Can it all...

There isn't much you can't can...you can can almost anything...today my Mom and I are going to make and can some Lavender Vanilla Pear Jam.  We have decided to start with the Sure Jell recipe for making jam.  We are going to alter the recipe to add the vanilla and lavender.  We will do our best to write everything down.

The Kraft site says you need 3 lbs of Pears, and one lemon.  You need to peel, pit and finely chop the pears (you will or should end up with 4 cups of finely chopped pears).  Then add 2Tbsp fresh lemon juice and 5 cups of sugar.  But I think that is too much sugar, so we instead made a reduced sugar version following the directions on the Ball Classic Pectin jar.  And added our own twist.

We used:
4 cups of fruit
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4.5 tablespoons pectin
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lavender in a tea bag
1/2 teaspoon butter

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the jars, you need to sterilize them before you put your hard work into them.  They can just stay in the water until right before you need them.  Same goes with the lids and bands...just let them sit in hot water until you are ready for them.

Prepare the fruit, we peeled some of the pears, but left the red skin on, cause it's so purdy.

This pear had a face

We cored them and chopped them into tiny pieces!

Put the fruit, lemon juice, butter, lavender and pectin in a large pot and stir it up!

 

Bring it to a full rolling boil (the kind of bubbles that don't go away when you stir it) and stir constantly. Stir in the sugar and let it get to a full rolling boil again, then set your timer for 1 minute.
It helps having two hands so you can pull the hot jars out of the water while the other person stirs.
Using a sterilized measuring cup with a handle and a wide mouth funnel ladle into the jars.  Wipe the rim before putting the lids on, screw the lids on finger tight and place back in the pot and let it boil for 10 minutes to process the jam. This part goes soooo fast we didn't get any pictures.

Remove the jars from the boiling water and place on the counter and listen for the pop!  Leave them to cool for 24 hours!

You can store unopened jars in a cool dry dark place up to one year, open jams keep in the fridge for up to three weeks.

Next time we are going to throw some of the lavender buds directly into the pear mix, they are edible and add such a depth.  I also want to try using some vanilla beans instead of extract.

Enjoy!

Easy Apple Butter

One of the great things in life are freshly made jams and jellies.  Last week a friend from church gave me some Gala apples from the tree in her yard.  I made a few fried apple pies, and then I decided that I wanted to make apple butter.  I have always like apple butter that you can get at street fairs like Apple Days in Weston, Mo.  but I had never made any myself.  A few clicks around Pinterest I found a simple recipe for a small batch of Apple Butter.

First you gotta soak the apples, well you don't have to, especially if you know where you got the apples.  I chose to soak mine just in case there were wormies, do a 3-1 ratio of water and plain white vinegar.

After the apples are soaked and measured, you need about 4 lbs of apples, I did a lot more than 4 lbs. I did close to a double batch, a few more than double.  Quarter the apples and take out any icky spots. Add 2 cups of water and 1 cup of apple cider vinegar per 4 lbs.  It seems like a LOT of liquid but it will come out in the end, trust me.

After the apples have cooked and are mushy, it is time to get out that fancy-schmancy food mill.  Do some stretches and start mashing!  This part takes some time, and you really have to use your muscles, but it can be done!  This is why it is so nice having a second set of hands available, you can take turns mashing and giving your muscles a break!

Once everything is milled measure out the pulp.  You need half a cup of sugar for every cup of apple pulp.  I decided to only finish out half the pulp this go round.  So I had 8 cups of pulp, and 4 cups of sugar.  Then add the spices, lemon zest, and lemon juice.  You will need zest and juice of one lemon for every 8 cups of pulp.

Then it's time to simmer it and stir for one to two hours.  Again, a good time to have a second set of hands so you can get a break from stirring.  We also decided to use a bar stool near the stove so we didn't have to stand the whole time.  My buddy Fergus joined me to keep me company while I was stirring.

Our batch didn't take the whole two hours to cook down, it was shortly after the first hour that we realized it was ready to go.  Thick and smooth!

Make sure you follow the steps for canning, you want to make sure everything is sterilized properly so the product can be shelf stable.  Again, having a second set of hands to help get the jars filled and into their hot water bath.

10 minutes is all you need! Pull them out of the water bath and listen for the pop!  Then they need to sit out for 24 hours before you move them around a lot.

Enjoy!!

It'll kill you!

Looking back over the years I fondly remember a professor I had my senior year of college.  He was my Residential and Commercial Construction/Auto CAD teacher, and almost every day like clockwork, we as a class learned about something new that could kill you, from faulty buildings, to lightning, to radiation...and my favorite, Cast Iron pans.  Cast iron pans are heavy, but he didn't mean that getting beaned upside the head would do you in, it was the fact that the metal expanded, trapped food particles in the voids when it cools and then allowed those particles to rot before releasing them the next time you used your pan.  I believe that day we were discussing the properties of metals used in construction... This has not stopped me from using my various cast iron pans.  I LOVE my cast iron pans!!!  The more I use my pans for various dishes, the better I get at using them!!!  And having a cast iron scraper (or two) has made the total difference in how often I use them!!!

Front and back of a scraper, love this thing!

Last night I found a recipe for fried apple pies...of course I decided to use my small round cast iron skillet.

And they turned out soooooo good!!!

So this morning I got out some leftover meats and made up some breakfast bowls.  Start by baking your tater tots, or crispy crowns, or regular hashbrowns.  If you ever have leftover french fries from a restaurant, you can rough cut those up and throw them in the oven for this breakfast too.  I found tater tots in the freezer, so that's what I decided to use!  While those are baking chop up whatever meats you want to use.  I had some delicious ham from our neighbor, and some sausage links leftover.  There are two pans, because I didn't want sausage, and he didn't want garlic or basil.

 

You don't want to start warming the meat in your skillet(s) until your potatoes are almost done.  You can put whatever extras in that you want, mushrooms, onions, peppers, other veggies.  Sky is the limit, whatever you taste buds are wishing for!  Once the meat is warm and a bit browned, then push it off to the side and add your eggs.  He likes his yolks runny, I'm a scrambled or fried over hard girl.

While the eggs are cooking the tots should be done.  Divide them into the bowls (or one bowl if you are flying solo) and top with a cheese of your choice,  his is cheese slices, mine is an italian mix.

Once the eggs are done add them to the bowl, top with the meat/veggies, and of course more cheese!

Then dig in and enjoy!

More rhubarb yumminess!

After making my pie last week I ended up with some extra rhubarb.  Not quite enough to make jam, but almost.  My mom ended up getting some rhubarb from the grocery store so we had enough to make jam.


Before I go into making jam, lets delve into what rhubarb is exactly.  Is it a fruit? a vegetable? According to the internet "Rhubarb is usually considered a vegetable. In the United States, however, a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the United States as a fruit, it counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties. A side effect was a reduction on imported rhubarb tariffs, as tariffs were higher for vegetables than fruits." According to almanac.com, "Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable, though it is generally used as a fruit in desserts and jams. You only eat the stalks, which have a rich tart flavor. The leaves of this plant are poisonous, so be sure that they are not ingested. Rhubarb is easy to grow, but needs cool weather to thrive."  It is usually stewed with sugar or used in pies and desserts.  There are also recipes that use it to make savory dishes or you can even pickle it!

I have already made the pie, which is already completely gone, and now it's time to jam!

The recipe I used is from Kraft.  I thought it would really focus on the flavor of the rhubarb, because that is the only flavor in the recipe!  So here is my adventure making Rhubarb Jam!

Step 1: Wash the jars, a few more than you think you will need....just to be safe.

Step 2:  Place the washed jars in a large pot and bring to a boil to sterilize them...this is also super important!

There is a measuring cup in there too, it is used to ladle the hot jam out to pour into the jars.

Step 3:  Get the hot jars out of the boiling water and put them to the side.  Don't burn yourself!  You will notice in many of the pictures that I am wearing rubber gloves, that is to protect my hands from burns from the steam, water, and hot jam!

Step 4:  Weigh and rough cut the rhubarb.  The recipe calls for about 2.5 lbs of rhubarb, or 4-1/2 cups prepared, so you have to cook it down before you measure it...so we threw the rough cut pieces into a food processor...made it easier

Step 5: Put the rhubarb and 1 cup of water in a pan and cook it down.

Step 6: Measure out exactly 4-1/2 cups of processed rhubarb, put it in a pot, add the Sure-Jell, and the butter and bring it to a boil stirring constantly!

Step 7: I'm sure after reading the recipe you pre-measured the sugar right?  I did!!!  And once the pectin part is boiling, dump in the sugar!  And bring it back to a boil, and the let it boil for exactly 1 minute!

Step 8: This is a big step, this is the canning step, so there are smaller steps within this step...get a plate to set the jars on, a good funnel, pour hot jam into a sterilized jar until it is 1/4" below the rim, carefully wipe the rim and the rings to make sure there is no jam, place a sterilized lid and ring on the jar, finger tight, place to the side and repeat until you have enough to fill the canner, or in our case a very large stock pot. Bring the water to a low boil and place the jars in the water, leave in for 10 minutes.

Step 9: Very carefully take the jars out of the water after 10 minutes and put on a towel, you will want to listen for the pop....watch my video...

Step 10: Let the jam sit out, undisturbed for 24 hours...then you can put it away, it is shelf stable at this point and does not need refrigeration.

Step 11: Clean up...my LEAST favorite part of the whole process...

At least I have some tasty jam to share and enjoy!

Another creative outlet!

Twenty-something years ago I was introduced to the art of stained glass making.  My first piece was an iris that I made for my mom.  She still has it, and it still hangs in her house.

Weeks ago I found out about a "glass camp" that was being held, for two weeks, so I said why not!  I didn't realize at the time that it was a stained glass camp and imagine my joy when I found that there is a local studio that teaches this wonderful art!!! During the first class we were given clear glass to practice cutting techniques on, then we could choose from three small and easy projects before being "cleared" to start on something else.  So I chose the frog, and got him completed in the first day!!  All of the techniques came back to me so quickly!

When I got home from the first class I popped onto Pinterest to research more projects to do, small ones of course. Some day, I will tackle some larger projects, and have already had an offer to commission three pieces for a house!  And of course I want to do some window panels for my own house.  For now I'm going to focus on some smaller sun-catcher projects that I can use as gifts, the first is being made for my husband!

With any project, it is easiest to number your pattern directly on the paper so you have a reference.  You will also mark the pieces with the same number so you can keep track of everything.

The cutting process requires a lot of patience, a LOT, because I broke more pieces to begin with than I kept....

I finally figured out what my "problem" was, I was afraid of getting cut, glass is very sharp (duh!) so I put gloves on and was able to keep my pieces from breaking in the wrong place! After the pieces are cut I placed the pieces on the pattern and taped them together, it's always a good idea to do this because it makes storing them between classes so much easier!

Of course I did the heart shape last, not recommended, but it worked out.

I just had to do a LOT of grinding.

Doing glass art is a lot about compromises.  I am relatively new to this art, I know my final project will NOT match my pattern, and I just have to be OK with that, as long as the final project looks good!

All fitted                                            Cleaned and together                                  Starting the foil process

Adding the copper foil was the "easy" part, but it was also the part where I cut myself...of course!

After the taping is done it's time to get the pieces back together, add the flux and solder the pieces together, starting with tacking the corners.

After everything is in the correct spot and you are happy with your piece it is time to finish soldering the piece!

Once the first side is done allow it to cool then flip it over to do the second side.

I decided that I wanted to make the piece stronger so I stretched some lead rail and pieced that over the outside, I did end up removing a lot of the copper foil from the outside edges.

My instructor showing me how to
use the lead rail

Then you add any details that you want to finish the piece, by tinning copper wire then soldering it in place.

Rhubarb Pie

Way back in the day, when we lived in Bolivar, Mo, my Grandpa's neighbor used to grow rhubarb, and would give it by the bag to my mom.  She would make Jam, and pie all summer long, and share it with him, my Grandpa and others.  It has been years since I had my mom's rhubarb pie.  Suddenly I have been CRAVING my mom's rhubarb pie...only I didn't have anywhere to get the rhubarb!  I eventually found someone who had it, in abundance and they gave me enough to make a rhubarb pie!!! And almost enough to make a batch of jam too!!!  But for now we made the pie.

Start by making the crust (thank you Mama, cause I'm still not the best at making these)

Then clean the rhubarb

and chop it up!  You are going to need 4 cups (or just a bit more)

Add the few ingredients (1/4 c flour, 1 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp orange zest)

Stir it up!

Dump it into the pie shell...

Dot with butter (use 2 Tbls)...

Put the top shell on and slit...

Then bake that pie for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then lower the temperature to 350 and continue baking another 30 minutes!  After the pie is cool, refrigerate it until you are ready to slice and eat it!

Enjoy!

I know that next year I will be starting my rhubarb growing experience.  Because now that I have indulged, I will want more and more of this yummy plant!