What are you canning now?

[Kismet]

I freeze a lot of peppers - they all start to ripen at once and I can't use them fast enough. I wash and core them. Then I slice them in half inch or so strips, throw them in a quart freezer bag and into the freezer. I keep adding to the bag until it's stuffed. Then, I start another one. When thawed, they will not have that crisp pepper texture, but they are fine for chili, spaghetti sauce, casseroles, etc.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Quote:
I should have elaborated, and not been so terse. LOL The peppers will not be that lovely crisp texture that they are when used freshly cut, but will still give your stir fry their wonderful flavor. I always figure that the reason they add the baby corn and water chestnuts to frozen stir fry is so you DO have some texture!

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

I do this so I am not running to the store every time I need peppers, onions, and especially celery. I never seem to have any fresh for the recipe I am making so I puree onion and break it off in chunks as I need it (also kids don't see and therefore do not complain) and celery is pre-chopped ready for use and peppers are sliced or diced and wrapped in what I normally use in a portion and then they are double bagged in freezer quality bags and will last easily 6-9 months and still taste great, sometimes if they end up in there longer I will throw in a stew and they disappear. I also do this with zucchini (pre-shred in one cup portions for breads/muffins etc)

 

[vfem]

I can't live w/ out tomatoes!

Ok, thanks for the help guys, I've already chopped up and filled a gallon bag for peppers. I have enough to do another gallon bag... but I will get to that later. I'm thinking maybe stuffed peppers tonight so I can enjoy some fresh for now, and then bag the rest after dinner.

Problem is, I am now going to have to get back to jamming as the farm stand is running low on jam again!!!!

 

[biddyboo]

I chop peppers into dice-sized bits using the Vidalia onion chopper my son bought for me. After washing, core and seed, then put quarters in the chopper and, so easy, you press down and have instant ready to freeze bits. I love these bags of summer goodies to pitch into soups, stews, and such all winter long. ~G

 

[Sparks]

When making meat sauce to can ..is it supposed to be thin?. My recipe seems thin and says not to cook it down much. Did not specify paste tomatoes so I used both. It is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

 

[vfem]

Sparks, I've never done a meat sauce so I don't have an answer for you. But I bet someone here will come along with one soon.

I just finish 6 pints of apple pie filling! Fabulous! Thank you HenThyme!!!

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

Quote:
Did I miss her posting this? I am waiting for the orchard to let me know when apples are ready.

Congrats on the possible wedding favor order, that is fabulous!

Right now I am working on a three day pear recipe, hopefully it works out, I was inspired by Missprissy's blog but I do not have canning pears so I had to use a different recipe, I hope it turns out

 

[vfem]

HenThyme sent it to me via PM, but I copy and pasted it here. Just scroll back!

Ok, I am supposed to price out the wedding order, its 150 4oz jars. I need to know if ANYONE here knows where I can put in a huge bulk order for jars? This is something I would like to bypass walmart over.

I'm looking at doing a lot of apple butter and pear ginger honey jams.

Guess I'm taking another drive for apples... but thank goodness my neighbor just told me to HELP MYSELF to their pears as they didn't like the variety and they end up going to the chickens rather then have anything done with them. SCORE!!!!


ETA:

Also, do these kind of jars seal from being in waterbath?
http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin6c.html

Thanks!!!

 

[GPN]

Quote:

I just bought 20 of the 1 1/4 oz jars from SKS for my christmas give away- I want to do jalapeno jelly to go in them