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.