Classy and Opinionated Lifestyle Mom Blog
Carrots…they’re not one of my family’s favorite vegetables. However, I can get them to eat them if they’re Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots which are sweeter. Last month I was busy with my home canning and canned a dozen jars of these yummy Brown Sugar Glazed …
Twice a year I home can a big batch of beef vegetable soup for my family to enjoy. This recipe is for your classic red sauce veggie soup but instead of using expensive chunks of beef, I use lean ground beef. You can play around …
Our backyard garden has done really well this year. I’ve been picking a lot of fresh vegetables every week. Sometimes I have enough to can a full load of whatever it is that I harvested. At other times…I have a little bit of this and that which I toss together to make mixed vegetables. Here’s the recipe that I recently used to make mixed vegetables. It utilizes carrots, corn, green beans, zucchini and bell peppers.
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The recipe will yield approximately 6 pint jars. You’ll need to process the jars in a pressure steam canner. I bought mine from Amazon for a really great price. I use it several times a week during the growing season. You’ll need at least 6 glass pint size mason jars.
Country-Style Mixed Vegetables Recipe
3 1/2 cups carrots, sliced into rounds or diced
3 1/2 cups whole kernel corn
3 1/2 cups greens beans, chopped into pieces
3 cups zucchini, peeled and chopped into cubes
1 cup green or red bell pepper, chopped into pieces
salt
water
Prep all of your vegetables as listed above. Make sure you measure them out as you want the portions to be accurate or close to accurate as you can get.
Combine all of the vegetables into a large pan. Add water to cover the vegetables. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes.
Pack the vegetables and liquid into a pint size glass mason jar leaving 1″ headspace at the top. Remove air bubbles. Wipe the jar rim with a clean cloth, add the seal and ring just until it’s fingertip tight. Place jar on the rack in the pressure canner containing 2″ of simmering hot water. Repeat until all jars are filled.
Place the lid on the pressure steam canner. Lock it into place. Adjust heat to medium-high. Vent steam for 10 minutes. Bring the pressure up to 10 lbs (psi). Process the pint jars for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the canner cool down until it reaches 0 ZERO pressure. Once it reaches 0 set a timer for 5 minutes. Then remove the lid. Let the hot jars sit inside the canner (lid off) for an additional 10-15 minutes before carefully removing them to cool on the countertop. Label and date.
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We bake a ham a few times every year. Mostly for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. When I purchase a ham for our holiday meals I always purchase a large one. Why? Because I want plenty of leftovers for home canning! I like to use the …
Every fall I like to take the last of my green bell peppers from the backyard garden and turn them into a batch of green pepper jelly. It’s a great way to use up the end-of-the-season bell peppers. This flavor of jelly is delicious spread …
I’ve been home canning for the past 35+ years. Over the decades I’ve accumulated hundreds of glass mason canning jars. During the canning season I’ll use at least 500 jars preserving a wide variety of food. When the jars aren’t in use it’s important to clean and store them properly. Everyone has a different method, but here’s how I do it.
All empty jars need to be properly cleaned. I lay out old cotton towels on my kitchen counter-top. I fill the sink with hot soapy water. I like to use Dawn Liquid Dish Soap because it does a great job at removing grease, food debris, and grime. I use a bottle brush to get into all of the nooks and crannies. You want to scrub around the threads of the jar (around the opening) until they’re clean. Rinse them until all of the soapy reside is gone.
Always inspect them for damage. Any jars with cracks, chips, stains, fogginess, etc. should be discarded or used for non-food purposes.
I do a rotation system during the drying process. I first place all jars upside down onto the towels. They remain like that for 2 hours. I then go back and flip them right-side-up to finish the drying process. They need to be completely DRY before storing them away. Any moisture left inside them can cause mold and mildew to grow.
After drying I transport them into my canning pantry closet. Yes, I’m lucky enough to have my own walk-in pantry canning closet! I lined my shelves with a foam type of shelf liner to keep the jars a little bit more protected from chipping.
When storing the jars they shouldn’t be touching one another or stacked on top of each other. Don’t put the rings or seals back on them. Rings and seals should be stored in separate containers.
Before I use them again to process food they get another hand washing, rinse, and inspection. It’s important to ONLY use extremely clean jars that are in perfect condition, so that you have the best results when preserving food. If you properly clean and store your glass mason jars they will last you for decades!
* 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!
This summer we decided to grow our own green beans instead of purchasing them at the local farmer’s market. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went. We had plenty of them to eat throughout the late summer season and I was able to …
Every year I like to make 6-8 homemade batches of fruit jam for my family to enjoy. Homemade tastes a lot different than their store-bought counterparts and I mean that in a GOOD WAY! They taste fresher and just have a better flavor to them. …