As you know, I have been experimenting with specialty jam recipes in order to write the second Nano-Canning book. The great thing about Nano-Canning is that it takes so little time. About 12:30 CDT Sunday I decided to make the strawberry & black pepper jam while timing myself. I waited until exactly 12:30 to get…
Produce
Dreaming of Summer
Today the temperature is 25 degrees Fahrenheit in the early afternoon. Too cold for Oklahoma! It has been cold all weekend. This cold weather has been perfect for wearing hoodies. I have completed many baking projects while inside. I made candy for my mother’s Valentine Day party at her senior apartment complex. I also dehydrated…
Drambuie Surprise Jam
It is so hot here I do not want to go out and pick any fruit that may be surviving this drought. I put up some strawberries in the freezer back in May. Pulled them out and decided to make a special concoction. Here is the recipe. Drambuie Surprise Jam 12 Cups cleaned…
Stew Fresh from the Garden
It has been so hot for so long here, my husband and I have only had cold meals for the last 16 days. Yesterday morning I went to the garden and picked tomatoes, potatoes and onions. Those are about the only veggies making it through this heat wave/drought. While I really wanted a hot meal,…
It is going to be a corny weekend!
Late July always reminds me of sitting on my nana’s porch shucking corn. I really hated it at the time but now it brings me great memories. My very last memory of shucking corn with her was in 1982. She was 80 and her porch was the size of the entire front of the house…
How to Smoke Peppers the Easy Way
I thought that if I could smoke Cheese I could smoke some chile peppers and sure enough, I did! It was sooooo easy too! You can smoke all sorts of peppers with very little work or cost if you don’t own a smoker. What?!?!? What do you mean I can smoke peppers if I don’t…
Smoke Dried Tomatoes
If your garden is like mine, right now there are tomatoes everywhere. You can only do so much to make salsa, spaghetti sauce, and marinara. Smoke Dried Tomatoes are perfect when you have 6-10 (Roma are best) to put up quickly. This is all you need: Roma tomatoes – Peeled or Unpeeled and slices 1/8…
Jammin’ in the Winter
If you are not lucky enough to live in a part of the country that has perpetual harvests of fresh fruits and vegetables, you need to read this! Where I live, our fruit and vegetable harvest begins in May and ends in October, for the most part. That leaves 6 full months without anything to…
What to do with all the Jam????
Have you been thinking of canning some of summer’s bounty but just cannot imagine trying to eat it all before 2020? Or, did you really get into the groove of canning, making all kinds of jam/jelly/marmalade then gave it to ALL your friends, family and neighbors as presents and STILL have cases of it left? …
My jam/jelly/marmalade did not set!!!
My jelly did not set up, what did I do wrong? Has this ever happened to you? You’ve followed a recipe exactly and then after the jelly cooled; it looks like pretty colored syrup. It could be any number things and here are a few reasons why. Some of the citrus or soft fruits take…