Viva Pesto - Mix and Match Ingredients for Non-Traditional Pesto

Probably one of the most popular herb dishes out there is pesto. I started making pesto after I began planting herbs in my garden. Even though I was cooking with them - they were multiplying in my garden so quickly that I didn't know what to do with them so I stumbled into making pesto. This led to a few problems though. First, I didn't always have the ingredients I needed to make a traditional pesto, (How many people reaaaaaly keep pine nuts in stock at all times?) Secondly - not that I had all this pesto, what was I supposed to do with it?

First I started with a basic pesto recipe. The trick is you can mix up and switch out nearly any of these ingredients. It's as easy as picking an ingredient from each column. Bonus ingredients are optional.

Here's a couple of match-ups I made recently.

Pecan Romano Basil Pesto

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup basil

1/4 cup pecans

1/4 cup Romano cheese

1 small clove garlic

Start by adding the nuts and cheese to the blender and grinding up well. You can add all your ingredients at once, but I find if I do this I don't get the find ground on my nuts and cheese that I want. Add garlic and blend. Add basil and begin blending - drizzle in olive oil until pesto blends smoothly at your desired texture (about 1/4 cup).

Purple Basil Almond Pesto

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup purple basil

1/4 cup almonds

1/4 cup Romano cheese

Purple basil is one of my favorites - it adds such fabulous color to my garden and my food!

Start by blending the almonds and Romano. Add basil and begin blending - drizzle in olive oil until pesto blends smoothly at your desired texture (about 1/4 cup).

Personally I love pesto so much that I'll eat it plain over pasta or spread on crackers, but you can also try some of these ideas:

Pesto Mayo - just mix pesto into plain mayonnaise for a great sandwich spread

Cold Pesto Pasta Salad - mix in with a bit of mayo and your favorite pasta, chill and serve

Pesto Grilled Cheese - spread fresh bread with pesto, add your favorite cheese and grill

Pesto Salad Dressing - add vinegar and additional olive oil - whisk and serve

Pesto can also be frozen for later use. Most folks I know that freeze pesto use ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop out the cubes and place them in a Ziploc Freezer bag to use later.

So get out there - pick some basil (or parsley, or oregano or...) and enjoy!

Pressure Canning Green Beans

My second crop of green beans is ready to harvest. This gives me a great chance to try out my new pressure canner - a birthday gift from my hubby!

I started by cutting the ends off my beans and cutting into bite sized pieces with a paring knife.

Once all cut and rinsed, I packed tightly into clean, sterile pint mason jars.

Top the beans off with boiling water, leaving 1 inch of head space. Process in a pressure canner for 10 minutes.

A Week of Bounty - and the easiest way to freeze corn.

Our freezer runneth over this week! Last week, we went to pick up our fresh pig from the butcher. Good friends of ours purchased a pig and were willing to split with us. My freezer is packed full of meat as well as the pork fat (which the hubby and his friend will use for venison sausage during deer season!) I see a lot of pork chops in our future.

Among our pork treasures is fresh bacon. The hubby put a nice batch of this right in the smoker - we can't wait to try it! I also got some nice ham slabs which I can't wait to try curing. If anyone has any tips for a first time ham curer let me know!

Several friends have asked me how I store meat in the freezer. To me purchasing meat is a big investment into future meals from my family - I don't want to leave anything to chance or freezer burn. I'm normally not a brand conscious person, but I wrap my meat in freezer paper and then store in Ziploc brand freezer bags. I haven't had as much luck as any other brand. Using this method, I typically can even get several extra months for anything that I freeze without sacrificing quality.

If the pork wasn't enough, our good friends also came into 12 dozens of free corn from a neighbor farmer who was about to toss it.

Our friends had never preserved corn before so I was happy to have them over and show them the easy method for freezing corn I grew up with. I can remember growing up - my father, a dairy farmer who always planted plenty of sweet corn in the summer - bringing home at least a dozen ears every night for dinner when corn was in season. My mom would boil them all up and anything not eaten at dinner would get processed and frozen. By the end of corn season we always had enough corn frozen up to enjoy through the whole winter!

I always start my corn by husking and getting off as much of the "hair" as possible. The husked ears go into a clean sink full of cold water. This helps get any remaining tassel off the corn.

On the stove bring a large pot of water to a boil. Adding the corn - a half dozen ears or so  at a time - and blanch in the boiling water for about 6 minutes. Transfer the corn to a sink or clean plastic tub full of cold water. Once cool enough to handle, cut the corn away from the cob.

Scoop the corn into plastic bags in whatever serving size your family will normally use for 1 dinner. Freeze for up to 6 months.

When ready to serve warm on the stove top or in the microwave with a bit of butter and salt.

Now if only I could decide what to make for dinner tomorrow - pork chops and corn anyone?

Home Canned BBQ Sauce

In my house, we absolutely LOVE barbecue sauce and go through lots of it. So what better to do with a batch of extra tomatoes than make our own home canned sauce.

Home Canned BBQ Sauce
15 medium/10 large tomatoes
1 hot pepper (choose your pepper to match your desired heat)
1 sweet bell pepper
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 cup chopped onion
1 tb dry mustard
1 tb paprika
2 tb hickory smoke salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper




Once you've assembled your ingredients, you'll want to start be peeling your tomatoes and removing as much of the water and seeds as possible. I use the same method to peel tomatoes for all kinds of uses (this works well for peaches also). First you'll want to start with a large pot of boiling water.

I call this the three station method. Fill your sink with cold water. You'll also need a large bowl to hold the seeds, juice and peel and another bowl to hold your prepped tomatoes

To easily remove the peel, drop your tomatoes in the boiling water. Let boil for about 1-2 minutes - you'll likely see the peel begin to lift. Transfer the tomatoes from the boiling water into the cold water in your sink to make cool enough to handle. The skin should easily pull away from the tomato flesh with a little encouragement from a paring knife. Cut out the core of the tomato and remove as much of the seeds and water as possible. 

Once you've process all your tomatoes, transfer to a large pot on the stove. Add your other ingredients. Add remaining ingredients to your pot.

Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and boil for 30 minutes. Transfer all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

Return the blended sauce to your pot. At this point, you have a nice consistency - similar to a chili sauce - and could go ahead an can now. However, I was really looking to get a lot closer to that smooth BBQ sauce consistency. To do this, simmer on low heat for an additional hour stirring occasionally. Run through the blender a second time. 

To can the sauce, transfer to clean pint or half pint jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 25 minutes. You can also process in a pressure canner if desired for 20 minutes with 10lbs of pressure.

Enjoy!

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Rosemary Sage Herbed Vinegar

My passion for herbs and functional gardening leaves me with a lot of extra herbs. One of my favorite ways to use up extra fresh herbs - whether leftover from a recipe or not recently harvested and needed a little love - is to make homemade herbed vinegars. These vinegars make an amazing base for homemade salad dressings and are so easy - if you haven't done it before , you won't know why.

What you'll need:

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 sprig fresh sage

2 cups white vinegar

1 pint mason jar

Start by placing your herbs into the mason jar. I like to use large pieces of the sprig to give the finished jar a pretty look.

Pour your vinegar over the herbs and top with your canning lid. Let the herbs seep in the vinegar at least 24 hours before using. Use to make our own vinaigrette or give as a gift.

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!

Garden Abundance - Putting Up Green Beans

Plant a packet of green bean seeds in your vegetable garden and pretty soon you'll have more green beans that you can imagine doing anything with. I absolutely love home canned green beans which I contend make the absoluate  best green bean casserole. Unfortanately, I haven't gotten around to getting a pressure canner and while my mom and grandma have been water bath canning beans for years and years will not ill effects, I am squeamish about taking that risk myself.

Fortanately for me, freezing green beans is extremely easy to do. The act of processing the bean and preparing for preserving can be a little time consuming, but it does provide a good excuse to hide out inside watching a cheesy movie while cutting up your beans!

 

As you can see, I started with a big flat of green beans. One frugal tip for gardeners... save all those containers your plants come in from the greenhouse. The double as great storage when harvesting your garden! I love the flower flats because their builtin holds make it extremely easy to rinse off your veggies with the garden hose outside and let all the water drain out.

 

Once picked, the beans need to be processed. I remember growing up my brother and I would help our mom and grandma "snap" off the ends of beans with our fingers. These days, I use a paring knife to cut off the ends and cut the beans into smaller pieces. I cut mine directly into a strainer which makes it easy to rise the beans after cutting.

 

Fill a large pot with water and bring to boiling on the stove. Drop in your beans in small batches and allow to blanch in the water for about 3 minutes. Fill a clean sink bason with cold water. Using a slotted spoon, transfer your beans from the boiling water to your cold water to stop the cooking. I have a large, slighly curved metal fryer scoop that I think works perfectly for this purpose - allowing you to scoop up lots of beans at once. Repeat until all of the beans are blanched. You will likely need to add more cold water (or a bit of ice) to your cold water bath as you go. 

 

Transfer your beans to a towel covered cookie sheet one layer thick to allow to dry fully. This is an important step - if you don't do this you'll get a big frozen clump of beans. Transfer your beans to good quality freezer bags and place in your freezer.

 

Pull your beans out of the freezer any time you need a quick side dish or to add to soups and casseoles. 

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?