Lemonade

Lemonade

40 lemons
water to cover
1 cup sugar for every 4 cups liquid

About halfway through juicing the lemons I started wondering why I was farting around with all of these steps.  When I made the citrus concentrate, I put the peels back in the reserve water, to try to loosen up more juice.  Then I used all of the reserved water.  I quit juicing the lemons, cut them all in half, gave each a quick squeeze, then tossed it all back into the reserved water. 

Poured in the lemon zest that I had previously peeled, and I put it back on the stove to boil for 10 minutes.

I strained out the liquid from the lemon peels, for 20 cups of liquid.  I added 5 cups of sugar, and boiled the juice again to dissolve. 

It's a little too much zest, but drinkable.  Next time, I'll try the same method, but peel and discard the zest from about half the lemons.

Grape Juice

Grapes were on sale this week for 88/lb, so I had to try Canning Granny's grape juice recipe. If this works, I'll try it with blueberries next year as well.

Grape Juice

Sterilize jars.  Boil a pot of water.  Heat water bath.  Wash grapes. 

In each quart jar, put 1 cup of grapes and 1/2 cup sugar.  Cover with boiled water.  Place lids, and swirl each jar to dissolve sugar.

Process in BWB 20 minutes.

Wait 2 months.  Strain grapes.  Drink juice.

Ham and Potato Soup

• 8 cups peeled, diced potatoes
• 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 cups diced ham
• 8 cups water
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne

Cook on low for 6-8 hours, check tenderness of potatoes.  Stir mixture into crockpot. Let cook 15-20 minutes more.

Pressure can @ 10 lbs pressure, 75 minutes for pints.

After opening, add 1 Tbsp flour and 1/2 pint milk, stirring constantly over med heat until thick.

Balogna Rolls

Balogna Rolls

Lay out slices of balogna on a clean counter.  

Break cheese slices into thirds and place one third in the center of each balogna.  

Cover with yellow beans.  

Fold ends of balogna over and stab through with toothpick to hold shape.

Combine equal parts cream of celery soup and milk in a glass baking pan.  

Place balogna rolls into sauce.

Cover and bake 1 hour @ 350°F.  Uncover, continue baking until edges start to crisp (about half hour).  Serve with sauce over mashed potatoes.  Delish!

 

I've gotten a little lazy in my old age, and combined with the skyrocketting price of balogna, I started making "Dogs and Sauce" instead.  It's not quite the same, but still pretty darn good. 

Dogs and Sauce

1 package weiners, chopped

4-6 cheese slices

1 Cup yellow beans

2 cans cream of celery soup 

milk 

Combine equal parts cream of celery soup and milk in a glass baking pan.  

Layer weiners, cheese slices and yellow beans.

Cover and bake 2 hour @ 350°F.    

Serve with sauce over mashed potatoes.

Crabapple Recipes

Great tutorial on crabapples here.

Changes I made:

Crabapple Jelly

8 cups	crabapple juice
8 cups	sugar

4 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp allspice

Measure juice into a large broad saucepan; add sugar, spices, stirring to dissolve. Boil over high heat until jelly stage is reached. Remove from heat, skim and pour into sterilized jars leaving 1/4 in (.5 cm) headspace. Seal. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Crabapple Sauce

10 cups	crabapple pulp
3 cups	sugar

4 Tbsp cinnamon
5 cups water

Combine pulp, water, spice, and sugar. Bring to a boil. Fill sterilized pint  jars leaving 1/2 in (1 cm) headspace. Seal. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Crabapple Juice

Boil crabapples 20 minutes.
Strain juice from pulp 2 hours.  (Keeps the juice from getting too thick).

Bring juice to boil.  Add 2 cups sugar for every 3 cups juice. Stir until dissolved.   Remove from heat.  Pour into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Process in BWB 10 minutes.

Plain, Boring, Cucumber Relish

Cucumber Relish

12 Cups deseeded, ground cucumbers
1 Cup deseeded, ground green pepper
4 Cups ground celery
1/2 Cup pickling salt

6 Cups sugar
2 Cups vinegar
2 Tbsp celery seed
1 Tbsp mustard seed


Grind veggies with coarse blade on meat grinder, combine in large bowl.  Sprinkle with salt.  Cover with water.  Let stand 4 hours.

Drain thoroughly.  Press out excess liquid.

Combine sugar, vinegar, spices in pot.  Bring to a boil slowly, stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Add veggies.  Simmer 15 minutes.

Pack into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Process in BWB 10 minutes.

Yields 9 pints.

Citrus Lemonade Concentrate

Lemon Squash (or Lemonade) and Orange Squash


Citrus Lemonade Concentrate

20 lemons and limes
zest of 4 lemons
zest of 2 limes
8 cups sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
fresh mint

 Wash fruit.  Peel the zest from 4 lemons and 2 limes.  Set aside.

Heat fruit in a large pot of water for about 3 minutes to loosen the pulp.  Remove fruit.  Save liquid.

Juice the fruit, remove seeds, run through food processor.

Combine 4 Cups juice with 8 Cups reserved water, zest, sugar, mint and cinnamon.  Bring to a boil.

Strain out zests and mint.

Fill sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.  Process in BWB 10 minutes.

To serve, mix concentrate with 4 equal parts cold water.  Stir well.


Makes 18 half pints.