I've been on a real sweet stuff kick lately. I think it has something to do with stess and worry. I'm pretty well covered tho since I like my sweet stuff. Living self sustained, all the desert and snack type things that are considered sweet have to be created right here. So, each year as fruits in my area come ripe, I get going on making things to put up for those "gotta have something sweet" times. One of my favorites is apple butter and apple pie filling. I use the Ball Blue Book recipes with a few minor changes. You can the Ball Blue Book in pdf form via the net for free. Google search says the site is safe but you can make your own determination if you want to download from it or not. The Ball Blue Book is also easily obtained from just about any retail store(Rural King, TSC, Walmart, major grocery chains) and also available at amazon.com etc.
For me, the Blue Book is like a preserving bible. Everything you'd ever want to put in a jar and store in your pantry is covered in that one little book. There's recipes for every single thing you could possibly grow on your garden. Every home canner should have one.
Never underestimate the satisfaction a hot apple pie coming out of the oven can give you for that need for something sweet!
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The Ball Blue book is my canning/preserving bible too. I would have floundered badly when I first started if not for that. When people ask me what canning supplies to get, I tell them before they get anything, they need to get that book and read it from cover to cover!
ReplyDeleteWe also put up apples, froze some, and canned the rest. Applesauce...never have enough apple sauce! The book that cvame with my pressure cooker has been a great tool also. It actually covered meats and meat sauces. Those pages are a bit worn & dogeared for sure! Ordered the rest of my seeds and can't wait for spring
ReplyDeleteI love my Ball Blue book too! I also really liked having this site for reference too --> http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/
ReplyDeleteSince this was the first year of canning I've ever done, everything is so new and a little scary. We canned some apples in a extra light syrup earlier this year and just opened them a couple weeks ago. Boy was it a heart pounding event popping that top and bringing it up to the nose to smell! But they were fine and tasted OH so GREAT!
Anne! What a great link, thank you so much! I'm gonna directlink it on the blog. Do I ever know the heart pounder feeling, I 've had it a few times myself.
ReplyDeleteYour welcome =) Glad I'm not the only one that has that feeling! I was getting real sure of myself and was even losing that feeling then about 3 dozen jars of salsa all ended up being bad so it's back to slowly smelling every jar.
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