I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve had two copies of this book in a pile on my desk for nearly a year and a half. I’m not sure what kept me from looking at it more closely, but those two copies got shuffled to the very bottom of a large stack and there they stayed. It wasn’t until Scott and I decided to do a bit of cleaning out recently that I finally sat down and took a look at The Fresh Girl’s Guide to Easy Canning and Preserving
Once I sat down with it, I was annoyed. With myself. I’d had this terrific book sitting around my apartment since September 2010 and hadn’t made anything from it or shared it with you guys.
The primary reason I’m so delighted to have this book in my canning library is for its pressure canning section. There are a number of books out there that will help you invent delicious jams, jellies, pickles, chutneys and other high acid preserves. These are useful books and I reference a great number of them regularly. However, the thing so many canning books seem to leave out is an in-depth section on pressure canning.
This book is different. It includes a substantial pressure canning section. You’ll find recipes for things like roasted tomato sauce, chicken and corn stew, borscht, minestrone and even ropa vieja. If you want to start filling your pantry with pressure canned, shelf stable soups, stews and sauces, this is a book you should check out.
It also comes with a DVD, should you be the type who learns best by watching. I’ve not viewed it myself, but I’m sure it might be helpful to some.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that I had two copies of this book. That’s because I was sent one to keep and one to give away to a Food in Jars reader. So let’s do that. Here’s what to do for a chance to win.
- To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post and share your favorite wintertime meal. Whether you cook breakfast for dinner, pull homemade soup from the freezer or have the wherewithal to make a meat sauce from scratch on a Wednesday, I want to hear about it.
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Friday, February 3, 2012. Winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) and will be posted to the blog on Saturday, February 4, 2012.
- Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents.
- One entry/comment per person, please.
my favorite winter meal is cassoulet. using only the best ingredients, the low and long simmered provincial stew of meats, sausages, beans, aromatic veggies and yes, canned heirloom tomatoes really warms the soul.
sunday i cooked ‘all-day cassoulet’ in slow cooker which reduced prep/cooking time to a mere 12 hours!
Butternut squash soup is the greatest wintertime dinner! Hot, filling, and satisfying!
A good chenna masala with some delicious naan.
our favorite winter dinner is pasta (any kind really!) and gravy from our canned garden tomatoes. i taight my self to can tomatoes a few years ago and slowly but surely i’m adding other things to my list.
Favorite winter meal? Ham bean — ham bone and a bit of extra ham, pinto beans and several jalapeno or another hot pepper. With corn bread of course.
I love to make roast with potatoes, carrots and green beans! So easy to do, just throw in the crock pot and come home to a delicious meal!
My favorite wintertime meal (at least this winter) is Potato-Leek soup. Leeks are my new favorite vegetable.
Growing up in Los Angeles, I was never exposed to preserving your own food. I limited myself to freezing homemade lasagna or crostata. I’ve recently moved away from California and an entire new world has opened up to me. This book. “Easy Canning and Preserving” looks like it would be an excellent place for me to begin.
This would be a great book for my daughter.
Thank you.
A
I love homemade soup. Made cauliflower this morning for breakfast:)
I recently rediscovered Chicken and Dumplings. Martha Stewart had a dumpling recipe with dill dumplings that are just perfect.
GUMBO! Or corn and crab bisque.
Split pea soup, with a hambone or ham hocks, onions, carrots, potatoes, bay leaves. Sometimes I stir in some kale as well.
In the wintertime, I love meatloaf with mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables…of course accompanied by a nice glass of wine! I hope I win the book, it looks awesome
I would love to start doing some pressure canning for my family. I hope to find a canner sometime this year so I can give it a whirl. I already can a bunch of fruit, jellies and jams. . .just did cranberry applesauce this morning, YUM!
sunshine kabocha squash soup (butter, shallots, ginger, white pepper, and cream) mmm. I’m also a ridiculous lover of beets but can only eat soups now due to bone grafts in mouth. Luckily soup possibilities are endless and my ideas have been sparked by reading other favorites. Thank you!
Soup would be my usual answer, but this winter I’ve been especially attracted to things made with coarsely ground cornmeal: grits and eggs in the morning, spoonbread with dinner, and a dessert of brown sugar glazed pear and rosemary cornmeal upside down cake. Hooray for winter eating!
My favorite meal any time of year is breakfast. Preferably early in the morning before anyone else is up and when I’m not tumbling out the door on my way to work. This particular work of decadence usually guarantees that I don’t want to eat again until dinner: a just sizzled-on-the-griddle slice of leftover ham, between two pieces of grilled bread smeared with homemade grapefruit marmalade and a thin slice of brie, and a sunny-side up (yolk only) egg on top. It’s like a croque madame on crack. My husband thinks I’m insane, but my housemate thinks I’m brilliant.
My recent favorite winter time meal is chicken & rice casserole. Chicken, rice, mushrooms, & surrounded by a lovely rue is comfort food at it’s finest!
Probably my favorite wintertime meal is Split Pea Soup made with a hambone. Nothing like it!
Lentil sloppy joes. They’re done in the crockpot, and are a perfect, warming winter meal!
Macaroni and Beer Cheese!
I love cream of tomato soup. I use tomatoes I canned over the summer, fresh butter, onions and tomatoes and fresh cream. That’s it. Delicious
Stew would be my favorite, any type of stew. My husband prefers beef, so I made that last weekend, but I like chicken stew as well, with a side of gluten free biscuits.
I just got my very first pressure canner for Christmas from my wonderful husband. Came in the mail last week!
My favorite winter meal was my mother’s “gravy” that she made almost every sunday. It was filled with meatballs, sausage and braciole. I have continued the tradition but unfortunately with less frequency.
My husband’s gourmet mac and cheese is a close second!
I like to make a big pot of veggie chili. I start with a sauteed onion and a can of tomatoes, home canned if I have them. I don’t follow a recipe, I just throw in whatever I find in the fridge or freezer: carrots, garlic, peppers, frozen corn, beans, peanuts, maybe a beer. Throw in some spices, let it simmer, and you have a warm hearty meal for a cold winter day.
Slow cooker recipe: (Indian) black beans, chickpeas, and kidney beans. Yum.
Soup! Any variety really, but I’m particularly loving a black bean, kidney bean, and chickpea chili at the moment. Nothing says winter like a simmering soup pot on the stove…
Chicken soup from my kitchen. I make my own broth and roast my own chicken.
Homemade mac and cheese. And black bread, fresh from the oven, with dill butter.
anything butternut squash, but especially pot pie and also spinach, thyme caramelized onions, blue cheese and walnuts with whole wheat pasta.
in the winter (not so much this year since apparently it’s spring for winter) i just crave proteins and greens. i put a piece of any sort of delicious critter in a pan and then while it rests, cook any sort of delicious greens in the very same pan. yum.
I make chili in my crock pot and freeze individual portions. Lately I’ve been making a chili version of tacos al pastor, with guajillo and pasilla chiles.
Hot, steamy shepherd’s pie.
beef stew, in the crockpot all night. or lentil soup with ham and potato. or ham & corn chowder. anything soupy and heavy that I can make a LOT of all at once, and makes the house smell good.
I have to say that I love making winter salads! it’s a challenge sometimes – but it’s fun and leaves me feeling healthy and satisfied. I love using dino kale or cabbage as the base and adding fennel, carrots, herbs, apple, and even some roasted squash.
one of my fave wintertime meals is a coconut chicken curry made up in the slow cooker, and piled on top of a heaping mound of organic brown rice!… yumm!
Cathy B pbprojecthope at yahoo dot com
I love to make veggie chili. I have had the recipe since 1999 and use it often It has uses yellow squash or zucchini (both of which I have blanched and frozen) and one can of beer. The alcohol in the beer simmers off and the chili is fantastic. Whenever I make it I always get asked for the recipe!
Grilled cheese with tomato jam and cauliflower cheddar soup.
My families favorite is Seafood bisque. I make 2 batches at once and it never lasts long.
Roast pork, chili, biscuits, cabbage rolls… That being said, somebody further up mentioned curry, so that is what I will be making this weekend, and having along with some chutney from this summer.
I have not tried pressure canning, but would be interested to try.
Ham & Bean soup!
Good old fashioned pot roast with all the fixings.
I love butternut squash soup with the pumpkin seed oil my in-laws bring over from Austria!
BTW – I received a pressure canner for my birthday and am looking for something better to learn from, this book sounds perfect!
I love winter squash soup on a cold day. I’m still enjoying a freezer full of winter squash leftover from the fall season CSA.
My favorite winter time meal – homemade soup and bread. Or chicken pot pie, or my husband’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Good hearty peasant food as we say in our house!
Hands down, my fav winter meal is soup! Chichpea potato soup is my current fav.
I love a good soup with hearty bread in the winter.
We had a great garden last summer and I canned lots of vegetable soup. I love to open a jar and warm it on our wood stove on a cold, blustery day.
Soup of any kind, usually twice a week or more if I can get away with it.