Canning Pears in Syrup

Here is the syrup recipe again. This way you will have it all together.


Ultra-Light Syrup - ½ cup sugar & 5 cups water - yields 5 ¼ cups
Extra-Light Syrup - 1 ¼ cups sugar & 5 ½ cups water - yields 6 cups
Light Syrup - 2 1/3 cups sugar & 5 ¼ cups water - yields 6 ½ cups
Medium Syrup - 3 ¼ cups sugar & 5 cups water - yields 7 cups
Heavy Syrup - 4 ¼ cups sugar & 4 ¼ cups water - yields 7 cups
Corn Syrup - 1 ½ cups sugar, 1 cup corn syrup & 3 cups water - yields 6 cups
Honey Syrup - 1 cup sugar, 1 cup liquid honey & 4 cups water - yields 5 cups

In a stainless steel sauce pan, combine sugar, other sweetener (if using) and water. (Use amounts listed on the table for the syrup that you want to make.) Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to low and keep warm until needed, taking care not to boil syrup down.
Allow 1 to 1 ½ cups of syrup for each quart of fruit. It is best to use the lightest syrup. This allows the pears to be used in pies or cobblers. You will be surprised how little syrup you will use.

Preventing fruit from browning - submerge cut fruit in a mixture of ¼ cup lemon juice and 4 cups of water. You may also use citric acid or Fruit Fresh.

Pears in Syrup
Makes eight pint jars or four quart jars
8 to 12 lbs ripe but firm pears peeled, cored, halved and treated to prevent browning (this is listed above) and drained
1 batch hot light or medium syrup

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.
2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, over medium-low heat war pears, one layer at a time, in syrup until heated through, about 5 minutes.
3. Using a slotted spoon, pack hot pears, cavity side down and overlapping layer, into hot jars within a generous ½ inch of top of jar. Ladle hot syrup into jars to cover pears, leaving ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot syrup. Wipe rim, Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to finger-tip tight.
4. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process pint jars for 20 minutes and quart jars for 25 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes then remove jars, cool and store.

Syrups for canning fruit

I have been enjoying my peaches that I canned and I haven't tried my apples yet but I am sure that I will enjoy them this winter in making cobblers or pies. I canned them in the extra-light syrup and they are sweet enough to just open and eat but will be able to be used in other recipes as well. This is recipe to keep around for all your fruit canning needs!

Ultra-Light Syrup - ½ cup sugar & 5 cups water - yields 5 ¼ cups
Extra-Light Syrup - 1 ¼ cups sugar & 5 ½ cups water - yields 6 cups
Light Syrup - 2 1/3 cups sugar & 5 ¼ cups water - yields 6 ½ cups
Medium Syrup - 3 ¼ cups sugar & 5 cups water - yields 7 cups
Heavy Syrup - 4 ¼ cups sugar & 4 ¼ cups water - yields 7 cups
Corn Syrup - 1 ½ cups sugar, 1 cup corn syrup & 3 cups water - yields 6 cups
Honey Syrup - 1 cup sugar, 1 cup liquid honey & 4 cups water - yields 5 cups

In a stainless steel sauce pan, combine sugar, other sweetener (if using) and water. (Use amounts listed on the table for the syrup that you want to make.) Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to low and keep warm until needed, taking care not to boil syrup down. Allow 1 to 1 ½ cups of syrup for each quart of fruit. It is best to use the lightest syrup. This allows the fruit to be used in pies or cobblers. Always check with your recipe and see what the recipe recommends you use though. Some fruits require a heavier syrup. You will be surprised how little syrup you will use.

Tomorrow I will have a recipe for canning pears! I am getting ready to go and get some to can and I can't wait to see how they turn out!

fair results 2010

I told y'all that I would update you on my fair entries. Well, I am finally getting around to it! I had put a baby quilt that I got fourth with and then I entered salsa, blackberry jelly, plum jelly, jalapeno pepper jelly but didn't place. There were so many entries and I was excited to do as well as I did. My spicy bread and butter pickles placed first overall!!! I was so excited about this. These are grandmas that I was competing against!

I have recipes for all of these and if any of them tickle your fancy and you would like them leave me a comment or email me!

CSN Stores & Pressure Cooker Review

I was so excited to be approached by Jessica to do a review and knew exactly what I wanted to do it on - a pressure cooker! I have been wanting one and thought that this would be a good time to get one. I made my order online and was very impressed and it went smoothly.

I did make one mistake and forgot to make an account so I had to call and have them help me make a password so that I could check the status of the order. The customer service representative was wonderful and was so helpful. I was impress with how she seemed to WANT to help me.

On Monday night (7/26/10) I checked my email and squealed, it was shipped. They had upgraded me, free of charge to ship quicker. I should receive it on Wednesday it says!!!

On Wednesday I checked my email and it was on the truck to be delivered! I am ready to sit down and look through everything that comes with it and maybe even can some green beans!

I have received it and it has been put through the wringer!!! I have canned 40 pints, plus 7 quarts of chili and a ton a brown beans. I canned two batches, one right after the other and it worked perfect. The book is self explanatory and has tons of recipes. I am looking forward to seeing what else I can do with this.

I have always been scared of using a pressure cooker. I have heard so many stories of them blowing up in the middle of canning. Presto has a high quality product that has safety devices so that the stories that I heard wouldn't happen. This was refreshing to me and was also somewhat expected. After dealing with CSN and knowing their customer service standards, it is only right that their products have just as high of standards as they do.

Christmas is coming up so I suggest that you look at their numerous stores online and get to shopping!!! Everything is conveniently located and easy to find. They have everything that you could want for the pets, babies, husbands, wives and everyone and everything in between. What are you waiting for???? Go and check them out!!! You can finish all your Christmas shopping from the comfort of your own home and you will have gotten a great deal!!!!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a $60 gift code in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I entered some canned items in our local fair and took first with my spicy bread and butter pickles. I not only got first but got the first place Ball Fresh Preserving Award!!!

Writer's Workshop - Things that make me smile

Your Assignment, Should You Choose To Accept
This week's assignments are:
1.) Describe someone in your life who you might not know as well as you think you know.2
.) Write a poem about a memory you sometimes wish would disappear.
3.) Write a list of 10 things that are sure to put a smile on your face when you are not happy.
4.) People would be surprised to learn that…
5.) A snappy comeback!

Head over to Mama Kat's to find out more about it or to link up! It is tons of fun!

I chose the prompt write a list of 10 things that are sure to put a smile on your face when you are not happy.

1. 2.

3. Just being out in nature is wonderful. It doesn't even matter if I get anything!

4. Same as above. It is so nice to just be out in nature.

5. My garden is another thing that makes me happy. It is so neat to see all the small plants become bigger and start producing.

6.

7. I love doing anything with crafting. It is so neat to see something come to life. 8. Cooking. I get to create something from scratch and it has another purpose, to nourish us!

9. Everyone of my personal collection of figurines has a special memory or meaning behind it.

10. Reading a good book, canning or any one of a numerous list of things that I love to do!

Now it is your turn. Choose a prompt, write and head over to link up!

Plum Jelly

I was lucky to have an older woman contact a friend of the family, saying that she would love to have the plums on her tree picked. She is elderly and isn't able to pick them any more. We took a large plastic tub and another friend to help us pick. The plums were between the size of a cherry and a golf ball. We picked for 45 minutes and ended up with about 35-40 pounds of plums. On Saturday I cooked them down and got the juice and stored it for Sunday. The large jar holds about 4 gallons of juice. I had already cooked 3 gallons to make what is pictured below. I used 30 pounds of sugar, 12 pouches of pectin and went through a ton of jars. I ended up with 3 wide-mouth quart jars, 27 pint jars and 11 half pint jars. I am going to freeze what is left of the juice until I can get some more pint jars. They are just the easiest to can with for jelly. I had to find more space to set the jars. I normally have a spot on the table but had to move to setting them on the counter too! I don't think that we will be getting any more plums-unless someone has a really good plum butter recipe....... Maybe you could send me one? I really like to make all this and would love to have any recipes that any of you would give to me. I would love to be able to make it, take pictures and put it on here!!! I was proud of how this has turned out for the first time making it!

Juice that is left and one batch of jelly. Tops of other jelly jars (2nd batch) and one of the finished jars.

They are so clear and pretty!

Look what I got out of my garden!!!

Roma tomatoes, parsley, basil, jalapenos!!

Garden 2010 update

This is what I took out to plant a week and a half ago. I was so excited to get them into the ground. I planted cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, romaine lettuce, dill, onions, cilantro, parsley, and basil. I think that is all!!! Two rows of red onions and one row of yellow onions. I love to cook with them.
My roma tomato plant. You should see how much it has grown since!

My cute little cucumbers. They have since died so I will be putting seeds into the ground and growing them outside. Lesson learned that they are very delicate.

This is a picture of the whole garden before I got into it.

It is bigger than last year thanks to the Mister!

Standing in the middle and taking pictures either way. The herbs and the jalapenos are in the pots. They are looking so good! I am excited to have fresh veggies soon!

Hometown Seeds

I got some seeds that were sent from Hometown Seeds and I am excited to show them to you. Last Sunday I planted bell peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and green beans.

These are some of my cucumbers

In a week and a few days these cute little things have come along so well.

Some are great big and some are small. These seeds are totally non-hybrid, which means they can have these plants over and over. You are able to plant the seeds and harvest seeds for the next year. They even give you all the instructions on how to harvest the seeds.

I have started these seeds inside and are also keeping the other plants in the house until I can transplant them outside.

I set them in the Jiffy starter and let it do its job.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. These are started and are sitting on my dryer.....
Don't judge! It is one of the few spots that has a window beside something that is sitting higher.

These are my lettuce, peppers and jet star tomatoes that are waiting to be planted.

We will keep watching these guys and see what happens!

Correction to What's the big dill

I just wanted to make a big note that I forgot left off the measurement for the vinegar on the dill pickles!!! It is 2 1/2 Tablespoons of vinegar. I know it doesn't sound like much big it does the trick!!!

What's the big dill????

I am learning to cook with fresh herbs it has been fun to do. I am going to plant a herb garden next year. A friend of mine was talking about foods we like and she mentioned pickles and we were talking about how much we both loved pickles. She found a recipe for sun cooked pickles. I am going to share it with you today and hopefully you will love it!!! Here is my contraption that I am using to keep raccoons out of mine while it is cooking. I am going to give you other tips to help too! This is a kennel for pets and it is keeping them pickles safe while they cook!!!

Sun Cooked Pickles

(measurements are for 1 quart jar)

1 tsp of sugar

1 1/2 Tbls salt

2 1/2 Tbls vinegar

1 dill head with seeds

cucumbers that are between 6-9 inches long

(this is one of the hints) Combine the sugar, salt and vinegar with boiling water. My first batch I followed the directions and put the cucumbers first and then everything else but it didn't mix well so do it backwards. After you have added the boiling water and made sure that it has basically dissolved start adding the cucumbers. This is your brine. The recipe that I had said to split the cumbers in half but I split mine in quarters to make spears. add the dill at the end and put the lid on. I used canning jars and it needs to be tightened one turn. I have it tight enough that I could have the lid "holding" but not totally screwed on. It needs to be loose for the brine to be able to bubble out a bit. Sit the jar outside in the sun and let it "cook". It takes 3 to 4 days to cook. The brine will start to get cloudy and the cucumbers will look more like pickles. After they are done bring them in and refrigerate them.

Hints

-Like I said before combining the ingredients put the sugar, salt and vinegar in and let them dissolve makes it easier.

-If you can't put the jars in something to keep the animals out of them they need to be taken in at night. I found that the cage works great.

-The pickles will not be bright green like you see in the store. They will be a nice green color.

-The sun may bleach the cucumbers. This is okay and doesn't effect the taste.

-Be careful carrying the jars, the brine makes them slippery.

-Make sure and have tons of cucumbers because everyone is going to love them!!!!

This is my 3 quart jar that will be done tomorrow (Wednesday). We have already gone through 3 quarts!!! This is a new favorite of ours!