What do you do with green tomatoes?

It's that time of year when gardens are ending and gardeners are picking the last of their produce before the first frost. My garden produced quite a few green tomatoes.  I ended up making Green Tomato Mincemeat and Chow Chow.  Both recipes are excellent!

Green Tomato Mincemeat

Ingredients:

6 c. chopped apples, seeded
4 c. chopped green tomatoes
3 c. raisins
2 c. dried cranberries
3 c. sugar 1/2 c. vinegar or lemon juice
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt

Directions:
 

Simmer ingredients until soft (about one hour). Ladle into hot jars and water bath for 25 minutes.

Granny’s Chow Chow

Chow Chow has traditionally been a fall canning recipe. It is a method to use up the last of a garden’s vegetables. Cooks have often added other ingredients like carrots or cauliflower. It can be used on hot dogs, hamburgers or with beans to add spice.

Ingredients:

24 medium green tomatoes
1 head of cabbage
8 peppers (any variety, green, red, sweet or hot)
2 large onions
5 cups white vinegar
5 cups sugar
2 tablespoons salt
5 teaspoons celery seed
4 teaspoons mustard seed

Directions:

1. Chop tomatoes and drain. Add to large pot.
2. Chop remainder of vegetables, add to tomatoes and mix.
3. In a separate pot, heat vinegar, sugar and spices until blended.
4. Add liquid to vegetables and mix. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Ladle into sterilized jars.
6. Water bath for 10 minutes for pints and 15 for quarts.

Great Deal on Beans and How to Can Them!

Gordon Food Services is a local (and has national locations) food service distribution store that is open to the public. Ours is located in the Cool Springs area.  Mostly restaurants use it.  They sell 10 lbs of a variety of beans for $9.99. While I know I could just leave them dried and use when I need them, it is so inconvenient to have to remember to soak over night and not be able to just open a can to make chili. So I decided to can some and leave some dried.

I chose the easiest possible canning recipe - can the dried beans. I hesitated at first thinking it would not work, but they came out great! The box comes in two five pound bags. Using only about half of one bag (about 2.5 lbs) I canned 14 pints. All you have to do is put a half cup of dried beans in your pint jar, half a teaspoon of salt, and fill with boiling water. Pressure can at 10 lbs for 75 minutes (90 minutes if you add a meat flavoring). So easy!

Bruschetta in a Jar!

This is by far one of the easiest canning recipes I have ever done! I had an over abundance of yellow tomatoes.  It turns out that yellow tomatoes have a similar amount of acid to red but are sweeter which makes it seem like they are less acidic, per several university agriculture websites. However, since they are soaking in mostly an acidic fluid, color differences would not matter in either case. 

Bruschetta in a Jar

From Ball

Makes about 7 (8 oz) half pints

What could be more welcoming than warm, freshly toasted homemade bruschetta? Just spoon these zesty tomatoes onto a toasted baguette and garnish with grated cheese and a splash of olive oil, if desired.

You will need:

5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp dried oregano
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
9 cups chopped cored plum tomatoes (about 4 lb or 12 medium)
7 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:

1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) COMBINE garlic, wine, wine vinegar, water, sugar, basil, oregano and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes or until garlic is heated through. Remove from heat.
3.) PACK tomatoes into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Ladle hot vinegar mixture over tomatoes leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
4.) PROCESS filled jars in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

 

Marinara Sauce with Oven Roasted Tomatoes for Canning!

I admit it, I am a lazy canner.  I don't want to spend all day babysitting and stirring a sauce.  I don't even mind tomato seeds or skin, but you can still remove them for the recipe if you prefer.  This recipe will produce a thick sauce in just a few hours without having to worry about scorching or stirring.  It does not require pre-boiling of tomatoes or skinning.  You can also alter it to suit your tastes.  It is unanimously approved of in my house by my husband and kids so it is definitely a winner!

Marinara Sauce with Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1/2 bushel of tomatoes (usually a box about the size of a case of paper and weighing about 25 lbs)
2 heads of garlic, cloves separated and outer skin removed
2 red peppers, chopped
3 large onions, chopped
sugar
lemon juice
herbs of choice (pepper, oregano, rosemary, garlic salt, red pepper flakes, etc,)

Clear liquid is what you drain.

Directions:

Wash and roughly cut up tomatoes.  Put in baking pans.  Add garlic cloves, peppers and onions.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until the tomatoes are all shriveled up and are floating in their own juices.

Here is the important part and will keep you from having to wait all day while your sauce thickens!  DRAIN your tomatoes in a colander.

Drained tomatoes.

Take your shriveled tomatoes and put in a large pot, measuring the amount as you transfer it.  For each quart (4 cups), add two tablespoons of each sugar and lemon juice.  You can use less sugar if you prefer, but we like a sweeter sauce.

Add your herbs of choice.  I added pepper, fresh chopped oregano and rosemary, garlic salt to taste and red pepper flakes.  Use an immersion blender to blend ingredients to a sauce-like consistency (or regular blender).  Bring to a boil.  Sauce should be thick.

Sauce just before blending.

Can in sterilized jars and water bath for 45 minutes.  My total was 11 pints but that can vary depending on tomato type. 

Canning Sweet Chili Sauce!

 

Sweet chili sauce cool after being taken from the canner.

This is a fantastic recipe! You can use it for chili or even over meatloaf. Locally, at a farmer's stand in Franklin, TN, I bought a half bushel of organic, Amish tomatoes for $24 which is less than $1 a lb.


Sweet Chili Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 bushel of tomatoes (usually a box about the size of a case of paper and weighing about 25 lbs)
5 cups sugar
1/3 cup salt
3 1/2 cups white vinegar
7 large onions, chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
5-6 hot peppers of choice, chopped
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy)
1 teaspoon celery flakes or a few stalks of celery, chopped

Directions:

Remove skin from tomatoes by emerging into boiling water for 1 1/2 minutes and then plunging into ice water to cool.  Skins should easily peel off.  (Just a note - don't throw away the skins.  You can dehydrate them and ground them to use in soups, sauces or as a seasoning!) 

 

I used a Rival 22 quart turkey roaster to cook the chili sauce.  It is available at Amazon.

Roughly chop tomatoes and other vegetables.  Add to a large pot or electric turkey roaster.  Stir ingredients and simmer 5 to 7 hours uncovered or until it reaches desired thickness.  After about an hour of cooking when the vegetables soften, use an immersion blender to blend ingredients to a sauce-like consistency.  You will need to stir more frequently toward the end of cooking.

At the end of cooking, you should see a reduction of at least an inch from the original line when you began to cook.  More if you like it thicker.

Place sauce into sterilized jars and water bath 20 minutes.

Makes 20 to 22 pints.

Mango Salsa!

Aldi's has a sale on Mangoes this week for .49 each. Using Mangoes in salsa is amazing!

Mango Salsa - I doubled the recipe.

Mango Salsa

Yield: 7 to 9 eight ounce jars

Ingredients:

6 cups diced unripe mangoes (about 4 large, hard green mangoes or slightly under-ripe)
1½ cups diced red bell pepper
½ cup finely chopped yellow onion
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chopped cilantro (or dried cilantro)
1 teaspoon diced or dried mint leaves (optional)
2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger (Harris Teeter sells little frozen cubes of ginger cheaply)
1 cup light brown sugar
1¼ cups cider vinegar
½ cup water or lime juice  

Directions:

Peel and dice mango.

To the 6 cups of diced mangoes, add the remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and mix the spices. Reduce to simmering, and simmer 5 minutes. 

Wipe rim and screw threads with a clean damp cloth. Add lid, screw band and tighten firmly and evenly. Do not over tighten.

Put the sealed jars in the canner and keep them cover with at least 1 inch of water and boiling. Boil them for at least 20 minutes.

Get it While You Can: Free Food Preservation Books at Amazon!

The first book is Food Canning: How To Safely Preserve Foods. It covers all of the safe canning methods in use today. Food canning is a great way to preserve the tasty foods you've grown in your garden so you can enjoy them year-round. It's also a good way to prepare for emergency, because canned foods don't have to be refrigerated.

The second book is Food Drying: Food Dehydration and Safe Storage. It covers food drying and dehydration, along with safe storage of your dried foods. Regardless of whether you're a food drying novice or a seasoned vet, there's something in this book for you. Buy it now and learn everything you need to know to get started drying foods.

You can download for free at Amazon HERE!

Oversized Cucumbers?

This year my 11-yr-old son worked on the Boy Scout garden to earn a badge.  If you have never done Scouts with your son, I highly recommend it.  It's inexpensive and teaches your son so many useful skills!  Just so you know, you do not have to have done Cub Scouts to become a Boy Scout.  My boys have done Cub Scouts, but I discovered that everything basically starts over when you move to Boy Scouts (badges, etc.).  I was actually happy because while I did as much as a working mom could do when it came collecting badges in Cub Scouts, he did not collect them all.  

Anyway, my son focused on the gardening badge during the summer.  He would go every Saturday and Tuesday to plant, weed, and pick vegetables.  Often I or my husband would help.  It was a great learning experience for the kids and for us as we have never gardened before.  They sold the vegetables a couple of times in our small town and the boys actually earned some money.

 

One Saturday toward the end of summer I was helping the boys pick vegetables and noticed a whole section of cucumbers that were huge.  I asked about them and was told that they were worthless as they had become too large to sell.  I asked to take a few and was told that I could have as many as I liked.  So I took a few home and cut them up to see what they were like.  They tasted like slightly bland cucumbers, not tart.  The white flesh was thicker than the typical store bought cucumber.  

I thought there must be something you could do with them so I started researching recipes.  I discovered that this one canning recipe, Cinnamon Cucumbers, came up over and over again.  It was often accompanied with fond memories of childhood and grandmothers so I knew I had a winner.  It actually required oversized cucumbers to work.  I had plenty of those!  So I went back to the farm and picked bags of them.

 

Someone online recommended buying a Home Depot 5 gallon bucket for this three day process which is what I did.  In the future I will probably purchase a large stock pot that is not plastic but if these had turned out awful, I did not want to invest a lot of money.  

DAY 1

The first thing you have to is clean, skin and cut the cucumbers.  Some recipes have you cut them like rings, but since this was my first attempt I went the easy route.  You have to cut the seeds off the center and slice to bite size.

Put in 5 gallon bucket until it is about half full.

Mix 2 cups pickling lime and 8 1/2 quarts cold water. Pour over cucumber rings. Let stand 24 hours. 

DAY 2

Drain. Wash and put in cold water. Let stand 3 hours. Drain. Put in large cooking pot.

Mix 1 cup vinegar, red food coloring (used half a bottle), 1 t alum, and add enough water to cover. Simmer 2 hours. Drain. Return to five gallon bucket.

While cucumbers are boiling, mix 2 cups vinegar, 10 cups sugar, 2 cups water, 1 package red hot cinnamon candy, 8 cinnamon sticks. Bring to boil. Make sure all Redhots are dissolved.  Pour over cucumber rings. Let set overnight.

Notes: Numerous people online had difficulty finding Redhots.  Apparently Walmart carries them but I found them at Dollar Tree.  Because they were in small packages I used two the first time.  I have made the recipe three times now, the first exactly as the recipe requires.  I have found that as I boiled the cucumbers, when I doubled the vinegar and alum it turned out better.  You can find alum in the herb/baking section of the grocery store, not in the canning area).  Also the first batch did not have enough liquid to completely can all the cucumbers (probably because I had a ton) so in the next two batches I doubled the liquid (4 c vinegar, 20 c sugar, 4 c water, 4 packages red hots, 16 cinnamon sticks).

 

DAY 3

Drain off liquid; heat and pour back over cucumbers.  

Day 4

On last day, heat cucumbers in sauce to simmer, pack in jars (with or without cinnamon stick in each), and seal in water bath for 10 minutes.

These turned out great!  They taste like crunchy cinnamon apples.  You actually would not know that these are cucumbers.  This would make a great side dish, particularly during a holiday.

Here is the original recipe from Cooks.com:

Cinnamon Cucumber Rings

2-3 gallons cucumber rings
8 1/2 qts. cold water
Red food coloring
1 tsp. alum
2 c. water
8 cinnamon sticks
2 c. pickling lime
1 c. vinegar
2 c. vinegar
10 c. sugar
1 pkg. red hot candy

Mix 2 cups pickling lime and 8 1/2 quarts cold water. Pour over cucumber rings. let stand 24 hours. Drain. Wash and put in cold water. Let stand 3 hours. Drain. Mix 1 cup vinegar, red food coloring, alum, and add enough water to cover. Simmer 2 hours. Drain.

Mix 2 cups vinegar, 10 cups sugar, 2 cups water, 1 package red hot cinnamon candy, 8 cinnamon sticks. Bring to boil. Pour over cucumber rings. Let set overnight. Drain off; heat and pour back over cucumbers. Do this for 3 days. On 3rd day, pack rings in jars; seal.