Canning

It is hard for some to believe but I hadn't ever canned until this week. I love it! I am addicted. First we canned plums that we picked at the home of a friend of a friend. We started with about 40 pounds of plums (Italian prunes) and ended with 21 quarts of plums in syrup. We did it as our Family Home Evening lesson/activity. My 20 month old handed me plums, I rinsed them off, my husband cut them in half, and our 6 year old removed the pits and packed them into the jars. After a while of that I moved on to making the syrup by boiling 5 cups of water with 3 cups of sugar. I filled the jars then when 7 were done we processed them. I only had 14 quart jars so we had to use 14 pint jars too, which made for 4 batches. I had two quart jars burst in the canner but other than that, they all sealed and worked just fine. We think the two burst because the syrup cooled too much so the temperature changed too much when they hit the boiling water. For the rest we placed the jars into hot tap water for a couple minutes to warm up the glass before putting them in the canner. It seemed to work. I followed these instructions.

Then on Wednesday my friend and I went out and picked grapes and tomatoes from another friend who had an abundance. We ended up with about 85 pounds of grapes, which we juiced in an awesome steamer-juicer. We ended up with 24 quarts and about 20 liters of juice. The quart jars seal on their own because the juice comes out of the steamer at about 200 or so degrees so you just put on a clean lid and as it cools it seals. The liter bottles are just old juice and soda bottles that we pop into the freezer. To drink the juice I dilute it to about 50% and add a little sugar (some of the grapes were not fully ripe yet). It is so delicious. I am not a fan of most store-bought grape juices but this is totally different, and oh so delicious.

On Friday, while we were finishing up the grape juice, I tried my hand at canning tomatoes. It was really easy. I blanched the tomatoes to remove the skins (place in boiling water for 30-60 seconds or until the skin splits, then remove and place in cold water for a few seconds) then I quartered the tomatoes (they were roma tomatoes so they weren't too large) and stuffed them into pint jars. Because tomatoes have been bred lately to have less acid, you have to add lemon juice (1 Tbsp per pint, 2 Tbsp per quart) to inhibit the growth of bacteria (Whose idea was it to take out the acid in tomatoes? Just leave the darn things alone.) So, after I added the lemon juice I added boiling water until I had 1/2 inch head space, put on a clean lid, and screwed on the ring. I ran them in hot tap water to avoid bursting then processed them. We got 16 pints of tomatoes (3 were just yellow pear tomatoes, which I did whole because they are so small).

Now I am stuck between being excited to use my home-canned produce in recipes all winter and being afraid I will use them all too quickly, which makes me not want to use them. Does anyone else have that problem?

No More Nausea!

Wow! I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. To my credit, the whole first trimester of this pregnancy was spent with me unable to think about pretty much any food at any time. Now that I have recovered from that (although I still am struggling with bread and brown rice), I hope to be posting more.

I never did post my solution to my cooking spray post. I received some emails on the subject then did a little trial and error and found that the best solution was to butter the pan with cold butter and lightly dust it with flour. I only have to flour the bottom of my bread pans and the bread just slides out. Good luck!

Brown Rice

(image from Wikimedia)

We switched to eating all whole wheat about 6 months ago (previously we used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white flour). The change has been great. Most recipes adapt very well. Ever since then I have been thinking about whether our delicious, wonderfully yummy, and easy to cook white Basmati rice is really the best option for our family. After doing some research, it became evident that we should really make the switch to brown rice (it has more nutrients naturally and like other whole grains it is better for the body). I have to admit that I had a few concerns - would it be crunchy? (all of my other attempts yielded crunchy rice because I couldn't cook it long enough without it drying out); would it take too long to cook?; would it be good alone? (we like what we call breakfast rice - warm rice with butter, sugar, and cinnamon) - but I forged ahead anyway (I could always go back, right?). I found this website that made me confident in my abilities. It was heavenly. I am not kidding. It was not crunchy (although it does have a bit more chew to it than white rice), it only took about 20 minutes more to cook than white rice (from about 25 minutes to 45 minutes), it makes absolutely wonderful breakfast rice (in fact, it is much more filling), and it has a nuttier flavor, which we all really like. So, here is how I make it:

Brown Rice

1 1/2 cups water
1 cup brown rice

Add both ingredients to a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a low boil. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes.

1 cup dry = 3 cups cooked

1 cup cooked = 225 calories

To make breakfast rice, place about 1 cup cooked rice in a bowl and add about 1/2 Tbsp butter, 2-3 tsp granulated sugar, and sprinkle on some cinnamon; stir and eat. (1 serving = 350 calories)

Pizza

My husband introduced me to Pizza Margherita, a deliciously simple pizza that really is made up of crust, sliced fresh tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, and fresh mozzarella cheese. We love it and have started to make all of our pizzas starting off from this very basic idea. Sometimes I add chopped garlic or hamburger. It is really delicious and easy (and the kids LOVE it). Here is my recipe for pizza dough (adapted from a Honey-Whole Wheat pizza dough recipe from Win-Co):

Pizza Dough

2¼ tsp yeast
1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp honey
¼ cup wheat germ
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
½ Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp cornmeal


1. Rinse mixing bowl in warm water (to warm it up). To the warm bowl add water, yeast, and honey. Mix and allow to sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the wheat germ, salt, and flour. Mix the dough in a mixer. Knead the dough for about 9 minutes in the mixer. Cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F and prepare pan by coating with oil and sprinkling with cornmeal.

4. Press dough onto prepared pan. Dock with a fork to prevent it from puffing up. Bake for about 2 minutes in hot oven. Add toppings then place back in oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Servings 1 pizza (8 slices)
1100 total calories (138 calories per slice)

Vegetarian BBQ

Most people are afraid that if they were to go vegetarian they would miss out on BBQ. I am here to tell you they are dead wrong. Here is a great recipe for a BBQ Bean Sandwich that will make even a lion happy:

BBQ Bean Sandwiches

1 pound dry beans (pinto, black, navy…)
4 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dry mustard
½ tsp chili powder
4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup vinegar
2 cups tomato juice
½ cup ketchup
1 cup water (or bean juice)


1. Soak beans. Drain. Cover with water (2 inches above top of beans), bring to boil simmer for 1 to 1 ½ hours (you want them to be a little firm). Drain beans (if you want to use bean juice in the sauce, reserve 1 cup of juice). Replace in cooking pot.

2. In a sauce pan whisk together all other ingredients. Bring to boil and let simmer for 15 minutes. Pour sauce over beans, stir, and heat to low boil. Allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes. Serve on buns.

Makes about 16 servings
1000 total calories (63 Calories per serving)

As you may have already guessed, I make my own buns. They are very easy. I just use my regular bread recipe but instead of making two loaves I divide it up and make 16 buns. To keep them from sticking to the pan I use either parchment paper or oil with a light dusting of flour. Slice them in half and fill with delicious BBQ Beans.

For all of you who would prefer eating meat, this sauce is usable on beef, pork, and chicken. Just pour over shredded meat and let simmer for at least an hour (you can make a roast in a crock pot, shred the meat, return it to the crock pot, pour the sauce over the meat, stir, and let it simmer for at least an hour).

If you want to make less, halve everything except the vinegar (you still want 1/4 cup of vinegar).

(In all honesty, I made up my first line. Additionally, I am not a vegetarian, I just eat like one - most of the time.)

Beans

Here are simple instructions on how to use dry beans.

1. Rinse Dry Beans.
Measure out the amount of dry beans you want to use. 1 pound of beans is about 2 1/2 cups of dry beans. Place in colander and rinse under running water.

2. Soak Beans.
Place beans in pot and cover with water (2-inches above top of beans). Bring the water to boiling and let boil for 2 minutes. Turn off heat, place lid on pot, and let beans sit for at least 2 hours.

3. Cook Beans.
Drain soak water off beans. Cover with clean water, drain off. Cover with more water (2-inches above top of beans) and place on stove. Bring to boiling. Allow to simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until beans are tender but not mushy. Be sure to check on your beans periodically so they don't dry out and burn. If the water is below the top of the beans, just add more water and continue cook until done.

You are done with your beans. See, that wasn't too hard.

Butter

I made butter! It tasted like...butter! I have been intrigued by this for about two weeks. Who knew that you could just make butter with whipping cream? I didn't so when I saw this on a blog (I don't remember which one) I was very interested. Then I saw it on Angry Chicken's blog and she said it was a lot of fun to make. So, I decided that I would give it a try. My husband had to push me a little (I was a bit scared that it wouldn't work out). Yesterday morning before leaving for work he said, "Are you making bread for dinner?" I said, "Yes." Then he said, "I would really like to have homemade butter on our bread." So I did it. It was really easy. I started small with 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, poured it into the bowl of my KitchenAid and started whisking. I watched and watched. Within 20 minutes I had butter. I was completely finished and cleaned up about 40 minutes after starting. If you are interested in making your own butter go to this site. It is a bit wordy but very helpful.