Canning freshness straight out from the garden…

Yes, I don't know what better way to explain this new interest or rather a process of mine. I have been navigating the internet how to pickle beans (I mean green beans) and I found a way which I like very much. No idea how it all going to turn out but sounds like a great plan to lock away the freshness of backyard vegetables. 

Perhaps for some Bloody Mary’s in future and I feel it is not that fancy without pickles as a garnish. Moreover you need few pickles after drinking few of those. I also found out that I cannot find okra pickles from MA because that is not a northern thing. I had to buy a bottle while I was in VA. 

One thing I like about this particular recipe is it really adds heat to pickles with few black peppers and red chillies. I can’t wait to try some with my salad. 

Cranberry and Pear Jam...

 

 

Cranberry is truly native to Massachusetts and I was over excited that I was able to make this unique fruit to pickles and delicious jams this year. I have made two kinds jams this year one has pear in it other is a spiced jam and so good with a piece of toast. My favorite was pickled cranberries. They were truly yummy! I used the left over jelly with sparkling water to add a bit of a festive color to my mundane water. 

From my last visit to costco I decided I am not going to buy any more cranberries. However, my past visit to costco I walked out again with a bag of cranberries I do not know how that happened. Well I told myself again I am not going to buy them again, but this time for sure I know I wont be able to get it because we are done with cranberries at least in New England this year!

I love this simple pear cranberry jam. After few attempts I decided to cook the pear with vanilla for a while and then add the cranberries. It is absolutely divined and the vanilla is very subtle. This is the last of cranberries for us this year.

Canning Cranberries...

Canning has become part of my cooking rituals. I like the fact that I could easily make a gift while I am cooking. Because it tis the same time I would spend in cooking a meal and I can do the canning as a part of cooking. End of the day I had made a gift, which I could tuck away for the right moment. Sometimes, if I am visiting someone in a hurry I can always take a canned item. This cut my time in half so I don't have to look for a gift or stop halfway through a drive. 

Not only that we get to enjoy some of the fresh fruits off season. Which we have come to love specially the pickles and jams. I am still a novice when it comes to jams. But I have tested all my boundaries making many kinds of jellies. 

Some might say I enjoy cooking but actually I don’t when I come to think about it. Certainly enjoy feeding my family. I know when I was young my mother stayed at home and often surprised us with many treats which to today I dearly hold those memories to my heart. 

Being isolated from many family members, its hard to ask someone to recreate those dishes. Although, I have come to recreate my own dishes with what is readily available to me at my finger tips. I often go through few blogs which is close to my heart to recreate those dishes which I have come to love. 

 

 

 

Above is a picture of our garden before we decided to pull all our green tomatoes. Yes, with some help before everything freezers we thought it was a good idea to pull our tomato plants and add them to the compost. The result, I ended up with so many green tomatoes. Again I have not make fried green tomatoes. Because I have been making salsas and chutneys. 

First I made a batch of green tomato chutney then salsa and then chutney again. That is exactly how I finished all our green tomatoes. One reason not to have fried green tomatoes. I have not yet, open any of my chutneys. Mainly I think it needs some curing time to get all the flavors to blend in.

That being said we had our first snow showers this past weekend, and our chicken did layed eggs on that day. I think we have two ladies on the clock laying eggs for us. Yeah!!! For the Rhode Island Reds they are the best layers. 

Back to green tomatoes, This years salsa has some extra heat from habanero chillies and jalapeños. I have been using the left overs to add heat to curries and sambols we make constantly to keep us warm. 

Pear Vanilla Jam...

It is the season for pears, apples, pumpkins, and in few months oranges. I remember couple of weeks back we had too many pears in our fruit bowl and some were getting bruised. Pears are one of my favorite fruit next to figs. Yes, I love figs but I don't get to enjoy them a much. Mainly I have not found a good reliable source to get good figs to enjoy. I have not found them in huge quantities to jam them yet. I am being hopeful that one day I might. 

I decided to jam my batch of pears. We love it. I followed a recipe from “Food in Jars” which I have come to love very much. It was a great recipe amazingly I had everything I needed at my finger tips. That is a one reason to can. Second reason I have become extremely sensitive to throwing food away. I enjoy donating to the local food pantry whenever I can. I am big on donating during Thanksgiving month which I get to do a lot. I have notice that I use all my produce before going to the grocery store more often. 

I know Marisa, the canning queen is working on a, more of a smooth textured jam on pears. But I do like the texture in this and the combination of pears and vanilla, it is almost equal to heaven, Yes, it is that good. I will be baking more homemade wheat breads this winter to spread this delicious jam. 

Peach Chutney

 

 

When I get home from school on the days that I don't have to go to night classes, I enjoy the time with everyone at home with a quick snack. It is rewarding to open a bottle of jam or chutney to spread on a toasted english muffin or a slice of bread. 

Stepping into my second year as a much season canner and understanding the elements of canning has push me to explore the possibilities with canning and pickling throughout the year. 
My goal this year is to push the boundaries to do more canning towards the late winter, that would be great to have to stove on during cold winter months. Perhaps watch the snow fall with few jars of canning on hand would be an ideal snow day. 

This summer feeling the new territory of chutney making is extremely satisfying to me and to close friends who gets to enjoy them. Some are new to chutney embraced it with new taste buds. When I was a teenager, my mum took me to a christmas party of her friend. I tried chutney for the very first time with pork and to this day I remember that moment. 

However, American chutney tends to gravitate towards more sweeter side of my taste buds, but I do crave for Sri Lankan chutney. I might work more with chutney making next year to create something closer to Sri Lankan palette.  

This is my very first attempt to make peach chutney, I have to admit spices cooked in harmoniously with peaches makes this a very desirable chutney to enjoy with pork chops. I took one of these to the camping trip and it was the star during snacking. I followed the canning queen Marisa’s recipe. I would certainly add more heat to this on the next round of chutney making. 

Peach Preserve with Almonds and Lemon Thyme...

Eastern Peaches were on sale not as low as last year, but it is a good reason for me to can few pounds. Now that I am a bit confidence canner, I am experimenting few new canning recipes. I have few small bushes of thyme growing in my vegetable garden this year comparing to last year. I am very thankful that I have an abundance of herbs this year. You can find few varieties of thyme I have German, English, and Lemon. Out of all I have developed a keen interest on lemon thyme and loved it, it has a subtle lemon flavor and an aroma which is heavenly to make sauces. 

I used about 8-10 cups peeled,pitted, and diced peaches
1 cup silvered almonds
6 cups sugar
2 lemons zested and juiced 
3 teaspoons of lemon thyme leaves 

Place everything in the pan except the thyme and almonds cook until jab cook about 15 to 20 minutes depending on your stove temperature. Add lemon thyme and silvered almonds and continue to cook for about another 5 to 6 minutes. 

If the peaches have not broken use an immersion blender to break pieces at this point. I did not add any pectin solely decided to depend on lemons. 

Have your canning gear ready and start the process to can. Boil the jar for about 10 to15 minutes and turn off the stove and let the cans sit in the water for about 5 minutes.

 Next take them out place them on a dry towel and you will hear the lovely popping sounds of your cans.  Check them after a day and store them in nice cold and dry place and enjoy them.

I took one for camping and had it on a lightly toasted English muffin with some tea and it was heaven. Every one enjoyed the peach jam! I hope I can save some for long winter!

I followed Liana Krissoff's and Marisa McClellan recepies but did some twisting to use all fruits. 

Purple Cabbage...

Last year a neighbor surprised me with a purple cabbage from his garden. I truly did not know what to make with it other than adding it to my salad. I made a salad and took it to school for lunch. 

This year I bought a purple cabbage from the local market and decided to pickle it. My goal this year to have food from home for long school nights. That being said, I decided to pickle my red cabbage it was so beautiful, when I sliced it lengthwise. I took few pictures before I chopped them to skinny stripes. 

All I need was couple of spoons of pickling spices and I was ready to go. I can’t wait to try them. According to the recipe it needed only six days to cure and ready to eat. 

This being the first year that I am pickling vegetables I am kind of excited to try few more recipes before the season ends. 

I love how these jewels turned out, it sure adds a beautiful hue to my pantry. Hopefully less time prepping food on weeknights. 

It is the season for cranberries...

Recently I had the opportunity to work with a “co-worker” who had great knowledge about cranberries. I love craisins and cranberry comport that’s about it. However, my canning ability and the abundance of cranberries mixed together made me to do some research. 

Result was apple cranberry jelly, and we all got in to work. Panduka was helpful to skin and cut apples. Nicolette was eager to skin apples using a potato peeler. Nigel’s energy created the perfect canning. Every one had a job from rinsing jars to wiping mouths, and sealing jars.

It was a delightful way to begin to prepare the Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday night. This jelly was so simple to make and tastes lovely. I cannot wait to try it with toast!

Green tomato - chutney

 

This is last harvest of green tomatoes. I am run out of ideas but decided to make a chutney. I found this recipe from here. It was sweet and tangy, as Nicolette says smells good.

 I did not had golden raisins and decided to add dried cranberries. I would like to try this next time with golden raisins, because I love golden raisins. 

Hopefully, no more tomato canning for us since we have used all this year.

This could be used with many dishes or simply with a cheese and bread. 

Canning Gifts...

Gifts are already taking shape this year. Green tomato salsa verde was star on our dining table before it made it way to a co- worker's home, and she told me it was great. We are going to keep our gift giving simple this year. 

Teachers and all care givers to our family will be appreciated including friends. I will be giving away some of the preserves we have made during summer and fall. 

I love to create gifts with canning goods at home, but like to add a bit fair to it. I have run into few sites, that shows preserves could be given away with a loaf of french bread, cheese, cutting board, tea towel, herb plant, and tie with ribbon or twine. 

If you know the person you can personalize it a bit more. How is your gift giving taking place this year. I know sometimes this could be very stressful during holiday season. 

Tomatoes

Total of eighteen tomatoes plants provided us plenty of tomatoes for this season. which we have enjoyed through out the season. It is been a while I bought some from the grocery store. I wish I kept a neat organizer how many plants I had from each variety. I know for sure I had few heirlooms. 

Few of canning recipes I worked on this season included 

• Herb tomato sauce 
• Ripe Tomato Jam
• Green Tomato pickle
• Salsa Verde
• Green tomato chutney

I can assure myself that I have a full stock pantry with our garden bounty for this winter. I am hoping to put them to use. Looking at the jars in the kitchen with many colors reminds me of the wonderful summer I spent with my family. Canning is definitely an Art! 

Have you saved the bounty from your garden. If so How do you save it? and Do you can your crop?

Sala Verde - Canning

Five pounds of tomatoes were sitting on our newly build kitchen counter. I knew I had to do something with this beautiful bounty. The weekend is vanishing right in front of my eyes, I decided to take on canning early Sunday morning. No group y-cycle for me, since I needed to to finish many tasks. Including a trip to the local farm to pick a pumpkin.

I found this easy recipe from the ball - canning site for salsa verde. Saturday was cut short due to work but the rest of the day look was open and busy but we took it easy to catch up and spend time together with each other which includes a afternoon nap as well. Then the rest of the day was spent with friends in town while waiting the oldest to return from a meet. Then filling orders and finally, I was able to get some reading done!

Sunday, getting few more projects done, cooking, canning, and a trip to the farm. Time spent in the kitchen was well worth since I decided to take on canning the green and red tomatoes. As you can see I enjoy every bit of this process. The kitchen was filled with the wonderful aroma of salsa. I am wishing for at least one or two snow days this winter to open some of this bounty from our garden. 

What do you make of green tomatoes. Do you fry them, or pickle them. Few of my friends who tried this said they were great!

Apples and Canning...

 

The canning has become a another part of cooking in my routine. I had few apples left from the apple picking and I bought few pounds from the grocery store since it was on sale. My new found skill in canning have helped to be save the fruits from our garden for the dreadful winter we experience in New England. I decide to make apple sauce, I am not a big fan of apple sauce but our children are. However, I found out different apples may take few minutes extra to cook. 

Mine first batch of apple sauce was a very simple. I wanted to experience the process of making apple sauce. 

The process of cooking and using the food mill to puree, to make the sauce, and then cooking the sauce back was FUN. After a long day at work it was satisfying for me to make the apple sauce and can it,because I know we will be using all of the Summer and Fall  bounty during the winter months. Besides, the apple butter we now have applesauce as well, not much but enough to enjoy as a snack or to mix in with oatmeal!