Classy and Opinionated Lifestyle Mom Blog
Every year we plant a backyard garden and one of the things that we grow in it happens to be zucchinis. For some reason, zucchini grows extremely well around here! Last summer I planted only 3 plants and it yielded 22 large zucchinis! One of …
I’ve been doing home preserving or some form of home canning for the past 25+ years. I love to get into my kitchen and make up a few batches of homemade jam, jellies, conserves, chutney, soft spreads and more. These little treasures are always welcomed …
For the past 25+ years I’ve been doing home canning. Luckily for me…I’ve had 2 great teachers in my life…my grandmother and my father-in-law who both taught me the basics & then I took that knowledge and expanded it by attending some local classes and reading books on home canning. Over the years, I’ve greatly improved on my skills.
Many people think that it’s expensive to get into home canning and/or difficult to learn. I’m here to tell you that yes…there is an initial financial investment in buying the kitchen equipment and supplies that you need but they pay for themselves pretty quickly. Furthermore, once you have learned the basics you can quickly expand upon them.
For those who are looking for a great resource I highly recommend the Ball Blue Book – Guide to Preserving. It’s my home canning bible! It includes a list of supplies and equipment that you need, step-by-step instructions with photos on how to get started and tons & tons of recipes to help you along the way.
When it comes to water bath canning…here is a list of the things you will need:
* Boiling Water Canner (also called a Water Bath Canner)
* Glass Mason Jars for Canning
* Jar Seals and Bands
* Jar Funnel
* Jar Lifter (special tongs made for lifting jars out of water)
* Bubble Remover
* Lid Lifter
* Colander
* Large Mixing Bowls
* Old Kitchen Hand Towels
* Ladle, Serving Spoon and Slotted Spoon
* Hot Pads & Oven Mitts
* Kitchen Timer
* Labels for the Jars & Black Sharpie Markers
Everything listed above is what I keep in my home canning storage box. I found it best to go out and buy a Rubbermaid tote to house it all (except for the jars). Once you have made your initial investment, the ONLY thing you will need to buy from season-to-season is new jar seals. Your mason jars and bands are reusable.
Before you start any home canning session you need to inspect all of your supplies and make sure they are in good working order before using them. That includes making sure everything is extremely clean!
You can find all kinds of great tutorials online for home canning along with various canned food recipes.
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I was first introduced to food preservation 35 years ago by my grandmother. That very first year I remember sitting on a chair in her kitchen and watching her can hundreds of different jars of food. On top of canning, she was really big into …
How many of you do home canning? How many of you would like to learn or would like to improve upon your canning skills? If so, I’ve got some great news for you, so please keep on reading! I’ve been canning all kinds of things …
Every year we plant a garden and one of the things that we can grow very well here in Pennsylvania happens to be tomatoes! Now that Summer is over and Fall is settling in, we are harvesting the last of our tomatoes.
Many people think that making your own homemade tomato sauce is a difficult and time-consuming process. Well, I am here to tell you that it is easy and you can have a big batch done in less than one hour. Furthermore, once it is done you can home can it or you can pour it into freezer containers & freeze it for later use.
Here is how I make my homemade tomato sauce.
1. Wash tomatoes. Place them in a big pot of boiling, salted water. Boil them for 2 minutes. Use a big spoon to fish them out and put them in a colander under cold running water to help cool them down. Once they are cool enough to handle, use your hands to gently peel off their skins.
2. Cut the tomatoes in half and then in quarters. Under a light running stream of water, rinse away the seeds. You will get most seeds out of there that way, but not all of them. A few seeds don’t bother us at all.
3. Put the tomato pulp into a blender. I use my NINJA because I find it does a fabulous job at processing the tomatoes into a fine sauce. Cover and blend for about 20 seconds or until all chunks are gone.
4. In a small skillet saute some chopped onion in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil until the onions are cooked.
5. Place the tomato sauce into a large pan. Stir in the sauteed onions. Add in basil, salt, ground black pepper and some granulated sugar according to your own taste buds. Simmer this mixture over low heat for about 17 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
6. Now your sauce is done. You can can it according to home canning instructions or let it completely cool and pour it into labeled freezer containers.
It is soooooo much better than canned or jarred sauce that you buy at the store! Plus, we always throw in a few yellow tomatoes which we swear makes it taste a lot better, a tad sweeter type of thing!
* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!
Now that Fall is officially here, I have been really busy baking up some delicious treats for my family. Some of these we eat right away and others I freeze for use later on. Fall is a great time to be in the kitchen baking …
I love to freeze and can food here at my home for later use. Matter of fact, I am pretty passionate about it as it is much cheaper and healthier for my family to enjoy my own homemade goodies instead of store bought junk. Every …