you can't even imagine!  My husband likes me to add chopped cabbage and ramen noodles (the real noodles, not the soup mix) to it.  The day care babies like it that way too.  I can put dried mushrooms and rice, or frozen tortellini and spinach, or add a C of buttermilk mixed with a couple of T of cornstarch to thicken it, and finish with a C of cream for cream of chicken soup.  I can add tomato paste, roasted green chiles, some roasted garlic and thicken it with masa for a terrific chicken enchilada soup.  It is our fast food of choice, so I guess I'll make more while I can.
That is the wonderful thing about home canning.  I have a whole shelf to choose from full of fast food.  I can pour out a jar of Chicken Cacciatore, and boil some noodles, and have supper in less than twenty minutes.  I can start a gravy in the pan, with butter and flour cooking together, add the liquid from the canned pork loin chops, and some buttermilk to make a killer pork gravy, to which I'll add the pork loin chops in to warm.  Less than fifteen minutes, and I have hot pork sandwiches on the table. In the time it takes to boil the egg noodles, my hamburger stroganoff gets heated and sour cream added for another fast food meal.  There are the ultra fast pea and ham and bean soups, the chicken enchilada soup, the tomato bisque soup, all right there, homemade and seasoned to please our own pallets and accommodate my dietary restrictions.
We bought a new car this last month.  My old Sable was pretty sad.  The paint job that they put on vehicles in the nineties didn't last, and the windshield was going to cost more than the car was worth.  We got a beautiful used Lincoln Town Car, with all the bells and whistles.  We learned a long time ago, that it's better to buy the best used car you can find than to buy new.  I could never have afforded this car new, but it is like new still.  It even smells like a new car inside.  That beautiful smell of new plastic and leather.  I bet no one has worn their poopy chore boots in it ever.  Not that they will get the chance to now either, it is kind of MY car, and hopefully, I'll not be warming any newborn lambs, or hauling feed in it like my last car.  That's what I keep telling myself anyway.
There is great joy in driving a big Lincoln.  It is like riding a marshmallow down the road.  It has dual controls for the air conditioning, which should improve my marriage.  The only thing we really ever fight over is the temperature.  I'm a hot momma, and Don is always cold.  He actually wears a t shirt under his shirt 365 days a year!  He says it causes evaporative cooling in the summer.

No Salt No Sugar Bread and Butter Pickles

I do a lot of home canning, but this is a project everyone can try.  It is a project for the fridge, so there is no canning involved.  It does help, however, if you have a canning jar to pack them into, but it is certainly ok to use another similar sized vessel.
I just harvested the first of the cucumbers from my garden, and this is how I used them.  We have had to do several things to prevent the deer from eating our plants and fruit.  The last of which was an electric fence around the top of the fence.  It seems to be working so far, so maybe I'll actually get a harvest out of all my labors!

You will note, the jar is not totally full of pickles.  We had some quality control checks before I took the picture.

No Salt No Sugar Bread and Butter Pickles

for the fridge

5-6 pickling cucumbers, sliced in 1/4 inch rounds

2 C white vinegar

11/2 C stevia in the raw

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp celery seeds

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

pinch of red pepper flakes, or a squirt or two of tabasco

1/4 tsp pickle crisp

Slice cucumbers and pack into a quart jar. Add pickle crisp to the jar. In a small saucepan, heat the vinegar, stevia, turmeric, celery, mustard, and red pepper flakes until boiling. Pour over pickles. Remove bubbles by running a chopstick down into the jar to release them. Let cool. Refrigerate for 48 hours, or until colored all the way through.

These pickles have 2 calories per serving, for six or seven pickles, and one g carb, no fat and no protien.

My Grandma's Plums

I canned plums today.  It is a trip into my childhood and food is the vehicle that takes me there.
My Grandparents were homesteaders on Buckhorn Flatts near Riverton Wyoming.  They ran some cattle, raised sugarbeets, ran the beet dump, and had a dairy.  When I was little, I loved to be at Pappa Hinkle's house.  The men would come into Grandma's kitchen after milking, and have coffee.  They ate their lunch around that table, and talked of all things.  There was humor and love always in that house.  We ate cottage cheese with syrup, and tomatoes with sugar sprinkled on them, and these wonderful canned plums.  Sitting there next to the white built in china cabinet, and looking out the window that overlooked  the chicken house, which I had a fascination for, I always felt at home and content.
I loved my Grandmother's canned plums.  Their tart and tangy sweetness is just one of those things that tastes like nothing else. The smell of the syrup alone is one of those things that makes you pause, and inhale deeply, exhaling with the word Aaaahhhh.  They should be served ice cold, or thickened in a pie.
Now that I am grown and can my own fruit, I find that plums are my favorite to can.  They are so simple.  Just cut them in half and pour over a light syrup made from 8 C water, and 2 C sugar boiled together.  Then process in a boiling water bath for twenty minutes for pints like these pictured above, or 25 minutes for quarts. No treating with fruit fresh, or peeling off skins, just plunk them in the jars and away we go!

Making Chicken Stock Second Method

If you've read my blog before, you know that I use rotisserie chicken from the store often.  I figure if they can roast it for me for the same price as a raw chicken, I will let them.  I will let you in on another little secret:  I have an aversion to raw poultry.  It grosses me out!  I hate the smell, and the feel of it.  I really hate it when it's not cleaned good, and you have to pull the pin feathers, or clean leftover guts out of the body cavity.  I have a hard time eating chicken after handling it raw, it just bothers me.  So, I buy it warm and roasted and smelling delicious from the store.  There, I've admitted it!
After I pick all the meat off of the chicken, I put the skin and bones in a zip lock bag, and it goes in my freezer.  That way, when it is a cold day, or I am bored, I can pull it out and make stock.  I had three bags full of chicken bones, and I put them in my big 15 quart stock pot.  I filled it up to about two thirds, and added a handful of black peppercorns, and about 5 small bay leaves.  Because the chicken was seasoned before being roasted, this will have a slightly different flavor than the stock I made in the previous post. It is made from roasted meat, so it will have a darker color than stock made from poached chicken.
I clamp a lid on the pot, and put it on my simmer burner to cook there all day.  It takes all day to get it to that fall apart stage, where the meat and gelatin have all been gleaned from the bones and skin.  After it is done to that stage, I pour it through a colander into another huge stock pot.  All of the bones and skin and little bits of meat have given their all to the stock, and along with the peppercorns and bay leaves, it goes in the trash.  Now I have a huge pot of stock at my disposal.  I usually put it into canning jars, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inch headspace, and just freeze it using a plastic lid made to fit canning jars.  I am at a limit to my freezer space, so this time I will can it.
When canning any low acid food, such as meat stock, you need to use a pressure canner.  Be sure to follow the directions from the manufacturer of your canner, and use the recipe guidelines from a reliable source, such as Ball Blue Book, or Kerr Canning Guides.  You can get recipes online, but be aware that not all sources are reliable.

So, I used the parts that would have gotten thrown away normally, and made seven glorious jars of stock.  It is more flavorful than the stock in a box, and if you figure in the cost of the seasoning, and the jar lid, it still costs only pennies to make!

Canning Chicken, Making Chicken Stock I

Chicken has been an incredible value this week.  I found chicken breast for $.99 and I stocked up on leg quarters for $.89 a month or so ago.  In the next few posts, I will show three different methods for making chicken stock, and soup.  I am making a chicken soup base today, but I will also be making a Chicken Cacciatore, and possibly a White Chicken Chili if I have enough chicken and stock.
Now, I know that chicken stock is readily available, and of high quality, but it is extremely easy to make your own, and costs just pennies a jar.  Once you start making your own, you'll never go back to store bought.  There is a depth of flavor, that you just can't buy in a box.
I recently got a new 8 quart pressure canner/cooker, and the method I'm showing you today is made easier by using my pressure cooker to make the stock.  I could most certainly make it by simmering it slowly all day in a stock pot, and I'll show you that method next time, but it took less than an hour to get the chicken to that fall apart state needed for stock making.  I'll be using this method far more often than the cooking all day one to be sure.
I make my stock using no added salt, but you could certainly use salt in yours.  Just be sure if you plan on canning the stock instead of freezing it that you use canning and pickling salt, not table salt.  Iodized salt and canning don't mix.
So I started this batch of Chicken Soup Base with a package of leg quarters.  The dark meat in legs and thighs makes a superior stock in my opinion, but I also make stock from breasts.  The color will be a lighter lemon yellow versus a more orange brown that you get from the dark meat.

This package of meat was 5 pounds, and it was $.89/pound.  I had purchased it a while back, and stored it in the freezer for stock making day.
After browning the leg quarters well in a couple T of olive oil, I removed the chicken and placed the jar rack back in the cooker with the chicken on top of it.  This elevates the meat, while still circulating the liquid, and keeps the chicken from sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Then I added 6 quarts of water, a handful of peppercorns, and about four small bay leaves.  That is all.  You will be amazed at the flavor this will render.  This processed for 35 minutes at 10 pounds of  pressure.    I let the cooker sit for five minutes off of the heat, and then ran cold water over it in the sink, and removed the weighted gauge before opening it.  Note that this method is only used when cooking in the pressure cooker, and never when it is being used as a canner.

Now it is just a matter of picking the meat off of the chicken, and straining the stock.  To the hot clean jars, I added carrots onions and celery, along with the meat from the leg quarters.  I don't fill the jars more than half way, so that there is plenty of stock to cook homemade noodles, or spaetzle, or dumplings in when I heat it up to serve it.

While I was filling the jars, I have a stockpot full of the chicken stock on to boil, and I've added the proper amount of water to my pressure canner, and the jar rack, and have that on the stove also.  I have put my lids and rings together, and they are waiting in hot water for when I need them.  If the lids are kept hot, the rubber will have a better chance to seal. I'll drain off the water at the last minute, and have them handy.
Now the chicken stock is boiling, I take great care to ladle the hot broth into the jars, leaving a 1 inch headspace.  After the jars sit for a couple minutes, I will skim off the fat at the top, and add enough broth to come up to the 1 inch headspace amount again.  With a clean towel that has been soaked in hot water and a little vinegar and rung out, I carefully wipe the rims of the jars, and place the lids and rings on.  Working with a towel over my hand, because the jars are extremely hot, I screw the lids down tight and carefully place them down in the pressure canner.  The canner lid goes on and the weight, and they process for 1 hour and 30 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure.  After processing, I will let the canner come back to normal pressure before I remove the weight, and set them on a towel to cool.  I like to remove the rings and wash the jars after pressure processing.  They leak a small amount of liquid, and should be cleaned before storage.
I prefer to store the rings back on the jar.  I am careful to place them on loosely, so I don't disturb the seal of the jar.  I don't like to have to keep all those rings elsewhere, and I feel it helps protect the jar rim if it should get bumped around.  Once they are chipped, they are no good for canning.
So, here is the finished product.  The package of three leg quarters made 8 quarts of chicken soup base. Figuring in the vegetables and the herbs and spices, and also the lids, it still only comes to $.89 cents a quart jar.  It is so worth the time and effort!

Mexican Style Pickled Vegetables

We love the flavor of cumin seeds.  This is a hotter version of pickled vegetables.  I have slices of jalapenos in it, and a more spicy pickle than the plain Italian kind.  It will need to sit on the shelf a good six months to fully develop it's deliciousness.  Super easy, it's a boiling water bath canning project.
I cut up the vegetables after work, and then stored them in a covered container until nap time this morning.  While the girls are sleeping, I made the brine, filled the jars with vegetables and spices, and processed it.  I have enough for another canner load of it, but will save that until tomorrow.  I have more carrots, onions and chilis left, so I'll add another head of cauliflower to make it enough for a whole load.  The vegetables will be fine covered in the fridge until then.

Mexican Style Pickled Vegetables
2 pounds carrots peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
6 sliced jalapenos
3 Anaheim chilis deveined and chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 Passia peppers deveined and chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 chopped onions
2 C chopped celery

Into each sterilized jar, place 1/4 tsp each of cumin seed, coriander, black peppercorns, and mustard seed.  Add 1 small bay leaf, 1 dried chile de arbol, and 1/2 T minced garlic.  Fill jars with vegetables, packing as tightly as possible.  Add 1/8 tsp pickle crisp to each jar.  Top with boiling brine liquid:
3 C white vinegar
3 C water
1 T canning salt
Release air from jars by using a chopstick inserted in several places in the jar.  Readjust the liquid to achieve 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe the rims with a clean wet cloth, and screw on lids and rims.  Process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath canner, starting the time when the water reaches a good boil after the jars are imersed in water.  Place processed jars on a thick towel not touching each other to cool.

Canning in the Eye of the Storm

This is Don going through the neighbor's pasture to get my holstien, Mooser.  He escaped and he wasn't the only one this morning.
We got a wake up call from the neighbor that our client's horse was in the lane.  He had bowed the gate in half, so after we got him contained, we had to drive over the gate to straighten it out.
He bred my filly, by the way, so now I will be going to the vet first thing tomorrow for a shot to keep her from having a foal.
That is, right after I go to get my dog out of the pound. Don and Joel stopped at the Mini Mart to get gasoline, and apparently she jumped out.  They fixed fence all morning assuming she was sleeping in the stall barn where she always is, and then realized she must have bailed at the gas station.  By the time they came back, she was already in the pound.
She had a bath the night before, so she didn't have a collar on.  We will be looking at not only dog at large, but no tags or city licence fines too.  Oh joy.
All week long I have been canning like a fiend.  I did 40 pints of tomatoes with onion, garlic and basil.  The recipe is in the new Ball book.

Diced tomatoes with onion, garlic and fresh basil

I also am working through twenty five pounds of carrots.  I made glazed carrots with part of them.  It is a pressure canned recipe but it is very simple.

Glazed Orage Carrots

Peeled carrots cut to size for pint jars

to each pint add:

1 t frozen orange concentrate

2 T brown sugar

1 scant slice of butter

fill jars up with boiling water leaving 1" headspace

wipe the top of the jars, and adjust rings and lids.  Process 25 minutes at 15 pounds pressure (at 5000 ft elevation).  

I got sixteen pints out of the carrots so far, and still have half of them left to can.  I will do them plain with the addition of marjoram and pressure can them.  I have a huge pressure canner, and I  can do sixteen pints at one time, so it shouldn't take too much longer.

Orange Glazed Carrots

I had about four pints of diced tomatoes left from the other canning, so when I cleaned out the fridge yesterday, I added some sliced jalapenos and other ingredients to make a canner load of salsa.  We love salsa, so it is always a welcome addition to my pantry.  I didn't use a recipe, just mixed equal parts of tomatoes with equal parts of onion and sliced jalapenos (fresh ones).  I added chopped celery, lime juice, cider vinegar, a whole bunch of fresh cilantro including the stems chopped finely, smoked paprika, cumin, and 1 t canning salt.  I added 2 small cans of tomato paste, and brought it to a boil.  Ladled into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace and processed 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.  I was secretly hoping that one jar wouldn't seal, so we would have to eat it.  

Tomato Jalapeno Salsa

So, it's back to the kitchen again to finish up the carrots, and then I'll be working on the fresh Strawberries I got yesterday.  I already have them hulled and ready to go, just need to make some jam.  MMmmmm...it smells good when you boil jam.  

I hope it will lift some spirits when they come back from fixing fence.

Mango Chutney

I got my first Bountiful Basket this last weekend.  It is a great program to get fresh fruits and vegetables, and organic food locally.  I bought a flat of mangoes, and have been canning Mango Chutney.   I have ten jars, and enough mangoes left in the bowl for one more batch.
Chutney is a spicy sweet condiment for meats, fish, etc...It tastes vaguely of curry, and is very good with lamb, which is fortunate, since we are having lamb kabobs tonight.
As you can see in the picture above, the mangoes I got in my basket are not the typical red/green ones you see in the store, and are a little more tart than those bigger mangoes we are used to eating, but they made an awesome chutney.  I adapted this recipe from an old one I had from a Bon Appetite mag from the eighties.  It called for mango juice, which I could not find, but I used mango nectar, which they carry at Mr. D's grocery here locally.   The hardest thing to find was the hot pickled cherry peppers.  Everybody had cherry peppers, but only D's had the hot ones.

Mango Chutney

3 lbs. ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
1 C mango nectar
1/2 C lemon juice
4 garlic cloves minced
1 1 inch piece peeled fresh ginger
1 C sugar
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 hot pickled cherry peppers minced
1/2 C cashews

In a non reactive pan, bring all ingredients to a boil.  Cook stirring frequently until the liquid becomes thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat and discard ginger.  Ladle into hot sterilized jars, and process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.  Cool and check for seal.  If a jar doesn't seal, refrigerate and use within two weeks.

Salsa Ole'

Drizzly cool morning, and I am in the thick of canning.  I was lucky enough to have access to tree ripe peaches from Utah.  Thanks to my friend, I got two boxes, and will be making quarts of beautiful peach halves, and some pickled peaches today.  Also on the agenda is the bread and butter pickles that I have already started earlier.  The cucumbers and the onion did some time in a gallon jar with canning salt and ice to draw out the excess moisture.  They will be extra crispy and hopefully not shrivel in the canning process.  Bread and butter pickling liquid has a high vinegar ratio, so sometimes it draws out too much moisture from the pickles and they are more like pickle prunes!
My friend Jennifer asked for my favorite salsa recipes, and I have three of them so far.  I use recipes I've found in my canning books, and usually add cumin to the recipe.  I made some this year using dried reconstituted chiles, and chipotle peppers.  It is very beautiful in the jar, and we can't wait to try it!  You can vary the recipes slightly as long as the recipe has an acid added like vinegar and lime juice.  The acid veg/non acid veg ratio needs to stay the same.  Basically, you are making veg pickles.   

Fiesta Salsa
7 C peeled fresh tomatoes (about 4 1/2 pounds) chopped
2 C peeled chopped cucumbers
2 C chopped banana peppers (you can take seeds out for mild)
1/2 C Anahiem or pasilla peppers that you've blistered on the burner and peeled and chopped
1/2 C chopped jalapenos
1/3 C minced fresh cilantro
3 T minced garlic
2 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp canning salt
1/2 C cider vinegar
2 T lime juice
Combine in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Ladle hot salsa in to sterilized hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe tops with a clean dishcloth, and process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Zesty Salsa
10 C peeled chopped fresh tomatoes (6 lbs.)
5 C Anahiem or Slim Jim peppers chopped and seeded
5 C chopped onions
2 1/2 C jalapeno or serrano peppers chopped and seeded (1 lb)
1 1/4 C cider vinegar
3 T minced garlic
1/3 C chopped fresh cilantro
3 tsp canning salt
1 tsp dried cumin
1 tsp Frank's hotsauce
Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a boil.
Simmer 10 minutes. Ladle into sterilized hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe tops with a clean rag, and adjust 2 piece caps. Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes (18 here).

Tomatillo Salsa
2 lb chopped tomatillos
1 C chopped onion
1 C Anahiem or other long green chiles chopped
1 T miced garlic
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
2 T ground cumin
1/2 T canning salt
1/2 T red pepper flakes
1 C cider vinegar
1/4 C lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Ladle into hot jars with 1/4 in headspace. Wipe rims with a clean cloth, and adjust 2 piece lids that you've warmed in hot water. Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes (18 for my altitude).

My addiction: Canning- Is There a Twelve Step Program?

I remember when Ryan was about four, he came to me in the kitchen and said, "Mommy, stop canning, I miss you!"  My poor children become canning orphans, and my husband a canning widower when this time of year comes around.  I am addicted to canning.  On years that I have a big garden, I just can like a madwoman to keep it all from going to waste.  I have been known to can late into the night only to get up early and hit it again.  I just love canning.  There is something really satisfying about spotlessly clean jars being filled with my own food to feed my family.  I love the smell of simmering salsa, and processing peaches, and the tang of vinegar from making pickles.  I love the beautiful noise of jars sealing on the counter. When I go down to my pantry on a winter day, and can pick out a lovely red quart of my tomatoes and some beautiful peach halves to use for making meals, I feel like I have accomplished some level of self sufficiency.   It is like I bottled up my Summer for safe keeping.
I love to can green beans which requires pressure canning, so I also got into doing that.  I used to make batches of beef stew and ham and beans and pressure can them for lunches.  It is awesome to have already cooked dried type beans on hand, as they can be pretty pricey in the store, and always have that salty slimy liquid on them.  I've made catsup, relish, spiced cabbage, sauerkraut, you name it, if it can be canned, I've done it! 
When I can, I use jars that have been passed down to me by my family.  Some of the jars are feeding a fourth generation, and I know which ones were Grandmas, and Aunt Vestas, or my Moms by the jar design.  I use my Grandmother's pickled beet recipe, and it always makes me remember being in her kitchen helping peel beets with the heady smell of the pickling liquid. 
Canning isn't as hard as it may seem.  It is becoming a lost art, as people get farther and farther removed from the source of their food.  To start out, you don't need fancy equipment to can, just a large pot, some overturned teacups, and a flat rack or plate, and enough room to cover the jars with water by at least half an inch.  My traditional canning kettle has a wire rack that holds the jars off the bottom of the pan, but the set up I described above would work great for jellies or pint jars.  You do need a jar filler, and a jar lifter,  low cost items that are necessary to handle and fill hot jars. Then of course there is the jars and rings, which can be second hand, and new lids.  If you do buy jars second hand, make sure the rim, or sealing edge of the jar is free from nicks and pits.  This happens as jars are pried open, so it is common, but will make your seal unsafe.  
I have been canning a lot lately.  Mostly pickled beans when the store has them on sale, but also some regular pickles here and there.  I bought a twenty five pound box of peaches on Saturday,  and really got into the canning groove.  I wasn't able to do all the peaches, because they just didn't want to peel.  I'll process them in the morning now that they are a couple days riper.  I came across some nice pickling cucumbers, and bought a flat of tomatoes, and got fifteen quarts out of the cucumbers, and two batches of pints of salsa, so fourteen jars. 
The best part of making my own, is that working under some restraints due to the acidity level of certain foods, I can adjust for my own taste, and dietary needs.  I do use sugar to can my peaches and other fruit, but only 1 cup for 10 1/2 cups of water.  The fruit tastes very much like fresh, and NOTHING like what you buy in tin cans.  I added dried anchos and chipotle peppers to my salsa, and extra garlic and little dried hot peppers to my pickles, because that is what my family likes. 
I started helping my mother to can when I was big enough to stand on a chair and peel peaches and tomatoes etc...so the process is ingrained in me.  It is not a hard process though.  Acid foods like fruit, tomatoes, and pickles and salsas only need water bath processing.  They are safe and easy recipes.  Sterilize the jars you'll need.  Make the syrup or pickling liquid, etc...  Dip the fruit or tomatoes in boiling water then into cold water so the skins will come off.  Halve, quarter, chop and put in the jars.  Add hot liquid and lids and put in boiling water bath for the time it says. 
Tomatoes are the easiest.  You just keep shoving the whole tomatoes down in the jars until they squish out enough liquid to fill the jar, and add a little canning salt.  There is no addition needed of water or tomato juice, just pure tomatoes.  This is a far superior product to the ones in the tins. 
Next time you come across the Ball Blue Book at the store, take a look at the recipes.  They not only have canning recipes, but also lots of freezer food ideas, and also dried food techniques.  It is possible to teach yourself to can with this book. 
Come on, give canning a try won't you?  That way I am not the only one at the AC meetings.  Hello, my name is Tina and I am a canning addict.

Like a Prince without a Country- I miss my garden!

I have always loved gardening.  Even when I was forced labor for my mother in my school years, I loved pulling weeds and harvesting.  Of course, I made a big deal of it, just because I was a teenager.  I could not wait until I was married, and could have my own garden.
I learned to can at a young age.  I was put to work peeling scalded fruit and beets, as soon as I could stand on a chair up to the sink, and do so  We put up box after box of home canned peaches, pears, plums, apricots, tomatoes, and pickled beets.  I snapped beans and filled jars. I was in charge of keeping the inventory list, a way for my mother to get me to practice writing, I think.  When she sent me to the cubbyhole under the stairs to get a jar of something, I would cross it off the list, so we knew exactly how much we had at any time. 
One of the first things I bought with our wedding money was a water bath canner.  I actually wore out the jar holder part, and the enamel on the inside, and have had to buy another one since then.  It saw almost continual use during the summers.  I used to can all our vegetables, and any fruits I could get a hold of. I bought the biggest pressure canner I could find, and put up lots of green beans and soups and other low acid foods.  
I had no garden last year, and only a small raised bed this year, so the harvest won't be big enough to need canning.  It feels wrong not to be out there every morning bent over weeding.
It is a strange thing, not having produce to pick and take care of.  It is such a part of my everyday life in the summer, to be sterilizing jars, and putting food by.  I am like a prince without a country.  I am lost without my canning fix.  When the day's canning was done, I sat and looked through recipes to plan my next canning project.
We are planning out more raised beds, and will be putting in a new fence to keep out the destructive ghetto deer that plagued me in the last few years.  I want our produce to be for us, not the local deer buffet line!

I was able to get some rhubarb from my Mom, or pie plant as we call it, and the store had a special on strawberries  buy one and get one free.  I made twelve half pint jars of strawberry rhubarb jam.  The easiest of the jams.  I won't be enjoying it, as it is a sugar and fruit recipe, but my boys like it, and I can give it as gifts.  Not only is it awesome on hot rolls or biscuits, but it is a wonderful ice cream topper. Remember, rhubarb leaves are toxic, so cut the leaf completely before bringing it in the house, and don't put leaves in your compost pile.
I use my grandmother's old farm scale to measure the weights for canning, and to weigh out dried beans, ect...when I am cooking.  I like to can by weighing, rather than fussy measuring, so I often convert the recipes from cups to pounds. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
2 lb strawberries (about two clamshells, or 4 cups whole berries)
2 lbs diced rhubarb (about 8 cups diced fruit)
6 cups sugar divided
In a large stainless steel stock pot, place rhubarb and 3 cups of sugar.  Stir together well, and let sit to macerate for two hours.  The sugar will bring out the liquid in the pie plant.  Then add remaining 3 cups of sugar, and the stemmed and diced strawberries.  Bring slowly to temperature until all the sugar dissolves.  Once the sugar is dissolved, raise the heat to high, and boil until the gel point, when a spoonful of jam starts to sheet off the spoon.  I always think it looks kind of like a turkey wattle.  Skim off the foam, and pour into hot sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Adjust lids and rings and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Bean Pickles
We love bean pickles.  We always put them out for picnics and family dinners.  In my estimation, it's not a proper Bloody Mary without a couple bean pickles for garnish!  I happened on a sale of organic beans, cleaned and with the stems and strings off, on a BOGO buy one get one free sale.  The pickling liquid is an easy mixture of water, vinegar, salt and pickling spices.  I prefer to use Mrs. Wages dill pickle packets for bean pickles.  It is a good quick pickling formula, and I add fresh dill, mustard seeds, chile de arbol pods, and a big spoon of garlic to each jar.  I also add Pickle Crisp which is calcium carbonate, I think, to make the pickles retain their snap after processing.  I was off on my estimation of how many beans I'd need, It was almost enough for a canner load (7 quarts) of pickled beans.  So, I scrounged around my fresh food bins, and found enough big jalapenos for a quart of them sliced in half.  The dill jalapenos are really good with cream cheese piped into the cavity, and topped with chives for an appetizer.  I also found I had two big containers of radishes.  I kept thinking I needed them and bought them twice!  There was enough for a quart of them also.  They are great as a garnish in a drink like a martini, or sliced as part of an antipasto tray.  I like them with a slice of cucumber on a whole wheat cracker for a snack.
I still had pickling liquid left over, as I packed the jars as tightly as I could with beans, jalapenos and radishes. I had some regular cucumbers, the ones with the waxy skin, so I peeled and diced them along with a couple each of red and orange peppers, and two big onions.  I added a whole big bunch of diced fresh dill, probably a cup, and made seven more pint jars of dill pickle relish.  I still had enough left of the relish to put one more pint in the fridge.  

We made a trip to Riverton the other evening, and I got four big bunches of asparagus.  That is my project for today, to make some asparagus pickles, and if there's time some home canned tomato soup to have on hand for the winter. It is a mixture of tomatoes with celery carrot and onion, and has basil and cloves.  It is a pressure canned recipe, so I'll wait until my babies go home to do that.  It requires constant attention, and can be a dangerous thing if not properly attended to. 

I have had people tell me they think it's weird I like to can.  I grew up in a household with a mom who survived the great depression as a child.  Canning, and keeping a pantry stocked full with a whole year's worth of food was how we lived.  If we didn't can it, we bought it in case lots.  That and a freezer full of wild game were our hedge against starving out, if something should happen.  When you grow up in a large family, you learn ways to get by on less money, but don't do without.  It's just a matter of "ass ends and elbows", or hard work!

Besides it being the way I was raised, we have had some lean times in our married life.  As newly weds, we ate a lot of beans, and macaroni to get by.  It became a challenge for me to grow and can our own food, to provide the best of what we could have for the lowest cost.  There is a great sense of satisfaction in standing back to view the rows and rows of filled jars, and know that your family gets to eat a product that was picked when it was ripe, and canned with no preservatives, or additives.  I can everything low salt, and in light syrup because that's the way my mother did it.  Now that I am diabetic, I am learning to can without sugar, too. 

It is definitely a challenge to still can without the benefit of the mounds of garden produce, but I am finding ways to do small projects when things are on sale . I can't wait for cabbage to hit the "cheap" category, so I can make sauerkraut!  My crock is ready and waiting!

Insomnia, or Canning in the Stinkin' Dark!

I could not sleep last night.  To compound my troubles, our satellite tv is not working due to the snowstorm we've been having the last two and a half days.  I have watched every movie on the shelf, so I was going through my cookbooks to try and get sleepy.  I had to do something, and Lord knows I wasn't going to do anything like clean for heaven's sake!  Well, I didn't find anything interesting in reading material, so I wandered up to the kitchen to see what I could whip up.
They had beautiful tomatillos at the store when I had my last shopping day, and really nice green onions.  I had several pasilla peppers that needed used, and a whole bag of limes, so after wasting a half hour sharpening every knife in the kitchen, I put together this salsa.  It is a small batch, but made two pints I canned, and almost one more for the fridge for immediate consumption.  I will use it up quickly, as it is great served hot over eggs for breakfast huevos, awesome with chips as a snack, and the flavor tang for tasty posole.  It is great served over broiled fish in a fish taco, too!

Mean Green Salsa
8 large tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed and diced
4 pasilla peppers, diced and seeds removed
2 jalapenos diced
8 scallions diced
2 C diced white onion
zest from 2 limes
juice from 4 limes
1/3 C cilantro
2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed in your palm
1 tsp agave nectar
1/2 tsp canning salt
Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.  Cook until tomatillos soften and start to break down.  Pack in hot sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  Makes 2 2/3 pints

Easy Sour Pickles, Even In Winter!

When making pickles this time of year, it is darn near impossible to find pickling cukes, so I have found the the English cucumbers that come wrapped in plastic make wonderful pickles.  If I can't find them I'll use the waxy skinned ones and just peel them.  They aren't as pretty, and don't stay as crisp as the English ones, though.
Pickles are so easy, and you can pickle lots of different vegetables and fruits besides just cucumbers.  I love the hot pickle mix that has cauliflower and celery and those little onions.  I can easily make a batch of three quarts of those to have without having to drag out my big canner, by just storing them in the refrigerator.  They'll be gone in a couple weeks anyway, so why bother.  Once you master a spice blend you like, and have a basic pickling liquid, you can pickle all year round.
They make a great hostess gift to take when dining at someone's house, and last a long time in the fridge without losing quality.  Plus you have the satisfaction that you've made them yourself!
I discovered Ball's pickle crisp a couple of years ago, and have been very impressed by how crispy my pickles come out.  You can presoak the cukes in a solution of water and pickle crisp, but I just add it to the jar before pouring in the hot pickling liquid. 
I recently had a heart surgery, so I am restricted in the amount of salt I can ingest.  This causes a problem for me in that I am a pickle nut.  I panic if we are running low on pickles, and it is my snack of choice for any time of the day.
Well, I am trying to be good, but still need my pickle fix, so I found a recipe for no salt sour pickles and have adapted it to my taste.  Below is the recipe:

No Salt Sour Pickles

5 or 6 English Cucumbers, sliced thin
6 sprigs of fresh tarragon
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 large onion sliced thin
3 heaping T minced garlic
1 tsp coriander
2 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 quart white vinegar
3 C water
1 T sugar or splenda
12 whole cloves
1 tsp alspice
1 1/2 tsp Ball Pickle Crisp per jar
Place the sliced cukes and onions in 3 sterilized canning jars.  Add the fresh herbs, garlic, and pickle crisp.  In a saucepan, heat the remainder of ingredients until boiling, and pour carefully into the filled jars.  Using a spatula, release any air bubbles.  Seal and let the pickles cool to room temperature before storing in the refrigerator.  Store at least one week before serving.