Whoa, Doggy It’s Hot!

The last couple of weeks have been Suuuuuuuper busy for me and mine! School has started, work has been a little more demanding, and my lil' canning biz has taken off! I couldn't be more humbled by the response and the demand! So before I say anything else, I want to send an especially BIG thank you to all of you who have been so supportive of my little/big endeavor, and have come back for more :)

Now, what have I been up to? Well, in canning news…. I had a 2^nd canning class where we (some lovely ladies and I) canned a couple of Salsa recipes!

We tried our collective hands at a Sweet and Spicy Summer Salsa and a more traditional veggie salsa. Even though it was well over 90+ degrees outside, and we were canning in the middle of the day, everyone excelled at Salsa making that day (and may or may not have lost 5 pounds to the heat during the process). I think my favorite Salsa will always be the sweet and spicy, since it includes pears and peaches amongst the ingredients. Nothing beats a sweet salsa!

(The chopped and ready to cook ingredients!)

(Me, filling the Salsa Jars)

If you would like to try your own hand at the Sweet n' Spicy (or as I like to call it…The Sweet n' Sassy!) Salsa, here is the recipe taken from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (The Bible of home canning, IMHO!) :

Sweet N' Sassy Salsa

(Makes approx. 5-6 8oz Jars)

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped cored peeled tomatoes (peeling is optional here, I prefer non-peeled because it gives a richer tomato taste)

2 cups chopped pitted peeled peaches

2 cups chopped cored peeled pears

1 Red Bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 cup chopped red onion (optional!)

3 to 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped

½ cup loosely packed chopped cilantro

½ cup liquid honey

Grated Zest and juice of 1 lemon

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 Tblsp. Finely chopped fresh mint

Directions:

Prepare your canning pot, jars, and lids. (Prepare by washing and drying them, and placing them in either a dish washer to be heated and sterilized, or placed in a pot of boiling water for approximately 10 minutes. You want to make absolutely certain that you have sterile jars to place your food in! Once sterilized, keep warm until you are ready to fill and cap your jars. This will reduce the stress on the jars, and minimize the risk of cracking them)

In a large stainless steel pot, combine tomatoes, peaches, pears, red bell pepper, onion, and jalapeno peppers. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Add cilantro, honey, lemon zest and juice, vinegar, and mint. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently, stirring frequently, until thickened. (approx 5-10 minutes).

Ladle hot Salsa into the warm and ready jars, leaving a ½ inch space between the salsa and the top of the jar. Place lids on jars and screw on tightly.

Place jars in canning pot and process for 15 minutes. (Process by water bath canning simply means placing them in a pot of boiling water for 15 minutes to ensure that the food is heated through and all organisms that could potentially harm you, are killed) DO NOT SKIP this step, unless you plan on eating the salsa within a week and plan on keeping the finished product in the fridge!

Until next time!

Canning Italy, Out!

Tomay-toh, To-MAH-to

What do you do with 50 pounds of tomatoes? EVERYTHING! Salsa, sauces, hot pack, raw pack, jams, jellies, chutneys... you name it, a tomato can do it!

Today, I had the awesome privilege of teaching a wonderful group of ladies the art of canning tomatoes. I decided that I would start off easy, and have them can something that is near and dear to all Italian Food loving individuals. Bruschetta. Some of you may not know what Bruschetta is, and for that, I apologize. Bruschetta is definitely something that should be tried at least once, and with enough Olive Oil to make you feel extremely guilty for eating it.
In our part of Italy, it is readily available as an appetizer in any restaurant and is a mainstay on dining room tables accross Naples.

Chopped tomatoes enveloped in a mixture of White Wine Vinegar, White Wine, Balsamic Vinegar, Basil, Oregano, and Garlic...spread on top of a toasted piece of rustic country bread. Oh yeah, it IS as good as it sounds. The best part about Bruschetta (pronounced Bru-SHKE-Tah) is that its good on just about anything! Lay it on top of chicken and you have a rustic chicken main dish. Or eat it as a salad...simply mix with leafy greens and enjoy! Seriously, with this stuff (especially if you LOVE tomatoes) you can't go wrong!

Today, I taught 8 lovely ladies the art of canning Bruschetta. We picked our tomatoes, washed them in a bucket of water, chopped them up, peeled and chopped garlic, and boiled our vinegar/wine mixture... all in the wonderful open air. Which, by the way, is my absolute favorite way to can!

(Kay and Alicia, washing and sorting their plum tomatoes...)









(The ladies, busy chopping away...)








(Celeste, mixing her Bruschetta marinade)



Once everyone was finished cutting, mixing, and stuffing their jars, we were all able to see that in 2 1/2 hours, 8 people were able to can a combined 16 Jars of Bruschetta....with tomatoes still left to can! I only hope that each person left my class today excited to continue the art of canning and enjoy the goodies they learned to make. Many thank you's to the ladies who came out today to take part in Can-It-Forward day! I had a blast teaching, and I hope you all had a great time as well!!

A week of Canning....

I started this last week off ready to conquer the world. I knew that I was going to spend it happily cutting, cooking, and generally making a mess of my kitchen. But boy, did I NOT know what fun adventures canning can create!

My landlord, Paolo, owns a beautiful Peach/Grape/Apricot/Crab Apple orchard two plots over from our home. The day he gave me a key and told me I had free reign over that treasure trove of goodies, I thought it was a joke. Seriously? You are giving me a key to grab as much fruit as I want?! Oh Paolo, you have no idea what you have given me!!
My three kids and I love going to pick peaches when they are at their ripest. Orange with streaks of deepest red, you almost feel wrong for leaving others behind on their branches. Oh, the things you can create in a jar with a bushel of peaches!

So....with the 20 kilos (approx 44 pounds) my kiddos and I had plucked from the trees, I began making a list in my head of all the things I would be making that day. Peach Jam, Spiced Peach Butter, Peach Ice Cream Topping, Canned Peaches in Syrup.... and on and on. Then in the middle of my Peach filled giddiness, I received a phone call from a friend who's own landlord had handed her a grocery bag FULL of Pears.... and she had no use for them. Would I be interested? Hmmmm.... Have you ever had Peach Pear Jam? It is like spreading a fresh fruit cocktail on your toast in the morning....

After picking up the pears, and heading home, I saw that our local market was open. Uh-oh. Markets in Italy are like a gastronomic vortex of yumminess. You quickly find that there is no getting out without buying something, and once you finally manage to weave yourself out from the throng of people and shouts of the vendors, you realize you just spent half your rent money on fruits, veggies, a painting (what?!), various home knick knacks you just had to have, and a loaf of bread. Well....I needed the fruit....

In all seriousness, Italy is awash in markets. There is a market everyday of the week in different cities, and it is the #1 way the locals buy their produce and essentials for the week. The major grocery stores and big name discount shops are wonderful for the things markets don't offer the modern-day, convenience needy society. But all the locals I know stick with the markets for their needs. And why not? Markets give local farmers the ability to sell their wares for a great profit, not to mention the once-a-week opportunity to see their neighbors and friends. Whenever I go to the market in my part of Casal Di Principe, I always go straight to my favorite vendor Franca. She serves with a smile, is always understanding and patient with my broken Italian, and always throws in freebies when I buy in bulk. This last week, I bought 5 kilos of red skinned plums to go with my pear windfall, and my peach pickings. I got a free bunch of basil and a half kilo of bananas from her! Score! Next week, she'll receive a nice jar of peach plum jam from me.


So back to canning....

Once I started chopping, pureeing, slicing, and cooking... four blissful days went by. Canning and stocking your pantry gives you a CAN-do attitude. Ha! (Ok, bad joke) but it does give you a huge sense of accomplishment. In 4 days I managed to can 45 jars of various fruity yuminess that will last my family and I (and various lucky gift receivers) through till next peach season. That is the wonderful thing about buying and canning in season. You can pick or buy double (or triple or quadruple...) what you would normally be able to when fruits and veggies are out of season. You eat some, then save the rest. After 2 straight weeks of Peaches on everything, mixed with everything, and eaten straight...? I think I'll be good till Christmas....


Would you like to purchase homemade canned goods? Go to https://www.facebook.com/CanningItaly to look through what is available right now!

The Beginning....

This is my Grandmother, Rosetta Finley. She lived through the Great Depression, a World War, and raised 4 children. This woman lived through some of the toughest economic times, and survived with family fed and healthy. How? By doing what good southern women have been doing for hundreds of years, growing and preserving her own foods. This is the woman who taught me that jams and jellies don't begin in the grocery aisles. She taught me that tomatoes and zucchini flourish in sunny areas, and that bees love flowering strawberries.
I was lucky enough to spend my summers with my grandparents, away from my Southern Californian citified existence. Arriving in Arkansas from Los Angeles was always like shedding my skin. I would leave all the noise, the expectations, and people at the airport, and arrive in a large open expanse of green pastures, welcoming smiles, and southern cooking. I could run wild on 3 acres of lush green grass dotted with large leafy trees. I could play 'pirates' on my Grandfather's small fishing dingy. I could watch cows graze along their property line from a porch swing, while bees buzzed around my Grandmother's nearby zucchini patch. I always knew I was "home" when my Grandfather would squeeze the life out of me with one of his Superman hugs and say, "Hey there, Sugarbabe." I miss those hugs.

On one of my first trips "home", I was taught the art of strawberry cultivation. I was 6. We spent hours picking red juicy heart-shaped jewels from a winding jumble of green. My Grandmother would tell me that snacking on them while picking was prohibited, as she put one in her mouth and winked. My Grandfather would watch us from his lawn chair "office", which consisted of 2 white plastic chairs set under a tall shady tree. After seeing we had picked about 5Lbs worth of berries I asked, "who are we selling these to?" My Grandmother balked at my question and my Grandfather laughed. I was quickly rushed from the strawberry patch to the kitchen, unceremoniously handed a large colander filled with our freshly picked berries and told "wash!" I washed. Then I watched in wonder as my Grandmother took out from her pantry (that scary walk-in food closet with the swinging light bulb on the ceiling) 12 beautiful empty glass jars with various fruits and vegetables embossed on the sides. "This is what we do with those berries" she said. "We grew them, we're gonna eat 'em." And eat them we did. Between crushing and cooking the berries, we produced one dozen ruby hued jars filled with the sweetest tasting jam I had ever tasted. I was hooked. "What's next?!" I asked excitedly. My grandmother smiled and said, "Shoot girl! We got a garden full of stuff!" And so my love affair with food in jars

began...

Now, I'm married and have children of my own. Three, actually. Three kids running around needing to eat, drink, and be kids. Except, it gets more and more disheartening to see on nearly EVERY ingredients label in the grocery store the one ingredient that should make you pause and ask, "REALLY?" High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything from the Strawberry Jelly you spread on your toast in the morning to that diet soda you can't seem to resist... 5x a day. HFG is a very, very bad dude. Sure, it makes everything sweeter, but that is not always a good thing. It also causes our bodies to crave more sugar. Obesity rates are up around our country and others, and the rate of HFG in everything has also gone up. I never would have thought myself an advocate for healthy "hippy" eating (as a friend of mine puts it), but my own diet soda habit began taking a toll on my health. Then I watched our children devolve into wild lings in order to have a diet soda, and then another...and another.

It made me really take stock and ask myself if Diet Soda is really worth failing kidneys, thyroid issues, and weight problems. Then I remembered my Grandparents. They both lived long and healthy lives. Why? Because they might have smoked like chimneys, but they ate their own fresh and preserved foods. They never suffered weight issues, and from what I can remember, they were always active in their garden and on their land. I can still see my Grandfather sitting on top of his lawnmower, motioning for me to jump on for a spin around the yard. I wanted to give that to my children. A chance to grow up eating healthy and how healthy foods go from the garden to your table, no matter what season.

Then the most extraordinary thing happened. My husband was offered a job overseas...in Italy. We jumped at the chance to experience a whole new culture, life, and existence. We were lucky to find a home in the country, not far from the bustling city of Naples (Napoli) that included 3 lemon trees, 8 orange trees, 8 olive trees, a pomegranate tree, and a plot to plant a garden. We jumped right into planning our garden space and asking local farmers at the markets what the best times to plant and harvest were. The Italian farmers at first were perplexed. "But you are American. You come, you stay, you eat, you don't grow..." Oh no, this family is most definitely going to grow, and preserve, and live off the land as much as possible. Our friends Paolo and Theresa are always there when we need help with any major land cultivation. This year we get to learn how to pick and pack our own olives. Stay tuned for that one! Paolo also has the awesome (yes, I said AWESOME) habit of dropping off a few things from their own garden.

Free Zucchini is always welcome in this house. And so are peaches, tomatoes, strawberries, pears, plums, melons, onions, and... and... and....

By being garden and farmer's market savvy, I have canned our way into saving a ton of money on our grocery and eating expenses. I've learned new recipes for things I didn't know you could or would want to try (Watermelon pickles, anyone?) And I have become acutely aware of the need to store when the season is giving you an abundance at a great price Because come winter, having those fruits and veggies tucked in a pantry makes it extremely easy to whip up a cobbler, bake a pie, or enjoy the culinary masterpieces you created in a jar.

Thank you Grandma Finley, you have successfully passed down a valuable lesson to your granddaughter. I will be forever grateful for your patience, love, and understanding of a little misguided California girl. You would be proud of our pantry : )