Each Saturday, I dig through the Food in Jars Flickr pool and feature some of your photographs here in this space. If you’d like to see your hard work on the blog, please add your images to the group! And just so you know, Instagram and camera phone images are more than welcome. Here are this week’s selections.
Cinnamon whiskey jelly from Erin (she writes the blog Putting Up With Erin). It’s a combination of apple cider, bourbon, and cinnamon sticks and I only wish I could say that I’d thought of it first. I can’t stop imagining it with a sliver of crumbly, aged cheddar cheese.
I am just a little bit jealous of Melissa (who is also known as The Boastful Baker). She finally has a pantry big enough for her homemade preserves. Mine still live in random closets and under our bed.
A gift of gorgeously hued apricot honey jam from Mostly Foodstuffs blogger Deena, to Cakewalk blogger Rebecca. I love what a small world it becomes thanks to the internet.
Here’s a flashback to late summer tomatoes thanks to Christina of My Homespun Home. I’m about halfway through my own stash of tomatoes right now. How are the rest of you holding up with your home canned staples?
I recently made an applesauce cake with my canned applesauce
If anyone can tell me how to make those fast-dwindling jarred tomatoes last another 7 months, I’d appreciate it! It’s an (un)fortunate discovery how good homemade pasta sauce/chili,pizza sauce is with your home-canned tomatoes–apparently 40 pounds wasn’t enough!
I remember thinking in November it was a mistake to do so many crushed tomatoes (not a lot by canners’ standards, but the most I’d ever done), and I really didn’t start using them in earnest until a few weeks ago but OH MAN we are cooking with gas now! I’m also finding myself rationing mixed berry jam and cherry jam…you know you’re special if you’re gifted one of THOSE jars!
I am sad to say my canned tomatoe quarts are gone, as of last weekend. (I do have a few quarts and ziplock bags in the freezer.) I canned 18 quarts of whole peeled plum tomatoes, which I find the most useful. I’d have to do at least double to get through the winter.
I also have 5 quarts of canned peaches left and only a smidge of jam (sour cherry and strawb). I have 1 quart of pickled jalapenos and 1 quart plus 3 pints applesauce. Next year, more tomatoes and only peach jam 🙂
Thanks to 3 trees and lots of jars, I still have tons of canned whole plums. What to do besides breakfast (with steel cut oats usually), in a loaf bread, in an oatmeal crisp…?
My tomatoes are about half gone. The big problem is the salsa! It’s been gone since early December. I had no idea how much we went through, or how disappointing store bought is until now.
We were making good progress on the 142 qts of tomato juice until we pressed cider; it now looks as though the tomato juice will make it through the year. I’ve still got an awful lot of tomato sauce; the crockpot makes that so easy that I probably overdid the tomato sauce. Why had I never thought to use the crockpot? It works fantastically ! Not one scalded palm. I just cut the tomatoes and put them on to cook (just like for juice). But when they get soft enough to put through the mill, I don’t. I just keep simmering them (sometimes adding tomato tops, etc., that I don’t want to use in the jam, salsa, (whatever I’m working on while the tomatoes are cooking). When the tomatoes start getting to be a nuisance (wanting to stick) or when I’m ready to close up shop, I just put them through the mill and pour the (very thick) juice into my crockpots. Turn on high for a bit (maybe one hour) to get them going, then turn to low and put a stick across the top to keep the lid ajar. Sometimes they are done by 2 or 3 a.m.; sometimes they cook till morning. Easy, easy, easy !