Pantry Organization

BEFORE

Making great use of waste to hold canned goods. Thinking that making coating the boxes with glue and covering with scrapbooking paper would add extra strength, I covered them in glue. But I never did add the scrapbooking paper. They work just fine for smaller cans like soup.

AFTER

The key was to put the things the kids get themselves like cereal down where they can reach them and the things they shouldn't be getting into like candy up higher where it is most difficult for them to reach.

APPLE DAY

Its FALL and for me that means apple time. I am so blessed to have people around me who have such an abundance of apples that they were willing to share. I also have a couple friends who wanted to get together to make all kinds of apple goodies. Although my recipes aren't original, I wanted to share the links to them because they were so stinking amazing!

So we started out with 2 bathtubs full of apples. It made me laugh, but we had so many the best way to clean them was in the bathtub! =)

Then we used a nifty little gadget called an apple peeler corer slicer. If you want to do apples and don't have this thing, go get one. It makes apple life so much easier!

Yes, my hubby and my brother joined in.

Next we peeled, and sliced, and cored.

Finally, we peeled, and sliced, and cored some more. Seriously thought it would never end. My sweet husband kept peeling, slicing and coring so that the three of us could start making some yummy apple goodies.

We started with apple butter in 5 crockpots sitting throughout the house. This was interesting with 5 kids, 3 adult men, and 3 adult women to get around. But we managed and it was so worth it! So, so yummy! Here is the link for the recipe we used.

Next we went to making applesauce. This was very easy and again, so tasty. We didn't even add any sugar or spices it was so good plain. Here is what we used for the applesauce recipe.

We also made apple chips by simply slicing and dehydrating at 140 degree for 12-24 hours. You can make them as crunchy or soft as you like. We also sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on them before dehydrating.

Silly me, I didn't get a picture of these, but we also made simple canned apple rings, spiced apple rings, and cran-apple jam.

I wanted to make canned apple pie filling, but after reading that it wasn't safe to use cornstarch in canning products, and I didn't have time to order the stuff I really needed, we settled for canned apple rings which are easy enough to add the apple pie spices for a pie.

And, finally, here is what we ended up with. We used so many jars, I have no more left-which is a good thing. =)

Happy Canning!

Spiced Carmel Pear Jam

This is one of my most favorite things to can. It is so good and rather different. It makes great gifts and is not to terribly difficult to make. I got the recipe from here, but I also posted it below. Enjoy!!!

We bought a huge box full of pears from a program at school. I think there were 80-some pears in there. 

Here is what it looks like when it is cooking. Yum, it's making me want to get open a jar now and spread it on a crispy warm piece of toast. 

Spiced Carmel Pear Jam:

Ingredients-

4 cups chopped, peeled, and cored pears

1 package powdered fruit pectin

3 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon butter, optional-but highly suggested

Directions-

1. Prepare your water bath canner, jars, and lids.

2. After peeling, coring, and chopping your pears add them to into a large pot.

3. In a separate bowl add the pectin and 1/4 cup of the sugar; mix. Add the pectin mixture to the pears in the pot and cook over medium-high heat, stirring. Bring to a full rolling boil. Mix in the remaining sugars and spices. Add butter. Stir constantly bringing to a full rolling boil again. Boil for exactly 1 minute longer. Remove from heat and continue to stir for 5 more minutes.

4. Fill hot jars with jam. Leave 1/4 headspace. 

5. Process for 10 minutes.

6. Remove to cool. Do not invert.

Makes 6-7 half-pint jars.

Tip: I read or heard somewhere that if you are making a huge amount of jam that it is best to only double or triple the recipe for each batch. If you do more there is a greater chance that the pectin will not work as well. Not sure why, but I hate messing with jam that did not firm the first time. 

Tip: I did try to use liquid pectin, not suggested. We will be using a few jars for fruit syrup instead of jam... :)

Green Tomato Salsa

So, this was done quite a while ago, but since I'm iced in my house--okay, not literally, but it is pretty icy outside and there is no way I'm going out there today--why not get caught up. Besides, earlier I promised that once I posted about this green tomato salsa, I would get started with holiday crafts! I have so many cute things in mind. Now, with this one done, I can get started on some crafty things. 

I have made this salsa for two years now. Last year, the growing season left me with tons of unripe tomatoes and they were going bad inside before they ripened. I did not want to waste them, thus one of my favorite recipes came to life. Actually, I just found it. But I usually make it slightly different. Here is the original recipe. I made it the first time with green peppers from my garden since that is all I had. I'm pretty sure I also used lemon juice instead of lime juice.

It was so good that I had to plan to make it this year. We planned for green tomatoes. When the time came, my wonderful husband stopped by the store after work to pick up the ingredients. Unfortunately, he bought out all of the red peppers before we had enough, so he picked up some yellow ones too. This year the only change I made was the peppers. We had red, yellow and green. I did different batches with each of these to see which we like best. I'll have to let you know...

                                     

We had so much that it took me all day. When the boys came back from hunting, they even sat down to help. I had tons of helping hands that you will see. It really helped!

First batch with red peppers.

Onions, jalapeños, and cilantro. We cut them first, then used a chopper to make them chopped. 

We had quite the system going. Washing, cutting, chopping, weighing, cooking. It was a huge process.

Yellow peppers.

 You can see there is a difference between red and yellow peppers.

Again, here is the link for this recipe. It is so good and quite different. It is not like regular salsa, it's much better!

Enjoy!

Salsa Recipe

So, I promise that the canning recipes will come to an end soon as the season is almost over. Then you all get to see my holiday crafts. I have some fun ideas for the upcoming holidays; but for now, I've got to get this canning stuff done before it freezes too hard to ruin my garden. My last canning post will be a green tomato salsa because when it freezes, I have to take the rest of my tomatoes off the vines whether they are done or not. That's when I know canning season has come to an end. And that can be your clue too that all these canning posts will end. Soon, folks, soon. I promise. But for now, you get another canning recipe:

*!SaLsA!*
I got this recipe from a friend awhile ago, so thanks for the recipe! It's the one we use each year because it is the easiest and turns out the best for us. It looks so good when it starts to cook! It really gets me in the mood for some good tacos.

Just put into the pot.

Starting to cook down a bit if you look at the sides.

Some finished jars. Sorry the pic is blurry. But you get the idea. 

Salsa Recipe:

20 cups tomatoes, blanched, and quartered

2 (or more) fresh jalapeño peppers

2 cups chopped green peppers

8 cloves minced garlic

5 Tbs. canning salt

4 6oz cans tomato paste

1 1/4 cup vinegar

3 Tbs. sugar

4 tsp. ground cumin

4 tsp. ground oregano

Simmer 1 hour stirring occasionally. Pour into hot jars. Place jars in canner filled with hot water, bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes. Remove jars and allow to cool. Makes 12-15 pints.

See, pretty easy. We doubled the recipe, just used two different pans. Instead of blanching the tomatoes we did it in the oven. See this post for directions on what I think is so much easier than blanching the tomatoes. My hubby likes smooth salsa, so we put the cooked salsa in a blender before transferring to hot jars. 

The smell of this stuff cooking is AMAZING! Those spices, the fresh produce from our garden--YUM! Our house smelled salsa-y for a few days. It was great. I hope this makes you all hungry. Go have some good salsa, or for my friends and family, come visit me and you can have some of mine. :) 

Tomato Stuff

The past few weeks have been crazy busy getting used to a school schedule. Even so, my husband and I have found some time to get some more canning done. We have to get it done so all the hard work in the garden over the summer (thanks mom! she came and helped out for several weeks) would not be wasted. We have canned so many things that I've lost count. We have more than enough pickles to last us a couple of years. Our tomatoes have finally started to turn so we've been able to stock up on our fresh canned tomato sauce which we use all the time. We also got all of our corn out of the garden before too many insects got to it. I think we could have opened our own farmers market!

Last batch of pickles with some pickled green beans in there too.

See our farmers market counter? Funny thing is that it looks like this again--a week later! 

So, for any type of tomato canning, you want to blanch the tomatoes to get the skin off because the skin is just not that fun to chew on when you are eating salsa, tomato sauce, or any other tomato thing. After a couple years of blanching the real way standing over a pot of boiling water with 3-4 tomatoes in the water for a minute or so then submerging it into a bowl of icy cold water and having to change both waters after about ten minutes. I found a way to do it in the oven. So much faster and easier.

Core tomatoes. If they are really big, cut them in half. put them in a pan--not touching I learned after the first time I tried it. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. The skins should come off pretty easily after the tomatoes have cooled enough to touch them.

After peeling the tomatoes, I squeezed out the extra watery juicy stuff because I have yet to make a thick enough tomato sauce. Then, put the squeezed and squashed tomato into a heavy pot. I filled mine up to the brim because it will cook down. You can see the sauce lines going down the sides of the pot. I reduced mine about half way. Every so often, I took a soup ladle and took out some more water. My goal was to try for thick sauce this time. It took about an hour to simmer it down.

Once as thick as I think I can possibly get it, I blended it to create a smooth sauce. 

 Processed and finished. I don't mind the seeds in there. If you don't like the seeds you can always use a sieve to get few to no seeds. 

I had to post a picture of this. This poor pot has been through so much with me. There is never a time when I fail to burn the bottom. I am not a good example of staying close to my cooking items to keep them from burning the bottom. A little soap and water and back on the oven to get the burnt stuff up. It works, and year after year this pot and I go through the same love/hate relationship. 

Did I inspire you? If so, here are some recipes. Enjoy!

Tomato Sauce

Core tomatoes and put in a pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 min. Peel and place in pot. Smash, cook, and stir frequently until desired thickness. Put 1 tablespoon lemon juice in jars. Fill to 1/4 inch headspace. Process for 30 minutes in boiling water bath.

NOTE: 24 pounds tomatoes = approximately 6 pints

Cream Style Corn

9 cups corn

1 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

2 cups water

Thickening sauce:

1 cup flour

1 1/2 cups water

Mix together before adding to corn.

Husk corn. Cut the tips of the kernels off of the corn cob. Scrape the rest of the kernels off with the back of the knife or a spoon. Cook in a heavy pot. Add sugar, salt and water. Bring to boil. Add thickening sauce. Cook additional 10 min. Stir constantly. Remove from heat, cool, transfer to freezer safe containers (I use freezer bags), freeze. 

Yes, I did burn the pan with cream corn too. I told you this pan and I... :)

Pickled Beets

Remember how I said I liked getting back to the basics of life? Well, for me part of that is being able to provide food and such for my family without having to run to the store every other day. Granted, the closest actual grocery store is about half an hour away so making a trip to town a few times during the week is just not a plausible thing for our family.

Throughout the past few years I have been learning how to and practicing my canning skills. I have done a variety of jams, pickles, tomato products, meat, and pie filling. Yesterday, with the much-appreciated help of little hands, I made 24 pints of pickled beets. That is quite a bit for those who don’t know. It took us 5 hours, but it was fun. I used a recipe from my great grandmother that was passed down to my grandpa and then down to me through a cherished family cookbook. I love the thought of knowing that I am doing and teaching my children the same things my ancestors did. I feel like I can be connected with those loved ones who are angels on the other side in some way.

Though canning is most definitely not a simple process, it is part of my simple lifestyle that I love. If you want to give it a try the recipe is included below. This recipe is probably more special to me because my grandpa grew up on a farm but relocated to Las Vegas. Although he lived in the middle of a city he still held onto his country roots and used this recipe many times to create these sweet pickled beets. Enjoy!

So, I have a great farmer friend who loves pickled beets. A few years ago, he told me that his mom was going to stop canning and thus ending his supply of pickled beets. It just so happened that I was planning on attempting this recipe for my very first time that fall when my beets were done. Ever since then my beet crop has been very small, but I do still try to get him a can or two each year. Well, this year we happened to be out on the farm when he had just picked tons of beets. With my previous offer still out there, I was given a big box and another bag full of beets to can. I still had a bag full of beets in my fridge from my own garden that I was able to add to the mix.

      

Step 1: Get helping hands! My oldest was such a good helper, and I could not have gotten it done in the 5-hour time span without her help.

 We filled up four pots and still had ½ a box of beets left to wash. I think I need a bigger stove, oh and more pots—ran out of those too. My farmer friend (aka Papa Bruce) said next year he’ll be sure to buy me bigger pots. Thanks for the support Papa Bruce!

 Next came cutting the tops and bottoms off, pealing, and slicing. Yes, that is beet juice all over my counter with another shot of my helper. You’ll see how much fun she had within the next few pictures. She had never tried beets before so she and I ate a couple quite a few of these amazing things. Peeling is quite fun too actually. If they are cooked completely, the skins just slip right off. But it is a messy job…

See, fun stuff, right?

After filling 24 pints worth of jars with beets we added the rest of the ingredients. Then processed them, and this was our end result. That’s a ton of beets! Papa Bruce should be able to make these last a week or two. J

 I’ve been canning for about 4 years and have never had a jar break in the water bath (first picture for those non-canners out there). Imagine my surprise when I lifted the canner lid to find bright red bubbling water with beets floating around. Luckily the break was clean and it was only the bottom that busted without shards of broken glass everywhere. Couldn’t save the beets though. L

Okay, ready to give it a try?

My family recipe for Pickled Beets

3 qts. Beets (enough to fill a three quart pot)

2 c. Vinegar

2 tsp. Salt

1 c. Sugar

2 c. Beet juice

¼ tsp. Mustard seed (in each pint)

2 Cloves (in each pint)

Cut beet tops off, leaving about 1½ inches of the beet top on. Boil the beets about 50 minutes. In a separate pan, place the vinegar, salt, sugar, and beet juice and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, turn down the heat. In each pint jar place cut, booked beets and the mustard seeds and cloves. Pour the liquid ingredients into each bottle. Place the flat lid for the pint jars in a pan with a little water. Bring to a boil then turn down. Do not let lids boil! Place the lids onto the pint jars and screw on the metal tops (rings). Place pint jars into pan with rack (so the bottles will not touch the bottom of the pan) and boil for 15 minutes. 

Yummy!