What a weekend!!

On Saturday, thanks to Kijiji and WagJag I scored enough frozen meats to fill my new mini chest freezer. This haul included: 24x6oz Hamburgers (for $22), 10lbs of 8oz AAA Top Sirloin Steaks (for $71), 3kg of All Beef Hot Dogs (for $16) and 4kg of free range chicken breast (for $47) all from JW Foods in Scarborough. Met one of the owners (Bill) and he was very excited about what is in store for the revamp of JW foods. He also was very generous and gave me free packages of chicken souvlaki and Greek sausages, both of which they make "the way their dad taught them". Check them out for all your meet needs - Brimley, just north of the 401.

Then, after leaving there I raced up to Michaels at Downsview to meet the one and only 'Ace of Cakes' Chef Duff Goldman! What a genuinely nice guy!!

After meeting Duff I came home with my autograph and new Charm City apron, and went down to my new pantry to see what the situation was. I noticed that 2 - what I thought were squashes - were looking like they needed to be eaten soon. So that was the next on the list of things to do. The first one - I though was spaghetti squash - oval, yellow....-but once I cut into it it smells, looks, tastes more like honey dew melon. Who knew honey dew melon had an oval shape and yellow rind!

The second one was one of my weird and wonderful purchases from the market last week. The farmer called it a sweet potato squash. Whatever it was it was DELISH! I roasted it flesh up with butter and maple syrup - like an acorn squash, as the farmer suggested!

After that I made 60 meatballs - some for dinner and some for the freezer. The dinner meatballs became Sweet and Sour Meatballs (with pineapple and peppers).

With such and eventful Saturday I was ready for a relaxed Sunday, I started at Highland Farms to pick up a few staples - dried beans, ice cream and milk - they also had Ontario Field Tomatoes on for 99c/kg. So of course, with the popularity of my last batch of salsa I had to capitalize on the last of the tomato crops - I bought 6kg (13lbs = about 7qts). My lazy Sunday resulted in tomato salsa canning of 7 pint jars, and once again salsa juice that is currently flavouring the pot roast in the slow cooker.

For dinner was steak fajitas with sizzling peppers and onions, of course with home made taco sauce!

I'm starting to learn more and more about this Once A Month Cooking - I may try once a week instead!

Canning, Soup and a Happy Thanksgiving!

After another great farmers market trip on this beautiful Thanksgiving weekend, one of the farmers sadly informed me that this is probably the last week of this years peaches. Which means I bought two large baskets to ensure that we could have juicy and sweet peaches throughout the winter. I also picked up some LARGE tomatoes to turn into jars of diced tomatoes for use when the salsa or tomato sauce runs out.

My canning stock pile is starting to resemble something out of the extreme couponing show! We also purchased a small chest freezer and hope to start to fill that as well - maybe some peppers? Frozen veggies or leftovers? The possibilities are endless!!

With a bunch of cooked and mashed acorn and butternut squash it was time to make soup. I found a terrific recipe from Mennonite Girls Can Cook, thanks ladies! It was delicious!



Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Canning Part 2 - Solo Mission

After the success and fun of the first canning I decided (with encouragement) that I could handle it on my own. I stopped at Canadian Tire and purchased a Beginners Canning Box and a whole whack of jars!

On my next trip to the market I purchased 2 3L baskets of peaches and a half bushel of tomatoes, with some onions and garlic.

Canned Peaches
I would recommend that everyone do peaches, they are super easy and taste amazing! Way better than store bought tin peaches. You can decide how sweet/thick you want the syrup to be. I wanted mine to be light so I mixed up 3 cups of boiling water with 1 cup of sugar (you can also use maple syrup or honey).

The best way to process and can the peaches is to do one peach at a time. Blanch the peaches (same as the tomatoes - boiling water to cold water) then remove the peel from the peaches. Cut the peaches into quarters and place into jars, fill remaining space in jars with the hot sugar/water syrup. If you dont cut and cover them right away you risk them turning brown. Make sure that the syrup is surrounding the peaches and that there are no air bubbles. Then cover with lids and secure rings. Process in hot water canning bath for 20 minutes.

Tomato Sauce (Pasta Sauce)
20lbs of tomatoes (about half a bushel) - blanched, skins and seeds removed, chopped
2 onions, roughly chopped
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp dried oregano
2 Tbsp salt for canning
2 Tbsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Unfortunately you cant add garlic or fresh basil, as it will alter the acidity levels and make the product unsafe. However you can add these when you warm the sauces before you use them.

Directions
1. Soften the onions (NO OIL, add a bit of water if needed) in the stock pot.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients into the stock pot and simmer
3. If you want a smoother sauce you can puree it with an immersion blender
4. Let simmer for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning
5. Fill jars, add boiled lids and sanitized rings. Process in a hot water canner for 20 minutes



Another excellent canning mission with 100% PING! I think I'm getting the hang of this canning thing.

The Summer of Canning - First Try!

After two years of farmers market shopping through the summer and fall, and then trying to find local produce through the grocery stores through the freezing winters of Toronto, I decided that it was time to try canning on for size.

Thanks to my lovely friend living back home, beside her old dairy farm, she and her family had an abundance of tomatoes grown in her own backyard. As well as lovely farmers markets near her house from the neighbouring farms. She invited me up for a visit and my first ever canning experience!

After all the sanitizing of equipment, jars, lids and rings - the jars ended up in the oven at 200 degrees to stay nice and toasty!

We started with Salsa with tomatoes from her garden, some peppers from my garden and the rest of the ingredients sourced either at farmers markets or from local produce at the grocery store.

Salsa Recipe
5 lbs tomatoes (~15 medium tomatoes)
4 mild green chilies or 1 can green chillies (drained)
2 – 6 hot chillies (fresh or dried)
1.5 cups chopped Spanish onions
1.5 cups chopped gr. Pepper
1 cup chopped red pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 can tomato paste (5.5 oz or 156ml)
1 cup white vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp pickling salt
2 tsp paprika
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1. Start processing tomatoes by blanching them.
• Wash the tomatoes. 
• Cut an X in the base of the tomato and remove the stem base. 
• Drop them 3 or 4 at a time (depending on size of tomatoes, dont crowd the pot) into the boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until the skins start to fall off but the flesh is still firm
• Remove the tomatoes from boiling water and quickly submerge them into ice water to cool.
• Once the tomatoes are cool gently remove the skins, cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds. Chop the flesh of the tomatoes and place them in your COOL pot.
• Continue until you have processed all your tomatoes
2. Chop all other ingredients and mix into the tomatoes
3. Simmer for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally so the bottom doesnt burn
4. Remove from the heat when it reaches the consistency you want
5. Start filling your hot jars, wipe rims, top with new lids (boiled for at least 5 mins) and clean rings
6. Process the jars in your hot water canning pot for 20mins

Learning Experiences
* We didnt seed our tomatoes, but regretted it later. Although we ended up with what we called 'salsa juice' which was the pint of extra liquid that we skimmed off the top of the salsa so it would thicken faster. It ended up being a great braising liquid for a roast, and then a great stew base!

** We couldnt find any so chose some small cherry hots

Results
We had 100% success with our seals - which is what I was the most concerned about. PING!!
The salsa is delish! And just spicy enough!

Spicy Red Pepper Jelly (recipe from epicurious)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Red-Pepper-Jelly-236699

We doubled this recipe so that we would both have 5 jars each. The flavour is delicious, however it did not become jelly as we had hoped. I'm looking forward to pouring it over baked brie anyway!

Although a LONG day of washing, chopping, canning and PINGs. We ended up with 10.5 jars of red pepper jelly and 14 jars of salsa. After this I'm hooked!