(How to) Can Fabulous Salsa

Last summer my dad grew more tomatoes than I can even describe to you. No lie. Buckets and buckets.

This is my Bitty Baby. She's 19 months old. Hurts my heart. 

I was thrilled. I made tomato sauce and froze it. We ate fresh tomatoes every day. I made fresh pico all the time. And (drumroll please) I canned salsa!

Canning salsa has been on my bucket list for quite some time. (Remember, we're not to judge others' bucket lists.)

You're gonna wanna do this, peeps. Eat it with a spoon, drink it with a straw, just get it in your mouth.

I shared it with my family and my brother said it was the perfect amount of "sweet and heat." Mission accomplished.

Once I became a pro at canning salsa, I went to town canning pears & apples from our orchard. By next summer, I'm going to be a canning machine. Watch out. It's juicy, messy & sloppy but so worth it.

Here's how I did it.

(How to) Can Fabulous Salsa

8-10 cups of peeled, chopped & drained tomatoes (I used Roma tomatoes & plum tomatoes)
2 large sweet onions, chopped
2 green peppers
1/2 cup jalapeno peppers, chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 T cumin
2 tsp pepper
2 T kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
15 oz. can tomato sauce
12 oz. can tomato paste
Juice of 2 limes
Bunch of cilantro, chopped fine

Place all ingredients except for lime juice & cilantro into a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to create the consistency you want. I like it pretty pureed (though not completely). Taste it and see what you think. You can always add more heat, salt, sugar, whatever, to suit your taste. Stir in the cilantro & lime juice. Ladle into canning jars, seal with lids and cook in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

*Just a canning tip: the jars may not feel completely sealed on top when you remove them from the water; if the lids don't pop after the jar has cooled, you know you have a good seal. If it still pops, process in the water for another 10 minutes.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Strawberries were $1 at the grocery!  Am I the only one that gets excited when this happens?

Anyway.  I bought (a whole) lot.  And then I had to figure out what to do with them.  We eat a lot of sliced fresh strawberries, but I bought more than five people can eat in a reasonable amount of time.

We smashed them up and made jam with them!  What else?

While the girls and I made jam, Baby Bear organized the tupperware for me.

I've never made freezer jam, but it's crazy easy.  There's no canning involved, which was good news for me.

The only annoying thing is that you need to boil the containers in which you will store the jam.  I used two tupperware containers and simply poured boiling water over the containers and lids.

To mash my strawberries, I used this great tool from Pampered Chef.  Normally I use it to break up ground beef as I brown it, but it worked as the perfect strawberry chopper.  If you don't have this cool tool, then you could use a potato masher.

And so now you need to stir in four cups of sugar.  Yes.  Four entire cups of sugar.  Let the strawberries sit for about 10 minutes.  Stir them occasionally.

While that sits, put a pot on the stove.  Add some water and a packet of fruit pectin.  Boil it for one minute.

Pour it into the strawberry and sugar mixture.  Stir it around for about three minutes, until most of the sugar is dissolved.

Now you're ready to pour the jam into the containers!  And then let it sit on the container for 24 hours.  An entire day.

And then freeze one container.  And make lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the other container.  Or you could make these bars.  I haven't done that yet, but I'm going to.

The jam is really delicious.  It tastes like straight-up fresh strawberries.  So good and so easy.  My kids loved doing it, and they love eating something that they made.  (Not that it's hard to get your kids to eat jelly, but you know what I mean.)

Strawberry Freezer Jam
Adapted from Kraft

1 lb. strawberries, hulled, sliced and mashed to make 2 cups of mashed strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 package fruit pectin (I used Sure-Jell)
3/4 cup water

Pour boiling water over three 2-cup containers and their lids to sterilize the jam containers.  Set aside to use in a minute.

Put the mashed strawberries in a large bowl and stir in the sugar.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Stir in the fruit pectin and boil it for one minute. Pour it over the strawberry/sugar mixture and stir it for about 3 minutes, until most of the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the jam into the containers and put the lid on.  Sit on the counter, at room temperature, for 24 hours. Freeze the jam for up to a year or refrigerate the jam for up to 3 weeks.

Roasted Red Peppers

I went to the grocery to get milk.  And I was greeted by red bell peppers.  I mean, they were everywhere.  And they were cheap.  Like, super cheap.

So I bought a bag.  And then I went to get milk.  Right after I stocked up on candy corn.

Do you exhibit strange behavior at the grocery store too?

Must be just me.  

Why are we always talking about my bizarre behavior?  Next time we're going to talk about the weird things you do. 

I didn't feel like making a salad with the peppers.  Remember, I'm going crazy with soup right now.  So a salad just doesn't fit with who I am this week.  So I came home and roasted these red peppers.

This is ridiculously easy and costs about 1/3 as much as buying jarred roasted red peppers.  Plus they taste better.

Wash the peppers.  And then cut them in half from top to bottom.

And lay them on a baking sheet, cut side down.

Stick 'em under the broiler.

And watch them closely.

I was watching to make sure my parchment paper didn't catch on fire.  It didn't, but if my rack had been any closer to the broiler, it probably would have.

Just don't burn down your kitchen.

Here the peppers are after about 6 minutes...

See how the skin is just beginning to blister?

And about 10 minutes...

And they were done after 20 minutes.

Let them sit until they are cool enough to handle.  And then just pull the skin off and remove the seeds.  Now you have a pile of skins/seeds and a plate of beautiful homemade roasted red peppers.

Simple.

Are you proud of yourself?    

Roasted Red Peppers

2 red bell peppers

Wash peppers.  Slice peppers in half from top to bottom.  Place cut side down on a baking sheet.  Broil for about 20 minutes, watching closely, until the skins are black.  Remove from oven and let the peppers cool to room temperature.  Peel the skin off and remove the seeds and stems.  Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Fresh Pasta

Have you ever had fresh pasta?

I hadn't.  Until I got this

nifty little mixer attachment for my 30th birthday.

And my hopes of having a skinny decade were instantly dashed.  Darn.

The thing is, that fresh pasta is to dried pasta like fresh peaches are to canned peaches.

Maybe that was a bad analogy.  Because I actually happen to like canned peaches.

But the point is that fresh pasta is not even close to being in the same league as the dried stuff in a box.  It's not even like majors v. minors.  It's like a whole different game altogether.

I've made pasta with my attachment several times, and each time my technique improves.  I'm evolving, you could say.  Or at least my pasta is.

Since I've had a request to post how to make fresh pasta, here we go.  It's really not hard.  The recipe is pretty fool-proof and the technique is something you just have to try until you feel comfortable.  That's the great thing - if you mess up one sheet of pasta, just fold it over itself and put it through the pasta roller again.

Now you can be fat, too.




Okay!  Start the bowl of your mixer.  And add some flour, salt, water, and eggs.

I got this recipe from the recipe book that came with my pasta roller.  I just made the "Basic Egg Pasta" because I don't even know what Semolina flour is.  Much less where to buy it.




So you want to just follow the directions:

Stir the ingredients together with the paddle attachment of your mixer.

Until the dough is crumbly and looks about like this:

Okay, now switch to your dough hook and mix another 2 minutes.

And it should be even more crumbly like this:

Take it out of the bowl and just form it into a ball with your hands.  As you can tell, the dough is very firm.  That's exactly what you want.  It will still be a little crumbly, but that's okay.

And now you want to knead it for 2 minutes.  This will make it smooth and elastic.

Now that you've given it a good workout, let it rest for 20 minutes.

While it's resting, get the the attachment ready to go.

Take the little knob off of the front of your mixer and fit the attachment like this

Just be sure you screw it into place so it doesn't fall off.

And be sure the thickness knob is set on one.

Now back to our dough.  It's had a nice rest so we're ready to cut it into fourths.  If you want to freeze some/all of your pasta dough to roll out later, here's your chance.  Just put it into a freezer bag and throw it into the freezer.  When you're ready to roll later, let it come to room temperature before you put it through the roller.

Take one of the quarters and flatten it out a little.

Turn your mixer speed on 2 and slowly feed the dough through the pasta roller.  It's thick, but this is the thickest setting.  So it will work.  Trust me.

Feed the dough through a couple of times - still on the first setting - before you fold it into thirds:

And feed it through again.

Okay!  Now we're ready for a big step - setting number 2.

It's starting to get thinner!  Run it through setting 2 twice before you move on to setting three.

It's getting longer, too.  Run it through twice on setting four now.

By the time you get to the fifth setting, your pasta is super long and super thin.

 Now, this part just depends on how thin you like your pasta.  For lasagna, or cannelloni (rolls of pasta stuffed with meat/cheese), I like to stop on setting five.  Any thinner than that, and it's simply too thin and it will tear while you are cooking the pasta.

Since I'm making cannelloni, I'm going to stop now.  And here's what each fourth of the pasta dough now looks like:

See how long it is?

Now we need to stack up the pieces so we can cook them.  This step involves a lot of flour and a medium-sized mess.

Unless you have your 3-year-old helping you.  Then it's a lot of flour and a very large mess.

She wanted you to see her hand.

Sprinkle a generous amount of flour on your counter and lay the first sheet of pasta on top.  Cut it so that it is about 6-8 inches long.

Now sprinkle even more flour on the sheet of pasta

And cut another piece to go on top.

And just keep cutting and stacking until you have a nice pile of fresh pasta, waiting to be cooked.  You should get about 4 six-inch pieces of pasta out of each quarter of dough.

At this point you can either leave them in sheets or you can cut them into strips for fettuccine or tagliatelle.

Now we're ready to cook it.  Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.

Salt it generously (a couple of tablespoons) and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

I don't normally oil my pasta water, but I make an exception for fresh pasta.

Fresh pasta is relatively delicate (compared to lasagna noodles in a box, which are a first cousin to rubber) and the oil keeps these noodles from from goming* together and making a pasta glob in your pot.

*gom - a made-up verb straight from a holler in Eastern Kentucky meaning "to make a mess."  As in: "I just hate it when my pasta goms."


You can add the pasta all at once and it won't stick together - provided that you followed the instructions above and oiled the water.

Stir it around while it cooks.  Cook it for about 2 minutes.  And then drain it.

You'll want to separate the sheets pretty quickly so they do not gom*.

*see definition above

We're through with this pasta post now.  You can go make lasagna now.  Or you can make the cannelloni that I'm going to show you later this week.

This stuff is worth the work.  It's absolutely delicious.

Fresh Pasta
Adapted from KitchenAid

4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 T water
3 1/2 cups flour

Add the ingredients to the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix for 30 seconds.  Change to the dough hook and knead on speed 3 for 2 minutes.

Remove the dough from the mixer and form it into a ball.  Knead it for two minutes until it becomes firm and elastic and smooth to the touch.

Let it rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.

Cut the dough into fourths.  Flatten each fourth roughly into a rectangle.  Fit the pasta roller attachment on the front of your mixer and turn the dial to level one (for the thickest pasta).  Turn the mixer on speed 2 and feed the rectangle of pasta dough through the roller.

Feed the dough through twice before you fold it into thirds and feed it through twice again.

Change the pasta roller thickness to level 2 and feed the dough through at least twice, doing the same for levels 3, 4, and 5.

Lay the pasta on the counter and cut each long strip into 6-inch strips.  Sprinkle flour on the counter and in between each sheet of pasta, stacking them on top of each other.  Generously flour in between each sheet of pasta because they will stick together.

When you have processed all of the pasta sheets, bring a large pot of water to a boil and sprinkle in a generous amount of salt and olive oil (about 2 tablespoons of each).  Add the pasta sheets and cook them for 2 minutes.  Drain into a colander and immediately pull the sheets apart (use tongs for this).  Proceed to use the sheets for lasagna or cannelloni.