Recipe: cranberry infused vinegar November 21, 2011

I made some cranberry infused vinegar tonight. Well, two are cranberry-orange, and two are plain cranberry. I’m excited to taste them.

Here’s how I did it (my recipe is based on the one in the Ball canning guide):

Ingredients:
- 1 cup cranberry juice (the recipe had directions on how to make your own, but I just bought the unsweetened cranberry juice at the grocery store)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 cups white wine vinegar (we didn’t have any, so I used 2.5 cups of red wine vinegar and .5 cups of regular vinegar because that’s what we had)
- .5 cup cranberries
- an orange

Note: the original recipe also called for a spice bag with cinnamon and clove but I don’t like either of those spices, so I didn’t add them.

Directions:

In a saucepan add the sugar and cranberry juice. Stir and bring to a boil, keep stirring until the sugar dissolves. If you’re adding the spice bags, this would be the time to do it.

Add in the vinegar and cranberries. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 10 minutes.

Take out the spice bag.

Put on slice of orange in each jar. Then ladle the hot vinegar over it.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Note #2: keep in mind I haven’t tasted it yet. It sounded good, but I’ll report back after I’ve tasted it.

Easy As Apple Pie (Jam) September 24, 2011

For a while now I’ve been obsessed with the idea of canning. By “for a while” what I actually mean is years. The fall before the babies came home, I made some lemon-vanilla marmalade, but nothing since then – until this summer.

Since we moved here (in July), I’ve been frequenting my local, amazing farmer’s market and buying up fruits for jam making. Thus far, I’ve made carrot cake, peach-ginger, strawberry-balsamic, and hibiscus-ginger (this last one used the petals from a hibiscus shrub in my yard).

My last jam making adventure involved my impulsively buying over 15 pounds of apples at the farmer’s market (for $6!). I started digging into the apples with an apple pie jam. The recipe I’m using is adapted from one that one of my aunts told me about (I have no idea where she heard of it).

Here’s how I made it:

Ingredients:
    4 cups apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I used 4 big apples, it was a bit more than 4 cups)
    1.5 tbsp lemon juice
    1 tsp ginger (I used powdered, and maybe 2tsp)
    1 tsp cinnamon  
    1 cup brown sugar
    4 cups sugar (I used about a cup and a half and it was plenty sweet)
    1 box pectin

So, the recipe also called for allspice and nutmeg, but I don’t like those spices so I didn’t use them but if you like them, it was a teaspoon of each.

Directions:

In the measuring cup where you measured your apples, keep the apples in it and add water to the 4 cup line. As in the water and the apples are in the measuring cup together. Put all that in a pot and add the lemon juice and spices. Bring to a boil. Once boiling add the brown sugar and regular sugar. Keep stirring and bring to a boil again. Add the pectin. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and boil hard for one minute.

Skim off foam.

Ladle into jars. I had 5 half pints and 2 quarter pints full.

Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Start timing it after the water comes back to a boil.