Misc. Monday - Grapes

When I made the butterflies for the school snack I was unsure how many grapes I would need to fill the bags. Needless to say I had more grapes than I needed and after Caden sat on them I needed to use them up. We decided to can them as I only buy US grapes and in the winter they can be hard to find. I'm even going to see if I can use canned grapes in 24 hour salad. They are super easy to do and when I can't find US grapes this winter we will still be eating grapes!

Canning grapes
What you need:

Ripe grapes (2lbs per quart)
light or medium syrup*
pint or half pint jars

Directions:
Ladle a 1/4 cup syrup into half pints or 1/2 cup syrup into pints. Fill with grapes leaving 1/2 inch head space. Finish filling with syrup, remove air bubbles, clean rims and place caps on. The grapes process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. 


*Syrup
Light syrup is 2 1/4 cups sugar to 5 1/4 cups of water
Medium syrup is 3 1/4 cups sugar to 5 cups of water

Directions: Combine sugar and water together in an appropriate size pot and heat until sugar is dissolved.

Misc. Monday - Where do you can?

Watching kids play while the canner goes

Screen room and a great fan is key!

As some of you know my parents, my two boys and myself camp all summer. It is 12 miles away from home but it is another world where my boys are allowed to be messy, dirty and have fun. This also means that we can while we are camping all summer. The kitchen is nice but it gets crowded fast and the children are underfoot. My solution is to can outside. Yes, even when it was 100 plus outside but it keeps the heat outside, so inside says cooler.

Two at once!

Misc. Monday - Canning Cherries

I'm back!! I finally got Blogger back working again. (Yes I know it is Tuesday but we are going to pretend it is still Monday.) I will get all the promised yummies to you on schedule providing no more tech issues. Now, on to the good stuff.
My mom is the youngest of 7 kids and when her mom passed on one of the things I asked for was my grandma's canning stuff. I was looking through the book the other night and came across a really simple recipe to can cherries. My kids love cherries so when they were on sale this past week I knew what I had to do. I decided to can the cherries in a simple simple syrup instead of making pie filling because I will use them more than pie filling. It really doesn't taste that long to make and we even canned them in our camper last night.

Simple Syrup (Medium)
2 cups sugar
1 quart water

Heat the mixture till the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is hot. Do not let this boil or reduce down.

Canning Cherries
I cold or raw packed my cherries which means that I did not cook them before they went into the jars.
There really isn't a recipe for canning cherries but more of a method of how to can them.
I pitted my cherries before I put them in jars so I don't have to worry about the pits when I use them.

Once your cherries are pitted pack them into clean hot jars and wipe the rim clean. Top with a new hot canning lid and hand tighten the ring. Process 20 minutes in a boiling water bath. They look so pretty when they are all finished and I know we will enjoy them this winter when we can't get fresh cherries.

What is your favorite food to can?