Mrs. Wages Pizza Sauce

I make a lot of pizza, so one thing I do to make it faster and cheaper is to can my own pizza sauce.   But I kind of cheat.  One year I tried Mrs. Wages Pizza Sauce mix and have been using it ever since. It’s fast & easy.  You only need, tomatoes, a packet of mix and some sugar.  You can find it at Wal*Mart for a couple of bucks and 1 packet makes enough for about 20 pizzas (depending on how saucy you like your pizza).  Also It says to can it in pints but I always use 1/2 pints so I don’t have leftover sauce when I actually make the pizza.  I can get 2 pizzas from 1/2 a pint. 

*A*- I have other tomato recipes too, send me your email address and I’ll send you some!

FYI- Try buying it at the end of the season on clearance and saving it for next year.

Mrs. Wages also has lots of other products.  The only other one I have tried it the Pasta Sauce and we liked it too, but only after it had set on the shelf for about 6 months.  Weird, I know but it kind of mellows out over time. But I liked enough to make more this year.

ON THE HORIZON

• (YUMMY) Flourless cookies
• 
• hopefully a bathroom redo
• 
• S’MORES 2.0
• 

Salsa Verde

My husband loves salsa Verde so every year I make sure and can him a couple of batches.  This recipe is really versatile, you can make it as spicy or as mild as you want.  We go for Super spicy and use habanero peppers but you can substitute them for a milder pepper.  Plus you can grow most of these ingredients in your garden.

You’ll Need

5 1/2 cups of chopped, cored, husked tomatillos

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup of chopped peppers (use whatever ones you want)

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 TBS of minced cilantro

2 tsp. of cumin

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. of red pepper ( I leave this out if I’m making a mild batch)

1/2 cup of vinegar

1/4 cup of lime juice.

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 min.  Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Process 15 min in a boiling-water canner.  The recipe says you’ll get 2 pints, but I doubled the recipe and got 3 pints and 3 -1/2 pints.

This recipe comes from the ball blue book.

Habaneros..mmm spicy

Stay and follow along this week for

• BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza
•  
• Blueberry Cheesecake
• 
• (YUMMY) Flourless cookies
• 
• Homemade Pizza Sauce
• 
• AND hopefully a bathroom redo
• 

Canning Carrot Fennel Soup

So the past few days I have been turning a 25 lbs. bag of carrots into Carrot Fennel soup.  I LOVE this soup.  Not only is it really good but it is so handy to have for a quick dinner (especially after soccer practice ).  I just open up a couple of quarts of soup and serve it with some homemade bread or grilled cheese.

You’ll need

2 bulbs of fennel (sometimes it will be labeled anise)

2 TB of olive oil

4 lbs. of carrots

6 cups of veggie broth

6 cups of water

1 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. of white pepper (optional)

Directions:

Chop your fennel and sauté in a large stock pot with 2 TBS of olive oil. After the fennel is transparent, but not brown add the carrots and veggie broth.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat simmer until veggies are tender.  Then puree in  a blender or I use my stick blender and avoid the mess. Once the soup is super smooth add 6 cups of water, salt and pepper, bring to boil again, reduce heat and simmer for 30 min.  When finished fill clean quart size jars leaving 1 inch of head space and process at 10 lbs. of pressure for 35 min.  Pressure canning can be intimidating for a beginner but once you get the hang of it, it really isn’t that big of a deal, and as long as you follow the directions it’s perfectly safe.  So be brave and give it a try!

  Since I use the entire 25 lbs. (5.99 at Cash and Carry) bag of carrots to make soup I just divide them into 6 piles. (yes I know 4 X 6 is really 24 and not 25 but close enough)

Instead of buying veggie broth I always just use this.  One box makes 2 batches of soup.

I love finding jars that have awesome pictures on them like this one.

So 25 lbs. of carrots made 26 quarts of soup.  According to the recipe it should have made 36 quarts but I have never had it make that much.

RANDOMNESS

If you’re going to make this soup I would suggest growing fennel yourself, because it’s kind of expensive to buy and it’s super easy to grow. PLUS fennel is a bulb so it keeps coming back every year without replanting. 

ENJOY!!

Pick a Peck of Pickled…Pickles??

I know I haven’t been blogging much but food stuff lately but mostly that’s because it’s August and August for me is major canning season. So I have been a little busy.  But if you make pickles we really, really enjoyed a bread and butter pickle recipe that I found on allrecipes. You can find it here.

I started with 25 lbs. of awesome pickling cucumbers. 

Slice everything up (I used a gallon of sliced cucumbers per batch) and put them in a large bowl with the salt (I only used 1/3 of a cup of salt not the 1/2 a cup that the recipe calls for). 

cover it with ice and let it sit for about 3 hours.

If you want to can them follow the directions for canning bread and butter pickles in your ball blue book.   They turned out SUPER CRUNCHY and YUMMY.  Just how a pickle should be.

Other random pickled things.  I canned super yummy three bean salad.  If you want that recipe it’s in the ball blue book.  (I don’t use lima beans though cause YUCK).  I also made 14 quarts of Dill pickles.  I haven’t tried them yet, I hope that they turn out crunchy too, because soggy pickles are NASTY!!  I don’t use the ball blue book recipe for dill pickles, I have NEVER had success with that recipe so this year I tried a different one.  It they turned out I’ll share the recipe with you sometime down the road.  

My 25 lbs. of cucumbers turned into this, well this plus 6 more pints of bread and butter pickles.

Berry Pie filling

When I was looking for my recipe for Blueberry Pie Filling I came across a Berry Pie Filling recipe and thought that, that was the one for blueberries too.  So after I have added the sugar, clear jel A, and water I remember that they are NOT the same recipe.  Totally annoying, I didn’t want to waste all of that sugar and clear jel A so I decided to make Bumble Berry Pie filling too.  What’s bumble berry pie??? It’s just a lot of different berries mixed together. This recipe works for all other berries that are not blueberries.

The Recipe

For 7 quarts

6 quarts of fresh or frozen berries*

7 cups of sugar

1 3/4 cups of Clear Jel A (don’t substitute cornstarch it really isn’t suitable for canning)

9 1/3 cups of water

1/2 cup of lemon juice

The Directions

Rinse berries. Combine sugar and clear jel A in a large pot.  Stir.  Add water Stir mixture and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble.  Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Fold in Berries and process immediately for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.  35 min for 1000-3000 feet & 40 minutes for 3000-6000 feet.

Bumble Berry Pie

What I used

2 quarts of Strawberries, 2 quarts of blackberries, 1 quart of raspberries and 1 quart of blueberries.  You can use whatever mixture of berries you want, or use all the same type.  Blackberries aren’t really ready yet, so yesterday the kids and I got on our bikes and road all around the neighborhood picking wild blackberries.  I was really surprised we got 2 quarts.

* if using frozen berries, thaw and drain them before use.

For 1 Quart of Berry Pie Filling

3 1/2 cups of berries

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of clear jel A

1 1/3 cups of water

1 TBS + 1 TSP of lemon juice

Blueberry Pie Filling

We finally got a chance to go blueberry picking!  The blueberries are on  late this year, but as they say better late than never. My absolute favorite thing about where we live is all of the U-Pick berry places. It’s awesome!  I try and pick between 60 –70 lbs. of blueberries every summer and that will last us about a year. Mostly I freeze them, but I also make blueberry jam, syrup and pie filling.  Today I’m sharing the pie filling recipe because it’s a really great one and you can’t find canned pie filling recipes in most canning books.  Interested in other types of berry pie filling? Checkout  this post HERE.

This recipe comes from the Oregon State University Extension Service.

Blueberry Pie Filling

For 7 Quarts (I give the measurements for 1 quart at the end)

6 quarts of fresh blueberries

6 cups of sugar

2 1/4 cups of Clear Jel A (don’t substitute cornstarch, it really isn’t suitable for canning)

7 cups of cold water

1/2 cup of lemon juice

20 drops of blue food coloring (optional)

7 drops of red food coloring (optional)

Directions

Wash and drain blueberries.  Combine sugar and clear Jel A in a large pot.  Stir.  Add water and if desired, food coloring.  Cook on medium high heat until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.  Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Fold in berries, fill jars immediately with mixture, and process immediately,  30 minutes in a boiling water bath (sea level). 1001-3000 ft. 35 min and 3000-6000 ft. 40 min.

Wash and drain 6 quarts of blueberries.

Gather you canning supplies, if you’re canning 7 quarts you’re going to need a large pot and some upper body strength. 

Add your sugar, clear jel A and water and cook until really thick and begins to bubble.

Thickened filling.

Get out your big girl muscles and start gently folding in the blueberries. I know it looks a little weird, I was really concerned the first time I made this, don’t worry though it turns out beautifully.

  Fill your jars with the gelatinous mass and process.

So after it comes out of the canner it’s magically turns into this beautiful pie filling.  It gorgeous coming out of the can too.  Love it!

Hope you enjoy it!

Measurements for 1 quart of pie filling.  The directions remain the same.

3 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries

3/4 cup+ 2 TBS. of Sugar

1/4 cup + 1 TBS. of Clear Jel A

1 cup of cold water

3 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice

3 drops of blue food coloring (optional)

1 drop of red food coloring (optional)