Labor-Freeish Day - Home Canned Applesauce and Hickory Brown Sugar Rib Rub

Happy belated labor (or hopefully labor-free) day to all! My husband and I had a wonderful day together and got lots done around the property.

The day started with a surprise from my husband - he insisted that he had found a wild cherry fruit tree near our home with nickle sized fruit. A quick ride confirmed my suspicion that what he had found was a huge crab apple tree. Despite being literally surrounded by wild apple trees, these is the first real crab apple tree we've found. I can't wait to try making some crab apple jelly once the fruit ripens fully. In addition we found wild pear and elderberries that should be ready soon.

Not one to disappoint with unripe "cherries" my husband recommended taking a short walk to pick apples. While we are working to cultivate our own home orchard most of our trees are not fruit bearing yet. Luckily for us, we are literally surrounded by wild apple trees. I ended up picking 2 large buckets of fresh sweet apples while sampling several trees that should be ready in the coming weeks.

Fresh apples beg to be made into all kinds of delicious baked goods - pies, breads, cakes and the like. I quickly put these to work making one of my favorites - homemade apple sauce!

Apple Sauce

15 lbs Apples

5 cups water

10 Tbs lemon juice

4 cups sugar

2 Tb cinnamon

Before you get started, pour your water into a large, heavy bottom pot. Add lemon juice. Peel your apples. If you have a apple peeler and corer - this is a great way to put it to use. The rest of us will have to be satisfied with our paring knives.

Cut and core the apples. Rough cut into chunks - no need to be perfect here.

Drop chunks into your pot of lemon water to help minimize browning. If you still get a little bit of browning - no worries - it won't hurt your finished product - I promise!

Once you've peeled your full amount of apples, transfer your pot to the stove. If you plan to can your finished sauce, this is a good time to also put your canning pot on to boil to sterilize your jars. 

Bring your apples to a boil over medium heat and then reduce to simmer. Simmer 10-20 minutes, until your apples are tender. How long it takes will depend on how small you cut your apple chunks. Take your apples off the heat and run through a food mill to soften. If, like me, you don't have a food mill - improvise! I used the grinder attachment for my stand mixer. You could also just smash up the apples with a potato masher!

Return your applesauce to your pot. Add sugar and cinnamon and over low heat, stir until sugar is fully dissolved. From here, your applesauce can be eaten as is or stored by either freezing or canning.

To can your applesauce, ladle hot sauce into sterilized pint jars. 

Process via boiling water method for 10 minutes. 

Turn off heat an allow to sit in the water for 5 minutes before transferring to a towel covered counter or table to cool and seal. Let sit for 12 hours, check seals and store in a cool, dry place. Makes 9 pints.

If the apple picking wasn't enough, it was also time for one of our treks through the woods looking for dead trees that need to be cut to cull out the woods, avoid falling trees and get wood for our home for the winter. My husband and I walked through marking trees for friends and family to help us take down and gather.

Athena couldn't wait to get up to the woods. As you can tell - she was way ahead of us and pretty impatient for us to get there!

I got to play with some spray paint marking trees to come down.

I found a toad hiding out in a log - how neat is that?

I think these logs with the rotted out center have a very cool look - the wheels are turning on a mini furniture project!

Athena was thoroughly tired out when we got back home!

As a reward for our work in the woods, we celebrated with another star of our day - these delicious smoker ribs with homemade rub. We're still fairly new to smoking, but I think these rub combination turned out excellent!

Hickory Brown Sugar Rib Rub
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 Tb Hickory Smoke Salt
1 Tb paprika
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp dried Oregano

The key to this rub is the hickory smoke salt. I have just recently discovered this and couldn't wait to incorporate into a rib rub. I buy mine at a bulk spice place, but now that I've started using it I've noticed it in several of my local grocery stores. This batch should provide enough rub to do a half rack of ribs. If you have extra rub, you can store it in a mason jar with your other spices.

Slather your ribs with your prepared rub, and cook in your smoker to your manufacturer's specs for ribs. We used apple and hickory wood chips in the smoker to highlight the sweet and smoky already present into the rib rub. The final ribs came out extremely tender with a nice crust.

After a such an eventful day including some excellent food, there's little to do to top it. I settled for a cold microbrew, a long soak in the whirlpool tub and a good book. Happy Labor Day All!

Jammin Blackberry Style - No Fail Blackberry Jam

I can't tell you how excited I get every year for blackberry picking time. I absolutely love suiting up and heading out to our "secret" blackberry spot where huge fresh ripe berries can be found in every direction. This past weekend, my neighbor and I headed back on our 4 wheelers to get our hands on some of these sesasonal treats.

Trekking back home a couple hours later, I can't help but think of all the amazing things I will make with my berries - cobbler, muffins and the like. However, none of these beat a nice big batch of blackberry jam!

No Fail Blackberry Jam

8 cups fresh blackberries
6 tsp lemon juice
9 Tbs pectin
6 cups sugar

Fill a large canner pot with water and bring to a boil. Add canning jars (I use half pints for this recipe) and boil for about a minute to sterilize jars. Retrieve jars with kitchen tongs and invert on a clean towel. Add additional water to pot if needed to return to original water level and turn down to a simmer while jam is being prepared.

Rinse your berries well. If you've picked them fresh you'll need to make sure you haven't got any stems or stray critters in the mix. Once well rinsed and strained, pour into a heavy bottomed pot and add lemon juice. Place on the stove over medium heat. Stir in pectin. Bring berry mixture to a rolling boil stirring constantly.

Add sugar to boiling berry mixture. Stirring constantly, bring back to a rolling boil.  Boil hard for 1 minute. Turn off heat.

Ladle hot jam into the sterilized jars. Be sure to keep rims of jars clean - wiping with with a wet cloth as needed. Place lids on top of the jars and tighten rings.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to sit in water for another 5 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before storing.

Makes about 8 half pints.

I find that homemade jams make excellent frugal christmas gifts for co-workers, neighbors and friends!

Apricot Jam

Thanks to a week off of work, I was finally able to make it to the Wednesday morning auction and market held in our neighborhood town. As soon as I saw these gorgeous apricots, I knew that some jam was in my near future. Many of my friends who don't can regularly, are intimidated by jam making. I've found though that this basic jam receipe is extremely easy to make, can be used with almost any fruit and sets up nicely every time. While you could also make apricot jelly or preserves, jam has always been my personal no fuss favorite.

Apricot Jam (makes about 12 half pints)

4 quarts fresh apricots (makes about 7 cups prepared fruit)

5 tb lemon juice

8 tb pectin (I use Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin)

6 cups sugar

 

Start by preparing your canning jars and fruit. I start by boiling 2 large pots of water on the stove. In one, boil your canning jars (I reccomend prepping a few extra just in case - you'll appreciate this later when you need them!) to sterlize them. Invert on a clean towel until ready to use.

 

 

In the second pot, place 5 or 6 pieces of fruit in the boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Run a sink full of cold water. Transfer the apricots from the boiling water into the cold water. The fruit skin should peel off easily - I find with apricots I barely even need a knife using this method. If the skin does not remove easily, place back in the boiling water for another 30 seconds. Once peeled, cut the fruit into halves. Remove the pits and stem pieces. Repeat until all fruit has been peeled and prepared.

Place the prepared fruit in a large, thick bottomed pot. I use an enameled cast iron soup pot. Add the lemon juice to the fruit. Stir in the pectin. Over medium heat, bring the fruit to a strong rolling boil. Stir in the sugar and bring back to a rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute.



Working quickly, transfer the jam to the prepared canning jars. Process the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes at boiling. Turn off the heat, and allow to sit in the water for another 5 minutes before removing.


 All homemade jams make excellent Christmas presents for friends, neighbors and co-workers. I like to gift mine with a few recipe cards with ideas for using the jam. He's a great receipe for a slow cooker apricot chicken:

In a slow cooker add 4-6 frozen chicken breasts, thighs, quarters or even a whole chicken. Over the chicken, pour 1 small jar of apricot jam or preserves and 1 packet of onion soup mix, 1/2 cup chicken stock, 2 tb apple cider vinegar. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Serve with rice.

 

 





Berry Berry Small Batch Jam

As I shared earlier, with the help of my neighbor and mother nature, I ended up with fresh picked raspberries ready and waiting to be put to good use. Jams are one of my favorite ways to preserve summer harvests all year long (and a favorite of the neighbor who helped me pick) so I knew a jam was the way to go. I combined the raspberries with some blueberries I had left over from the 4th of July kabobs to create this berry berry good small batch jam! Feel free to use a combination of any kind of berries to create your own twist!

Berry Berry Jam (Small Batch)

2 1/2 cups Fresh Raspberries

1 1/2 cups Fresh Blueberries

1 Tb lemon Juice

6 Tb Pectin*

4 cups sugar

*Note - I used Ball Real Fruit Pectin for my jam and followed the guidance on their packing for ingredient proportions - if you use other pectin, refer to the packaging for best results.

In a large canner pot, sterilize your jars and lids in boiling water - this should make about 3 pints or 5-6 half pints of jam. 

In another pot or large saucepan, combine fruit and lemon juice. Smash fruit down into an even layer. Stir in pectin. Turning on medium heat, bring the fruit to a strong boil. Add sugar and stir in until dissolved. Bring once again to a rolling boil and maintain full boil for 1 minute while stirring constantly. Remove jam from heat.

Pour hot jam into canning jars. Refrigerate.

Optional - canning instructions. If you are looking to preserve, process for 10 minutes in boiling water canner. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes in water before removing. Allow to cool and ensure that all seals take.

This recipe has optional canning instructions. If you are new to canning, I think this is a great starter recipe, however, I would highly recommend taking a look at the USDA's canning guide to learn more about safe canning practices. You can find the guide online here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.htm

I enjoyed my jam on hot buttered toast and slices of frozen pound cake. How will you enjoy yours?