Forgive me for taking a few weeks off and not writing for everyone! I have been very busy with my husband joining the Navy and Fall classes beginning and canning season! Oh boy! It has been a busy few weeks.
First off I would like to share some of the foods I have been canning:
Salsa
Hungarian Hot Peppers
Green Peppers
Dill Pickles
Jalapenos
Carrots
Corn
Soups
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Apple Sauce
Berry-Apple Sauce
Tomatoes
Apples
Pickled Veggies
Those are just a few. If anyone has any questions about canning please ask and I will help you! I have both a pressure canner and a water bath canner. I pressure can my peppers, carrots, corn, and soups. I water bath most of the rest. If you want to water bath peppers, carrots, corn, and other veggies make sure you add citric acid- or else gases will relase and you cans will explode. (learned this from experience).
Salsa is a fun and healthy thing to keep around. I have a variety of different recipes but here is one that I use a lot lately:
8 lbs tomatoes
1 Large Onion
2 Hungarian Hot Peppers
2 Green Peppers
3 Fresh Jalapenos
5 Cloves of Garlic
4TBSP Cilantro
1-First I peel the tomatoes. How I do it is I boil a pot of water and also have a pot of water with ice cold water. I put the tomatoes into the boiling water for about a minute. Next I pull the tomatoes out and put them in the ice cold water. This should help you peel the tomatoes. Remove the seeds if you don't want seeds in your salsa
2- Next I pull out my new food processor (THANKS GRANDMA!). I put in the rest of the ingredients. I put it on 'pulse' so that there is a chunkier salsa- if you want a smoother salsa blend the ingredients until smooth.
3-Add tomatoes to the food processor
4-Blend it all together
5-Now you can put the salsa into a pot and cook it to get the excess water off or you can just go ahead and can it. When you can fresh salsa and don't get all of the water out, there will be a small amount of water on the bottom of your jar- this is okay as long as the seal isn't broken.
Apple Sauce
Apple Sauce is a super easy thing to make and you really don't have to use any ingredients besides apples.
1- Get a large bag of apples
2- Peel, core, cut up
3- If you have a crock pot this is the easiest way to cook the apple sauce. Place the apples in the crock pot and put it on low for about 5-6 hours.
4- Stir this every half hour or so.
5- When the cooking is done the apples will be a bit mushy
6- Place all of the apples in your food processor.
7- Process on high or until apples are smooth.
8- Put in canning jars or into a container and put in the fridge.
** if you want cinnamon apple sauce.--At step 3, just put a nice coat of cinnamon on top of the apples before you cook them.
** if you want berry apple sauce.. -- Between setp 4 and 5, cook some berries in a small pan, but it is easiest to blend the berries together first. About a cup or so. I used strawberries and blue berries. Cook them for about 10 minutes then set aside. When you add the apples to the food processor-- add the berries as well.
I hope you like the 2 recipes I gave you! I support my local farmers and buy the apples from the orchards if possible. I also have small farmers and family members that have large gardens and have a lot of tomatoes, peppers, corn, egg plant, etc. I buy from some of the small farmers (which is usually very cheap compaired to the store and it is actually fresh-- most times organic) and my family members give me some veggies as well. Do your best with what you have! The place I get my apples from is a local orchard called Almar Orchards. They are based in Flushing, Michigan. They are very well known for their hard cider- you will find it all over the nation!
Until next time! be frugal! xoxox
jes
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