Grapejuice from Scratch

Unfortunately I did not take the time to take any pictures for this one.  I also would not recommend this if you have to go buy grapes.  Definitely if you grow grapes and just have too many to deal with.  So here goes:

I borrowed a super juicer machine and ran all my grapes through it.  Many of them with the vine and all since the grapes were so little it was tricky to get them all off.  Doing this adds more nutrients due to the "greens", but also can make it a little more bitter.  After I juiced all the grapes (5 walmart bags full), I had to let it sit over night in the refrigerator. (if you are in a hurry, you can strain it through cheesecloth and skip this part)  I had a gallon and a half of liquid. Mind you, what came out of the juicer looked a little like thick pea soup. (I used green grapes)  After sitting over night, it had separated into three parts.  The top had a foam on it, the middle was the good stuff and the bottom was the guck that settled.  Spoon off the foam and pour the good stuff into a pot for boiling.  Discard the guck.  Now boil the good stuff for about 15 minutes. I added about a cup and a half of sugar to the juice.  I still had foam being made and just kept spooning it off.  Once you are done boiling, ladle into clean jars.  Because it's boiling, you shouldn't need to process in a water bath, but you can if it makes you feel better.  This is a juice concentrate.  I was able to fill 3 quart jars and one pint with what I had made.  Depending on how strong you like your juice will determine how much to water it down.  I used a little less than 1:1.  (less water) It mostly tasted like apple juice and my kids loved it. 

As for "is it worth my time"... I would say if you have grapes just going to waste, yes.  To go buy them, no.

Re-Canning

I have been courageously testing out re-canning. I bought some #10 cans quite cheap at a scratch and dent store we affectionately call the "second hand food store". I wasn't worried about recanning the fruit, but the chili I was a little nervous about. The worst part is the conflicting info you find on the Internet. Of course, the FDA isn't going to spend much time on this matter and what they do ever put out is in CYA form. (cover your ***) So, the only info I have are people's opinions and they vary greatly. It seems like you should be able to transfer the chili into clean jars and waterbath to seal them. BUT, some seem to think you have to totally reprocess them in a pressure cooker and some said it's just plain dangerous - don't do it!!

I went with the safe route and reprocessed it for an hour. I even voluntarily ate the first jar to see if I would get sick. Nothing yet! Now, it hasn't sat on my shelf for months either. We will have to see how it goes. I don't want to give anyone my advice because that's just setting myself up, now isn't it?

I did find that it saved me some $ to recan the fruits into smaller jars. I have decided to designate those particular jars for recanning fruits, not for long term storage. It's a little work, but not bad. I have apples and potatoes coming next week!!

Pectin-Free Jam

I wanted to find a cheaper way to do jam and also to not have to use my freezer. I found a recipe that does NOT use pectin. Most fruit has natural pectin so your jam doesn't really need it. Also, if times were rough, we wouldn't necessarily be able to jaunt down to the local Wal Mart and pick up a box or two. I have used both peaches and strawberries, very yummy and per my standard, quick and easy.

For each pound of fruit, use 1 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp lemon juice.

I used two lbs of peaches which filled two pint jars.

For peaches, remove skin. Whether you blanch and peel or just peel, it mattereth not. Once peaches are peeled, chop into small pieces. I use my $3 chopper I got at Wal Mart. Any kind of food processor would do as does the good old fashion knife and cutting board. Before you start, put a glass plate in the freezer for later.

Once peaches are cut, put into a sauce pan, add sugar and lemon juice, stir and bring to a boil. Let it continue to boil until it thickens.

As it boils, foam will begin to appear. Spoon off and discard. Stir constantly to keep from burning on the bottom. Once foam has mostly stopped forming and the consistancy is starting to look like jam, pull out the glass plate and put a dab of jam on it. Tip the plate and watch how fast it runs. If it runs quickly, it needs to cook longer. It should slide down somewhat slowly.

Jam will thicken even more once it sits for awhile. Once you have a "slow slide", ladle jam into clean jars. Wipe rims well with hot rag and top with lids and rings. Process jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

While cooling, wait for the "pop" and now you're good to go. Remove rings, wipe down with a rag and store on shelf for at least two years.

Homemade Bread

I wrestled with bread for many years. I finally made friends with yeast. First, let me just say: I'm not a bread professional! I have, however, figured out how to make a fairly tasty loaf of bread. I changed a few of the things I was doing at the same time so I'm not sure which was most effective but I'll clue you in. Use good yeast. Not the little packets that come attached in sets of three. Buy SAF instant yeast, it really is better. Second, use a thermometer to test the temperature of the water, 115 is hotter than you think. So here goes, easy and quick, but oh-so yummy bread.

This recipe makes three loaves, which is about all my mixer and oven can hold at one time anyway. Start with 3 cups of hot water (about 115 degrees) Put half cup sugar in a bowl with hot water, dissolving the sugar. Add 3 Tbsp of yeast, stir gently until yeast is moist and wait.



This is what it looks like at first, after several minutes, it will look like little explosions in your bowl, making a foam like below.

Once you have a good foam (5 - 6 min), Mix in half a cup of oil and about a tbps of salt. As your mixer is going, begin adding the 9 cups of flour. Continue to mix it until the sides of the bowl are clean. If it's sticking to the sides, you need more flour, if it won't stay in a ball, a little more water. Mix for about 5 - 8 minutes.

Now that your sides are clean and it's soft to the touch, but doesn't stick to your fingers, dump it onto a floured surface and divide into three balls. I weigh mine to try and make sure the loaves are equal, but that's not necessary. Once they are divided, knead them into loaves. I kind of stink at this part, but get them as smooth and pretty as you can.

Put them into greased (Pam) bread pans and cover. Let rise until about doubled. (30 - 40 min) A warm humid place is best, like my garage.

Once they are doubled, bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. I start at 25 and sometimes add a few more, but lots of times when I just went for 30 they were a little dark. Make sure you given them plenty of room to continue rising in the oven. I had wire rack marks across the top of some loaves one day!

When done, they should slide right out of the bread pans and on to a wire rack. Take a stick of butter and rub around the top of each loaf. Let cool almost completely before slicing. The inside continues to cook while cooling. When I slice mine, I keep all the "ends" and put them in a Ziploc baggie for my kids to eat after school. This is the only crust they are willing to eat and they love it!

Homemade Bread (3 loaves)

1/2 cup sugar

3 cups hot water

3 Tbsp yeast

1 Tbsp salt

1/2 cup oil

9 cups flour (apprx)

bake 25 min at 350

Too busy to be domestic

Catching up on blogging, much needed. I have been way too busy to be domestic lately. CouponSense has kept me very busy this time of year, not to mention running and trying to make it to all my kids activities. I have a whole list of projects just calling my name. Coming soon, the cinnamon rolls from a while ago and how to clean your plants without a rag.

Pies from Pumpkins

We had acquired several "pie" pumpkins while we were back in Illinois these past few weeks. I decided to try my hand at making pumpkin pie from actual pumpkins. First, I didn't realize these smaller pumpkins were specifically for making pies. They are sweeter and less grainy than carving pumpkins. You can use carving pumpkins, but you have to add more sugar. Learn something new every day.

To start, I rinsed off the marker my kids used to decorate them then cut them in half, placed them face down on a cookie sheet and baked them at 350 for about 45 minutes.


When they were soft, kind of like a cooked potato, I scooped out the stringy stuff and seeds and put them aside. I went through them later to pull out seeds for planting more next season. After that, I took a spoon and ran it around the shell, separating the "meat" from the shell. It comes off pretty easily.

Once all the pumpkins were emptied, I used my KitchenAid and put it on the whisk for about 15 minutes. I had to keep the speed pretty low or it would splash. There are more sophisticated ways of doing this, but I don' have a sieve or food processor, so I settled for good old fashioned mixer.

Once it was pretty well pureed, I took out the whisk and there was a bunch of glop stuck to it. At first, I tried to pull it off to use it, but then realized, it was all stringy and hard. It turned out to be a good thing that the mixer caught all that and kept it separate, so I just threw it away. the rest was mostly smooth and ready to make into pumpkin pie filling. This is the recipe I used, there are MANY out there to choose from, but I chose this one and was happy with the outcome:

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup milk

2 tsp. melted butter

1 Tbsp. flour

In a clean empty bowl, beat eggs well. Add pumpkin, sugars, and spices, mix. Add milk, mix. Add the flour and the melted butter, mix well.

It was very runny when I was done mixing it and that's OK. I will advise that if your pumpkin puree had any water that you could pour off, do. My pie was a little wet in the end.

I chose to not make my own pie crust so I rolled out my refrigerated one and emptied my filling into it. Cover the edges with foil so they don't burn and you are ready for the oven. Bake at 450 for the first 15 minutes, then lower to 350 for another 45 - 60 minutes. A knife inserted should come out clean. I baked mine closer to the hour.

Voila! Pie from scratch. What I did find is that the next day, it had settle more and wasn't "wet" at all. Even though it was "wet" the first day, it was still good, just a different texture. It was really good and what you would expect a pumpkin pie to be the next day. My four small pumpkins made enough for 3 pies. They were really small so I'm guessing an average pie pumpkin would make 2 pies.

I don't think I would normally do this, but I was glad that I did and that now I know how. I'm sure on those Thanksgiving's of old, a pumpkin pie was a real treat!

Applesauce - Not Worth My Time

Making applesauce. Cranky. Won't do it again. Way too much effort for the product. My opinion only.