Fall In The Bayou

fall is a wonderful time at little cabin on the bayou and also at the big house!  I love this picture of Kyle with Pa (Ernest) that was taken at the big house a few years ago one night when they were decorating pumpkins right before Halloween and thought I'd share it with you.  We always decorate the big house porch with lots of pumpkins of every shape, color, and size and all kinds of colors of mums.  Fall isn't the same without decorations!

Fall is everywhere in the bayou.  Last weekend, we took the boat out and I was amazed how much the scenery has changed.  The leaves are changing, the grasses are looking browner, even the sunlight seems to hit the water differently now in the morning.  Not to mention, last weekend was the first weekend here the hunters were back again.  We noticed the hunting camp down the road from our bait camp was packed with hunters all weekend!

Fall means my canning interests change a lot and I start looking forward to canning things I especially enjoy doing in the fall.  I'm talking cranberry relish, pickled beets, homemade mustards, homemade extracts to name a few.  I've even found a Thanksgiving relish recipe I've never done before that I'm seriously thinking about making.  Not to mention, it's time to get meals put up for those long cold days ahead.  Last night, I tried one of Jackie Clay's recipes out for canning meatballs in mushroom soup and it came out really good!!  Today, I'll be doing beef stew.

To start fall off, let's celebrate and start off with some extract recipes.  Our chief bakers (Laura and Christina) love it when I make them these extracts.  They are so easy to do yet so wonderful to bake those Christmas cookies and cakes with!

Vanilla Extract

This one is everyone's favorite hand's down.  Take a pint mason jar and fill it up with the vodka of your choice (don't used flavored ones for obvious reasons).  I typically use Absolut but you can use whatever you like.  Take a jar of whole vanilla beans.  Slice each bean (not the whole way through) from end to end and add all the beans to the vodka.  Put a lid on the jar, shake it up, and put it in a nice dark place.  Once a week for a period of six weeks shake the jar. 

At the end of the six week period, your extract should be done.  Remove the beans and strain remaining extract through a coffee filter into another jar at least twice and put a lid on the jar.  You are now done and the extract should last at least a year.

Before we move on, let's have a conversation about what type of jars you should use for extracts.  You can use any type of jar you like!!!  I discovered that Ball makes these cute little half pint jars in their Elite collection that are perfect for doing extracts.  They look so beautiful in the pantry filled up too!  Ball also makes pint sized siblings to these jars that are also beautiful and I love putting things like pickled onions, pickled jalapenos, bread and butter pickles in these.  Sooo beautiful!!!

Lemon Extract

Again, you start off with a pint of your favorite vodka (bloody mary mix not included!).  Then, take a lemon, wash it well to remove any wax and remove the peel.  Drop the peel into the vodka, shake well, put the lid on the jar, and put it away for six weeks in a dark place.  Once a week, shake the jar well.  At the end of the six week period, remove the peel and strain at least two times through a coffee filter into another jar and place a lid on the jar.  This will also last a year.  So easy and so delicious, not to mention very, very fragrant!

Laura (also an executive chef) liked the vanilla extract so much that she took it to her work and they actually use it in their cakes and other baked goodies.  Anywho, now really is the time to get on it with extracts if you want to have them ready to use for your Christmas goodies.  What's the saying they have...there's nothing like lovin from the oven!

Happy Canning!!

Apple Pie Filling

I decided to repost this recipe on the blog because my freind Glenda at work wants to try it out.  I originally got motivated to try this recipe out after my freind Elena in Pennsylvania had told me that she had made a bunch of peach pie filling.  I'm sure Elena might save some to bake pies with, however, I know Elena and her husband love ice cream and this is how they enjoy eating it the most.  Ernest is addicted to sweets and he loves this on ice cream.  I am not as into sweets as he is but even I love this on ice cream!

One thing I will share with you is I do slightly cheat when I make this recipe.  I use (and highly recommend) an apple slicer.  I own two of them (one for little cabin kitchen, the other for the house) and it sure saves a lot of time and does a nice job of getting the core out of the apple too!

Another thing I do is when I put the apples in cold water with lemon juice, I put a little more lemon juice in the water than the recipe calls for because I think the amount the call for isn't enough to stop the browning process that fruit goes through when exposed to air. 

Hope you enjoy it, happy canning!

12 cups sliced peeled cored apples (after cutting them put them in cold water with lemon juice in it to prevent browning), 2 3/4 cups granulated sugar, 3/4 cup liquid pectin, 3 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1 tsp. ground cloves, 1 1/4 cup cold water, 2 1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice, 1/2 cup lemon juice. In a large pot of boiling water, blanche apple slices for one minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm in a covered bowl. In a large stainless steel saucepan combine pectin, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, water and apple juice.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly and cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice, return to boil and boil for one minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat, drain and add apples into mixture, mix until apples are coated well with mixture. Ladle hot pie filling into jars leaving 1 inch headspace.  Put lids/jar bands on filled jars and put jars in canner making sure jars are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 25 minutes. Remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove jars, cool, and store. By the way....I usually double or triple the recipe when I make this. Enjoy!!!!

Canning Bologna And Pressure Canners

Our bologna we canned this weekend turned out excellent!  To be honest, it doesn't really taste like Oscar Mayer type.  This bologna reminds me of a deer bologna and it is delicious!  Ernest and the boys are looking forward to taking it out on the boat and also to the deer lease. 

Now, let's talk about something lots of people are scared of....pressure canners.  I remember when I was first starting out in my canning adventures, I was scared to death of them and for a long time wouldn't can anything that would require using a pressure canner.  Now, I own two of them! 

Why do you use these things in the first place???  Mainly because low acid food (things like meat, vegetables ect.) HAVE to be processed at a higher temperature (above 240 degrees) that will kill harmful bacteria.  Hot water canners no matter how hot you get them don't have the ability to get to that temperature.  You use your hot water canner to process high acid food (most fruit, anything pickled, jellies/jams).

An important piece of advice to follow is that you should ALWAYS check your pressure canner out carefully before you use it to make sure it is in good working order, if something isn't functioning right don't use the pressure canner until you fix whatever the problem is.  In the beginning, I admit I didn't always check things out every time and yes, I admit once I almost blew a hole through my kitchen ceiling so I had to learn the hard way!

How much to spend on one?  I guess the sky's the limit there.  Both of mine (20 quart and 22 quart) came from Walmart (both Presto's) and we didn't spend more than $70 on each of them.  Mine are workhorses (sometimes I use both simultaneously) and I've been real happy with both of them.  I know you run into used ones at Goodwill or garage sales but don't think I would advise going that route unless you somehow can get the instruction book that goes with it.  The reason why is the little instruction book that comes with the canner is like gold.  For example, my canners may be both made by the same manufacturer but they behave quite differently from each other and they have different instruction booklets.  If you can't get hold of the manufacturer's info about the canner, I wouldn't go there.

When properly used, you can have a lot of fun with a pressure canner.  I do all kinds of stuff (spaghetti sauce, chili, green beans, charro beans, corn, meat ect.) in mine.  If you haven't tried it, you should!!!

Pickled Brussel Sprouts Recipe

As promised, I am posting the recipe for Pickled Brussel Sprouts.  You can use this recipe also to make pickled green beans, just swap out the pickled green beans for the brussel sprouts.  If you make pickled green beans, I usually get about eight pounds of green beans and just snap the ends off (leave them at a good length if possible).  You then stack them lengthwise in the jars and processing time is the same in a water canner.  Anyways, this is an easy recipe to can and these are sooooo delicious!!!

Brussels sprouts


Salt for soaking

Water for soaking

1 fresh dill head - per pint jar

1 fresh garlic clove - per pint jar

1/4 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper - per pint jar

5 cups vinegar

5 cups water

1/2 cup pickling salt

To prepare sprouts, soak for 10 minutes in a cold brine of 1 tablespoon salt to 4 cups water to drive out any bugs. Rinse well. Trim and/or peel to uniform 1-inch diameter and cut an x in the core to allow brine to penetrate.

Into each pint jar place 1 whole dill head, 1 clove fresh garlic, 1/4 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper. Prepare brine of 5 cups vinegar, 5 cups water, 1/2 cup pickling salt and bring to boil, keeping hot.

Pack spices into jars, then pack sprouts tightly into jars to within 3/4-inch from the top. Add boiling brine leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove any trapped air with non-metallic utensil, add lid and band. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Turn heat off, take lid off canner, and let jars rest in canner for five minutes before removing them.

Happy canning!

Day One Of The New Blog

Little Cabin Kitchen On The Bayou


This is my kitchen in our cabin at our fish camp on the bayou.  We spend many weekends there and it is a place I enjoy canning at.  What you see here is just the tip of the iceburg, I also can at the house and have so much put up there I'm thinking I need to build an addition to my house or something....lol!!  This weekend, we are making canned bologna and also pickled brussel sprouts.  The canned bologna recipe we are using actually is one that Jackie Clay (goddess of all canning) published in Backwoods Magazine.  It has taken three days to make and it is coming out awesome!  Ernest likes it especially because it is something he can take out on the boat or he and the boys can take with them on hunting trips and stuff like that.  The pickled brussel sprouts are good for cocktails or relish trays, I will use them for both.  Recipe and picture to follow later today!