So Much To Make: can

Showing posts with label can. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

How to Make Perfect Pickles

I LOVE a good dill pickle. And after making them homemade, the store-bought ones are often second-rate. But I've read that many people have trouble making their pickles have the taste and the texture they are looking for. I have now successfully made PERFECT PICKLES twice, and I want to share what I did so you can enjoy the dilly, salty, crisp goodness yourself!

The secret is in the method. Pickles can become soggy if they cook too long in the brine. But you want the jars to cook enough to seal correctly and safely for preservation of the food. I will share the method that has worked for me. More information on safe pickling procedures can be found here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can6b_pickle.html.

I started with this mess of cukes from Bountiful Baskets. They were ripe and ready for pickling. They were too big to pickle whole, so I decided to do spears and slices.

1. First, prepare your pickling brine: 8 1/2 cups water, 2 1/4 cups white vinegar, 1/2 cup pickling salt. Bring brine to a full boil, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Second, prepare your cucumbers. I sliced mine lengthwise into sixths for spears, and into about 1/4" slices.

3. HERBS: One thing I LOVE about this recipe is the simplicity of the ingredients. You'll need fresh dill, fresh garlic, and fresh parsley (optional).

4. In each sterilized quart-size jars, place a clove of garlic, and 1 sprig each of parsley and dill.

5. Now, STUFF the pickles into the jar. Spears should stand up and and have seeds turned inward as much as you can. Finish each jar with another sprig of dill, parsley, and garlic clove.

6. Prepare your water bath canner by filling about halfway with water. Bring to a low simmer.

7. Pour brine into filled jars, leaving 1/4" of headspace. You may need to tap the jars gently on the counter a few times to remove air bubbles and make room for more brine.

8. Wipe rims and place sterilized seals and rings (tightened just slightly) on the jars.

9. Place the jars into the simmering water, making sure the water only comes to the neck of the jars. Process pickles for 15 minutes, beginning timer as soon as you place them in the water. Avoid letting water reach a rolling boil, but keep it simmering. This will seal the jars, but won't cook the heck out of the pickles.

10. Remove jars and cover with a towel as they cool. Listen for the glorious POP that lets you know they have sealed. Wait at least 3 weeks to enjoy your pickles. The "pickling" happens as the cucumbers sit in the brine and soak in all the yummy flavors, so don't cheat and open them early. We had to put a countdown calendar up in our house so the kids would know when they could dig in!

Perfect Dill Pickles

Makes 7 quarts

Ingredients:

8 1/2 cups water

2 1/4 cups white vinegar

1/2 cup pickling salt

Picking Cucumbers (30-40 medium or 10 lbs), washed and cut into slices or spears

Fresh dill

Fresh parsley (optional)

Fresh garlic

Directions:

1. Prepare your brine by boiling water, vinegar, and salt, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In the bottom of each sterilized quart-size jar, place a sprig of dill and parsley, and one peeled garlic clove. Fill the jars with cucumber slices or spears, turning spears seed-side in if possible. Finish with another sprig of dill, parsley, and a garlic clove.

3. Fill water bath canner about half-way with water and bring to a simmer on the stove.

4. Use a funnel to pour brine into the stuffed jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head space. Wipe rims, and top with sterilized lids and rings.

5. Place jars in water bath, making sure the water reaches just to the top of the neck of the jars. Process in water bath for 15 minutes, avoiding a rolling boil, but maintaining a simmer.

6. Remove jars from water bath and cool on the counter, covering cans with a dish towel. Store in a cool, dark place for at least 3-4 weeks before opening.

Participating in these link-ups.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Cooking in the Wilderness Part 1: DIY Cup and Pot Cozies

My husband and I dated more on the trails than we did in restaurants or movie theaters, and we are trying our hardest to pass our love of nature down to our four kids. We take them hiking or backpacking on pretty much every free weekend with tolerable weather.

Friends often ask what our "secret" is to getting our kids to go along with our adventures. How do we get them to not whine the whole time? Do the kids carry their own stuff? And probably the most asked, "What do you bring to eat??"

Hundreds of articles, blogs, books and discussion boards are dedicated to troubleshooting feeding your family--while under the comforts of your own roof. Take away the comfort and the roof, and the task may seem downright impossible.

For us, the learning curve has definitely been steep. Hopefully I can take some of the elevation gain out of your learning curve by sharing our knowledge. On our last couple of backpacking trips, we actually looked forward to each and every meal we brought to eat. Real food IS possible on the trail or at the campground. Man cannot live by granola bars alone.

I am going to share some of our discoveries in my blog post series: "Cooking in the Wilderness."

First, (in this post) I will share a DIY project for making what should be the 11th Essential when packing for a camping trip: CUP AND POT COZIES.
Second (in a soon-to-come post), I'll share what we have learned making and using HOMEMADE ALCOHOL STOVES.
In a third post, I'll share tips and recipes for PLANNING MEALS FOR CAMPING AND BACKPACKING with your family.

Part 2: Alcohol Stoves

Part 3: Backpacking Meals

Cup / Pot Cozy Tutorial

Most trail food that you will cook will be in a pot. Why? Because most of it will need to be boiled or re-hydrated to become edible. I'll cover more about this in my meal planning post, but trust me on this. Hot cocoa, oatmeal, soup, rice, pasta----all of these require a POT of boiling water to make. But so often it is windy and cool and by the time we all get our meal into a cup or passed around to us to take a bite out of, it has already cooled down (yes, we sometimes eat out of the same pot--you'd do it too to avoid cleaning dishes when it's 40 degrees outside!).

However, NO LONGER are cold camping entrees a problem for us! We made pot cozies from rolled foil insulation, so as soon as our food is ready, we put the lid on it and place it in its custom pot cozy! Hot meals do the body, the spirit, and the psyche good in the wilderness.

We went a step further and made each of us a cup cozy. When we aren't all eating out of the same pot, we each have our own cup (made from a re-purposed steel vegetable can, sharp edges removed), and each cup has its own cozy! It is AMAZING how long our food stays hot now! No need to eat quickly. It stays so warm, it actually slows us down--a good problem to have!

You will need:

Bubble Foil Insulation

Aluminum Foil Heat Reflective Tape

Permanent Marker

Good Scissors

Metal Pot or Cup

1. Mark the height of the cup, minus 1/4 inch, on a straight edge of the bubble foil insulation.

2. Roll the insulation around the cup and mark the circumference, plus 1/4 inch, with the marker.

3. Connect the marks with straight lines and cut out the rectangle.

4. Measure and cut a piece of foil tape the same length as your bubble foil rectangle.

5. Foil tape has a paper backing that must be removed to expose the sticky side. Overlap the bubble foil onto half of the width of the foil tape and carefully peel away the paper as you stick the tape to the bubble foil.

6. Fold the tape over the bubble foil and smooth out.

7. Measure and cut a piece of foil tape by folding it around the width of the bubble foil rectangle.

8. Carefully place the width of the rectangle over half the piece of tape, leaving half the width exposed.

9. Wrap the bubble wrap around end to end to form a cylinder and stick it to the exposed tape. Wrap the rest of the tape around to the inside of the cylinder to close the open seam.

10. Place the cup into the cylinder.

11. On a new piece of bubble foil, trace a circle around the circumference of the cozy with the cup inside.

http://amzn.to/1HF0j67

12. Cut out the circle.

13. Place the circle on the bottom of the cup inside the bubble foil cylinder.

14. Measure and cut foil tape around the bottom of the cylinder. Carefully peel away the paper as you stick half the width of the tape to the base of the cylinder. The other half of the width will be exposed and sticking up (with the cup upside down).

15. Cut slits every inch or so around the exposed tape, creating little tabs.

16. Fold the tabs down over the bottom of the cozy.

And you are done! You have a completed cup/pot cozy.

Here is one of our pot cozies. The method to make a cozy for a pot is exactly the same, except you need to measure and cut out notches for the handles of the pot.

See how the pot rests nicely in its cozy with the handles free to move?

Finally, an action shot taken in the actual wilds of Washington. :)

Participating at these link-ups.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

The No Peeling Applesauce Experience

Have you ever made applesauce? Last year was my first year. It turned out unbelievably delicious, but I only made about 3 quarts because it was SO MUCH WORK--the peeling, coring, slicing, cooking, mashing-- for a small yield.

This year I had pretty much decided it wasn't worth all the work, until I saw this post from SewCreative. She made applesauce without peeling her apples. She just mashed them after they cooked in her slow-cooker. I was intrigued.

I live in Washington, and yes our apples are delicious, so when I had a chance to get 40 lbs for $24, I jumped on it, and decided I would try the no-peel deal.

SUCCESS! I will show you what I did and why I was so happy with the MUCH LESS WORK approach.

You will need:

Apples (duh.) I used half Fuji and half Sunny Sweet (a sweet variety that the farm I purchased from has developed--similar to Honey Crisp).
Bottled lemon juice
Water
Honey
Cinnamon, if desired

A slow-cooker
A blender
Canning supplies

1. Core and slice your apples. I cut mine into 8ths. Fill your crockpot with the apples. Mix 1/4 cup of lemon juice with 1 cup of water and pour over the apples. (This is for a 4 quart slow-cooker, but would work fine for larger. Cut back the water for smaller cookers).

2. Drizzle honey over the apples. I didn't measure this. but you can see that I was fairly generous. I would estimate 1/3 cup of honey. Sprinkle with desired amount of cinnamon. I probably sprinkled 1.5 teaspoons. Give the apples a good stir. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 8 hours.

3. After the time is up, uncover and stir gently. Look at how much water they produce on their own while cooking. I made multiple batches, and I never added extra lemon water after the first batch. I just left an inch or so of liquid in the bottom and added the apples.

4. Spoon the cooked apples into the blender. It is okay to get lots of juice in there, too, just not so much that it covers the apples. Blend on high 2 minutes, or until all skin is pulverized. (If you have one of those blenders that can obliterate a cellphone and keep on going, you may only need to blend for a few seconds. I'll withhold my jealousy.)

5. Look how pretty it is! See the tiny dark specks? That's the pulverized peels. They are completely undetectable in the texture when you eat this. It is smooth--like buttah, baby.

6. Pour hot sauce in to prepared jars. Place lids and rings, and process in a water-bath canner for 15 minutes (pints), 20 minutes (quarts).

My yield: 9 quarts! This was from three batches in the slow-cooker. I went on a run, taught an exercise class, cleaned (parts of) my house, shopped, picked up and took kids to and from their activities, made dinner, did some blog maintenance, and made apple pie filling all in the same day as making this applesauce. NO WAY I would've accomplished so much if I had had to peel all those apples!

Linking up at these super parties.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Canning Peach Salsa

Peaches are here! So many uses, so little time! One of my favorite ways to use peaches when they are in abundance is in Peach Salsa!

I made some last year, but the recipe didn't include tomatoes. We had tomatoes to use this year, so with my neighbor (and partner in canning/crime), we came up with a delicious new recipe! It is just the right combination of spicy, savory, and sweet. Chunky and rich in flavor--you will love it!

First peel and chop peaches. Ours were so ripe, I just peeled them with my fingers right out of the crate. If your peaches aren't so easy, here is a great method from Our Best Bites.

Then, chop tomatoes. I recommend Romas or some other more-meaty, less-juicy variety.

It already looks so pretty, huh?

I used my hand-crank food processor to chop all the peppers, onions, and garlic. I still chopped the cilantro by hand. Add all these ingredients, along with lime zest and juice to the tomato and peach mix. Then, stir in 1/2 cup of sugar.

Put your pot on the stove over medium-high heat. While you are waiting on it to boil, mix 4 tablespoons of fruit pectin and 1/2 cup sugar. Once it boils 3 minutes, mix this into the pot, stirring well. Let it boil 3 more minutes.

Ladle the hot salsa into sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head-space. Wipe rims, and set sterilized lids on each jar. Screw on rings to finger-tight. Process in a waterbath canner: 10 minutes for pints, 15 minutes for quarts.

Let them cool on the counter, then store in a cool, dry place.

I love eating salsa I have canned throughout the cold winter months! And peach salsa is such a rare-find. You will love serving it to family and guests through the holidays!

Peach Salsa (Canned or Fresh*)

Makes 10 pints

Ingredients:

14 cups peaches, peeled and chopped

6 cups Roma tomatoes, chopped

2 red bell peppers, chopped

3 cups sweet onion, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, finely chopped/minced

1 cup jalapeno pepper, chopped

3/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1.5 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons lime juice

1/2 teaspoon lime zest

1 cup sugar-divided

4 tablespoons powdered fruit pectin

Directions:

1. In a large stock pot, mix tomatoes, peaches, bell and jalapeno peppers, onion, garlic, cilantro, salt, lime juice and zest. Stir in 1/2 cup of sugar. (*If you are making fresh salsa, add full cup of sugar and refrigerate until ready to use.)

2. Place pot on stove over medium-high heat. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and fruit pectin.

3. Bring salsa to a full boil. Boil 3 minutes, then stir in sugar and pectin mixture. Return to a boil for 3 more minutes.

4. Ladle hot salsa into prepared canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of head-space. Wipe rims, apply sterilized lids and rings. Process in a water bath canner--10 minutes for pints; 15 minutes for quarts. Remove and let cool. Store for 1+ year.