First Blackberry Jam of the Year

Boy our blackberries are huge this year. We have gathered 12 or 13 pounds so far, and a few cuts and scrapes from the thorns. The berries are well worth it though. With the first few pounds we made 2 batches of jam. Its something sweet and easy, and you can enjoy the summer harvest, all the way through the winter and until you can make some more next year.

What you need to make the jam is,
1 box of Pectin
5 cups of blackberries
7 cups of sugar

First you need to crush the berries, we sieve about half of the seeds out, you can have more or less seeds depending on your preference. Put
the 5 cups of berries into a stock pot along with the box of pectin, and bring it to a full rolling boil, once it has reached that point, pour in the sugar, and bring it back up to a rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute. That's it for the jam! See, so easy! Now you just ladle it into your sterilized jars, and process the jam for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

Here is the video we made showing the whole process from start to finish. Sorry for the long video, I just didn't want to edit any important information out of it, that you all might need. Anyway enjoy our video, hope it is helpful!


We're not sure what we will do with the rest of the blackberries we pick, make some more jam probably, then eat the rest :) yum

Peanut Brittle.... in July?

Boy is it hot this week! So I decided to pretend it was cooler weather, and post about making candy.

This video was taken a few years back of our family friend Ernie. He makes the worlds best Peanut Brittle. It is fantastic let me tell you, I have ate enough to know :) His recipe and method are really easy so you should try it this winter... or ...you can put on some Christmas music and pretend, like me :0D (I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, Just like the ones I used to know....)

Well I'll just let him tell you the rest! Enjoy!

Canned Chicken is so useful! I Love it!

So at our local grocery store we found chicken for 1.99 a pound. Around here that is pretty cheap, so we decided to buy some and jump in to the adventures of canning meat. Canning meat isn't nearly as hard as everyone thinks it is, and trust me it is well worth your trouble. You can use it in so many things, and it isn't taking up valuable freezer space.

You can use the Hot pack method, but we decided to go easy and use the Raw Pack. First you cut up the chicken into squares, about kabob size as mom would put it.  Then pack it into your sterilized jars, in this method, there is no need to pour broth or water in the jars, the chicken makes its own broth as it cooks. Make sure there aren't air bubbles, and the rims are wiped off, the whole nine yards, then set the jars in about 2 inches of water in the pressure canner. Lock the lid and let the steam vent for 10 minutes then close the vent and process at 10 pounds of pressure for 1 hour 15 minutes for pints, and 1 hour and a half for quarts. Oh yeah, and if you are worried about the hard water stains on the canner and the jars, put some vinegar in the water, that should do the trick.

The best part about having the canned chicken around the house is all the things you can use it for. We make chicken salad, chicken fettuccine Alfredo, chicken and ramen, just about anything! It is so versatile. To use it for baked things, just use in the recipe, but if you are eating it cold, like chicken salad, cook it ten minutes first, then cool it down. Cooking it first is just an extra precaution to make sure all the potential bacteria and things are killed. Just to be sure.

Anyway we made a video, and tried to describe the important things as best we could, to keep everything safe for eating. Hope it is as informative as we meant it to be :) Enjoy!