Thanksgiving is right around the corner (closely followed by Christmas, but shhhhh. . . we don’t even want to think about that yet!). It’s time to start planning your holiday meal! Since Walmart is your one stop shopping destination for everything you could want for a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner, they asked me to share a… Keep Reading
Bulk Applesauce Canning Session
This year was a stellar year for apples in Upstate New York–so this fall it was time to do a big bulk applesauce canning session! Whenever apples are plentiful, several girlfriends and I make sauce. The last couple of years we’ve done it at my house, but to be honest my kitchen isn’t really set… Keep Reading
Processing Tomatoes for Sauce
This weekend I processed tomatoes and made my own tomato sauce! Since my gorgeous tomato plants were decimated by Late Blight (grrr!) I purchased tomatoes from our local farmers market. I purchased two 25lb boxes of Roma tomatoes for $19 each. We started out by washing them. Buddy helped me to lay them on some… Keep Reading
What to do After a Canning Session
So you’ve canned some beautiful jars of food. Now what? Sure, you wipe the counters, wash the pots and pans. . . but what do you do with the food? In the last several years I’ve come up with a system that works for me–I’m sharing in hopes that it will help some of you… Keep Reading
Bruschetta in a Jar
Canning and preserving your own food has really been regaining popularity in the last few years. Regular readers know I really love to can and have shared many recipes over the years like my Dilly Pickled Green Beans, Wonderful Salsa, Dutch Apple Pie Jam, Cherry Lime Syrup, Tipsy Strawberry Preserves, Old Fashioned Pickled Peaches, Blood Orange Marmalade and… Keep Reading
Getting Prepared for a Canning Session
Canning is a wonderful way to create a long term store of healthy, cost effective food for your family. The whole process goes much more smoothly with a little bit of organization. . . so today I want to show you how I get prepared for a canning session. This is the process I go… Keep Reading
Pickled Peach Recipe
This month’s fruit of the Month for the Walmart Mom fruit challenge was simply “stone fruit”. (In the past we’ve done strawberries–I made Tipsy Strawberry Preserves, and Blueberries/Cherries–I made Cherry Lime Syrup) For those of you not familiar with the phrase, stone fruit refers to fruits with a large, single pit (or “stone”) in the… Keep Reading
Cherry Lime Syrup Recipe
Every month has it’s fruit, and for June it’s Cherries and Blueberries. Ok, so in Upstate NY it will be a while before either of these luscious fruits is ready for the picking (dang northern weather)–but it retail land, cherries and blueberries are filling the display cases at their low “in season” prices. I’m just… Keep Reading
Tipsy Strawberry Preserves
Strawberry season is here! While I won’t be able to hit up the “pick your own” places here in Upstate NY for several more weeks, delicious strawberries from warmer climates are all over the place at my local Walmart-and at great “in season” prices too. To celebrate the start of their big “Strawberry Season”, and… Keep Reading
Wonderful Salsa Recipe
Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner, and although as far as I know I don’t have a speck of Mexican blood in me I do like an excuse to cook a thematic Mexican meal! And to me (and I would hazard to guess most Americans) the first food that comes to mind when… Keep Reading
