Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Hot Date

The morning was beautiful - cool and low humidity, a perfect day to heat up the kitchen. Greg and I spent last Sunday canning vegetables. Some from Leslie, some from the farmer's market, and some from our own backyard garden. Yes, this was our "Hot Date".
I started the day with this: Blanche the corn for a few minutes in boiling water, then pop it into a sink of ice water to stop the cooking. While the first batch cooled in the water, the second batch was cooking. It didn't take long to get them all cooked and cooled. After that, out came the electric knife:
Yes, after I finished, Greg checked to make sure I still had all ten digits. I tend to have a little difficulty with sharp things in the kitchen...
The corn was bagged and frozen. Twenty-three ears of corn yielded six quart-sized bags with between 3 and four cups of corn in each.
This will probably be used in cornbread and casserole recipes. Greg works in corn every day, so we don't eat much of it at home, with the exception of sweet corn season. Yum!
Always label and date your freezer bags - obviously this is corn, so I saved some ink and just put the date on these.
Next up were the green beans. Oh, the green beans! It's amazing how huge a quantity a WalMart bag will hold. (Thanks Leslie!)
These were cleaned, trimmed of both ends, and snapped into pieces between 1 and 2" long.
I purchased a brand new pressure canner to do the beans - yeah, this year the garden isn't really saving much money... :o)
Neither Greg nor I have ever used a pressure canner, so Greg studied the user guide while I cleaned the beans. The first batch was a little tense, but with the successful sealing of all the jars, we relaxed a little bit.
The second batch went much smoother. We ended up with several pints and several quarts of beans. Just a spoonful of salt in each jar for flavor.

So while the last batch of beans cooked, we started on the pickles. Oh, the pickles! I had a small bag of cukes from Leslie, then Greg headed out to the garden and brought in a pile of our own. We used the same recipe I posted before, and there are now enough dill pickles to last the winter, I think. We'll be moving on to some different flavors next time.
Even though we both just melt, and we each have our opinions, I do enjoy having Greg help out with this canning process. There will be at least a few more hot dates in our kitchen in the next few weeks. :o)

2 comments:

Kay said...

Hi Facebook Friend! lol
I decided I'd do corn IF I have any left after any meals. So far, we haven't had any leftover. lol

Beans, nope. I don't like them canned and my Farmer doesn't like them frozen or fresh.

Pickles, I tried them last year (and previously). They were a tremendous flop. I can make good sweet pickle relish, so did 11 half-pints again. And 5 pints of pickled beets.

Apples into sauce and butter last year. And will probably make last year's Colorado Peaches into jam as this year's crop is on it's way.

Oh and hot pepper jelly last year. I enjoyed it but no-one else did. **sigh**

Susan in SC said...

It's always nice to have canned vegetables from the garden! Yours look beautiful. I always think that canned vegetables should be kept on display because I think they just look beautiful!