Tattler Reusable Canning Lids: Pink Lids to Help Raise Money for Cancer Research

Tattler, the makers of reusable canning lids, recently contacted me about a promotion that they would be holding during the month of October to help those suffering from the monetary suffering that often times comes with battling cancer.

The details?  Direct from the press release that they e-mailed me...

"On October 1, 2013, Tattler Reusable Canning Lids will begin a month-long campaign in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  We will be offering Special Edition TATTLER Reusable Canning Lids in the color PINK during the entire month.  More importantly we will be donating 35% of the sales proceeds from the PINK lids to the Women's Cancer Fund which provides financial assistance for supportive care, to women battling cancer, when other means have been exhausted.  We have researched and found this program to be very worthy and extremely beneficial to those who have sought support, and we encourage you to help us in our endeavor to help women battle this devastating disease."

So, you ask, how can you help?

Well, starting October 1st, you can go HERE and order your very own pink reusable canning lids! 

That's it!  You get some really awesome pink canning lids and you help the Women's Cancer Fund.  Simple as that.

Tattler, to help promote this worthy endeavor, was kind enough to send me a sample of the pink lids (as well as some of the original white lids to compare) and I used some of the pink lids to lid up some strawberry rhubarb jam (that I made with rhubarb from my garden, I'm proud to say).  The only thing I wish is that I'd gotten the lids sooner as I bet they would have looked completely stunning on the blue mason jars I bought earlier.  But, they sure did make my Elite Collection Mason jars pop!

I'm looking forward to canning more with these lids as I finish up my yearly canning exploits and I hope you will consider adding some to your collection as well to help and fund a good cause and to add something cool to your canning supplies while you do it.  After all, they canning lids are reusable for years to come and are PINK!  How can you go wrong there?

Disclaimer:  I would like to thank Tattler for their generosity for sharing their new pink lids with me ahead of the release date in return for doing this post.  The opinions stated in said post are 100% mine, however.

Mango Salsa Recipe (Garlic, Corn, Refined Sugar Free)

When it comes to garlic allergies everyone I know who has to deal with them seems to miss one thing universally, including myself.

Salsa.

Lovely, lovely salsa.  With it's tangy tones, it's background heat and it's chunky texture that you just want to put on tacos or dip tortilla chips in (note to self, find a way to make corn free tortilla chips).  Well, when you take garlic out of salsa it just is NOT the same.  I've made salsa about 17 different ways since the garlic allergy.  Every single one of them just ends up tasting like picante sauce without the garlic in the salsa.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but I just missed having a salsa that I wanted to go back for seconds or thirds with.

Then it hit me when I saw mangoes on sale last week.  Why go with tomato salsa all the time?  Why not go just completely out there nuts with it and go with a fruit based salsa instead, use ingredients that I know my kids can eat and/or I just plain like and make it all work.  It shouldn't need the garlic in it if I did it right, and I could mess with the heat levels and such in it.

Unfortunately, like every single recipe I could find for mango salsa contained another, newer nemesis to me.  Corn (which is in everything right along with garlic, so why I was surprised is beyond me).

So, after much thinking, reworking recipes and just generally messing around my kitchen I came up with this recipe.  Now, do not get your hopes up for a traditional salsa here.  It is not going to taste like your typical tomato-based salsa.  Nope, this stuff is tangy and sweet with a background heat that just makes you want to come back and grab more.  My husband has even put in a request for taco night next week to eat this stuff on tacos.

Oh, did I mention that this stuff cans like a dream because it's got a high acidity level in it just like traditional salsa.

Yeah, I'd say this recipe is a keeper.  Enjoy folks!

It might not look like much, but it sure is tasty!

Mango Salsa (Garlic, Corn and Refined Sugar Free)

• 2 cups cubed ripe mango (the consistency of one large mango for me as mine was HUGE)
• 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple (make sure you get corn free.  My can from Safeway contained two things.  Pineapple and juice).  Do not drain (you'll use the entire can).  If you want a chunkier salsa go with pineapple tid bits instead of crushed pineapple (crushed was all I had, so crushed it was).
• 1 Cup sweetened dried cranberries (I used Craisins)
• 1 1/4 cups lemon juice (you could also go half lemon and half lime if you wished)
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (just for fun.  I used Braggs)
• 3 teaspoons chile powder (not chili powder...chile powder is just dried and crushed chile peppers)
• 2 TBS minced onion
• 3 TBS minced fresh cilantro
• 3 TBS honey (you could also use maple syrup, palm sugar or brown sugar here.  You just want it for some additional sweet and to help deepen the flavor)

1.  Prepare canner, jars and lids (if you are planning on canning it).

2.  Here's the hard part.  Combine all the ingredients (including the entire can of pineapple in juice) in a large non-reactive pan and bring to a boil.  Boil gently for 10 to 20 minutes or until thickened, stirring every few minutes to make sure nothing burns.  Adjust seasonings to taste (if you like more heat, add more chile powder or cayenne pepper, if you like it sweeter add a bit more sweetener of choice, etc.).

3.  Ladle hot salsa into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles (I just used a butter knife for this).  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar and screw down band until finger tight (a kitchen towel really helps you not get burned here).

4.  Place jars in canner, making sure they are completely covered with water.  Let canner come back up to a boil.  Process for 15 minutes.  Turn off heat and let jars sit in water 5 more minutes.  Place jars on a kitchen towel to cool and then store.

Hope you enjoy the salsa as much as I do (I ate a lot of it while I was making it *ahem*).  I found it to be somewhat addictive :).

Enjoy!

Take it to the Streets Tuesday: Spiced Honey Recipe?

Our question, well request *laugh*, today comes from one of our readers, Jennifer.

"Hi,

Not really a question, but more a request.  I read your post on Facebook a while back that you'd come up with a honey recipe to can and was wondering if you'd share it.

Thank you!

Jennifer Z."

Sure thing, Jennifer.  Here you go!

******************

Spiced Honey With Lemon  (from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

Makes about 3 pints.

• 1 lemon, end pieces removed and cut into 6 even slices
• 12 whole cloves 
• 3 cinnamon sticks 
• 2 2/3 cup liquid honey

1.  Prepare canner, jars and lids (see canning section for more information on canning)

2.  Stud each slice of lemon with 2 cloves (I just stuck it through the pulp of the lemon, but the directions actually said to do it through the peel...I just wasn't that worried about it).  In a non-reactive saucepan (I used stainless steel), combine lemon slices, honey and cinnamon sticks.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Boil gently for 2 minutes.

3.  Using tongs, remove lemon slices and place 2 in each canning jar.  Remove cinnamon sticks and place one in each jar.  Ladle hot honey into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to finger tight (remember the ring is JUST there to hold the lid in place until the adhesive has time to melt and mesh the lid to the jar...screwing it down super hard is NOT going to help the process, so go with finger tight and save yourself the hernia :).

4.  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water (I usually go for about 2 inches above the jars).  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Turn off heat and let jars sit another 5 minutes and then remove, cool and store.

This stuff REALLY helps a sore throat big time and is great to help a cough since the honey coats your throat and helps sooth tissues.  I actually like the taste of this stuff so much I'll eat it with a teaspoon, but you can also put it in tea as well or anywhere else you could see needing some citrus and sweet applied (oatmeal or say iced tea come to mind too).

We Preserve it Wednesday (Late): How to make Your Own Salsa

Thanks to Tipnut.com for use of the image!

 How is it that this week just sort of got away with me on these daily posts.  Ooops!  Sorry about that.  If I can ever get the scheduling function on Blogger to work right I'd be set.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good way to preserve tomatoes for future use how about making your own salsa (and yes, I've substituted canned tomatoes MANY times if I don't have fresh and the salsa comes out tasting just fine.  Just make sure you use diced tomatoes, NOT petite diced...unless you like picante sauce...which in it's own right tastes good and all).

Go HERE where Tipnut gives you an insanely LONG list of salsa recipes as well as links on how to can it and/or freeze it for future use :).

Enjoy!

DIY: Sweet Pumpkin Pickles

When I ended up with two extra pie pumpkins due to school projects with the kids, I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with them.  I already had a good portion of pumpkin puree in the freezer from pumpkins I'd bought earlier (before the surprise pumpkins had to be purchased) and I had found a good deal on pumpkin puree at Three Bears on top of it and had stocked up.  So, I cleaned them, vaseline-d them (helps to stop spoilage) and kept thinking on what to do with them that wasn't just baking and smashing them into pulp.

And then one day while perusing my copy of The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving I struck paydirt.

Now mind you, I grew up on things like Watermelon Rind Pickles, so the idea of pumpkin pickles didn't seem so odd to me.  Rest assured these things come out looking pretty orange and look pretty cool in the jar and they DO taste like a bread and butter pickle with a sort of pumpkin-y flair to them.  I really liked them :).  So, if you have some pumpkin you are looking to use up, this is a great recipe to try!  And if you are looking for unique home made gifts to give this holiday season, I'd think this would be one no one would see coming ;).

I took the original recipe (since it called for 24 whopping CUPS of cut up pumpkin) and halved the brine ingredients...the recipe didn't really break down into 1/4th well, so it was easier to make extra brine and have some left over than to end up with too little you know?

Sweet Pumpkin Pickles (adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

• 1 Cinnamon Stick, broken in half
• 6 Whole allspice
• 5 Whole Cloves
• 1/2 lemon, zested, peeled (get rid of pith) and then juiced (the recipe called for the pulp to be added to the brine, but I just juiced the lemon into it and called it good...I'm not big on pulp)
• 3 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 2 Cups White Vinegar
• 12 Cups seeded, peeled and cubed pumpkin (or in my case about 6 cups...if you have less you'll just end up with extra brine when it's all said and done :)

1. Prepare canner, lids and jars (if you're going to store these in the fridge to use immediately don't worry about this part)

2. Tie cinnamon stick half, allspice and cloves in a square of cheesecloth, creating a spice bag.  Set aside (or do like I did and just make the brine with it all floating around on the surface and then take a slotted spoon and just fish the spices before you can everything...I couldn't find my cheesecloth at that moment :).

3.  In a large sauce stainless steel (or non reactive!) saucepan, combine lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, vinegar and spices.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.  Cover, reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes.  Add pumpkin, return to a boil and cook for 3 minutes to heat the pumpkin through.  Discard spices.

4.  Pack hot pumpkin into jar (I use a slotted spoon and added the pumpkin to the jars WITH a canning funnel to keep the rim of the jar clean) within a generous 1/2 inch to the top of the jar.  Ladle hot syrup into jars to cover pumpkin to a generous 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles (a wooden spoon handle works slick for this.  Just push it down around the perimeter of the jar to get all the air bubbles out that you can find) and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding more hot syrup.  Wipe rim of jar to make sure you don't have any particles on the rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight (remember no matter how tight you get your band, the band is ONLY there to hold the lid onto the jar.  The cooling of the contents of the jar create the vacuum seal, so tightening for all you are worth isn't going to do anything).

5.  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered by water (2 inches at least is recommended).  Bring to a boil and process for 20 minutes.  Turn off heat and wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store (I just boil the water in the canner while I'm prepping everything else and it's usually CLOSE to boiling when the jars are done.  I then just put the jars in the near boiling water, wait for the water to come to a good boil and then set my timer according to the recipe.  Remember...over processing not going to do any harm.  Under processing?  Could lead to a lot of not good things).

Enjoy!

We Preserve It Wednesday (late): How to Make Crock Pot Yogurt

Thanks to savingslifestyle.com for use of the photo!

Okay, so I've gotten a really low batting average on doing these posts consistently on time.  Sorry folks!  But, anyway, if you're trying to preserve some milk that is going to go bad in your fridge you can go HERE where "Savings Life Style shows you how to make home made yogurt in your crock pot.

A couple of quick notes though. Try not to use ultra-pasteurized milk as it doesn't set with the bacteria in the yogurt (too many bacteria in the milk get killed I think), always look for live active cultures in your yogurt when buying your "starter" and be prepared that home made yogurt is NOT going to be as thick as store bought yogurt as most store bought yogurts have corn starch added to them to thicken them up (always good to know that for any possible corn intolerances out there too :).

DIY: Making and Canning Your Own BBQ Sauce Part 2: Ketchup-based BBQ Sauce

 Very long subject line, yes, but necessary.

So, here's part 2 of the BBQ sauce making and canning series.  This one is a ketchup based recipe (I went simple on the photos on this one just because it was getting late and I was tired when I made it).

St. Louis BBQ Sauce (adapted from recipe found on About.com).  Quadrupled to get amount seen above.

• 2 cups ketchup (garlic free.  I used a combo of home made ketchup and Annie's Organic Ketchup for the recipe)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard (I used dried since it didn't say which to use.  Came out thicker than it described the recipe as being, but it tasted just fine and I like thick BBQ sauce anyway :).
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 Tablespoon Liquid Smoke flavoring (at least I used it because I like a smokey flavor to my BBQ sauce :).

Step 1:  Prepare canning jars, lids, rings and hot water bath canner.

Step 2:  Combine all ingredients in a saucepan bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until desired consistency is reached (I waited until it would coat the back of a spoon well).

Step 3:  Fill up canning jars to 1/2 inch mark (underside of the canning jar threads), put lids and rings on and process in a hot water bath canner for 35 minutes for pints and 40 minutes for quarts (I'd honestly go for pints here folks...that's a lot of BBQ sauce in a quart!).  Remove to a kitchen towel to cool completely.  Check seals.  If the lid pops up and down the seal is bad and you can just put the BBQ sauce in the fridge to use ASAP.

And done!  I know the hardest thing you'll ever do right?  *Laugh*.  Seriously it was making the ketchup, mustard and chili powder that took me the longest in getting up TO this point in the "needing to make condiment" process.  But, it was worth it :).

Opinion of the BBQ Sauce:  As my husband put it, "Wow!  That's BOLD!" (picture really corny cowboy-like accent inserted here ;).  It is pretty powerful stuff, but does taste like BBQ sauce, so I figure I did my job alright.  If you're looking for a little less "pow" to your BBQ sauce I'd omit the Cayenne from the recipe and taste it after it's boiled down to see what you think.

DIY: Making and Canning Your Own BBQ Sauce + Chili Powder (Garlic Free)

So, I promised in the last post that I'd show you how to make some BBQ sauce.  Well, here's one recipe (with a bit of a side track into home made chili powder).

Big Daddy's Carolina Style BBQ Sauce (adapted from recipe found on:  About.com).  I tripled this to get the amount of canned BBQ sauce you see above.  The recipe just plain doesn't make that much.

• 1 cup prepared yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce (I used gluten free)
• 2 tablespoons butter (omit the butter thing if canning it.  If you're going to can it, use a non-dairy based spread since you're not supposed to can dairy, but you could omit it completely)
• 1 tablespoon liquid smoke (hickory flavoring)

Preparation:

Step 1:  Make your garlic free chili powder.  Here's how that recipe goes (I literally made this recipe x like 16, so be prepared to not have as much as my big honking jar up there :).

CHILI POWDER (garlic free)

1 Tsp. Paprika
2 Tsp. Cumin
1 Tsp. Chile Powder (ground up dried chiles...you can find it in the Mexican food section)
1 Tsp. Oregano
2 Tsp. Onion Powder (to replace garlic powder...optional...I just omitted it completely)

Put all ingredients in mason jar and shake to combine and done.  Easy peazy!  Multiple by however much you need.

Step 2:  Back to the BBQ sauce.  Prepare your jars, lids and canner and be ready to rock.

Mix all except soy sauce, butter and smoke in stock pot. Simmer 30 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 more minutes.

Step 3:  Can it!

Put in canning jars and fill up to 1/2 inch mark (underside of the threads on the lid part).  Secure lids and rings and place in hot water bath canner for 35 minutes.  Remove, cool and check seals and if seals are good place in your pantry to use later.

Opinion on the BBQ sauce:  This is ONE "spicy meat-a-balla" of a recipe folks, so be aware of that before you start.  I don't mind it, but I am glad I made a lot more of the ketchup-based traditional style instead of this on as this is going to be one for that "special occasion" type of deal.

DIY: Making and Canning Your Own Dijon Mustard (Garlic Free)

This is one in a series of posts (believe it or not) that is going to build up to making your own home made BBQ sauce, but still making your own mustard, especially garlic free mustard, is actually easier than you might think.  You can actually make mustard with as little as just powered mustard combined with vinegar and even water and you just mix it up to the consistency you want, but I wanted something a bit fancier to start my "mustard making journey".  So, I went with this recipe.

So, let's do this thing!

Home Made Dijon Mustard
(Adapted from recipe found on Food in Jars.com)

Step 1:  Assemble the Ingredients.  Which are...

INGREDIENTS

• 1 and ½ cups white wine (ideally a white Burgundy, or a crisp Chablis or sauvignon blanc).  I used a good tasting white wine that I had bought myself for cooking wine a while back.
• ½ cup white wine vinegar (I used a combo of white wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar because that is what I had)
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 4 oz dry mustard powder (ground yellow mustard seed, about 1 cup + 2 tsp)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp salt
• Dash or two of Tabasco or cayenne pepper (optional)
 The recipe called for 2 cloves of garlic, but I just omitted that and went with 1 shallot instead.  It's better than nothing.

Step 2:  Do Your Math

I quadrupled the recipe above, so I made sure to write down math before I started.  I screw up a LOT less on a recipe when I do that.

Step 3:   Prepare canner, jars & lids.  

Make sure they are hot and waiting for YOU, not the other way around.

Step 4:  Combine wine, vinegar, onion and garlic in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow aromatics to steep in the wine for 10 – 15 minutes.

Step 5:  Strain vegetables from the infused wine, pressing on solids to release all the juice. Return wine to the saucepan and add salt, honey and Tabasco, if using (I used a pinch of cayenne pepper instead).

Step 6:  Over medium heat, whisk in the mustard powder; continue whisking and heating until the mustard comes to a boil. Stirring constantly, boil mustard until it reduces to your desired thickness, remembering that it will thicken further upon cooling (I cooked mine for about 25 minutes, but I did make a LOT, so be sure to check yours). Taste and adjust seasonings.

Step 7:  Fill hot jars to right below the threads on the jar (I call that the 1/2 inch mark), tamping down the mustard into the jar (mine was still liquid enough that I just tapped the jar on the counter a couple of times to release any air bubbles and called it good). Thoroughly bubble by passing the handle of a wooden spoon along the edges and middle of the jar. Wipe rims, affix lids and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Allow to rest for 5 minutes in the hot water prior to removing from the canner.

Yields about 1 and 1/2 cups (like I said I quadrupled it)

OPTIONS

1. If storing in the fridge, you may omit the vinegar and simply use 2 cups of wine.
2. I read somewhere that most traditional Dijon mustard is made with both red & white wines.

Opinion of the mustard:  Well, I let mine sit for a few days before turning it into BBQ sauce base and tasted it and BOY does it have a wine-like taste to it.  It's not BAD or anything, but I think I need to experiment with recipes a bit more.  I want to definitely try my hand at making a chunky style mustard and also just make a plain yellow mustard (non-Dijon), but I'm waiting for my preserving books to come in the mail to research that one :).

DIY: Making and Canning Your own Pancake Syrup

When I was growing up in New England I just assumed that everyone in the universe lived on real maple syrup (you know from the tree) on their oatmeal in the morning, on their pancakes for breakfast dinners or heck even in their coffee (knew an old timer who used to do that).

And then I moved out of New England and realized that if you don't LIVE in New England where you can get the maple syrup from those wonderful trees a bottle of maple syrup cost as much as a good quality chunk of beef at the store.  I learned that people lived off of these bottles of "pancake syrup" that were shaped like ladies in aprons and other, what I considered at the time, monstrous concoctions.  And being a young working woman I shelled out the moola for the real thing of maple syrup and rolled my eyes at those other people in the world who thought that maple syrup came out of some jar shaped like a lady instead of an honest to goodness maple tree.

And THEN I moved to Alaska.  Where the price on a good quality maple syrup runs about, what, the price of a small used car?  And suddenly one night while deader-than-dead broke in my first year of marriage I looked at that evil bottle shaped like the lady in the apron sitting at my in-laws table and swallowing my New England pride I tried it.

And you know, while it didn't taste like maple syrup to me, and it still really doesn't, it really was NOT bad.  After a lot more years of being dead broke and doing a lot of shopping where I'd just plain skim over the price of the real "good stuff" maple syrup and settle for the less expensive substitutes I learned to deal with it just because of the price if nothing else.

And then I had kids.  And those kids developed issues and I started reading those darn nutrition labels.  When I started seeing, "corn syrup" on like every bottle of pancake syrup I picked up I got concerned and made an attempt to find my own recipe to make.

And I found it.  Not only is this recipe INSANELY simple to make it doesn't contain any specks of corn syrup (which is doubly good since I'm trying to do a "no corn syrup" rule for my son).  Advantages of this recipe?  If you want a vanilla pancake syrup instead of a maple one, add all vanilla extract to the recipe.  If you, like me, love a really heavy maple flavoring to it, add more maple flavoring (I keep the vanilla amount the same no matter how much maple flavoring I use though :).  Heck you could make peppermint pancake syrup if you wanted to...although I'm not really sure why you'd want to do that....but you get the idea.

Now this recipe DOES have a problem in that it'll crystalize over time in your fridge since it's like 100% sugar (grows sugar crystals).  If you want to help avoid this just add the aforementioned corn syrup (I'd go with like 1 tbsp per recipe of the stuff) because that'll help stave off crystalization.  Me personally?  I'll deal with the crystals for the sake of no corn syrup (although I keep swearing one of these days I'm going to remember to add some rice syrup to it and see if that helps...if I ever remember to buy any at the store *laugh*).

So, here's how that dance goes...

Home Made Pancake Syrup (via Our Country Haven Forums)

• 4 cups Granulated sugar
• 1 cup Brown sugar,packed
• 2 cups Water
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 Tbsp. Vanilla
• 1 Tbsp. Maple Flavoring

Step 1:  First get your hot water bath canner ready to go as that's going to take a while to get up to temp.  Prep your canning jars (I usually have mine ready to go before I even start this by putting them through the sterilizing cycle on my dishwasher, but you could heat them up in boiling water while you're doing everything else).  Put your lids and rings in a small pot of boiling water to sterilize them and get the binding agent on the lid of the canning jars nice and soft (I usually boil them in a small pot of water before I start doing everything else and just move the pan off the heat onto a pot holder on my counter...they'll stay plenty hot that way and you won't have to worry about your dishwasher destroying the bonding agent on the lids :).

Combine both sugars,water and salt in a large saucepan. 


Step 2:   Heat on med-high,stirring often,until boiling and sugar is dissolved.

Step 3:  Reduce heat.Cover Simmer for 10 minutes.  Make sure not to peek for the first 3 to 5 minutes (it'll dissolve any wayward sugar crystals and help your syrup to stop crystals from forming) and really you shouldn't need to do anything for 10 minutes and just leave the lid on.  Trust me this mixture takes care of itself.

Step 4:  Place sterilized metal lids on jars and screw metal bands on securely.  Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  And yes, 5 minutes is honestly plenty...this stuff is basically like jelly or jam in that it's got a HIGH sugar content on it, so it'll be just fine at 5 minutes.  Just be CAREFUL putting this stuff into your canning jars.  Remember, candy chefs refer to boiling sugar as "culinary napalm" for a reason and it's a good one, so this would be a good time to pay attention.

Step 5:  Remove jars from water and let sit on a dishtowel (as seen in the first photo) for 12 to 24 hours.  Check seals.  If some seals didn't take you can reboil the syrup and reprocess with a new lid or just stick them in the fridge to use.

Makes 4 2/3 cups (I tripled the recipe today that's why my photo shows so much).

DIY: Making Your Own Ketchup

So I forgot to take a picture of it before it was in the pantry.  Sue me ;).

YES!  Finally I can get this series of articles on making your own condiments, tomato sauce, etc. under way.  I've been so busy...well making them really...that I haven't had much of a chance to get the actual blogging part of the equation done *laugh*.  I also have a lot of work left to do around here, sooooo let's get this party started!

I found that making ketchup is actually pretty easy to do.  The big thing about making it though, just to warn you, is that it takes a LOT of tomatoes and it boils down a LOT so you're going to be surprised at how little a big pan of tomatoes will boil down to.

So, here's how that whole dance goes.

Making Home Made Ketchup in Your Blender (from Pick Your Own.org)

Materials

• 12 lbs of Tomatoes about (I just honestly filled up a 8 quart stock pot with cleaned tomatoes and figured I was good to go there).
• 1 lbs onion (I just cut up a big honking onion I had in the house and called it good)
• The recipe calls for 1/2 lb each red and green sweet peppers, but I only had red, so that's what I used.
• 4.5 cups vinegar (5 percent)
• 4.5 cups sugar (I used Organic) or sugar substitute
• 1/8 cup canning or pickling salt (optional)
• Spice bag or cheesecloth (I didn't use either and just used powdered spices)

And here's the spice blend I used since I had it all and it's garlic free...

Spices Version 1:

• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon ground red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice (used about 1/4 tsp ground)
• 1/2 tablespoon whole cloves (used about 1/4 tsp ground)
• 1 stick cinnamon (3 inches long)...I just used about 1 TBS ground

Step 1: Pick Your Tomatoes

When making sauces and such Roma tomatoes really are best because they don't contain as much water and seeds as regular tomatoes, but I used all...well honestly "regular" tomatoes is all I can think to call them that I got from Bell's Nursery for all of my "tomato projects". I just seeded/juiced them over a bowl that had a colander stuck in the top of it so that I was able to strain out the juice from the seeds and left over pulp. Then I strained the catch bowl of juice through a fine mesh strainer into a pot so that I could use all the tomato juice that was left over to can...well tomato juice :). I feel pretty good about that because all I threw out from 50 lbs of tomatoes was literally the seeds and the peels. Now THAT'S minimal waste as far as I'm concerned.

Step 2: Clean and prep your tomatoes.

This step takes the longest, or it did for me. You can QUICKLY peel tomatoes by boiling a big pot of water, taking your tomatoes about 2 or 3 at a time, putting them into said boiling water for 30 to 45 seconds, pulling them out and then placing them immediately into a bowl of ice water. After you do that and the tomatoes are cool enough to handle (which is like RIGHT after you place them in the ice water pretty much) you can just literally slip the peel off the tomatoes.

Me? I have 2 young kids in my house, one of which (my son) who will immediately want to get right into the middle of whatever you are doing, so the idea of doing an assembly line with boiling water, ice water and a catch place for tomatoes? Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. So, I peeled my tomatoes the hard way which took forever.

Once you peel all your tomatoes, cut them into 1/2 if using Roma tomatoes or 1/4 if using regular tomatoes and then literally take your CLEAN fingers and scrap out the tomato seeds and juice into the catch bowl of your choice if you want to use the tomato juice or if you don't just do it over the sink with a colander in it so you can throw out the seeds and other stuff instead of washing it down your drain.

Once you have a nice heaping load of cleaned tomatoes (like I said I just filled up to the very tippy top a 8 quart stock pot) it's time to do things the easy way (bwahahahahahaha!!!!).

3.  Puree Your Veggies and Tomatoes

Take your blender and fill it up with tomatoes, onions and peppers.  For an 8 quart stock pot of tomatoes and the heaping piles of peppers and onions I had this took me 3 blender fulls to get everything pureed.  PLEASE resist the urge to do tomatoes first and then onions and then peppers or something. The water that's still in the tomatoes really DOES make the blending easier for you.  The recipe calls to blend in 5 second batches (once the tomatoes all catch and everything starts spinning correctly of course), but I found my blender just turned everything into pureed prettiness within 3 seconds (have I mentioned lately my love of my Viking Mixer/Kitchen Center?  Hee hee). 

Pour your puree into a large stock pot and bring your mixture to a boil.  Turn down the heat to about medium to medium low and boil the mixture for 1 hour.

While that is going on you can bring your vinegar up to a simmer with a cheesecloth bag or spice bag filled up with your spices (if using whole spices) to infuse the vinegar with the flavors and just let it simmer for a good long while.  I, honestly, forgot to do this step, so I pulled out my nifty powdered spices and just added them in later.

4.  Add the Seasoned Vinegar and Sugar (or your spices and sugar)

Once your mixture has boiled for an hour, now is the time to add the other goodness.  Add your seasoned vinegar (if you have it) or your regular vinegar and the powdered spices amounts I mentioned above and your sugar (I'd resist the urge, honestly, to use brown sugar for this for fear it'd burn, but use your own judgement on that).

5.  Boil, boil and boil some more!

At this point you can pour the entire mixture into your crock pot, put a splatter shield over the top of said crock pot and cook for 12 hours on low and then check it (or put your lid on loosely...you want steam to escape), or you can do like me and just let the mixture boil while you're prepping more tomatoes for other projects and just check it every 10 or so minutes and give it a good stir.  What you are looking for is a mixture that is reduced by about 1/2 and will coat the back of a spoon, but not grainy (separation of liquids and solids).  I screwed up with mine a bit because I was trying to process all of my tomato projects at once and the canning water took FOREVER to come up to temp so I ended up with slightly separated ketchup.  But, it still tastes good.

6.  Can the ketchup!

Once the ketchup is done, put into hot canning jars of your choice (I used 1/2 pint jars so that I wouldn't have to worry about mold or something in the fridge since we don't exactly BLOW through ketchup around here), put your lids and bands on and process in a hot water bath canner for 15 minutes (for higher altitude adjustments please check out the original recipe).  Let the jars cool and voila!  You now have home made ketchup!

For more information on how to can, please check out The original Recipe as Pickyourown.org is sort of an authority on this stuff.

And now that I finally have this post done, I'd better get started getting some packing up of closet messes going, so enjoy all!

Canning 101: Blueberry Syrup

I started canning my own breakfast syrups a long while ago when I found out how easy it was (I'll cover home made pancake syrup here in a bit).  And hey, my versions don't have things you can't pronounce in them.

I'm not a big "blueberry syrup" fan, but my husband LOVES blueberry syrup on his pancakes, so I actually make this for him.  This time around I canned them in 1/2 pint canning jars as we've found that the syrup only stays good in the fridge for about 3 months (and that's OUR fridge which is a nice one) before it starts to ferment, so the 1/2 pint canning jars saves us from syrup going to waste.

Now just to warn you "thick syrup" fans out there.  The FDA does NOT approve the use of corn starch in canning recipes as it's not pure enough and lead to problems.  They suggest using a product called "ClearJel".  The cheapest place I've found this stuff is on Amazon.com (and yes that's even after shipping costs), so I'd suggest getting it there.  It's not too terribly cheap, but if you want thick syrup I'd really prefer to adhere to the FDA standards for these things.  I actually ordered some for myself recently to make home made pie fillings (a new area for me), and am looking forward to that :).  So, anyway, if you are going to make thick syrup and don't want to pay for "ClearJel" I'd suggest just pouring out the amount of syrup you want to use into a pan before breakfast/dinner/whatever and add your cornstarch to the liquid, whisk to combine and then heat to boiling for a few minutes.  That should definitely take care of any thickness issues.

And now onto the recipe!

Blueberry Syrup (based on Blueberry Pancake Syrup)

The Hardware

Canning Vessel and canning jars (and other canning implements as outlined in the Basic Materials Post)
1 Large pot to make the blueberry pulp in
1 Pot to catch the blueberry syrup in
1 cheesecloth lined colander or wire mesh sieve

 The Software:

4 Cups Blueberries rinsed and drained (I always use frozen when I do this, so that would be 2 lbs of frozen blueberries)
3 Cups Water (divided!)
3 Cups Sugar
Lemon Juice

Pour the Blueberries and 1 cup of water into a saucepan and let the blueberries defrost.  Then take a potato masher and mush the crud out of them.  Add about 1 tbs lemon juice to the mix to "wake up" your blueberry flavor and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Dump the entire mashy mess into a cheesecloth (or clean dishtowel you don't mind dying blue/purple) lined colander and let the juice drip for a bit (like seen above) into your catch pan (the colander should nest inside the pan you have for your catch pan to make your life easier and reduce wasting any juice).  I also like to take the same potato masher you mashed your blueberries with to do some of the work for you here and I mash the blueberries down into the colander/cheesecloth and get as much of the juice out of the blueberries as I can that way.  Once the mixture is cool enough to handle (stick your finger down into it and once you don't yank your finger out after 2 seconds going "OW" you're good to go), wrap up the blueberry pulp with the cheesecloth and squeeze the bejiggers out of it and squeeze the juice into your catch pan.  Once your hands are purple, you feel like your hands are about to fall off and you can't really squeeze anymore juice out of your now purple cloth you are good to go.  You should now have about 2 cups of juice in your catch pan.  Discard the berry pulp that's left over.

Put the juice onto the stove and add the remaining water and sugar.  Bring to a boil, making sure to stir to incorporate the sugar well.  Once you are at a boil and you are sure the sugar is dissolved slap a lid onto your pan, turn down the heat to a simmer and simmer the entire mixture (with lid ON!) for 10 minutes.  This will stop crystalization from happening while your syrup is thickening to...well...syrup like consistency.

Once the ten minutes are up, remove the lid, give it a stir and a taste and add lemon juice to the tartness you like.

Pour into canning jars leaving 1/2 inch of headspace using the methods outlined in the Ginger Syrup Post.  Process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes and you've got lovely blueberry deliciousness to be enjoyed through the cold winter months.  I've found this recipe makes ABOUT 3 pints, but I've gotten as much as 4 out of it (depends on how juicy your blueberries are and how powerful you like your syrup).

DIY: Pie Filling

Thanks to "Our Best Bites" for use of the picture

Since we're focusing on canning this week...

Our Best Bites shows you how to make your own apple pie filling HERE.

I've never made my own pie filling to can before, although this post might make me try it :).

Enjoy!