Tomato Season...My Favorite Chili Sauce!

It's Tomato Season!

Cutest tomato label ever!

 

Have you ever noticed that when you plant tomatoes that there is either too few...or too many?  I have the sinking feeling that this is the year of "too many."  The weather has been perfect for tomatoes...hot and sunny.  Now the plants are full of quickly ripening tomatoes...and I am not exactly in the mood to spend days huddled over a steaming canner.  Lucky for me, my husband George loves the "scientific process" of canning.  He'll do all the peeling and chopping...which I hate...and I will prepare the bottles and get the water bath canner steaming.  Fair trade I think!  Last weekend we made the raspberry jalapeno jelly I posted about here.  It was a great success and I now have enough to last for at least a year.

 Of Course I Can!

She looks a tad shell-shocked if you ask me...lol!

 

Homemade Chili Sauce...

Yummy...better than store-bought!

 

George's Chili Sauce Recipe

Yield:  about six pint jars.

4 quarts peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes ( about 24 large)

2 cups chopped onions

2 cups chopped sweet red peppers (about 4 medium)

1 hot red pepper (we use the dried pepper flakes)

1 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons salt

3 Tablespoons mixed pickling spices

1 Tablespoon celery seed

1 Tablespoon mustard seed

2 1/2 cups vinegar

 

Combine tomatoes, onions, peppers, sugar and salt.  Simmer 45 minutes.  Tie spices in a cheesecloth bag; add to tomato mixture; cook until very thick, about 45 minutes, stirring frequently

 

Prepare home canning jars and lids according to manufacturers instructions.

 

Add vinegar to tomato mixture; cook to desired thickness. Remove spice bag.  Carefully pour hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch  head space.  Adjust caps.

 

Process 15 minutes in boiling water bath canner. 

 

 

Pretty...as well as delicious!

Use for crockpot meatballs...serve over rice!

Better than Manwich for sloppy joes...a favorite Halloween supper treat!

 

Random Acts of  Fall Crafting...

Repurposed bird cage.

Burlap and Sunflowers.

 

Dear little owl...

I love sunflowers this time of year...a preview to Fall.

Owls and crows show up in August around my house.

 

Happy Pre-Fall, Y'all!

 

Bonus!!!!

Tomato Labels...enjoy!

 

 

August is Here...Let's make Raspberry Jalapeno Jelly!

August is Raspberry Month...
At least it is on my calendar...it is also sunflower month, but that's another story.  I am so looking forward to Fall.  It's been a long hot summer.  I glad I'm not the only one who hasn't posted as often...it has to be the heat...and the busy-ness of summer vacations.  I am an Autumn Woman...not only in the seasons of my life, but in my love of the golden waning of the year.  This week I have been taking down the red, white and blue in my home and replacing it with the reds of apples and the golds of sunflowers.  I am also getting ready for the tons of tomatoes that will soon be ready for canning.   Our garden is pretty limited this year...my husband's company has been busy with a complicated job that requires more of his attention than usual.  Tomatoes and Peppers...that's it!  We had planted green beans, but they didn't come up.  Which is okay by me...canning beans can be very tedious.  I'd rather do crafts!  Who's with me? 

Raspberry Jalapeno Jelly

 

Technically...it's a jam...but "jam" doesn't flow off the tongue like "jelly." A few years ago, after spending more than $6 for a small jar of raspberry jalapeno jelly at a craft boutique...and loving it...we decided to make our own.  After all, it should cost less than $36 to make six half-pints of sweet and spicy goodness.   This recipe quickly became a family favorite.  We use it on taquitos (flautas), pork chops, and with turkey...instead of cranberry sauce.  I love it with Swedish meatballs in place of the lingonberry jam they sell at Ikea.  You should try it on cornbread muffins...OMGoodness!

 

My first batch...2011.

 

I love how pretty the bright red jelly looks!  Since I was using Tattler Reusable Canning Jar Lids, from Tattler Reusable Canning Lids, I didn't want to write the contents on the top, so I made some little tags, just to make them extra fun.  We found a great recipe at Greens and Jeans.  The only change we made was to use 5 jalapenos intead of 2.

Greens and Jeans Raspberry Pepper Jam

Makes 6 half-pint jars

Ingredients:

5 cups fresh raspberries

2 jalapeno peppers, (we used 5, 2 with seeds)

1 red or green bell pepper

4 cups sugar

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 package powdered pectin.

Directions:

Wash and pick through raspberries.  Crush berries and place in a large pot.  Chop the bell peppers and jalapenos (wear gloves!)  Add the chopped peppers to the pot along with the sugar and vinegar.

Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring often until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 15 minutes.  At this point, stir in the pectin.  Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 to 2 minutes.  Ladel into hot half-pint jars and process in boiling water canner for 10 minutes. 

 

That's it...short and sweet as a ripe raspberry!

More fun will follow as the days grow cooler.

 

 

 

Provident Living...Canning Butter for a Rainy Day!

Guest Post...How to Bottle Butter!

My good friend Sheryl posted some wonderful information yesterday on her blog Larry and Sheryl Fowler's Fabulous Family.  I have been wanting to can my own butter for shelf storage ever since I heard about it.  Now Sheryl has posted the instructions and has graciously allowed me to repost them here!  On her blog, Sheryl is writing to her children.

Sheryl Writes...

Dad [Larry] and I canned our own butter last year.  Generally I freeze my butter or margarine, but that does take up quite a bit of room if you are trying to store for long term.  Now I will have some margarine in the freezer, but butter on my fruitroom shelf.

Dad and I needed some butter last Sunday and rather than go to the store, I grabbed a jar off the shelf.  I have found this is easy to do and would make a great family home evening and working on your food storage at the same time.  NOTE:  you need to use real butter, not margarine.  I am going to try to grab some everytime I go to Costco for a while so I can stock it up. 

How it Works... 

Heat pint jars (without bands) in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes.  (A dripper pan works well for this.)  One pound of butter slightly more than fills one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars.  While the jars are heating, melt the butter slowly (in a large kettle) until it comes to a slow boil.  Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to prevent scorching.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Place the jar lids in a small pot and bring to a boil, leaving to simmer until needed.

Stirring the melted butter from the bottom to the top with [the spatula and using] a measuring cup with spout and handle, pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars through a canning funnel.  Leave 3/4" of head space in the jar.

Wipe the tops of the jars, then place on hot lids and screw on the bands tightly.  Lids will seal as the jars cool.  The butter will separate into three layers: foam, oil and milk solids.  Once the lids "pop" and seal, shake the jars to mix your butter.  Do this every 15 minutes or so, until the butter retains more consistency throughout the jar.  (This may take up to an hour our longer.)  When just slightly warm, move jars to the refrigerator for an hour.

Canned butter should store for 3 years or longer on a cool dark shelf.  Note: It does not need to be refrigerated onceopened, if used within a reasonable amount of time.

Hope this is something you will do in your family to help with your food storage.

Love,

Mom

Thank you so much, Sheryl, for sharing this information.  I know I will be stopping at Costco this weekend.  Right now they have a much better price on butter than Walmart.  If anyone knows where some killer butter deals are...please share!

It's a chilly Trix colored morning here in Highland.

The leaves are falling from the maples now.

I am so blessed to live in the shadow of these beautiful mountains.

Each season paints its colors on their foothills.

Aspens glinting golden below the granite crags are of more value to me than any jeweled crown.

My heritage lies at their feet and in their canyons.

I am grateful for the Wasatch.

Homemade Ketchup...or is it Catsup?

I love ketchup.  I don't care if you call it ketchup or catsup...you can call it whatever you want as long as it's Heinz.  Store brand ketchup and other major brands just don't cut the mustard. =D  They are just too sweet.  Heinz has the perfect salty to spicy ratio that makes it the ideal accompaniment to french fries.  I found a blogspot that tells you everything you would ever want to know about ketchup:   nowthatsnifty.blogspot.com  I am going to share with you a few of the facts I learned.   

Some Random Facts About Ketchup

• 97% of American homes keep ketchup in their kitchens.
• Each person consumes about 3 bottles per year.
• A Tablespoon of ketchup has about 16 calories and no fat.
• 4 Tablespoons have the nutritional value of a ripe medium tomato.
• Like fine wines there can be good and bad ketchup years depending on the quality of the harvest.
• Heinz ketchup was introduced in 1876 as a "blessed relief for Mother..."
• Heinz sells more than 50% of the ketchup sold in the U.S.    
• The "catsup" spelling went out of popularity in 1981 after the Reagan Administration declared "Ketchup" to be a vegatable that could be used in school lunches.
• Public outcry caused a reversal of that ruling, so now ketchup is back as a condiment.
• Disclaimer:  Heinz does not pay me to "love" their ketchup. =D 

 Homemade Tomato Ketchup
By now your gardens are probably producing a good crop of tomatoes.  They were slow to come on this year.  I still have a lot of salsa and chili sauce left from last fall, so I wanted to try something new.  My good friend, Lynette graciously allowed me to publish her tried and true recipe for ketchup.  She says she likes it better than store-bought.  I think it would be fun to try this out.  Grandma Zetta used to make a lot of her own condiments.



Lynette's Ketchup
Ingredients:
3 gallons plus 1 quart tomato juice
4 cups white sugar
3 cups white vinegar (could use part cider)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/3 cup salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper or 1 teaspoon dried mustard
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. dried cloves
1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Carefully boil the juice, stirring frequently, until juice is reduced to about half.  Add 1/2 of the vinegar and all of the sugar and salt.  Cook an additional 30 minutes, stirring frequently, then add the rest of the vinegar.  Just before ladling it into the jars, add spices and mix well.  Until recently Lynette processed it in a boiling water bath.  But she warns that because of the lower acidity of today's tomatoes, it would probably be prudent to pressure process pints at 15 pounds (Highland, Utah altitude) for 15 minutes.

Hope you are having a great tomato harvest this year,

  

Homemade Raspberry Jalapeno Jelly!

After spending more than $6 for a small jar of raspberry jalapeno jelly at a craft boutique...and loving it...we decided to make our own.  After all, it should cost less than $36 to make six half-pints of sweet and spicy goodness.  Our garden is overflowing with jalapenos, but not with tomatoes, so no salsa this year.  Since this recipe only took 5 jalapenos, we're not exactly using up the over-abundance of peppers.

I love how pretty the bright red jelly looks!  Since I am using Tattler Reusable Canning Jar Lids, from reusablecanninglids.com, I didn't want to write the contents on the top, so I made some little tags, just to make them extra fun.  We found a great recipe at greensandjeans.com.  The only change we made was to use 5 jalapenos intead of 2.

Greens and Jeans Raspberry Pepper Jam

Makes 6 half-pint jars

Ingredients:

5 cups fresh raspberries

2 jalapeno peppers, (we used 5, 2 with seeds)

1 red or green bell pepper

4 cups sugar

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 package powdered pectin.

Directions:

Wash and pick through raspberries.  Crush berries and place in a large pot.  Chop the bell peppers and jalapenos (wear gloves!)  Add the chopped peppers to the pot along with the sugar and vinegar.

Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring often until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 15 minutes.  At this point, stir in the pectin.  Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 to 2 minutes.  Ladel into hot half-pint jars and process in boiling water canner for 10 minutes. 

On another topic...

This is my new vacuum!

You can't see it under the cozy, but it's a cute little cordless with hose and attachments.

Best of all, I can keep it on the laundry room counter like a toaster!

It takes up no room at all!

Grandma Zetta would be amazed...her vacuum came across the plains with the pioneers.

Disclaimer:  I am not paid by Tattler to love their lids. =D

Who Knew Carrots Could Be As Yummy As Candy?

I love fall!  It's absolutely my favorite season. I love the way the September sunlight slants across the landscape with a golden hue unlike that of any other time of year.  It is a time of harvest, of preparing for the cold winter months ahead.  I feel like nesting and storing nuts like a squirrel.  When I was first married, Grandma Zetta decided I needed to learn a few useful skills, so she taught me how to bottle peaches.  I lived in a very small mobile home with almost no counter space.  Boxes of peaches, bags of sugar and empty bottles were stacked on every available surface.  I was hot, sticky and whiny, but my no-nonsense grandmother stuck with me.  I was so proud to see those golden jars lined up on my tiny kitchen table.  I will always be grateful that she cared enough about me to teach me.

Have you ever noticed how all the fruits and vegetables in the produce aisle seem to blend into a pleasing patchwork of colors and textures?  I love how pretty and orange the little bags of baby carrots look nestled next to the green onions.  I decided I wanted to bottle some glazed baby carrots.  I bought four one pound bags, enough for 8 pints.  Bottling carrots is so easy if you don't have to peel or cut them! =D

Aren't they pretty?  They'll look nice next to the green beans I bottled a few weeks ago.  If you are new to canning, get yourself a copy of the Ball Blue Book--Guide to Preserving.   It'll teach you step by step what you need to learn.  And it's full of time-tested recipes that will give you the same feeling of accomplishment that I had over 35 years ago.  35 years?  Yikes! 

You will find a glazed carrot recipe on page 77 of the Blue Book.  They are as yummy as candy...and better for you. =D  



My Yummy Version of Harry & David's Pepper and Onion Relish

I love, love, love H&D's Pepper and Onion Relish.  It's sweet and spicy heaven.  I put it on hamburgers, pork chops...or just eat it with a spoon out of the jar.  For a festive treat, you can pour it over cream cheese and serve it with wheaty crackers.  But in order to have my fill of this yummy condiment, I have to find an outlet mall or go online and order it.  So I went online and found some recipes that I could tweak and I think I have come up with the perfect home-canned version.

Here it is:

Shirley & George's Pepper and Onion Relish

6 cups tomatoes, skinned, diced and drained
6 large red peppers, diced
8 cups sugar
2 T salt
2-3 boxes pectin (depends on how thick you like it)
3 cups white vinegar
1tsp ground red pepper or crushed red pepper
6 jalapenos (2 with seeds) seeded and diced
3 large onions diced (chunky dices)

Mix all ingredients together, except pectin and bring to a boil.  Turn down heat and simmer for 2 to 2.5 hours until thickened.  Whisk in the boxes of pectin and let boil for 1 minute.  Pour into sterile jars.  Process in pressure canner at 11# for 15 minutes.  Makes 7-8 pints