Make A Wish Pomegranate Jelly

Good Monday morning Jammers.  Have you been good little elves, getting your baking done and yummy treats together to share with loved ones this Yule season?  I’ve decided to add some pre-measured and bagged biscuit mix to my jam filled goodie bags for the neighbors.  I will hopefully have them ready to deliver by Thursday.  I spent yesterday relaxing and watching football while still managing to whip out a batch of snickerdoodles.  I had no idea my honey loved them so much!  I had made a batch to take to our friend’s annual boat parade party on Saturday night and it was the first time I had ever made them.  Now I just need to find a good recipe to keep on hand since both of these batches were done with a pre-packaged mix.  Anyone wanna share a good recipe?

The next recipe that I want to share with you is one I did a few weeks ago for a plain and simple pomegranate jelly.  I love pomegranates and they were in all the stores at the time but I was really NOT looking forward to juicing them NOR was I looking forward to the cost of purchasing them, at $2 a piece, considering the fact that I needed 6 of the buggers.  I found a recipe that uses bottled 100% pomegranate juice and realized it was on sale that week!  I was in luck, it turned out to be a pretty inexpensive batch, compared to some of the others I have made.  I researched the associations of the pomegranate and found the most popular ones were wishes and renewal.  I thought it would be perfect as a Christmas jelly for my gift bags. 

Make a Wish Pomegranate Jelly

2 16oz bottles 100% pomegranate juice
1 1.75oz package powdered fruit pectin
1/2 teaspoon butter
5 cups sugar

Preheat canner, sterilize jars and prepare the lids. In an 8 qt pan combine the juice, pectin and the butter.  Over high heat, bring mixture to a full rolling boil that can not be stirred down, stirring constantly.  Add the entire amount of sugar and stir to dissolve.  Return mixture to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.   

Remove pan from heat and skim off any foam.  Fill hot sterilized jars with the jelly, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings and place jars in preheated canner.  Bring canner to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove the jars and place on a towel on the counter and leave undisturbed for 24 hours.  Check the seal before storing. Use within 12 months.

Makes about 7 half pint jars.

This jelly had a perfect set and I am very happy with the texture and flavor however it is not the “prettiest” jelly in the cabinet.  Bottled juice is not a bright red color so the jelly was a dark brownish red but the flavor makes up for the looks, I assure you.  I have since done this one again using a pomegranate blend.  I’ll post it another time.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday (whichever way you choose to celebrate it) season and may your New Year be prosperous and joy filled. 

Till next time, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

P.S. – Sorry there are no pictures for this one. 

Herby Jelly

Good morning Jammers, hope you were snuggled, warm in your beds last eve…it was downright COLD!  Even, here in Florida within 2 miles of the beach we were below freezing.  We made sure to go down to our community garden plot and stake & drape clear plastic over our babies.  We are simply blown away by how much they have grown in the last week and a half thanks to “zoo poo” which can be picked up for free at the zoo for community gardens, like ours, by the truck load.  There is a huge pile of it and we were lucky enough to be there the day it was being offloaded.  We talked with the guy that picked it up ad it turns out he volunteers at the zoo and also has a plot with us.  He explained that the poo is strictly vegetarian coming from the elephants and the giraffes.  It is filtered/sifted once and there are other big sifters available for us to use there, at the garden, if we want to.  We simply laid a fine layer across the garden and WOW…our squash and cabbages really loved it.  We will head down there later today and uncover them, since we are not supposed to hard freeze again till Monday.

    

I wanted to get the last recipe posted from our crone’s canning day.  I had decided that we could do sort of a create-your-own type recipe, so I pulled the little pamphlet from a box of pectin and saw a recipe for a herb jelly, using herbs of your own choice.  My gardening partner and I discussed what herbs we had seen at the group herb plot at the garden and came up with doing a mint-basil jelly that could be used with meats or maybe shortbreads.  She stopped at the garden on her way to my house that morning and fresh harvested the herbs by hand.  I did my research on the properties of the herbs we were using and it turns out the basil is for wealth (among other things) and mint is for money.  Guess what was on my mind while we were making this one.  Can you say dollar signs $$$.  If you needed some extra funds to cover an expense or something like Christmas I would suggest something like this with your dinner meal to help facilitate your efforts to bring that cash in.  It would be good to burn some pine incense and a green candle near your hearth while you are making this one.  Here's the recipe:

Herby Jelly

2 cups finely chopped organic mint and basil (50/50)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened organic apple juice
1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
5 1/4 cups sugar
1 1.75 oz package Original Fruit Pectin (powdered)
1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

Preheat canner, sterilize jars and prepare the lids.  Combine 2 cups finely chopped herbs with 1 1/2 cups unsweetened organic apple juice, 1 cup water and 1 cup vinegar in a medium non-reactive saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Cover, remove from heat and let steep 20 minutes.

Strain with a fine meshed strainer and add 3 1/2 cups prepared juice to an 8qt non-reactive stockpot.  Stir in the pectin and the butter.  Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, over high heat, that can not be stirred down.  Add premeasured sugar and return to a full boil.  Boil hard, 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and skim any foam, if necessary.

Ladle into the hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings, turning the rings until just finger-tight. Place the jars in the preheated canner and bring canner to a full rolling boil. Process jars for 10 minutes (adjusting according to your altitude, if necessary) then remove canner from heat. Let canner sit for 5 minutes, then, carefully remove hot jars from water with a jar lifter and place them on a towel on the counter and leave them undisturbed for 24 hours. Check the seals before storing and use within 12 months.

Makes about 5 half pint jars.

So far, I am not a huge fan of this batch.  The herbs are not as strong flavored as I would prefer them to be and I can taste the vinegar.  We sampled all the batches that day with crackers and I was not impressed but I have yet to still try it on meat so I guess you could, in all fairness, say the jury is still out on this one.  I have noticed a mint jelly recipe on the same page and it is just mint and water, no vinegar.  Maybe next time I will try an herb blend with that recipe.  Have any of you done a strictly herb jelly before?  Give a gal some feedback here…which herbs did you use and how did it come out?

So remember, I mentioned learning something MAJOR from my non-canning crones?  My canning fairy had left me another canning set so I would have backups on the basic equipment and it was a good thing, because my jar lifter had started to come apart with the little black rollers that grip the jar breaking apart when I had them in the hot canner.  I was still using it but I decided to go ahead and pull the new backup one out towards the end of our canning day.  I had done ONE STINKING BATCH when there, right in the bottom of my boiling canning water bath are the little rolling bars which have broken off AGAIN.  I scream ARRRGGGHHHH and everyone drops what they are doing and wants to know what was wrong.  I explained how this was a brand new jar lifter and it had come apart before I was finished using it on it’s first batch! 

The girls started gabbing and gawking and looking at me all weird and one of them spoke up and said “Hey, I think I remember watching my family member can and…uhhhh…doesn’t it go the OTHER WAY?”  Huh???  No way, they all were in agreement that I was using it upside down and here I was 20 or so batches into my new found passion and I was supposed to be teaching them…well, let just say it was five minutes before we all could stop laughing.  I tried it the “correct” way and wow, what a difference.  It is so much more stable and grips way better than before.  Huge DUH, on my part.  I love my friends for setting me on the straight road…I guess it does take a village to do a LOT of things!

Till next time, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

Peppery Pumpkin Butter

Good morning Jammers, hope you all slept well.  It has finally gotten cold here and there is a chance for our first inland freeze.  Our house is out near the beach and we should stay warmer, but our friends well inland may need to cover their winter plants tonight.  Brrrr!  I’ve got on my fuzzy, aloe infused, woobie socks to keep my tootsies warm and an extra blanket on the back of my office chair to snuggle under.  Come to think of it, I need to bring in the electric throw to plug in for the night so I can stay toasty.  I hope you are all staying warm and cozy.

Two of the recipes that we did on our group Jammin day were pumpkin varieties, per the request of some of the ladies.  Now, I did warn them all of the recommendations for proper handling and canning of pumpkin.  We used the canned pumpkin again and I told them all to keep it refrigerated, even the sealed jars.  I honestly don’t think any of the jars of it lasted more than a week or two!  I had one report that a friend shared a jar of the Peppery Pumpkin Butter with her neighbor and the feedback was something along the lines of “it’s the best we’ve ever had and would love to invest in a company to manufacture it”.  The neighbor and her husband apparently ate the whole jar in one sitting.  I could not think of a better compliment! 

The first of the two recipes used that day was the basic pumpkin butter that I had previously posted.  Look at the archives if you are interested in that one, just be aware and research the data out there on food borne illnesses and canning pumpkin.  I recommend using canned pumpkin (which has already been heat processed by a commercial canning method) and keeping it stored in the fridge.  The new recipe I came up with is based on the ancho apple butter that I made.  Someone had requested adding ancho pepper to the pumpkin butter, so, that was our second batch that day in the pumpkin category.  We were drawing on the thankfulness aspect of working with the pumpkin recipes that day and the pepper just added a bit of punch to the power of the pumpkin.  Refer to the previous pumpkin post, if you want, for the associations of the spices in the butter.  I am calling this one Peppery Pumpkin Butter and I hope you enjoy it as much as everyone else did.

Peppery Pumpkin Butter

3 ½ cups canned solid pack pumpkin
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground Ancho pepper powder
4 cups sugar
1 ½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter
1 3oz pouch liquid pectin

 

Preheat canner and prepare jars and lids. In an 8qt pan combine the pumpkin and spices, stirring until smooth and well blended.  Gradually stir in both sugars and the butter.  Over medium-low heat, heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until the sugars are dissolved.  Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a full rolling boil, still stirring constantly.  Stir in contents of pectin pouch and return to a boil.  Boil for 1 minute, stirring all-the-while. 

Remove pan from heat and quickly skim off any foam (mine did not have any) from the top. Ladle the butter into the hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings, turning the rings until just finger-tight. Place the jars in the preheated canner and bring canner to a full rolling boil. Process jars for 10 minutes (adjusting according to your altitude, if necessary) then remove canner from heat. Let canner sit for 5 minutes, then, carefully remove hot jars from water with a jar lifter and place them on a towel on the counter and leave them undisturbed until the seals have popped and the jars are cooled.  Store them in the refrigerator and use within 4 months.

Makes about 7 half pint jars.

Again, I did not have any pictures from the pumpkin recipes that day, so sorry.  The best I could give you is maybe a picture of an empty jar because that is all that is left!   

Remember when I mentioned the small kitchen fire from that morning?  Watch for the next post and I will share what my “non-canning” friends taught me about my equipment and they showed me how my equipment SHOULD be used to keep it from breaking!  (I have 2 broken jar lifters in my posession right now and one of them was brand new that morning)    We had so many laughs that day…life is not fun unless you know how to laugh at yourself, trust me!

Till next post, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

Cranamon Jelly

Good morning Jammers!  I trust you all had a “hearty” thanksgiving, we sure did.  From food, to spirit, to laughs and good times, “hearty” describes our weekend well.  We have so much to be thankful for.

I have so much to catch up on from my canning day with the ladies a few weeks ago.  Just a reminder, I did not really have a good working camera that day, I’m sorry.  Use your imagination, heheheee.  My last post was for the Crapple Jam and this one is for the second of the cranberry recipes.  It’s a cranberry cinnamon jelly and it was the first time I was getting to use my “make shift” jelly bag.  To set the mood for the energy you want to enhance your recipe with it is helpful to know and attune yourself with the properties of the ingredients you are using.  I am trying to cover as many of these as possible but am also trying to not repeat too much information at the same time.   If you want to know the associations of something that is not listed in a particular recipe, check out the “Labels” section to the right and look for the ingredient in the list and click on it.  It will take you to a previous post that discusses that particular aspect or ingredient.  Also, remember, an ingredient may have several properties but you can focus and draw from any one or more of those you wish.

For this recipe, I drew on the cinnamon for power and spirituality and the cranberries for protection and to ward off negativity.  I can imagine strands of cranberries with a few cinnamon sticks strung in sideways being added to a long pine garland and strung around the front door during the holidays.  What better way to protect and empower that warm Yuletide spirit that you create all around your hearth and inside of your home this season.  I can smell it now, can’t you?

Cranamon Jelly

2 pounds fresh cranberries
2 cups water
4 cinnamon sticks
2 cups sugar for each 2 cups juice

Put the cranberries in a nonreactive saucepan with the water and 3 cinnamon sticks, then simmer until the fruit is very soft and the cranberries“pop”, stirring occasionally.  Remove the cinnamon sticks and squash the cranberries with a potato masher to extract as much juice and flavor as possible.  Spoon the fruit and liquid into a scalded jelly bag or cheesecloth suspended over a large bowl, and let the juice strain through without forcing, for a few hours or overnight.  Do not squeeze the bag or the jelly will be cloudy if particles of fruit escape into the liquid.    

                                     

The next day, preheat canner, sterilize jars and prepare the lids. Measure the juice into a nonreactive saucepan.  Add the right amount of sugar and the remaining cinnamon stick.  Stir the mixture over low heat until the sugar dissolves, then boil rapidly until the setting point is reached, 220^o.  Stir from time to time to prevent the sugar rich mixture from sticking and burning.   

             

Remove the pan from the heat and skim any foam from the surface and remove the cinnamon stick.  Pot the jelly into the hot sterilized jars.  Wipe the rim of the jar with a damp clean cloth and add the lids and rings and place jars in preheated canner.  Bring canner to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove the jars and place on a towel on the counter and leave undisturbed for 24 hours.  Check the seal before storing. Use within 12 months.

Now notice, that in this recipe there is no added commercial pectin.  That’s because cranberries, like apples, have a very high natural pectin content.  The consistency came out beautiful.  There are other things that were left to be desired with this one, though.

I did not have a jelly bag so I improvised with 4 layers of cheesecloth clipped to a mesh strainer suspended over a bowl.  Now, granted, we did not let this one sit overnight but it did sit almost 4 hours and I was very disappointed in the juice results.  I know what happened and why…we let the berries simmer too long and the pectin came out and the whole mixture was gelled when we put it in the cheesecloth.  Another thing was that I forgot to soak the cheesecloth in hot water (called scalding).  For 2 pounds of berries we only yielded 2 cups of juice, which made only 3 half pints.  I figure, I came and I tried and the next time I will make it easier on myself (and cheaper) and go with a bottled organic 100% cranberry juice and see what my results are like. 

The flavor and texture are lovely and this will be gorgeous in my Yule baskets.  I will be making more of this one in the next few weeks and I’ll let you know how it comes out.  Till then…Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

Crapple Jam

Good Saturday morning Jammers!  It feels like so long since I have sat down to write to you all.  I meant to have a post to you all at the beginning of this past week but life was turned upside down when my son returned home from a camping trip with a stomach bug and ended up in the hospital with severe dehydration.  He is back to normal now (requested a 2nd dinner last night) and I am left feeling like I lost a week but am so eternally grateful that he is well, I never want to see him like that again!  Last Saturday, I hosted a jam making day with a few of my fellow Crone’s and we had a blast.  No one could really decide on a specific recipe to make, we were all just looking forward to having some fun and making some memories together.  A few of the ladies would be passing the main farmers market on their way here and wanted to know what they could pick up.  I started thinking about a theme for the recipes and decided that since we were so close to Thanksgiving we should make that our theme.  I came up with 5 recipes for us to make with everyone taking them all home at the end of the day.  We were going to make 2 cranberry recipes, 2 pumpkin recipes and a creation of our own of a herb jelly.  Candles were lit (vanilla and pumpkin ones), jams, jellies and butters were made along with a few great memories and we will start with this one….

Well, let’s just go ahead and come out and say it…down and dirty…”I set the kitchen on fire”.  There, I admitted it!  Very first batch too…I had completely forgotten about boiling over my pot of zipper peas 2 nights before.  The peas had been cooking in a mixture of water and butter.  I had wiped the stove top BUT had forgotten to lift the stove top and wipe under it and inside the burner ring.  So, all the ladies arrive and one of our batches was to be a cranberry cinnamon jelly and we were starting with whole cranberries so we got that batch started (the recipe will be the next post) so the juice could start to drain.  I put the cranberries and water in the big pot and set it to high and turned around to join in the conversation.  A few minutes later, we smelled smoke, butter burning from within the depths, and so, I flipped on the exhaust fan above, thinking it will stop any moment.  Well, we were watching this smoke and all of a sudden is goes, poof and there is a flame licking the side of the pot.  I reached over and turned the heat off but the flame is spreading and getting bigger on the side of the pot.  The closest Crone to me suggested we take further action so I immediately thought of the “ji-normous” box of baking soda (it was considered a grease fire, after all) that was stored in the island at my back.  In one swift motion, I told her to not move the pot yet, until I was ready, and I grabbed the box and opened it and we both counted to three.  She moved the pot and in one swift toss, the fire was doused in a thick layer of white.  We then had to stop all the gears from turning and clean the stove and the soot from the pot.  A comment was made to the effect of how calm and cool it was handled.  Now that the hearth was christened for the day we continued with our cranberry recipes, among a gaggle of giggles and down-right laughter.  The jelly batch was started so the cranberries could drain over the jelly bag a few hours while we made the rest of jams.  I’ll post that recipe next and am going to go the the first one we actually finished which was a cranberry apple jam recipe that had been posted on the website Food In Jars.  See their post here, http://www.foodinjars.com/2009/11/gift-in-a-jar-apple-cranberry-jam/ .  I call this one my Crapple Jam.  Cranberries are known for their healing powers (see NPR’s recent article here http://www.npr.org/2010/11/12/131272331/bow-down-to-the-medicinal-power-of-cranberries ) and also are thought to spiritually give protection and ward off negativity.  Maybe there was another reason, other than pure decoration, as to why they were strung up and hung around the house during the winter in olden times, hummm?!?

Crapple Jam (Cranberry Apple)

8 cups of peeled and diced Golden Delicious apples
4 cups of whole cranberries
6 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 lemons, zested and juiced

Preheat canner and prepare jars and lids.  Combine the apples, cranberries, sugar and water in a large pot (use a big one, this jam will bubble) over high heat. Bring to a boil, skimming off the foam that develops on the top of the fruit. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the cranberries pop and the apples soften.

Add the lemon zest and juice and simmer until the liquid in the pot begins to thicken (because both apples and cranberries are naturally high in pectin, you won’t need any additional pectin to help this jam set, as long as you cook it until thick and syrup-y).

Ladle into the hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings, turning the rings until just finger-tight. Place the jars in the preheated canner and bring canner to a full rolling boil. Process jars for 10 minutes (adjusting according to your altitude, if necessary) then remove canner from heat. Let canner sit for 5 minutes, then, carefully remove hot jars from water with a jar lifter and place them on a towel on the counter and leave them undisturbed for 24 hours. Check the seals before storing and use within 12 months.

Makes about 10 half pint jars.

This jam is so wonderful…not too sweet, not too tart but a perfect balance.  Slightly chunky but yet a smooth texture.  I can’t wait to serve it Thanksgiving morning on a hot buttered croissant. 

An my apologies for the lack/quality of photos.  The digital camera was away on a camping trip and the only camera I had to use was the video camera which does not take great stills.  The next few posts will be picture poor, I am sorry! 

We are off to work in the garden for a bit this afternoon and shop at the Beaches Green Market…wonder what goodies I will come home with today, hummmm?  I’ll get another post ready in the next day or two.  Check back later.

Till then, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

So sorry for not posting this week…

I am so sorry there have not been any posts this week...my 12 year old son ended up in the hospital (his first ER visit/hospitalization) and he has been getting my 110%. I will have recipes and such posted next week, I promise!

Thanks for being patient with me and understanding.  I hope you are all planning some good family memories around your hearths for Thanksgiving next week.  We have a LOT to be thankful for around here this year, namely a return to good health!  How about you?

Till then, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!  (and be Thankful for the good things in your life and all the bad things out in the world that you do NOT have in your life)

Feels like Christmas…

I have spent the last few hours feeling VERY frustrated.  I have spent hours trying to publish my latest post (Triple “A” Butter) but every time I did it was messed up…pictures not where they were supposed to be or paragraphs split up and strewn randomly throughout other paragraphs.  I was ready to SCREAM!  I have been typing up my posts in my word processing program that came loaded on my laptop and would then copy and paste it into Blogger.  It would never transfer pictures so I would have to add them one by one after I pasted the text.  It has been happening on other posts but this time it was really bad and kept getting worse every time I tried again.  I did a Google search to see if any others were having problems like this and found a blog that talked about similar problems.  Their suggestion was to paste it straight into html, which I tried but it still messed it up.  Adding pictures in html was a visual nightmare for a non-geek like me.

All of a sudden, like a light shining down from the heavens one post stuck out from some brilliant person that had the same issue.  They said to just use the new Windows 2011 Live Writer program.  It specifically lets you write blog posts and it automatically publishes them when you are finished and ready.  I found that it was already loaded on my computer and so I tried it as a last resort.  WOWZERS!  It does so much more and anything I have done in the past including some really cool features for the photos, including watermarks and frames.  It saves a copy, like I was doing in the word processor program, and I like to have backup copies of my posts.  It feels like Christmas morning!  I love it and highly recommend it for anyone who blogs. 

P.S. – Sorry to all of my followers for all the duplicate postings of that recipe in their email inboxes while I got it figured out. 

Triple “A” Butter

G’mornin Jammers!  I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween/All Hallows Eve/Dia De Los Muertos.  It’s the time of year around here that we like to honor our ancestors and all those that have walked this earth before us.  I spent lots of time thinking and remembering all the great times I had with my great-grandmother, my Grannie.  She would love all the new jams and flavors out there now.  I would have loved to have sat with her just one more time and munched on one of her fried pies or maybe a bowl of her wonderful sour cherry cobbler.   I’m gazing at her picture hanging here in the office, right now…love ya Grannie!  Gasp…..I just remembered that I have one of her handmade bonnets and matching aprons in my keepsake box that she made for my mom.  Grannie would always put on one of her bonnets to go to the garden and a matching apron.  Maybe I’ll pull them out for a picture or two.

I wanted to post the last recipe that I made, weekend before last.  My inspiration came from a fellow food blogger, Tigress.  See her post at http://tigressinajam.blogspot.com/2010/10/ancho-apple-butter.html .  Her apple butter recipe is different from mine, so, I decided to stay with what I like and just modify my own.  Did you know peppers have a heat scale they are rated on? It’s called the Scoville Heat Index and it ranks peppers from zero (Green Bell Peppers) to one million (an extremely rare Ghost Pepper is rated at over one million and is the hottest pepper in the world). Usually one of the hottest that is used on a day-to-day basis is a Habanero Chili which rates at 150,000 - 350,000. Jalapenos usually rate around 2,000 to 5,000+.  Anchos, like I used in this recipe, rate under Jalapenos at around 1,000 - 1,500.  I love their smoky flavor and always keep a pouch on hand from our favorite spice shop in Old Town, St. Augustine.  We’ve been known to drive the 45 minutes there just to pick up various salts we ran out of.  They have an amazing Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt that is fabulous on meat and my son loves his big block of Bolivian Rose that he uses a tiny grater with.  Back to the chili peppers though, did you know that the term Ancho refers to the dried version of the Poblano Pepper (just like to chipotle being the smoked version of a jalapeno)?  I didn’t.  

The associations related to the apple butter part of this recipe are the same as before.  The properties of my apples are choices, (they are used in many ways throughout different cultures and periods as tools for divination), health (haven’t you heard the old saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away?), and love (apple bobbing was originally for boys to bite into the apple of his true love as the girls had polished and marked the apples on the bottoms before floating them in the tub).  The cinnamon was for power and spirituality, the allspice was for health and prosperity and the cloves were for health, kinship and love.  Apples were one of the main things used back in Victorian times for love charms.  Did you ever twist the stem of an apple while chanting the alphabet and what ever letter you were on when the stem popped off was the first letter of the person’s name that you were going to marry?  We did it all the time…oh the memories.  Peppers, in general, are for protection against negativity.   Have you ever seen those long bunches of peppers, usually dried, red ones, strung together and hung in kitchens?  Now you know the reason why some folks may choose to hang them in their kitchens.  The Ancho along with the Mulato and the true Pasilla form the "holy trinity" of chiles in Mexican culture.  In honor of their association as part of a trinity, I am naming this creation my Triple A Butter.

Triple “A”  Butter

4 pounds tart apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 cups unsweetened organic apple juice
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground Ancho Pepper powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

Rinse apples in cool water and drain well.  Core, peel and chop the apples.  Preheat canner, sterilize jars and prepare the lids. In an 8 qt pan combine the apples and apple juice.  Over medium heat, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the apples are soft, about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat. Press apples and juice through a fine meshed sieve.  Return the pulp to the pan and stir in the sugar, butter, Ancho powder, cinnamon, allspice and cloves.  Over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Increase the heat to medium and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat and simmer until thick, about 30 minutes.  As the butter thickens, stir constantly to prevent scorching.                                

Remove pan from heat and skim off any foam.  Fill hot sterilized jars with the butter, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings and place jars in preheated canner.  Bring canner to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove the jars and place on a towel on the counter and leave undisturbed for 24 hours.  Check the seal before storing. Use within 12 months.

Makes about 6 half pint jars.

This butter had a perfect texture and will taste wonderful as a final glaze over a slow roasted pork loin.  We enjoyed it with peanut butter on sandwiches this past weekend at the Boy Scout event we attended.  The heat is perfect and is really more of an aftertaste in the back of your throat.  It is a perfect addition to really spice up your traditional apple butter recipe.  Again, as with so many of my other creations, this one has MANY possibilities.

I have a blank slate right now as far as my next batch goes.  I have quite a few in my book that I want to try but I am getting special requests, too.  I want to get the beer and sangria ones made as a trial for holiday gifts but the requestors are adamant for an apple-rum something or a pomegranate something.  Guess I better get busy! 

On another note, I was at the grocery store this past weekend picking up supplies for my first scratch cheesecake and saw peaches on sale so I picked up enough for a small batch to can.  They were pretty firm so I thought they would have a few days to ripen, which was perfect since I was so busy.  Well, last night I realized they were quite soft so I picked on up and gave a good long whiff and…nothing, nada!  None of them have any fragrance at all.  Living in Florida we have some unusual growing seasons compared with the rest of the US, so I thought I may just be picking up a late batch.  Boy was I wrong!  I will be talking to the produce manager next time I see him.  These are simply awful.  I decided not to waste jars on fruit that has no smell so I thought I would chop them up and throw a cobbler together tomorrow.  I have a basic recipe passed down in my family called Cuppa-Cuppa-Cuppa and peaches are usually my first choice for it.  As I chopped them up last night half of them were very brown all the way through but, yet, not spoiled and there was hardly any juice to them.  I added some fruit protector and lots of sugar, hoping to make it syrupy enough to use.  I covered the bowl and popped it in the fridge…we will see what it’s like later. 

Till next week, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

Grannie’s Best Banana Bread Butter

Top o’the morning, Jammers! I am ready for us to be DONE with this unseasonable heat spell…bring on the cool weather. I am ready to open the windows for a while and finally shut down the AC for the year. We were almost 90 degrees today and it’s the last week of October, for the love of Pete! BTW, does anyone know who the heck Pete is and why everyone loves him so much???

I mentioned in my last post that our City Council was going to vote on moving trick-or-treating to Saturday. On Monday morning they decided to withdraw the proposition and I know lots of folks are very happy about it. Halloween is Sunday…period! It’s my son’s birthday and he has his costume all ready, is yours? What kind of scary creature are you going to be? Will you be handing out tricks or treats? We love Halloween, it’s one of our favorite holidays around here. I wish I knew someone that owned their own hearse…I would gladly chauffer my son and his friends around, for the night, in it. Most folks I knew in the business were corporate owned so that possibility is out. Oh yeah, BTW, in case you didn’t know, I went to school and graduated with honors in Funeral Services. I was a Funeral Director and Embalmer. I stopped short of my internship and boards and decided the business, as it stood, was not for me. School was wonderful and the experiences I had working in funeral homes were positive and enlightening. I did enjoy it (mostly) but there are some other ethical issues I have when it comes to the current costs and financial side of funerals. I feel a bit differently than the traditional old fashioned funeral professionals and I am opposed to the corporate hard core sales tactics that are required and most funeral homes around here are corporate run. Maybe one day, I will find a like minded person to work for or I could open my own…maybe if I hit the lottery! Anyway, I am happy doing what I do, customer service. I make more than I would have starting out at any of the funeral establishments around here and the hours are so much better. I get to be home with my family and do not miss out on any planned events, unlike a funeral professional who is on call 24/7/365. Death waits on nothing or noone! Christmas morning would not be fun if I got a call to go on a run. I LOVE what I do and my job and schedule could not be more perfect. Wow, boy did I get off on a tangent huh! This is supposed to be about canning…wait, I guess you could say preserving is preserving. pH levels are always the key, no matter what you’re preserving, fruit or….Ok, bad humor, I know. Moving on…..

Last Saturday was banana day. I posted the recipe for the bananas foster version I did. The other one I did that day was a recipe I found on the Kraft website and I pretty much followed it exactly. It is for a banana nut bread butter. I ended up with leftover bananas, when all were finished, and made a loaf of banana nut bread and posted that recipe on my other blog (the link can be found over on the right side of the this blog). I talked about how special banana nut bread is to me and I’ll share with you, here too. I have always loved banana bread and even requested it as my birthday cake one year for a childhood birthday party, My friends made fun of me for not having a real cake that year, but it didn’t matter, I had my favorite…my Grannie Winchester’s banana bread. Her sister, Aunt Etta (pronounced Aint Etter) was known for making the best in the family, but I always thought Grannie’s was best, no matter what the rest said. This loaf made me think of Grannie and all the times we shared in her kitchen…I miss her so much! I know she would have loved this recipe just the same so I am calling this one Grannie’s Best Banana Bread Butter. 

Grannie’s Best Banana Bread Butter

3 cups prepared fruit (about 10 fully ripe medium bananas)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon fruit protector

1 box powdered pectin

½ teaspoon butter

4 cups sugar

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 cups diced walnuts, lightly toasted

1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

　
Preheat canner and prepare jars and lids. Mash bananas thoroughly. Measure exactly 3 cups prepared fruit into 8 qt. pot. Add lemon juice and fruit protector and stir until well blended. Stir in pectin. Add butter to reduce foaming. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugars and stir until well blended. Add walnuts and spices and mix well. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

To prevent the butter from separating in the jars, allow it to cool 5 minutes before filling the jars. Gently stir every minute, or so, to distribute the fruit. Ladle into the hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings, turning the rings until just finger-tight. Place the jars in the preheated canner and bring canner to a full rolling boil. Process jars for 10 minutes (adjusting according to your altitude, if necessary) then remove canner from heat. Let canner sit for 5 minutes, then, carefully remove hot jars from water with a jar lifter and place them on a towel on the counter and leave them undisturbed for 24 hours. Check the seals before storing and use within 12 months.

Makes about 7 half pint jars.

I tried spreading the butter on a piece of the banana nut bread (talk about a double whammie) and it was delectable! Yummy but very rich. Once the butter is refrigerated, it is very thick, similar to a pecan pie filling consistency. It is very pretty in the jars and looks just like banana nut bread. This would also make a great sundae topping or great as the filling for the recipes for pie-in-a-jar that I am seeing pop up all over the web. The pie crusts are pressed into the small jars and then the filling in put in and the whole jar is then baked in the oven and the tops are put on to store the pies. The idea is very cute and attractive, maybe I will get around to trying it someday. Do a search on the web for pie-in-a-jar and adapt it for this, as the filling.

Have a safe but fun Halloween, everyone! Check back in a few days for the spicy ancho apple butter I made. Till then, you know what to do…Be Blessed and Be Sweet!
　
　
　

Mojo Banana's Foster Jam

Good Monday morning Jammers! What did you get into over the weekend? Me, I got into some bananas, well a LOT of bananas and a few apples too. I lucked out and found all the bananas I needed, fully ripened, for half price (notice the black tape on them).  They were perfect and ready to use!  I wish the weather had cooperated a bit more, especially on Sunday. I made some spicy apple butter and was really feeling into the fall season EXCEPT that it was 87 degrees outside! It was too hot in the kitchen with the windows open so I had to crank up the AC to try to cool off. We are supposed to be unseasonably warm the rest of this week, too. Boo! My son hates it when he goes trick-or-treating and ends up sweating buckets with a mask and costume on. Hopefully it will cool-off for him. For his first few years he actually thought that folks decorated their houses and handed out candy because it was his birthday…he finally caught on that he shared his birthday WITH a holiday when he was 5 or 6 years old. Then for a few years he would tell each person that opened their door that it was his birthday and he would usually get extra treats. He’s stopped all that now and I wonder when he will stop trick-or-treating all together, he will be 12 this year and still wants to go with his friends. The funny thing is, he never cared for much of the candy, eating very little of it. It usually sits in a big bowl on top of the fridge till around Christmas then we throw it out when the stockings get emptied into the same bowl. He’s never been much of a sweets eater. I guess we are lucky that we don’t have a huge dentist bill! Our city council is going to vote on Tuesday night as to whether to change trick-or-treating to Saturday night so there won’t be a conflict with folks attending church on Sunday night. Most folks in town are livid about this for a few reasons. What happened to separation of church and state? It’s not been changed before when it was on a Sunday, so why now? Saturday is a HUGE college football game downtown at the stadium, Florida vs. Georgia, and the tailgating has already begun (7 days in advance, RV’s are already pouring in). I really don’t want kids out trick-or-treating on one of the biggest nights for DUI’s around here! Some folks are concerned that only some kids will go out on Saturday night and others will still go out on Sunday so they will have to deal with 2 nights of it, while others say some kids will choose to go out both night. Personally, I don’t think it should be changed. Halloween in Oct. 31, period! I have been surprised at how many other cities, counties and states change which day it is observed on every year. Our niece in Ohio sent us this snip “Here in Columbus they only allow Trick or Treating Mon-Thurs so if Halloween is on Fri-Sun it gets moved! This year Halloween is on Sun but trick or treating is on Thurs. Last year Halloween was a Saturday and trick or treating was on Thurs.” How bizarre is that?!?

So, for the first banana recipe that I did on Saturday morning I decided to re-do my Banana Rum Jam and make it a Bananas Foster Jam. The recipe was so close and Bananas Foster is my all time favorite dessert, I had to adapt it and go for it. It came out DIVINE! I was instantly transported to Royal Street, a block off Bourbon Street in New Orleans, the home of the world famous Brennan’s Restaurant, where Bananas Foster was created in 1951. I’ve ordered it in many places but none is as good as Brennan’s, where it is prepared and served tableside. The only thing missing in this jam would be the vanilla ice cream it is traditionally served over but you could always heat a bit of it in the microwave for a few seconds and then pour it over a scoop of your favorite vanilla bean ice cream. Now, something else I love to do when I am in New Orleans is to tour all the cemeteries. I always stop and see the tomb of the Voudou Queen, Marie Laveau, and then I will head to her namesake tourist shop on Bourbon St. where you can pick up all kind of mojo trinkets and souvenirs. In honor of my old New Orleans traditions I am naming this one my Mojo Banana’s Foster Jam. When I made it before, as just the Banana Rum Jam, I mentioned that bananas are associated with fertility, potency and prosperity and are most often associated with a masculine energy as opposed to feminine energy. A good internet search will show that women in Hawaii were once forbidden to eat bananas, by law, go figure. I substituted some of the sugar with brown sugar and added a bit of cinnamon. The cinnamon is for power and spirituality and any kind of sugar is for love, of course! Remember to keep your thoughts and intentions clear in your mind when you are crafting your delicacies. A little mood music playing in the background and a candle or two lit near your workspace can make for a great Jammin session and some tasty treats.

Mojo Banana’s Foster Jam

3 ¾ cups peeled and diced ripe bananas (about 9 medium)

6 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon Fruit Fresh (or you can use antioxidant crystals or ascorbic acid crystals)

3 cups granulated sugar

2 cups light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

1 3oz pouch liquid pectin

1 ½ teaspoons rum extract

Preheat canner and prepare jars and lids. In an 8 qt pan combine the bananas, lemon juice and Fruit Fresh. Stir in the sugars, butter and cinnamon. Over med-low heat, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the sugars are completely dissolved. Increase the heat to med-high and bring to full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in the entire contents of the pectin pouch. Return the mixture to a full rolling boil and boil, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.

Remove pan from the heat. Skim off any foam. Stir in the rum extract. To prevent the jam from separating in the jars, allow the jam to cool 5 minutes before filling the jars. Gently stir the jam every minute, or so, to distribute the fruit. Ladle the jam into the hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings, turning the rings until just finger-tight. Place the jars in the preheated canner and bring canner to a full rolling boil. Process jars for 10 minutes (adjusting according to your altitude, if necessary) then remove canner from heat. Let canner sit for 5 minutes, then, carefully remove hot jars from water with a jar lifter and place them on a towel on the counter and leave them undisturbed for 24 hours. Check the seals before storing and use within 12 months.

Makes about 7 half pint jars.

This jam is beautiful and oh-so-yummy-licious! The cinnamon really adds a richness that it was missing before and it tastes just like the dessert I remember so fondly. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. I don’t know if I will be gifting any of this one…there may not be any left when I am finished!

Stay tuned, I also made a Banana Nut Bread Butter from a recipe I found on the Sure Jell (the pectin) website. I will have it up at the end of the week. I made a yummy loaf of banana nut bread with my leftover ingredients and hope to have it posted to the other blog mid-week, or so. Yesterday I was inspired by a fellow blogger, Tigress, to modify my apple butter to include ground ancho chilis and boy did she hit the nail on the head! I can’t wait to serve this on over a slow roasted pork roast. It was a huge hit with my honey, who has been requesting a spicy or savory type jam. Lots to write about so keep checking back, on both blogs!

I have also created a store over at Amazon. I have recommendations for some great canning books (I have a great friend that co-wrote one of them, check it out) and also some canning supplies. The link to the store is over on the right side of this blog. The holiday’s are coming up…these are some great gift ideas for new or seasoned canners alike. Many of my recipes are in these books or are based on recipes in them.

Till next time, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!
　
　

And the lucky winner is....

So to get a random drawing, we chose to use the website, Random.org, to select the winning number for the gift certificate.  There were 22 comments left so they were numbered 1-22 in the order that they came in.  We (my son and I) went to he website and he hit the generate button...the random number given was

#1

So, congratulations to Wade!  Check your email for the certificate information.

Check back for a posting Monday...this morning I went crazy with bananas.  I did the banana's foster jam and a banana nut bread butter and they are both WONDERFUL!!!  Tomorrow morning I am going to use the rest of the bananas in a  banana bread and also try adding some spicy ground chili's to my apple butter recipe.  Stay tuned.

Congratulations again, to Wade!  Till next time, Be Blessed and Be Sweet.

For My Love Lavender Raspberry Jam

Good Monday morning Jammers! I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve posted anything (it‘s actually been 5 days), and it’s driving me nuts. I feel like I have abandoned the project, but I’m back now and with a new passion, which I will get to in a bit. As to why I was away for a while, we all flew out last Thursday to visit with our daughter and her family outside of Indianapolis for a few days. We had a GREAT time and made many great family memories. While there, we were thrilled that we got to be there for our granddaughters 7^th birthday party. We are blessed with a beautiful family, loads of pictures were taken…but we forgot to sit down and take that 1 big, all together, family portrait we had planned on. Oh well, guess we’ll just have to make it up with one on the beach when they all come down for spring break, hint, hint, hint. Our daughter has also started a new blogging project, she’s a very talented scrap booker and I was amazed by her work. As soon as she gets it fully going, I will post a link for you all to enjoy, if you’re into scrapping. We arrived home early Sunday afternoon, had a quick bite of better late than never lunch and all crashed for the entire afternoon, right into the evening. I had taken the laptop and a recipe to try to get a post done while we were gone but it just never happened, we were too busy making memories. I love my family and my life! Oh yeah, and while we were there, my son went to his first hibachi grill experience at a Japanese restaurant. He was amazed and had a blast. He wants us to start going at least once a month or so, just for the entertainment factor, even though he doesn’t eat a thing they have…we love it though, good thing!

Now, about that new “passion” I mentioned earlier. We had applied for a plot at the local, community, organic garden and just found out, while we were in Indy, that there was an opening and we got it. It’s going to be a group project with one of our oldest and dearest friends. I will post pictures of it once we get the plot cleaned and replanted. I know there is some nice rosemary still there but the rest is really overgrown, but, it won’t be after Wednesday. There is an organic plant sale this Saturday at the Green Market to benefit the Beaches Local Food Network‘s Outreach Programs (which basically runs the Green Market and the Community Garden). We hope to pick up quite a bit of our first plantings while we are there grabbing our weekly produce. Now, in addition to my blogger hat, I will have a gardener’s hat, too! It will be nice having access to the greenhouses for seedlings. I wonder where we can pick up some organic seeds? Any suggestions?

One of my friends sent a text while we were out of town saying she had picked me up 2 cases of my jelly jars at a garage sale for $1 a piece! Woo-hoo, thanks girl, love ya! Now, on to the next recipe. Last week I posted one of two recipes I did one day with lavender. This is the second of those and it was for a raspberry lavender jam. When you think of the associations of raspberries, picture their deep, rich, red color and my mind visions a bunch of little hearts (which they sort of look like) and I am instantly filled with thoughts of love, stamina, vigor and vitality. This would be a good one to serve on a chilly Valentines Day Morning, in a little crystal dish, just above a small spoon, next to a plate of pastries, on the tray adorned with a blood red rosebud, as you’re headed to deliver breakfast in bed to someone special. It really could be Valentines Day or any other special occasion or no occasion at all…how about next Sunday morning? How surprised would your loved one be? This jam is charged to keep your love strong and alive. There are several different types of love and all of them could be used with this one. Romantic lovers, family lovers, friend loves, anonymous loves…go ahead shower them with your love with this jam which is why I call this one For My Love Lavender Raspberry Jam!

For My Love Lavender Raspberry Jam

1 10oz package frozen whole raspberries (organic if you can get them)

1 cup lavender infusion (recipe below)

¼ cup lemon juice

4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

1 3oz pouch liquid pectin

For lavender infusion - Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan then add 2 tablespoons dried, organic, edible, lavender flowers. Stir gently then let it steep for 20 minutes. Strain into a glass jar and discard, recycle or compost the flowers. Leftover infusion can be saved and used within 2 weeks, if stored in the refrigerator.

Preheat canner and prepare jars and lids. Thaw raspberries and place them in an 8 qt pan and crush with a handheld masher. Add all other ingredients, except pectin, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add pectin and bring back to a boil for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and let stand for 1 minute. Skim off any remaining foam. I also skimmed about half of the seeds out. Ladle the jam into the hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings, turning the rings until just finger-tight. Place the jars in the preheated canner and bring canner to a full rolling boil. Process jars for 10 minutes (adjusting according to your altitude, if necessary) then remove canner from heat. Let canner sit for 5 minutes, then, carefully remove hot jars from water with a jar lifter and place them on a towel on the counter and leave them undisturbed for 24 hours. Check the seals before storing and use within 12 months.

Makes about 5 half pint jars.

This jam is a beautiful deep red crimson color and has a wonderful bouquet of lavender kissed with raspberries. The flavor is a perfect balance of the two and I almost think it needs and/or deserves a special jar. Maybe one of the crystal cut jars or the little patterned ones with the gasket and hinged lids. Go ahead, this is the one to get fancy with. Maybe a little square of crimson cloth tied around the lid? Red ribbon with a fancy cut label attached? Go for it!

The contest/giveaway for the $35 CSN Stores gift certificate is still going on. It’s not too late to enter…the deadline is this Friday, so you have a few more days. The winner will be drawn on Saturday. To enter you must leave a comment on the contest blog post, which you can find here, http://jamminfromthehearth.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-first-giveaway.html . So far I only have 7 entries total from 3 people. I’m sure they don’t mind those odds, but wouldn’t you like to get in on it too?

I will be making more jam this coming weekend after I go to the Green Market. Stay tuned for the winning announcement on Saturday and then a recipe or two by next Monday. I will be busy this week getting the new garden plot ready…what are you up to this week? Leave me a comment and let’s share!

Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

Foodie Blogroll

I am excited...my blog was approved and now appears on the website Foodie Blogroll.  That is their little widget over on the right hand side, right above my "About Me" section.  They list food blogs from all over the world and have over 9,000 blogs listed in their directory, including yours truly...Woo-Hoo!!!

I have a recipe to post but I don't know if I will get it posted before I leave town or not.  If not, I will take it with me to work on, maybe while on the plane.  Check back soon.

Till then, Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

Lullaby Lavender Jelly

Happy Monday Jammers! Did y’all have a great weekend? Mine was very relaxing and I got to spend the day with my honey and one of our best friends on Saturday, after my son went to my parent’s house to spend the night. We went to Joann’s and Michaels for some crafting supplies and I was disappointed to have not found any preprinted canning labels at either store. I would think that there would be something like that made, wouldn’t you? I looked at all the stickers and labels in different sections and even through all the “Martha Stewart” collection labels but came up with nothing! Humm, maybe that’s an idea for a new business? Would you buy them, preprinted canning labels that you just had to fill in the name of what was in the jar and the date made? Maybe some cutsie designs like seasons and holidays and such?

Saturday, we also went down to the Green Market at the beach. It’s a local farmers market, kind of on the small side, but VERY reputable vendors that are consistently there. All of the produce is locally grown and lots of it is also grown organically. You can get organic eggs, meats, cheeses and breads too. There are a few crafters and it’s the best place to grab the local varieties of different honeys. I was searching for tomatoes and jalapenos, as I want to do a savory jam week (and also Cowboy Candy) but not one vendor had tomatoes this week (we are between crops) and one place had a few jalapenos but not enough for what I needed them for. We ended up coming home with some of the best fresh shelled white acre peas I have had in years, they were so tender and sweet last night. We also got some excellent cucumbers, tender red leaf lettuce, fabulous zucchini, scrumptious green onions and a mouthwatering round loaf of rustic jalapeno bread from a local bakery that specializes in breads with no oil, sugar or preservatives. It was divine with an herbed dipping oil Saturday night while we sat and watched movies. After we finished at the Green Market we grabbed the yummy wraps we had picked up on the way and headed next door to the park to sit and eat. While walking down the park pathway our friend noticed a car parked next to the community organic garden area (people or groups of people sponsor and cultivate plots) and she recognized it as her next door neighbor. We walked over there and ate at the picnic tables there and visited with her then she took us on a tour of the garden areas and explained how it all worked. Let’s just say, I think there is an idea brewing around here…stay tuned! Anyway, the neighbor had harvested a couple of bags of items from her plot and gifted me with a nice bag of peppers (she didn’t mention what kind) and a few green bell peppers. After hugging her neck, and promising to send along my recipe for pickled green tomatoes (I have had them before but never made them myself), we headed back to our house and feasted on huge baked potatoes, a wonderful fresh salad and the bread and dipping oil and watched movies till after midnight. It was a great day!

Last night I made the peas and sautéed the zucchini in some olive oil with salt and pepper. I also broiled, very rare, a London broil that I shaved paper thin with the electric knife and we almost finished the jalapeno bread and oil. I had some yellow squash in the fridge that was grown conventionally and bought from the grocery store and for some reason I stopped when I pulled it out and decided that instead of my normal yellow and green sauté medley I would not mix them and go with just the zucchini from the Green Market. I thought that if I was going to add anything to the zucchini, it would only be items from Saturday’s adventure so I decided to add some of those peppers that I was gifted. They were smallish, about 2 inches, or so, long and mostly yellowish in color. I pulled out about 4 of them and decided that I would de-vein them and not use the seeds, which was a good thing. I nibbled the end just a few seconds before the burning started on my hands and my tongue AND lips were now too, on fire! WOWZERS…these little babies are hot. I ended up only cutting up 1 of them, I only wanted an essence of heat and wanted the full flavor of the olive oil and the zucchini to stand out. I also chopped one of the green bell peppers she gave me and tossed it in. Let me tell you, when we took the first bite, we both moaned out loud. I don’t think it was a conscious thing it just sorta happened. It was freakin awesome! The zucchini were so mild and smooth and were perfectly tender. The sea salt and cracked pepper amounts were perfect. I didn’t think about getting a picture, it was beautiful and brilliant and I could have shown you BUT all I could think about was devouring it! There are just enough of it and the peas left for tomorrow night for leftovers. I think I will cut a pepper up to heat with the peas and maybe a corn muffin with another one of the sweet bell peppers diced into the batter. Yum! I plan to go ahead and try my recipe for Cowboy Candy with those little hot peppers, even though they aren’t jalapenos. Maybe I’ll call them Cowgirl Candy! I will post that recipe later this week over on my other page for non-canning recipes at http://frommyhearthtoyourhearth.blogspot.com/ . Remember, you have to leave one comment for each entry are making on that post. You still have time…Good luck! I haven’t decided whether to let my son pull a number out of a hat or if I will use random dot org. I’ll decide that later.

I realized that I had an abundance of lavender left from my last project and it was still nice and fresh. I made sure it was organically grown and meant for consumption before I used it. It was actually purchased in the spice section at the Fresh Market. Last week I looked for recipes using lavender and found 2 that I had everything I needed, except jars. I picked up some jars…well, actually the “Canning Fairy” left a case of them on the counter for me after I mentioned that I needed them. I love my fairy! The first one I did that day was a plain lavender jelly. This was my first time making something called jelly as opposed to jam or butter! I read the recipe and considered it just like making jam. In some recipes I have seen you have to drain it through a jelly bag for a specific length of time but this recipe did not call for that. I thought, this sounds like a pretty simple one, so I gave it a try.

Lavender is associated with love, protection and sleep as we saw in the Relaxing Peach Lavender Jam a few batches ago. It is also known for its peaceful properties, concentration, and tranquility. This would be good as a midnight snack on a piece of toast. In thinking about whether or not I wanted butter on my toast with this jelly or not, I all of a sudden remembered something that was done around my Grannie’s table, mostly. She, and others, would, as soon as their plates were empty, smear a teaspoon or so of butter or margarine on the edge of the plate and then take a big spoon of whatever jam or jelly would be sitting there and stir it into the butter. It always looked gross to me but it was really good on a warm biscuit. The jelly (or jam) would kind of be warm as the butter mixed with it would melt throughout it. It was a light layer, not a lot of it, or it may not have melted through. It was really good, especially with her blackberry or muscadine jams. I haven’t done that in years and don’t think I have ever seen anyone else do it either. I will make a point to do it the next time I have hot biscuits (which, sadly I did not inherit the biscuit making gene in the family, one of my male first cousins did. I buy frozen and bake them). Anyway, I am naming this one my Lullaby Lavender Jelly. It will help set the tone for a night of wonderful rest and peaceful dreams. Ya know, for years we kept a blue sachet bag of lavender tied to the bed post of my son’s bed?

Lullaby Lavender Jelly

3 ½ cups filtered water

¾ cup dried lavender flowers (organic, consumable)

¼ cup lemon juice

1 - 2 pouches liquid pectin

4 cups sugar

½ teaspoon unsalted butter

Preheat canner, sterilize jars and prepare the lids. In a large saucepan over high heat bring water to a rolling boil. Remove it from the heat and stir in the lavender flowers. Let mixture steep for 20 minutes then strain it into an 8qt pot. Discard lavender flowers, unless you want to add them to your potpourri warmer with some water or oil. The smell is tantalizing. Stir lemon juice and one pouch of pectin into the lavender infusion and stir until the pectin is completely dissolved. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat and add the sugar and butter. Stirring constantly, return to a hard boil and boil for 4 minutes. This time I tried the jell thickness test on a metal spoon that I had stuck in the freezer before I started. Dip the frozen spoon in the mixture and pull it out. Let the mixture cool and if it is the consistency you want then it is ready, but, mine was a bit too liquidy, so you can add more pectin at this point, depending on your consistency. I used half of the 2^nd pouch and boiled again for 1 minute. Use whatever amount you think you need and increase it bit-by-bit until it’s how you like it. You may want to have several spoons ready in the freezer.

Remove pan from heat and skim off any foam. Fill hot sterilized jars with the jelly, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings and place jars in preheated canner. Bring canner to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove the jars and place on a towel on the counter and leave undisturbed for 24 hours. Check the seal before storing. Use within 12 months.

Makes about 6 half pint jars.

Oh my, you should have smelled my kitchen when I made this one. And the color of the finished product…WOW! It is gorgeous and taste like a bite of Nirvana. Definitely a food of worthy of a Goddess. You HAVE to make this jelly. I will be making it again when I get some more jars, which will probably be late next week. This will be in lots of my holiday baskets this year. It would be great with a shortbread cookie.

I have another post to make later this week for my other jam I made that day. It is a mixture of lavender and …..well, you’ll just have to check back at the end of the week to find out, now won’t you?

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for the gift certificate, instructions are included with the post here  http://jamminfromthehearth.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-first-giveaway.html .

Have a great week and remember to Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

"Pick Me"-Up Apple Butter

Welcome back Jammers! Have you all entered the drawing for my first giveaway? Make sure to check the previous post for the details…who wouldn’t want a gift certificate for $35!

Gather round the hearth, I want to share my first experience in making apple butter with you. As I’ve mentioned before, I work an overnight shift so my hours are quite a bit different than most, okay, fine, I‘ll say it, I have a weird schedule, there. A weird person needs a weird schedule to complete the whole persona, LOL,just kidding. On weekends, I try to sleep like the rest of the house does, in bed by midnight and up around 7 or 8. It can be difficult for me, I usually fall asleep fine, it’s staying asleep for more then 3 or 4 hours that’s tough. So I typically am up around 4am or so on Saturday and Sunday mornings then I will REQUIRE a 3 hour nap by 2pm or so. It works out ok and I wouldn’t trade my work schedule for anything…it is perfect for me and the activities we are involved in, from home schooling to Boy Scouts. Anyway, this past Saturday morning I found myself up before 5am and I was sure I wasn’t going back to sleep any time soon. All of a sudden it came to me…head to the kitchen and get on it, girl! I opened the windows (great cross breeze in my kitchen), lit some candles, pulled out “the” book (remind me to tell you about what basically translates as my Kitchen Bible) and started washing jars. I plugged the music in to the portable speakers and I was set. It was a beautiful morning making my butters as the sun came up. I have already posted the pumpkin butter that I made first, that morning. My second batch was apple butter. I had high hopes and it came out delicious and just like I expected.

A cinnamon or vanilla candle is nice to have burning when you are working with apples. If you put it right on your work board the combined scent of the candle and the fresh apples is wonderful and quite invigorating. I had a tall glass of the apple juice while I was prepping the apples and with the windows open and the sun fully up it was a magical start to the day! That day, I chose to associate the properties of my apples with choices (they are used in many ways throughout different cultures and periods as tools for divination), health (haven’t you heard the old saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away?), and love (apple bobbing was originally for boys to bite into the apple of his true love, the girls had polished and marked the apples on the bottoms before floating them in the tub). The cinnamon was for power and spirituality, the allspice was for health and prosperity and the cloves were for health, kinship and love. One-half teaspoon of cloves has more antioxidants than one-half cup of cranberries or blueberries. I am naming my apple butter “Pick Me”- Up Apple Butter. Pick Me, obviously is for the love side. Apples were one of the main things used back in Victorian times for love charms. Did you ever twist the stem of an apple while chanting the alphabet and what ever letter you were on when the stem popped off was the first letter of the person’s name that you were going to marry? We did it all the time…oh the memories. Pick Me Up is for a big boost of good health from the apples, allspice, cloves and apple juice.

“Pick Me”-Up Apple Butter

4 pounds tart apples (I used Granny Smith)

2 cups unsweetened organic apple juice
2 cups sugar

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

Rinse apples in cool water and drain well. Core, peel and chop the apples. Preheat canner, sterilize jars and prepare the lids. In an 8 qt pan combine the apples and apple juice. Over medium heat, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the apples are soft, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Press apples and juice through a fine meshed sieve. Return the pulp to the pan and stir in the sugar, butter, cinnamon, allspice and cloves. Over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. Increase the heat to medium and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer until thick, about 30 minutes. As the butter thickens, stir constantly to prevent scorching.

Remove pan from heat and skim off any foam. Fill hot sterilized jars with the jam, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean damp cloth and add the lids and rings and place jars in preheated canner. Bring canner to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove the jars and place on a towel on the counter and leave undisturbed for 24 hours. Check the seal before storing. Use within 12 months.

Makes about 6 half pint jars.

Again, maybe it was the day or the energy that I was putting into my work that morning but this one came out absolutely PERFECT, just like the pumpkin did. I know my Mabert would be so proud. I am going to make sure she gets a jar of this for the holidays. There is one memory I would love to create in a jam or butter, hummm. I spent most Saturday nights with Mabert and Papa and would go to church every Sunday morning with her until I was about 11 or 12. Well, every Saturday night we would sit at the kitchen table and share “coffee” together while she prepared for her Sunday School lesson the next day. I would pretend to work in my bible too, underlining passages with a pencil, like she was doing. There was no rhyme or reason to which passages I chose to underline, I just remember underlining them because it seemed to add power to the words that were printed on the page. I didn’t really read the actual words it was more about marking it up so it looked used and worked in. We would have both had our baths, my bangs would be taped down and filled with Dippity-do and we would have on our matching “Grannie Gowns” which was a style, by the way, of nightgown as opposed to who actually made them, even though it was usually Mabert’s mom, my Grannie Winchester, that would have made mine. Anyway, she would have a small cup of hot coffee and a windmill cookie and my “coffee” was actually her blend of Russian Tea and a vanilla wafer or two. Every time I smell orange and clove combined I am instantly transported back to her kitchen on Saturday nights. Her Russian Tea was a blend of instant tea, Tang and cloves…I just saw Tang in the store, the other day, too. Has anyone out there seen a jam recipe that would be close to this?



Apple and Pumpkin Butters

 Have a great weekend everyone. I will try to get the next post done before Monday, which will be Lavender Jelly…it’s beautiful in the jar! Till then, remember to Be Blessed and Be Sweet!

 

Apple Butter