Day 230 Canning before vacay 2

So.... the next morning I actually canned the hot dog relish

 

  (The relish really looked pretty in the pan!)

and the dill hamburger slices..

Both new recipes to try this year...

I roasted a mother lode of beets for at least one new recipe

Kickin' Pickled Beets

I substituted hot banana peppers for the jalapenos and used the 5 in my fridge (instead of the 2 called for in the recipe!)  I am not sure about my quantity of beets - I THINK that I have more - so more beets can handle more peppers.  If I am right :-)

I have way more beets than I thought!  So I switched gears midstream.  I was close to running out of brine - which is vinegar and spices..... and I did like the ginger pickled beets from a few weeks ago.... so I pulled that recipe and made up THAT brine - adding it to the remaining brine with hot peppers.... and cut ginger to add to the individual jars.   I have no idea what I've done :-)  I am sure about the brine - which is the "food safety' component.... but we shall see in a few weeks what I think about my gingery beets with a little hot spice kicked in... sounds reasonable to me!

cut the rest of the cukes into spears for the half-pints and random chunks for the leftover jar..... used the leftover basic brine and spices to put together 6 jars of kosher dills.  The brine leftover from my sweet-hot beets.. I used with the rest of the cukes to make up a pint and a half of mystery pickles!

The last pro-active thing I did for the veggie prep is to strip the tomato plants.  I didn't want too many to ripen and kill off the plants while I was gone (the kids won't remember to pick them!)  So I pulled all the tomatoes, especially the green ones!

In order to pickle the green cherry tomatoes... I had to puncture their tough little skins so the pickling liquid could get in and flavor them..  I first thought to use a fork - but the fork was too big for most of them so I remembered my little corn holder thingie...

It was kind of fun.. though it does look like Bunnicula got to them! 


I did a sweet & spicy recipe with most of them

I like the thought of this recipe   4 Ways to Pickle Green Tomatoes... because it looks EASY!  But only did one flavor with the tomatoes left when the sweet and spicy brine ran out.  I really didn't have time to mess with all the flavor decisions at this point!   Do I did DILL, of course!

And... still.... tomatoes and peppers!  

I cleaned and chopped these and put one bag tomatoes & one bag for the peppers in the freezer to deal with later!  Whew!!  No more canning for a week or two!

......but the pear tree should be ready for me when I get home........  it's been a year since I started canning and I do indeed have pear recipes from last year that worked!