Pineapple....Lots of pineapple!!!

I made an interesting discovery a few weeks ago, Katrina LOVES pineapple so I made her four or five pints of pineapple chunks in a light syrup.  The trouble is Ernest and oldest grandson, Kyle love pineapple too and by the time things were said and done, all of the pints were gone!!!  Not only that, they wanted more...a lot more.

I don't know about how things are where you are but here our mailbox gets stuffed with the grocery store ads every Tuesday and Wednesday.  Last Wednesday, Kroger advertised buy one pineapple, get one free.  Well now...isn't that special and also convienient timing???  Friday night after work, I made a beeline over to the Galveston Kroger (I work in Galveston) and loaded up my cart with beautiful, golden pineapples.  On the way over to the meat department, this lady and her husband stopped to ask me if I knew how much the pineapples were going for and when I told them they were two for one, I'm not kidding..they hightailed it over towards produce so I assume they got some pineapples too!

Anyways, Ernest and I spent the night Saturday at little cabin on the bayou and we canned all the pineapple, much to the delight of Katrina and Kyle both.  Pineapple is one of the easiest things I can and quickest too.  It is oh so delicious too, not to mention pretty on the shelf!  Just to make things easier, I'm doing the recipe based upon four pineapples but you can change it up.  Four pineapples makes about eight pints.

Canned Pineapple Chunks

Prepare jars and water canner  Cut top and bottom off pineapples and cut sides off.  Cut pineapple into slices and cut the core out of each ring.  Cut pineapple slices into chunks and set aside.  Into a pot, add 2 1/4 cups sugar and 5 1/4 cups water to make a light syrup.  Stir until boiling.  Add pineapple chunks and cook until tender.  Ladle pineapple chunks and syrup into jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles (this means take a clean knife and run it along the inside of the jar).  Clean jar rims and screw lids onto jar finger tip tight.  Process in a water canner 15 minutes for pints.

Happy Canning!

Spicy Hot Pickled Carrots

The signs of fall are everywhere in the bayou and now the temperatures here in southeast Texas have cooled down to the point where we can enjoy fires in our outdoor fireplace at little cabin on the bayou's porch.  This morning, we enjoyed a wonderful fire with a view of a little bit of fog floating on bayou.

This has been yet a busy canning week and I put up five quarts of vegetable soup and nine pints of lingua (beef tongue for my partner who loves it).  I like having a lot of soups on hand as they are soothing on those cold days when Ernest and I come in from fishing or he comes in from a morning hunt.

I recently came across a really wonderful recipe for Spicy Hot Pickled Carrots here on the internet (isn't the internet a wonderful place to find recipes??) and decided to give them a try.  I tried to post a picture of the ones I made but this thing is not cooperating with letting me put a pic on here so you'll have to use your imagination.

Spicy Hot Picked Carrots

5 1/2 cups vinegar
3 1/2 bags of whole carrots
1 cup water
2 tsp. salt (use canning salt)
2 tsp. dill seed
1-2 garlic cloves per jar
3 1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes (you can put less to your taste)

Prepare jars and lids for canning.  Cut carrots into matchsticks that are pint sized jar length.  Make sure you cut them to allow adequate head space (at least 1/2 inch).  Heat vinegar, salt, dill seed, water to boiling.  Add carrots and cook in brine for 10 minutes.  Add garlic and hot pepper flakes to the bottom of each jar.  Fill each jar with carrots and add brine to within 1/2 inch of top of jar.  Wipe jar rims, add heated lids, and apply rings fingertip tight.  Process in hot water bath for 15 minutes.  The original recipe says you get 6 pints but I actually got 7.

*****These are not only easy but they are gorgeous on the shelf.  The orange in the carrots with the red of the hot pepper flakes really makes it really beautiful in the jars.  This is really a nice fall project!!

October Sky

I haven't posted in a while because we've been busy redoing the kitchen at the big house.  I could have the biggest kitchen in the world and probably still would be short on pantry space since I can year round!  As I've said before, fall is a favorite time of mine to can certain things.  One of the things I love to can during fall are pickled beets.  These ruby red jewels are not only tasty but are beautiful on the shelf. 

Let's face it, when you buy or harvest beets they aren't the most attractive things and sometimes they can be downright ugly!  Their true beauty comes out when you cook them and the beautiful red color comes out, kind of like the ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan!  I especially love canning them on a cold fall night for some reason.

I admit it, I like eating pickled beets cold.  Sometimes, I'll open a jar and also use the left over juice to pickle hardboiled eggs.  I love the way the juice turns the hard boiled eggs a pretty pink color.  I remember some of my relatives used to make pickled hardboiled eggs, what a treat those were!

Pickled Beets

3 Tablespoons of pickling spice

2 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

10 cups of prepared beets

***To get your beets prepared, scrub beets thoroughly and sort by size.  Place larger beets on the bottom in pot and smaller ones on top.  Add water to cover.  Boil and cook until tender, about 20 to 40 minutes depending on size of beets.  Remove beets from pot and run under cool water. Drain and slip off skins.  Quarter or slice the beets (I usually do some of both) and set aside.

Once your beets are ready to go, prepare canner, jars, and lids.  Tie pickling spice in a square of cheesecloth, creating  spice bag.  In a large stainless steel pot, combine vinegar, water, sugar, and spice bag.  Bring to boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Reduce heat and boil gently for 15 minutes, until spices have infused the liquid.  Discard spice bag.  Add beets and return mixture to a boil.

Using a slotted spoon, ladle beets into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 inch of top of jar.  Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover beets, leaving 1/2 headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if needed, by adding more hot pickling liquid.  Wipe rim, put lid on jar, and screw band down until fingertip tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 30 minutes.  Remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars.  Allow jars to cool and then store them.

Makes about six pints