Here's a Rather Funny Sounding Word.... "Cucurbits"

Here's a rather funny sounding word; "cucurbits"! This word refers to cucurbitaceae, which is the plant family  more widely known as melons & gourds!! (Including cucumbers, zuchinni, watermelons, pumpkins etc.) Who knew that?? I sure didn't! This month's 'Can-Jam' was chosen by 'Laudry Etc' .... thanks for the vocabulary lesson!

What a hard choice.... but, it is WAY TOO EARLY for pumpkins (that would have been fun) so that gets crossed off the list. I did find a delicious looking watermelon jelly recipe that I hope to try later in the summer, but for now I have to stick with cucumbers or zuchinni and the hard choice between 'Dill Pickles" (an annual event in our home!), zuchinni relish (also VERY yummy!) or the pickles that we have dubbed "Audrey Pickles"!! The boys' favorite are the dills but Audrey's favorite is the "Crisp Sweet Pickle"!! By default, since we don't have alot of cucumbers yet, the zuchinni wins!

In 1991, we traveled down to Charleston, SC and my mother's wise advice was; "Be sure to always buy a cookbook from the areas that you visit....." While we were checking out the area I found this delightful cookbook called, "Caterin' To Charleston"! It has lots of fun recipes but this one caught my eye and has been a family treasure ever since!

As with EVERY good cook, I make my own changes! The basic change that I've made to this recipe is that instead of slicing the cucumbers or zuchinnis, I use rinds. This way, I use the smaller cucs for dill pickles and the ones that get away from me, I use to make these pickles!! (Rind: peel the cuc or zuc then slice it in half, scoop out the seeds and cut the rest into bite sized chunks) BRAINSTORM: I'd LOVE to try this with recipe watermelon rinds.... I bet that would be amazing!!  **NOTE** The lime the recipe calls for is a pickling lime...  I've found the "Mrs.Wages" brand in the local feed & seed stores and in larger chains of dept. stores that carry canning supplies!

The second change I made is water bathing!!  This recipe doesn't call for water bathing, but from what I've been learning this year.... I now waterbath my pickles for 10 minutes!! 

The best thing about these pickles is that they don't need the curing time as dill pickles do!! They are ready to eat immediately! Delicious on your plate or cut up even smaller and added to potato salad!! :)

The Adventures of Tweak....

Tweak loves going outside! Today he learned about rabbits & chickens....

The rabbits was nibbling grass & clover and Tweak wanted to play!

I wish I snapped the camera quicker then I did, he had his paw

in the cage and was trying to engage this guy to play!

Poor Tweak... after a while, I'm sure he was thinking.... BORING!

On to the next adventure....   wait, what was that? A BIRD... a BIG BIRD!!

Hmmm, i'm just gonna watch for a minute or two!

Oh No... she saw me! Maybe I can still catch her!

This was hysterical!! The hen ran and Tweak ran right after her...

She was squawking for all she was worth and alarming the others

and Tweak was rather bewildered at the noise and her

being so fast for only having two feet!!

FUNNY, FUNNY DAYS ON

THIS LITTLE FARM!

Berry Medley Jam "June Can Jam"

                                                   

I wanted to do more then strawberry jam and

therefore, since that is the only fruit in season,

I opted to buy frozen berries...

I KNOW, I KNOW...

BUT WAIT, ALL THESE BERRIES ARE

                                     NATIVE TO MY AREA!

Here we have the lucious whole strawberries, blueberries,

black raspberries and red raspberries!!  They

truly look (and taste) devine for having been frozen!

RECIPE:

4 cups of mixed berries (crushed, but not pureed)

7 cups sugar

Bring this to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.

Quickly stir in 1 pouch of Certo pectin

and bring back to a boil for 1 minute.

Ladle into hot sterilized jars (approx. 8 1/2 pints).

Seal and water bath for 10 minutes.

(Recipe taken from the Certo insert.)

As keeping with my tradition, I put the last bit of

jam or jelly in a coffee mug to be used

right away! VeRy BeRrY yUmMy!

I FINALLY Tried it For Myself!!!

Even though I've been canning for a lot of years now, one thing I've always wanted to do, but never tried before was canning my own soups! WELL... I did some research both in my Blue Ball Canning Book as well as online and I came up with this recipe!! I have to tell you... it really wasn't hard at all! What took me so long to give this a try?

I cheated and used baby carrots in order to avoid the step of

peeling them all! I used my food processor and sent through

3 pounds of carrots in no time at all and I did the same

with the celery!

Here we go...  the veggies & chicken meat all ready for the assembly line!

I boiled down the chicken (I used 4 good sized hens) and

picked off all the meat and cut it up into bite sized pieces.

1/2 cup of chicken

1/2 cup diced celery

1/4 cup diced onions

1/2 cup diced potatoes

1 cup sliced carrots

1 TBsp. fresh chopped parsley

and chicken broth (cooked with salt in it)

Introducing the pressure canner....  I have NO idea

how old my beloved canner is, but it is at least

30 years old, since I've

had it for a minimum of 25 years now!!

Depending on where you live (altitude does make all

the difference) will determine how long you cook it

and at how many pounds of pressure.

For me, once it gets to 11 pounds we let it cook for

90 minutes for quarts! IF YOU HAVE NEVER

USED A PRESSURE CANNER... PLEASE

DO RESEARCH AND GET INPUT FROM

                                               OTHERS BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THIS!

Here are 7 of the 14 quarts of chicken soup

that we made! Can't wait to try it!

P.S. The water bath method is safe for HIGH acid foods (tomatoes, jellies & jams which use sugar, pickles which generally calls for vinegar.) The pressure canner is for LOW acid foods... veggies, meats etc.

Read up on food preservation methods... it can be a wonderful family activity! :)