Pineapple Salsa

This pineapple salsa is easy to cook up. Serve with tortilla chips or dress up your meals. It is a great compliment to fish, pork and chicken. This makes about 3 quarts. Put some in the fridge and preserve some for later.

1 pound sweet peppers (I use gypsy peppers)
1 medium white onion, diced
4 jalepeños, diced (more or less to fit your heat preference)
2 cans pineapple tidbits
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
3 tablespoons fresh basil (1 tablespoon dried basil)
3 tablespoons fresh oregano (1 tablespoon dried oregano)
¼ cup salt (use canning/pickling salt if you plan to preserve this)
¼ cup organic raw sugar
6 lbs roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

Sauté onions and peppers until soft. Add pineapple, garlic and herbs, bring to a boil. Boil gently for minutes. Ads salt, sugar and tomatoes, return to boil. Simmer for at least 4 hours until tomatoes are darkened. Process in water bath canner (I save it in pints) immediately.

Picnic Pea Salad

This is a favorite in my family. It is an easy no cook recipe.

6 cups fresh shelled sweet peas or 2- 12 oz bags frozen peas (thawed and rinsed)
1 small red onion, minced finely
1 can water chestnuts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar, pepper jack or colby jack cheese
1/2 cup bacon bits
1 cup mayonnaise

Combine ingredients in large bowl. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Blueberry Jam

It is almost the end of blueberry season. Take an and hour and mix up a batch now to enjoy this winter. It only takes four ingredients to make this sweet topping for your sandwich or bagel. You can involve you school-aged children in this preserving process.

Equipment needed:

Water bath canner
canning funnel
jar lifter
jar wrench (if you are low on upper body strength)
kitchen tongs
small pan
potato masher
4 -5 kitchen towels
6 sterilized half-pint jelly jars plus rings and lids

Ingredients: This recipe can easily be doubled, etc

4 cups blueberries, washed and stemmed
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 pkg original pectin
4 ½ cups sugar

Directions:

Fill canning pot half way with water and put on stove to boil
Fill small pot with 2 cups water and put on medium, not boiling, add jar lids
Find a space to rest finished jam and spread a folded towel

• Mash blueberries one cup at a time.
• Add lemon juice and boil for 5 minutes.
• Slowly add pectin, stirring constantly.
  • Boil for 1 minute, add ½ teaspoon of butter if it foams.
  • Add sugar and mix until dissolved, stir constantly.
  • Bring to a full rolling boil (doesn’t calm when stirred) , stir while boiling for 1 minute.
  • Remove from heat.
• Set your jar funnel in a jar, use ladle or 1 cup measure to fill.
• Fill jars to ¼ inch of rim (less is fine if you want them all even)
• Wipe threads and rim clean, this is very important.
• Take lids from pan and place on filled jars.
• Screw rings on tightly.
• Using jar lifter, place jars into canning pot, nestle within rack. Water should be 2 inches above jar tops.
• Process at a rolling boil for 10 minutes.
  • To prevent your jars from tipping, stuff kitchen towels around the jars. It is very important that the do not tilt over while processing or after. This compromises your seal integrity.
  • If the boiling ceases for any reason, turn up the temperature and begin your timer again after the boiling has restarted. You cannot over-process this jam.
• After your timer buzzes, carefully remove your jam using your jar lifter. Do not use kitchen tongs for this. Place on the towel you set out earlier.
• Allow jars to cool for 24 hours.
• Test the seal- it should not flex when depressed. If the lid pops up of clicks:
  • immediately reprocess the jar with a new lid.
  • put in the refrigerator and use with a week.
  • put in a freezer container or bag and freeze.
• Test the jam set- gently move the jar around to see if it has set. Blueberry jam is usually set within hours but ocassionally takes its sweet time (pun intended). If your jam is not set after 2 weeks, see Ball’s remaking soft spreads guide.
• Questions? See the Ball Fresh Preserving How-to.

find canning supplies at CanningPantry.com

Recipe courtesy Ball Pectin Package Insert
Photos courtesy recipes.mamikaze.com

Peach Melba Spritzer

in a double highball glass:

a few ice cubes

4 fresh peach slices, peeled and slightly mashed

4 frozen raspberries

1/2 shot Vanilla Syrup or simple syrup (1:1 sugar dissolved in boiling water)

2 shots silver rum or vodka

1/2 - 1 shot Chambord

top off with club soda

garnish with a mint sprig

Cinnamon Dolce Ice Cream

2 quarts heavy whipping cream
1 quart half-and-half
3 cups raw organic sugar
1 ½ tsp sea salt
6 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Scald cream and half-and-half in large pan. When bubbles form around edge of pan, add sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Temper warm cream into eggs, then add mixture into pan. Stir until thickened. Custard should coat spoon. Remove from heat, add vanilla and cinnamon.

Pour into ice cream maker tin (2/3 full)and cool in freezer for 30 minutes. Mix in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions and ripen in freezer over night.

Makes 4 quarts.

Vanilla Iced Coffee

With a gallon of gas exceeding the price of my lattes, I am now making my own:

1. Fill a glass with ice
2. Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla syrup
3. ½ cup coffee syrup
4. Top off with organic milk or soymilk
5. Stir and enjoy!

Coffee Syrup

2 quarts (8 cups) brewed, fair trade, organic, sustainable coffee

Boil in saucepan until reduced by half. let cool, pour into bottle with lid, refrigerate. Keeps for one week.

Use this to flavor iced coffees, lattes, ice cream, smoothies and more.

Looking for quality fair trade organic sustainable coffee?

Vanilla Syrup

1½ cups water
3 cups organic raw sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Bring water to a boil, add sugar. Reduce heat to simmer. Boil until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat, add vanilla extract. Let cool completely, pour into bottle and refrigerate. Keeps for one month.

Use in iced coffee, iced tea, smoothies and more.

Heart Attack Cheese Biscuits

6 cups buttermilk baking mix
1 tbsp italian seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, etc)
4 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tsp)
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425°

Combine baking mix, garlic, chives and seasoning. Mix in melted butter. Stir in milk. Stir in shredded cheese by handfuls. Let mixture sit for 10 minutes.

Drop by spoodfuls on to greased baking sheet or Silpat®. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on racks before serving.Makes 2-4 dozen depending on size.

Savory Pie Crust

This size covers a 9 x 13 baking dish or two pie crusts.

2 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
5 to 7 tablespoons ice water

combine flour and salt. cut in butter. mix in vinegar. add ice water by tablespoons until just wet. turn out onto board and pat together. refrigerate for 20 minutes. roll out and line pan.

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