Now We're Cookin' with Gas

Now this is more like it:

Four burners, baby.  All going at once.

Life is good.

Made strawberry and raspberry jam last week on my new four burner gas cooktop.  Raspberries were picked the same day from our garden.

I make jam without pectin and with honey in lieu of sugar. I generally follow the way that Rachel at Dog Island Farm makes her preserves.  But instead of 2 parts fruit to 1 part sugar, I use 2 parts fruit to 1/2 part honey. Just boil the fruit and honey (add lemon juice if needed) until the foam goes away and it thickens to about the consistency of maple syrup at room temperature. Then pour into sterilized jars, wipe the rim clean, screw on the lid and can in a boiling water bath for ten to twelve minutes.

Friday Farm

A long time family friend asked me to come over last weekend and take all her old canning jars off her hands as they are getting ready to move, and she didn't want to move them.  I didn't notice this box until I got home.

Home canning IS fun!  I am excited to fill these jars with all kinds of good things this summer.

Canning Jar - Travel Mug

Just saw this product, Cuppow, on Food in Jars. A BPA free plastic lid that you can use with a regular old canning jar and ring to turn it into a travel mug.

Brilliant.

I pride myself on not being a huge consumer, but this little lid allows me to have an endless supply of travel mugs at the ready (because I have a pretty large selection of jars at all times).  Also, the letterpress packaging is slick and appeals to my design sense.  [Although the packaging could be smaller - REDUCE, reuse, recycle, Cuppow.]  Now I just need to get a few local peeps together to order a few...

image from the cuppow.com website

If you go check it out on Food in Jars site before January 27th, you can enter to win your own.

Disclaimer:  I do not know anyone at Cuppow, they are not paying me or giving me anything for free, just saw their product and thought it was awesome and that I should share the awesomeness.

Food Swap Follow Up

The food swap was a lot of fun! It was so exciting and inspiring to see all the items everyone had put their creativity, love and time into making.

There were jams and jellies, sauces and chutneys and pesto, beer, liqueurs, produce from urban gardens, all kinds of things pickled and fresh chantrelles picked that morning in the local forest!

And homemade challah!  From another local blogger Jessica of We Gather in the Woods.

The hubs joined me, the curiosity of this event was too much for him to resist. I am really glad he came with me as he really helped during the crazy swap period as it got a little chaotic. But definitely fun chaos. He also helped in explaining some of the things I brought. I did go ahead and make a few lotions and balms....I am so glad I did as they were a big hit! I discovered too late that someone had brought home made ice cream...bummer.

Here is our loot from the night:

Tomato butter, cranberry sauce and chutney, gluten free crackers, walnut liqueurs (score!), pesto, kimchee, vanilla pickles, asian pears, maraschino cherries, a strawberry plant, a large jar of dried Italian plums, CHOCOLATE PEANUT SAUCE (I mean c'mon!). And the chantrelles....I consider these one of THE best items I scored at this swap--we ate them tonight sauteed in butter and garlic over a yummy scramble The Hubs made.

There are links to PDX Swappers here.  The next swap is December 11th, see the info on their site.  I plan to bring more potions and maybe some of my raspberry wine....and maybe my mom, she was pretty excited by the loot!

Pollo Loco swap offerings - note the little ingredient tags.

Food Swapping

I am SO EXCITED, because I get to participate in a food swap for the first time ever this Sunday!  Every year I give away food I have canned and every year like-minded friends give me things that they have made as well.

But this one is ORGANIZED.  They have been doing this for almost a year...and I just found out about them.

PDX Food Swappers  If you go their parent organization website, Sustainable Food for Thought you can find a link to their FAQ page and more info about the evolution of this event.  I am excited to meet the organizers, and they sent me an email today to confirm I am still attending.  They have limited the event to 35 swappers and there is a waiting list!

Here is what I plan to swap:

• Pear Butter (from local pears)
• Spiced Plum Preserves (from a friend's plum tree)
• Blueberry Peach Preserves (from my homestead blueberries and local peaches)
• Homemade Ketchup (from my homestead tomato's)
• Jar of Joy (from home grown tomato's, garlic, thyme, oregano)
• Green Tomato Chutney (from my homestead tomato's)
• I may also get inspired this week and make some lotion and balms to take along!

Blueberry Peach Preserves

Who knows what kind of bootie will be mine?

Roasted Heirloom Tomato's - Jars of Joy

A few years ago, I stumbled across a recipe for roasted heirloom tomato's.  The source of the exact recipe I cannot remember.  However, this recipe is what led me to the way we preserve most of our tomato harvest each summer, and I am going to share it here with you.

You begin by cutting your tomato's into thick slices and place them in one layer on roasting pans, or cookies sheets with sides that you have already seasoned with olive oil.  The recipe initially suggested that you line the pans with aluminum foil, but I find this an unnecessary step, as the pans are fairly easy to clean..and a waste of foil.

Pre-heat your oven to 225 degrees and roast the tomato's for 2-4 hours (depending on how thickly you sliced them) until they begin to reduce in size.  You can leave them in longer if you want them to become more like sun-dried tomato's.  This process was traditionally done by laying them in the sun...but the oven works just as well and I do not have to worry about keeping bugs and animals out of them.  Add whole garlic cloves, oregano, thyme, and salt to your taste.  The garlic will roast along with the tomato's.  I used fresh thyme and oregano from my herb garden and the last of my garlic from last year.

Various heirloom tomato's, garlic, thyme and oregano, ready to go in the oven.

I roasted this pan for almost three hours, and I should have taken an "after" photo, sorry.  Since tomato's are acidic, you can process them in a water bath canner.  Get your jars and lids ready and heat the water in your water bath canner while they are roasting.

When they are roasted, simply scoop them out and into your clean jars.  I layer them with fresh basil and top them off with a tablespoon of lemon juice and a little more olive oil. Clean the rims, add your new seals and screw the rings on tightly.  I boil in a water bath process for 45 minutes.  Refer to The National Center for Home Canning for the basics of all canning methods.  There is a great tutorial on Chickens In the Road. Another worthwhile blog is Food In Jars.  She is a wealth of information on all things canning, and on her blog she talks about Weck all-glass jars and Tattler Re-Usable lids...both of which I am going to look into further.  It really bothers me that the Ball/Kerr lids can only be used once and then must be tossed.

Jars of Joy

The jar on the right could have used another tomato or two, but alas, this was all I was able to harvest. Two measly quarts!  I really hope we continue this warm weather so the rest of them have a chance to ripen.  We call these "Jars of Joy" in our house, as they give us immeasurable pleasure to open them in the dead of Winter....or late cold Spring as the case may be here in the Pacific Northwest.