……bonfires, picnics, beaches, gardens and so much more
For more fun photos check out Cee’s blog here.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Fire or Season of Summer
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Tag Archives: canning
Fruits of my Labour
….overhanging branches of sour cherries netted me 5 jars of jam
Thanks to my neighbour’s sour cherry tree I was able to pick enough cherries that were hanging over onto to our side of the hedge to make jam. I’d never really noticed the tree before, probably because I would have been at the cottage when the cherries are ready to pick. This year I’ve been home more than normal because of a family situation.
I knew the cherries were ready to pick because the neighbourhood squirrel was feasting on them a couple of days ago.
I found an easy recipe in the cookbook, Food in Jars by Marisa McClellan.
Sour Cherry Jam
6 cups of pitted and crushed (I left mine whole) sour cherries, 3 cups of sugar and 1 packet of liquid pectin (3oz/85ml)
Combine the cherries and sugar in a large pot and boil for at least 20 minutes. Add the pectin and boil for another 5 minutes.
Ladle into hot, clean canning jars. Apply the lids and rings and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
The jam is a bit loose but it jells up more when it’s refrigerated. Delicious.
Thanks Nancy. Your jar is on its way.
January 2013 Photo a Day – What You Do
…. do you go to school? Train elephants at the circus? Write at home? Play mum to your kids? Act as CEO to a big business? Paint in your spare time? Dance when no one is looking? Take a photo of what you do {something that makes you ‘you’} and share
In my professional life I teach library and art in a junior school.
In my personal life I love to read, paint, walk, shop, craft, can and take photographs.
Taking photographs while walking with my husband and dog
For more photographs of what other people do check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com
Walking, Junction Farmers’ Market and More Canning
…. one by one farmers’ markets are shutting down for the season
The day started with the a cool breeze and sunshine. My husband and I decided to check out the farmers’ market in the Junction. We had never been there and it would be our only opportunity to pay it a visit. The market was due to close later today.
As soon as Frances saw us preparing to leave she assumed we were going for our usual walk. We couldn’t disappoint her so we bundled up and fastened her into her Buddy belt. We ended up doing the usual route and gave her a good workout before heading back to the house. By the time we returned we decided that our plan to bike to the market wasn’t doable because the market was only open for another hour and a half.
So we took the car. The day progressively became cloudier and cooler. Parking in the Junction wasn’t a problem but we did have to ask someone where the market was located. Luckily we were close.
Caught on camera at the Junction Farmers’ Market
The market proved to be interesting. It wasn’t huge but it had some interesting vendors. We bought spinach, pears, vegetarian samosas, pepper jelly, radish relish, humus and homemade crackers.
We walked back to the car and unloaded our purchases and then walked to The Bean Cafe. We enjoyed a couple of cappuccinos and I must admit we each enjoyed a vegan oatmeal pumpkin cookie. (picture below)
On our way home we picked up our daughter, G, who needed to do some work at our house. She told us about the pumpkin butter she had made and it inspired me to do something with the leftover squash I had cooked last weekend.
K quickly found a recipe on line for squash butter. Actually there are quite a few. The one I chose is pretty close to the one my daughter used, the exception being that it called for any winter squash. Now when my sister brought me the squash she had no idea what the variety was. She called it horse squash because it grew in the horse pasture on their farm.
After researching the different varieties of winter squash I’ve decided that the squash my sister gifted me was a kabocha squash.
Here’s the link for the recipe that I altered slightly.
Kabocha Squash Maple Butter
6 cups of cooked squash (any type works but the orange varieties have a nicer colour)
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. vanilla
juice from 1 lemon
zest from the lemon
1. Puree the squash with an immersion blender.
2. Place it in a large pot and add the remaining ingredients.
3. Cook it for 20 minutes, stirring often, or until it reaches the consistency you like.
4. Taste and add more sweetner (syrup, sugar or brown sugar) if you like it sweeter.
5. Place in sterilized jars and seal. I didn’t put this in a waterbath. These jars will need to be refrigerated and used up within 3 weeks or you can freeze them.
My finished product isn’t very pretty. When you add the spices to the light yellow flesh of the kabocha squash it turns a pea soup greenish colour. Squashes with an orange flesh might be more appealing but then my husband said that pumpkin pie isn’t exactly ‘pretty’ either. However, it has a wonder flavour and would be great on toast and we dipped apple slices into it. Yummy!
Sugarless Apple Butter
…. 30 hours later not including the canning
Last night’s salsa. 12 jars of spicy goodness.
It took a long time but because this apple butter recipe is cooked in a slow cooker you literally can walk away from it and leave it. It’s not a bad idea to stir it every once in awhile.
I love apple butter and I’ve purchased a sugarless variety a number of times. It took me some time to find a recipe that didn’t use sugar. Apples are naturally sweet and you don’t need to add more sugar. They also have a lot of natural pectin in them so you don’t need to add that either.
When I went to the farmers’ market on Saturday I asked which apples would make the best apple butter. They recommended MacIntosh or Royal Gala or a combination of both. I opted to try the combination. I used about 40 apples in total. The original recipe called for 25 to 30. I think the overall amount will depend on the size of the apples and the size of your slow cooker. The one I used was one of the bigger slow cookers on the market. Here is where I found the recipe:
http://eatingrichly.com/07/sugar-free-apple-butter-recipe/
The apple puree after the first 10 hours.
Placing the apples on top of the mash after the first and second 10 hour cooking period.
The final product. This recipe produced 10 small jars like the one you see in the photo and 2 pint size jars.
Not only is this recipe healthy but also relatively cheap to make. I spent about $19.00 in apples and ended up with the equivalent of 14 x 250ml jars of product. That’s about $1.35 a jar.
It’s Been a Huge Canning Day
…. sugar free apple butter and spicy salsa
Actually the canning hasn’t even taken place yet.
I started the apple butter last night and it’s still got another 8 hours of cooking in the slow cooker. I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.
After I added the second batch of apples to the the slow cooker I decided to start the salsa. I’ve made this salsa one other time and loved it. It didn’t last long so I decided to double the recipe. I think doubling the recipe also makes it necessary to cook it longer.
I’ve adapted the recipe slightly. Not only did I double the ingredients but I changed the variety of peppers. A word of warning. If you have sensitive skin you might want to consider wearing gloves as you prep the vegetables. The acidity in the tomatoes left my hands burning.
Here is the original recipe: Peppy Salsa recipe – Canadian Living.
It is recommended that when you chop jalapeno peppers that you wear rubber gloves or at least wash your hands really well before touching parts of your face with your fingers.
When choosing tomatoes for your salsa make sure they are very ripe and free of blemishes. Blanche them in boiling water for 30 seconds and then shock them in a bowl of ice water. The skins will slip off easily.
The tomatoes after they blanched, shocked in ice water and then peeled.
I chopped the peppers in small cubes. I didn’t have enough yellow peppers so I added so I added some green ones.
A pot full of chopped peppers and tomatoes.some green ones to the mix.
I hate chopping onion. My eyes sting so badly that I usually have to leave the room and wash my face before I can continue.
I chopped the onions and garlic last. The cilantro is added in the last 5 minutes of cooking.
I’ve tried holding my breath but as soon as I breathe through my nose my eyes tear up.
My solution: I get my husband to chop the onion.
I’ve had to let my sauce cook longer than the recommended time. Use your own judgement. Adjust the seasoning before adding the cilantro.
I put the salsa into hot sterilized jars and then into a water bath for 20 minutes. In fact the jars are in the bath as I write. I will post pictures of the finished product tomorrow along with the directions for the apple butter.
Cheers!
The Joy of Spontaneity
…. and I reached my goal Saturday morning!
Some of the best times in life are those that are not planned and just happen as the day progresses.
The only thing that I had planned for the weekend was cleaning the house and getting some of my son’s belongings from the apartment he had shared with his girlfriend.
My husband and daughter number one, A, took care of the latter job while I started on the first. As it turned out retrieving my son’s belongings didn’t take long at all and my daughter called to arrange for me to meet her and my husband for breakfast.
As I was driving to the designated location for nourishment, A called me and asked if I would pick up her partner, J from the house so that she could join us for breakfast. The four of us ended up having a delicious meal in a very funky and popular yet unpretensious location.
I announced to my family that I had reached my goal that morning and my husband joked about celebrating by eating whatever I wanted. I wasn’t tempted. I ordered an omelet with cheese and herbs, a small side salad and a delicious cup of Americano. No potatoes, no toast.
As we were sitting in the booth (comfortably by the way even though it was pretty small) we talked about the large bag of pears my husband received from one of his clients. He wanted to make pear butter and put it in jars (there were so many pears).
The discussion soon turned to how we could all get involved and maybe we could pick up some tomatoes and make sauce as well. Hmmm….we had no idea how time consuming this would be.
The girls and I headed for the hardware store to pick up more jars, a food grinder and a propane burner to cook the sauce outside. We couldn’t find everything we needed in the first store so we decided to drive to a famous Italian store on St. Claire that catered to the Italian community, specializing in kitchen supplies. They had everything we needed except the jars and the pots were pretty expensive so we decided to continue our quest and we headed west. So far we had only purchased the food grinder.
After numerous discussions back and forth on our phones with K we decided to buy the propane burner at Canadian Tire where they were on sale. This particular model included the pot. Actually it was advertised as a turkey deep fryer. Guess how we’re preparing our turkey this Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately the first store had sold out but the Canadian Tire close to the house had 9 of them in stock. Back in the car. We made a couple of detours and stopped in a small cheese store where they make their own fresh ricotta everyday. What a treat! It was so fresh that it was still warm. The second detour was another cheese store. Have I ever told you that I love cheese.
We finally had all the supplies we needed for making the pear butter. In the meantime K picked up a bushel of plum tomatoes (another project for another day).
It was mid afternoon before we actually started making the pear butter. Turns out I had to make another trip to buy star anise, lemons and fresh ginger. It took us about 4 hours to cut up the pears, cook them, grind them and then cook them some more.
Pear butter after 45 minutes.
The actual cooking time for the butter to reduce was about 2 hours. As it cooked the sauce went from this light yellow to an amber and after processing it in jars it turned a pink colour.
After 2 hours.
For the recipe go to:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pear_butter/
The final product. Delicious on ricotta cheese and toast.
After supper we were ready to put the pear butter into jars. We got the water bath ready and K volunteered to watch the last step so that the girls and I could go for a long walk with Frances. The rain that was forecast for the day was over by the afternoon and the wind blew the clouds over the city and to the east. An interesting sky.
The girls and I walked for about 45 minutes. We passed a house where the owner was selling fresh vegetables from his driveway and A and J bought a bag full of corn, potatoes and cheddar cauliflower. When we got home the girls packed up their goodies, including jars of pear butter and I drove them home.
The best part of the day was spending it with my husband, my daughter and her partner. None of this had been preplanned. It was an adventure and even though it was a lot of work it was very rewarding. What about those tomatoes you ask? Well that’s another story for tomorrow.
Frances guarding the tomatoes for Sunday’s sauce.
Mama Cormier 