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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen. Start Your Burners!

Yesterday canning season began her on the homestead. I have a love/hate relationship with canning. I hate the heat, I hate the way it takes out an entire day, I love that I am putting food by and I love that I can can (get those old west hookers out of your head) my favorite recipes. Gourmet in a Jar?


can




Yesterday's count: 5 quarts o Kale soup. 7 pints of plum jam. 2 quarts of leftover Cajun soup. 3 quarts of Alfredo Sauce.

You want recipes, don't you? ~sigh~ you know if I start this, this blog will become about food again. This canning is a beast that takes over everything in your life, there is room for nothing more once the water bath or the pressure canner touches that stove. You become a slave to the jars, and obsessed with the chtchtcht noise. But you will take your chances with it, won't you?

ok, ok.

Kale soup with Italian Sausage
1 1/2 lb fresh Italian sausage
1 lb fresh kale, washed
1 lb. all purpose potatoes, cut into quarters
1 cup fresh yellow onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup carrots, freshly chopped
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil2 Tablespoons butter
2 quarts chicken broth
2 1/2 lb. red tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 cups of kidney beans, cooked or a 16 oz can of prepared kidney beans.
Black pepper, freshly ground
Pinch of salt
anything that says chopped, I put through my food processor during canning season

Remove the steams from the Kale. and chop up you veggies. Cover and set aside. Cook you sausage (a little water and a covered pan will do the trick) remove from pan and slice 1/2 inch thick, set aside.
place your butter on oil into a skillet, and saute you carrots, onion and garlic together.
Add all ingredients into a large stock pot and heat through. Don't worry about cooking your potatoes through as we are canning them. Evenly distribute the soup in hot sterile jars. Pressure can for 15 minutes at 10pounds. (remember cooked meat doesn't need to pressure can as long as raw, so please no more comments about how stupid I am)

Cajun Soup
Ask the neighbor across the way.

Plum Jam
4 lbs of ripe plums
1 pkg pectin
8 cups of sugar

Pit and finely chop unpeeled plums (food processor again) mix in a large stock pot with the pectin. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Quickly add the sugar, ALL the sugar. Mix and boil for 1 minute. Pour into hot sterile jars and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

Alfredo Sauce
4 pints of heavy whipping cream
1 stick of butter
16 oz of shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large stock pot heat butter and whipping cream. once butter has melted add cheese and stir until heated through. pour into you hot sterile jars (it will be runny like soup, but will thicken up later) process in a pressure canner for 15 minutes at 10 lbs.
(yes, the tops of the jars can brown, it doesn't effect the flavor)

Hope you enjoyed today's canning recipes, more to come. And I do hope you like Kale, because there will be a lot of that.

If you want to see photos of the Wamego trip, click here.

12 comments:

It's me said...

Hurray - these are just in time. I just received my new pressure canner yesterday and quite honestly, am pretty nervous. I'm going to give it a shot this weekend.

Question for you: I keep reading about how good and fresh the ingredients need to be, but my garden doesn't have anything yet, and probably won't have enough of anything this first year. Will I be terribly disappointed if I just can regular food?

Phelan said...

Fresh is best, farm market is the boomarket...?... ah well check out your local fame market and U-pick--it farm to get your fresh veggies. Check Craigslist for people will to crop share and if all else fail, your grocer has lots of veggies.

Have you read my first time?
pressure canning


I was supper nervous about it as well. Turns out no one has been killed by canning. :D Good Luck

It's me said...

Are you POSITIVE nobody has been killed? You know that I grew up hearing from my grandma how people could DIE canning!! So I've been paranoid for, let's see, right about 40 years!

I am SUCH a risk taker. And I'm reading that post now. Thanks so much.

It's me said...

Um, wow. That looks like a LOT of work. Funny, I don't remember it that way. (Although I probably spent most of my time outside running around the garden rather than in the steamy kitchen).

And I have a dial. But an electric stove. Does this make it harder? And the sound... how often does the thing rock? Egads.

anajz said...

Well I was coming over to comment about how happy I was to find an Alfredo recipe, but...rotflmao at the comments! I thought I was the only one deathly afraid of the pressure canner. Mine has been sitting in the box since the day I bought it...oh..ummm...about 7 or 8 years ago? maybe?
Maybe I can get with meadowlark and we can share first timer war stories!
Thanks so much for sharing your recipes!

Country Girl said...

I have never grown or tasted kale, maybe next year. Thanks for sharing your recipes, as I was reading I was thinking I'd like to have some of her recipes and then a scrolled down.
Thanks again, Kim

Wendy said...

Thanks for the alfredo sauce recipe. I love alfredo sauce, and often make cheese sauce for macaroni on the spur, but it's always so much easier just to open up a can - even if I spent two hours putting the stuff into a can at some point ;).

Gina said...

Oh, I am going to try the Kale and Alfredo sauce!

Thanks for sharing!

Phelan said...

I am pretty sure no one has died from the actual canning. Eating what one canned back in the day could be deadly. This ain't your grandmother's canning anymore. Make sure your electric can hold your canner. It can damage your burners and break a glass top range. The noise sounds a lot like a train does in the old movies. It is rather fast,but a steady tempo. Hope that helps.

anajz, pressure canning for the first time is a tad nerve racking, but once you've got it down. . .

Country girl, Kale isn't the best tasting stuff in the world, but it grows well through just about everythig, winter and summer.

Wendy, you're welcome. After the jar has cooled, shake the conents up. It will look like it conjelled. Also make sure the cheese has mixed in well.

Gina, you're welcome!

It's me said...

OK, last thing.
Kale is TOO the best tasting thing in the world.

Saute an entire purple onion in a bit of port wine.
Remove center rib of kale, then do a bigger version of a chiffonade.
Put into pan with onions and cook til however soft makes you happy.
Add a good hefty sea salt.
Sop up juices with bread.

Gill - That British Woman said...

Is a pressure canner the same as a pressure cooker?

I like the alfredo sauce recipe, I need to look for whipping cream on sale.

Great blog by the way...

Phelan said...

ok meadowlark, to each there own ;D I will have to try that recipe, thank you for leaving it.

Gill, a you are able to cook in a pressure canner, but not can in a pressure cooker. Cookers are smaller, but they cool down much to fast to seal your jars correctly and safely.

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