The cardinal rule of newbie pressure canning

With my Christmas money in hand and visions of a well-stocked pantry dancing in my head, I bought myself this bad boy:  an All-American 30 quart pressure canner.  I chose the All-American because it's made in the US and it's said that with proper care your grandchildren will be able to use it.  It also has very few negative customer reviews and a metal to metal seal with no rubber gasket to be replaced.  The 30 quart is the second largest model they sell and is supposed to can 19 pints or 14 quarts.  I reasoned that it would probably be best to can fewer larger batches than a lot of smaller ones. The largest model seemed to border on ridiculous (32 pints or 19 quarts.)

I've only canned once before: 6 half-pints of pickled jalapenos using the water bath method.  High acid foods like fruit or things pickled in vinegar can be canned this way, but low acid foods must be canned in a pressure canner.  It was a pretty successful venture, so I felt confident that I would be able to handle pressure canning as well.  I was wrong.  So very wrong.

The first time I used my pressure canner I learned a lot...the hard way.  I will now share my great wisdom with you in case you're ever inclined to try this yourself...or just for your amusement at my expense. 

Tip #1   Just because you CAN can 19 pints at once doesn't mean you newbie SHOULD.  Having one successful canning attempt under your belt and a ginormous canner does not qualify you to can 3 pounds of dry beans at once.  

Tip #2    DON'T newbie can alone.  If you are a seasoned canner, solo away, but for me an extra pair of hands (and an extra brain) would have been a big help.

Tip #3 (and this one is the most newbie important) DON'T BUY A PRESSURE CANNER THAT DOESN'T FIT UNDER YOUR RANGE HOOD.   If, for some reason you don't heed this first bit of advice, DON'T wait until your beans have been cooking for 2 hours, you have boiling water and lids ready to go, and your hot jars lined up on the counter to come to this realization.

Tip #4   DON'T newbie decide to hot pack your jars, then put them into cool water in your canner, close it up and carry your canner (which now weighs approximately the same amount as a healthy middle schooler) to your car and drive to your sister's house so you can use her stove.  You may find when you arrive at her house and open the lid to inspect the contents that a jar (thankfully only one) has fallen over (thankfully not broken) and the lid has come off so you now have beans floating in the water, all your carefully measured head space is no longer so carefully measured, and everything has cooled too much to continue without danger of later spoilage.  Then you might find yourself packing up, driving home and despairing of the mammoth mess you now have to clean up.  Cleaning up after a success isn't nearly as disheartening as cleaning up after a failure.

At least it wasn't a total waste.  I ended up pouring the beans back into the pot, cooking them for the rest of the day and freezing them.  Since we're trying to move out of this house and I'm increasingly interested in building my own tiny house, I think I'll keep the canner and just try future attempts at my sister's house or our church building.  Since it's my mistake, I'd have to pay to ship the behemoth back, anyway.  Unfortunately I didn't make a good first impression, but I trust that in the future my canner and I will become good friends!  I'll keep you apprised of our relationship.  : )

Next time I think I'll write about my hair or skin care routine, both of which I am finally thoroughly pleased with.  I'll take votes if anyone has a preference.

Roasted Veggie Enchiladas

 I want to eat more vegetables - more fresh, locally grown, in season vegetables.  I'd like to grow them myself, but I'm finding it hard to do that while working full time and teaching piano lessons and leading worship... etc.  Confession: everything in my summer garden failed except one jalapeno plant.  And I haven't planted my fall/winter garden yet.  So what's a girl to do?  Look for a CSA!  What's that you say?  CSA stands for community supported agriculture.  You pay a local farmer a fee and get a "share" of produce.  Usually you join for a season, but I was excited to find one that lets you buy by the week.  I wasn't quite ready to commit.  I picked up my first bag last night...about 5 miles from my house.  For $20, I got a delicious cantaloupe,  beets with greens, sweet potato greens, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, eggplant, okra, and sweet peppers.  I was thrilled!  If you're interested in finding a CSA, check out Local Harvest.

I think I've only eaten eggplant once, and I don't know that I've ever eaten beets...let alone cooked with them, but I remembered reading a blog post awhile back about turnip enchiladas and the wheels started to turn.  I spent the rest of the evening reading food blogs and researching.  Then I went to bed and dreamed about vegetables all night.  Seriously.

Now I'm going to share with you the most ambiguous recipe ever...because I completely made it up.  I started by chopping the eggplant, peppers, and beets (not pictured, because they didn't look as pretty and I hadn't gotten them out of the fridge yet).

Then I tossed them with olive oil and salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven at 400° for approximately 30 minutes, until soft, tossing occasionally.

 

While the veggies roasted, I made enchilada sauce from scratch and wilted the beet greens.  Again, here comes the ambiguity.  I heated some olive oil in a pan, added some flour, and whisked until lightly browned.  I didn't have tomato sauce, so with my immersion blender I blended some chopped tomatoes until smooth (we buy Pomi chopped tomatoes because they're non GMO and BPA free), then added chili powder, cumin, oregano and garlic powder and poured it into the pan with the oil and flour mixture.  I added some water and a couple bouillon cubes and let it simmer, whisking occasionally.   

Then I washed the beet greens and heated them in a second pan until wilted. 

In the meantime, my nephew Samuel got creative with the okra and peppers on the kitchen table. 

When the veggies were soft, I pulled them out of the oven, removed the beet skins and chopped the bigger chunks into smaller pieces.

 

I poured some enchilada sauce in the bottom of my 9x13 glass baking dish (I'm avoiding aluminum and non-stick - trying to use glass or cast iron when possible, and dreaming wistfully of pricey enameled cast iron), then tossed the vegetables and greens with the remaining sauce, reserving some for the top.  I placed some veggie mixture into whole wheat tortillas, rolled them, and laid them in the pan.

When the veggie mixture was used up, I poured the remaining sauce on top, covered it with cheese, and baked until the cheese was melted.

Then we topped it with fresh, homemade salsa, ate it, and it was delicious.   

On a side note, I tasted the roasted beets and eggplant out of the oven, and the roasted beets were a revelation.  The eggplant was pretty good too.

On another side note, if people are interested, I might try to make a more specific printable of the recipe.

Start Now: Plant a Garden (even if it's the middle of Winter)

Okay, it's not the middle of Winter now...but it was when we planted our garden.  January 22nd to be precise.  If you were ever going to plant a garden in the middle of Winter, this was the year to do it!  More often than not, the temperature was in the 50's or higher during the day, and there were many nights where we didn't even have to cover the garden.  I researched cold hardy varieties and we decided to go with the square foot garden method.  John and Tim built the box, and I tracked down compost, peat moss, and a huge bag of vermiculite...in the middle of Winter.

 

We've talked quite a bit as a family about how realistic it is or isn't to do things like growing and preserving our own food in addition to our already full schedules.  One of the best ways to figure out is by trying.  We want to form new habits now, doing everything we can, so that when we do find our new home, we're not changing everything all at once.  Plus, we get to enjoy fresh, organic produce right from our back yard.

If you live in a place that is warm enough (and Oklahoma is warm enough), many things, mostly greens, can grow through the winter if you take care to cover them when it's below freezing.  We planted spinach, 2 varieties of cabbage, kale, arugula, and lettuce.  The arugula, spinach and lettuce did very well, while the other things struggled a little more.  We didn't plant all the squares because the idea was to succession plant.

Things started off slow and then took off as the weather grew warmer, as you can see in the pictures below.  We've enjoyed our greens several times now.

Because we're trying to get ready to move, we haven't made additional beds or planted all of the squares, but I'm looking forward to a permanent place, more space, and hopefully, eventually more time to try more things.

-Kendra

Arugula - 20, 30, 50 and 60 days after planting.

Overall garden - 20, 30, 50 and 60 days after planting.

Start Now: Making Our Own Bread

I started pulling the thread.  Now the proverbial sweater that formed my worldview concerning food and health is rapidly unraveling.  I researched ethanol.  I read articles about soy.  I watched Food, Inc.  I became someone who reads blogs.  I became someone who writes a blog.  I realized that if it's manufactured and marketed on a staggeringly massive scale, it's likely that big money is behind it, and big money is more concerned about big money than it is our health.

I eagerly anticipate the day that we can move onto some acreage with our own well water, raising our own chickens, and growing more of our own food.  I daydream about someday possibly growing my own wheat to be milled into flour and then made into bread, sweetened with honey from our own bees - as much for the health and taste benefits as for the satisfaction of having produced it myself from start to finish.  But I don't want to just dream.  I don't want to "If only..."  So I'm starting now.  I want to start making all the changes I can right now, in this urban context, to reap as many benefits as I can as soon as I can, and to prepare for the transition to rural, sustainable living.

If you want to learn more about what may be in your supermarket bread, you can read this article: Why I Never Eat Commercial Bread.

If you are concerned and want to do something proactive about your health, you can try making your own bread.  If you want to rediscover and preserve a lost art you can try making your own bread.  If you just enjoy baking...try making your own bread.  

As much as I enjoy cooking and baking, I had never made bread before.  Bread intimidated me.  Kneading, rising, temperatures, yeast...it had an air of mystery and peril about it.  Then I tried it and it wasn't so bad.  I did what I often do when I want to make something I've never made before.  I went to food.com, searched whole grain bread, sorted by rating and chose the recipe with the best ratings.  I was very pleased with the result!  It was delicious and easy!  If you want to check out the original recipe, it can be found here.

I don't knead this bread, and it has a longer rise time which is supposed to neutralize phytates which are a source of debate as to their healthfulness.  Plus, it makes it super easy.

The first two times I made it, I used a fine flour and got light fluffy loaves.  The third time, I used a coarser, stone ground flour and it yielded heavier, heartier loaves.  Next time I run out of flour, I want to try purchasing wheat berries and grinding my own flour.

What you'll need:
 
2 ¾ c hot water
1⁄3 c olive oil, any oil is fine
1⁄3 c honey
2 T molasses
1 T salt, sea salt is good
7 ½ c 100% whole grain wheat flour
2 T dry active yeast

 

What you'll need to do:

Place the first five ingredients in the bowl and mix.

Add 2 c flour to cool the water and end up with warm dough 

Add 2 T of dry active yeast
 

 

Add 4 c of flour.  Mix until the consistency is somewhat even. If necessary, slowly add flour 1/2 c at a time until the dough quits sticking to the sides of the bowl. It should be tacky to the touch. The trick is to have enough consistency to stand up with the least amount of flour so the bread will be fluffy. It will most likely be 6 1/2 cups but in any case do not exceed 7 1/2 cups of wheat flour. Don't over mix or the bread will be tough.

When your dough is finished, cover the bowl and let it rise for about 30-45 minutes. The dough will be larger but it doesn't need to double.

 

Grease two bread pans with shortening.

Mix the dough again just enough to knock it down to close to the original size.

Drop the dough on a floured surface so you can work the dough and shape it. Shape it with your hands to make a nice ball, getting enough flour on it so it isn't sticky. Divide the ball in half and do it again. Shape the loaves by turning the dough under it's self over and over. When the dough is shaped the sides and ends will be sealed and all you will see is a nice oblong shaped loaf with smooth sides and top. Drop the loaves in your bread pans and let them rise until almost doubled. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 35 minutes. Loaves should be slightly browned and sound hollow when tapped.

When done turn the bread out of the pan to a rack to cool. 
Don't wrap it until completely cooled, as condensation will make it soggy.

Enjoy!!


-Kendra