Marisa McClellan's Blog, page 61

Sweet Cherry Barbecue Sauce

Sweet cherry barbecue sauce. It’s bright, tangy, and perfect for the summer cookout season.

A couple weeks ago, just before I headed out of town to teach my Omega workshop and then go to my cousin’s wedding, I did a bunch of canning. I made roasted peach jam. I made a tiny batch of gooseberry jam. And I made a batch of sweet cherry barbecue sauce, using three pounds of cherries from my Canbassador booty.

I have mixed feelings about barbecue sauce. I think this is, in part, because of my parents’ position on the stuff. My dad loves it (and once invested in a friend’s sauce making venture) and my mom can’t stand it. What’s more, I’ve spent the entirety of my adult life without any grilling space. So my ability to make things appropriate for barbecue is limited at best.

However, in recent years, I’ve discovered just how good these homemade sauces are when poured into slow cookers and used as a tasty braising medium for things like pork shoulders and boneless, skinless chicken thighs. And so, I’ve gradually expanding the number I make each year.

Whether you’re a huge fan of barbecue sauce or you’re lukewarm on the topic, I highly encourage you to explore this one!

Oh, and a quick tip about pitting cherries for things you’re going to cook down. Instead of working each one through the cherry pitter, remove the stems and heap them into the pan you’re going to use to cook the sauce. Add half a cup of water, cover the pot, and simmer the cherries for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the pot from the stove and let it cool. Then, reach in and use your fingers to pop the pits out of the cherries. Wear gloves if you’re concerned about staining your fingers. It takes no more than 10 minutes to pop the pits out of the cherries when prepped this way. Easy.

PrintSweet Cherry Barbecue Sauce

Yield: makes between 4 and 5 half pints

Ingredients

3 pounds cherries, pitted
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup minced onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a wide pot with a tight-fitting lid and stir to combine.
Place lidded pot on the stove over medium-high heat and cook for approximately 20 minutes, until the cherries and onions have softened.
Continue to cook, with the lid off, until the mixture has reduced by approximately half.
Remove pot from heat. Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth (you may have to tip the pan a little in order to do this without splashing). If you don’t have an immersion blender, scrape the mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
If the sauce is nice and thick, it is done. If it’s still a little watery, return it to the heat and cook a bit longer. At this point, taste it and add more salt or pepper, if necessary.
When it’s finished, remove the pot from the stove and funnel the finished sauce into the prepared jars. Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.
3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/07/sweet-cherry-barbecue-sauce/

Related Posts:

Lightly Pickled Sweet Cherries
Cherry Swag Bag Giveaway from Northwest Cherries
Honey-Sweetened Roasted Nectarine Compote

Food in Jars on Facebook Live!

We are smack dab in the middle of canning season and judging from the number of emails I’ve been getting lately, many of you are starting to have questions about adapting recipes, changing the sizes of your batches, and whether the preserves you’ve been making are safe and shelf stable.

Next Tuesday, July 12, I’m going to spend an hour on Facebook Live, making a small batch of honey sweetened jam and answering those canning questions that you’ve been sending me. As with all things like this that I do, this will be something of an experiment. I have no idea how many people will show up, or how well it will go. But I’m hopeful it will be useful and fun for all of us.

I’ll be streaming live starting at 9 pm eastern time (I’m starting kind of late my time, in the hopes that it will make it more accessible for those of you who live out west). It will live on the Food in Jars Facebook page, and if you can’t make it when I’m on live, you should be able to view it later.

I should be able to interact with everyone live during the stream, but I thought it would make sense to gather some questions with which to kick off the evening. So if you’ve got a burning canning question for which you’ve been unable to find an answer, ask it as a comment on this post. Or send it to me via Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

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July Sponsors: Cuppow, Fillmore Container, Knives Ship Free, Mrs. Wages, and more!

Happy July 1! It’s the beginning of the month, which means it’s time to thank the companies that help make Food in Jars possible! Tell them you appreciate their support of my work with a purchase or a social follow!

Back in the top spot are our friends at Cuppow. They are the creator of the original mason jar travel mug topper and the BNTO, a small plastic cup that transforms a canning jar into a snack or lunch box. Parents and kids love their EIO set, with its grippy silicone sleeve and a lid that makes for easy sipping.

Lancaster, PA-based and family-owned Fillmore Container are next! They sell all manner of canning jars, lids, and other preservation gear. Their blog has been in high gear for the canning season, with lots of recipes and round-ups to help you find your next preserving project. Check out this recipe for Savory Spiced-Mango Conserve and this post, all about using lavender in preserving.

New to the sponsorship rolls is Knives Ship Free. They sell all manner of knives, from blades designed for hunting and foraging, to the high end cutlery we all dream about having in our kitchens. And, if you’re looking for a deal, don’t miss their closeout page. Bargains abound!

Our friends at Mrs. Wages are on the roster again this month. They make pectin, vinegar, and more canning mixes than I can count. Their website is an incredible preserving resource and I can’t say enough good things about their salsa mix. I’ll have one more giveaway from them later in the summer, so stay tuned for that!

Looking for a culinary travel adventure? Don’t miss the Italian tours that Sean Timberlake from Punk Domestics leads. He’s currently booking a trip for the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It takes place October 6-12 and is not to be missed!

Mason Jar Lifestyle is a one-stop shopping site for all the jar lovers out there. They sell all manner of mason jar accessories and adaptors. If you’re in the market for lids, straws, and cozies to transform your mason jars into travel mugs, make sure to check them out!

If your company or small business is interested in becoming a sponsor, you can find more details here. I offer discounts for multiple month purchases and am always happy to work with your budget. Leave a comment on this post or drop me a note to learn more!

Related Posts:

June Sponsors: Cuppow, EcoJarz, Fillmore Container, Mrs. Wages, Mason Jar Lifestyle
May Sponsors: Cuppow, Masontops, Fillmore Container, Harvest Right, Mrs. Wages, Mason Jar Lifestyle
April Sponsors: Fillmore Container, Harvest Right, Mrs. Wages, Mason Jar Lifestyle

Strawberry Ginger Jam

Strawberry season is breathing its last gasps, and before it’s over for good, I wanted to share one last recipe.

This recipe for strawberry ginger jam is one that I can’t quite believe I haven’t shared at some point in the past. Truly, I thought I’d posted every variation on strawberry jam that was possible. Happily I was wrong.

This jam gets its kick from a goodly application of freshly grated ginger root. I’ve found that there’s no better tool for grating ginger than a microplane zester.

With small berries, I don’t even bother to chop them. Instead, half way through cooking, I go in with a potato masher (this is my favorite) and work them until the fruit is pulverized. It works nicely and saves you a goodly amount of knife work.

Finally, if I’d had my wits about me, I would have canned this one in five half pint jars (as that makes for better quantities for sharing). However, I was clean out of half pints the day I made this jam and so used a motley collection of pints and quarter pints.

PrintStrawberry Ginger Jam

Yield: makes 5 half pints

Ingredients

3 pounds strawberries
2 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 tablespoons Ball Flex Pectin
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
juice from half a lemon

Instructions

Wash the berries and remove the hulls. If they're giant berries, cut them into quarters. If they're smaller ones, leave them whole. Put the prepped berries in a low, wide, non-reactive pan.
Whisk the pectin into the sugar and add it to the berries. Add the ginger and lemon juice, and stire everything to combine.
Let the berries sit until the sugar begins to pull out some of their juice and begins to dissolve.
When the contents of the pan are nice and juicy, set it on the stove over high heat.
Bring the berries to a boil. Once they're bubbling merrily, reduce the heat to medium-heat.
Cook, stirring regularly, for 10-15 minutes, until the berries soften and the liquid begins to thicken.
Use a potato masher and crush the fruit, taking care not to burn yourself.
When the jam has reduced by approximately half and looks thick, it is done.
Remove the pot from the heat. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. 3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/06/strawberry-ginger-jam/

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Low Sugar Apricot Strawberry Jam
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Giveaway: Bee’s Wrap Sandwich Wrappers

I first tried Bee’s Wrap back in early 2013 and quickly tumbled into food storage love with it. It’s a reusable food storage product made from wax-embued fabric. You mold it over plates, bowls, and things like hunks of cheese in place of plastic wrap or foil, using nothing more that the heat of your hands and the slight natural stickiness of the wax to keep it in place. Using it gives my after dinner clean-up a sense of satisfying timelessness.

In the beginning, Bee’s Wrap only came in flat sheets, but more recently they’ve started making wrappers designed to keep your sandwich neatly contained and ready for lunch time. These sandwich wrappers come in three designs (classic, geometric, and clover) and the button is imprinted with the image of a busy bee. Needless to say, I am entirely charmed by these wrappers.

And so, that’s what I’m giving away this week. Three Bee’s Wrap sandwich wrappers. There will be three winners, each person receiving one of these nifty wraps. Here’s how to enter.

Leave a comment on this post and tell me something that’s cooking in your kitchen this week.
Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Saturday, July 2, 2016. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday, July 3, 2016.
Giveaway open to United States and Canadian residents. Void where prohibited.
One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: Bee’s Wrap sent me the wrappers you see pictured above for photography and review purposes, and has also providing the giveaway units. The warpers were provided at no cost to me. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. 

Related Posts:

Giveaway: Bee’s Wrap
Opinel Bread and Jam Set Giveaway
Cherry Swag Bag Giveaway from Northwest Cherries

Upcoming Events: Cornwall and Hudson, NY!

The canning workshop at Omega this past weekend was so good. I had eight participants who were curious, engaged, and excited about cooking, making, and canning. We made a dozen different preserves (and some semi-dehydrated fruit – there was a little snafu with the dehydrator) in just 12 active hours. I left feeling so invigorated and inspired to do more weekend-long, hands-on workshops.

I’ll be up in the Hudson Valley through July 4 and I have two more in the region if you happened to be based up here. Details are below. I hope some of you can make it!

(PS – I didn’t manage to write a link round-up post this weekend, but the winner of the Opinel giveaway last week is #279/Maura. Congratulations!)

Tuesday, June 28 (Cornwall, NY)

I’ll be at the Cornwall Public Library in Cornwall, NY for a canning demo and book signing. The demo starts at 6:30 pm and the program will last about an hour. Afterwards, I’ll have copies of all three of my books available for sale and, as always, I’ll be delighted to sign them.

Wednesday, June 29 (Hudson, NY)

Two years ago I taught a workshop at Valley Variety in Hudson, and I liked it so much that we’re doing it again! This time, we’ll be making two recipes from Naturally Sweet Food in Jars (Vanilla Peach Jam and Tomato Chutney) and digging in the details of preserving with natural sweeteners. I’m also bringing an assortment of preserves from my pantry, that shop owner Chuck will pair with cheese and wine. The class is from 6:30 – 8:30 pm and costs $50 per person. Register here.

For my complete calendar, click here.

Related Posts:

Upcoming Events: Omega Institute! Cornwall Public Library! Valley Variety!
Last Call for Food Preservation Workshop at the Omega Institute
Upcoming Events: May Classes, Demos and More!

Online Canning Tools and Tidbits from Ball Canning

This summer, I’m partnering the lovely folks at Ball Canning, to help spread the word about their new tools and products. Today, I want to take a moment to zero in on the online tools they’ve released this season, all designed to help inspire you to gather some produce and pull down your canning pot.

First up is their recently launched Tumblr, called Freshly Preserved Ideas. This page is bursting with ideas, recipes, and hypnotic gifs (truly. I’ve watched this one loop at least a dozen times). You’ll find introductions to the team of Fresh Preservers as well as the new recipes for summer preserves that we’ve all been tasked to dream up (the first of my recipes is Blackberry Lavender Jam).

Another fun tool is the Interactive Canning Map (that’s what’s pictured at the top of the page). It shows the various regions of the country and what’s currently in season in those areas. Clicking on the various images of fruits and vegetables will take you to preserving recipes that utilize those ingredients.

And just today, Jarden Home Brands (parent company of Ball Canning) released survey results in which they found that 40% of gardeners plan to preserve half or more of the food they grow this season and 44% freeze it for later use. A whopping 77% of gardeners have canned, frozen or dehydrated foods to preserve them, and 33% of those preserving gardeners are millennials.

Here’s hoping you all find some of those tools useful!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. My partnership with Ball Canning is a paid one. All opinions expressed are my own. 

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Lightly Pickled Sweet Cherries

Sour cherries are one of my very favorite things to preserve. Sadly, thanks to a late freeze back in April, it is proving to be a very bad year for stonefruit in the Philadelphia region. Sour cherries are proving to be very hard to come by.

Instead of bemoaning the 2016 sour cherry situation (though I must confess, I was able to get some from my friends’ community garden, so I’m not totally without them this year), I decided to take some of the sweet cherries from the Northwest Cherries shipment, and do what I could to give them a flavor profile similar to that of a sour cherry.

I measured out two and a half pounds of the sweet cherries and using my trusty paring knife, cut them in quarters and wiggled out the pits (I don’t like using cherry pitters, because I resent how much cherry flesh you lose with every pit. Quartering them is fiddly work, but so much more of the fruit ends up in the pot).

Once the cherries were prepped, I combined them with sugar, apple cider vinegar, and lemon juice and let them sit until all the sugar was dissolved. Then I set the pot on the stove, brought it to a boil, and cooked the fruit until the cherries were tender (but not falling apart) and the liquid had thickened slightly.

Towards the end of cooking, I took a tiny taste of the syrup in the pot and was so happy with the results. Bright, sweet, and just tart enough that you feel a pleasant shiver in the back of your throat. This is one for sparkling water, paring with cheese, or eating with a pork chop.

PrintLightly Pickled Sweet Cherries

Yield: between 4 and 5 half pints

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds sweet cherries, pitted and quartered
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Prepare a boiling water bath canner and 4 half pint jars.
In a large, non-reactive pot, combine the cherries, sugar, apple cider vinegar, and lemon juice.
Give the contents of the pot a good stir and let the cherries sit until the sugar dissolves.
When you’re ready to cook, put the pot on the stove over high heat and bring to a boil. Once it starts to roll, reduce the heat to medium-high.
Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until the liquid in the pot thickens and the cherries soften.
Remove the pot from the heat. Ladle the cherries into the prepared jars. Wipe the rim, apply the lid and band, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
3.1http://foodinjars.com/2016/06/lightly-pickled-sweet-cherries/

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Cherry Swag Bag Giveaway from Northwest Cherries
Honey-Sweetened Roasted Nectarine Compote
Spiced Nectarine Jam

Sponsored Post: Durable Mesh Produce Bags from the MightyFix

Years ago, I went through a stage where I was seriously gung-ho about going green. I bought an indoor composter, replaced my sparkling water habit with a SodaStream, and got a few sets mesh produce bags to replace the plastic ones I always picked up at the grocery store.

Trying to make compost in my living room was a disaster and I use my SodaStream imperfectly (like so many others, I have something of a LaCroix addiction). But the mesh produce bag habit stuck. I keep them by my front door and grab a few any time I know a stop at the grocery store or farmers market is in my future.

Our friends at MightyNest want to help you get your reusable produce bag habit started and so are offering a MightyFix deal for all new subscribers. The first month (which normally costs $10) will cost you just $3 instead. That means that if you sign up for MightyFix today, you’ll pay just $3 for the first month and you’ll receive a set of 5 reusable produce bags as your first FIX. As those same bags normally cost $11 + $5.95 in shipping, it’s a pretty darn good deal.

If you’ve missed my earlier posts about the MightyFix, it’s a monthly subscription service that sends full sized non-toxic products for the kitchen and home. It costs $10 a month and ships for free. What’s more, anything you want to add to your monthly order from MightyNest will also ship for free.

So, to recap. If you’re new to the FIX and you’re ready to hop on board, use this link to head over to MightyNest (it’s got the discount code already applied). If that link gives you trouble, use the code FIJBOTTLEFIX at check out instead.

You’ll get these mesh produce bags as your first FIX when they sign up for the subscription service. The cost of the FIX is $10 a month and the products are always valued more than $10. Your first month is $3 and you’ll get a set of five mesh produce bags valued at $11 + $5.95 in shipping. You just can’t beat it.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. MightyNest is a regular Food in Jars partner and occasional sponsor. They sent me the produce bags pictured here. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. 

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Sponsored Post: A Lifefactory Deal from MightyNest’s MightyFix
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Cookbooks: Batch

I think of myself as minor expert on canning and preserving books. In addition to having written three of my own, I have a working familiarity with nearly everything that’s out there and so whenever I’m asked to recommend books for specific purpose, I flip through my mental file and offer up a few options.

Need help with small batch fermenting? Amanda Feifer’s Ferment Your Vegetables is the best option. Looking for thoughtful recipes with a modern, Southern twist? Kevin West’s Saving the Season is for you. Domenica Marchetti’s Preserving Italy will help you recreate your Italian grandmother’s pantry. And Karen Solomon’s Asian Pickles is brilliant and self explanatory.

I’ve also found myself suggesting Joel MacCharles and Dana Harrison’s new book Batch a great deal lately (if their names sound familiar, it’s because they are the bloggers behind the website Well Preserved).

This book is essential for anyone who wants a huge, exuberant, smart, gorgeously designed, and vibrantly photographed book that deals with seven styles of food preservation, offers recipes for using the food you’ve preserved, and helps you make the very most out of every scrap of food you grow, buy, and forage.

I particularly like how they’ve structured this volume. The first quarter of Batch is designed to help you build the skills you’ll need in the balance of the book. It’s here that you’ll learn about waterbath canning, pressure canning, dehydrating, fermenting, cellaring, salting & smoking, and infusing. Joel wrote the bulk of the book’s text and his writing telegraphs calm knowledge and reliable expertise.

The remainder of the book is organized around 25 ingredients, laid out in alphabetical order. Starting with apples and ending with tomatoes, each ingredient chapter helps you make the very most of seasonal produce with recipes to preserve, store, and consume.

One of the brilliant elements in this book is the Batch-It approach. The recipes are grouped so that it becomes easy to make two or three things in concert with one another rather the traditional approach that silos each project. I find that having read my way through this book, I now am constantly thinking about how I can couple my preserving activities.

Another thing that makes this book so uniquely useful is the way in which the recipes for using the preserves are nested into the ingredient sections. Some put the preserve to work as an active ingredient and others demonstrate how a side of sauce or chutney can easily enhance a simple plate.

Along with being a reliable and useful resource, Batch is a pleasure to glance through. Dana is an artist and designer, and both her creative eye and her work are found throughout Batch’s pages. Every time I open it, some new element catches my eye.

If you’re an avid canner and you’ve not added it to your bookshelf yet, I highly encourage you to add it to your wish lists and shopping carts!

Disclosure: I bought the copy of Batch you see pictured above. I count Joel and Dana among my friends, but the opinions offered here are offered on the basis of their exceptional book, not our friendship.

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