Category: Canning and Preserving

Yearly Review- Canning and Gardening
Canning and Preserving · Gardening · Monthly Review

Yearly Review- Canning and Gardening

LSiehLeave a comment

Hello again! I thought I would separate out my canning list from my recipe list to try and make it not so long. I probably have one more review post and then it will be back to the normal posting schedule.

We were going to go to the zoo today, but I woke up with a sore neck and shoulder. Too much relentless partying! 🙂

Canning Review:

So I wanted to get more canning done than I actually was able to do. I still have the whole canning tomatoes in the freezer. I think I’ll just chop them up and use them whole.

Here is what I did get canned this year.

Apple sauce, two batches from The Ball Blue Book. I have no pictures of the second one for some reason. One batch of applesauce was canned and one is in the freezer. The Husband only likes the second one. The first one was too smooth. It works very well for cooking though and I like it, so all is not lost.

Tea Blends! I’m going to count these as canning because they are in canning jars. I made them for my vending event and when they didn’t sell, my craft ladies  happily snapped them up for Christmas. It was so much fun to put them together and I still have a bunch of the materials, so I would like to make some more up for me as well.

Pickles from The Art of Preserving. I didn’t like this recipe, but the ones with extra garlic went over very well. I will try more pickles with a different recipe for next year.

I also had my first burst jar in the canning pot. It was scary, but not as messy as it could have been.

Rhubarb marmalade from Taste of Home Canning 2012. This was delicious. I quite enjoy it on toast and on yogurt.

Strawberry Marmalade from Taste of Home 2012. This is also delicious and I like in lots of different ways.

Rhubarb BBQ sauce from the An Oregon Cottage website.   I liked this, but it’s possible the Husband is allerfic to rhubarb, so I haven’t used it since. This was a freezer recipe, it was too low of a PH level to safely can.

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate from Ball Canning online. This is lovely. I wanted to make some blackberry as well, but didn’t get to it. I have some blackberries in the freezer, so may try it. The Husband likes it with Sprite. He was excited to have our own lemonade.

Gardening Review:

My herbs did very well. I was able to move the rosemary plant inside even though it got caught in a snowstorm.  I was excited by how pretty this picture looked and it was also exciting to get to cut my own fresh herbs for foods. My only problem was keeping them watered enough. My work schedule was not conducive to watering schedules.

Strawberries! I waged a war with the squirrels and the ants to get some strawberries for us. We actually got a bunch this year and I’m hoping the plants will survive to be used next year. They are protected in the garage.

We got one zucchini! I brought it up with us when we went up to visit my parents and we had it sautéed with other veggies. Sadly, the plant didn’t survive much after this.  It was not happy in a pot.

Gardening Goals and What I Learned:

Next year we need to get the raised bed set. Now that we know how much work it will be, we’ll set aside a gardening weekend early. We’re thinking of putting raised planter boxes by the garage with berries in them. Perhaps the ants will not get them this year after all.

What I learned was that consistent watering needs to be a priority. Also, learning what is up with my tomatoes to stop end blossom rot would be good. I can’t stop it, it seems, but am hoping that when they are in an actual bed with tomato cages they will be less prone to it.

I am not good with cucumbers either. The only one I got this year was bitter and inedible. Blech.

Canning Goals: 

Try a pomegranate or wine jelly this winter. Put aside a few full weekends for canning. Prep everything one day and can the next.

Learning: Smaller goals? Make sure I have the time to properly deal with my produce.

I hope you enjoyed this review. It’s a good feeling to have these things prepared to use in the winter time.

 

Prepping, But in a Good Way
Canning and Preserving · Crafty

Prepping, But in a Good Way

LSieh2 Comments

So one of the weird ways my anxiety comes out is to consider doomsday prepping a normal thing. Granted, it’s a good idea to have canned goods and an emergency kit on hand, but when I get overly anxious, I can go a bit nuts.

For example, I texted a friend the other day legitimately concerned about what vegans would eat if we got nuked and trade routes went haywire. I don’t think almonds and chia seeds will grow in Michigan… Mostly, I was wondering about how long people would stick to the moral side of things food wise, if all there was to eat was animals. We have no problem eating animals, so I think we’d pull through. The food aspect was still concerning though.

So how does this fit in with my blog, you may rightly ask?

Well, I know how to cook and sew, both of which are very good skills to have during a crisis. The Husband has technical skills and is very good at figuring out how to fix things. We also have a fireplace and a dog who sounds very fierce. We may be wearing clothes made out of sparkly butterfly fabric during doomsday, but we will at least be clothed. 🙂 Plus, even though I haven’t canned tomatoes, I have at least a 2 month store supply in the basement. I am my father’s daughter because counting the canned tomatoes always makes me feel better.

I’ve also used my prepper anxiety for good. I packaged 4 freezer to crockpot or oven meals. I made up Hungarian Beef Stew, Barcoa Beef, Sweet Chili Soy Chicken with Carrots, and Jerk Rubbed Chicken breasts. We also have about a pound of plain stew meat that could be made into pasty, if I ever have a free weekend. The freezer is very messy, or I would show you a picture. Maybe after it’s organized.

I also canned applesauce. Applesauce is relatively easy. Cook it down, smoosh it up, add lemon and sugar, and can it. A few of my jars leaked a little, but are sealed, so I will have to keep an eye on them. It is delicious! It’s incredibly smooth and velvety. I may need to go get some more apples to make more. It made 7 1/2 half pints. The half pint has been eaten already.

I found really nice looking rhubarb at the store unexpectedly, so I have 6 cups chopped in the fridge to be frozen or made into something. I have some time tomorrow morning, so it may get done then, or frozen if I don’t have time. There were a few rhubarb recipes that I didn’t get made.

I did get some sewing done, when not busy worrying about the vegans. 🙂

This batch of tea wallets is set to be mailed today, assuming Fancy will let me off the couch. It’s hard to be productive with a snuggly dog around.

Here are the out and insides of the tea wallets.

These are headed out to Hawthorne and Vine, per a customer request. They were a little harder to make than I anticipated. The fabric print has to be a speific size and I had a lot of fabric waste, as I had to fussy cut it. The fabric is more expensive too and I can only get 3-4 out of a 1/4 yard piece. My normal ones are normally 6-7 out of a 1/4 yard. There isn’t as much variety, due to the fact that the fabric could only be used a certain way. I think these will be a by request item only after this.

I didn’t really sew much else. I want to make a couple more bags for Ooky Spooky and a few of the team wallets with whatever fabric I have left. I also have Dr. Who fabric, which I’m hoping will sell.

One thing I haven’t been good about prepping is my Etsy store. It was down to 10 items at one point, so I need to get that back as a priority. I was experimenting with picture options last week with a black background and I think it might work.

These were just taken in the basement and lightened with a photo editor. It’s a black dance veil over black cotton hanging from one of my new display shelves. Some of my items might look better on a black background.

I want to have a Thanksgiving and Christmas sale this year and see if I can move some of my inventory. I have way too many things just sitting around.

When I originally started to write this post, I thought I might not have enough to blog about, but then after writing it out, I understand why I’ve been extra sleepy lately. 🙂

Here’s another picture of Fancy, just to make your day happier. She was vocalizing her need for me to stop messing around and walk her.

Let me know your thoughts on prepping and vegans during the apocalypse. Or am I the only weird one who thinks about crazy stuff?

Weekend, Where Are You?
Canning and Preserving · Crafty

Weekend, Where Are You?

LSiehLeave a comment

I think someone has made time go even faster than normal. I don’t know where any of my time went. I had plans to can all Sunday, but ended up needing more than I thought and had way less time. We did go on a lovely home improvement date to get mosquito killer in the afternoon and picked up a whole box of tomatoes to can/freeze. I made spicy BBQ sauce for the freezer. The rest of the tomatoes will be turned into salsa and dried herbed tomatoes. The farm market we went to had a huge box of them for $8. I will go back to get some this next weekend if I can have the time to  can more things.

I made two new recipe last week. It was the Husband’s birthday on Friday, so I left him Hamburger stroganoff made from this recipe. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/240773/quick-and-easy-hamburger-stroganoff/

Hamburger stroganoff is one of my worst nightmares. The texture and the look… Blerg. I didn’t even ask him how it was when I got home because I was trying to avoid thinking about it. Don’t worry, he knows how I feel. No pictures, as I didn’t eat it.

I also made up a bean enchilada recipe when the Husband was doing theater things. I used canned enchilada sauce. I sautéed onions, a can of black beans, yellow and orange peppers, and garlic. Spices were cumin, garlic and onion powder, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Mexican cheese blend. They were very good. I do have a picture of them.

Fancy decided to make 7:30 AM a good time to wake up on Saturday, so I ended up making my work art. One is completely done and the second one is waiting on getting the words put on it.

I also made more tea wallets. One of these days, I am going to be sick of making them, but maybe after Christmas I can take a break. These ones are Halloween and fall themed for Hawthorne and Vine and for vending at Ooky Spooky in October.

The first set just needs threads cut and buttons.

The second set needs top stitching  and the other finishes.

There are a lot of repeats in this set, but I wanted to do three of each for Hawthorne and Vine, Ooky, and my own Etsy. I have a set that needs orange thread that will be sewn up as well.

Tonight I need to sort tomatoes and probably try to dry some of them. I have this weird block about canning being the only “right” way to preserve items. I decided to freeze the BBQ sauce last night because it was very late and I didn’t want to mess with the canner. I may have to get up very early tomorrow to get some of them taken care of as well.

This is a really short post! I guess I was busier than I thought.  I have two late nights this week and am hoping to get some new recipes up and running. The tea wallets will get finished as well. I have a bunch of work stuff to catch up on though, so my crafting time may be sacrificed for that.

Wish me luck and motivation!

 

Canning and Gardening and Crafts, Oh My!
Canning and Preserving · Crafty · Gardening

Canning and Gardening and Crafts, Oh My!

LSiehLeave a comment

We had a lovely weekend. We had friends over on Sunday for crafting and video games and it was lots of fun. They helped us cook and we used the grill two days in a row!

Fancy was in heaven with two other people to pet her, plus we got her the treat she likes the best from the dog bakery. She’s currently recovering with multiple naps.

My craft this weekend was canning. I made five jars of pickles. There were originally 6, but one popped in the pot. I have always been afraid of it, but it’s probably good it happened with pickles. The mess that exploding jam would cause makes me cringe just thinking about it.

I found out when I went to check the  pot and there was a floating jar. That’s not a good thing to see when canning. The bottom just popped right out with a pretty clean cut. All the pickles stayed right in the jar too, so it wasn’t too bad to clean up. There wasn’t  good way to take a picture of it while it was still hot, but the picture up top is the circle of glass from the bottom.

Here are the intact pickles:

My friend had the brilliant idea to cut the cucumbers into chips after I found out I didn’t have enough wide- mouthed jars. Sometimes my prep skills could be a little better, but I thought I had more and was trying to avoid having to smuggle more jars past the Husband. Apparently I still haven’t canned enough for him. 🙂

I have a few more pickled veggies to add to my list, but not during this week. We are way too busy! I need to outdo my Mom’s pickle trays though, now that it’s become a thing.

My craft ladies discussed the differences between pickle and relish trays for about 45 minutes after they heard the story. My Mom was so proud when I told her. 🙂 This year for our parties, we’ll have homemade pickles!

On the crafty front, I cut a bunch of tea wallets over the last few days. I pulled from the red, brown, and purple scraps this time. I got in a groove and found myself with a huge pile of tea wallets needing to be made.

I worked on the purple ones first this time.

Here are the insides. The blue one at the top right has planets on the back and on the inside!

The garden is growing pretty well. We have three zucchini on the plant and a whole bunch of tomatoes coming in. The green pepper plant has two peppers on it. I couldn’t get a good picture of the “massive” jalapeños. There are three of them starting, but they are so far not living up to their name.

I did have a problem with blossom end rot on three of my big tomatoes. We’ve had a few days with a lot of rain and I probably need to add some more special fertilizer. I had the same problem with them last year and the internet said it was probably due to inconsistent watering. I was really terrible about watering enough last year.

The lettuce will be a wash this year. It’s completely covered in spiders and is starting to go brown. It’s quite sad. I have successfully grown baby lettuces before, so I think in the future I’ll stick to that.

I brought home my personal clipboards from work to collage, as I wanted to make sure I could tell them apart from the work ones. I’m going to just do the backs, so that there is still a smooth surface to write on. It will also let me go through some of my art supplies, as I need to have a bit more of it in the office right now.

Have a good night!

Monthly Review
Canning and Preserving · Crafty · Gardening · Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

It has officially been six months since I started the blog! So far, I have been pretty pleased with my progress, but can always do a little more.

I’ve decided that when I do extra things, instead of my written goals for the month, I should just get to call them “bonus goals.” That way I won’t feel bad about getting those things done instead. Like deep cleaning my kitchen cupboard…I knew it should be done, but wasn’t actually adding it to any list until there were ants. I do need to start a regular cleaning list for things like that. I tend to do them when I get frustrated, which would be prevented, if I was doing them regularly.

I am going to start with the craft part of the review today, as I am proud of what I had gotten done.

Crafting Review:

I’m in a weird sewing rut right now. I want to sew, but there are too many projects to choose from and I get consumed with anxiety about what I want to get done. I’m also not sure how many elastic waisted poofy skirts I need in my closet, which is the easiest thing I feel like sewing. I want to sew rainbow scrap quilts too, but since I have been attempting to finish one for three months at least with no joy, I’m not allowed to start another.

I’m also struggling with starting new things right now. My brain is telling me that I need to fix the things in the mending or that are half done first. My brain is right of course. I did finish one thing from the UFO/mending pile, just today actually.

I made this tunic dress about a year ago, washed it, and promptly discovered all the places the very tiny bias tape didn’t catch. This included the left sleeve, which had also frayed and was literally hanging on by a thread. I took off the edging on the sleeves and neck and sewed new hems. I also blind stitched the pocket edges down, to make them look neater. Now I can wear it again!

Here’s closeup of the pocket: You can see where the wash made it a little wrinkly, but I think that won’t be too noticeable while wearing it. Really, if anyone is inspecting the pockets that closely, I will be firmly requesting some more personal space.

The dress is a beautiful cotton batik and it has a blue linen like material on the bottom to add length and interest. It’s based on my favorite shirt pattern and is pretty comfy. I’m counting this as my piece of clothing for the month, as it was unwearable until I fixed it. 🙂

Other things that I have made:

Covered boxes for the games at work.

I decided to keep the plastic bin for my Legos, but then needed a few more storage containers to keep other card games and other small games in. I had thought about buying something, but already had shoeboxes and cute fabric. Who wouldn’t want rocket boxes?

These are just hot glued and could be neater on the inside, but they work perfectly for me, and the kids I see are not going to care.

I added black buttons to the tea wallets that I made. They look really nice. I’m hoping to get them up on Etsy soon.

Speaking of Etsy, I did end up listing 3 new things and renewing a few more. I also sold one of my older bags soon after renewing it, which was nice. I know I need to get some more stock up there. I am hoping to get pictures outside.

I also organized some more in the basement. It still doesn’t look like I did anything, but I did make my way through another pile of ironed scraps to be cut up. I did get my 1 yard totes and patterns squared away, so that helped.

I decided against making a whole new purse. The vintage ones I had book marked didn’t look as fun. I switched to a messenger style one with books on it. It has no pockets though and I desperately need a wallet and coin purse for it.

Crafting Goals:

* The ever-present Rainbow Snowball quilt.

* Make a wallet and coin purse.

* Continue with basement organizing.

* Make art for office.

* Finish a UFO/Mending project.

Garden Review: 

Everything is still alive! I picked two strawberries and two cherry tomatoes today and they were delicious.

All the food plants have buds or vegetable starts. The herbs are growing well too. I’ve been using them while cooking and have had the basil in Caprese salad about six times this month.

Garden Goals: Keep everything growing! Eat everything!

Recipe Review: 

Hits were the new chocolate chip cookie recipe, the yogurt, a caramelized onion grilled cheese, and a custard based ice cream from Pinterest-recipe to come.

We didn’t have any misses, just a few recipes I need to bump up the spice as usual. This month, I promise to actually measure once in a while to make sure I’m not under spicing the food.

I used 9 new cookbooks this month and made 25 new recipes total. I made up one new recipe, which turned out to be good. I canned 1 savory item, 2 marmalades, and one juice concentrate.

I also bought three new canning books… I couldn’t seem to stop myself at an outlet store. One was a paperback set of two for $.99 and the other I blame on the Husband. He found the Southern Living Small Batch book, which includes seasonal “Putting Up” party ideas. How was I supposed to resist that? 🙂

Meal planning went pretty well and I made at least two new recipes per week. I finally made yogurt and we’re on our third batch of ice cream. I ate good lunches too and planned enough time to figure them out before I had to go.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to find a biscuit recipe for Fancy, although, I was given one by a friend. We just bought her a large bag of chicken treats, but I would still like to find a crunchy biscuit for her.

Our bacon plans had to be put on hold, as I wasn’t able to find the right salt and had to order it online. It also takes a week to cure. Eventually we will have homemade bacon.

Fancy doesn’t seem to mind fireworks, as long as they are small ones. She does not like large booms or screamers and definitely does not like the ones directly across the street. I’m going to take her with me to organize the basement and see if that helps. We’ve got lots of cuddles, treats, and chew toys at the ready too. This is her before the fireworks.

I hope your plans for the 4th are good ones. On Wednesday, I’ll share one of my family traditions for the 4th that cause people to want to be adopted by us.

Have a happy holiday!

 

 

 

It’s Alive-Gardening Update
Canning and Preserving · Gardening

It’s Alive-Gardening Update

LSiehLeave a comment

Not only is the garden alive, but it is thriving! The cucumber plant is even bigger today that in the picture. The picture was taken on Saturday and it now covers the longer stake.

I am so pleased with it and am mostly just watering it routinely. My Mammoth Jalapeño isn’t looking ll that massive yet, but the Poblano  peppers may end up being the same size anyway.  The jalapeño is in the yellow pot, poblano is in the purple pot.

My zucchini has another blossom and there is a tiny squash starting!

I picked three strawberries today and there are a bunch of green ones still on the plants. I still have ants in one of the pots, but I put cinnamon on it and it seems to be helping a little. The plant itself doesn’t seem to be too affected by them.

My herbs are getting big. I’m going to use the basil tomorrow for Caprese salad when I host craft night.

The pineapple sage has gotten very big as well. I should probably be thinking about drying some for my tea party.

The mints are growing like crazy, of course. The chocolate mint is sending out all sorts of runners, but it’s nowhere near the soil, or we’d have mint everywhere!

The lime basil and oregano are also doing well. The basil keeps insisting on flowering, so I have to prune it pretty consistently. I used the parsley, thyme, and rosemary in scones yesterday for a belated Father’s Day dinner.

There are lots of buds and flowers on my tomato plants. One of them has a little cluster of tomatoes, but it is hard to get a picture of.

 

I found ants in the kitchen on Friday and between organizing and cleaning, wasn’t able to get anything sewn. My cupboard looks beautiful though. All my spices fit and I wiped everything with vinegar and put out new bay leaves preventively. I hate bugs.

I also canned rhubarb marmalade. It looks so pretty and I had some on yogurt this morning.

Fancy has been enjoying the nice weather and loves playing in the hose when I water my plants. She’s been looking like this a lot outside when she’s not barking at the neighbors.

We met another neighbor on our walk today who forgave her for barking when she sat on his feet for pets. 🙂

Well, I am off to water the plants and hopefully, not the dog too much. Have a lovely, sunshiny day!

Can All The Things!
Canning and Preserving

Can All The Things!

LSieh2 Comments

The Husband was gone all day, so I set up the kitchen and canned three batches of things. I completely filled the dishwasher with jars and when I was done canning for the day, it looked like I hadn’t even made a dent. The Husband came home and told me that I needed to can more. 🙂 He’s right and it was kind of funny to be reminded about how many jars I actually have. This might be about half of them.

It felt so nice to be canning again. Last year I wasn’t able to get anything canned with our schedule and moving. This year I have plans for a handmade Christmas, so I’ve got a bunch more canning to do. I even have winter canning recipes, including a spicy honey wine jelly.

I used a new cooking magazine, a recipe from the Ball Canning Website, and an online version of another recipe from the magazine. I also made strawberries for strawberry shortcake and froze 1 1/2 gallon bags of berries for eating. This is the Husband’s shortcake. He loves berries like this.

I have berries still waiting to be made into jam in the fridge, but my other strawberry recipe is a strawberry peach jam and I don’t have peaches right now. I will be freezing them today, I think. I also won’t have time to can again for a week or two, at least not in a big batch.

So, on to the recipes.

1-Strawberry Marmalade from Taste of Home Canning and Preserving, 2012. Section: Jams, Jellies, and Preserves. 

Modifications: I used a little bit more fruit than it called for. I never change sugar ratios in canning, as it can mess with the jelling times and can mess with the preservation.  I would also always find a recipe for canning. I don’t want to take the chance of making someone sick. I have a bad mold allergy too, so I am very careful to make sure everything is clean and sterilized.

The recipe called for liquid pectin,which I’ve never used before. It was a very sticky liquid, kind if weird to work with.

I ended up getting 8 half pints out of the recipe. It said  I would get around 10, but I think I cooked it down a little more than it required. I misread the recipe and thought it only needed a half pouch of pectin, not half a box, so I had to boil it a second time. It is delicious, no matter how much it made.

2-Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate from the Ball Canning Website. https://www.freshpreserving.com/strawberry-lemonade-recipe-%7C-strawberry-lemonade-concentrate—ball-br1245.html

Modifications: None. Next time, I will figure out a different blade on my food processor or use the fruit and veggie grinder attachment for the mixer. It came out a little pulpy. This made 5 1/2 pints. The half pint is in my fridge and we’ve already been drinking it. It’s lovely. The suggested ratio is 1 part concentrate to 3 parts water. When we get raspberries, I want to make a raspberry one too and maybe a peach one.

3- Rhubarb BBQ Sauce from An Oregon Cottage. http://anoregoncottage.com/in-season-easy-rhubarb-barbecue-sauce/

Modifications: I was originally going to use the sauce recipe from the Taste of Home magazine, but it called for ketchup, which we don’t eat. When looking for a substitute, I found this recipe which was pretty much the same, but with no ketchup. I had to make my own mustard using dry mustard instead, but it was pretty easy.

This isn’t a canning safe recipe, so it went in the freezer in half pint jars. I suspect it might be okay, because of the level of acid, but don’t have a way to check the PH levels to know for sure. I would just go with the recipe on this one. It did use up all my rhubarb, except for a cup or so. I’ll need to get more to make the other two recipes I have for rhubarb.

I put it on my turkey breast for dinner and it was very good. Definitely a vinegary, tangy flavor. It made 6 half pints.

There are canning instructions and tips all over the web and in books, but my personal tips are to make sure everything is clean, read the recipe at least twice, have all your prep done first. Also, have multiple towels and a spoon rest available.

These recipes were all pretty simple. I made the two strawberry recipes first and the rhubarb last. I didn’t have everything I needed for the lemonade concentrate, so had to go get things in the morning and it made things take longer.

My potential canning list is still huge. I have a bunch of peach recipes, including peach butter, brandied peaches, the strawberry peach jam, and cardamom peach jam. They may not all get made, but it is fun to dream.

I have a couple of tea based jellies on my list to make before the tea making party in August. Apple Earl Grey, flower petal jelly, and jasmine tea jelly all sounded like a lot of fun. I’ll put them in the tiny jars for favors.

I also have some interesting savory things on my list, including Thai Sweet Hot Garlic Sauce, tomatoes and chilis, caramelized onions, and watermelon pickles.

Hopefully I will have some free time to get all these made. If you see me wild-eyed and talking to myself, I’m probably just in full canning mode. It is mildly addicting, considering I was looking through all my recipes at 10:30 pm last night going “I can just make the 5 Spice Cherries. I can stay up later. I’m sure it won’t take that long.” The Husband had to pry the magazines away from me and send me to bed.

If you do try these recipes, or any canning, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Now I have to pay attention to the poor puppers, who is waiting not so patiently  for me to play.