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

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!