Canning Chicken

Are you intimidated by pressure canning?  I know I am!  My little sister has recently been canning meat, though, and I'm starting to think maybe I can do it too.  One reason my sister likes to can meat is that they often have ice storms where she lives and they can be without power for a week or more at a time.  Canned meat won't go bad if your freezer defrosts!  Here's a link she posted to a YouTube video that makes it all look so easy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fINnsFJGyKU

My niece also recently posted a recipe on facebook that she uses to can pork.  She calls it Chili Verde.  She just opens a bottle and uses it as enchilada filling.  How cool is that?!?  Homemade taste, health benefits, and economy with store bought convenience! 

Chili Verde
3 lbs boneless pork – cubed
1 Tbsp oil
1 onion – chopped
6 cloves garlic –chopped
1 Tbsp fresh oregano
2 jalapeños – chopped
8 oz whole green chilies – chopped (I have used up to 4 whole chilies per batch)
3 c beef stock

Sautee onion, garlic, and jalapeños in the oil till onion melts. In a stock pot brown the pork with a splash of oil. Once it is browned on all sides add sautéed mixture. Add green chilies and beef stock. Bring to boil. Reduce to lowest setting and simmer, partially covered for 2 ½ hours. Add water if needed as it evaporates. Simmer till it reduces and pork easily breaks apart.

Process jars in small pints at 15 pounds of pressure for 1 hour and 15 min or 1 hour 30 min for quarts. When ready, open the jar and use as filling for tamales, enchiladas, tacos, salad, quesadillas or serve with beans and rice on the side. Amazing!

WHEN TO PRESSURE CAN
You should use a pressure canner whenever what you're preserving is low in acid.  Fruit and tomatoes are high in acid and so can be done in a water bath canner.  Always be sure to add all acid (lemon juice or vinegar) your recipe calls for.  You can do vegetables in a water bath canner if they are pickled. 

Things you can do in a pressuer canner:
Beans (legumes)
Meat
All vegetables

SAFETY FIRST!
You should take your pressure canner lid (they only need the lid) down to the County Extension Office once a year to have the pressure guage tested.  You can also pick up charts of processing times for your elevation.  They're phone number is 256-2828.

Here's a link to the chart on their website: (scroll down to pages 3 & 4 for processing times and elevation by county seat for Montana)

http://msuextension.org/publications/HomeHealthandFamily/MT200905HR.pdf

Here's a good one on canning meat, fish, and poultry:

http://msuextension.org/publications/HomeHealthandFamily/MT200903HR.pdf

Here's their page that has tons of useful home canning links:

http://www.msuextension.org/nutrition/Food%20Pres.html

Happy canning!!

Freezing Tomatoes

I just picked my first 2 tomatoes from my garden. You know how as your tomatoes ripen, you often have more tomatoes than you can eat, put not enough to preserve?  Or maybe you have some ripe tomatoes but no time to use them.

Last year at the Stake Relief Society "What To Do With Your Garden" seminar we held, Jodi Gorham gave us one of my favorite tips ever.  She told us you can freeze a whole tomato and use it later. Here's how:

1. Wash a whole tomato well.

 2. Pop it in a baggie. Just leave the stem on, and don't forget to label the bag.

3. Now sometime in January or February when you need a tomato for a recipe, pull out your frozen tomato.

4. Run it under warm water.

5. The skin will now slip off easily.

6. You can now crush , dice, or use the tomato whole.

7.  You can use the tomato in any recipe that calls for cooked tomatoes. They are also great in soup.

Last summer, I froze about a dozen tomatoes this way. They were wonderful to have on hand and I had used them all within a couple of months. I definitely plan on freezing a lot more this way this summer!

Juice Steamers

Did your grandma have one of these? Mine did! This is a handy item known as a juice steamer. It is used to extract juice from fruit and vegetables. Steamers can be expensive when purchased new, but you often see them at garage sales, estate sales, and on various online sites at a reasonable price. I've also seen them for sale at various hardware stores around Billings.

For years, my neighbor had an apple tree growing next to our mutual fence that dropped apples all over my lawn. It was aggravating--they had to be picked up before we mowed, and they were not great tasting apples.

Then I got a juice steamer, and turned those apples into delicious, fresh apple juice. Wouldn't you know it, the very next summer my neighbor cut down his apple tree.


. The steamer consists of three pots: the bottom pot for boiling water (right), the middle pot where the extracted juice collects (center), and the strainer/top pot where the fruit is placed (left).


Today I'm making rhubarb watermelon juice. I have a large rhubarb growing in my garden,

and a small watermelon leftover from a reunion.


I cubed the unpeeled rhubarb, cut off the rind and chunked the watermelon, and put them in the strainer. You generally don't need to peel or seed your fruit. Watermelon rind is one of the few things that leaves a distinctive flavor I don't care for. You can also add sugar or spices at this point if needed. Add water to the bottom pot and bring to a boil. Put the middle pot on top of the boiling water and the strainer with fruit on top of the middle pot. Do not let the water boil dry. Steam fruit until it appears dry. As the fruit steams, it drips into the middle pot as pure juice.

Now you have juice which you can drink after chilling, or make into syrup, or jelly or jam, or use as flavoring in other desserts. The booklet that came with my steamer has lots of recipes and ideas. Now that I don't have apples falling in my yard, I use my steamer mainly for the grapes and plums from my garden. You can also steam peaches, cherries, berries, tomatoes,--just about any fruit or vegetable you want.

Freezing Avocados

I usually buy avocados in a bag to get a better deal. Sometimes, I don't use the bag before the avocados become overripe. I discovered that avocados freeze well. Who knew?

Here's how to freeze an avocado:

Pick avocados that yield gently when squeezed. Remove the rind and pit and mash well with a fork.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice per avocado.
Mix well. The juice keeps the avocado from getting brown and icky looking.

Put the avocado in a labeled bag and freeze. Defrost overnight in fridge and use as a sandwich spread, taco topping, guacamole recipe, or any other way you like your avocado. You won't be able to tell it isn't fresh and you'll always have avocados on hand!

Recipes from the Garden

The garden is fading quickly and if you have tomatoes in your garden to use,

here is great recipe from Jodi Gorham:

Need something to do with a bumper crop of tomatoes? Try making jam. It sounds weird, but it's tasty, easy to make, and relatively inexpensive. My kids eat this jam and like it, of course I let them believe that it's Raspberry Jam; they have no idea that it's mostly tomatoes. Allrecipes.com has some recipes that are similar to this one (Budget Berry Jam and Green Tomato Raspberry Jam) that call for green tomatoes. That might be interesting to try too. Happy jamming!
Tomato Jam

4 C peeled tomatoes in a small dice
1 Tbsp lemon juice
4 C sugar
1 large box raspberry Jello
To make peeling the tomatoes easier, put 2 or 3 tomatoes in very hot water for about one minute so that the peel will just pull off:

Boil for a minute until you see the peel split.

The tomato peel will slip off easily at this point.

Take the hard core out of the peeled tomatoes (and the seeds if you want). You'll end up mainly using the outside flesh of the tomatoes. Dice the tomatoes. Stir together all ingredients but the Jello. Boil for 20 minutes. Take mixture off of the heat and stir in Jello. Stir until dissolved. Pour jam into hot jars and seal. Water bath them in boiling water (water should cover the tops of the jars by about 1 inch) for 15 minutes.