Cherry Berry Jelly

This is a new fave for the kids. After pitting 25lbs or so of cherries I just couldn't bare to throw away all the pits with little bits of cherry still clinging to them. That was a lot of work and it seemed a shame to not make more out of what was left. I simmered the pits for about an hour until most the flesh fell off and I had a pan of dark cherry-ish liquid. I strained out the pits (and still couldn't stand to throw them away!) and poured the liquid through a Norpro Jelly Strainer and Bag I added enough berry juice to make 6 cups then followed the directions on the pectin box for making jelly. It turned out super yummy!



Oh, and the pits were dried well in the dehydrator. I will use some of them for heating pads and let the boys use the rest as sling shot ammunition.

Is there anything you won't can?!?

Of course there are things I won't can! I would much rather dehydrate them! I definetly wouldn't can or dehydrate eggplant. Yuck! Or rattlesnake. I have never had rattlesnake but it would have to be a survival situation and then I wouldn't have my pressure canner now would I? Dazzle absolutely trusts that I would never can her. That is why she can sleep peacefully amongst the jars. She's awful bony anyway I will stick to chicken (you hear that, those of you out in the yard feasting on feed and not giving me any eggs?!?!?). Oh, and liver. Wouldn't can that either. See, there are things I won't can...

Oh Cherries!

Cherries! Oh how I love thee,
plump and juicy, still clinging to a pip
with a perfect little green stem for holding
slightly warmed by the sun
sweet nectar
Cherries!

Okay, so poetry about food isn't really my gift! Making poetry with food is more like it. I was tickled...cherry red to take advantage of the super cherry sales this last week. I bought about 25lb of cherries. I ate about 10lbs while pitting (do the british call it pipping?) the rest. FYI don't eat 10lbs of cherries while pipping/pitting the rest unless you plan to stay real close to home the following day!

I canned cherries in white grape juice to use in cooking. I made Black Forest jam which is cherries in a chocolate amaretto sauce (see photo above) I dehydrated cherries and I ate cherries. I even saved all the pips, boiled them clean of any remaining flesh and dried them to use in a Pip Pillow that can be heated in the microwave.

I know George Washington did not chopped down a cherry tree, who would do such a thing?

When life gives you ugly oranges make marmalade!

I'm always on the look out for a way to save money and make the most out of everything. I have been keeping my eye out for people that have more produce than they can handle. I found someone on craiglist that said they had an orange tree with sour oranges and we could have all that we could pick. I didn't think about it being June and many months past orange harvesting time! I drove out to the island with Farm Boy and we picked oranges. Lots and lots of oranges.
They looked pretty bad but they smelled good. I had such plans for all these free oranges. I would dehydrate, can, candy, juice and craft with them. What I ended up doing is making marmalade. The skins were too ugly to mess with dehydrating. The inside was dry, pithy and the seeds had started to sprout from the inside of the orange.

Most of the oranges were not usable. I juiced what I could and then used some organic oranges I purchased for the zest and peel in my marmalade. I put the juice and the thinly sliced organic oranges (seeds removed) in a stock pot with about 1 quart of water and set it to simmer.



The seeds went into a small saucepan with a cup of water and boiled them for 5 minutes to extract the pectin from the seeds. The seeds were strained and the liquid was added to the big pot to simmer. I let it simmer for a good while. An hour or more. Until the peels were very soft. Once the peels were soft I lined a colander with muslin and strained all the liquid from the oranges. I picked out the pretties peels and was able to easily slice off just the zest. It was much easier than the way I have done it in the past. I set the zest aside. I measured the liquid and then added 1 cup of sugar for each cup of juice I had plus a cup of water and brought it all to a boil. I boiled it and stirred constantly until the mixture jelled when dropped on a cold plate. I would say it took about 15 minutes.















I added the zest to the boiling mixture and turned off the heat. I then poured it into prepared jars and then processed it in a BWB for 15 minutes.

In the past I treated my citrus peels by trying to scrape as much of the white off as possible then boiling in a small amount of water with a pinch of baking soda and changing the water at least once. I think this is to get rid of the bitter flavor that some citrus peels have. Lime is especially bitter. I found that I didn't have to do that with this recipe. If I were using lime I would definitely do that.

I ended up with 7 cups of juice and it made 10 half pints of marmalade. It is very good if I do say so myself! We have already gone through two jars. It is wonderful on fresh biscuits or bread right out of the oven. I am sure it would make a wonderful glaze for pork, chicken or salmon.

Tomato what??? Part 2

After the enchilada project I still had 4 cups left of tomato paste. I was tired and so done smelling tomato products and washing utensils with orange stains but still, I just couldn't bring myself to waste it and I knew that if I didn't do something that night it just wouldn't get done. I have a chronic pain condition so these kitchen extravaganzas of mine usually take me a few days to recover from so it was a Now or Never sorta thing!

I decided to try BBQ sauce. I was not using a recipe because none of the recipes I found called for 4 cups of tomato paste. I just made it up as I went and tasted it along the way. I gathered the ingredients that I thought would go well in BBQ sauce. I used Farmer Boy's homegrown jalapenos, onion, garlic, dehydrated bell pepper, dehydrated celery leaf, sugar, ginger, a pinch of cinnamon, apple cider vinegar and dry mustard.

My sous chef dumped the ingredients into my handy dandy Bosch Blender and gave it a whirl. **Notice the pan of encharitos under his arm made with my fab enchilada sauce**

We poured into a big stock pot and mixed it with the tomato paste and a blender full of water. It was very thick and tomatoey so I added more water and simmered. Still very NOT BBQ tasting. I added some liquid smoke and more water. Then I found a can of peach nectar in the cabinet and added that. It was starting to taste better. It isn't your KC Masterpiece or Kraft BBQ sauce, I would say it is more in line with the real stuff you get with authentic Texas BBQ.

After adding and simmering and adding and simmering I decided I just had to get some sleep. I dumped the whole batch in the crock pot and put it on low. It was Saturday night and we had church in the morning so I would let it slow cook until after church.


It mellowed and became more flavorful after slow cooking. I canned it in 12oz jars. Because of the high acid and vinegar used I just did a boiling water bath (BWB). We used it on the broilers I raised this spring. It was mighty good. Would it be too cliche to say it was Finger Lickin' Good?

Tomato What??

A few months ago (ok last November!) I planned to can some spaghetti sauce. I bought a #10 can of tomato sauce for this project. Well, as with most of my plans something came up and I put the project on the back burner. Fast forward 7 months and now I am ready to do my spaghetti sauce. I found the big can and dusted it off. I rifled through drawers looking for my hand held can opener and finally was able to open this monster can. Uh oh, something is not right! I looked at the front of the can and realized I purchased tomato paste! Tomato paste being a thick paste is much more tomatoey than I needed for spaghetti sauce! As anyone that knows me knows, I just hate hate hate to waste. This tomato paste would probably equal about 90 gallons of tomato sauce if I watered it down.
I suppose I could have still made spaghetti sauce but since the fam was asking for encharitos for dinner and that required enchilada sauce I
decided to try canning that instead. I used about 2/3 of the can on my enchilada sauce. It made 13 - 12oz jars and 3 pint jars of sauce. Yeah! I used up almost all of my paste! I still had about 4 cups left and that went into another project.
I wish I could share a recipe but I just make my enchilada sauce by adding this and that and tasting it until it tastes the way I want it to. I pressure canned it just to be safe. It contains beef broth and a few other low/no acid ingredients.
It turned out great and the encaritos were a hit as usual! Now I will be able to make this family fave more often because I have the enchilada sauce on hand.

Canned Chicken

Canned chicken is a pantry staple in my kitchen. I can use it to make quick soup, salads, casseroles, stir-fry and tacos or spaghetti. I have found store bought canned chicken to be very dry and flavorless. By canning my own I can control the ingredients, seasonings and my stuff doesn't get recalled! I can the chickens I butcher and also chicken I buy at a good price from the market.

My canned chicken has chicken and my homemade broth. My broth is cooked overnight with chicken bones, carrots, celery, garlic, onion, parsley and any other veggie or herbs that I have on hand at the time. I strain it through a cheese cloth to get a nice clear broth.

The store bought stuff looks something like this: Cooked Chicken Meat, Mechanically Separated Chicken Meat, Cooked Chicken Skins, Chicken Stock, Water, Contains Less than 2% of: Salt, Modified Food Starch, Sodium Phosphates, Natural Flavoring.

The store bought stuff doesn't look THAT bad but I would like to know what is in natural flavoring and what does mechanically separated mean? Why food starch and are sodium phosphates good for me?

Mango Jalapeno Jelly!

I had a request for a mango jalapeno jelly and this is what I came up with. It is very pretty. A light amber color with festive confetti like bits of red and green peppers. It has a bit more heat than some of my other jalapeno blends. I am not sure why. Different batches of peppers seem to have different amounts of spice. This is a bit thicker than my regular jalapeno jelly. I think the mangoes definitely add more body to the jelly. It is really more like a jam. I really like the slightly tropical taste the mangoes add. It would be wonderful brushed on grilled shrimp or salmon. I plan to use it on pork loin this week.
I will be making this one again!

Jalepeno Jelly

Jalapeno jelly has become one of my most popular jellies. I started out just making it for my family but now I am making it for friends too. As the holidays approach I am scrambling to keep up with gift orders! I just sold 4 dozen jars at a craft fair and have orders for more. I am going to have to beef up my production.

So, what is a person to do with a pretty jar of Jalapeno Jelly? I think the most popular way to serve it is poured over cream cheese and served with good tortilla chips or crackers. I also use it on sandwiches like you would a chutney or relish. It makes a fabulous sauce for basting chicken, ham or pork. It is a wonderful dipping sauce for egg rolls. Just use anywhere you would use a sweet and sour sauce. How do YOU use jalapeno jelly?