Food: Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Super Duper EASY and delicious. 

You'll need...

Pretzels

Chocolate Chips or Almond Bark

Paraffin Wax

All you have to do is drop your pretzels in the chocolate mix then remove with a fork. Be sure to let the excess drip back into the double boiler. Place on wax paper to dry.

If you've never used melted chocolate before, here is what you will need to do...

Melting the chocolate will require a double boiler or two cookers stacked on top of each other like I used in the photo below. Fill the bottom cooker about 1/2 full of water and sit the other on top. Turn your burner on medium-high. The water will need to be at a steady boil, but not enough to boil over. Make sure you keep enough water in the bottom cooker to touch the top one.

 Add your chocolate and paraffin wax into the top cooker and stir until it melts. There is no set ratio for the chocolate and wax. I usually use 1/2 a block of wax per bag of chocolates or package of Almond Bark. If it looks too thick, just add a little more wax. If it is too thin, add some more chocolate.

That's it! :)  Nothing to it!

Enjoy!

P.S. (LOL!) Sorry for the poor quality photos. I was making the pretzels way after dark and my kitchen lighting is definitely not for photography. It didn't even occur to me in my candy making madness to set a custom white balance.

Food: Chocolate Oatmeal Candy AKA No-Bake Cookies Recipe

Chocolate Oatmeal Candy AKA No-Bake Cookies

4 cups Sugar

2 sticks Butter (1 cup) 

1 cup Milk

2 tsp Vanilla

4 Tbsp Cocoa

1 cup Peanut Butter

6 cups Oatmeal

Add  sugar, butter, and milk into a cooker and bring mixture to a full rolling-boil. Continue to boil for 1 minute or to 230 degrees on a candy thermometer and remove from heat. If you are timing it, make sure not to start the timer until it is at a full rolling-boil. Next, add vanilla, cocoa, peanut butter, and oatmeal into the mixture. Be careful, it is hot. Mix well. Pour into a buttered 9x13 baking dish, cool, cut into squares or drop large spoonfuls onto wax paper to cool. 

Easy. Enjoy!

Food: Apple Jelly

It is that time of year again... so, I figured I'd share another tutorial.

To make Apple Jelly you need apple juice. Now, you could probably use bottled juice or even frozen juices, but we use the real thing.

How exactly do you we get the apple juice?

Peel, core, and slice your apples, cook them in a little water til they are tender, and then strain the juice. You can see photos of the process on my Applesauce tutorial.

You can also boil your apple peels and make jelly from those if you'd like to do that. Just make sure you wash the apples before you peel them. Boil your peels and run them through a food mill. Save the juice. Toss the pulp out to the chickens.

Get your jars ready...

Be sure to sterilize them.

There are several methods... you can sterilize them by running them through your dishwasher I've heard or by complete immersion in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes and kept hot until ready to be filled.  Someone even suggested heating them in the oven at 250. However, using the dishwasher with a heated dry would probably be the quickest and easiest way to do it.

Wash your lids and rings. Cover with simmering water before placing them on the jars. 

For your jelly, you will need...

5 level cups of juice

1 pkg of Jel-Ease

7 level cups of sugar

The recipe says to get 5 cups of juice you will need 4 lbs of apples to cook in 4 cups of water. This should yield 7 1/2 cups of jelly.  

Since we just save our juice from the applesauce making process, we don't really measure the amount of apples we had to begin with. We just save the juice in a large jug and then measure the juice out to make the jelly. 

Measure your sugar out in a bowl, set to the side. 

Put your juice in a cooker, stir pectin into the juice, place on heat and bring it to a full boil. Stir continuously. 

Now add in your sugar, slowly. 

Bring it back to a full rolling boil. {{It can not be stirred down}}

Stir constantly. 

Use a timer and boil for 2 minutes. 

Remove from heat and skim off the foam if you wish. 

Fill your hot jars. Leave 1/4 inch of headroom. 

Now wipe any juice from the rims of the jars and quickly put on your lid and ring while the jam is hot. You may need to hold the jar with a dishtowel while you put the lid on. They say fingertip tight.

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving says the next step would be to process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. To do this you just put the jars on the canning rack and lower them into simmering water. Make sure they are covered by at least one inch of water. Cover with lid and heat to a steady boil for the amount of time on the recipe. Turn off the heat and let the jars stand in the water for 5 minutes. Remove jars from water and sit them upright on a towel on the counter for 12 hours. 

Now with that being said, I normally don't do the processing at the end. We eat our homemade jelly so fast there really isn't a need for it. After we put the lids on we leave them sitting on the stove top. In about half an hour they jars should be sealed. When they seal the tops will be flat or even look like they are caved in a smidge. There will be no bump on top and it won't make a popping sound when you touch them. If the jars haven't sealed, and the jam is still hot, turn the jar upside down for about 15 minutes. It should seal. Then we put in the fridge and forget it. But you may want to do what book calls for if you aren't going to eat yours straight away.

That's it. Enjoy! 

I'm sharing this post at Farmgirl Friday.

Food: How to make Grape Jelly

Daddy called last week wanting to know if we were going to do anything with the grapes on our concord grape vine. I had mentioned to him earlier in the week that it was hanging full of grapes. I told him I hadn't really planned anything yet, and that he was welcome to them. Just come on up and I'd help him pick them. 

He, my nephew Austin (we call him Bud), myself, and my oldest son, Bailey, helped pick them. We picked over two gallons and still had 1/2 to 3/4 a gallon still hanging on the vine. 

Aren't they gorgeous? 

Well, Mom called Tuesday Morning around 9 AM to tell me she was going to make grape jelly and ask if I wanted to come down and help her. She hadn't expected Dad to come home with two gallons of grapes. LOL. So, I loaded up all the boys school books and laptop and off we went. They did all their work at her kitchen table and I ran back and forth between helping her and them. 

Before you start on your jelly, you need to get your jars ready. Be sure to sterilize them. 

There are several methods... you can sterilize them by running them through your dishwasher I've heard or by complete immersion in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes and kept hot until ready to be filled.  Someone even suggested heating them in the oven at 250. However, using the dishwasher with a heated dry would probably be the quickest and easiest way to do it.

Wash your lids and rings. Cover with simmering water before placing them on the jars. 

This cooker was heaping full of grapes to be cooked. The photo was taken after they had cooked and several scoops had been run through the mill. 

The recipe calls for 3 lbs of grapes to be cooked in 1 cup of water. We had no clue how many pounds we had and just added about a quart or so of water. Bring to a boil, cook about 10 minutes or so.

Scoop some out, and run them through a food mill. 

This is what the skins/pits should look like that are left in the mill. 

Here is what the juice looks like after it has been through the mill. No skin or seeds in there.

We ended up having to make 4 batches. Do not double your jelly recipes. It is important to make one batch at a time or they will not set properly. 

For your jelly, you will need... 

 4 cups of juice

 1 pkg of Jel-Ease or other pectin

 6 1/2 cups of sugar

Measure your sugar out in a bowl, set to the side.

Put your juice in a cooker, stir pectin into the juice, place on heat and bring it to a full boil. Stir continuously. 

Now add in your sugar, slowly. 

Bring it back to a full rolling boil. {{It can not be stirred down}}

Stir constantly. 

Use a timer and boil for 2 minutes. 

Please be careful. It is HOT!

Remove from heat and skim off the foam if you wish. 

Fill your hot jars. Leave 1/4 inch of headroom. 

Now wipe any juice from the rims of the jars and quickly put on your lid and ring while the jam is hot. You may need to hold the jar with a dishtowel while you put the lid on. They say fingertip tight.

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving says the next step would be to process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. To do this you just put the jars on the canning rack and lower them into simmering water. Make sure they are covered by at least one inch of water. Cover with lid and heat to a steady boil for the amount of time on the recipe. Turn off the heat and let the jars stand in the water for 5 minutes. Remove jars from water and sit them upright on a towel on the counter for 12 hours. 

Now with that being said, I normally don't do the processing at the end. We eat our homemade jelly so fast there really isn't a need for it. After we put the lids on we leave them sitting on the stove top. In about half an hour they jars should be sealed. When they seal the tops will be flat or even look like they are caved in a smidge. There will be no bump on top and it won't make a popping sound when you touch them. If the jars haven't sealed, and the jam is still hot, turn the jar upside down for about 15 minutes. It should seal. Then we put in the fridge and forget it. But you may want to do what book calls for if you aren't going to eat yours straight away.

That's it. Enjoy! 

And.. if you are wondering why there is something red in the jar next to it in the photo also, it was Strawberry Preserves. We made another batch of that also. You can see my tutorial for it, HERE.

I am sharing this post at Farmgirl Friday!

Food: Strawberry Preserves Recipe

My sisters and I made Strawberry Preserves at Mom and Dad's a couple weeks ago. I didn't take pics of the whole process because I already had my Strawberry Jam tutorial up. 

What is the difference in Jam and Preserves? 

Jam is made from crushed or chopped fruit cooked with sugar, and often pectin and lemon juice. Jam can be a pure of fruit or have a soft pulp, but it does not contain chunks of fruit.  

Preserves are fruit cooked with sugar to the point where large chunks of fruit or whole fruit, such as berries, are suspended in a syrup base. The texture of preserves is not smooth like jelly or jam. 

Ok, so by that definition ours is a mixture between Jam and Preserves, I guess. Either way... it is delicious. 

You can see step by step photos on my Strawberry Jam Tutorial. The only thing we did different than the Jam was that we didn't run the strawberries through the food mill this time. So there are larger chunks of berries in there. 

You will need 

5 level cups of juice/berries, 

1 pkg of Jell-Ease, 

7 cups of sugar, 

and 4 Tbsps lemon juice. 

The recipe says to get 5 cups of juice/berries you will need 2 quarts of strawberries to cook. This should yield 8 cups of preserves. 

Toss the jars in the dishwasher. Don't forget the detergent. Put that sucker on HOT water and a heated dry. 

Get yourself some berries.

Now, rinse then off and spread them out on paper towels to drip dry.

Cut the tops off and cut the berries in chunks.

Now put your jars, lids, and rings in your water bath canner. The water just needs to be simmering. This will reduce the risk of the jars breaking when you put hot food into them. {{If you have your dishwasher on heated dry you shouldn't have to put the jars in there. Just the rings and lids.}}

Grab your other ingredients. Sugar, pectin, and lemon juice. 

Measure your sugar out in a bowl. 

Get your cooker and add in your correct amount of fruit and pectin. Bring to a full boil. Stir continuously. You don't want it to scorch or stick. 

Now add in the sugar, gradually. Stir well. Bring back to a full rolling boil. {{Can not be stirred down}} Stir constantly. 

Boil 2 minutes.  

Now you can skim off the foam or not. We didn't. 

Fill your hot jars. Leave 1/4 inch of headroom. 

Now wipe any juice from the rims of the jars and quickly put on your lid and ring while the jam is hot. You may need to hold the jar with a dishtowel while you put the lid on. They say fingertip tight.

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving says the next step would be to process the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. To do this you just put the jars on the canning rack and lower them into simmering water. Make sure they are covered by at least one inch of water. Cover with lid and heat to a steady boil for the amount of time on the recipe. Turn off the heat and let the jars stand in the water for 5 minutes. Remove jars from water and sit them upright on a towel on the counter for 12 hours. 

Now with that being said, I normally don't do the processing at the end. We eat our homemade jam so fast there really isn't a need for it. After we put the lids on we leave them sitting on the stove top. In about half an hour they jars should be sealed. When they seal the tops will be flat or even look like they are caved in a smidge. There will be no bump on top and it won't make a popping sound when you touch them. If the jars haven't sealed, and the jam is still hot, turn the jar upside down for about 15 minutes. It should seal. Then we put in the fridge and forget it. But you may want to do what book calls for if you aren't going to eat yours straight away.

That's it. Enjoy!

I am sharing this post at Farmgirl Friday!

Food: How to Make Homemade Applesauce and Apple Butter

Last year, I posted my Homemade Apple Butter and Fried Apple Pie recipe and tutorial. Since then, I've had several people ask if we make our own apple sauce or do we buy store bought? Well, you can do it either way, but we like to make our own. So, I figured I'd show  you the actually process of making apple sauce and how to turn it into apple butter. 

REMEMBER I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. I AM LEARNING TOO AND CAN'T BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR APPLESAUCE OR APPLE BUTTER FLOPS. LOL.  {Mom has been doing this for over 50 years, so I am pretty sure it won't.}

First, you will need to pick yourself some apples. 

Now use your handy dandy apple peeler. This one peels, slices, and cores the apple all at once. This baby is a jewel. My parents got it in Liberty, Ky at the Amish village. But they do sell them at our local farm supply store also. 

Once the apple has been peeled, cored, and sliced, cut the apple in half and cut off any bruises or pieces of peel that may have been missed. 

Drop your apples into a bowl of salt water. We don't measure the salt, just put a handful in. Make sure to push the apples down into the water.  This just keeps the apples from turning really red while you are working.

Once your bowl is full, drain, rinse, and put them into a cooker with maybe a quart to half a gallon of water so they don't stick.

Cook the apples until they are tender. You will want to bring them to a boil and then turn the heat down and let them boil gently for maybe 20 minutes. Mom never really times this part. You will be able to tell when they are soft while stirring them. Stir every now and then so they don't scorch.

Scoop the apples out and into a strainer. Drain most of the juice. A little is ok.

You can save the juice in the fridge to make Apple Jelly. 

Once you have drained the juice, put the apples into the food mill and grind them into applesauce.

Sorry I didn't get a better picture of the actual sauce. You can see it here in the cup. My sister was measuring out the applesauce to make apple butter.

Now, if you want to just keep your applesauce plain, you can put it in tubs and into the freezer. You could also can it. Ball Preserving tells you how, here.

We don't eat a lot of plain applesauce, so we make ours into apple butter. To do this, get yourself some jars. Toss them (gently, lol) in the dishwasher. Don't forget the detergent. Put that sucker on HOT water and a heated dry. 

Now put your lids, and rings in your water bath canner. The water just needs to be simmering.

 Measure your applesauce back into your big cooker. Mom uses 16 cups of applesauce and 12 cups of sugar. You put 3/4 a cup of sugar to every 1 cup of applesauce. Now add in 5 Tbsp of Cinnamon and Cloves to taste. Mom uses 1-3 tsp. We used 3 tsp in this batch.

Now, bring this to a boil, stir a lot. You do not want it to stick. Reduce the heat a little and boil for at least 25 minutes. You want to be able to raise the spoon up out of the apple butter and for it to stick to the spoon. You don't want it runny. If it is still too thin after 25 minutes, continue to boil a few more minutes.

After your apple butter is done, carefully put into your sterile jars.

It is decision making time. If you are going to store your apple butter in the fridge, put on your lids and rings and turn the jars upside down on a towel for 5 minutes. Then turn them back upright. Your lids should start sealing quick. 

If you would rather store the apple butter on shelves, you will want to can it. To do this, put the jars in your boiling water canner with at least 1 inch of water over the jars at all times. Boil for 15 minutes. (adjust for altitude)

That is it. Enjoy!

I'm sharing this post at Farmgirl Friday and From the Farm.

Food: How to make Zesty Salsa Tutorial

I've had these photos on my computer forever, but I just keep forgetting to share this tutorial. Better late than never, I suppose. 

So here we go..

REMEMBER I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. I AM LEARNING TOO AND CAN'T BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR SALSA FLOPS. LOL.  {This is a tried recipe, so I am pretty sure it won't.}

My boys made Zesty Salsa with our local 4-H group and Tessa from Doty Creek Crafter. I thought I'd take photos and share the how-to with all of you. Many thanks to the 4-H leaders for allowing me to take photos. I omitted all the photos of children other than mine for privacy reasons.

First you have your adorable children wash, wash, wash their hands and remove the lids and rings from the new jars. 

Toss the jars in the dishwasher. Don't forget the detergent. Put that sucker on HOT water and a heated dry. 

Now put your jars, lids, and rings in your water bath canner. The water just needs to be simmering. This will reduce the risk of the jars breaking when you put hot food into them.

Gather your ingredients. 

Tomatoes

Green Peppers

Onions

Hot Peppers (We didn't use those.)

Garlic (We used Garlic Powder.)

Cilantro

Salt 

Vinegar

Hot sauce (We omitted that also.)

 Cut the peppers in half, clean out the insides. 

 Dice. You will need 5 cups. 

 Clean and dice your onions. 5 cups of those also.

 Peal, core, and dice up your tomatoes. 10 cups! 

 Mix all your vegetables in a cooker with the garlic (3 cloves or you can substitute garlic powder. 1/8 tsp = 1 clove), cilantro (2 Tbsp), salt (3 tsp), and cider vinegar (1 1/4 cups).

*You can add in your 2 1/2 cups of seedless hot peppers and your hot peppers sauce here if you wish to have really zesty salsa.*

 Bring mixture to a boil. Then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Ladle into hot jars. Be CAREFUL, it is HOT!

 Leave 1/4 inch of head space. 

Add lids and rings, and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water canner. 

Tada! It should make 6 pints or 12 half pints.

I am sharing this post at From the Farm Blog Hop , Homestead Blog Hop, and Farmgirl Friday.

Food: Not Only Vegetable Soup

My Mom makes THE BEST vegetable soup, ever. Ok, maybe it's not just all veggies, but we still call it vegetable soup. She doesn't measure and doesn't follow a recipe, but I thought I'd share the ingredients with you. There is no right or wrong amount of any of them. Just whatever you think looks right to you. 

First you will will fry your hamburger meat. I go ahead and do that in the cooker I am going to make my soup in. You can drain the grease or not. Mom does. I've done it both ways.

Add in on top of the burger... 

Tomato Juice

Corn

Green Beans

Peas

Potatoes*

Carrots*

Onions

Green Pepper

and 

Cabbage*

Macaroni**

*If you are using fresh veggies instead of veggies from a can, you will need to pre-cook the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage as they take longer to get tender than any of the other ingredients. Once they start getting tender, add them in.

**Add the macaronis maybe 15 minutes before turning the soup off. If not, they will be mush. 

That's it. Put all the ingredients into the cooker and boil until everything is tender. Add in macaroni, turn down the heat to low, and let simmer for maybe 15 minutes.

Salt to taste.

I'm sharing this at Farmgirl Friday.

Food: How to Freeze Peaches

If your family is anything like our family, then you LOVE peach cobbler. Doesn't everyone?!

Here is my Peach Cobbler recipe, in case you need that too. 

Now, back to the topic... to make peach cobbler, you need peaches. There are a couple ways to store your peaches through the winter. You can either can them or freeze them. I have a tutorial in the making for canning, but for now, here is how to freeze them. 

Pick yourself some peaches.

It is always a good idea to wash anything that you are going to eat. But after that, you will want to peel your peaches and slice them into chunks. Toss the seeds or save them to plant yourself some trees. 

Now that you have as many peaches as you need chunked up, mix them with sugar. Mom's pressure canner that we had the peaches in will can 7 quart jars at a time. I believe it is a 23 quart pressure canner. We had it heaping full, but moved some over into a bowl on the side. We mixed a 5 lb bag of sugar into all those peaches. Just mix it good and let it set a few minutes. Maybe 5-10 minutes. Once all those juices are mixing with the sugar it will look something like this.

Get yourself some freezer bags, some sort of dipper, and a funnel. We use quart size bags. Turn the top edge of your bag over so it sort of forms a lip. This will keep your bag from getting super sticky on the outside as you fill them up. Use the lip to hold the bag up and put a funnel into the bag. Fill. 

Flip the edge back up, zip the bag, write your contents and the date, and freeze! 

Easy Peasy! Enjoy! 

I'm sharing this post at Farmgirl Friday!