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Tag: canned

Roasted Pumpkin Butter

Here is a repost from last year…… pumpkins are coming in and this Pumpkin Butter is a requirement around here! 

Pumpkin Butter is one of those things that, to me, doesn’t sound all that good. But it really is! Its so delicious and sweet. Really sweet. It seems to take more sugar to sweeten pumpkin than it does apples or other fruit. pumpkin butter toast

Here’s how I made Pumpkin Butter today. Its very easy and you can water bath can it as long as you add some lemon juice to the pumpkin butter.  The lemon juice increases the acidity of the butter and you will be able to can it like you would apple butter in pints in a water bath for 15 minutes.

First I roasted the pumpkins and I added some Cushaw pumpkins along with my Sugar Pie pumpkins. Its what I had and the two got along very well.  I cut the pumpkins open, scraped out the seeds and saved them to roast, then put the pumpkins on a cookie sheet in a 350*F oven til they were soft.

pumpkin- bake

 

 

 

 

Once they were nice and soft, I let them cool, then scooped out the cooked pumpkin. I put all the cooked pumpkin in a slow cooker.

Now, the ratio of sugar to pumpkin is shocking.  I use 1:1 sugar and pumpkin so if I have, for example, 3 cups of cooked pumpkin, I use 3 cups brown sugar. You could use rapidura or sucanat if you like.

For every 3 cups of cooked pumpkin I also add 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and the juice of half a small lemon.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

4 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground allspice
Stir well. Store in a tightly covered container.

Let the pumpkin, sugar and spice mixture cook in the slow cooker for several hours, I normally allow it to cook for 6-8 hours on LOW. This will cook out a lot of the water and make your pumpkin butter thicker and concentrate the flavors.

pumpkin butter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now to can the Pumpkin Butter, you’ll need all the trappings of water bath canning:
a large pot with tight fitting lid
jars, kids, rings
jar lifters
ladle or large spoon
canning funnel
plastic knife or small wooden utensil
stove top

Fill the water bath canner about 1/3 of the way with water and bring to a boil.
Allow the pumpkin butter to continue to cook in the slow cooker.
Heat a pan of water and put the jars in and let them get boiling hot.
Heat some more water and add the lids and rings.
Heat yet some more water to add to the water bath canner after the jars have been put in it.

Fill your jars (use pint or half pint) with HOT Pumpkin Butter leaving a 1 inch head space. Pumpkin Butter is thick and gloppy so a funnel is a necessity so your jars won’t get all messy and sticky. Also, you may need to stir around in the pumpkin butter once its in the jar to get the air bubbles out.

Insert a wooden utensil or plastic knife into the pumpkin butter in the jar and get the air bubbles out.
Clean off the rims and edges of the jars.
Add hot lids and rings.
Put the filled jars into the water bath canner water.
When all your jars are in the canner, add more BOILING water to cover the jars.
Bring to a boil, Cover the pot with its lid and start timing.
Allow the canner and water to boil for 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat, remove the jars from the canner using a jar lifter. Place the jars on the counter top on a clean towel. Allow the jars to cool completely before you move them.
Once the jars are cool to the touch you may tighten the rings.
Label and date the jars.

pumpkin butter canned

 

Easy, Meatless Summer Meals

Its hot here.  Probably not as hot as where some of you live but hot enough. We’re humid too and after having been to a few places on the planet that are “hot” and not humid…. I can tell you, it really is the humidity.

We don’t eat a lot of meat and in the summer if I can keep from heating up the oven – I do. When we have meat I grill it or cook it in the slow cooker. But most days we have a meal completely out of the garden… or the freezer or mason jars where I’ve put up garden produce.

tomatoes 2011 005

Canning home-grown tomatoes

 

breaking beans

Breaking Beans

In all honesty, it was a new thing a few years ago for my husband to have a completely vegetable meal. He thought he had to have meat and potatoes at every meal for a while. Then money got tight and tighter and he was ok with it. Now he likes it.

A typical lunch might be: sliced tomato, pinto beans,(these I pressure-can so they are already cooked)corn bread in the form of pan-fried cakes, corn cut off the cob or sauteed eggplant and maybe a salad. That’s our big meal of the day. We have a little protein at breakfast as well in the form of eggs and/or bacon.

When the okra comes in we have a lot of it every day. I barely get any frozen because we eat so much of it! Everyone in the family loves it fried. I freeze as much as possible because we like gumbo in the winter. I also dehydrate a lot of it to use in soups and stews.

This year the squash is prolific so I’ve been making all kinds of dishes with it. One of our favorites is a Mock Crab Cake made with zucchini and Old Bay seasoning.

The biggest of our Cushaw squash

The biggest of our Cushaw squash

You know how a lot of people can food all summer to use all winter? In the winter-time I can lots of beans so that I can use them all summer! It keeps me from heating up the house in the summer. I can winter squash in the fall too so I can make quick pies or mast plain old mashed squash with some maple syrup and butter in the summer time. I also free chunks of winter squash to use in the summer on the grill.

Even if you don’t have a garden, you can eat this way. Check out your local farmer’s markets and grocery stores, choose fresh over pre-packaged and plan some easy summer meals.