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!!