Mountain Mama… Country Living
Given to me by Judy Yoder
7 qts tomatoes-chunked, 6 garlic cloves-chopped, 5 onions-chopped, 4 green peppers-chopped, 1/2 cup hot peppers-chopped (or to taste), 2 cups vinegar, 2 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp oregano, 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp cilantro.
Simmer until thick. Process 20 min. in water bath canner. Makes approx. 11 pints.
Today, I made hot pepper jelly. This is a favorite of ours. We serve it with cream cheese and Ritz crackers. When I take it to church on Sunday night, it goes super fast. I did not have enough hot peppers to make it but the pastor’s wife gave me enough. I have been so blessed this year. Even though our garden did not do as well as I would have liked, others have given us so much. Anyway, the recipe I use is on the sure-jell recipe instruction pamphlet. I guess the only different thing I do is that I put the pepper mixture into the blender and pulse instead of trying to chop them up finely. I’m lazy that way. I always put the hot pepper jelly in half pint jars. I did not have enough empty ones so I bought a dozen yesterday at Wal-Mart. I think they are soooo cute, don’t you? The lids came with them.
Saturday, we did go with the Horn’s to Paint Bank. However, I forgot the camera. For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, this probably does not come as a surprise. What might surprise you though, is that Vicki forgot their camera too. We did take a few pictures with the phone but I am not sure how to get them off. Well, anyway, we went to the fish hatchery, to the general store, ate lunch at the Swinging Bridge Restaurant (which was way over priced in our opinion), saw the buffalo, and walked around some at the campground. It was such a fun day.
Yesterday, we went to Sam’s. It rained off and on all day and then in the evening the heavy rains came. We have probably gotten over 5 inches. Our power was off for about 5 hours. We lit some candles and went out to the glassed in front porch. Hubby played guitar for us and we told the girls stories of when we were young. It was fun. We are still getting heavy rain in spurts. We really needed rain-just not the whole years worth in one day.
I also wanted to share this soup recipe with you all. Our local supermarket sells a 15 bean soup mixture. They have it with the dried beans. The brand they carry is http://www.hurstbeans.com/. I follow the instructions on the back of the bag (kinda). Well, I did cook the beans like it said. I added kielbasa sausage to it and a can of my homemade salsa. I used a qt of our fresh canned tomatoes. I then added some potatoes, corn, peas, and spinach to it. It is a really good hearty soup and fairly inexpensive. It is really good without adding the veggies. Either way you like it. I have made it with hamburger, ground turkey, whatever I have on hand. It is also good without any meat but Hubby is a meat eater. We serve it with hot cornbread. YUM! Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I do not use the ham powder base that comes inside the bag of beans. Just my personal preference.
I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.
Our blackberries are doing much better than I thought they would. Today makes 3 gal. I’ve picked. YUM!
Yesterday we finished the pears. Later, we went up to the garden and SURPRISE! Lots of beans were ready. We canned 15 quarts and had enough for dinner and lunch today.
Tomorrow we will be going down to Jessica’s. Sam has a doctors appointment so the girls and I will be playing with Daniel. Jess is going to make supper for us before we come back home. Last night’s menu was fried chicken, green beans, and rice. We had cantalope and watermelon for dessert. It certainly has been hot here for the last few days. Hotter than usual I think. Oh well, fall will be here soon and everyone knows what follows fall. I think we better enjoy these hot, summer days. Cold winter days will be here before we know it.
I think the girls and I will make pizza sauce to can today from the tomatoes we picked yesterday. The recipe I use is:
1/2 cup oil, 4 med. onions chopped, 4 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup dried parsley, 1 gal. tomato juice, 2-12 oz cans tomato paste, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp. oregano, salt, and basil, 2 bay leaves, 3/4 tsp. black pepper. mix all ingredients, simmer about 2 hours. Process pints 30 min on 10 lb pressure. Yields about 12 pts. I will be adding banana peppers and some hot peppers to mine today as I have quite a few of these in the garden.
I guess I better get busy with these projects. Enjoy your day and God bless.
I thought I would post a few pictures of things that are growing in our garden.
Green beans starting to set on the vine. I will soon be able to pick some of these and enjoy them.
Our hot peppers. They will taste so good in our homemade salsa.
Sweet banana peppers. YUM! Hubby and I have had to start watering our garden. It is so dry here. Forecast is calling for a chance of rain over the weekend. We really need it. Seems like no matter how much you water, it never does the garden as much good as rain from God does. I think I forgot to tell everyone what a nice weekend we had here-very cool temperatures. Two mornings when we got up the temperature was 43 degrees- then up to the lower 50’s, upper 50’s and today mid 60’s. Daytime temperatures over the weekend were great-low to mid 70’s. Starting Monday though its been back up to HOT-not near as hot as some places but hot for us. 96 degrees yesterday when Hubby came through Christiansburg. Upper 80’s here on the farm.
Last nights supper was grilled chicken, green beans, pasta salad and rolls. I fixed everything on the grill so as not to heat the house up any more than it already was. We ate outside at the picnic table. It was really nice. A little breeze was blowing which helped a lot . Yesterday I got a recipe from my friend Vicki-applesauce pie. I made it and thought it was really good. I wanted to share it with you all.
2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, 1 tsp.ground nutmeg, 1 stick melted butter, 1 cup applesauce, 1 tsp vanilla. Combine sugar, flour, and nutmeg.(You can use cinnamon instead or a little of both). Beat eggs, add eggs to dry ingredients. Gently combine butter applesauce and vanilla until mixed. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 350 for 45 min or until golden brown. (I would recommend if your applesauce is sweet to cut down some on the sugar, I didn’t but Hubby thought it was a little too sweet. I thought it was just fine.)
Enjoy your day and God bless.
I have been asked to post my salsa recipe. This is a very good recipe and can easily be divided to make less. This recipe makes about 10-12 pints depending upon how thick you let it get when simmering.
Salsa
7 qts tomatoes chunked
6 cloves garlic chopped
5 med. onions chopped
5 green peppers chopped
1/2 cup hot peppers chopped(this makes med. hot-lower or increase amount for your preference)
2 cups vinegar
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp cilantro
2 tsp chili powder
Combine all ingredients. Simmer until thick. I simmer 4-5 hrs. Process in hot water bath canner 20 min. I use pints.
Enjoy!
Merry Heart Crafts 