Cranberry Mustard

 This recipe is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It’s great with steak, add it to melted butter and use as a sauce. Try it with ham, or even as a sandwich spread for turkey. The amount of cranberries called for should be in one bag but by the time I picked out the soft ones I had to open another bag. 

MAKES ABOUT SEVEN 4-OUNCE JARS

1 cup	red wine vinegar
⅔ cup	yellow mustard seeds
1 cup	water
1 tbsp	Worcestershire sauce
2¾ cups	cranberries (fresh or frozen)
¾ cup	granulated sugar
¼ cup	dry mustard
2½ tsp	ground allspice

In a medium stainless steel saucepan, bring vinegar to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and add mustard seeds. Cover and let stand at room temperature until seeds have absorbed most of the moisture, about 1½ hours.

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.
2. In a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine marinated mustard seeds (with liquid), water and Worcestershire sauce. Process until blended and most seeds are well chopped.
   (You want to retain a slightly grainy texture.) Add cranberries and blend until chopped
3. Transfer mixture to a stainless steel saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low and boil gently, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Whisk in sugar, dry mustard and allspice. Continue to boil gently over low heat, stirring frequently, until volume is reduced by a third, about 15 minutes.
4. Ladle hot mustard into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding more hot mustard. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Canned Bread Pudding

 

As with my prior recipe for rice pudding, safely store these in the refrigerator. They are so good microwaved and eaten straight out of the jar, either for breakfast or dessert! You can use dried cranberries instead of raisins. I played around with the spices because nutmeg can be overpowering. I doubled this recipe to make 12 jars. One batch was made as this recipe, the next I used 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/4 tsp allspice. Delicious and easy to make! 

BREAD PUDDING

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Cubed Bread

1/4 cup Raisins

2 Eggs Slightly Beaten

2 cups Milk

¼ cup Melted Butter (1/2 stick) 

½ cup Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

½ tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°. 

Wash and sterilize 6, 1/2 pint jars. Lightly oil the inside of the jar. Divide bread pieces on the bottom of the jars, add 8 raisins to each jar. Melt butter in saucepan and add milk to warm it up. Add sugar to dissolve it then add spices and slowly add the egg, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and using a canning funnel, cover bread and raisins with custard mixture, just up to the neck of the jar. Place on a cookie in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown on the top.

The pudding will try to escape while baking but rest assured, it will calm down when it comes out of the oven. Immediately wipe rims of jars and put on lids and rings. They will start to ping shortly. 

Canned No sugar cranberry juice

100%. no sugar added Cranberry juice

3 lbs (4, 12oz bags) of cranberries to 4 qts of water, bring to a simmer for 10 minutes . Cranberries will pop open. Strain through a jelly bag or double layer of cheesecloth . 

 Return pulp to pot, add 2 more quarts of water.

Bring to simmer for 5 min. Strain using same method above. 

 Return pulp to pot one last time with 1 qt of water. Bring to simmer for 5 mins and Strain again. 

 You now have 7 quarts of strained juice.  Heat this juice to 180°, have 7 sterilized jars, flats and rings. Have water bath simmering . 

 Ladle into quarts jars, leave 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims, put on flats and screw lids finger tight. 

 Place in Water bath, bring to a boil and boil pints and quarts for 10 min.

 After allotted time, turn off heat and allow to sit for 5 min. Remove from canner, place on a towel, cover with another towel so they cool down slowly and don't explode or shatter from cooling down too quickly .

 Allow to sit undisturbed for 24 hrs. Check jars, remove rings and store in pantry . If any have not sealed place in refrigerator and use within 2 weeks. Enjoy. 

Christmas Jam

 YIELD: 6 1/2 PINT JARS

Christmas Jam

This delicious, festive Christmas jam is the perfect blend of holiday goodies and perfect for gift giving.

Ingredients

• 12 Oz Cranberries 
• 1 Orange, peeled and sectioned
• 2 t Orange Zest, from the peel
• 16 Oz Strawberries (thaw if you use frozen)
• 1/4 t Ground Cloves
• 1/4 t Ground Cinnamon
• 1/4 t Allspice
• 4 C Sugar
• 1 Package Powder Fruit Pectin
• 1/2 cup water

Instructions

1. Wash jars, lids, and rings. Fill jars 2/3rds full of water and place in water-bath canner. Fill with water. Put canner on stove over medium-high heat to sterilize jars while you make the jam.
2. Place lids in a small saucepan covered with water. Boil over medium-high heat while you make the jam. Set rings to the side, they don't need sterilized.
3. Place cranberries and sectioned orange into a blender. You just want them coarsely chopped. My blender has a food chop option, and I use that.
4. Add in the strawberries, orange zest and spices. Stir a bit in the blender to make sure they get mixed a little. Blend until everything is chopped fine. You don't want it pureed.
5. Stir fruit mixture and water together in a 5 qt stock pot.
6. Stir in fruit pectin and add your 1/2 teaspoon of butter (this reduces foaming).
7. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil over high heat, stir constantly.
8. Add sugar to the mixture. Return to full rolling boil. Boil exactly 1 minute.
9. Remove from heat. Using a metal spoon, skim off any foam.
10. Immediately ladle into jars and wipe of rims, screw on lids & bands. When all jars are filled, place jars into canner. 
11. Cover canner, bring back to boil, start timer for 10 minutes. 
12. After 10 min, turn off heat and let stand 5 min before removing. 
13. Remove jars to towel lined tray to cool. Check seals after 24 hours. 
14. If any didn’t seal, refrigerate and use within 2 weeks. 

Canning Apple Pie Filling

 I made this recipe for 5 jars. Came out great! Used 1 tote of Macoun and 1 bag of Honey Crisp apples. 

Apple Pie Filling

Per (US quart) jar

Prep Time 1hour hour

Cook Time 1hour hour

Total Time 2hours hours

Ingredients

• 4 cups/1 lb apple (washed, peeled, cored, sliced.  Measurements after prep)
• 1/4 cup Clearjel 
• 3/4 cup sugar 
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon cloves 
• 1/2 cup water (or use apple juice)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened apple juice 
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (bottled)
• 1 dash nutmeg

Instructions

• Prep the apples. Slice no more than 2 cm (½ inch) thick. Set aside in a large bowl or pot with in water with some lemon juice or ascorbic acid in it to prevent discolouring.
• In a large pot, mix together the Clearjel, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg if using, water and apple juice. Set aside.
• Boil a large pot of water (4 quarts). Add about 4 cups of apples at a time to the boiling water. When the water returns to the boil after adding the apples, time 1 minute, then remove the apples with a slotted spoon or strainer, and put in a bowl or pot and cover to keep warm. 
• Repeat for all apples.
• Put the apple juice mixture pot on to cook over medium high-heat, whisking constantly. 
• When it starts to thicken, which will be very soon, add the lemon juice.
• Cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
• Stir in the apple.
• Ladle apple into prepared 1 quart jars. (1 quart per pie) 
• Leave 1 inch headspace/to the curve in the neck. 
• Debubble, adjust headspace.
• Wipe jar rims.
• Put lids on.
• Process in a water bath or steam canner.
• Process for 25 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

Canning Creamy Rice Pudding

I understand it’s not considered safe to store canned milk/egg (low acid foods) at room temperature. I let these cool overnight then refrigerated. We had two while they were still warm and it was delicious! The rice settles at the bottom, just give it a good stir. 

 

Creamy Rice Pudding

1½ c. cold water

3/4 c. uncooked white rice

2 с. Milk

⅓ cup white Sugar

1/4 tsp salt

⅓ c. raisins

1 Tbsp butter

2 eggs beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Dash of cinnamon

1. Pour water and rice into pot. Bring to boil and turn down heat. Add the rest of ingredients except the eggs. Mix well until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. 

Slowly whisk in the egg. 

Divide evenly between 7 half pint jars, 1” headspace. Start by dividing the liquid then the rice. 

Water bath for 25 min. Allow to rest in canner 5 min before removing. 

Enjoy!

Easy chocolate fudge

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cups Chocolate chips 
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• sea salt, a generous pinch 
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 

Instructions

• Line an 8-inch greased square pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang to make it easier to remove from the pan.
• In a saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat.
• Add the chocolate and stir using a rubber spatula until the chocolate begins to melt (You can increase the heat a little but be careful, chocolate scorches quickly)
• Once the chocolate begins to melt, stir in the sweetened condensed milk.
• Once the milk is worked in completely, turn off the heat and add salt and vanilla extract if using.
• Quickly pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer using an offset spatula. (See note)
• Cover and refrigerate overnight to set.
• Once set, remove from pan and cut into even-sized 2-inch squares. (Tip: wiping off the knife after each cut creates clean slices)
• Store fudge in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper in the fridge or counter.

Notes

When spreading the batter, it may be a bit oily, which is fine. 

Canned Cranberry Sauce & Juice

 For 16oz I filled the jars halfway with cranberries then added  1/4 cup sugar. I filled them with cold filtered water from the fridge. Put them in my new electric NESCO canner for 20 min. It was probably more like 25 min because when I went to remove them, it looked like it was pressure cooking them because the valve was closed. Lol! Anyhow it worked. I added a pinch of whole cloves/allspice to each. Have to wait 6 weeks until they’re ready! Is that Thanksgiving?! 

Making sauce was more involved but deliciously messy. I tried out my new food mill and love it! I didn’t want skins in my sauce. Simmered 7 cups of berries in 2 cups water with spices added (powdered cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and orange zest). Ran through a food mill after skins popped and they simmered a bit, 5-10 mins. 

Poured back in pot and added 2c. sugar. 

Simmered 5 min then carefully divided between 5 half-pints. Processed in the big water bath for 15min. I can’t wait to try all this goodness!  I’ve caught the canning bug!  

Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

 These are delicate like shortbread but also cake-like.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree canned pumpkin
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch of cloves

For the glaze- to give a shine I did 1.5 Tb light corn syrup and filled measure to 4Tb with milk. Still had to thin out with more water. 

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat and set aside. In a large bowl, stir butter, oil, pumpkin, sugars, vanilla and eggs together until incorporated and smooth.
2. Slowly mix in all dry ingredients until completely incorporated.
3. Scoop onto prepared baking sheet using 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop and flatten to 1/2 inch thick using the bottom of a glass. If the dough is sticking to the glass, press the bottom of the glass in granulated sugar before flattening. Bake 8-9 minutes. Took mine more like 15 min. 
4. While cookies bake, stir all ingredients together for glaze until smooth.
5. Once cookies are finished baking, cool 3 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack. Spread 11/2 teaspoons glaze over each warm cookie. Let glaze harden 2-3 hours before serving.