Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........09/27/2012

The canning has been a lot more fun the past couple of weeks. I canned the balance of the peaches that "The Italian" and I got at the orchard.

They turned out perfect!

I can my peaches in a mixture of juice and light syrup. First I make some juice from the seconds. I just mash them up and strain the mash through a jelly bag. Then I make a very light syrup (recipe from the Ball Blue Book), combine the two and simmer. We really enjoy the peaches canned this way.

My fun jam of the year is this Carrot Cake Jam.

Sophia and I made it on Saturday. You can find the recipe here. I'm not sure if it tastes like carrot cake ....but it sure is tasty! With the combination of spices, we think it tastes like fall.

The small batch of sauerkraut was canned....

and for the first time I canned some Pimento Peppers!

Last year the groundhog ate each and every ripe pepper at the plots. We found how to can them here.

When I was finished canning the peaches, I made peach syrup with the leftover juice and light syrup mixture. I added a little more sugar and let it cook down. Of course "The Italian" had to make a nice drink using the syrup!!

Peach Martini

Peach Martini for two

5 oz. Vodka

4 oz. Peach Syrup

3 tsp. Sugar

Squirt of Lemon Juice

1 oz. Seltzer Float

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a shaker with some crushed ice, shake, pour into martini glasses, add seltzer or club soda, garnish with a slice of peach and enjoy!

What's been going in or out of you Kitchen Cupboard lately???

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard...........09/20/2012

There's been a lot of canning going on around here this past week! Since the tomatoes finally slowed down, I managed to get some other stuff done!

The first thing I did was pickle some Hot Banana, Hot Hungarian Wax and Sweet Banana Peppers!

Of course there was some Tomato Puree canned this week.

I made two batches of Hot Pepper Jelly

Isn't it beautiful???

Tuesday after work, I made a batch of Peach Jam

I ended up with 8 Half Pints and Two 4 oz. jars even after I spilled some!

Last but not least...."The Italian" made the best martini ever!! Yes, it was even better then Granny's Tomatotini! It was a Chocolate Raspberry Martini! Oh boy was it good!!!

He even said I could share the recipe!!

Chocolate Raspberry Martini for 2

4 oz. Homemade Raspberry Vodka

2 oz. Godiva Chocolate Liquer

1 oz. Chambord Liquer

Pour all ingredients in to a shaker with a little crushed ice

Shake and serve with a few raspberries

Enjoy!!!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........12/08/2011

This week I finally got around to making the last jam of the year, Dutch Apple Pie Jam. If you like apple pie you will definitely love this jam! I found the recipe for this jam here.

This jam is a favorite among many of our friends and family.

Dutch Apple Pie Jam

Ingredients:

• 3-1/2 cups prepared fruit (about 1 lb. Granny Smith or other tart green apples)
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
• 4-1/2 cups granulated sugar, measured into separate bowl
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. butter or margarine (optional
• 1 pouch CERTO Fruit Pectin

Directions:

1. Peel and core apples. Chop finely or grind. Add water and raisins. Measure exactly 3-1/2 cups prepared fruit into 6- or 8-quart saucepot. Stir in lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice.
2. Stir sugars into prepared fruit in saucepot. Add butter to reduce foaming, if desired. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.
3. Stir in pectin quickly. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.
4. Ladle into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids.
5. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.
6. ENJOY!

What's been going in or out of your Cupboard lately??

What to do when it's too Hot during the day to Garden

There are a lot of things you could do on a day like today....you could

Relax on a nice beach in the Caribbean

This is where my sister in-law is right now and it's actually 10 degrees cooler then here!

Take a nice dip in the pool with your cat

Play in the water

Not me....I got up at 5AM, hauled water over to the plots, watered the garden as fast as I could and came home. Then I turned up the AC (sorry Jane) went outside and watered the home gardens and had some more coffee. Then I watched these poor guys a bit

Paving the alley behind our house

Then I

made some chicken stock and

a lousey loaf of bread that looks like this

which should look like

this.....even the bread wouldn't form correctly from the humidity with the AC on!

Then I decided to make more of a mess

Blackberry Jam in the making!

So what are you doing today in this oppresive heat??

Harvest Monday..............7/18/2011

It's starting to get a little busy in the harvest and preserving department around here! The week started out with some nice pictures of some nice harvests.

A harvest from the plots on Monday

Some beautiful tomatoes from the home garden

A pretty picture of carrots

Yes, there has been a lot of harvesting around here this week. If you are a regular at my blog, you know about the potato harvest this week. I could take many pretty pictures of many pretty harvests...but, let's be realistic. This is what is really going on around here!

There are onions

hanging on the right side of the kitchen door and garlic hanging on the left side

and more

garlic hanging on the back porch

and

some more onions

every where you look there are

onions!

If you go into the dining room you will find

some Raspberry Jam waiting patiently to be labeled and moved to the cupboard in the basement

There are peppers

hanging from the pot rack drying, which will be made into Cayenne Pepper and Paprika Powder. There are herbs hanging where ever I can find a place to hang them.

I come home from the plots on Sunday to find "The Italian" jamming to Nellie, frying zucchini and making a nice red sauce for some zucchini parmesan. He made 3 to be frozen and used over the winter.

I cleared a few thing from the island to take this picture. The tomatoes are coming in, the zucchini ready to be made into parmesan, some cabbage, some peppers and who knows what else. In the background you can see some of the mess Erin.

Some pickled pepperoncinis and jalapenos!

That's just some of what's happening around here! Some people may think we're a little crazy...but, we just love it!

Total harvests weighed this week: 92.75 lbs!!!!!

Blackberries - 5lbs

Cabbage:

   Red - 1 lb. 14 oz.

   Savoy - 1 lb. 8 oz.

Carrots - 12 oz.

Garlic - 5 lbs.

Onion - weighed this week for storage

   Red - 13.53 lbs (216.5 oz)

   White - 10.72 lbs (171.5 oz.)

Peas - Magnoila - 7.5 oz.

Peppers (Hot & Spice) - 15 oz.

Potatoes:

   Sagre Red - 7.7 lbs

   Kennebecs - 23.06 lbs

Raspberries - 2 oz.

Tomatoes:

   Home garden - 17 lbs

   Plots - 2.5 lbs.

Zucchini - 2.5 lbs

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's jammin in veggie gardens and kitchens around the globe!

I waited until the last day of

Strawberry picking season to realize that there would not be enough strawberries in the garden to keep "The Italian" in strawberry jam for the year. Although there are many many organic farms in our area, organic strawberry farms are few and far between. Monday I found a farm that wasn't too far from us that still had strawberries to pick and Tuesday would be the last day.

Tuesday morning I set out to go strawberry picking in hopes of getting about 20 lbs of strawberries. I figured that I need to make at least 3 batches of strawberry jam and freeze some as well.

Well, the strawberry field was pretty much done for the season and I only managed to get about 10 lbs.

When I got home, I cleaned the strawberries and processed enough to make three batches of Strawberry Jam. I was pleasantly surprised to have enough to freeze too. These strawberries are not nearly as tasty as the ones growing in the garden. But, they would definitely make some good strawberry jam!

Wednesday I made two batches of jam. I ran out of pectin so I will have to make the final batch today. I ended up with 6 pints and 5 half pints of great tasting jam to keep "The Italian" happy, for awhile anyway. The final batch will be put in half pint jelly jars for gift giving.

So, what have you been putting up lately??

Rose Petal Jelly

Lynn at Woodridge Country Living did a post a couple of days ago on making Rose Petal Jelly. Since my two roses were in full bloom, I thought that I would give it a try. I have a white rose and a red rose. The recipe says to use your most fragrant roses to make the jelly. Wouldn't you know it....my white roses smell heavenly and the red roses have basically no fragrance at all! I decided to use mostly white rose petals and add some of the red rose petals for color.

Rose Petal Jelly

· 1 1/2 cups Rose petals, tightly packed
· 2 1/4 cups water
· 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
· 3 1/2 cups sugar (preferably white sugar)
· 3 oz packet liquid pectin


Gather fresh Rose petals to measure 1 1/2 cups tightly packed. Rinse petals and pat dry. Place petals in large pot and bruise petals so the scent and color can be extracted.

Add 2 1/4 cups of water to the petals in the pot and heat to boil. Turn down heat and simmer for several minutes, making sure the petals impart their color in the water. More than likely, the water will appear somewhat grey — the color will brighten with the addition of some lemon juice.

I used a potato masher and mashed the petals to extract the color and fragrance as the petals simmered.

After the Rose petals have simmered for a few minutes, remove from heat. Using a fine sieve, strain the petals from the liquid.  Discard the petals and measure 1 3/4 cups of the distilled liquid for the jelly. Return the liquid to the pot, then add 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice and stir. The petal water will brighten significantly.

This is the liquid before I added the lemon juice...it's beautiful!

Add the sugar and stir to dissolve, then heat to boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Add liquid pectin and return to hard boil. Then allow jelly to boil for 1 minute while stirring continually.


Remove from heat and ladle jelly into 4 sterilized half-pint jars leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Add sterilized lids and rings. Process in water bath for 5 minutes.


Yield: about 4 half pints

The jelly turned out beautiful and the flavor is absolutely heavenly! We decided that this will be our special unusual jelly of the season to give as gifts for the Holidays. I am going to make one more batch in a few days.

The yield was almost 5 half pints. The almost full half pint is our frig. Please note: Do not use any flowers that have been treated with any chemicals!

Preserving

I did a lot of canning recently and thought I would share some of the goodies with all of you. This is just a taste!

Pickled Jalapeno & Serrano Peppers and Red Tomato Jam.

The recipe for the Red Tomato Jam can be found here. They call it Tomato Relish.

Italian Farmhouse Green Tomato Pickles

The recipe can be found here

I used about twice the amount of tomatoes.

Cranberry Pepper Jelly.

Lynn at Woodbridge posted this recipe here. It is absolutely wonderful!

I'm planning to make some different varieties of mustard for holiday gifts this year. If anyone has any good mustard recipes for canning...please let me know..Thanks

What do you do with a guy who looks like...............

This?????
Make him into Pumking Jam!!

Jack was carved late in the afternoon by "The Italian", then set outside for two hours to great our many trick or treaters. When I brought him back in to the house, I really hated the thought of just tossing him for compost. Since he was only exposed to the elements for a few hours, I covered him in plastic wrap and put him on the bench on the back porch to keep him cool overnight.

He's got one heck of a smile!!

The next morning, the flesh of the pumpkin was cut into small squares and marinated in sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, ground nutmeg & vanilla. The bowl or large pot is then covered and placed in a cool place for at least 20 hours. I put it in a cool spot in the basement.

After the mixture marinates for at least 20 hours. It is cooked on the stove for 90 minutes to 2 hours.

Most of the pumpkin is translucent after cooking for 2 hours. The mixture is then covered, taken back down to the basement and let sit for at least 10 hours.

After sitting for 10 hours, the mixture is cooked for 40-60 minutes. I added some water and a little more lemon juice, then chopped up the chunks with the immersion blender.

I got a little impatient with the immersion blender (since this is 4x the recipe) and decided to get out my avocado green blender! Yep, I have my original blender from the 70's! Now it looks more like a butter then a jam. I will see how the taste reviews come out and decide which way to chop it next year.  After cooking it. I took it back down to the basement to sit for another 10 hours.

The mixture was then cooked for another 30 minutes. I added a little more lemon juice and about 1 cup of water to the mixture while it was cooking. It was then put in hot jars and sealed.

The jam last year was made with a fairytale pumpkin which made it a little more orange in color. I think it would be good made with squash also.

The recipe for this pumpkin jam can be found here.

Green Tomato Jam

I did it! I managed to get the Green Tomato Jam made before we left. The Red Tomato Jam will have to wait until we get home. "The Italian" has been very happy eating tomato sandwiches this week for lunch. So, there weren't enough to make a batch. Hopefully, the green tomatoes will ripen inside while we are away and the House Sitter won't eat all of them.

The jam is such a pretty green when it first starts to cook.

The finished product cooling.

I wish that the jam would stay bright green.

This recipe can be found at

 http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/certo-green-tomato-jam-51875.aspx

Hot Pepper Jelly

I finally got around to making one batch of  Hot Pepper Jelly. This is a favorite amongst many of our friends and family. So, I will have to make a least one more batch to get us through the year.

The batch yielded eight 1/2 pint jars.

In order to keep the pepper pieces from floating to the top, I keep turning and shaking the jars until the jelly is cooled. It usually takes about two hours to cool down enough to keep the pieces suspended throughout the jelly.

Sour Cherry Jam

When I was young, we used to pick fresh sour cherries from the tree at my grandfather's house. We would then have to sit outside with my mother, grandmother and aunt to pit them. I really hated the pitting part. However, cherry jelly and cherry pie was always my favorite. So, we sat for hours and pitted the cherries. Some would be made into jelly and some would be frozen for pies.

It's difficult to find sour cherries around here and the season is very short. This past winter I found that the orchard where we purchase peaches and pears for canning, have them. So, yesterday, my "Little Helper" and I went there to see if they had any sour cherries. We were in luck, it was the last day for the cherries. I purchased 4 overflowing quarts and some of the best white sweet corn that I have had in years.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day pitting cherries and making jam. I could not find the cherry pitter or an olive pitter anywhere. One would think that "The Italian" would have had an olive pitter in his dowry. Nope, so I used the end of a beater to the hand mixer to punch the pit through. It worked just fine. I made one batch of jam and froze the balance of the cherries for baking.

One batch of jam yielded 9 half pints.

"The Italian" has now decided that THIS is his favorite of the 14 different varieties of jams and jellies that I make. I guess that no one else will get any cherry jam. We went back to the orchard today and there were no more cherries :(

Got Dandelions??? Make Jelly!!

Two weeks ago while looking for some new and interesting jelly recipes. I found this great recipe for dandelion jelly! Why not.....what else can we do with all of those dandelions my grandson was picking in his yard? He has a lot of dandelions since we are against using chemical sprays.

It takes quite a few dandelions to make a batch of jelly. But it was well worth it.

I am posting  the recipe below. Hopefully I will soon figure out how to add pages and categories on the side of my blog! Does anyone have a book on blogging for dummies?

Dandelion Jelly Recipe

This is a golden clear, delicate tasting delicious jelly. Avoid the bitter milk in the flower stems it is UPLEASANT. This jelly is great on cheese!

1 quart of tightly fresh organic bright dandelion flowers (try to use only the yellow petals). I cut most of the green bottoms off with kitchen scissors.

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 lemon, zest of (I used a microplane)

5 1/2 Cups of sugar

1 (1 3/4 ounce) package dry pectin

1 split vanilla bean

1. Using a stainless steel pan, boil the flowers in 2 quarts of water for 10 minutes, cool, strain, pressing the liquid out of the flowers, then restrain through a coffe filter

2. Measure 3 Cups of the liquid, add the lemon juice, zest, split vanilla bean and pectin

3. Put in to a deep large pot and bring to a rolling boil, then add sugar and stir to mix well.

4. Stir and boil hard for 1 1/12 minutes, or until mixture sheets from a wooden spoon, skim, carefully remove vanilla pod, pour into hot clean jars and seal

Makes 7 jars (half pints)

Enjoy!!