Canning - A day in my life!

Well, I grew up in a household where we did a lot of canning.. I should say "A LOT" a second time because we seriously did. Every summer a few hundred quart jars of fruit and jam's would be put away. This was a process in which almost all of us kids got to be involved with, whether we liked it or not LOL :) Anyway.. the training must have paid off because here I am married and canning fruit myself now.

Today's canning wasn't for myself though. I decided to be nice and can cherries for my Mom, as well as, for my sister! Yes, nothing for me but for others, I guess this is where the sharing that Shelli talked about at Convention comes into play. We heard from my hubby's great aunt and uncle that they weren't going to pick the cherries in their orchard since they weren't worth picking this year. So that mean't that we could get them for nothing. All we had to do was come pick them. So on Saturday John went and picked on "tote" full, and then this morning I went and picked another one. Then once I got home, time to start cleaning them and putting them in jars, and the fun of canning begins!

Challenging.. well maybe a little! I've never had to can on a grill before, since I have a flat-top stove no more canning in my house unless I buy a new pan.. so forget that the grill works just fine! All in all I've got 50ish jars of cherries done, 20 for my sister and the rest for my mom.

Yes, the picture of the apple juice is critical! LOL.. we have been canning with unsweetned Apple juice for quite a few years now and really really like the taste. Way more so than sugar water, and the apple juice is a lot healthier as well!

Jalapeno/Habanero Hot Sauce

Well same as with the Tomato Sauce, I looked online and came up with my own recipe from there. I have to give my hot sauce an atomic rating according to John LOL :) I'm telling you though it is super duper hot! I tried a tiny tiny little bit on the tip of a spoon and let me tell you I didn't know how fast I needed to grab a glass and get some milk in it and into my mouth! IT WAS ON FIRE ::PHEW:: I think I lost a few tastebuds on the tip of my tongue through the process as well. I also found out that breathing any of it in while chopping, or even rinsing it down the drain.. well not so pleasant and I spent the next few hours hacking because of the fumes! Anyway enough said.. here is the recipe and some pictures :)

Habanero/Jalapeno Hot Sauce

1/2 cup Red Onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Oregano
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 tsp Sugar
1/2 Cup white vinegar
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 cup Fresh Parsley, finely chopped
15 Habanero Peppers, finely chopped
12 Jalapeno Peppers, finely chopped

Chop 1/2 the Habanero and Jalapeno Peppers, put the rest through blender to make a paste. Add water till it starts to blend well making a thick paste. Add this to the pan with the finely chopped peppers, mix well adding the rest of the ingredients. Bring to boil, and then cook on medium to low heat for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Pour into Jelly size jars and can.

I think I doubled the recipe, and ended up with exactly 12 jelly jars full.  Keep in mind that I didn't do exact measurements for the peppers and if using bigger sized peppers you will use less than what I did.

Now for the pictures:

This last picture doesn't really have anything to do with the Hot Sauce, but more with the previous post where I had a picture of my Parsley.. I had an ice cream bucket full that I dried.