Canning a lost art?

Vegetables

Hello again all. Hope your summer is going well. It is a bit latter in the day than I usually post these Frugal Friday tips as Yesterday was our 26th wedding anniversary! We went for a drive in the "Big Ole Truck". We stopped by the local fruit farms in Washington state to check on the availability of Nectarines but were a few weeks early. It was a nice drive up the moutain loop anyway. This got me to thinking that I might share some frugal tips on canning, something I have been enjoying canning for most of our married life. With the freshness of the summer produce and at times an abundance, it is always best to "put up" any of the excess for the winter months. I dont' know about you, but I got sticker shock shopping for fruits and vegetables last week! So here goes, and if you have any to share please leave a comment or send me a link.

1. Look in your fridge....right now! See anything that might go bad in the next few days? If so make time to freeze it or can it or serve up left overs tonight. Waste not, want not.



2. Check out your local fruit stands, or orchards, for fresh picked deals.



3. Decide whether you will freeze them, or can your deals, but make sure you have time to work with it all before it goes bad.



4. If you can't afford a whole box of fruit or a large amount of veggies go in halves with a neighbor or a friend and help each other with the canning and or freezing.



5. If you don't know how to can, learn! There are many wonderful sites online with helpful hints.



6. Scoure the second hand stores for Canning jars. Remember you will need to check for jars that have no chips or cracks. The large mouth jars are easier to work with.



7. Keep an eye out for a large canning pot, large ladle, wire canning pot insert that holds the jars, and a funnel to help with filling the small mouth jars.

The only stipulation in our home was that we saved all the home canned produce until the first snow fall. It is such a joy to see all the "fruit" of your hard work displayed above the kitchen cupboards for at least.... a little while.

One great help for lowering the amount of sugar in your canning is

Pomona's Universal Pectin.

I have also found a wonderful site that goes into much more detail than I can today at
Pick Your Own.org

Recipes at...Fresh Preserving

Enjoy the bounty and the beauty of your hard work.......can it!

Frugal Friday...Crock Pot Lasagna

Today's Frugal Friday tip is on home cooking. All the food made in this home is preservative free due to allergies. It takes some hunting during shopping to make sure that all the ingredients are all natural but it is worth it! By shopping the canned food warehouses I can save quite a bit on these sorts of foods when they are available, as these sorts of stores don't always carr the same sort of inventory. So I shop there first to see what they have compared to the needs on my shopping list. I have been able to save ingredients for Lasagna. I like to stock up on these as this is my one of my husbands favorite meals. However, turning on the oven in the summer when the temps are in the 90's and there is no air conditioning doesn't seem right! I came across directions for a Crock Pot Lasagna recipe that seems to work just great for us. Of course Dear Husband took some time to get used to the idea of "round" Lasagna compared to "square" Lasgana. I quickly reminded him that we could have Lasagna in the "Summer" as well as the "Winter" if he didn't mind the shape. He succeded after the first trial run! Tastes the same, go for it! So here are the directions to adapt your favorite Lasgna Recipe to the crock pot.

Crock Pot Lasagna
Make a batch of preservative free fresh Lasagna sauce with meat

My sauce...

Brown 1 lb. hamburger and add,

2 cups frozen tomato paste saved from the large can I bought for the same price as two small ones. 2 cups water, 1 cup grape juice, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup Braggs Liquid Aminos, salt and pepper and fresh garlic crushed garlic to taste. 1 cup chopped bell pepper, assorted colors, 1 cup mushrooms. A few fresh herbs for now..Basil, spicy oregano, rosemary and such...

I usually make this the day before to let it simmer and let the tastes blend. (kind of a sweet taste to it)

Or use a can of sauce found on sale and doctor it up!

The Next Day...

Short on time for dinner ...no problem

Add some fresh herbs to the sauce

Toss some sauce at the bottom of the crock pot

Layer with Lasagna noodles right out of the box.

Just break them into lengths short enough to fit across the bottom.

Another layer of sauce

then crisscross the noodles the other way

Layer with shredded Mozzarella

Then Sauce

Noodles

Ricotta cheese if you have it or more Mozzarella

Layer until crock pot is filled leaving at least three inches space.

Top with cheese and more veggies...Chopped bells peppers all colors, and musrooms.

Pour one cup water over the whole thing!

Cover and simmer on high for two hours, or low for three or more ..

You will find the right amount of time for your crock pot

We like the edges crunchy so we leave it a bit longer.

I also plug the crock pot on in the shed to not heat the house in the summer.

Best of all...

At dinner time the kitchen is cool and clean and the table is set.

I've also made it for company and we ate it out on the back deck and served it up from a side table with a great big salad. Complete with tiki torches and Iced tea to make a lovely summer time memory. Another plus is that we usually have many leftovers that can be frozen for work time lunches. Enjoy!

Check out Marsha's Frugal Friday Tips at

Sufficient grace for Suffering Saints

FRUGAL FRIDAY 7-18-08

FRUGALITY TIP: Shopping and canning or freezing local produce in season will help reduce your grocery bill.

It's strawberry festival time in these parts. What a pleasure it is to pick fresh strawberries. Growing up in the Los Angeles area as a kid was not fun living in such a big city although that was nothing compared to today. But one thing that was plentiful was fresh fruit and veggies. We also lived in Ventura County where the pumpkin patches and strawberry fields and orange groves were plentiful all around us. There were fruit stands all over the place. I guess the closest thing we have in the Northwest akin to the plentiful fruit stands is a coffee hut on every few blocks which we really appreciate in the winter time!

After the first batch of fresh stawberries have been eaten which is a must after a long winter, I like to make batches of strawberry freezer jam. The taste is so much closer to fresh strawberries then canning the jam. I can also control the amount and type of sweetner in the jam when I make it at home.

Once made the jams and canned items in this home are set aside to be used only after the first snow fall! This practice brings back a taste of summer in the cold dreary months of winter. So take the kids out on field trip and have some fun and have them help pick some berries or whatever happens to be in season in your area.

Strawberry Freezer Jam with Pictorial Instructions

Strawberry Freezer Jam using Apple juice as sweetner

Strawberry Tips from picking to canning to freezing

Produce picking fields near you