Raspberry or Blackberry Vinegar Juice Concentrate.

Raspberry or Blackberry Vinegar Juice Concentrate

2 Parts Berries

1 Part Vinegar

Sugar

Lightly crush berries in large bowl or bucket. Pour Vinegar over and stir. Cover and periodically stir over 2 days. Strain. Add 2 more parts berries to liquid. Let set 2 more days periodically stirring. Strain and add 1 part Sugar to 1 part juice. Boil and then hot water bath in jars for 20 minutes.

• You can use either fresh or frozen berries. I find that you seem to get more juice out of frozen berries.
• Black Currents also make an excellent tasting juice.

Makes a juice concentrate. Mix it 1 part juice to 3 parts water.

Egg Nog Recipe

Ingredients

    * 4 egg yolks

    * 1/2 cup sugar

    * 2 cups milk

    * 2 whole cloves

    * Pinch of cinnamon

    * 1 cup cream

    * 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    * 2 Tbsp each of bourbon and rum or brandy, or to taste (can omit for kid-friendly eggnog)

    * *4 egg whites (optional) 

Method

1 In a large bowl, beat egg yolks until they become lighter in color (can whisk by hand or use a mixer for this). Slowly beat in the sugar, whisking until fluffy.

2 Combine the milk, cinnamon, and cloves in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Slowly heat mixture on medium heat until it is steaming hot, but not boiling.

3 Temper the eggs by slowly adding half of the hot milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly while you add the hot mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

4 Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it begins to thicken slightly, and coats the back of the spoon. It helps to have a candy thermometer, but not necessary; if you have one, cook until the mixture reaches 160°F. Do not allow the mixture to boil, or it will curdle. (If the mixture does curdle you may be able to save it by running it through a blender.) Remove from heat and stir in the cream. Strain the mixture through a mesh strainer to remove the cloves. Let cool for one hour.

5 Mix in vanilla extract, nutmeg, and bourbon/rum and brandy (feel free to omit for kid-friendly eggnog). Chill.

Optional: Beat egg whites until they reach soft peaks. Add a teaspoon of sugar and continue to beat until they reach stiff peaks. Gently fold into eggnog.

Makes 1 quart. Serves 4-6.

Chewy Caramels & Turtle Chews

I've found this most delicious recipe for Chewy Caramels and decided to give it a go to make Turtle Chocolates.

Chewy Caramels

1 1/2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream

1 Cup, White Sugar

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Tsp Kosher Salt

2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Grease and line an 8X8 pan with parchment paper.

In a heavy bottomed medium sized pot, mix cream, sugar and salt.  Heat on medium high heat stirring constantly until sugars dissolve and it comes to a boil.  

Stop stirring.  Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and let it boil until the thermometer reaches 245*F or 118*C.  Keep a close eye on the thermometer.  DO NOT STIR.  If crystals form on the side of the pot, brush down with a wet pastry brush.  

As soon as the temperature reaches 245*F, Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour into prepared pan.  Let sit 8 hours to set.

To Make Chocolate Turtles

Before you begin your caramel, toast some pecans.

Toast enough Pecans to cover bottom of pan.  To toast pecans, put in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven at 350*F for about 5 minutes or until you start to smell them.

Cover bottom of pan with toasted pecans.  Pour caramel over top of the pecans. Let set.  Once the caramel has set, cut into squares.

Dip the caramel pecan squares in chocolate and set on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Place pecan half in center of square.  You can speed up the setting of the chocolate by refrigerating the sheet.  Store in wax paper lined layers in a tin or air tight container in fridge.  

All photos have disappeared....

So it seems that all my photo's for my recipe's have disappeared.  It is going to take me some time to try and fix this problem.  I'm so sorry for the inconvenience .

Medium - Hot Salsa Recipe ~ Smoky Chipotle Salsa

Today I made a nice big batch of Salsa.  I like to call it Smoky Chipotle Salsa.  It is so yummy and tasty!  I tried making it for the first time last year.  Well, a few weeks ago we finally ran out and I just couldn't bring myself to go out and buy a jar of the store bought stuff.  So I made another batch.

Medium-Hot Salsa

16 cups very ripe tomatoes, cored & chopped (no need to peel or seed)

5 cups yellow onions, chopped

4 cups green peppers, chopped

1 canned chipotle chili (optional– or you can add more for super hot salsa)

1 sm can of chopped green chili's

5 small green hot peppers (can't remember the name)

12 cloves garlic

3 teaspoons cumin

4 teaspoons black pepper

4 Tablespoon canning salt (also called pickling salt — it has no iodine)

2/3 cup white vinegar

30 ounces tomato sauce (homemade or from the store)

24 ounces tomato paste (homemade or from the store)

juice of 2 lime

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Chop tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and chipotle chilies by hand or in a food processor. Make it as chunky or fine as you like. In a large non-aluminum pot, mix everything together except the lime juice and cilantro.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Continue boiling 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice and cilantro.

Fill jars with hot mixture. Wipe rims and add lids and screw-bands. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Make sure the boiling water is deep enough to cover the jars by at least one inch, and start timing when the water returns to a boil after adding the jars.

Check the jar seals. If any haven’t sealed, you get to eat that right away! Keeps in the fridge for several weeks once opened.

If you want a very mild salsa, start by omitting the chipotle, cutting the cumin to 1 teaspoon, and removing the seeds from the hot peppers. Once the mixture has cooked for about 5 minutes, give it a taste, and season to desired “hotness” by adding the cumin, hot pepper seeds and chipotles (with or without the adobo sauce in the can). The recipe as listed makes a medium-hot version.

If it is not spicy enough, you could add a cup of chopped jalapeno peppers with or without the seeds.

This recipe is doubled so if you want a smaller batch, just cut the recipe in half.  I got 16 pints of Salsa today.

Enjoy!

Excellent Zucchini Salsa

This salsa has a really delicious flavor, and keeps you going back for more.

Zucchini Salsa

10 cups zucchini, peeled and shredded

4 onions, chopped

2 green bell peppers, chopped

2 red bell peppers, chopped

1/4 cup pickling salt

1 tablespoon pickling salt

2 tablespoon dry mustard

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon cumin

2 cups white vinegar

1 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon black pepper

5 cups chopped ripe tomatoes

2 tablespoon cornstarch

2 cans of 156ml tomato paste

In a large bowl combine; Zucchini, onions, green pepper, red pepper and the salt Mix together cover and let stand over night.

This time I used Yellow Zucchini.

Next day rinse, drain well and put into a large pot then add mustard, garlic, cumin, vinegar, brown sugar, pepper flakes, cornstarch, nutmeg, pepper, tomatoes and tomato paste.

I like to premix the dry ingredients.  I find that doing it this way helps to prevent the Corn Starch from clumping.

Mix well.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Water bath jars if they have not sealed properly.

Note: If you want it "HOT" just add a dozen finely chopped jalapenos 

*** Note from my kitchen****

I used 4 - 6 cloves of Fresh pressed garlic instead of the tablespoon of powdered.

I used 3 tablespoons (heaping) of Crushed Red Pepper flakes instead of the called for 2 because I didn't have jalapeno's.  It turned out quite spicy.  So Reduce or add pepper flakes depending on how spicy you like it.  I think next time I will try 1 1/2- 2 tbsp pepper flakes, so it's a little less spicy.

Sponge Candy ~ Cinder Toffee Recipe

I haven't had this candy since I was a kid and it was a special treat.  It would come in this block, all wrapped in clear plastic.  And you would eat it until your tongue hurt and your teeth ached.  And still it would be so good that you just had to keep eating it.  But as the years went by and I didn't see it forever, I just forgot about it.

Sponge Candy

2 1/2   Cups Sugar

2/3      Cups Light Corn Syrup

6 Tbsp Water

2 Tsp   Vanilla

2 Tbsp Baking Soda

In a large pot put Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water and Vanilla.  Heat on medium/high heat (do not stir) until candy thermometer reaches 300* (hard crack stage).  It will turn a light brown color.  (I don't know if I messed it up, but I did stir it before I turned on the heat... I couldn't resist).

Remove from heat and immediately stir in baking soda.  Mix quickly (like around 5ish seconds), and pour into parchment paper lined greased pan.  Leave it to set and get hard, then pry it out of the pan, and break it into chunks.  This can be messy, but I do it on a huge cookie sheet to catch most of the crumbs.

Store in an air tight container.  I use quart jars.  If you leave it out and air gets at it, any moisture in the air will make the candy shrink and get harder.

****  Make sure you use a very large pot, because when you add the baking soda it will foam up like crazy.  Also, pre-measure the baking soda so you have it on hand ready to go.  I also sifted my soda because the first time I made it, it had lumps and every once in a while when you were eating it you would get a lump of baking soda.  

****You are supposed to use one of those round cheese cake pans that the sides comes off of but I don't have one, so I used a rectangle cake Pan, but I greased the sides really well  (I used butter.) and made sure I had the bottom lined with the parchment paper.  

~~~~~  Now, if you want to get fancy, you can dip chunks into melted chocolate, and then you will be doomed to eat it all for sure.  The result is this delicious Crunchy Chocolate bar that crunches, and then somehow melts in your mouth and leaves you reaching for more.  It is seriously maybe even better then those store bought crunchy bars.~~~~~~

Anyways there you have it.  And it's seriously good, and not even hard to make.  Surprisingly easy in fact.  And sooo so good.  Everyone who tried a piece said it was just like when they were a kid.

Enjoy!

All jarred up!  Good to give out to friends or to hide in the pantry for a sweet craving.