More Canning

This morning right after breakfast, I started stitching and planned to stitch all day. We were going to have sandwiches for dinner. I’d made fresh bread yesterday, we had roast beef and I love roast beef sandwiches with zucchini relish. Then . . Vince came in and said “Want to go to town with me?” I almost said no but figured it wouldn’t hurt to ride to town with him to pick up one thing. Who am I kidding? Vince . . go to town and pick up ONE thing?? Not happening.

A friend gave us a gift card quite some time ago from Chili’s. We don’t usually go there but . . with a gift card, why not? But first, he needed to stop by Walmart so we did that, then went and ate, then he wanted to go to Aldi, then he remembered something else at Walmart. Then he wanted to stop at the flea market. That’s when I said NO!! I suggested taking me home and going back alone. No . . didn’t want to do that. So we passed up the flea market. Then he wanted to stop at Atwoods. Somewhere along the way, he stopped at Harbor Freight so that was six stops. I sat in the car for all of them except Aldi and Chili’s. He isn’t going to be happy with me because I have been sitting in the car and playing on the phone while he shops his life away. We have a low data plan because, if I could stay home, I’d be using wifi and not data. Not my fault I’m going over, right?

Aldi had the blueberries we like and he wanted to get some. I didn’t care. He got 12 pints. I said fine, I’ll can them. I haven’t made blueberry syrup or blueberry pie filling this year and we’re out of both of those. On the way home, he said “Can you leave out two pints for us to eat?” Nope . . if I’m canning, I’m doing them all. We have plenty in the freezer and those are just fine for putting in our oatmeal, barley or cereal in the mornings.

We ended up with 16 half pints of blueberry syrup. I like putting that in my fizzy water (Soda Stream) or in the kombucha, as well as on pancakes and waffles. I also ended up with 8 pints of blueberry pie filling.

I also had 3 pints of syrup left over that I didn’t use in the pie filling so I canned that up and I can use that with lemonade.

I make my canned fruit pie filling a little different. Instead of keeping Clear Gel since I don’t can a lot of pie filling, I simply make a simple syrup, usually about 1 part sugar to 1 part water. I fill the jars about 2/3 full of fruit, then add the simple syrup and water bath can it. When it’s time to make a pie (when is it NOT time to make a pie?), I drain the liquid into a pot, start with a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch and cook the syrup til thick, then add the blueberries that were in the jar and any other seasonings, pour it all into a pie crust and bake it.

For the two of us, most of our pies are made in a small (6.5″) cast iron skillet. That gives us plenty of pie for several days and we don’t feel like we have to eat an entire pie or waste half of it.