Ketchup!

8 lbs of tomatoes ( about 24 medium size ones if you don’t want to weight them). Core and quarter them.

Dump in a large, large nonstick pot along with:

1/2 cup chopped onions

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat to boiling and cook covered for 15 minutes, stirring often so all the tomatoes go soft.

Take a hand blender and blend up the tomato goodness until it’s as smooth as you can.

Press the tomato mixture through some kind of sieve/food mill or strainer. Discard this part:

Keep all the great tomato juice and dump it back in the nonstick pot. Stir in 3/4 cup of sugar.

Stick a ruler into the tomato juice and pull out and check the height.

Now turn on the heat until it boils. Then reduce the heat so it can simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. OR until the mixture is reduced by half. This is where that ruler trick comes in handy. Stir occasionally so that nothing starts to burn or stick where it’s not suppose to.

Once it’s almost ready, and in another smaller pot heat the following to a boil:

1 cup white vinegar

1 1/2 inches of stick cinnamon, broken up

1 1/2 tsp whole cloves

1 tsp celery seeds

Once it boils remove from heat, strain everything through a sieve and throw out the spices. Add 1 TBS of salt the vinegar mixture then add it to the tomato juice that’s been cooking for the past 2 hours.

Simmer this for 30 minutes or until it thickens up more to your liking. Stir often.

To Can: Use half-pint or pint jars. Leave a 1/2’’ head space. Screw lids on and process in boiling-water for 15 minutes. (Start timing it after the water returns to a boil). Remove from water and allow to cool on wire racks of heat proof surface.

Canned Ketchup….done!!!

~Jess

 

Not your momma’s Sweet Freezer Pickles.

Sweet Freezer Pickles

These have to be the easiest pickles to make.  You don’t need special equipment or ingredients  and in the end you get a crispy, sweet pickle  that goes great with all kinds of things. Another plus is you can use any type of cucumber you can get your hands on.

You need 2 quarts of cucumbers, PEELED and thinly sliced and 1 medium onion, thinly sliced.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon salt (table salt, canning salt or kosher salt, whatever you have on hand really).

Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 2 hours on the counter, not in the fridge.

Dump cucumbers and onions into a colander and let this drain.  I was surprised at how much water the salt had pulled from the cucumbers and onion.

Mix 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar well and pour over cucumbers and onions.

Pack into freezer bags or plastic freezer containers. Freeze immediately. Wait 3 or 4 days before taking them out of the freezer to try.

The secret to these crispy pickles is the sugar and they’ll keep in the freezer for up to one year

Non-typical Sweet Freezer Pickles….done!

~Jess

Dilly Beans.

What do you do when your dad’s garden starts producing green beans like crazy?

…and he gives you 6 gallon of them?

Snap the ends off of them (or be lazy like I was and just use scissors) and any blemish. Wash them really, really, really well. Set aside 2lbs of them, you’ll use them later. But keep 4lbs for this recipes.

Place the following into your pint jars:

1/2tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp dill seed

1 garlic clove

Now cut and pack your green beans to fit into the pint mason jars. I was able to get 10 jars out of my 4lbs it my different depending on how long your beans are or how much damage they may have had or not have.

In a large pot bring 5 cups of vinegar, 5 cups of water, and 1/2 cup of salt to a boil.

Pour this hot mixture over the beans in each jar. Leave about a 1/4’’ headspace. Put lid on jars and tighten them down pretty well. Carefully place each jar into enough boiling water to cover the lids. Let them boil for 5 minutes before taking them out and allowing them to cool until all are sealed.

These are ready to eat after 5-7 days of sitting. There you have it, Dilly Beans. It’s more of a pickled green bean and after making them and trying them, I’m so not a fan!!! But Boy Toy is. So he’ll have all the Dilly Beans he can eat.

What to do with the other 2 gallons of beans? Bring some water to a rapid boil. While you’re waiting on that, snap or cut your beans to bite size. Whatever size it is that you like.

Drop them into the boiling water for 3 minutes and then quickly remove them from the water and place them in an ice water bath for 3 minutes.  Once that’s done, measure them out and place them in freezer bags and pop in the freezer. Short and sweet right?

Next up…..7 Day Pickles.

 

~Jess

Strawberry Apple Butter

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3-4 cups strawberries- remove stem
2 apples, cored and cut into chunks

Blend, chop or food process the apples and strawberries together until smooth. (Smoother than this picture shows)

Pour all of this into a big pot and mix in:
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 tsp cinammon

Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Then reduced to a simmer and stir ever 4-5 minutes. Cook for 30 minutes or until it’s as thick as you like.
Pour into jar, (if canning, do the canning process now) and allow to cool. If you’re not canning then store in the fridge.

This makes a really small batch which is great to do with the price of ALL food increasing. It made just enough for us to have a nice change away from Apple Butter now and again.

~Jess

Vanilla Pears.

My dad asked me if I wanted any pears. I said sure, I thought: 'how many pears can one person have to just give away?. Turns out he works with a lady that has a few pears trees in her yard and she doesn't do anything with them. She brought my dad a Home Depot reusable bag full of pears, it's just like my Office Depot bag. I should have answered my dad, "Sure, but just a few pounds." I'll know better next time.

I decided to make canned Vanilla Pears.

Start with 8lbs of pears.

Peel, core and slice them.

Add 4 tbs vanilla, 41/2 cups water, and 2/3 cup sugar in a large pot and bring to a boil.

Add in your pear slices and let them boil for 5 minutes.

Pack the jars with pears, then pour the hot syrup over the pears leaving 1/2" headspace before screwing on the lids. Flip upside down until they are completely cooled.

I eat these over fat free cottage cheese for breakfast or a late night snack. Some of the pears are a little too crisp for my liking but it's very yummy. I think it'll go great with Greek yogurt or even vanilla yogurt with a sprinkle of granola too.

It's raining Apples!!!!

My sister, (bless her heart, I'm sure she's tired of me asking if she's getting anymore apples) got in more apples for me. This bag is full to bursting!!!

I picked through and pulled out 12 lbs of apples, about 24 of them give or take. You don't have to be on the nose with the poundage.

After cutting a lemon in half, and squeezing one half of the lemon into cold water in a large bowl I set about peeling, coring and cutting the apples.

Thank God for my apple corer, honestly my fingers would be finished by the time I finished coring and slicing these puppies. Make sure you drop the apple slices into the lemon water as you cut them to prevent browning.

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling bowl, measure out 6 cups of apple slices and add them to the boiling water.

Cook for only 30 seconds!!!!!!!!

Then using a slotted spoon, transferring the hot apple slices to a bowl with a lid or some kind of pot that will keep the slices warm. I used my crock pot.

Once all of your apple slices have been heated through, add in the following ingredients:

5 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of ClearJel (NOT cornstarch)

1 TBS ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves.

Mix well!!

Now stir in 5 cups of apple juice and 2 1/c cups of cold water. Cook this over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to thicken and boil. (This picture was taken as I was stirring in the apple juice and water).

Add in 3/4 cup of lemon juice and boil for one minute.

Here comes the fun, somewhat messy part, stir in all the apple slices until coated.

Pack hot apple mixture into sterilized quart canning jars leaving a 1'' headspace. Wipe rims and screw on the lids.  Set upside down on the lids and let cool completely before labeling and storing. One can should be enough for one pie.

I'm stoked about using a jar of this for a pie ASAP.

It's taking over.

It's true, canning has taken over my life, well, that and apples. Waste not want not right?

My next adventure in canning was with Apple-Pear Butter.

Start with 2 1/2 pounds of apples, and 2 pounds of pears, cored and quartered.


Pour 3 cups of apple cider, or apple juice into a pot. I LOVE apple cider, so I used Sweet Apple Cider, made from Gala Apples. Place all the apple and pear slices in the apple cider and bring to a boil. Cover and let this simmer for 30 minutes.

Once it's cooked, pour everything into a bowl and blend until you reach a smooth consistency. You can totally use a food mill if you're lucky enough to have one. Then pour the pulp back into the pot.

Add in 2 cups of sugar, 2 TBS fresh lemon juice that's been strained, and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and let this cook for an hour and a half to 2 hours.

 It will cook down a few inches and get thicker the longer it cooks.



Once it's thick enough carefully label it into jars with about 1/4 inch headspace then screw on the lids. This recipe makes a smaller batch of Apple-Pear Butter but you can easily double or triple it. I kept it small so that I can give these away come Christmas time to friends and family that like homemade goodies but seldom have the time to make them for themselves.

 I quickly running out of room in my pantry for all my canned goodies, it's a sweet problem to have. :)