Canning Salsa!

I LOVE SALSA!!!

One of my goals for the summer was to have a small garden that I could grow my own veggies to make salsa. I have tomatoes, onions, and 2 kinds of peppers. Everything was growing nicely, but I was having a hard time getting enough tomatoes all at the same time. I would get 3-4 a week, but by the time I would have enough, the others would be gone (read as: eaten). I had a day off, so I decided to get a little help from my friend Emily's garden and the farmer's market. I had enough onions and jalapenos (a few tomatoes), but I got most of the tomatoes from the farmers market and some banana peppers from Emily. This was my first time canning solo, so I was a little nervous. It all worked out well and I ended up with 11 pints and 1 quart (plus a little for sampling of course).

The recipe is from my good friend Andrea and her mom, Tammie. I love this recipe and it makes a BIG batch (this time I did a half batch and still made plenty, the recipe below is a full batch)

10 quarts tomatoes- cooked and peeled
10 1/2 cups onion
3 cups jalapenos (I keep the seeds in to give a little more heat)
2 cups medium/hot peppers (Ancho peppers, banana peppers, or whatever you like)
5 cups green bell peppers
6 Tbs canning salt
11 Tbs sugar
3/4 cup garlic
3 cups vinegar

Combine all ingredients into LARGE pot or roaster (I use my 18 quart electric roaster oven) and cook down until the desired thickness. The longer you cook it, the thicker the salsa will be. Cook in hot water bath for 15 minutes, then let cool until sealed.

Now the details

It is important to have all the right tools before starting. I use a measuring cup and funnel to transfer the salsa from the roaster to the jars. The middle tool is to help measure head space and get out air bubbles. It is also handy to have the jar tongs  to hold onto the hot jars while placing them into the hot water bath. The last tool on the right has a magnet on the end and helps get the lids out of the hot water (shown later)

 Probably the most time consuming part of the process is getting the tomatoes ready. It is kind of fun though to get the skins off. The first step is picking off any stems and putting the tomatoes in hot/boiling water. You will know they are done when the skin starts to split.

When the skins start to split, transfer tomatoes into a bowl of icewater and wait until they are cool enough to handle. The skins will be super easy to peel/slide off. Core the tomatoes and then dice them to the desired size. I like my salsa a little chunky, and I leave the pieces a little bigger than I want them to end up because as the salsa cooks, the pieces will break down a little bit.

Once all the ingredients are cut up and ready, combine in a large pot or roaster oven. Cook until the salsa is the desired thickness (longer cooking=thicker salsa).

When you are ready to fill the jars, you have to use HOT AND CLEAN jars and lids. I ran my jars through a cycle in the dishwasher just to make sure they were hot and ready to go. Never try to use any other jar than canning jars (I use Mason or Kerr). Also, check the lip/rim of the jars to make sure there are no cracks or they may not seal correctly. Be careful to wipe the lip of the jars before putting on the lids and rings on in case any salsa dripped on them (like I said, they have to be CLEAN). Boil the lids in water and once the jars are filled with salsa, place a lid and tighten a ring on the tops.

Place jars in a hot water bath and make sure water covers the tops. Boil for 15 minutes and then remove jars from water. Place on counter or table and let the jars sit still for at least a couple hours (or until cool). You might hear the jars "pop"... this is just the seal setting (nothing to worry about). After jars are cool, test the tops of each jar to make sure the middle will not flex up or down. If it does, the seal is not set correctly and the salsa will not keep (you will just have to eat that jar of salsa first and store it in the fridge)

 Tada! You will then have delicious homemade salsa :) Enjoy!

Cutting Basil

The other day I was making a margarita pizza (tomato, basil, and mozzarella) and I got to thinking that cutting the basil (or other leafy herbs in general) can be a little tricky. Hence this post about cutting basil :)

Here is my basil plant that I have growing in my kitchen window. Since I finally got tomatoes out of my garden I thought a pizza would be yummy. Step 1) Pick off the plant, wash, and dry the basil leaves.

Step 2) Layer leaves on top of one another with the biggest leaf at the bottom and smallest at the top.

Step 3) Starting at one end, roll up the leaves until you have a nice little roll.

 Step 4) As thinly as you can, slice the roll of leaves to get long strips.

Step 5) Rotate your knife and slice the leaves in half lengthwise to get smaller strips of the herb. Sprinkle on whatever you like and enjoy :)

Pictures of "Christmas in July" Cake

Here are a few pictures of the cake I made for my family's Christmas in July celebration.
The pictures are by LaVonne Anderson as posted on Smugmug. She has LOTS of pictures so check them out by clicking HERE

Tada! Here is the cake. The theme was everything "Christmas in July" throughout the years. The cake itself is shaped like a big hill since the cabin we stay at is on a hill. The green frosting is the "grass".

The topper is a pond with a canoe and sand (graham crackers) and a zip line. At the cabin there is a pond that we frequently go swimming and canoeing in, and one year they had a working zip-line that we would ride down and fall into the pond. Very fun and of course super safe ;)

The rest of the cake had random decorations made of fondant and/or scrap-booking paper. Theses are cards since my family have always been fond of playing card games such as 500, Pig-it & Hog it, and Hearts.

In this shot is a "plate of food". We always have an enormous amount of delicious food at any of our family gatherings, so it was only fitting to make a "steak, peas, and banana" out of fondant.

The LOVE decoration is based on our synchronized swimming routine (see picture below). We have floating "noodles" and sing while we dance (or flop) around in the pond. This is a common formation that we use. You can also see some happy fish, a candle, and a soccer ball in this picture. I had a little help making those decorations.

I promise this spells "Love" and the letter on the right was an "e"... it was just a little hard to float while singing :)

Other decorations on the cake were a butterfly, snowman, sun, flower, golf club and golf balls. This was a fun cake to make and it was even more special because of all the family touches.
Yay for warm fuzzy feelings (and happy mouths when we ate it)! :)

Frustrations...

So I will apologize in advance, but I need to vent for a minute...

I have been working out and trying to lose a few pounds/get in shape for a while now. I started with Turbo Fire in April which is mainly cardio for about 45 min-1 hour,  about 5 days a week. No problem... In addition to the cardio workouts, I tried to run about 2-3 times a week because I have always wanted to run a 5K (I used the couch to 5K app). I did that until mid June and didn't really see any results. I didn't feel different, weight was hovering at the same level as when I started, and I only lost an inch around my chest (not exactly the results I was looking for, but whatever). So I talked to Brandon about it since he is my coach (I guess he is my husband too... minor detail though) and he said that maybe cardio isn't what I need, and that I should try weight training instead. Per his recommendation, I started P90X and I am currently on my 6th week.

Here is where the frustration comes in...
These workouts are between 1 to 1 1/2 hours 6 days a week. This leaves me no time to run because by the time I get home, work out, shower, and eat, it is time to go to bed. There is a lot of pushups/pullups which I currently struggle with, so I feel like I am not doing very good when I can only do 5 "girl" pushups while the other people are doing 30+ regular pushups (I know they are professionals and are supposed to be awesomely fit, but still... I am venting here). I have really been working hard at the workouts and I truly give my best effort every time even when I don't like it (aka: yoga). I have also been trying to eat healthy which I do pretty well at, minus the occasional splurge on pizza or a beer (not really that often, but it happens).
Well today I decided to weigh myself and see if I made any progress. Turns out I gained 6 pounds and I have a tricep... on my right arm (not the left).
I tried to run again today since it has been over a month since I last ran... and my pace was almost a 12 minute mile... I used to be able to run a 10:30 minute mile. (granted it was 102 degrees out when I ran, but I don't want to make excuses, I am simply out of "running" shape)

So in my head, by working out I have slowed my running pace, gained weight, and have become lop-sided. All this being said, I am still going to finish P90X and give it my best effort. I don't know if it is the best option for me, but I want to be able to say I finished it and that I tried my best. It just makes it hard when you don't see the results you are working towards, and I just want to feel good about myself.

All in all though, I know this is a small drop of water in the ocean of life and it really isn't that big of a deal. There are much bigger problems/obsticals out there and if this is what I am frustrated about, I think I have a pretty good life. Sorry to be a debbie-downer, but I just wanted to vent to get it out of my system.

Now I am going to blog about baking again and be happy :)

Cake Recipes

Butter Cake

10 oz butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs (room temp)
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 inch round cake pan.
2) Using electric beaters, cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla, then eggs (one at a time) beating well after each addition.
3) Sift flours together in mixing bowl. Add combined flours alternatively with milk into the butter mixture and fold until smooth.
4) Bake for aprox 50-60 minutes (I would check it around 40 minutes though) or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.
5) Leave in cake pan for at least 5 minutes before turning out onto rack to cool.




Carrot Cake

2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbs oil
1/3 cup milk
5 oz apple puree (I used homemade apple sauce with no sugar)
10 oz grated carrot
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional, I left them out)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 7x4 inch loaf pan (I used a 6inch round pan and had some batter left over for cupcakes)
2) Sift flour, baking soda, and spices into a large bowl. Stir in sugar (and raisins, optional)
3) Mix the eggs, oil, milk, and apple puree into the dry ingredients. Stir in carrot.
4) Spread into baking pan and smooth top. Bake for aprox 1 hour or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.

**NOTE** My cake was very thick and heavy, it took a while to bake, and it didn't have too much flavor. The only things I did differently was use apple sauce instead of puree and omitted the raisins. I ended up buying a box carrot cake mix and using that for the Xmas in July cake just so it would be a little fluffier and more moist. Since I am using it as the top layer of the cake I didn't want to use the really heavy one from the recipe above. I am still going to bring it for people to eat though. :)




Aunt Lois' Cake

Cake:
1 yellow box cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 can mandarin oranges (11 oz) with juice

Topping:
1 tub cool whip
1 can crushed pineapple (20 oz) with juice
1 instant vanilla pudding mix

1) Crush oranges with electric beater and add oil and the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.
2) Add the dry cake mix and beat until combined and smooth. Place batter in a greased 9x13 inch pan.
3) Bake at 350 for aprox 25-30 minutes or until golden brown
4) To make topping: Dissolve pudding mix in the pineapple and fold in whipped cream. Frost when cake is completely cooled, store cake in refrigerator. 

X-mas in July Cake

This weekend will be my family's Christmas in July celebration with the majority of my Dad's side of the family. We all gather at my Aunt and Uncle's cabin and stay for the weekend. It is always a good time, lots of food, relaxing, card games, and even some synchronized swimming. Each family that comes is "in charge" of a meal, so my contribution to the meal my family is in charge of is....a cake. Go figure right? I am using the same pans that I did for the Seussical cake, but this time I am tailoring it more to our family's get together.

The layers are:
Top layer- Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
2nd layer-  Aunt Lois' Cake (a mandarin orange cake with a light pineapple frosting)
3rd layer- Butter cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting
Bottom layer- Fudge brownie with vanilla buttercream frosting

I originally wanted to do all light fruity flavors like lemon, raspberry, strawberry, orange, etc since it is summer and going to be HOT. However my mom said I HAD to do at least one chocolate layer. Then I asked my uncle (the host of the weekend) what his favorite kind of cake was, and he chose carrot. Aunt Lois' cake is one of my dad's favorite and has been in my family for a while, so that was a given. The butter cake with raspberry filling was one of the flavors at Brandon & I's wedding, so that is why I chose that flavor.

As for decorations... I am not quite sure how I will tie it all together yet... I was thinking of green frosting to look like grass all over the cake, then have little sculptures of summery things that remind me of Christmas in July. I guess we will see how it turns out!

I will do separate posts for the recipes of the cakes.

Suessical Cake

In June Brandon was the mayor of Who-ville in Seussical the Musical at the Rose Theater. For the last weekend of the show I made a cake (by the request of some of the cast members). Each layer is a different form of chocolate.

Topper: Chocolate coated chow mien noodles (nest), fondant egg, and pretzel/fondant/frosting Truffala Tree
Top Layer: Devils Food cake with white chocolate chunks and red fondant
Second layer: Marble cake with yellow fondant
Third layer: Chocolate cake with mint filling and mint buttercream frosting
Bottom layer: Fudge brownie with blue vanilla buttercream frosting