My New Love

Over the last few months I have fallen in love... with canning! I don't know what it is, but there is something so rewarding about seeing beautifully filled canning jars. I think it's a combination of seeing the fruits of my labor and knowing that my family will have good, home canned food to eat throughout the winter.

My mom canned when I was growing up, but it was never really something that interested me. It wasn't until several years ago when I walked into my friend Sunny's pantry and saw all of her shelves filled with jars of food she had canned that I really became interested. But even then, not only did I not have the proper equipment, I just didn't have the time. I was either working or working out or playing... something was always going on. Well, last year my parents gave me a water bath canner and some jars for my birthday, and this year, finally, I was able to start canning. Let me tell you, it can be a LOT of work, but for me it is so worth it.

Here's a little recap of my canning journeys over the last couple months!

• Plum jam! I already blogged about making plum jam, but what I didn't say is that we went back and picked a second round of plums, and my mom came over on a Saturday morning where we worked together to make a TON more plum jam. I think it is quite delicious. Spoiler: I have my friend/family/neighbor Christmas gifts all ready to go!

• Pears. Again, my mom knew someone with a pear tree. The lady who owns the tree is elderly and the missionaries picked all the pears for her. There were more than she could use, so I was the lucky beneficiary. My mom had talked about what a pain canning pears can be because unlike peaches, you have to actually peel the pears (vs blanching them and having the skins fall off). Well, I did a little research and found that you can actually blanch them and rub the skins right off. I followed these instructions from the Utah State University Extension Office and it worked great! Also, the tip they gave to use a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon to remove the core was perfect. I ended up with beautiful jars of white pears. Yes, I pretty much think all my canning is beautiful!

• Salsa. We love salsa in my house, and I especially love home canned salsa. I really like my mom's salsa recipe. It is sweet and thick and super tasty... but it doesn't have any kick to it. That's probably because my mom and sister can't handle any spice. Well, Matt and I happen to LOVE spice, so I experimented with a few different salsa recipes. I ended up making two smaller batches and one larger batch of salsa. My last and largest batch was definitely my favorite. I tweaked a recipe I got from a friend and wanted to record it here so I can refer back to it! This recipe makes a ton of salsa, so can be adjusted down to make less! Also, the best part is that I used all tomatoes from my garden, my parents' garden and my bountiful basket. I also used jalepenos from my garden and onions and peppers from my bountiful basket :-) PS - you'll notice the two pans in the picture below... I put a stock pot on my Christmas wish list!

2 29 oz. tomato sauce

2 12 oz. tomato paste

3 cups vinegar

2 1/2 Tbsp crushed garlic

5 cups sugar

5 Tbsp cumin

4 Tbsp pepper

2 Tbsp Accent (optional)

3/4 cup salt

2 1/2 Tbsp oregano

Mix above ingredients in pan, then add fresh ingredients.

Bushel of tomatoes (40 cups) - tomatoes should be peeled and chopped

15 onions

18 bell peppers (10 green, 4 red, 4 yellow)

16 jalepenos (leave seeds in 4)

6 anaheim peppers

4 serrano peppers

8 banana peppers

1/2 bunch fresh parsley

3/4 cup cilantro

Bring to a boil, simmer 1-3 hours, stirring occasionally. Hot water bath 15-20 minutes. Should get 18-20 quarts.

Note - The original recipe also called for the following ingredients, but I my local Fred Meyer didn't have them, so I made the recipe as shown above. I would definitely add the other peppers next time if I had them: 2 Tbsp DeVorks seasoning, 3 Thai peppers, 4 Caribbean peppers, 2 cayenne peppers.

• Sweet and Sour Sauce.  I had leftover tomatoes and peppers after making my salsa, so I decided to try making sweet and sour sauce. I used this recipe and ordered ClearJel online through Amazon. I tried the sauce with some chicken a couple weeks ago and it is amazing.
• Blackberries. I already blogged about canning blackberries. I used this website for instructions on how to can them. It's funny that in all of my canning, the blackberries were the only thing I actually paid for!

• Peaches. My friend Jen invited us to pick peaches with them. Her in-laws have peach trees on their property in Adrian, Oregon, so my family enjoyed a Sunday afternoon in Adrian picking fruit. Unfortunately for me, the skin would NOT come off the peaches! I tried blanching them three different times... anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. No luck. Not only that, but it turned out the peaches weren't freestone peaches, meaning the pit was stuck in the middle of the peach and didn't come out easily. I wasn't sure what to do. My mom and Matt both suggested giving peaches to neighbors. I couldn't part with those peaches, though, so I buckled down and, using a paring knife, peeled all those peaches and cut the pit out. It was SO MUCH WORK, but it was worth it to me! Look at my pretty peach "pieces"!

• Applesauce. Jen's family also had apples that we picked, and BJ and my grandma were nice enough to join me for a morning of making applesauce. I thought we were going to be wearing our hands out peeling those apples, but turns out my mom let me borrow her victorio strainer and we didn't need to peel OR core the apples! All we did was wash them, quarter them, cook them down on the stove, and then run them through the strainer. Easy peasy. Especially since I had so much help! I used this website for reference. A few days later I tried making this vanilla bean applesauce in a crockpot. It was pretty good but was so sweet and rich, and vanilla beans are expensive! I think I'll just stick to plain old applesauce going forward.

• Apple pie filling.  I only used about 2/3 of the apples we picked for the applesauce because I wanted to try my hand at making apple pie filling. I was excited to try this recipe because not only does Matt love apple pie, but I would be able to use some of the ClearJel that I bought to make my sweet and sour sauce. I spent all afternoon yesterday peeling those apples, but oh my... this pie filling is delicious! I can't wait to make apple treats all winter long!

• Apple syrup. Did you know that apples have a natural pectin in them? I learned that when I was researching canning apple jelly. I found it fascinating that you can use just the scraps (peels and cores) of the apples to make jelly - just add sugar and water! Anyway, I tried it out last night with the scraps from my apple pie filling. I couldn't get the jelly to gel... maybe I used too much water? Not sure. Or maybe I should have followed a different recipe and added some boxed pectin? Think I might try this next time. Anyway, after boiling the darn stuff for a couple hours, I decided I was content with apple syrup. Not sure what I'll do with it yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something!

• Pear sauce. Jen's family in Adrian had some friends with a pear tree... so we picked pears! Since I had already canned pears, and since we had such good luck with using the victorio strainer for the applesauce, I decided to try my luck at pear sauce. I think the pears we used were the d'anjou pears, so the skin was quite brown... which meant I ended up with brown pear sauce! I think next time I'll take that extra step to peel the pears. The other thing is I accidentally cooked the pear sauce a little too long (I let it sit on the stove while I was in a meeting), so the bottom of the pan got a little burned. The good thing is the burned flavor isn't too strong, and Kylee loves it, so I guess that's what matters! Anyway, next time I will definitely change things up a bit.
• Grape juice. My grandma has been canning grape juice for 30 years now, so I know just how tasty fresh grape juice can be. I have memories of spending Sunday evenings at Grandma and Grandpa's house, eating popcorn, drinking grape juice, and building forts out or couch cushions. Anyway, once again, Jen knew someone who had extra grapes, so Kylee and I joined them a couple weeks ago to pick grapes! I borrowed my grandma's steamer and made 7 quarts of delicious juice. It was super easy - just clean the grapes (no need to remove the stems or seeds), put them in the steamer with water, and heat! I'm excited because Jen's friends said we could go pick more grapes. I'm hoping we can make that happen so I don't have to ration my juice as much :-)

And that's it! For now at least :-) Who knows, maybe I'll try out pressure canning this winter. Or maybe I'll try out cranberry sauce. Guess we'll see!