You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'yum...' category.
When I run out of my jars of salsa, this is my standby recipe…
4 cups chopped tomatoes (or 1 large can of chopped tomatoes)
1/2 of a medium sized onion – chopped
1 to 1 & 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
chopped fresh cilantro (maybe half a bundle or more depending on your taste)
1 tsp. or more of chopped garlic
dash of salt
Mix good & serve with warm chips!
Here is my Salsa for canning recipe for those of you who want to try canning. Canning is not hard, it just has a lot of steps, but it’s soooo worth it. Get two big kettles, and a canning kit that is $5, it comes with a jar grabber, a large mouth funnel, and a hot lid grabber that has a magnet on the end. If you don’t have a dishwasher that can sterilize your wide mouth pint jars, then just wash them in soapy water, rinse well, then put them in your big kettle and bring water to a boil and let them cook for about 15 min. or longer to sterilize… keep them in there in hot water until you’re ready to ladel your salsa into the jars. In a smaller pan (4 qt.?) put some water and place the lids in (not the band rings, those can just be kept in a bowl till your ready to use them)… anyway, bring your lids to a boil and let them simmer on med heat until your ladeling salsa into your jars, then you get them out by using your magnet on a stick. ; )
What I do is prepare my salsa first since this takes the longest, and then after it’s all in the pot and has been cooking for about an hour, then I do all the jar preperation for the actual canning. When the salsa is to the desired thickness, ladel with a clean 1 cup dry measuring cup into your jars using the widemouth funnel. Fill to about 1/2 inch from the top and then place on the lid, then bands, and after all the salsa is canned, place all the jars into the hot water left over in the big kettle that you boiled the jars in and process for about 15 min. (the 15 minutes is for my altitude of 6,000 ft. and lower altitudes take less time, but I would just do 15 min. to be sure.) After processing time is over, take out the jars with the jar grabbers and place them on the counter to cool, you’ll hear the lids pop as the vacume seals the lids. Later after they are cool, you may need to tighten the bands just a tad. Voila! Easy and sooo worth it.
Salsa
16-18 Cups Chopped Fresh Tomatoes
6 Large Onions Coarsly chopped
˝ Cup Sugar
4 Cups chopped Jalapeno’s – with seeds
1/3-1/2 Cup Pickling Salt
2 Tbsp. Gephardt’s Chili Powder (found in Mexican food isle)
1 & 1/2 tsp. crushed red chili peppers (like the kind that some pizza joints have that you can sprinkle on your pizza)
2 tsp. White Pepper
2 tsp. Ground Cumin
1&1/2 tsp. Alum powder (found in seasoning section)
2 Tbsp. Chopped Garlic
2 Medium Green Peppers – chopped
2 large cans Chopped Green Chilies
2 bunches of Cilantro, chopped
1 small can Tomato Paste
1 can Tomato Soup
Mix all ingredients in a very large steel or enamel kettle. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer & cook a few hours, uncovered, or until it reaches a thick consistency. Stir frequently to keep from sticking. Ladle into hot sterilized jars & seal with boiled lids, and then place on bands. After all jars filled & sealed, process 15 min. in a boiling hot water bath. Makes 16-20 pints.
I had some friends give me 2 tall kitchen garbage bags full of rhubarb! I love rhubarb, and so yesterday and the day before, I’ve been busy making what I call “Very Rhuberry Jam.” I made 6 batches total, amounting to 54 half-pints of jam. Jam making and canning is mysterious to some, but to me, it’s addicitve. I find several rewards from canning… I love giving my homemade jams to people for every occasion, people are always suprised and it’s like a bottle of gold to some and they hord it. I love the actual canning process, following delicious recipes to a tee, not to change a single thing so that they will turn out perfectly, or, when I find a recipe that is “pretty good” I like tweeking it with my own creativity until it turns out to something that simply cannot be improved upon. I think the most satisfying thing that addicts me to canning, is after I process my filled jam jars (process = boiling in a hot water bath for the given length of time (according to altitude) necessary to kill any remaining bacteria), is after removing them from processing, when they sit on the counter and they being to cool, hearing the sound of the vacume seal pulling the top of the jam jar in. It sounds like the click you can make by pulling your tongue from the roof of your mouth to the bottom of your mouth…. *click*.
This is the beginning of the summer harvest of fruits and vegetables, and I’m lucky that it’s addicting. After I finish up with the rest of the rhubarb tonight, I’ll wait till the raspberries are ready so that I can make raspberry jam, then the strawberries, blueberries, then the apricots from our friends tree, then I think I’ll try making applesauce this year, then the angelo sweet peaches, and then the tomatoes will be kicken in and I’ll be able to can salsa and tomato chutney. My kitchen by the end of the summer will have at least 4 stacks of jar boxes at least 8 boxes high, filled with nearly every concoction you could think of. My good friend says I’m “prolific”…. but she just hasn’t learned well enough to get addicted.
What do I do with all of these you ask? Most of the salsa we keep and eat ourselves, because it’s so good… but, every now and then, I will share a jar of it with someone, but they have to be REALLY special. Much of the jam is given away for gifts with bread, or by itself, depending on the occasion. It’s our tradition to give homemade jam away for Christmas gifts as well. It’s funny, no matter how much I seem to make, by the time of the new canning season, everything is gone. Many friends are accustomed to returning their empty jars as a deposit for the next bounty, so I usually have a good start of empty jars.
Here is the Very Rhuberry recipe:
6c. rhubarb cut into 1″ pieces
5c. sugar
3/4 c water
1 21oz blueberry pie filling
2 3oz raspberry jello
Combine rhubarb, sugar & water. Bring to a boil over med heat. Boil in a full rolling boil rhubarb uncovered for 6 min.,stirring constantly. Stir in blueberry pie filling. Return mixture to a full rolling boil, boil for another 6 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in gelatin, return to boiling, boil for 3 minutes. Ladle into hot jars and place prepared lids, wipe if necessary, then place on bands. Process in hot water bath for 10 min. (depending on your altitude). Yield 9 half-pint jars. Do not double recipe. Variations: substitute 1 21 oz. can of Raspberry pie filling instead, and use one Rasp. jello and one Strawberry jello.
