A Canning Mat

 I've mentioned already that I really love the oversized hot pads that I've made. I didn't realize how handy they would be.

While looking through another canning site, I noticed that the site owner uses and sells canning mats. They are essentially a larger, more square version of the oversized hot pad. You use them to place your hot processed jars on so they can cool. The danger of just setting them on your counter is basically HOT jars on a COOL counter = thermal shock and jar breakage (sometimes violently).

So, I plan to make myself one pretty soon. However, I recently got some John Deere fabric from someone. And I had an idea.

My mom's husband is a jelly maker. And also a fan of John Deere.

 Seems like these two things might 'jam' together pretty well. (See what I did there.) (Don't groan.)

And so, I went to work. 

I cut everything to size and made my fabric "sandwich". I realized, while opening up the smaller fabric I intended to use to make the binding, I actually had three different prints rather than the two I thought. 

His canning mat is going to be reversible. Hey, hey!

I was a little put out when I realized that I just made a bigger rectangle though. I really wanted a nice square. But he won't care. In fact, it will probably work better with their counters. And I can just make mine more square later.

Instead of using the masking tape method from the original post this time though, I used an iron off pen and a ruler to make some diagonal lines. After using my walking foot to machine quilt directly on the lines I drew, it was easy peasy to run an iron over it and make those lines disappear. 

I really like the diagonal quilting on the print on this side. The other one looks good too but I especially like it with this print. I was pretty pleased with how the quilting turned out all around.

A little binding made from the third fabric (which is a random mish mash of John Deere hats) and all done. 

I think it turned out pretty well. It does lay flat but I had rolled it up to tuck into the goody box we place things to take to Arkansas when I realized I had not taken a picture of the final product.

I seriously recommend making one of these mats. It is so handy to have and super cute too. The link to my first post about them is here.

Happy sewing! And canning! And baking too! 

Simple Things

 I tried my hand at canning some mandarin oranges. Used half pints so they would be in serving sizes.

I think they turned out very pretty.

Gathered in all the tomatoes from the bushes. We have three boxes/flats sitting on our table ripening along with a paper bag full of cherry tomatoes.

But we are moving the ones with a blush piece by piece to this little bowl on the counter to get riper.

I also finished up a fidget mat. This one was a totally random collection of things. I took out my smaller fabric pieces bin to look through. Any piece that was large enough to get a square from, I cut. 

Then, I dumped out some jars of random things and pulled out some lace I had never used and found a random zipper, etc. and I went to town on it.
 

It's got a lot to look at and a lot to play with. Somebody will probably love it. Ha ha. 

Lots of simple little things that make up the rhythm of our days and give us a normal to come back to when the world is running us amok. 

Monday's Menu

 This is a handy recipe to have on hand. Growing up and even in my young adult years every time someone mentioned bread and butter pickles, I wanted no part of them.

As far as I remember, I had never tried them. I guess they just didn't sound good to me so I refused them.

In more recent years, some of my favorite restaurant burgers have used them on their burgers rather than the traditional dill pickle. I have since decided that they are my favorite on a burger...

 or a sub...

or pretty much any other sandwich.

Yep. Complete turnaround on bread and butters. 

I think it was the name. I looked up why they are named that though. It has nothing to do with the flavor. And, frankly, the origin of the name seems a little mixed up too. The first thing I read said it came from a Depression era sandwich: buttered bread with pickles as the filling. Cheap ingredients that would provide your "bread and butter" for the meal.

The other story (and probably more likely) is that cucumber farmer family, the Fannings, traded their family recipe pickles with the grocer during hard times for bread and butter. So bread and butter pickles were born.

Either way, they've been a favorite since the day they came on to the scene.

I have been canning quite a few myself. But today's recipe  doesn't  have to be canned. You can make it with only a few ingredients. And they are yummy!

Why did I bother trying it? Well, I may have mentioned that cucumbers are masters of camouflage. I found a couple of monstrosities hidden quite well a few weeks ago.

I had two that had gotten humongous. The problem with that is they pretty much turn to mush when you try to can them once they get that big. They have too much water content and it just doesn't work.

Well, I had two of them. So it occurred to me to just make them into refrigerator pickles and see if that made them usable. So I gave this recipe a try.

The larger ones are literally hamburger patty size. And while they did soften, it was not mush but rather about like a jar of the ones you might buy at the store. 

The regular sized pickling cucumbers I had made up the rest of the jar with are perfectly crunchy enough that my eldest commented that she could hear me bite in to it at the other end of the dining table.

When I used to buy a cucumber for something and couldn't use it all, I would slice it up and add it to the leftover brine from our store bought pickles. After several days, they would have become pickles too.

I could definitely see making a smaller amount of this liquid and doing the same with your leftover cucumber here as well.

So, give it a try and let me know how it turns out.

This recipe originally came from here.

Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles

• 5½ cups (731.5 g) about 1½ pounds thinly sliced (about ¼-inch) pickling cucumbers
• 1½ tablespoons (1.5 tablespoons) kosher salt
• 1 cup (160 g) thinly sliced sweet onion
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (255 ml) white vinegar
• ½ cup (119.5 ml) apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup (55 g) light brown sugar
• 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) mustard seeds
• ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) celery seeds
• ⅛ teaspoon (0.13 teaspoon) ground turmeric

Combine cucumbers and salt in a large, shallow bowl; cover and chill 1½ hours. Move cucumbers into a colander and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Drain well, and return cucumbers to bowl. Add onion to the bowl and toss with the cucumbers.
Combine the granulated sugar, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds and ground turmeric in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over cucumber mixture; let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 month.

It's that time of year...

 Canning season is in full force now as gardens start to wind down for the summer. Our house is no exception.

Probably surprising given the number of apples we have every year, but this year was my first attempt at canning apple juice.

It turned out pretty well.

With the overabundance of our cucumbers, I also gave relish a try this year. This is actually the second recipe I tried. I think I like this recipe better than the previous one.

This year was also the first time I had tried a few jellies. We don't eat jelly. As a result, I have not really ever been too concerned with making it. I have used my bread machine (most have a jam/jelly setting) to make strawberry jam for Rugrat many years ago and, more recently, a a half-pint of grape jelly to use up leftover grape juice from when we had to worship at home. 

After joining a canning group on facebook though, I wanted to make a small batch of these for someone else since I had never heard of this kind before.

 

They're so pretty I almost wish I did eat jelly. 

It was the second time I made a unique jelly for someone else this year.

Not sure what's up next but I sure love seeing all those jars of preserves sitting in my pantry waiting for winter.

Oh, Those Jars!

 The day before I left for a weekend visit to my mom's, I found six cucumbers waiting to be picked. I popped them in the fridge and when we returned, I pulled off 2 more monster ones.

This is my first year growing cucumbers and I had never pickled any either. Unless you count cutting up the half a cucumber left from making tzatziki sauce and dropping it into a jar of brine left over from the store bought pickles we had already eaten.

Rugrat and I discovered bread and butter pickles some time ago and that's what we had determined to make with a lot of the cucumbers.

In fact, I told her to just call the bush what it was -- a pickle bush. The only other way we eat cucumbers around here is in tzatziki sauce so I figured we should just be real about it. :)

So, the problem with never having made any is that there are SOOOOOO many recipes (even tested, tried and true safe ones). You can take your pick.

So I did. I have since canned a different recipe. I am marking where it comes from on the lid so we can compare and decide which we like best. I also got smart and marked the date I canned on the paper copy of the recipe just in case it gets rubbed off the lid. 

So this is my first attempt and first recipe set. The ones in the front are bread and butter pickles. I used the 2 monsters to make some dill spears (ones in the back) as Hubby requested.

Don't worry. Even though I only made a half recipe of each, it still made more than 2 jars total. I just took a picture of the main two kinds. So now we wait as suggested. In about 3 weeks (or 2 now), these will have had time to allow the flavors to blend together and do their thing. Then we'll give 'em a try.

Although I will confess to trying the tiny part of a jar that was left over after filling all these jars. I just put the partial in the fridge and gave them a try last night. I was really surprised to find that they tasted like a bread and butter pickle. I don't know why really. I guess I didn't quite trust all those recipes that are out there or something. 

So I know at least one recipe is pretty good already. Hey hey!

And if you've never looked in your pantry and admired all the jars of food you've put away,... well,... let me just say -- you're missing out, baby!

Passing It On

 Our first canning of this season happened last week. We were only able to make a small batch but Rugrat was excited because it was... duh, duh, duh duh... salsa. She could literally drink salsa from a glass. 

And practically does.

I had actually thought in the beginning that we would save money by making tomatoes we grew into spaghetti sauce. After thinking about it, I realized that if we could come up with a good, tried and true salsa recipe, we'd actually save a bucket load more than with spaghetti sauce. 

While Aldi sells both of them in organic versions that we like for about the same price, the spaghetti sauce comes in a bigger jar and we just don't go through as much as we used to. On the other hand, the salsa is a smaller jar and we could honestly finish off a jar a week of the mild -- which only I and Rugrat eat. And I don't eat that much of it.

So, from a financial aspect, salsa is the way to go for us. And since she was so excited about it, I let her put in the last jar. 

Next time, I'll let her do all the chopping and skinning and jarring, I think. :)