Canning!

[sakon76]

Yes, I know, I've only been posting about cooking the last few days, but I'm teaching myself some new recipes and skills so I'm excited about it!

Today was largely suck from the moment I got up. To the point that after I fed the cats I went back to bed for an hour. Wonderful Husband can attest that I never do that on a weekday. Slogging through work (phone never stops ringing on Mondays) didn't make things much better. My right knee is a bit tweaky still, so my usual careful watering of the community garden plot was out, replaced by a slapdash one with the hose. Discovered I had another cucumber plant survive, though, and twined it up on the trellis! Did shopping and got home two hours after I left work. :/

Consequently, fancy dinner cooking was shoved to the wayside in favor of leftover lasagna.

I did, however, put up four jars of pickles following my paternal grandmother's recipe (they smelled quite yummy), and finished up the lemon marmalade into five half-pint jars. I have been initiated into the mysteries of hot water bath canning!

Comments

[mmouse15.livejournal.com]

Congrats! Canning is actually kind of fun. I love the fact that when you're done, you have a visual (a row of jars) of the work you've done. It's a great feeling of accomplishment...

I hope your knee gets better soon. Not fun, having a wonky knee.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Can you show me how to can preserves sometime? I'd like to know how to make and store jellies and salsa.

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

I'm actually learning most of it from online tutorials. The pickles are pretty much "put in jars, let ferment at room temperature for ~6 weeks" which leaves me a little nervous, but they didn't kill my dad or his two brothers when they were kids, so....

The marmalade I put into canning jars, leaving about 1/4" headroom, put the lids and rings on, and boiled them (standing on a grill, not the bottom of the pot) under an inch or so of water for five minutes. If I boil anything taller than half-pint jars, though, I'm going to need a bigger pot. I think my mom said she has proper equipment for both hot water and pressure canning, so I may "borrow" them from her.... ^_^

EDIT: brining pickles at room temperature is actually okay. This site (http://www.ext.vt.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Docs.woa/wa/getcat?cat=ir-hnf-can) has some good technical information.