Peaches in White Wine Syrup

Before the peaches disappear for another year do yourself a favour and make a batch of these delectable preserved peaches. You'll thank me in February as you pile them on your morning oatmeal and breath a sigh of relief that winter will be over soon.

Ground Cherry Hot Sauce

One day while drooling over beautiful photos on the Food in Jars flickr pool I stumbled upon a recipe for Ground Cherry Hot Sauce.

I don't know why it's never occurred to me before to make my own hot sauce. This feels like a revelation!

Pickled Cherries

Talk about an interesting pickle! Sweet, sour and lightly spiced, this pickle has made a welcome home in our preserve pantry. They're definitely unusual but delicious nonetheless. I used allspice in all the jars to flavour them, but also made a few jars with clove and black pepper, and a few with whole vanilla beans as well. So far we've only tried the clove, black pepper and allspice but the next jar we open will definitely be the vanilla.

Plum Vanilla Jam

I wish I had an good excuse as to why I've been withholding this gem of recipe from you. I guess I could say that it's because I've been swamped with keeping up with my preserving mayhem while hosting multiple house guests AND working a few shifts at the family biz.
But who cares what I've been up to, all you need to know is that this jam is so flavourful and perfectly tart that it's easily won the title of "My Favourite Jam Ever".

Peach Chutney

As a longtime lover of mango chutney I was very excited to see a recipe for it in my new favourite canning book. But I just can't bring myself to buy produce thats traveled so ridiculously far to get to me when there is so much wonderful fruit grown right here in my province. So what else is a girl to do but find a local substitute: peach chutney!

Aside from the obvious Indian food applications, this chutney is great on fish cakes, these amazing quinoa patties, alongside cheese and bread, spooned into these biscuits and so much more. I'd love to hear your favourite uses for chutneys too!

Canned Tomato Sauce

I may have mentioned before how my husband and I have set a hefty goal of canning 40 pints of tomato sauce in preparation for winter. I think so far I've only made 12 pint jars plus about 10 pints of canned whole tomatoes (which can be made into sauce later). Our main reason for doing this is so we that can enjoy local tomatoes all year round instead of purchasing cans of tomato sauce from the grocery store. Not only do we love supporting our local farmers, but as a couple without a car we strive to reduce our walking or biking trips to the grocery store as much as possible in the winter (the less heavy cans we have to lug home through the snow and freezing wind the better!).

I hesitated on sharing this recipe/project with you because it seemed like it might be too boring or simple. But then I realized that the simple (yet oh so useful) projects are sometimes the best inspiration for someone who's new to canning or preserving.

Spicy Dilly Beans

This is one of the first preserves of mine that I've tasted so far this season (other than jams) and I'm in pickle heaven! I've never eaten pickled green beans before let alone made them, so this was all very new to me. However I do really love pickles in general and could never say no to a green bean put in front of me so it really just made sense.
They're crispy, salty, sour (everything that makes a perfect pickle) plus they're really spicy, which just takes them to the next level of snacking.

Raspberry Jam with Mint

I've been OBSESSED with Liana Krissoff's new book "Canning for a new generation" lately and have a pantry full of preserves to prove it.
So far I've made spicy dilly beans, pickled radishes, four types of strawberry jam, cherry & red currant jam, roasted red peppers (I've always wanted to preserve these, so exciting!), and now the most amazing raspberry jam ever.

Still on the list of things I'd like to can are: spicy pickled carrots, peach & raspberry jam, plum cardamom jam, tomato sauce (hubby has deduced we need 40 500ml jars to get us through winter, yikes!) various salsas and chutneys and BBQ sauce. Phew! I'm going to be busy.

Thumbprint Cookies

It feels almost wrong to make these cookies in the summer. Like they're supposed to be baked when you're looking for ways to bring the taste of summer to the dead of winter, and when your body can handle a little fattening up due to their rich buttery goodness.

But here I am in the middle of summer, excitedly trying out some of my newest preserves with these quick and simple cookies.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

I am literally eating jam straight out of the jar with a spoon. I don't think I've ever done this before in my life but I just can't stop myself. I guess you could say my first attempt at jam was a sweet success.
Actually I'm not a fan of overly sugary jams and this one tastes pretty darn close to my personal version of jam heaven. I really think the salt and lemon juice are crucial and really enhance the flavour of the fruit.

If you've never tried making jam, what are you waiting for? It's surprisingly easy and quicker than I had imagined. Check out my favourite preserving book,  "The Beginners Guide to Preserving Food at Home" by Janet Chadwick and start canning!

Pickled Radishes

As the farmers markets fill up with fresh local produce it doesn't take long for this housewife to start thinking of the pickling and preserving opportunities.
I'm in need of a few new tools before I fully embark on the canning mayhem that will eventually consume my kitchen this summer. So until then I'll be making lots of "refrigerator" pickles that aren't shelf stable and will last about a month or two in my fridge. If they last that long without being eaten...

If you love radishes and have never had a pickled one, you need to make a jar of these little pink beauties right away.

Pickles

Pickled beets, pickled radishes, pickled peppers, pickled carrots and just plain ol' pickles! I feel like I just can't stop canning.

Barbecue Sauce

This book got me excited to make my own barbecue sauce and preserve it, but their recipe just didn't quite seem like what I look for in a BBQ sauce (carrots? apples? no thanks).


I found Big Al's Bar-B-Q sauce on Allrecipes.com which looked much more up my alley. It's described as being "sweet, smokey, with a little bite", so I upped the spice, and downed the sweet (oh and totally got rid of the ketchup in the recipe, yuck).


Sometimes my favourite part of making something new is seeing my husbands reaction, especially when it's something he's normally picky about (he loves store bought BBQ sauce and is very brand loyal).
I gave him a taste of it after some had been in the fridge for quite a few hours.


"WOW. That's really good." he said in disbelief. "It tastes like real barbecue sauce!"

Salsa

I'm starting to think "If I can make it at home, I will" should be this blog's motto.

I've never made my own cooked and canned salsa before, and wasn't quite sure what I was looking for in a recipe. I found this one on Allrecipes.com and it looked like a good start. 

This salsa is hot, but balanced with acidity and a faint hint of sweetness.