August 27th, 2008 - Canning morning
Yesterday, I took some time off work to do some canning. Excited, I had plans for two separate recipes–next time, I think I should go ahead and break it up into separate times even though it did mean less heating of the water. It is hard to keep track of two different processes and I ended up forgetting the salt (AGAIN! I highlighted in the recipe because I did the same thing last year, too, and added it late. This time, I’d already filled most of the jars. Luckily, it’s optional.).
I made dill beans, following Mom’s recipe, which came from her Mom and aunt. I loved these as a child and haven’t had anything like them since we moved from SD. I should have called and asked about the red pepper. I just used cayenne powder, which was NOT the right thing so these might be a bit hot. On the other hand, the pepper is really old so might not be very potent. I called Mom in the evening to ask about it and they use broken up dried red peppers from the garden. I’ll have..wait a sec–I already have some left over from last year! I only made 3 pints (1.5# of beans) and one one pint broke in the canner. The bottom just completely sheared off. That means I lost 33% of what I’d made. (I did not try to salvage it given the extent of the breakage.) In addition, I had a few beans left over, as well as some of the brine, so I pouted them into a jar and put it in the fridge. Mom says to try them in 3-5 days to see what I think. I’m particularly wondering about the red pepper before I make another batch. It’s definitely worth buying more beans this weekend to make another, larger batch. I originally had the idea to make these a few weeks ago when I got beans from the farmer. Sadly, I put it off too long and the beans went bad before I made the pickles. So now I have to buy beans, but they have them for $1.5-$2 at the farmer’s market. Far cheaper than the $6/jar I saw at the store! (And not nearly as tasty, either.)
Meanwhile, I also made tomato juice cocktail. Had to run out to the store Monday night for celery, but the rest of the ingredients (onion, carrot, pepper) came from the farmer. Had parsley in the cabinet. I made this last year but froze it. I think I’m much more likely to drink it canned as A) I don’t have to wait for it to defrost before drinking and B) it’s in a jar which is so much easier to shake up than the freezer boxes. The juice separates quite a bit so has to be shaken before drinking–sometimes even while drinking. Maggie likes it, too. We picked 14# of tomatoes Sunday night so I had to do something with them–and this is a pretty easy recipe as well as yummy. I tried all sorts of different recipes last summer; most of them turned out watery and were only good for adding to soup. This one was spot on. Say, I should ask Mom for her tomato juice recipe. Or did we only get it from the store once in a while? No, I’m pretty sure what I remember came from canning. I’ll have to see–that’s where I fell in love with tomato juice after all! (We drank a 4 oz glass of juice with almost every single breakfast. Mom and Dad still do. I always forget to have it, even when I have juice in the fridge, since I don’t buy oj on a regular basis. So when I do, or when I bring out my tomato juice, it gets neglected. But it is such a good habit!)
A half day ta work was quite nice. Wish I could work just half time all the time! Will probably do this again in a week or two when the next batch of tomatoes ripens and it’s not Saturday or Sunday.