Things I have canned since Thanksgiving. Also, I baked.

So, I bought two turkies for Thanksgiving, whic is far more than meets our Thanksgiving dinner needs. We can get along with a 10 pound bird and still have a few days of turkey sandwhich and turky cassarole and all the other ongoing turkey dinners that happen once the main feast is history. It's just M and me, nowdays.

But, at about 60¢ a pound, the brilliant frugal opportunity for lots of meals in jars was not to be passed up.  So I fired up the pressure canner.

And, of course, other meats went on seasonal sales, so other things got canned along the way, as well. And, of course, I acquired a few extra turkey carcasses along the way, because people who love me and invite me to share a post-holiday meal also offer me the still useful carcasses if they are not planning on using them.

So I canned a lot. I'm still canning. This year, the holiday season has been the canning season.

This post is meant mostly to list what I made--I have actually begun to forget because there were just so many things. I don't want to have to go through my jars every time I want to recall. I also need to make notes about what I did because I do not want to forget when I want to replicate something that is successful.

1. Chili (ground beef, and the regular USDA recipe with mushrooms added and a mix of green and jalapeno peppers)
2. Turkey white bean chili (Canning for Dummies recipe using turkey versus chicken)
3. Northwoods chili (which was the same chili recipe as above with turkey and Northwoods Fire seasoning swapped for beef and chili powder)
4. Pork (shoulders were on sale) chili verde
5. Curry Turkey Mushroom starter*
6. Tikka Masala turkey

• This was a huge winner for M; it's turkey, mushrooms, and a canning recipe for Tikka Masala. The fresh ginger really makes it. I did not have a garum masala so I used this recipe to make it, and this worked nicely.  I enjoyed this straight up, but it can be finished with coconut milk (or other dairy/nondairy thing you prefer) for more creaminess and a closer-to-Asian-Indian taste.

7. Turkey soup*

• Version 1: turkey broth, carrots, potatoes, peas, corn, onion, turkey.
• Version 2: turkey bone broth, mushroom base, turkey, corn, peas, onions, carrots, salt, pepper, garlic. 
• Version 3: turkey bone broth, turkey, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, salt, pepper. 

8. Turkey in broth
9. Turkey Pot Pie starter

• This is based on this chicken pot pie starter recipe. However, I do not use clear-gel in anything. When I'm prepping this for eating, I add flour to the milk and then add the milk-flour combination to the chicken pot pie starter. I am also just as likely to serve this over noodles or served as a cottage pie as put it in a double crust.

10. Zuppa Toscana soup starter (swapping turkey for the usual meat)
11. "Italian Sausage" and Lentil Soup

• This recipe suggests putting the raw ingredients in a jar, but I preferred to make the soup and then jar it; the lentils were only slightly cooked before going into the jar, to keep them from becoming mush.  This worked out fine for us. I swapped turkey and an added a spoon of Italian sausage seasoning for actual Italian sausage

12.  Turkey Unstuffed Cabbage Soup
13. Split Pea (turkey and a little liquid smoke to sub for ham)
14. Sweet and sour pork (included some jalapeno as well as green pepper)

• I'm hugely frustrated because I can't find the recipe I JUST USED to can this, so I will note that it was a raw pack recipe using pork, fresh pineapple, onions, green pepper, salt, and water. It was much less complicated than the other sweet/sour recipes for canning that I found, and it had no spices to speak of, which I thought could be good for allowing different spice blends to be used on the day one cooks it up for actual eating. 

15. Modified meatball soup

• I did not make the meatballs the way I would usually do for this treasured family recipe, since they call for eggs. However, this lovely blog has an older recipe for canning meatballs that does include egg. I am comfortable with canning some recipes that were once approved but which are no longer USDA standard; this recipe looks comfortable to me. Your mileage may vary.**

16. Turkey Cacciatore (based on this, but with red wine added and turkey, of course)
17. Pepper Mushrooms in Tomato Sauce (because I bought way too many)

I had different grades of broth from the turkeys this year; there was the broth that just came off the baked turkey, the broth that came from cooking the carcass in the instant pot the first time, and the broth that came from cooking the carcass in the instant pot a second time. I just did not want to go to the trouble of roasting the bones or cooking the bones for a week, I just wanted serviceable broths to provide additional nutritional value and a base flavor that was going to blend well with the veggies and spices. I ended up using the broth that just came off the turkey for recipes that had beans in it, and the second-instant-pot broth for recipes without beans. The first-instant-pot cooking broth got mixed as needed for either application, but the more cooked the bones were, the more calcium is in the broth, and it is my understanding that calcium can toughen beans. If I am wrong in this, no harm done, but if I am right, then, no tough lentils, white beans, kidney beans, or pinto beans.

I also did some baking. It's pretty clear that my oven really can not bake anything that requires timing because it's old and whatever temperature regulation system, whatever heat-keeping materials it is constructed with are done for. I don't know if I want to see if it can be refurbished or if I just want to buy something new. In any event, the julekake and family-specific version of Irish soda bread took so long to cook that the flour browned in the bread. It's toasted now. Still tasty and edible, but not the lovely breads they were supposed to be,  I made sandbakklers and as I do not own the tins for it, I usually roll them flat and cut them, but this year, I rolled them in wax paper,  chilled them completely, sliced them to about 1/8th of an inch, and baked them that way. I like that better. And Aunt Jo was right; they really need to be made with butter, not margarine or, heaven forbid, vegetable shortening.

Side remarks:

*Lots of things are made based on the USDA soup instructions.  It's a soup engine rather than a recipe; you use whatever single ingredients for which the USDA provides processing times. However, I do not like the thin product produced by the recipe/engine, so I usually fill the jars completely and process 75 min for pints and 90 for quarts.


**Because this is a public post and the canning community is full of people who are willing to fight with you about USDA canning versus NON-USDA canning practices (and my ghod, you don't want to see that argument play out between, say, an American USDA devotee and a German "Look, it's not my country, it's not my government, and who the hell are you to tell me what to do, anyway?" NON-USDA devotee), I will emphasize that meatball recipes that are USDA compliant only have the meat and some spices in them. If you are uncomfortable with any non-USDA tested recipes, don't follow this one. I make decisions for me, you make decisions for you, and any comment that tells me I am going to kill my family because OMG BOTULISM will be promptly deleted, because I don't need the drama.


Man, this is much longer than I meant it to be. It's a good thing this is not a lifestyle blog, because this would have been about 20 different entries, one for each recipe and a few for the miscellaneous comments I made for my record keeping.

Chickpea Salad Sandwiches and a Moroccan Spiced Sauce

Call it an exercise in frugality.

Or call it MultiSupper.

Or call it Chickpea Salad, my dudez.

Over the past few years, I have cooked up some very plain thing to serve as a meal centerpiece for myself, so I don't have to come home from work and cook from scratch every night, but so I am also not committed to eating potato soup for the rest of the week. This Sunday's "Very Plain Thing" was a mess of chickpeas, carrots, salad potatoes, and sauteed mushrooms. When I was finished cooking it all, I had about 2.5 quart jars of the mix, plus about 2, maybe 2.5 cups of cooking liquid.

So the first supper was comprised of the chickpea-veggie mix, in a sauce, and over basmati rice. I did not get a picture of it, alas, because we just ate it too quickly. Michael took one bite and said, "Did you write this down?"

Always a sure sign of a winner.

Not the Very Plain Thing, mind you. The sauce. 

Thus was born the need for a name. See, sometimes things Mike likes and wants to be sure I write down are things that may never happen again, because lame ass reasons. However, this one he will ask for again, because he has been discussing how he applied the leftovers of this dish to other dishes and how those leftovers improved whatever the heck it was he was adding them to.

 Dried chickpeas cooked in salted water, sauteed mushrooms, rice, and steamed tiny potatoes and carrot chunks are not things I am going to forget how to make any time soon. So the sauce is the imperative part, and the part that must be written down.

Moroccan Spiced Sauce

To leftover cooking liquid, add chicken base (I usually use the better than bullion type), milk, nootch, a little olive oil, and plain yogurt. Cook this smooth, then add at least a teaspoon of Moroccan Memories spice blend, more if you like (we like more). Let this simmer. When the flavors have blended, thicken with flour. If needed, add more spice blend (since thickeners often reduce the flavor of the sauce) and let it simmer a bit longer, stirring all the while. This sauce really benefits from a little time for the flavors to really cook together.

I was making it up as I went along, cooking to taste, so I can't give precise amounts. It was cooking liquid from cooking dried garbanzo beans, carrots, and potatoes, cooked in my cast iron skillet, the lovely skillet that had sauteed the mushrooms and so had a little ghost of flavor from that, too. I used the nootch to give it a little more umami, but you really have to be careful with the nootch, it initially overpowered the veggie water and chicken stock blend. 

Because I started with about 2.5 cups of cooking liquid, I ended up with about 3.5 cups of sauce. I poured them over 1.5 quarts of the chickpea-veggie mix, so there was plenty of sauce for the rice, too.

I had intended to make veggie burgers with the remaining quart of garbanzo-veggie blend, but I was just too tired to go to that effort.   So I made a chickpea salad sandwich.

A Chickpea Salad
Mash about 1.5 cups of cooked chickpea-veggie mix. Add 2-3 spoonfuls of your preferred type of mayo-type spread. Mix. Add 1-3 splashes of liquid smoke (I used the hickory liquid smoke). Mix. Add 1/4 teaspoon (or more to taste) of Turkish Delight. Even eaten right away, it's nice. A little time for the flavors to meld merely makes a different kind of tasty. 

I ate it on rye bread, which was actually a little too strong for the dressing, so I felt I had to make another small batch for my lunch tomorrow, so's I can test it out as a sandwich on some cracked wheat bread. Oh, darn, gotta eat this again. Just, darn.

Notes on eating when it's so hot that....

Cooking feels like volunteering for Hell.

We are wilting now, and we are awash in tomatoes. Yummy, yummy tomatoes.

I am trying to make things that are good cold, and that Mikey will eat. He's not a fussy eater, mind you, but since I so often cook by the seat of my pants, I do try to recall what worked for both of us versus what did not.

So, what I made this weekend:

1. Turkey sandwiches. There is really nothing to be said about this except I used nasturtium leaves instead of lettuce and that was nice and peppery. I know, I know, not vegetarian. I guess it is fair to say that I am an omnivore who tries to eat significantly less meat than the American diet usually calls for. Meat as a flavoring agent if used, not meat as the foundation of all meals. Omni

2. Fresh Salsa, based on this recipe. I don't really know anyone who does not rave about fresh salsa, but I found it bland and cilantro-y. M liked it a lot. With tortilla chips and M's guacamole  it made an adequate cold meal, Vegan.

3. Gazpacho based on this recipe. M's verdict is that it is not really different from the salsa above, and I would agree. I liked this better because it had no cilantro and I added celery to the mix, but the spice profile is quite similar to the salsa. I will make it again, because it is cold, juicy, tomatoey goodness, but I think I might try a middle eastern or an Italian spice profile, instead. And celery imparts a nice, crunchy freshness to it, so it stays added in. Also, I did not waste my time with skinning and seeding the maters, It was fine. Piscetarian--sub soy or vegan Worcestershire sauce to make it vegan.

4. 7 dairy vegetable soup. This was the only thing I made that actually had to be cooked, but I prepared the veggies in the rice cooker on the porch, so the only stove time was that spent making the soup base.. .about 5 minutes to actually cook. This was really quite good both warm and cold, and it is mildly spiced so that .... say it with me now.... the individual eating it can spice it to their preferred flavor profile. I like Tabasco, the grandkids like bland, M likes Italian. One base dish, 87 variations as needed with no extra work on my part. Anyway, I have to write this one down, because it was made up on the fly.

• Cooked veggies. I used, in order from most to least, red potatoes, carrots, celery,  mushrooms, broccoli, peas. 
• Enough cream of cheese soup to turn the whole pot into an actual cream of veggie soup. This soup base was the seven dairy kind: Water, milk, butter, buttermilk, mozzarella cheese, extra sharp cheddar cheese, pepper jack cheese, Swiss cheese. Flour for thickening. Onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper.
• Mix it all together and call it soup. I have also been thinking it would work pretty nicely as a savory pie filling 

Like I said, pretty mild in the spice department. I wanted to note that I really enjoyed the texture of the veggies after they were cooked in the rice cooker versus the way they would have come out if boiled.  I just needed to put in just enough water to cover them and then let the rice cooker do its thing. Lacto-ovo vegitarian, make a soup base from water, plant-based milk, margarine, nooch, flour, spices to make it vegan.

5. Shrimp Supper Sandwiches. Another one I made on the fly and so have to write it down. It was based on the idea of tea sandwiches, but I am not going to waste my time cutting it to delicate little finger snacks. This was: On toasted bread (M gets Whole Wheat, I had Rye, both were good), thin spread of mayo with a touch of chipotle seasoning. Cover with sliced cucumbers. Mix Neufchâtel cheese with cooked and peeled and tailed salad shrimp and lots of chives. Spread this on your bread. Ta-da, sammich fer supper. Add an apple and you have a cold meal. M felt the balance of shrimp filling to cuke was out of whack, wanted either more cuke or less filling, but was quite happy to eat it as it was and asked that it get moved into the cold meal rotation.  Piscetarian. I can't think of a way to veganize it without altering it so significantly that I could not eat it, but if one wanted a similar sandwich, one might try blending tofu, nori, and chives.  A furikake seasoning might be nice, too, but DIY to be sure it is vegan.

A Falafelish to Remember

MMMMmmmm... Falafelish

So, I cooked up a mess of dried chickpeas. MMMM, chickpeas. I've gotten lazy about soaking them: just throw them in a slow cooker and add water and let 'em cook all night, and there you have it, beans. I had planned to make hummus and a stew or soup, but it turns out that I had a little more than I expected when all was said and done. I asked Michael whether he wanted chick pea burgers or a soup, and his reply was "falafel."

Well, now, that wasn't a choice, in large part because I do not know how to make it.

But, thanks to the magic of the internet, I managed something falafel-ish. Falafelish.

It's based on a combination of these two recipes on epicurios.com. I'm writing my process down not because I feel I improved on either recipe, but because both recipes state that you can used canned--and thus implying cooked--chickpeas.

Yeah. You can't.

Furthermore, I am one of those folks who hate cilantro, so substitutions were required.

Here we are:

• 1 or more cups cooked chickpeas. I measured out 4 quarter cups of my cooked chickpeas, but it seemed rather like more than a cup.
• 1 small onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon carrot greens, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (Of course I used Arwen's Dynamite for the Soul)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 tablespoons of chick pea flour
• enough plain breadcrumbs to be able to form patties with the whole mess above
• About 6 cups vegetable oil for frying

Throw everything but the breadcrumbs into a blender or a food processor. Whirl that shit to pieces--it's going to be too wet to stop from forming a mash, but don't turn it into baby food. Let the chickpea mash rest in the fridge for about an hour.

When the mash has finished resting, add breadcrumbs. You are going to have to add them by feel, because there is no telling how wet a particular mash is going to be. You have added  enough breadcrumbs when you can roll the mixture into a ball (about the size of a golfball, per the other recipes, but I think mine were a bit smaller) and then flatten it to a patty and still be able to get it off your hands intact.

Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan. Add the patties, cook 'em, and drain 'em.

They were oddly pleasing, with a nice soft inside and a crispy outside, and Michael keeps eating them off the plate, suggesting that I may have to make something else for dinner tonight. Because they will be gone.

Notes regarding Michael and Kraut

Okay, one of the most difficult things to get Michael to eat is any kind of sauerkraut. On the other hand, I make a lot of collard kraut. I love collard kraut, but Michael, not so much. Not this year, but next year, there will be all kinds of Kraut — kale Kraut, turnip Kraut, cabbage Kraut, mixed Brassica Kraut — and I have to figure out ways to get Michael to eat it.

This is what I made tonight, and Michael ate it happily.

Open and drain a jar of Kraut. Add the drained Kraut to a pan containing a pound of fresh Polish sausage and water enough to boil it all. Cook this until the Polish sausage is properly parboiled. Remove the sausages and finish preparing them as you desire; tonight, I cut them in half longwise and lightly fried said to give them crispy outsides. Chop a whole onion, sauté it in a combination of butter and olive oil. Again, drain the Kraut, and add it to the sautéed onions. Continue sautéing until the mixture is lightly coated with olive oil and butter in the onions tender. Spice it in a way that will be compatible with the Polish sausage seasoning; I used pepper and a balti spice blend. Since the Kraut will still be slightly salty even after this cooking, don't add salt. If the individuals eating this feel it needs more salt best to let them add their own.

Michael enjoyed this quite a lot he chopped up his sausage into little bits mixed it all into the Kraut and onion side dish and when I asked him if I should remember how I did this, he said yes.

Obviously he said yes. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this, right?

Just some quick notes

Jelly made with herbs, wine, and apple juice

Notes to myself on the above jellies:

A) Low Sugar Apple Mint: A standard low sugar apple jelly recipe, but juice infused with mint.

1. Organic apple juice from Aldi
2. Probably 3 cups of mint from my garden
3. sugar
4. lemon juice
5. pectin, low sugar type
6. smidge of unsalted butter

... and the jelly tastes good, but it did not set the first time. I followed the instructions here and was able to eventually achieve a soft set. It tastes good, waaaay minty, and there is a lot of it, because I followed a standard apple jelly recipe. It is also a little grainy, which I think results from the additional pectin that had to be used.

Next time, just use a regular sugar recipe. 

B) Apple Sage Jelly: based on the instructions for herb jelly found at the U of Oregon extension, here. 

1. 2 Cups Organic Apple Juice
2. 1 Cup rhine wine
3. sage, more than a cup
4. sugar
5. lemon juice
6. pectin
7. smidge of unsalted butter

C) Borage Tarragon

1. Rhine wine
2. lemon juice
3. borage leaves
4. tarragon leaves
5. sugar
6. pectin
7. smidge of butter

The borage leaves were completely overwhelmed by the taste of the white wine; if I want to do that, I will have to use water. Anyway, I re-infused the jelly with the tarragon, which was able to stand up to the wine.

D) Lemon Verbena

1. Lemon verbena leaves
2. lemon juice
3. Rhine wine
4. pectin
5. sugar

This is a very nice one, and both C and D are based on a recipe from the NYT, here. 

It's scrambled again.

TEMPEH SCRAMBLE: as the tempeh gets older, stronger flavors develop, and I don't always enjoy them. I have found that marinating the tempeh in a combination of lemon juice and soy sauce is enough balance to counteract the aged tempeh flavor. Aged tempeh may be a delicacy in Indonesia, but I'm a Norwegian living in Wisconsin. I'm pretty sure that some of my "native" delicacies might not find favor with the Indonesians. It's a fair trade, don't you think?

Anyway, this is what this particular scramble consists of:

Tempeh marinated in soy sauce and lemon juice.
A whole yellow onion
A generous amount of olive oil
About a cup and a half of previously steamed mustard and beet greens

The night before (or a couple of days before, if you like) slice tempeh into strips and marinate it with  a soy sauce and lemon juice mixture. Cover and place in the refrigerator. When you're ready to eat, pour a generous amount of olive oil into your wok and let it start to heat while you chop up the onion. Put the onion into the oil and give it a good stir. Cut or break the tempeh up into small pieces, then toss it in with the onions and cook to your preferred level of doneness; I like the onions to be translucent and the tempeh slightly browned. Add the mixed greens and stir long enough to incorporate the green throughout the rest of the dish and heat the greens through.

Like pretty much everything else I cook, tempeh scramble is really more of a process than a recipe. The only thing sure is the tempeh. Given that I like my tempeh scramble with lots of greens in it you can usually assume that there will be some, but you can't always be sure. Sometimes I like to make it with carrot and broccoli and hot peppers. Sometimes I like just Swiss chard and almonds, and seasoning the tempeh/nut/Swiss chard mixture with Worchestershire sauce and nutritional yeast and garlic. Today's scramble didn't need any seasoning; the combination of mustard greens and marinated tempeh was fabulous on its own.

And yes, I did make that strawberry jam! I used the low sugar recipe available in the .pdf from the Wisconsin extension, here.