Posts Tagged ‘canning’
Vintage Illustrations from Grandma’s Stuff: Part 1
Remember a while back when I went through Grandma’s stuff? We’ll, I’ve been stashing a few items away to share! I’ve got a series of three different vintage illustration styles I found in her old cookbooks and collection of recipes.
I’ve been really excited about sharing these with you all! Some of them are more “playful” than others but to start us out, I thought the illustrations about canning were a great way to finish up our summer canning for 2011 and start off this new series of illustrations.
Enjoy!
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Canning with Grandma: Tomato Soup & MORE!
Ok so it’s confession time. Everyone is asking me where I got ALL my tomatoes to can with and as much as I would like to brag about my over abundance of tomatoes I have to be honest and say… I bought them. Our tomatoes this year are doing terrible and I struggled with purchasing tomatoes because in my book the expense of having a garden plus having to buy more veggies on top sorta cancels any amount of money I would save! But… after much debate I just kept thinking it’s more about the quality of the food I am feeding my family. I don’t know about you but I’m all about quick and healthy meals. My goal this year was to get us eating as “raw” foods as possible so that goal to me was worth the extra expense of buying our own tomatoes to can vs. purchasing store-bought salsa, tomato juice/soup, pizza sauce, etc.
Now, I will say that I purchased my tomatoes from a farmer (wearing overalls) who has a produce stand at a near by intersection. When I went to write out the check it was made to George Williams. Ok, that wasn’t really his name but it was something like that. An old farmer name is what it was and I thought it was ohh so wonderful and worth EVERY penny! 
So without further ado, here is the recipe I am the most excited about from this summer’s canning adventures. It’s something I can use as a quick soup, homemade Bloody Marys (to go with Leslie’s pickled green beans, in chili, on pasta, and anything else you can think of! It’s ohh so good and oh so worth the time (even if you can’t can it you can still cook it for dinner)!
Canning with Amanda: Homemade Pizza Sauce
This canning experience was something a little new for me. Usually I try and pull from an old book or trusted friend (like Leslie’s Pickled Green Beans) but I had a hard time finding recipes for canning pizza sauce. I finally found one online that I adapted to match Cale and I’s love for spicy food and called in the best assistant known around town, our lovely friend Amanda.
For those of you new to the blog Amanda lived with us last summer as she was finishing up an internship. She just graduated from college in May and is actually getting married to Gavin (who makes beautiful furniture) in only a few short weeks! I couldn’t think of a better way to alleviate wedding stress than slaving over a hot stove with a favorite girlfriend. Now that is true friendship people!
Canning with Leslie: Pickled Green Beans
Ok so you all know last year my canning series titled “Canning with Grandma“? We’ll this year I’m continuing that series with some of my close family and friends! It turns out I still have SEVERAL jars of last summers’ pickles so my goal this summer was to come up with several fun and “functional” recipes that I could guarantee would be gone before next summer!
My friend Leslie left her job almost a year ago to start her own catering business; Out of the Box Cooking. She’s the type of gal who’s a professional and full-time mom that somehow seems to keep it all together (so it seems! 
)! A fellow gardener herself she enjoys canning her fresh veggies and was simply thrilled to share one of her favorite recipes.
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Garden Finds: Canning Jars
1, and 3) Weck Canning Jars 2) Terrain 4) Overstock.com 5) Target.com 6) Container Store 7) Crate&Barrel
2011 Garden Checklist: June
When your sleeping with the windows down and the sounds of frogs at night you know it’s officially summer time! It’s that time of year where you can almost sense the excitement in the cool night air…and that’s not JUST from the kids being home from school! Meg’s Birthday is in June so we always enjoy fresh strawberry shortcake (I swear that girl could eat strawberries everyday!) and we also get to FINALLY start enjoying the fruits of our labor. So get ready folks…it’s almost harvest time!
Canning With Grandma Part 3: Chunky Tomato Salsa
If you’re ever invited to dinner with the Lopps 9 times out of 10 we’ll probably be having tacos, taco salads, fajitas, tostados and any other way we can throw meat on a tortilla. Of course no Mexican dish is complete without salsa and since I can eat salsa by the spoonfuls I’m canning salsa like a squirrel hordes acorns for the winter! 
Canning with Grandma Part 2: Pickles
Cale loves Kosher Dill pickles. Unlike the the sweet Bread-and-Butter Pickles he likes the old school sour ones and eats them like french fries. As a fun surprise and a way to save the mound of cucumbers growing on my kitchen counter I decided to grab Grandma’s expertise and try my hand at pickling!
Canning with Grandma Part 1: Plumb Jam
To Jam or Jelly that is the question? For me (Meg) it personally came down to two arguments; convenience and preference. Similar to yogurt with fruit chunks, jams tend to include pieces of the fruit instead of a more blended texture. Since jelly is made from extracting fruit juices, most people prefer making jelly with seed based fruits, like blackberries, to ensure there are no seeds in their jelly.
Personally, I happen to like fruit chunks (call me weird) and my Grandma thinks it’s a little easier to boil down the fruit and sift through a food strainer/sauce maker instead of extracting the fruit juice with cheesecloth. In other words, we went for the plumb jam.
High class design in overalls. It's the simple life of a farm through the eyes of a couple of crazy designers. We call ourselves Green Couch Design and we are Bringing Design Home.
