GIVEAWAY!!! Ball Complete Book of HOME PRESERVING

I thought it was time to have a fun giveaway.  Since I have gotten so much enjoyment from all the canning and preserving I've been doing, I wanted you to have some fun too.

So, I'm giving away this wonderful book full of 400 wonderful recipes to make everything from jams, pickles, salsa, sauces and much much more.

If you have never canned or preserved anything, this is the book for you as it will take you step by step. 

If you have been canning and preserving for years, this is still  book you will love as it will give you so many great ideas on how to step up the flavors way beyond the normal simple canning/preserving recipes.

There are no hoops you need to jump through.  No long stories to tell or anything to like.  Just leave your name and a way for me to reach you.  I'll pick a winner by random drawing next Friday. 

I would love to hear your favorite recipe you love to can or preserve and would be thrilled if you shared.  But, if you don't want to take the time to leave it, that is fine, you can still win :)

Good Luck!

MUIR WOODS

I had taken some of my girls from my girl scout troop up to San Francisco for a few days.  We had a lot of fun.

One of the first places we stopped at was MUIR WOODS.  It's a beautiful place to spend hours at just taking in all of Mother Natures beautiful gifts to us.

It's located about 11 miles North of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Muir Woods is the home to the tallest Redwood Trees in the world.  They are so tall that it's often hard to see the tops of the trees. 

The smell is so wonderful!  It just smells so fresh there! 

They have different trails you can walk.  You can do a nice easy 1/2 mile walk if you like or you could go for one of the harder trails that take around 3 hours to complete.  Or you could go on one of the other ones that fall somewhere in between. 

No matter which one you take, you are garenteed to love it and see some of the most lovelyest sights you have ever seen.

I loved how many of the trees had a bright green moss on growing on them.  It looked almost like velvet.

Some of the tree trunks make fun photo locations.

We all loved every minute we spent there and wished we could have spent even more time but of course we had so much to see and do that we could only stay a few hours there.

We learned a lot there too.  Things like how forest fires are actually good for the trees because they burn all the dead stuff off the bottom of the forest and allows seeds to reach the soil to grow even more trees.

In this photo, the tree in the middle got burned.  All around it are trees that popped up from the seeds from the burning tree. 

This is also the location where the famous photographer, Ansel Adams, went to take his black and white photographs that now sell for thousands.

Muir Woods was also in several movies.  The Return of the Jedi, Rise of Plant of the Apes, The Lost World, Jurassic Park and Outbreak are some of the places you may have seen this beautiful forest.

If you ever get a chance to visit here, please do.  It's a great place that is often over looked but I promise you, if you take the time to go here, you will not be sorry.

WHITE BEAN CHILI

I am really loving canning all sorts of good food.  It's so nice to know that I have meals ready when I'm in a hurry or don't feel like cooking.  Have yummy jam that tastes like real fruit for my morning toast, cake fillings, or even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Wonderful fresh salsa to enjoy as a snack or on my mexican meals. 

I found a recipe for White Chili that was made with chicken.  Since I don't eat meat, I made a few changes to the recipe and came up with my own White Bean Chili. 

After this heated up, stir in some sour cream and add some fresh grated cheese.  It will make this dish from wow to POW!

White Bean Chili

1 lb of white beans soaked but not cooked (I soaked for 6 hours)
6 cups chicken broth
1 med. onion chopped
6 cloves of garlic
7 oz canned green chili
1 lb bag frozen white corn
4 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp ground cayenne5 cups cut up chicken (I did not put this in mine since I don't eat meat)

Preparation: Jars, Lids, and Canner! Chop the onion, garlic, green chilis and set aside.

Cooking: Put the beans in a big pot and cover with water. Add all the ingredients to a stainless steel or enameled cast iron pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Filling the jars: On a dishtowel place your hot jars in a semi circle leaving room for your pot that has your recipe. Add the mixture ¾ up from the bottom of each jar using your slotted spoon and the jar funnel. Try to add equal to each jar. Next add the broth liquid into the jars leaving 1” headspace. Remove air bubbles and refill to the proper headspace if necessary. Taking a clean papertowel and wipe the rims of the jars with white vinegar removing any food particles that would interfere with a good seal. Using your magic wand extract the lids from the hot water and place them on the now cleaned rims. Add your rings to the tops of each of the jars and turn to seal just "finger tight".
Processing: Make sure your canning water has come to a simmer and place the jars in the pressure canner. Lock the lid and turn up the heat bring the canner to a boil. Vent steam for 10 minutes, then close the vent by adding the weighted gauge or pressure regulator (for dial gauge canner). Process pints for 75 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure (11 lbs for dial gauge canner) and quarts at 90 minutes. When complete turn off the heat and let pressure return to zero naturally. Wait two minutes longer and open vent. Remove canner lid. Wait 10 minutes then remove jars and place on dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do not touch or move them till the next morning.
Sealing: Some time in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or "popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some recipes may take overnight to seal. Check your lids and reprocess any jars that did not seal. Remove rings for storage.

Makes 7 pints  ~ I used the new 1 1/2 pint jars and it made 5 jars.  However, I did not put the chicken in mine.

I hope you will try this and let me know what you think.

CANNING FRESH PEACH PIE FILLING

I love fresh peaches!  I also love peach pie!  Both fresh peach pie and cooked peach pie. 

So, since it is now summertime and fresh peaches are available I thought I would can some peach pie filling. 

It's so good to have these on hand.  You can quickly make a homemade pie by just dumping one of these jars into a pie crust.  Bake it and you have a wonderful pie.

I am not going to lie, it does take a little while to make these because you have to peel all the peaches and cut them up.  But, the good news is, you can make one jar at a time if you like.  Or you can make up to 7 batches at time.  Heck, you could even make more at a time if you have a big enough pot.

Here is the recipe if you would like to can some for yourself.

                                                    PEACH PIE FILLING

                                                1 Quart                       7 Quarts

Sliced fresh peaches         3-1/2 cups                       6 quarts

Granulated sugar             1 cup                                 7 cups

Clear Jel®                          1/4 cup + 1 tbsp              2 cups + 3 tbsp

Cold water                         3/4 cup                              5-1/4 cups

Cinnamon (optional)       1/8 tsp                               1 tsp

Almond extract (optional)   1/8 tsp                            1 tsp

Bottled lemon juice             1/4 cup                            1-3/4 cups

Start off by getting all your jars ready.  Clean, sterilized and kept hot.  Don't forget to have your seals warmed up by putting them in hot water.  Not boiling water, just simmering.

Peel your peaches.  You can do this by putting the peaches in boiling water for about a minute and then putting them right into cold ice water.  The skins will then come off very easy.

I just peeled mine by hand with a peeler.  Be careful and don't yourself like I did.

Then cut up the peaches to size you want.  I cut mine up into about 1/2 inch slices.

Put the peaches in lemon water so they don't turn brown.

In a pot bring water, sugar, Sure Jel and if desired cinnamon and almond extract.  Stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken up and boils.  Stir in lemon juice and boil for 1 minute more.  Be sure to continue to stir the whole time.

Stir in drained peaches and cook for 3 more minutes. 

Fill your hot quart size jars, leaving 1 inch head space.  Wipe the rim, add your lids and rims. 

Place in a water bath canner and process for 20 minutes.

When you take them out of the water bath they may still be bubbling.  That is normal. 

Also, the clear jel may not be clear when you first cook it but it will be clear when it comes out of the water bath.

Let cool over night.  Make sure the lids are sealed.

The recipe above shows the amounts for 1 quart or 7 quarts.  You can make any amounts in between by multiplying the amounts for 1 quart by how ever many quarts you are going to make.

MAKING YOUR OWN HOT PEPPER POWDER

My sister bought me a dehydrator for my birthday and I finally got to put it to use. 

I dried cherries, grapes (made the best homemade raisins), peaches and tomatoes.  They were are wonderful.

I had been canning a lot of stuff and just used the left overs.  I don't want any more wasted fruits or veggies!  From now on, when they start to go bad or I have some left over that I know I won't use, they will be getting dried so I can use them later.

I had several jalapeno peppers and a few Serrano peppers that I dried out.

They dry pretty fast.  It was about 4 hours at 135 degrees to dry them. 

I love how they looked when they were dry.  Yes, I kept the seeds and membranes on.  I wanted them to have the extra heat.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to make with them but figured I would toss some in soups or stews.

Then I decided I would grind them up to make some powder.  I purchased a small coffee grinder that was also good for spices.  It worked perfectly.

I now have some wonderful pepper powder that I can add to any recipe.  I was also told it's great to sprinkle on popcorn to add a little kick to it. 

I know I'll use it mostly for when I make jams.  I did make some blackberry/jalapeno jam already and I had to cut up the fresh jalapenos for that.  This will be much nicer.

How about you?  Do you dehydrate food?  It's great to do if you are trying to stock pile food for an emergency or if you want to take it backpacking/camping.  You just add hot water to bring the food back to life.  Or you can toss the dried veggies into soup and it will plump back up while it cooks.

It's another new and fun hobby I have to add to my canning, bread making (oh adding a bit of this pepper powder to bread dough would be great) and prepping.

YUM!

Tonight I made my first homemade pizza from scratch.  I made a Margaretta pizza.  It came out great.

I made it from this.  Do you know what it is?

It's sourdough starter.  I met a new friend and she taught me all about it.  I love it.

Sourdough starter is really nothing more then water and flour that has captured live yeast from the air.  Or you can buy some dried yeast (different then the kind you get at the grocery stores) and add it to your flour and water.

Sourdough starter lasts forever, as long as you take care of it.  There is actual sourdough starter that is over 100 years old! 

All you have to do to keep your sourdough starter alive is to add a cup of flour and about 3/4 cup of water to it every week or so.  It's very easy. 

Then when you are ready to make your pizza dough, bread, waffles, pancakes or what ever you are making, you just take out a cup (or what the recipe says) and make your dough with it.

I also made this loaf of sourdough bread.  Let me tell you, there is nothing like fresh baked bread right out of the oven!  Plus the smell in your house is like a little bit of heaven.

I am so happy that I met my new friend.  We hit it off too.  Have you ever met someone and you felt like you have known them forever?  Well, that is how I feel with her. 

We both love doing the same things and have agreed to get together at least once a month to can, bake, make cheese and so on. 

You never know who is around the corner waiting to be your next friend.

If anyone wants the recipes just let me know and I'll be happy to send it to you.

THE FIRST TIME IS ALWAYS SCARY

Last year I got this great pressure canner for my birthday.  My birthday is May 22nd.  I just used this for the first time yesterday.

Why did it take me so long?  Well, to be honest, I was scared. 

I had heard stories for years about how a pressure canner can explode and how people have really gotten hurt because they used them when they didn't really know how.

So, I waited and waited and waited.  Then I finally got the nerve up.

I have done a lot of research on line about the different types of pressure canners, how to use them and if they are are really safe.  Yes, they are.  As long as you use them how they are meant to be used and you are careful.

They are much safer then they used to be and really easy to use.

Watch a few videos on YouTube if you are scared.  Soon, you will get the nerve to try pressure canning too.

I love beans and so that is what I started with.  Pinto beans.

I had no idea what to do with them.  I never cooked them normally before, let alone try to pressure can them.

I used 4 lbs of dried beans.  I washed them off and pulled out the bad looking ones.  Then I put them in a big pot, covered them with water and let them soak over night.

Wow!  Those suckers soaked up a lot of water and what was 1/2 pan full of beans turned into a full pan.  The pan was so full, I ended up using two pans to cook them.

I rinsed them off again and then put them in two pots, covered them with water and added some garlic powder, onion powder, bay leaf and a little bit of canning salt.

I boiled them for 1/2 hour.  Make sure not to hard boil them as they will end up breaking in 1/2 and the skin comes off.  You can see some of my beans did that even though I used a gentle boil.

Don't cook them longer then 30 mins.  They will finish cooking in the pressure canner. 

Make sure your jars are clean and hot.  Fill up the jars with your beans.  Make sure you leave enough room for juice and for the beans to expand.

Add the hot juice from your cooked beans.  Make sure you leave 1/2 inch head space. 

Seal up the jars and put them in your pressure canner. 
Add boiling water to your canner to the line that it says in your book that comes with your canner.  Each canner is different so be sure to follow the directions for your canner.

Put the lid on and lock it.  Then heat up the canner.  Leave the weight off at first.  You want to see steam coming up for 10 mins to get all the air out of the canner.  Then you add the weight and get your pressure up to 10 pounds.

Make sure you keep the pressure at 10 pounds for 75 mins.

I found I had to sit near by to watch the canner.  It was hard to keep the heat right at 10 lbs.  It would slowly start to go up to almost 11 pounds so I ran and turned the heat down.  Just a tiny bit.

If you turn it down to much, the pressure drop.  If it drops to 9 pounds psi you have to start your time all over again. 

Thankfully I caught mine before it went below the 10 pounds psi.

This was the hardest part of the whole canning day.  Making sure it was at 10 lbs the whole time.

After you cook them for 75 mins.  turn off the heat, move the canner to a cooled burner and let it sit until the pressure drops down to zero.  Make sure the gage says zero and your pop up button on the canner drops down.  This will take about 20-30 mins.

Don't open the canner yet!  Remove the weight and let it sit another 10 mins. 

Then open your canner.  Be sure to open the lid away from you as the steam will still come out and you don't want to get burned.

When you remove the jars, be careful as they are very hot.  In fact, my jars were still boiling inside.

Listen for the pop sound as the jars seal. 

Do not move them for 12-24 hours.  Then you can remove the rings, check the seals and wash the jars off.

That's it!  You now have fresh beans to use in soup, burritos or how ever you want to.

The 4 pounds of dried beans ended up making 15 pint jars.  I only pressure canned 14 of them.  I left one out and just put it in the refrigerator.

I had it tonight for dinner.  They were wonderful! 

I'm so happy I finally got brave enough to use the pressure canner.  I am no longer scared and I have a list a mile long of things I now want to can.