We Have Applesauce!

   My husband has access to a couple of apple trees. I dont know what kind of apples they are, but they are good to eat fresh, and great to cook with .He brought me in two large ( I think 10 gallon) buckets full on Friday.

I managed to work up 1 and 1/4 of buckets.

This mess got buried into my  make-shift compost pile behind the garden.

I ended up with 28 pints of applesauce. !3 pints of cinnamon applesauce, and 13 plain. I think I will put up some sliced apples for apple pie filling with whats left.

Canning Navy Beans an Ham

      Another first for me. Canning dried navy beans. When I first heard of this, I admit it didnt make sense to me. couldnt understand why someone would take a product with a very long shelf life as it is and can it. But then I thought about it again. How many times had we wanted soup beans and cornbread, but not think about it till later in the day.? Then it made sense. If I forgot to start them early enough we could still have beans at a moments notice. We had them tonight for supper to test my product, and the soup bean eaters all gave a thumbs up. All two of us. Me and my husband. My son wont even try them. Below describes how I did them.
                                                         Soup Beans and Ham
approx 3 lbs dried navy beans
6  heaping TB chopped onion
6 heaping TB ketchup (might use a little more next time)
6 tsp salt. (a little too much for me. next time will reduce to about 1/2 tsp for each of the 6 jars , and add
          more if needed when heating)
approx 6 cups chopped ham
6 quart jars, lids and rings

1. Pour beans into a pot and cover with plenty of water. Let beans soak over night.
2. The next morning heat beans to boiling and boil 2 minutes.
3. Pour 1 cup ham into the bottom of each jar.
4. Pour in beans to just below shoulder of jars, about 2.5" below rim.
5. Pour in 1 Tb of onion.
6 Place in 1 TB of ketchup.
7. Add 1 tsp ( or less , to taste).
8. Pour boiling water over everything leaving 1" head space.
9. Pull lids from simmering water and place one on each jar after cleaning rims well.
10. Hand tighten rings.
11. Process according to altitude for 90 minutes. I am about 800 feet altitude so i used 10 lbs pressure on my canner.
12. Then when ready to eat, just heat and serve.

I served with a warm pan of corn bread, fried potatoes, and canned peaches

Canning Praline Syrup

          Well I decided to do something a little special for my hard-working husband today. When i got home from grocery shopping, I made  some Praline syrup. I canned 3 half pint jars of it to be exact. I have never made anything like this before, but when I stumbled upon it on the web, I knew he would love it. he loves pecan pie and butter pecan ice cream. So I figured this was right up his alley. If he gives it the thumbs up, then I will make him some more. I have a bucket of vanilla ice cream waiting for him in the freezer.

Just look at all those delicious  meaty pecans at the top.

 The recipe for the Praline Syrup can be found HERE.

Preserving Cucumbers in the Freezer

I absolutely love cucumbers. Especially this year. i have been craving them all summer. Eating them dipped in ranch dressing, or dipped in italian dressing. eating them for late breakfast, lunch, or evening snack. Whenever the mood hits for something cool, crunchy and refreshing.  no, i am NOT pregnant. Definitely NOT! 

Several times this summer my local grocery store has been ut of them. sometimes for two weeks. Must be a lot of other cucumber lovers out there too. I have a bunch planted in the garden, but I am just now starting to get some to eat. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out if there was anyway I could preserve them for fresh eating this winter without  having to buy them. I like pickles and sometimes eat them for snacks, but thats not what I have been craving. Then one day i happened onto a recipe for freezing these guys in a solution of vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Supposedly they still come out of the freezer crunchy. I had my doubt however. So I asked my daughter-in-laws mother, who is an excellent cook, if she had ever heard of doing them this way. She said she had and that they were indeed still crunchy when defrosted. 

A few days ago, I had a couple ready to eat from the garden, plus supplemented with a store bought. I needed to fill a 16 z plastic container. Everything went together very quickly. I put them straight in the freezer. Then 24 hrs later, I decided to pull them out and give them a try. Once defrosted, they were absolutely delightful. Slightly sweet, crunchy, cool and refreshing. I didnt stop till I had them half gone. Anyway,  When hubby cam home I had him  try them. I knew it would take a little coaxing. he is like a child sometimes when it comes to trying new things. but we wont discuss that any further.

I remembered his mother used to make them fresh and serve them in mix of 50/50 vinegar and water. he loved them that way. so i figured that was close enough to mom's.

Low and behold....he liked them. He really liked them 

I dont know where I got the recipe from online, so I am sorry for not being able t give credit. But here it is:

                                                    FROZEN CUCUMBER PICKLES   

1 lb. Kirby or pickling cucumbers, sliced (4 c.)

2 c. thinly sliced onions

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. cider vinegar

3 tsp. water

1 c. sugar

Combine cucumbers, onions, salt and water in glass bowl. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours. Add sugar and vinegar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pack mixture lightly into 2 - 1pint freezer containers or jars, leaving 1 inch space at top. Cover tightly and freeze overnight or up to 6 weeks. Thaw at room temperature 4 hours. Refrigerate any leftovers up to 1 week. Makes 4 cups.

NOTE: Very good!!! The pickles stay crisp after thawing, even left over in the refrigerator.

Another First

     Last night I tried canning chicken for the first time. I had canned deer stew many many yrs ago. About 34 to be more precise. The first yr we were married. I hadn't done meat since. Well last night I was reading on several different blogs about canning cooked chicken by hot pack and raw chicken by raw pack. I also found a link for the USDA guidelines HERE. Doing raw pack seemed so much quicker and it was late  in the evening when I got back with about 8 lbs split chicken breasts that I bought for .99/lb. I figured wrong and thought it would do more jars than it did. I only got 6 small pints. But its cooked and ready to go for chicken salad sandwiches, or creamed chicken on biscuits. I usually buy the cans in the store for almost $3 / can. I figure one pint is easily equal to 2 cans of meat. The chicken made its own broth but next time I will add about 1/2 jar of water to help it out more. Here is how I did it:
1. cut up your chicken into chunks. I have also read about putting whole peices in.
2. Sterilize jars and lids, keeping lids warm.
3. Fill your jars with the raw chicken.
4. I placed a tsp of chicken bouillon on top. Some do this some dont, some just add a tsp of salt.
5. For test purposes, and because we like garlic, I also placed about 1/8 tsp of garlic salt on top.
6. Pour about 1/2 jar of sterilized water into jar. ( I didnt this time, but will the next)
7. Clean rims thoroughly. Some clean with a little bit of white vinegar, then dry.
8. Apply lids and hand tighten rings.
9. Place in canner with water, and process according to your towns elevation. Mine was 10 lbs for 75 minutes for pints.

Correction: I was informed by an experienced canner that any time you
pressure can or BWB for 10 minutes or more there is no need to
"sterilize" the jars. There is possibly the need to warm the jars to
prevent thermal shock and breakage but no need to "sterilize".

This tip came from someone on yahoo groups " canning2".


UPDATE: I just opened a pint of this chicken because my husband wanted chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. This chicken turned out fabulous! So moist, and flaked like a dream. Tasted soo much better than the store canned. I also figured up the price. Not counting electricity or costs of the jars since they are re-usable. I bought about 8 lbs. It should do about 5 pints "packed". This equals out to about 3 cans of the store chicken after it shrinks from cooking. So it equals about $1.60 per pint, or about  .53 cents per can. So much cheaper than the almost $3 per can I pay in the store. But more importantly, much better quality and taste. Also figured out the slightly darkened areas on the top are just from the chicken bullion. Next time I probably wont use it, or at least mix it with the  water first.

Homemade Blackberry Jam

          I just made my first Blackberry jam. I started it yesterday and just finished it this morning. My son brought me in a small amount of berries, longing for jelly made from these precious jewels. So how could i resist. I believe the recipe came from the book " Blue Ribbon Preserves". I checked it out of the library and took some extensive notes on things I wanted to try. I only had enough berries to make 2 half pint jelly jars, so had to convert the recipe. So I whipped up 2 jars of Simple Grape Jelly from some Grape juice I had. I hated to run the water bath for just 2 jars,lol.

                                                                   Blackberry Jelly
To make blackberry juice:
3 quarts berries
1/2 cup water
jelly ingredients:
5 cups juice
7 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 (3 oz) pouches liquid pectin

To extract juice, gently rinse berries in cool water in colander and drain. Put berries in 8 qt pot, Combine berries and water over medium low heat. bring to 180 degrees, and heat 5 minutes. DO NOT BOIL!
recipe called for placing berries in a fine meshed sieve. i didnt have one, so i lined my colander with coffee filters and placed this over a bowl. I then poured the berries into this and covered the top with some saran wrap and placed in the fridge to strain over night. You are supposed to do this slow gentle drain, rather than squeezing them. it stated forcing the juice thro would make a cloudy jelly.
      The next day discard the pulp and seeds left in the sieve or colander.This amount of berries is supposed to make approx 5 cups of juice.To make jelly, Place berry juice into 8 qt pot and heat till warm. Add sugar and heat. Stir continuously till sugar dissolved. Increase to medium high heat and bring to a full rolling boil.. Stir in pectin. Return to a full rolling boil. Stir constantly for 1 minute. remove from heat, Quickly skim foam, and ladle into sterilized jars. Clean rims, and apply hot lids and rings. Hand tighten.  Process in boiling water bath with water covering tops of jars for 10 min. I used 15 for my altitude.

Almond Peach Jam...Sunshine on a Spoon

            I made peach jam for the first time today. I still had some left over South Carolina peaches still left that no one had eaten yet. I added some almond extract, and this stuff tastes fabulous! Even my 23 yr old daughter, who said she didn't like peach jam, liked it... really well!
            So I peeled, pitted and mashed them. I came up with about 3.5 cups, which was about 1/2 a cup short for my 4 cup recipe. So I added a 1/2 cup of orange juice. The jam set up beautifully, and so crystal clear and gorgeous. There are a few dark reddish/black flecks here and there. Don't start gagging. They aren't bugs,lol. ( I notice the dark flecks aren't visible in this jar.) It's just that I had cooked some blackberries for jelly just before this, and didn't bother to rinse my masher off completely. The addition of the almond extract, it a wonderful compliment.

                                                            Almond-Peach Jam

4 cups peeled, pitted, and crushed yellow peaches ( I added 1/2 OJ to 3.5 c fruit)
1/4 cup strained fresh lemon juice
7 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp butter
1 (3 oz) pouch liquid pectin
1 tsp Almond extract

     Cut fruits, in half, remove the pit, and the tough reddish area that surrounds the pit. Drop these into an 8 qt pan with the lemon juice to prevent darkening. Crush these with a potato masher.

Stir in half of the sugar. Cover pan, and let sit 20 minutes. In the mean time, place your jelly jars in a pot of water to sterilize.

     Remove cover and stir in remaining sugar. and butter. Over medium-low heat, stir till sugar is dissolved. Then increase heat to medium-high, and bring to a full rolling boil. Remove pan from heat and skim away any foam.

     Return pan to heat and bring back to a full rolling boil. Stir in pectin, and reheat to full rolling boil. Stirring constantly so it doesn't burn. Boil one minute. Remove from heat and skim foam again. Add 1 tsp of almond extract.

     Cool 5 minutes, stirring every minute. Remove your jars from the pot and set out on a towel. Place your lids into the boiling water and leave till ready. Fill  your jars using a funnel. Clean the rims of your jars and place hot lids on. Hand tighten rings on jars, and place jars in your boiling water bath, with water cover the tops. Process for 10 minutes (depending on your altitude) at 200 degrees. Remove jars and set on towel undisturbed for 24 hours. Then remove rings, label, and store. This makes 8 half pint jelly jars. I think I had about 1/8 cup left over that I placed in a container in the fridge.
     The basis for this recipe, I believe came from the book, "Blue Ribbon Preserves" which I checked out from the library.
     This stuff is fantastic. I love it on toast, but I have also used store bought peach jam in my sweet and sour chicken. Now I can use my own.
   

Glorious South Carolina Peaches!

       We got back from South Carolina with all my precious cargo. Three grand daughters returned to their parents ( with a big sigh of relief, lol ), and my two half bushel baskets of beautiful, mouth watering South Carolina peaches. i can't sing their praises enough. These are a heavenly delight to the taste buds. Their sweet, juicy flesh is like a ray of sunshine. I dont think there is a fruit anywhere that can compare. We bought them fresh to eat there while camping last yr. This year I have the canning bug, and couldn't pass them up. Even at $22 for half bushel. These are huge peaches, some over 10" in diameter. There are a few slightly bruised ones , but with a 12 hour drive home with our fifth wheel in tow. Thats not too bad. I almost hate to can them, since we enjoy eating them fresh so much, but they wont last forever.

Out of the first half bushel, I got 12 quart jars. But lost one when the jar broke as I lowered into the hot water bath for processing.

Yea, I know they are not supposed to be floating. 

Canned Peaches

Peel, pit, and remove fibrous red areas surrounding pit. 

Slice in half or fourths. Place slices in bowl with juice of half a lemon to coat. This keeps peaches from browning as you prepare them. 

Prepare a syrup. I prefer a light syrup which is 2 cups of white granulated sugar per 6 cups of water. Place this in a pot to simmer until sugar dissolves then bring to a boil. 

Place canning caps into boiling water to hold till ready. 

After placing peaches in a sterilized quart jar, packing them firmly, pour hot syrup over peaches. be sure to leave 1/2" head space. 

Dry off rims of jars. 

Place caps over and hand tighten ring. 

Place jars in boiling water bath with enough water to cover jars. Process for 25 minutes for pints and 30 minutes for quarts.

When done, remove jars from water and set out on towel. Leave untouched for 24 hours, then remove rings and store. Double check your seals to be sure all lids are depressed.