Homemade Dill Pickles

15 cucumbers
4 qt water
4 qt apple cider vinegar (5% acetic acid)
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp. dill
2 lg clove garlic
2 onions
1 cup Kosher salt
2 tbsp. peppercorns
3 tbsp. mustard seed

3 tbsp. pickling spice

3 cayenne peppers (optional) 

Wash and quarter or slice cucumbers as desired or you can leave them whole.  Slice onion and peel garlic, and dill weed and place in container add Cayenne here too.  Tightly pack pickles into container.  Pour vinegar and water into sauce pan with sugar, salt, peppercorns and mustard seed.  Bring to just barely a boil.   Pour over cucumbers to cover.  Place the lid on the container.  Put jars in water bath.  The pickles will be ready to eat in 10 days but the longer they sit the more dill flavor they will have.

Enjoy Pictures to follow

PICKLED CARROTS & CAULIFLOWER

2 med. heads cauliflower (about 3 lbs.)
2 bags small carrots  
6 very small cucumbers
1/2 c. salt
4 c Water
6 (1 pt.) canning jars & caps
4 c. apple cider vinegar
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. mustard seeds
3 green cayenne peppers
2 tsp. celery seeds 

1/2 tsp. dill weed per jar

2 onions

1⁄4 tsp. turmeric per jar
2 heads of garlic

6 tbsp. pickling spice
6 tbsp. whole black peppers

Cut cauliflower into flowerets. In 6-quart enamel, stainless steel, or glass container, stir salt and 6 cups water until salt is dissolved. Add cauliflower and carrots; cover and let stand in cool place about 4 hours. 
 
Drain vegetables; rinse with running cold water; drain thoroughly. In 8-quart saucepan heat vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, black pepper, pickling spice and 4 cups water to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook 5 minutes. Add vegetables; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

In each hot jar, place dill weed, turmeric, onion, garlic, halved cayenne pepper and 1 small cucumber. With slotted spoon, spoon hot vegetables into hot jars to 1/4 inch from top of jar. Immediately ladle hot vinegar mixture over vegetables in jar to 1/4 inch from top of jar. (Keep mixture simmering while filling jars.) with small spatula, carefully remove any air bubbles between vegetables and jar. Close jars as manufacturer directs.

Place jars on rack in canner half full with boiling water, far enough apart so that water can circulate freely. Add additional boiling water if needed so that water level is 1 to 2 inches above tops of jars (do not pour water directly on jars) and boil gently 15 minutes. Cool at least 12 hours.

Homemade Salsa

4 qt jars
15 tomatoes
kosher salt
6 large onions 
4 tbsp. minced garlic
1 lb. Jalapenos
2 1/2 cups minced cilantro
1tbs cumin seed, ground
1 12 ounce can tomato paste
12 tbsp. lime juice

Blanch the tomatoes for 1 to 2 minutes a few at a time. Add to cold water and remove skin and seeds.
Chop them coarsely and add to large strainer sprinkle with salt to help remove liquid. I used about 4 tbsp. Let the tomatoes drain for several hours.

Not much better than fresh tomatoes

Peel and chop the onions, remove stems and seeds from the Jalapeños and mince the garlic.

Chop the strained tomatoes. Mix them with the chopped onions, garlic, in a large, deep pot. Chop the cilantro and mix it in, along with the ground cumin seed.

This should be lime juice in the picture

Mix the tomato paste with a cupful of the salsa, until it is lump-free. Mix it into the pot of salsa. Taste the salsa, and add some salt if you think it needs some more. Bring the salsa to a boil.

Add to qt. jars along with 3 tbsp of lime juice to each jar and put in pressure cooker for 15 minutes at 11lbs psi.

Remove and let cool, add labels and store until ready to use.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Canned and ready to use

Ingredients

20 lg. tomatoes
7 tbsps. garlic
2 lg. onions

2 diced eggplants

1 bunch of celery
10 tbsp. (2/3 cup) basil pesto
2 tbsp. dry oregano
2 tbsp. dry marjoram
1 tbsp. salt
1 cup honey

1.5 cups red wine
5 tbsps. olive oil

Ready for the jars

Directions

In a small pot add some olive oil and smother diced up eggplants until smooth

Coat the bottom of a large pot with olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. While the garlic starts to cook, chop onions and add them to the pot.

Stir frequently until the onions are translucent and the garlic starts to get a little darker. Add the tomatoes, eggplant, and celery and stir.

Add the honey, wine, pesto, oregano and marjoram and stir.

Put the lid on the pot and simmer over low heat for at least an hour, stirring occasionally.

Once the sauce is thoroughly heated through, process it in food processor.

If it’s too thick, add water. After an hour of simmering,

Once you’re done cooking you’re ready to start canning.

Using your canning funnel fill all the jars to the bottom of the threads.

Wipe the rims to make sure there’s no sauce on them, and add the lids and rings. Do not tighten rings now. Just hand tight for now. Some air will need to escape while in pressure cooker.

Fill your canning pot with water level recommended and lower the jars in.

Add lid and start on high heat until pressure starts to build. Pressure called for 12lbs for 20 minutes.

Remove the jars from the pot and let cool. 

Ready for the pressure cooker

Add labels and store until ready to use.

Simple Spice Peach Jam

Finished

All you will need:

4 - 29 oz cans of sliced peaches in heavy syrup and

4 cups of sugar.

1 tsp cinnamon

Pour peaches and syrup into medium sized pot. Heat over medium/low for half an hour stirring occasionally.

The Start

Gently stir in sugar and cinnamon.


Raise heat to medium and continue cooking. Keep stirring them often. Let them cook down slowly until the peaches have cooked down 1/4 of what you started with and have the consistency of jam or preserves. Cooked mine for over 3 hours. Once they started to bubble I turned the fire down to medium/low.


Remove from heat and fill clean sterilized jars with mixture. 

Nice and thick

Clean the rim of the jar and put a lid and ring on each jar and tighten barely finger tight. Don’t put them too tight at this time. So some air can leak out of the jar. The heat will cause the air to expand and squeeze out under the lid. Put the jars in a pot with enough water to cover the jars an inch or two. Over high heat bring everything to a boil. Go for about 20 minutes after the water in the pot comes to a boil.

After the 20 minutes of boiling, remove from heat and you can tighten the ring. When it cools, the air will contract and vacuum seal the lid. Once the lid seals let cool then store.
The 4 cans of peaches turned into 3.5 jars.

4 29oz cans down to 3.5 pint jars

Bread And Butter Pickles

Ingredients

18 cucumbers (these are from my garden)
1 cup kosher salt
8 cups cider vinegar
8 cups sugar
6 large yellow onion
4 tablespoons yellow mustard seed
2 tablespoon celery seed
2 tablespoon turmeric
2 tablespoon coarsely cracked black pepper

Directions

Sliced up all the cucumbers and put in 2 large bowls (my biggest was to small)

Dissolve the salt in a large pot with 6 quarts of water.

Once the salt is dissolved, add the cup up pieces and

You can use kosher salt or pickling salt. Don’t use iodized table salt.

Add sliced cucumbers to salt water mixer and cover. Put it in the fridge overnight. 

Next day

Combine the sugar and the cider vinegar in a large pot over medium heat and stir until it’s dissolved.

While you’re waiting for the sugar to dissolve, slice the onion very thin.

Add the mustard and celery seed to the pot.

Add the onion and turmeric and stir.

Drain the cucumber pieces.

Add the cucumber and stir. My pot was a little small so I did it in two pots. I guess I could have done this outside in the small crawfish pot.

Over medium heat until it comes to a boil.

Then turn the heat down, cover the pot and simmer for five minutes.

Cooling and ready to add to the jars

Canning

Add as many jars you can to a pot with water and boil to sterilize them. I could only do 4 at a time.

 Once they are sterilized remove them and let the water drain out. With a large mouth funnel start adding the cucumber mixture.

Leave a half inch from the top of each jar. The jars won’t seal right if you don’t. Just fill to the bottom of the threads and you should be fine. 

1st and 2nd batch

Clean the rim of the jar and put a lid and ring on each jar and tighten barely finger tight. Don’t put them too tight at this time. So some air can leak out of the jar. The heat will cause the air to expand and squeeze out under the lid.Put the jars in a pot with enough water to cover the jars an inch or two. Over high heat bring everything to a boil. Go for about 10 minutes after the water in the pot comes to a boil.

After the 10 minutes of boiling, remove from heat and you can tighten the ring. When it cools, the air will contract and vacuum seal the lid. Once the lid seals store. Let them stand for 2 weeks and enjoy.

My 1st batch