{*~Summer Canning Update~*}

 

I wish last summer I'd kept track of exactly what I canned. So my goal this summer is to blog a little bit more about what I'm canning. I entered 8 jars of goodies into the Butte County Fair for the last weekend in August and I'm SO excited! I could win $4 and a ribbon! I'd seriously die of happiness. Not joking at ALL.

Last summer I canned a lot. I made everything; mustard, BBQ sauce, giant jars of marinara, cranberry relish, jams, compotes and butters. I used primarily the Ball Complete Book of Canning and I found it was great! Tons of info, recipes, troubleshooting, etc. A few months ago I got a copy of Better Homes & Gardens Canning Magazine at Raley's and I LOVE IT. So far everything I've canned this summer has been from recipes there.

Here's what I've made so far:

• 11 jars of Strawberry Lemon Marmalade
• 8.5 jars of Blackberry Lime Freezer Jam (love this but learned I HATE the Ball Plastic Freezer Jars. The lids pop off too easy and they feel flimsy. I'll stick with glass)
• 8 jars of Vanilla Peach Honey Butter
• 10 jars of Peach Bellini Jam

Here is what I have left of the stuff from this summer so far, not pictured is the freezer jam because it's in our deep freezer and I'm lazy ;)

We have incredibly hard water. I leave the jars like this in our pantry because I don't really care what they look like but if I'm giving them as a gift or for the fair I take the tiniest bit of olive oil on a paper towel and rub the jars and lids. Voila! No more stains!

Cool right? Last summer I was incredibly generous with my canned goods, I was giving jars to EVERYONE and leaving very little for us. This year I'm still being generous but making sure we have enough. And I'm only giving stuff to people who pinkie swear to give me the jars back. I know that sounds silly but since we live in a tiny town, running up to the hardware store for jars & bands can get annoying.

So from last summer, here's what I have left in our pantry:

• 2 jars of carrot cake compote
• 4 giant jars of marinara
• 2 small jars of pizza sauce
• 2 jars of salsa
• 1 big jar of BBQ sauce...I'm going to cry when I use this up because it is like HEAVEN
• 1 jar lemon prune butter
• 2 jars vanilla plum sauce. This was my third batch of the summer. It basically is like the greatest thing on earth
• 11 jars of cranberry relish
• 1 jar sweet mustard

That's AWESOME! My favorite part was in January opening a jar of sauce to make pizza and it smelled INCREDIBLE and tasted GREAT! In January! No hothouse grossness! I planned our entire garden around things I could can. Did I tell you guys we have two artichokes on our plant? So awesome but it is currently being ransacked by aphids, I'm on a mission to destroy them. I was hoping my basil would do better, it's half dead, I'm hoping my mom has a good basil plant this year so I can steal some to make freezer pesto.

Ok, so on August 20th, if you are in the Redding, California area, I'll be teaching a canning class at That Kitchen Place ! I'd love it if some blog friends came by!!!

Today I'm labeling all those jars with these new spiffy labels I got yesterday at Target:

Cool right?

Have a great weekend!!!!

xo

{*~Slightly Salty Simple Syrup~*}

In high school, I was obsessed with iced coffee. Directly next door to the school in MA there was a Dunkin Donuts. This was long before Starbucks on every corner. So each afternoon I'd skip gym class and walk down to Dunks. I loved walking inside and breathing in the sugar-y sticky sweet air. I'd get a giant iced coffee with half & half and a metric ton of sugar. Because I was 15 and who cares about calories when your 15. Like, I'd make it with so much sugar it was CRUNCHY. And to no ones surprise I failed gym because I was too busy getting hopped up on caffeine and sugar.

Then I moved to California where there where NO dunks (still aren't!) and up until a few years ago, no Starbucks. And you could leave campus for lunch. My first thought was...OPEN LUNCH? CAFFEINE WHENEVER? COUNT ME IN. Then I learned that gas station coffee is gross. I'd bitch and moan about a lack of Dunks. My classmates were all about sweet tea. I love sweet iced coffee but iced and hot tea I can only drink unsweetened and black. I was not a happy camper. And totally clueless because Pam, my mom, has been drinking iced coffee for FOREVER. FROM HOME. I think the only time I've ever seen her drink hot coffee is espresso shots on Holidays. She brews hot coffee in the morning and puts it in a pitcher in the fridge. She makes what we refer to as "rocket fuel", drinks it practically black with one pink sugar. It's a little much for me. I can drink 1/2 of one and suddenly I'm bouncing around and can't shut up.

I don't drink caffeine anymore (see above ;)) and I have to say, it's obnoxious that Starbucks doesn't offer decaf iced coffee unless you want hot coffee poured over ice (no thanks!). But you can get an iced decaf latte. And lately they just taste BURNT to me. Not a nice bitter or good espresso shot, but just straight up BURNT. Not appealing for $4.

I like my iced coffee with almond milk and something sweet. And the cup filled with 80% ice. I made a simple syrup I thought I'd share with you.

It's incredibly easy and more grown up than crunchy coffee ;)

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup extra fine baking sugar
• 2 cups of water
• 1 Tbls vanilla bean paste
• 2 Tbls vanilla extract. Make sure it's a good quality one or all you'll taste is coffee with a lingering of alcohol.
• a pinch of flake salt. I used Cypress Flake. It's expensive but a little goes a long way.

In a heavy bottomed pan with the heat on medium high add the brown sugar. Keep it moving around in the pan for 1 solid minute. This seems to warm up the sugar and gives the syrup a nice caramel flavored under tone. But make sure you don't let it burn. Next add the baking sugar and water. Bring to a boil. I let it go to a full rolling boil for half a minute, then lower the heat to a soft simmer. Let it simmer for 3 minutes or until it thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla bean paste and extract. I'm obsessed with vanilla so this is a LOT, feel free to use less. Then add a decent sized pinch of flake salt, it brightens up the caramel notes, but don't use table salt! That would be harsh and too much. I put it in a canning jar because I have a ton of them, then label it with the date and stick it in the fridge once it's cool. I give these little bottles as gifts, they last about 3-4 weeks in the fridge.

Add to some coffee and enjoy!

What are you guys up too today? I'm updating modernacorn (and can now accept custom orders! email me for more info!), piecing a Swoon block I started last night and crossing my fingers this incredible weather keeps up. Normally by July I'm a puddle of grump...115 degrees and feeling gross. This year it's been in the 80s! THE 80s!!! This is pure MAGIC. My tomatoes are barely ripening but I'm ok with it. I even wore JEANS to the State Fair. It's that nice out! I'm also making this today.

okok! See you tomorrow for Farmer's Wife! Yipee!

xo

{*~Soups On!~*}

 

Soups On! Because here in Northern California, it's cold and rainy! I don't think I've ever experienced rain this late in June before. When I woke up this morning I was confused...normally I wake up about 6:30am and it's already BRIGHT outside. This morning? Not so much. I went to yoga and during the last bit it started to POUR outside.

So I came home and threw together soup! I love to cook. Love it. I cook almost all our meals from scratch. It's a pleasure for me.

I like to tweet about what I eat because I like when other people do that! I love getting ideas. But lately everyone has been asking for recipes. So here is my recipe. It's mostly a little of this and a little of that. It's not rocket science or earth shattering but it's comfort food and easy!

Hey Porkchop! Chicken Tortilla Soup

makes 8 servings and freezes well

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts. When I was eating vegetarian I would use 1 cup wild rice instead of chicken and it was delish!
• 1 container Pacific Chicken Broth. Normally I make my own but we haven't had a whole chicken in a really long time.
• 1 can (14 oz) Muir Glen Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes. I LOVE these and always stock up when they are on sale.
• 2 cups of your favorite salsa. I used a jar that I canned last summer. It doesn't have to be fancy, just your favorite!
• 1 package frozen corn
• 1 can of low sodium black beans. Rinse well!
• Dash of Sriracha or tabasco. Or red pepper flakes. Or your favorite heat of choice!
• 1 walla walla onion, sliced thin
• 4-6 garlic cloves depending on your taste, minced well
• Dash of cinnamon. I know. It sounds weird. But trust me. I add cinnamon to EVERYTHING and it gives a great smoke-y sweet flavor.
• Dash of chili powder, cumin, celery seed, paprika, kosher salt, ground black pepper. Or you can use your favorite taco seasoning sparingly.
• Cilantro, avocado, lime, crisp tortilla strips (I just cut a corn tortilla into strips and bake it until its crisp), sour cream, cheese, olives, whatever you'd like to top your soup!

This is where it gets hard! Toss everything except the bottom row of toppings into your crock pot. That's it gang! If your using frozen chicken, be prepared to cook it longer. I used fresh today, started the soup at 11am on high and it was done around 4pm. I have three crock pots and they all seem to be a bit different, so just know your crock pot.

This is a SOUP, if you'd like it less soup-y you can use less salsa or broth. You'll notice 1 lb of chicken breasts, but serves 8. I'm not a huge meat eater and after we've each had a bowl, Porkchop will take some for lunch the next day and I'll have a few days of lunch without the chicken. If you guys like chicken, feel free to add more.

I like to add cilantro, a squeeze of a 1/4 of a lime, 1/4 of an avocado, olives, a few tortilla strips and a bit of shredded cheese to mine. Chop loves sour cream, cheese and tortilla strips. I've been debating maybe making a onion based yogurt cheese and putting some of that on top next time.

Crock pots are AWESOME kitchen tools to have. During the fall/winter we use ours almost daily. I make everything from roasted chickpeas (kind of like a corn nut?!) to pumpkin butter to beef stew to oatmeal in mine. Seriously handy. Sometimes they get a bad rep because it seems like folks dump a can of cream of whatever into it with some random meat and call it good. Blech!

I'll be back tomorrow with Farmer's Wife Blocks...and I think I'm going to share some of my favorite songs with you....that are farmer related ;)

PS: Chop just bought me some Riley Blake Trick or Treat fabric...and the Swoon quilt pattern as an early birthday gift! I'm pretty much dying of excitement. I can't WAIT for it to arrive and to bug Angela & Tracey to help me! I'm planning on sending it out to be long arm quilted with some great Halloween pantograph. If your a long arm quilter who has some Halloween designs maybe you could leave a comment??? ;)