Monday’s Canning Projects

The plan was to get the ham broth canned so I started on that before breakfast. It was an easy project because the broth had been in the roaster all night. All I had to do was scoop it up, pour it into the jars, straining it as I poured it.

I really need to move those pears from the back of that table, don’t I? They’ve been photo bombing my canning photos for weeks! I have to bring down down a box for those 1-1/2 pint jars and I keep forgetting. I don’t use those too much . . well, I didn’t because they were hard to get but now that Azure Standard has them, I’ll be using a lot of them. The quarts are too big for one meal for the two of us on most things. The pints are almost too small but the 1-1/2 pint jars are just right!

How will I use the ham broth? When I have ham broth, I almost always have a jar in the fridge. A little bit will make a lot of difference in a lot of recipes. I will add about 1/4 cup of ham broth when cooking rice. When I’m cooking beans, I will often add about 1/2 cup of ham broth once the beans are almost ready to serve. I will use a bit of it when cooking grits. Adding a bit to the water to boil pasta when making a pasta salad, especially if there’s ham in the salad. It can be used in the same way as chicken or beef broth.

Later, and not planned, I was out cleaning up some areas of the garden and realized the peppers, though still blooming and growing, their days of producing peppers are coming to an end so I went ahead and pulled off all the peppers.

Usually, about this time of year, I make a batch of Cowboy Candy and use all the leftover peppers. I try to use a mix of hot and not so hot peppers so Vince will eat it too. There are a lot of different bell type peppers, Ojeenmma (which are a habanero type pepper), serrano, Tabasco, cayenne, jalapeno and banana peppers. I figured there were enough bell peppers in there to offset some of the HOT peppers.

For many years, I sliced the peppers but last year, I was watching Homestead Heart’s video when she was making what she called Cowgirl Candy and she said she puts her peppers through the food processor and she liked it so much better than slicing them. I tried it last year and I liked it better too so that’s what I did yesterday and will be doing in the future. I had already done three batches using just jalapeno peppers. I had 18 half pint jars already and with these, I’ll have 23 half pints to get me through til next year’s peppers are ready. I also canned the leftover brine. I love it best over grilled salmon or tuna. It’s spicy, sweet, tangy . . so good with fish. I will also mix it up with olive oil or mayo to make a really good salad dressing!

Tomorrow’s canning project will be red beans and sausage.