Dilly Bean Hack

This hack to make dilly beans is from my sister - I haven't tried them this way but they sound good! Here's what she did, in her words:

So I spent a day canning with my friend and her family and after an entire day of work and 20 pounds of green beans we ended up with a totally of 20 precious jars to split. These jars are like gold.. priceless. So after that long weekend one day I finished a jar of pickles and thought hmmm this juice is very similiar. I wonder...

that said I went to the store and bought fresh green beans, came home and washed them, snipped the ends (I had ALOT of experience at that part), and cooked for a couple minutes to soften.  I then put those in the pickle jar, added a tiny bit of white vinegar and let them sit for 2 weeks! Nope definitely can’t compete with the home canned version (I knew better than to think it would) but it sure was delicious anyway!! A pretty good easy hack!  Maybe my sister already knew this Idea and just didn’t share with me? Hopefully it wasn’t already on the blog cuz then I’ll get in trouble for not reading it all.. HAHAHA.

Tomato Week: Tomato Jam

Day 2 of "tomato week" is this sweet and spicy tomato jam that you can use in place of ketchup, alongside meats as a condiment, spread on sandwiches (in place of sliced tomatoes - one of these days I'll run out of garden fresh tomatoes and am going to love having this jam as a substitute!), paired with cheeses and cured meats, spread on a crunchy crostini with a creamy cheese, on a spoon straight from the jar...so many ways to use this!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 4 1/2 lbs. ripe tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped (about 10 cups)
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• kosher salt

Directions:

• In a 5- to 6- quart pot, combine the sugar, vinegar, and 1/4 cup water. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture looks syrupy, about 5 minutes.

• Add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes (if using), and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

• Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down and the juice has thickened, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. (Keep an eye on it as it thickens, you might need to stir it more often).

• Season to taste with salt. Let cool to room temperature, transfer to a jar and refrigerate for up to 2 months. 

Makes about 1-1/2 cups

Notes: I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup and it's still plenty sweet. This took a long time to cook down, closer to 3 hours. After most of the liquid cooked out I cooled it slightly and then blended it up a bit in the food processor so it's smoother. If you don't want to process it I would remove a lot of the skins, when it's cooked down there are a lot of skins and I didn't like that. Once I blended it up tho the texture is great and much more "jam" like. This made over 2 cups for me. 

found the recipe here

two years ago: white beans in marinara sauce

Preserved Lemons

Sheryl gave me a ton of canning jars (Dave carried the big tub in and immediately said "where are you going to store these?" and then asked if she was hoping I'd return them filled with those highly addictive sweet dill pickles!! click here for that post - they are SO good!)...and a big box of Meyer lemons. I've never had preserved lemons before but after she told me about a friend that makes them and how good they are I had to try making them. This is very simple and easy, it's just lemons and salt layered in a jar. I googled a bunch of recipes and there are lots that also add some spices so I made one jar of plain with just salt and another with a cinnamon stick, a few allspice and peppercorn berries, and a bay leaf. You do not need to hot water process the jars, seems the acid and salt do the preserving.

I used a couple different sites for instructions (click here and here to see the recipes). You can either quarter the lemons or leave them whole (but cut a cross in them almost to the bottom). I found it easier to put the quartered lemons into the jars - depends on the size of your lemons. If doing quarters - add 1/2 Tablespoon to the bottom of a clean jar, put one layer in the jar and sprinkle with 1/2 Tablespoon salt, then continue layering and salting, pushing down pretty hard on the lemons in the jar so they release their juice. If you do whole lemons - open the lemon up between the cross you cut into them and put 1/2 Tablespoon salt inside the lemon. When you get to the top make sure there is enough lemon juice to cover (add fresh juice if the ones in the jar didn't produce enough) and top with 1 Tablespoon of salt. Put the tops on tightly and place in a dark place (mine are in the pantry) for at least a week to ferment, shake every day to mix up the juice, and then put in the fridge (The Epicurious site says to put in pantry for 30 days and they don't need to be refrigerated). When the peels turn translucent they are ready.  I read that you can take the top off every few days to release any gases that are building up but not everyone does that, I will just watch my lids and see if they are bulging, if so I will open them and then seal back up.  Use the peels in sauces, dressings, marinades - different comments about whether to use the flesh and juice or not, seems it's so salty and bitter not everyone uses that part. One commenter likes to use the liquid in Bloody Marys :)

I'll let you know in a couple weeks how they turn out - make some with me and we'll compare notes later!

look how many jars Sheryl gave me! Woohoo!

if using whole lemons cut a cross into the top of the lemon but don't cut all
the way thru. open the lemon up and add 1/2 T. salt before putting into the jar. 

now I just have to wait till they are ready!