Applesauce, Pepper Jelly & Tomato Sauce - oh MY!

Friday on my way home I hit the produce stand and gathered apples, peppers and the other sundry fruits and vegetables I needed for the fridge. While I got dinner ready, GTot and HandyMan picked tomatoes from the garden.

After supper, HandyMan and I got to work.  The order of business: Applesauce, Pepper Jelly (Hot & Mild), and Tomato Sauce.

I have a great KitchenAid attachment that makes the applesauce a breeze.  GTot was allowed up on the counter to watch the tomatoes squish thorough and thought it was the coolest thing!  "Mommy!! My applesauce!"

Then it was on to the Pepper Jelly.  I used this recipe as it is written for the hot jelly and replaced 5 jalapenos with a 5th bell pepper for the mild jelly.  The mild has very little bite and is fabulous with cream cheese.  I had some for breakfast this morning on fresh bread.  YUM!  I'm too chicken to try the hot stuff.  I'll bust it out when my Dad comes to visit next month.

Finally, we cooked up some tomato sauce.  GTot helping again to get the stems off the tomatoes.  I'm a hack-job of a canner.  I'm making it up as I go along and I really hope that this great stuff I've put into jars actually stays good and we can enjoy it in the months to come.  One of my 'experiments' was the tomato sauce.  I added balsamic vinegar and basil to it while it was cooking.  I'm thinking it should be fine.  The batch I made and had for dinner earlier this week was great, so now I'm just hoping that the canned version will be just as good!

The stash above came from 2 1/2 hours of work in the kitchen.  Not too shabby.

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

Pretty, Pretty Jars

This year is the first year that I've done any measurable amount of canning.  I think it's in my blood.  Both of my grandmothers canned extensively.  Grandma Jean's jams and jelly were family legends and favorites around the holidays.  Grandma Foy made sweet pickles that were amazing - sadly the recipe has gone MIA in the family archives.  My mom did some canning when I was a kid and we had a garden.  I've done a couple batches of jam in the past, and applesauce.  Handyman handled the dill pickled green beans.  It all added up to about a dozen jars in the pantry for the winter.

This year, my freezer is a smaller and I'm feeling the impact as I've had a pretty successful garden year so far and the pumpkins and winter squash are promising to need their space in the freezer.  I've rearranged some storage in my house and made room for home-canned goods.

I think I may unleashed a monster.   On Wednesday, it was a 2 pints of garlic pickled green beans, strawberry jam, blueberry jam and lemon blueberry jam.  The jam was to shift the berries from the freezer to the pantry - and turned out oh-so-yummy!  Thursday it was this week's stash of tomatoes.   I keep finding more fun recipes of fun things to make and can.

Is it work? Yes.  Will it be worth it in February when my family is eating produce that I know came from my yard, or locally in season?  Absolutely!

Freezer Friday: Marinara & White Bean Chili

This week I restocked my freezer with marinara.  I think it's different every time I make it depending on what I have for veggies that need to be used.  I started with my HV Marinara and twisted it a little by adding carrots too since I had some in the freezer that needed to be thrown out hidden somewhere.  I ended up with about nine quarts of marinara all portioned out for future meals-all for less than $6.  More reasons why I love making my on marinara!

I also put together this Chicken and White Bean Chili that was great!  We at half the batch this week and the rest went to the freezer for later.  I used broth and chicken from a Chicken Cooking Day and beans from a day of cooking and freezing beans.  This recipe came together very quickly and was quite yummy!  Today I'm making a stock pot of Beef and Veggie soup which will make quick meals this weekend and in the coming months.

White Bean & Chicken Chili

6 cup White beans, cooked and divided

6 cup Chicken Broth

2 medium Onions

4 cups cooked Chicken, chopped
1 can of  RoTel diced tomatoes (or regular diced tomatoes & chilies)

1 tsp Chili powder
1 Tbs Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper

Directions:

1.  Puree three cups of the white beans.

2.  Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot or your slow cooker.  Since all ingredients are cooked, you can just heat it through low and slow to combine all the ingredients.  If cooking on the stove, be sure to stir regularly as the pureed beans tend to sink can burn to the bottom of the pan.

This post is linked up at Life As Mom's Frugal Friday.

Roasted Red Peppers

Remember that pile of red peppers that made it to the freezer? I had 6 peppers left over after the pepper bomb construction that needed to be stored.  But I was out of freezer bags (during harvest season - oh the horror!). So I decided to roast them. I love the smell of fresh roasted peppers and the flavor even more.  I roasted them on the grill and it was super easy!

Step 1- Wash Peppers

Step 2- Grill Peppers: Heat up the grill and place whole peppers on the grill over medium high heat. Turn every 3-6 minutes until the peppers are good and charred.

Step 4- Steam: Once charred place peppers in a bowl and cover. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to steam the skins off.

Step 5 – Remove skin: Once peppers are cool enough to handle, pull the skin off and discard. Cut out stem and remove seeds and discard. Slice roasted pepper meat as you wish.

Step 6- Store: Place peppers in an airtight container. Top off with Olive Oil and toss. Refrigerate jar and use in a timely manner.

So easy, and a great way to use in-season or discounted peppers!  So far we have used them in sandwiches, scrambled eggs and they are destined to go in some enchiladas this week too.

This post is linked up at $5 Dinners-Grow.Eat.$ave: Peppers

Reduced Sugar Strawberry Jam

I am a newbie to jams, jellies and preserves.  I know there are technical differences between the three.  I've shied away from making full blown jellies and jams because of all of the sugar involved.  I try to keep the sugar down in my recipes and combining equal parts of fruit and sugar just seemed, well, excessive. I had two bags of strawberries in the freezer that had been in the freezer for 2 years  way too long.   So I went searching through recipes for reduced sugar jams and preserves.  I took those strawberries, thawed them and then started concocting.

I had concocted my strawberry stuff, then I had to figure out what category of preserved fruit it fell into.  According to Wikipedia's article on fruit preserves, my concotion could be considered a confit (fruit or vegetables which have been seasoned and cooked with honey or sugar until it has reached a jam-like consistency) or a jam (cooked and gelled fruit  purees).

So, here's what I did and my finished Confit-Jam was delicious on biscuits for breakfast thismorning.  The strawberry flavor comes through richly and it is sweet enough without the berry flavor being overpowered by the sugar.  It is spreadable with a knife but thin enough that I have ideas about using it for ice cream topping.  I think this versatile treat is going to have many uses in my kitchen.  I opted to freeze the excess as I didn't have the supplies on hand to can the jars - that and I wasn't sure if they were can-able since they had reduced sugar.

Reduced Sugar Strawberry Jam-Spread

6 cups frozen Strawberries (thawed with juice)
2 cups sugar
1 pkt Unflavored Gelatin

Directions

1.  Puree strawberries and juice.
2.  Place in heavy pot over medium high heat until fruit comes to a boil.
3.  remove 1 cup of boiling liquid, add gelatin and stir until gelatin powder dissolves and return it to the boiling mixture
4.  Add sugar and let mixture continue at a rolling boil about 30 minutes
5.  Allow to cool briefly and then pour into jars or other freezer safe containers.
Recipe yields about 5 cups of spread.

Make Your Own Hersh--I mean Chocolate Syrup

I am a huge fan of hot chocolate, chocolate milk, and chocolate sauce on ice cream.  Over time though, I realized that a lot of the syrups and cocoa mixes tasted more sugary and less chocolaty.   I decided that I could change that!  So I started making my own chocolate syrup.  It's really easy and I can get my bakers cocoa powder at our bulk grocery store so for me it ends up being less expensive too.

Ingredients

1 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder*

1 cup Sugar*

1-2 cups Water (to your desired thickness - less for hot fudge, more for syrup)

Directions

Step 1: Combine 1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder and 1 cup Sugar in a 1 quart sauce pan. *If you want it sweeter, use more sugar, less chocolate and visa versa for a richer, less sweet syrup.  The main thing is to make sure that you have 2 cups of dry ingredients.



Step 2: Add Water to dry ingredients and combine until all are moistened



Step 3: Cook over medium low heat until mixture begins to simmer.  Cook until the syrup is the desired consistency and remember that it will thicken even more as it cools.  Usually my cook time is about 15 minutes start to finish.



Enjoy!

HV Marinara/Spaghetti Sauce

A few years back, I began reading labels and realized how much other "stuff" is in processed foods, including sauces.  So I began making our marinara that we use for pasta sauce, pizza sauce and anywhere else you'd use a jar of spaghetti sauce.  While often the batches of sauce will have some variation, this recipe is one that I've come to stick fairly close to.  In addition to the tomatos that are the base, this sauce is packed with other veggies.  I add pureed squashes for nutrients, carrots for sweetness and peppers and onions for flavor.  The carrots and squash are pureed in but we prefer the chunks of peppers and onions.  If you prefer a smoother sauce, simply puree these too.  This recipe is great on the stove-top or in the slow cooker.

HV Marinara

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1 large Onion

4 sweet Bell Peppers (green, yellow, orange or red)

4 cups of chopped Carrots

6 cups of chopped Zucchini or Squash

#10 can of Ground Tomatoes (6 pound)

1 head of Garlic, minced

2 Tbs Basil

1 Tbs Parsley

1 Tbs Oregano

1 cup Red Cooking Wine

Directions for Crock-Pot

1.  Cook Zucchini and Carrots and puree.

2.  Put all ingredients into slow cooker and allow to cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Directions for Stove-Top

1.  Cook Zucchini and Carrots until soft and puree.  (quickest cooking method is microwave)

2.  Place oil, onion and peppers in large stock pot and saute until tender.

3.  Add remaining ingredients to the pot and allow to simmer, covered, on medium low for 3-4 hours, removing lid if sauce seems too thin for your liking.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.