10.04.2016

canning!

Jam Oh man, I've been on a tear. As soon as peach season hit I was like, oh man, I need to make preserves RIGHT NOW. So I busted out my fabulous new Le Creuset dutch oven and made some jam! In the past few weeks I've made sauerkraut, pickles, spicy dilly beans, mixed stone fruit jam, peach jam with cinnamon, pickled garlic cloves and hot pepper relish.

So good.

While a lot of what I've made so far has been pickled, I get most excited about any excuse to use my new dutch oven. My Vavó would always slip me money when I'd visit and the gift money I'd get from her or my Madrinha was special and I'd save it for something I thought they'd approve of. So after hoarding 10s and 20s for probably 15+ years, I finally settled on investing in a really nice 5qt Le Creuset dutch oven to cook for my family with. It was pretty hilarious handing over all the bills they'd given me over the years, crisp and flat, all marked with an initial so I'd know who they were from. The cashier must've thought I was batshit because it was kind of a big deal for me. Its maiden voyage was my favorite of my Vavó and Aunt Connie's (my Madrinha) recipes, the famous chicken soup everyone in my family simply refers to as "sopas", and every time I've used it since it makes me smile. I mean how could it not? It's beautiful but the sentiment makes it even more so.

I'm sure there will be many more future jam pics taken in this.

Recipes (with exception to the hot pepper relish) all from Food in Jars and Food in Jars: Preserving by the Pint. Highly recommend!

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your new dutch oven! I hope it serves you well for many, many years to come!

    ReplyDelete