Extracts and a Homemade Christmas!

Hello Blog World! Hope everyone is keeping their sweaters and flip flops near! Much like the weather in Texas should be we are switching between warm and cold weather. None the less the holiday season is vastly approaching starting with Halloween today. This is the perfect time to start thinking about some home made gift ideas for Christmas. One of the things that has started to interest me are home made extracts.

Here is a list below of somethings you can try!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

20 Vanilla Bean Pods

1.75 Liters of Vanilla or Rum

Good Sharp Knife

Split Vanilla Beans in half with knife stuff into liqour bottle. Let stand for 2 months shaking once a week. 

 

Here is a picture of the start of mine, only 3 days later it has a beautiful caramel color and a wonderfull smell of vanilla! I cant wait to see what it will look like in 2 months! All of this cost me around $20, if you think about it a 8 oz bottle of McCormick is $9.00. Package into nice glass jars with a homemade label! 

Here are some other extracts that I am going to be trying in the coming days! 

Mint Extract

1/4 - 1/2 Cup fresh Peppermint leaves

1- 2 Cups decent Vodka

1 glass jar with tight lid

Bruise mint leaves add vodka store in container for 30 days shaking every couple of days. When done strain out leaves. 

Almond Extract

1 cup Vodka

3 T. finely chopped Almond

Using a food processor or chopper, process the almonds until they are ground, but not so much that it becomes butter. Add the almond to a 1/2 pint jar and then add the vodka. Clean the rim and add the lids and rings. Store the jars in a dark cool place and shake the jar every day for six weeks.

After six weeks, strain the almonds through a fine mesh strainer or coffee filter and put the liquid back in the jar. The extract will last indefinitely.

Lemon Extract

1/2 cup vodka (see above)

1 large lemon cleaned and peeled with a vegetable peeler making sure you avoid the pith (white part)

Add the lemon peel to the vodka in a sterile glass jar with a lid

Place in a cool dark place (pantry) for 1-2 weeks and shake once daily.

It will be ready for use at this time, but unlike the vanilla extract you must remove the peel.

There are probably a load more out there, anyone have recipes or ideas for other things? Let me know! 

Happy Halloween!

-Goldie

Canning and Veggies

Wow it has been a busy few weeks, with the Holidays approaching quickly, changes to diets have been put into place. Mid terms for school have been passed out, work is never ending and the harvests are coming to an end. I have taken a interest to canning lately, and have been working on several projects that you will see below. 

My Apple Pie Filling

 

Apple Pie Filling

Use cooking or baking type apples to make homemade, canned apple pie filling.

10 pounds tart apples - peeled, cored and sliced
5 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cup Clearjel

1 T. cinnamon
2-1/2 cups cold water (2 1/2 qts water if you omit apple juice)
5 cups apple juice

1 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 cup bottled lemon juice

Preparation -
For fresh apples, place 6 cups at a time into 1 gallon of boiling water and boil one minute when it comes back to a boil. Drain but keep fruit covered in a bowl.

In a stockpot, mix the sugar, Clearjel, cinnamon, nutmeg together. Add the water and apple juice, stir to mix well. Bring to a boil and cook until thick and bubbly, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice. Fold apples into mixture.
Pack the apples into hot, sterilized quart size canning jars, about 3/4 of the way. Fill the jars with the prepared hot syrup to fill to 1" headspace. Using a rubber or plastic spatula run through the contents of each jar to remove the air bubbles. Fill again to 1" headspace with syrup. Wipe the rims and place the hot lid/rings on the jars. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes at a full rolling boil. Wait 5 minutes, remove and place on dishtowel overnight undisturbed. The next day remove rings and clean jars and label with recipe name and date. Store in a cool, dry, and dark place.  This recipe will make 6 - 7 quarts.

How about some cowboy candy? This is dangerously hot and sweet at the same time. It tastes amazing served on crackers with some cottage cheese! 

Small Batch Cowboy Candy
(pickled jalapenos)

1 lb fresh jalapenos

2/3 cup cider vinegar

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons mustard seed

1/4 teaspoon tumeric

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Slice jalapenos. Mix cider vinegar, sugar, tumeric, celery seed, garlic, and cayenne to boil. Reduce for 5 minutes to a simmer. Add jalapenos at the simmer for 5 minutes more. Load sterilized jars with jalapenos first and add liquid filling the jars leaving a 1/4 headspace. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes. Makes 2 pints

Also put up several bags of cauliflower, and broccoli!

Then this was the offering for this week in bountiful baskets!

A big thanks goes out to SB canning for sharing the canning recipes, they sure do taste really delicious! 

-Goldie

Whats been happening?

Well I had another weekend full of food and goodness! Bountiful Baskets was pretty awesome this week, also the fact that we volunteered and made a difference was quite fun. We did extras by doing that but we met some great people and had a good time. Not to mention the fact that we also got a workout! 

Here is a picture of the Bountiful Basket we picked up today. Celery, Pineapple, Onions, Pears, Apples, Bananas, Romain Lettuce, Roma Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Cauliflower, Sweet Potatoes. Yet again all of this was for $15!

I had some pears laying around from the previous week that I needed to do something with. So I broke out the big ole' book of ball canning recipes and came up with a Peppery Pear Salsa. 

This is some of the best salsa I have ever had, and better yet I managed to can 6 pint jars of it! Although two of them are already gone! 

I also tried to can some grape juice concentrate! It worked, everything sealed right up! Now the hardest part is to wait three weeks before I can even think about trying it! 

On a final note I wanted to pass on a project to my foodie friends out there in the North Ft Worth Area! We will be hosting for the first time ever a Food Swap! Do you know what a food swap is? Check it out over on the other blog and be sure to become a follower of it! The first event is going to be on October 28th at my house. The whole idea of the food swap is everything is homemade, home grown, or foraged for. Anything that fits into that category can be brought to be traded for other things. 

http://nfwfs.blogspot.com/

-Goldie