Why Can?

So, a new colleague asked me the other day, "Why do you can?" My initial reaction was going to be, "Why don't you can?" Then my brain caught me and I realized that it was a very valid question. Why do I can?

I've realized the answer isn't as simple but I think it starts with my dad. Most know that my dad passed at age 51 from melanoma. It was 2007. I was barely an adult (25). It was traumatizing. I am a firm believer that all this cancer crap in the world in environmental. Our life of convenience is killing us. Literally. I want to be around to grow old and watch my grandkids flourish. I want Jason to be there too. I'd give anything for my father to have met my children. I'll do what ever I can to keep us all healthy enough to live our dreams. So, I can food.

My dad isn't the only reason...

I'm a bored mom and wife. Yep, I said it. I'm bored. I work. I cook. I wipe asses... lots of asses. If there were 8 days in the week or 30 hours in a day, maybe I could do something for myself. So, what I do has to be multipurpose. Canning has stretched my knowledge, skills and helped me reach goals for my family. If you can eat it, I can can it! I've canned:

tomato sauce

italian tomato sauce

tomato soup

salsa

tomato paste

chicken stock*

diced tomatoes

pickles- dill and bread and butter

apple sauce- berry, strawberry, peach, vanilla bean

green beans*

carrots*

peaches

kidney beans*

black beans*

garbanzo beans*

beets

spicy pepper relish

jalapanos

blueberry compote

jam

(I am sure I missed something.)

Items marked with an * need to be pressure canned. See more info here.

So in short, I guess you could call homesteading/canning a hobby. My ONLY hobby! Everyone needs something they are interested in to feel like life is more than work. Canning and homesteading keeps me sane. Makes me feel human. Makes me feel successful. Makes me feel accomplished.

So, what does everyone need to show off their hobby? A pretty space!

Pictures above and below were our current storage options. In cases, shoved on shelves in the basement.

After a couple of hours on a weekend and some lumber and BOOM!

All of my pretty jars, lined up to show themselves off! Better than trophies!

Jason used this dead space in the basement along the hall to the quarter basement for them. It is a great use of space. It's pretty and also functional. When the jars are all crammed into cases, I can never tell what I have or don't have. I've tried lists over the years. They never work and then all of a sudden I'm out of something.

Now I have a new problem. They are so pretty. I don't want to use any of them! I am pretty sure that defeats the purpose! I see empty space and few and far between tomato products. I better get canning!

So, why do I can? Well they are pretty, duh!

Nursing (Lactation) Arnold Palmers!

When waitressing in high school, I learned about Arnold Palmers. If you haven't ever had one, an Arnold Palmer is half iced tea, half lemonade! They are pretty tasty. As baby number three arrived, I wanted to give nursing tea another chance as I couldn't choke it down with baby number two. I try to so what ever I can to keep my supply up as I work and pump. So I thought about trying the nursing tea in an Arnold Palmer. I loved it. I wanted to share my recipe below!

Ingredients:

Two lactation tea bags

4 cups water

4 cups lemonade

1 gallon container

Directions: It's as easy as making tea and lemonade! Steep the tea for at least ten minutes or more.

I've been preferring this brand lately. It doesn't taste as bitter as others I've tried.

I like to use an old glass apple juice gallon for keeping my stash.

Make sure to tell the babysitter what is in the fridge. You don't want the 15 year old to be lactating!! Kidding!

In a Mason glass... OF COURSE!!

Pressure Canning... We Didn't Blow Up! #spoileralert

Why would you chance blowing something up? To can it of course!

To properly put up food that has a pH worthy of growing botulism (higher than 4.5), one must can under pressure. Why? Here, my favorite canning blogger can explain it better here!

So, step one, try not to kill the family.
How do you do such a thing? Just put your head between your knees and kiss your a$$ goodbye, my dad would say. Others may just use a pressure canner. Jason bought me a pressure canner for Mother's Day last year. Romantic. I know! That's how we roll on the Eiting Homestead!

It was scary for it's innagural run but in the end all was well! I recommend just following the directions in the manual.... RTFM!

Very, very basic steps for those who are curious (Do not use solely these steps to pressure can..)

Hot pack your food with pH above 4.5 into jars.

Pack jars according to directions with 3 inches of water in bottom prior to jars. This canner is big enough to get two layers in. Can't do that in a water bath. Why is that awesome sauce? 16 pint jars in one swing. A water bath will only let you do 8 or 9.

Find a heat source. We used the grill. We have a glass top stove which is not recommended for canning in general. I water bath can on it and hasn't broken on me yet. It's something about the temperature and length at which it is at that temperature can crack or shatter the glass top.. yadda yadda. But for safety, we decided to do it on the grill. Jason got a stainless steel plate to put in lieu of the grates. We have a natural gas grill.. yep, comes right off of the house feed, so we wouldn't have to worry about running out of propane and knew we could maintain a consistent heat.

Find a man to lift it onto grill. I couldn't lift it with 18 jars and the weight of the pot.

You heat until you see steam and then you wait 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes you put the pressure gauge on at selected psi based on food and altitude. Then let cook at that psi for time per recipe.

This is the, put your head between your knees and kiss your a$$ goodbye part!

You then let the pot depressurize for hours or overnight and BAM... done! Canned homemade beans.

Then, because you feel like such a rock star, repeat the next Sunday with a new recipe, homemade chicken stock!

All in all, not too shabby. Bad news, I would never be able to do this without Jason simply because I wouldn't be able to lift the pot! Good news, the freezer is no longer my only option for storing foods with pH above 4.5. Boo-Yah!

Tested Recipes!!

Homemade Chicken Stock- Pressure Canned

Pressure Canned Beans

Chicken Stock- Pressure Canning

So, this is my recipe. I know I got the basic portions somewhere...

I usually do this every few months. Up until now (ability to pressure can) I would make a vat and then freeze in Mason jars. No freezing any more!!!

The basic recipe for the stock is as follows:

1 package of chicken breasts on the ribs (my store sells in packs with three breasts)

Boil in as much water as you want stock. Count for some evaporation.

Add scraps from the produce drawer that aren't looking so hot. The butt of the celery. Last of the baby carrots. Shriveled up onion.

Also, a few cloves of crushed garlic, salt and pepper.

Cook as long as you can (I do at least three hours). I cook in my stock pot with the strainer in it. Then I just have to pull out the strainer and all the stuff comes with it. I toss the bones, skin and cooked veggies and throw breast meat into Kitchen Aid. With the paddle attachment, in about 5 seconds you have instant shredded chicken. We will then throw it on salads, make chicken tacos or quesadilla some night of the week, etc.

Here your stock is finished.

Next steps are for pressure canning...

Refrigerate the stock over night. Pull out prior to canning and skim off the fat. I was thoughtful to measure the water I put into the pot prior to making the stock so that I would have a ball park of how many jars I would need to can. Chicken stock has a pH of 5.8 so it can not go into a typical water bath canner. See further explanation here.

 Hot packing.

packing the canner

Easy! 16 pints ready for recipes!

For more information on pressure canning see Pressure Canning post!

Canned Beans

I've been trying my best to rid our family of all the man made crap in our food these days. One of the hardest to get rid of has been BPA from the lining of tin cans. Black olives and beans- kidney, black, etc. I've still had to buy in cans. I tried dried beans for a while but I would always forget to soak the night before so I always failed! UNTIL I READ THIS POST! This is one of my favorite canning bloggers. She solved my problem for me.. now just black olives. Hmmmm.

How to Pressure Can Dry Beans

You can pull the basis of the recipe out of there. I did it with kidney beans and white beans but used regular pint mason jars. With the beans I had had hanging around the house, I was able to get 6 pints of kidney beans and 6 pints of white beans!

Beans ready for recipes!

Why would you pressure can beans?? See post here.

Mason Jar, Oh Mason Jar

So today, August 17, 2013 is National Can it Forward Day. I won't be canning today (I will be drying 12 cups of diced green onions though. So don't worry. I am not slacking!) but I thought I would blog about a similar topic. My beloved Mason Jars!!!

I never thought I would find so many uses for my Mason jars. Most avid readers know I've been canning since we owned a home. I inherited my dad's canning pot and family has hand-me-downed many jars. I've had to purchase cases of jars as well to keep up with my canning volume. I love doing it and feel great about knowing what is in my food. There is a downside however. We have jars coming out of our yin yang year round. If I only had a completely empty cabinet in my kitchen to store empty jars! Yeah, right. So, for years we've been tripping over jars. Occasionally, as a dozen jars piled up next to the drying rack, I'd coerce Jason to finally take them to the basement canning shelves. Then there were the rings and plastic lids, oy! Those resided in a messed up pile that fell out of a cabinet every time I opened it. I knew I had to use/look at jars differently. So, I began using them for more than just canning. Makes sense, right?

Here's a list of uses, up-to-date:

1. Canning/preserving, of course
2. Storing salads to take to work- thank you pinterest!! You put the dressing on the bottom of jar, veggies that won't get gross sitting in dressing next, toppings, cheese, then lettuce on top. Then when you are ready to eat lunch, you dump out jar onto a plate. So, what happens? Now, your dressing is on the top! This would allow me to make 5 salads on Sundays! Nice!!
3. Drinkware
4. Storage- have you ever stored left over food in a mason jar? They fit so nicely in the refrigerator. I recommend only using the wide mouth jars for this as it is easier to get food into the jar (and out again!) For food storage that isn't preserved, I use the plastic screw top lids!
5. Giving made food away. I make lots of yummy dishes here and there and give it away, mostly to my mom but sometimes friends and such. The jars make transportation much easier and I only have about a million of them so why not. I wouldn't want to be missing my favorite pyrex storage container for months until the borrower finally remembered to return it. Also, how many people actually have mason jars in their house? Not as many as you would think. If you are one of those people and you keep seeing this jar in your kitchen, you are probably going to remember to get it back to me!! I have a rule of thumb... if you return my jar, you will get tasty treats again!! No jar return, "no food for you!"- pun on Seinfeld's Soup Nazi, did you catch it?!!
6. Mixing bowls- anytime I need to mix a bunch of liquids for a marinade, vinaigrette, etc, I use a Mason jar. Why? Two primary reasons. 1. I have the plastic screw lids, so I can shake to mix instead of trying to mix with fork/wisk. 2. Have you ever looked at the side of a Mason jar? There are measurement markings for cups and pints. By nature, I am a chef who always estimates. This helps with accuracy of my estimates!
7. Bubble jar for the kids. Their wands fit perfectly.
8. Baking- a few Thanksgivings ago... they were delicious!
9. Gifts- a few Christmases ago, I made those "cookie mix in a jar" gifts. You know the holiday gesture gifts for colleagues and friends, etc. It was great. $9 for a dozen jars ( I think I did 12?) and $10 for flour, sugar, choc. chips, brown sugar and I had 12 gifts. Of course, there was a cute label (wish I had a picture) that said, "Cookies for Santa, All our love, The Eitings." You're welcome, if you received one!!
10. Shaking homemade lemonade- don't forget the measurement on the side of the jar. No one will know if you are measuring lemon juice or cherry vodka... wait, what? Vodka in cherry Pepsi!! Said who? Shhhh!
Please leave a comment if you've seen me use them in a way I forgot to list!

After looking at how I use the jars differently I realized that they kind of define who I am. My mascot, if you will! They don't define me in my entirety but if you know me I am sure canning, freezing, jamming, saucing, comes to mind. Since we now use jars on a daily basis I put out an APB on anyone in the family with blue jars that they weren't using and I found 4 down the road at a yard sale with the original style lids for $10. My canisters on my counter were getting very old and the seals weren't working any more. Not to mention, I hated looking at them. So, I replaced my old silver canister set with some blue Ball jars. I think they fit very nicely in MY kitchen!

My jars! What's in my jars... dried cherries, coconut, raw sugar, corn starch, quinoa.

This year is also the 100 year anniversary of Ball so they have put out anniversary pint size blue jars. I treated myself to a 6 pack to use as drinkware!

I wonder how I'll use them tomorrow!!

A few Ball/Mason links I like!! Happy National Can it Forward Day 2013!

Ball's Pinterest
Ball Recipe Facebook
My Canning Bible- I think my dad bought it for me! I have the edition with the blue cover though!
My "Canning" Pinterest Board
Our Family Almanac of Preserving/Growing/Storing!- this won't fully be up-to-date until I do an inventory of the freezer after the garden is complete!!

Second row.. sliced almonds, wheat germ, pine nuts, dried parsley and whole almonds.