Redneck Canning

Dave and I had a hot, steamy weekend together in the kitchen. Don't worry, we were canning so get your mind out of the gutter!

We made two batches of Daddy's Marinara Sauce and then I made a triple batch of chutney last night. Whew, our stove was definitely doing over time.

Chutney (upside down because I was letting them dry after I washed them off. We have really hard water here in Davis and I didn't want to have crusty white junk on the lids as they dried):
In such sugary concoctions you have to stir very, very often to prevent scorching. Since I was tired from working all day, I didn't want to stand in front of the stove for 5 hours cooking. So I set up a little "camp" for myself in the kitchen with a lawn chair, my little TV, and a beer. It was canning, redneck style. On Sunday afternoon I was in the backyard cooking on my outdoor propane cooker. Now that's ghetto.
The chutney recipe is from the wonderful book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a three-part recipe where you remove portions during the cooking process and then add additional ingredients so you end up with three types of sauce. I made all three types last year but decided that the last part, the chutney, was best so I made just that this time. I highly recommend this stuff with grilled lamb and pork loin.

'Tis the season for canning, but it is coming to a close. My heirloom tomatoes didn't really produce enough fruit for canning this year but there's a chance I'll get to can some tomatoes after all. My friend's family grows industrial-scale acres of tomatoes for the Campbell Soup company just up the highway in Dixon. She said that a few hundred pounds of tomatoes is nothing for them--hopefully she'll be able to get some so we can can them up for all of us.

We will also make some apple cider with a press that my dad made for us. Dave's parents have about 30 apple trees and I hate seeing all the excess fruit just fall to the ground every season. Last year my schoolmate used her juicer and made us some hard cider with the Bower apples. It was so, so good. It was also quite potent, but you couldn't tell until you tried to stand up after drinking a cup of it. Haha!

Whew...that'll probably do it for canning and food preservation for this year. Unless Dave brings home a few apple-boxes full of grapes or blackberries this weekend...