Homemade Archives - Page 3 of 4

August 20, 2019August 19, 2019

Homemade Catsup (or Ketchup)

Grilled burger with homemade catsup and grilled banana peppers. — Homemade catsup on my grilled burger with my homegrown grilled banana peppers.

Either way homemade catsup is really easy and really good.

Recently, I’ve been on this theme of trying almost everything I can find homemade. Hint – coming soon, mustard and crackers among other things.

My goal is to make as much as I can from scratch and buy as little as I can from the store.

Just like garden grown veggies have so much more flavor than their store bought counterpart, in my opinion so does homemade condiments like catsup and homemade sweet pickles.

Regardless of what it is if it’s homegrown or homemade, it’s always so much better than what you get in the stores.

And if it’s homemade it’s a bonus, or maybe it’s the point of it, that you know what every single ingredient is you put into it.

Store bought tomatoes or home grown

In this spirit, every homemade catsup recipe I came across called for tomato paste. I rarely have tomato paste since you usually only use a tablespoon or 2 and I end up throwing it away.

But, this year I have a garden and I’m beginning to get a TON of tomatoes.

A batch of tomatoes getting ready to dehydrate. — Tomatoes that I’m getting ready to slice and dehydrate.

And, this year for my birthday, my awesome husband bought me the Cadillac of dehydrators, an Excalibur Dehydrator. I’ve wanted this thing for years, but it costs so much I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

Anyway, this means I’ve been dehydrating tomatoes. I knew there had to be a way to use those for this recipe.

So I searched the net and finally found a ratio method for mixing dehydrated tomatoes to water for paste and for sauce.

Just so you know…..it’s a 1:1 ratio for paste and a 2:1 water to dehydrated tomatoes for sauce.

So now I’m excited. Dehydrated tomatoes take up WAY less space than canned tomatoes. And this means I don’t have to can so many tomatoes….BONUS!!

Okay, back on track for homemade catsup.

To ferment or not to ferment

A jar of catsup with a fermenting lid. — My jar of homemade catsup with one of my new fermenting lid.

Most of the recipes I found said I could ferment them or not. As a general rule, we don’t use a lot of catsup, so I kinda wanted to ferment just so it would last longer.

Recently, I also bought myself some fermenting lids so I could ferment more. So since I had those I thought I would go ahead and give the fermented catsup a try.

From what I was reading, the recipe is no different either way. So, that made it easy.

Homemade Catsup

Making homemade catsup truly is one of the easiest things you could ever make. And best of all it can be made to suit your tastes. As you mix the ingredients, all you have to do is continue to taste it and adjust it to what you like best.

Although I read through about 3 or 4 different recipes, this is the one I settled on. First because I liked the ingredients and second, because I’ve liked most of the recipes I’ve found on her site so I trusted it would be good.

This recipe comes from theprairiehomestead.com. If you haven’t been there yet, you should check it out. She had a ton of great stuff there.

Ingredients:

12 oz or 1.5 cups of tomato paste
3 TBL of maple syrup or raw honey
3 TBL of raw vinegar
2 TBLS of whey or brine from an existing ferment***
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp allspice**

*** You only need this ingredient if you plan on fermenting your catsup. I had just made some sauerkraut, so I used some of the brine from that.

**I didn’t have allspice, so I found a mixture you can use to make a homemade version. To make 1 tsp of allspice you use 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground clove and a pinch of ground nutmeg.

Instructions:

Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl. If you are not going to ferment it, then put it in the refrigerator and your done. I’d let it sit for a few days just so all the flavors blend well.

A bowl full of ingredients to make catsup. — Mix all of your ingredients into your bowl and mix well.

If you’re going to ferment, then put your catsup in a pint jar, cover it with a fermenting lid, an airlock or a regular lid. If you use a regular lid, you need to remember to burp it either daily or a few times a day to let the fermenting gases escape.

Let it sit on your counter for about 3 days and then put a regular lid on it and move it to your refrigerator.

That’s it. It just doesn’t get any easier.

Another thing you’ll notice with this recipe is there is no sugar. I suppose you could use sugar if you wanted to in place of the honey or maple syrup. I wouldn’t know why, but you could if you wanted to.

You can adjust these spices to whatever taste you like. You could even add a touch of hot sauce if that’s something you might like. The possibilities of the different tastes you could come up with are endless.

So there you have it, really easy homemade catsup. I hope you give it a try. I know I’ll not be buying it from the store anymore. You may decide the same thing.

If you find you want to make your own catsup, let me know in the comments below how it turns out. If you change up the recipe, I’d love to hear how. I’d love it if you would post pictures of what you make.

Be sure to subscribe to get something new in your inbox every week. Canning season is coming up, I have a new dehydrator and I have several new recipes I’m itching to make, you won’t want to miss what’s coming.

Until next time-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

August 13, 2019August 13, 2019

Making Bead Sun Catchers

So, these Bead Sun Catchers turned out way better than I expected.

Pony beads used for project. — I got these beads from Hobby Lobby. They had glitter in them that looked great when they melted.

I these sun catchers on Pinterest several times and thought it looked like something Zoey would enjoy. She loves bright pretty colors and being crafty.

So I got the beads some time ago, thinking we would get to this pretty quickly. That was probably 2 months ago.

This weekend I had both grandkids and one of the cousins over to spend the weekend. It seemed like the perfect time.

I told the girls about the bead sun catchers and pulled out the bag of beads. Showed them the muffin tin I planned to use and told them to create whatever design they liked. They were thrilled.

Then I remembered some aluminum pans I had in the cabinet. You know the kind you buy 3 or 4 in a pack that can be thrown away after you use them? I had 8 inch square pans. But they have several different shapes and sizes to choose from.

Girls designing their bead sun catchers. — Working hard at their designs.

The girls had a ton of fun creating and re-creating. They mixed the beads and then separated them and then mixed them again.

They made designs and then dumped them then made new designs, until they finally came up with something they liked.

Once they had the first batch done, they had a better idea of what they would look like. Then it became easier for them to come up with new designs.

Heating the sun catchers outside instead of in the oven was a better idea.

When I got ready to melt the beads for the sun catchers I used the gas grill. I’d read in a few articles of people using the oven inside and it turning out bad. I decided I didn’t want to try that.

Completed sun catchers. — As you can see, we don’t even have to make a hole to hang them with in a few of them.

I tried to find what temp they needed to “cook” at looking at different websites to find a temp. I couldn’t find anything.

So I faked it and started at 450F. One article I read said it took about 10 minutes. At 450F it took about 30 min. I figured I was doing it wrong so for the second batch I let the grill get to 550F.

That worked much better. It still took longer than 10 minutes, but was still much faster.

Once they’re melted, just set them to the side to cool. I was worried about getting them out of the pan, but didn’t need to be. They popped out real easy.

There are a few things to remember next time.

I did discover, however, that while all the scalloped edges of the pan were a cool part of the design, the writing on the bottom of the pan also transferred. Not the cool design I was hoping for. I’ll have to figure a way to make that not show up.

Square pan sun catcher. — Here’s the square sun catcher. Can you see the writing in the center?

If you can think of a way to get rid of the raised writing in the bottom of those pans, please let me know in the comments. I haven’t been able to figure that out yet.

Some of them melted smooth and a few didn’t. The ones that still had a little texture from the lump of the bead looked really cool I thought.

But those all came out of the same batch, so I’m not sure what the difference was so we can recreate the effect. Next time I’ll try and pay more attention to that to figure it out.

Give this one a try when you get a chance. I guarantee your kids or grandkids will enjoy it. Share your creations here and post your pictures in the comments. I’d love to see them.

Until next time-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

July 23, 2019July 22, 2019

The Many Ways of Making Herbal Tea

So a week or so ago I told you about mixing your own herbal tea blends. You can find that here. Now, here’s something a little different.

When I first started making herbal tea, it felt very foreign to me. That seemed like an exotic kind of thing for this small town country girl. I never considered there was anything beyond the store bought tea bags.

These days I’ve discovered so many ways to prepare and steep your herbal tea, I have to actually decide on which one I’ll use each time.

The Different Methods I Use to Prepare My Herbal Tea

There are several different ways to hold your loose leaf herbal tea. Let’s go over a few.

Tea Bags

There’s a couple of different tea bags you can use. I use both of these and like them both for different reasons.

This one I get from Mountain Rose Herbs. I like this one because you can quickly make a bag of tea, just fold over the edge and pour your water over it.

I use this one at home a lot. It’s good for trying a new herbal tea blend and don’t want to make up a lot.

This is another one I like to use. I get them at Mountain Rose Herbs too. You can find them in different sizes all over Amazon, but I’m never really sure of the quality from places I don’t know.

herbal tea in tea bags — Iron close tea bags.

I like this one because they’re easy to prepare and have several bags pre-made and ready to take with you when you want. They’re just like regular tea bags, and easily portable because they seal.

Both of these tea bag types are compostable too, which is a plus for me since we compost everything possible.

Tea Balls

Tea balls are another way to steep your herbal teas. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. I have a few different styles and I use them both. I don’t have a specific purpose for either, just depends on my mood at the time.

Some tea balls have smaller screen sizes or holes which means some will leave small bits of leaf in the bottom of your cup and others won’t.

Handle spoon type tea ball. — This style is more like a spoon

I don’t mind little bits of tea leaf in the bottom of my cup, but that may be something you’ll want to consider when you decide on one.

Then there are a few other styles that I like.

A Couple Other Styles

A friend bought me this next style a long time ago. I love it. This one is a basket type thing you put your herbs in and set it in your cup and then pour your water directly over your herbs.

herbal tea straining basket — Herbal tea straining basket and holder.

This one works very well. It even comes with a little thing to set the tea basket in when you get ready to drink your tea.

Making herbal tea with a tea basket — A basket full of lavender and lemon balm tea.

This one is really good for using enough herbs to make several cups of tea.

And lastly, I have a steeping pot. I found it on sale at my local grocery store several years back and have been very happy with it.

Glass steeping pot — I found this at a local grocery store during a clearance sale. I love it.

It’s a thin clear glass pot, so after I pour my water over the herbs, I usually wrap it in a tea towel to keep it hot. I use this a lot more in the winter, cause I can drink a whole pot on a Sunday afternoon.

Brewing Your Tea

Teas or herbs with a high volitile oil content, or those that smell really good, need to be covered when you steep them. This will keep the properties of the herb from evaporating while the tea steeps.

A covered steeping tea blend. — Steeping herbal tea.

So if you’re making a tea using, say lavender, you’ll want to cover it while it steeps.

I’m sure there are several more ways to prepare your herbal tea. But these are the ones I use regularly.

I hope you see one you would like to try. Or maybe you saw a few that interest you. Even better.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about making herbal tea. Let me know what method you use or let me know which method you want to try. I’m curious.

Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already. See you next week.

Until then –

Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey

July 16, 2019July 29, 2019

Berry Jam

I love berry jam. Don’t you? It goes good on everything, in my humble opinion.

This is where I found my berries.

Early this year I bought a few blueberry bushes because I eat a ton of blueberries. They’re my favorite.

My blueberry bush with berries. — One of my 3 blueberry bushes.

I’d always heard or read, can’t remember which for sure, that, like strawberries, it would take a year or so to start getting any berries.

Apparently, that’s not true. I was happy to see that these bushes were going to produce lots of berries. They didn’t produce a lot at one time, but as they matured, I harvested them and put them in the freezer.

Then one day I was out walking around the yard and found a mulberry tree. My husband had been hacking at it with a machete for quite a few years trying to kill it. Of course, we all know you can’t kill a mulberry tree, at least where I live. They grow like weeds.

Ripe mulberries in a bowl. — Mmmmmm mulberries.

There’s been a large mulberry tree on the property for years and I never got a berry from it. The birds ate them all before I could get to them. There’s always been purple bird poop on everything, every year.

But, this year, this tree, which is now a bush, continued to survive. And not only did it survive, it was covered in mulberries. Beautiful, ripe, purple berries, that tasted awesome. I couldn’t believe the birds hadn’t noticed this bush!!

So I started picking berries daily. I only got about 1/2 cup of a mix of the two at a time. I collected them, washed them and let them set out to dry overnight and then put them in jars in the freezer the next morning.

Me and My granddaughter discovered frozen berries make a great summer snack. Note to self for next year.

I decided when I got to 5-6 cups of berries I’d make some berry jam. It did’t take too long to collect about 5 cups. That seemed to be the magic number, because at about 5 cups both bushes finished their production.

I’m not complaining, I’m totally happy with what I got from them. Beside the 5 cups worth, I also got to eat some too.

Now it’s time to make some berry jam.

I found a non-pectin berry jam recipe on the Farmer’s Almanac web site. This is what I loosely followed. I’ve looked but I can’t seem to find the same recipe again to post a link.

I say loosely because that recipe used a different kind of berry and didn’t add lemon juice. I wasn’t sure about the acidity level of berries, so I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Better Homes and Gardens Canning Book. — The canning book I used as a reference for this recipe.

This is one of the books I use for my canning.

I have several, but this happened to be the one I used.

It has a chart that lists the acidity levels for several different types of foods.

If the acidity level is high you can water bath can your jam for preservation instead of pressure canning.

But if the acidity levels are lower you need to use a pressure canner to be sure you kill any kind of nasty bug that may make you sick.

Acidity levels for different types of food. — Acidity levels from the book.

As you can see, lemons and limes are at the low end of the pH levels which you would expect, and the berries are kind of in the middle.

There probably wouldn’t have been a problem, but since I had lemon juice, I decided I’d go ahead and use it.

Since I had the time I still decided to not use the pectin.

All I had to do was cook it a little longer. Actually, I probably cooked it a bit too long, cause it’s really, REALLY thick. But I’m okay with that.

It’s the first time I’ve made jam without the pectin. I wanted to make sure it got thick enough. I’ll call it an experiment instead of a mistake.

So I started with the 5 cups of berries I had been picking and freezing over the past month or so. It was a mix of mulberries and blueberries.

Frozen berries beginning to cook down. — Cooking down my berries.

I poured them into a stock pot and heated them on low until the blueberries began to break and the mulberries got mushy.

Then I added the 3-3/4 cups of sugar. The recipe I found said 3/4 cup of sugar for every cup of berries. That seemed easy enough to remember and it’s less sugar than some of the recipes I’ve got for jam. I cooked this slow and stirred a lot so the sugar didn’t burn at the bottom. It won’t take long to melt.

Mashing cooked berries. — Mashing the berries as they cooked.

Cooking berry jam. — Cooking the berries.

Then I mashed them with a potato masher. You can mash these down as much as you want. I like the larger chunks so I didn’t worry too much about it. I knew the blueberries would cook down to pretty much juice, but the mulberries, which are sweeter, didn’t break down so much.

The recipe I read said without using the pectin you needed to cook it about 1/2 hour to 45 mins. I decided to go about mid way and cook them about 40 min on low. Next time I’ll probably just cook them about 25 min, maybe 30.

Make sure you stir a lot. I couldn’t get my burner down low enough, in my opinion, so stirred it almost constantly.

Now it’s time to can the berry jam.

Sterilizing canning jars. — this is an easy way to sterilize your jars. Put them over the water in your canner while you wait for it to come to a boil. I just put the lid on it and let it go.

I began by boiling water in the water bath canner. Then I put the jars in the canner while the water boiled to sterilize them.

Once the water boiled and the jars were sterilized, I filled each one.

Filling jars with berry jam. — Filling the canning jars.

While I fillied the jars, I boiled the canning lids. I’ve heard recently that that is a step that you don’t have to do anymore.

I’m not sure if there are new lids that don’t require boiling or if Ball just changed the rules. But since my lids are older, I’ll continue to boil them until it get new ones that read that it’s not necessary.

Cleaning the jar rim. — Make sure the rims of your jars are clean.

Once your finished filling the jars, you want to make sure the rims are clean. This will ensure there is nothing to obstruct the sealing process.

Then add the lids and rings. You don’t want to crank down the rings. Just finger tight. When you add them to the canner you want about an inch or 2 of water to cover your jars.

Jar of jam ready to be canned. — My canner has a rack in it. I set the jars on the rack and then I can just lower the rack into the boiling water.

I waited until the water was at a rolling boil, then I lowered the jars into the canner. You can add them sooner, but you don’t want to start your timer until your water is at a rolling boil.

Then I processed them in the boiling water for 15 min.

Now they’re done.

Now you can turn off the heat, and raise your rack.

The best part about this is hearing the lids seal. They’ll begin to ping one at a time. In my opinion, this is the best part. Makes me smile every time.

Now you just wait for them to cool and you have preserved berry jam.

I put one of them in the fridge without processing it, so I could have some berry jam to eat now. I wanted to try it out. Then I labeled the rest and put them in the pantry.

If you have the equipment canning your own jam is really easy. Do your research and be sure to follow the best safety rules when canning. They are listed in all the canning books. Don’t be afraid to it a try. It’s really not as scary as it sounds.

If you have canned your own jam, let me know what kind. I’d love to hear what you’ve been preserving. Add your pictures to the comments.

Be sure to subscribe and comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time –

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

June 25, 2019June 24, 2019

Homemade Sweet Pickles

A quart and a pint of homemade microwave sweet pickles

I came across this new recipe for how to make homemade sweet pickles just in the last few weeks. These things are AMAZING, if you like sweet pickles anyway.

Quart of homemade sweet pickles — A quart of my homemade sweet pickles.

We had a Memorial Day party and my cousin brought these to share.

Sweet pickles from the store can’t hold a candle to these homemade sweet pickles. This is a cucumber and onion mix with a simple mix of spices and sugar poured over them and then heated. The best part about this recipe is that it’s a 10 minute recipe. You just can beat it.

They have such and awesome flavor and they make such crisp sweet pickles, you’d never believe it only took 10 minutes to make.

You can make these pickles a sweet and spicy mix too if you like by just adding some jalapeno peppers. I’m not real keen on spicy, but I know several people who would love that.

It’s deceptively easy and amazingly fast. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, I promise.

Measuring cup with the spices needed for these homemade sweet pickles. — What you see here is all that’s needed for this easy crispy sweet pickle recipe.

Mary, my cousin, sent me a photo of the recipe she uses. From what I can read, a lady named Esther submitted this recipe in a contest to something called “Cooks Connection”. I couldn’t find anything local relating to Cooks Connection so I’m not real sure what that relates to. I couldn’t find a date on it either, so I’m not real sure how old it is or who to credit it back to.

So, in lieu thereof, I’ll credit my cousin Mary for this fabulous recipe.

I hope you all enjoy these as much as I did. I’ve made several batches since then and so far they have been a hit with everyone I’ve shared them with. I plan to make many more in the future.

Homemade Microwave Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

2 cucumbers, thinly sliced – not peeled
1 onion also thinly sliced. I’ve actually used 2 onions before just because they are so good in this recipe.
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Tumeric. A note on tumeric….it stains everything. My bowl stays yellow for a while after using it. Just keep that in mind and don’t spill it.
1/4 tsp Mustard Seed
1/2 tsp Celery Seed
1/2 cup Vinegar. I also used my Apple Cider Vinegar in this recipe. You can find out how to make that here.
1 cup sugar

Instructions

Mix the salt, tumeric, mustard seed, celery seed, vinegar, and sugar in a large microwave safe bowl.

A large bowl with sliced cucumbers and onions and the mixed ingredients to be poured over them. — The ingredients are mixed and the cucumbers and onions are sliced.

Slice the cucumbers and onions thinly and add to the bowl. Mix well to cover all the slices with the mix above.

Sliced cucumbers and onions with all the ingredients poured, mixed and ready to make sweet pickles. — Pour your mix over your sliced cucumbers and onions and stir well to cover every slice.

Microwave uncovered on high for 5 minutes.

Remove and mix well, again making sure you stir well to cover all the slices.

Mixed cucumbers and onions with the mixed poured over them for sweet pickles. — The beginning of best sweet pickles you’ve ever made. This is after the first 5 min.

Return the bowl to the microwave and heat again, uncovered, for another 5 min on high.

Remove from the microwave and let cool. Once they’ve cooled, refrigerate until cold. Now they’re ready to eat.

This recipe makes about a quart of pickles. I wasn’t able to get all the liquid in the quart jar along with the pickles. So I filled it all the way to the top and just added as much as I could

A quart and a pint of homemade sweet pickles ready to put in the refrigerator. — This recipe of sweet pickles had an extra onion added to the mix.

If you add an extra onion like I did, you’ll probably need another pint jar. With the extra pint jar you can get all the liquid into both jars.

Some people may think a cup of sugar is just too much. And that can be true, depending on your taste. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll be adjusting the amount of sugar and spices just out of curiosity in future batches. I’m curious to see how they turn out.

That’s really all there is to homemade sweet pickles.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. If you do, share it with everyone. This is just too good not to share.

Do you have a simple recipe for pickles? Did you try this recipe and adjust the ingredients a bit? Share in the comments below, I’d love to know. Or if you tried it just the way it is, leave a comment and tell me what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for coming by.

Until next time.

Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey