Canning, A Lost Art: Roasted Tomato Sauce

Welcome back! We're continuing with canning tomatoes. I had never canned tomato sauce until this last year. So it was an experiment and it turned out amazing! I found a lot of info about how to make a lot of different tomato sauces but to me some of them were just lacking and weird! So I just pulled out a jar of tomato sauce in my pantry and looked at the ingredients, wow there wasn't that much in it compared to the crazy recipes I've been reading. So I winged it and it turned out amazing! I've gotten so many compliments when I started serving my fresh tomato sauce at parties so I know I've done good. In my book simpler is better! Or at least when it comes to tomato sauce.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

The best tomatoes for tomato sauce are Roma, because the tend to be meatier and have less seeds. But the best deal of tomatoes in town were Celebrity so I got those instead and they worked fine.

For more information about tomatoes and the best varieties used for canning visit my post on how to can quartered tomatoes.

Tools you'll need:

1. Pressure cooker and canner
2. Jar lifter
3. Magnetic lid lifter
4. Canning funnel
5. Regular Mouth Pint Jars
6. Lids and rings*
7. Large baking sheet
8. Blender or food processor

For more information on the equipment used during canning please see my post The Do's and Don'ts of Canning Equipment. 

Ingredients (per batch)

1 dozen medium sized tomatoes

1 large onion

1 head of garlic

Salt

Pepper

Oregano

Basil

Olive oil *

*Warning: If you use olive oil to make your tomato sauce after it's all processed your tomato sauce will be orange and not a brilliant red. If you don't care use it for the flavor. But if you do then just add a small amount of water to the bottom of the baking sheet.

First step is clean clean clean! I know you don't want to eat dirt as much as I do and let's face it we're doing are own canning partly because we want all of that gunk out of our food! I used the cleaning solution that I found here and it worked better then I thought!

 After the tomatoes are all clean cut out the stem and hard core then cut the tomatoes into quarters, skins, seeds and all. If you don't want the skins on them then follow the steps for flash boiling the tomatoes in my post about canning quartered tomatoes. But almost all of the nutrients of the tomato are in the seeds. If you blend the tomato sauce enough, you won't even notice that there are seeds or skins in there.

Lay your tomatoes on a baking sheet, roughly chop your onion and garlic and mix into the tomatoes with a spatula. I then covered my tomatoes in a thin layer with all of my spices. Or you can do this till your desired taste. I decided that when I do this in the future I won't do as much oregano and basil just because all of my recipes that I use tomato sauce in usually add additional oregano and basil. So I'll still add it but a lot less. Drizzle the tomato mixture with olive oil and then mix with your spatula to coat well.

Bake in oven on 375 for 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender and roasted. If the tops of the tomatoes are ever so slightly crisp that is exactly what you're looking for. The roasting will give the tomato sauce a lot of flavor. Yes you can just throw these ingredients into a blender before baking it and then just cook it in a pot, but the sauce won't be as flavorful.

Take all of the tomato mixture and throw it into a blender. Blend blend blend for a few minutes until very smooth. I didn't blend mine enough and afterwards, while eating, I found some chunks of garlic and onion in the tomato sauce. If you want it chunky then by all means don't blend it enough but I wanted my tomato sauce to be really smooth. So I suggest blending it for five plus minutes.

Congratulations you have just made your own home made tomato sauce! If you just want to make a quick fresh sauce without bottling it by all means use this process and skip the canning. You should now have a smooth delicious sauce. My mother-in-law was in town while I was making this and told me that this was the best tomato sauce she'd ever had and she doesn't like tomato sauce! Success!

Use a funnel to pour the sauce into your jars till it reaches the lower line of the neck.

Boil your lids in a frying pan. Keep the water at a light boil you don't want your water to evaporate to soon! This helps soften the rubber on the lids to make it easier to seal to the jar. Wipe the top of the jars off with a damp towel before you put the lids on. If there is any food in-between the lids the jar won't seal.

Use your magnetic lid lifter to lift the lids from the boiling water. Quickly transfer them to your jars and then twist your rings on quickly. You need to twist your rings on so that they're only hand tight, not too tight. So if I take a jar and tighten them as tight as I can it will be a perfect, but if I use a tool (like I do after they're canned) it's too tight. If it's too tight the jar could crack in the canner.

Add water and the jars to a pressure cooker and process at 11 lbs pressure for 15 minutes. When the jars are done set aside on a level table or counter to cool. You will start to hear the lids pop which means your jars have sealed! To check if a jar has sealed or not, once cool, press your finger into the center of the lid. If it pops up and down, it has not sealed. If it's secure, success!

I love how my tomato sauce turned out we've used almost all of it up! Next year I'm going to be doing two different tomato sauces. The original tomato sauce recipe above (with much less basil and oregano) and pizza sauce. Which is a recipe I will be sharing very soon. I figured what the heck it would be a lot easier to just make the pizza sauce, can it and when I need it throw it in a sauce pan without having to throw everything together.

Well I've been working my way up with posts but I've had a lot of page views so far so someone must be liking what I'm writing.... Maybe :) If you like my blog please feel free to follow, share, tweet and pin! Thanks for stopping by and happy canning!

Canning, A Lost Art: Man Pleasing Chili

I created this recipe specifically with my husband in mind. Not only is he a chili kind of man but he's also a spicy food lover. And the love of spicy foods definitely runs in the family. My 18 month old will eat jalapeno peppers AND LIKE THEM! I like spicy but not too spicy so this chili was just perfect for our family. It did get a little bit spicy at the end but I toughed it out!

(My) Man('s) Pleasing Chili

Ingredients

6 slices bacon

2 pounds ground spicy Italian sausage*

1 large onion, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, chopped

1 red jalapeno pepper, chopped (With seeds)

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

½ tsp kosher salt

4 T. chili powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 T. cumin

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp basil

2 12-ounce bottles of beer (I used dos equis amber beer because that’s what we had on hand)

1 cup red wine

1 32-ounce jar quartered tomatoes

1 cup vegetable broth

1 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 16 oz bag corn

Shredded cheddar cheese, sliced scallions, sour cream and bacon, for topping (optional)

*I have an awesome local grocery store that does gourmet sausages and their spicy Italian pork sausage is our utmost favorite! It was perfect in this recipe.

For a less spicy version of this recipe. Use mild Italian sausage, omit the red jalapeno pepper (Or you can use a green one or don't put in the seeds) and omit the cayenne pepper. That should mild it out.

Directions

1. Cook or bake bacon until crisp, reserving bacon grease.
2. Chop onion, red bell pepper, red jalapeno and garlic. Add to large pot.
3. Add 2 T reserved bacon grease to vegetables and sauté until tender.
4. Cook sausage in a frying pan with 2 T reserved bacon grease.
5. Add tomato sauce, kosher salt, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, oregano and basil to the vegetable mixture. Cook until it’s a thick paste.
6. Add beer and wine to vegetable mixture stir and then simmer until the liquid is half it’s original volume.
7. Once beer and wine has simmered down add sausage with liquid. Simmer mixture for 8 minutes or until thick.
8. Add tomatoes, vegetable broth, black beans and kidney beans
9. Simmer on stove top for an hour or until chili is thick.
10. Add corn and simmer until corn is hot.
11. Serve hot and top with bacon, shredded cheese, sour cream and green onions.

When my hubby came home from work and I showed him what I was making, he was a bit skeptical. He thought that the combinations of flavors wouldn't work and wasn't sure about using sausage instead of beef. But when the moment of truth came and he took that first bite he lit up and raved about how delicious it was! His exact words were "The ingredients seemed strange but once they're combined it's like a burst of amazing flavor." Success! He even gave me a great honor and told me that he'd enter it in a chili cook off. He really likes competing in those! I hope I win something :D

Next up is canning tomato sauce! Which turned out AMAZING! Thanks for reading and Happy Canning!

Canning, A Lost Art: Spaghetti Classico

Welcome back! It's been a while since I posted, my camera broke :( So we had to wait for it to be fixed. Oh well I'm back and the camera's good as new!

I'm sure a lot of us had that classic comfort food that we loved as kids. Well mine was this spaghetti sauce. As soon as my mom started making this I wouldn't eat any other sauce, ever! It is my all time favorite and I'm really excited to be sharing the goodness!

So this is my mom's original recipe that she made from scratch. She's always really good at doing that. This might not be an authentic Italian tomato sauce recipe, but I sure like to think it is :). It's so good!

Spaghetti Classico

Sauce

1 lb Italian Sausage or Ground Beef (We like Spicy Italian Sausage)

1 Large Onion

4 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 32 oz jar Quartered Tomatoes

1 8 oz can Tomato Sauce

1 6 oz can Tomato Paste
1 large Bay Leaf

3/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Basil

Dash of Pepper

For a "fresh" version of this sauce substitute 6 fresh tomatoes for the 32 oz jar of quartered tomatoes. Make a cup of fresh tomato sauce. 1 fresh bay leaf, 2 tsp fresh chopped Oregano and 2 tsp fresh chopped Basil. This sauce is amazing either way but I like making it fresh in the summer time.

1. Cook sausage in pan. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender.
2. Add quartered tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, bay leaf, salt, oregano, basil and pepper. 
3. Simmer on the stove top 5-6 hours.
4. Serve with pasta and parmesan cheese.

The secret to this recipe is time! This isn't something that you can throw together an hour before dinner. It needs to simmer and let all the amazing flavors blend together. Delizioso!

It's even, picky eater toddler approved!

He ate every last bite!

Come back soon! Enjoy your awesome spaghetti sauce and Happy Canning!

Canning, A Lost Art: Canning Quartered Tomatoes

Hey everyone welcome back to my canning series! We're starting on tomatoes which is one of my all time favorites! We go through so many canned tomatoes in my house that I've already ran out of some of my canned goods! Well we're definitely going to be doubling our supplies this year.

Alright, so to get started you need to find the right tomatoes. I prefer in my canning to use the Celebrity, Roma and Better Boy tomato varieties. All are delicious and amazing for preserving. Tomatoes can be expensive in grocery stores; very expensive compared to growing your own or buying in bulk. Even though I believe a lot in supporting local farms; I would highly recommend growing your own. If you live in an apartment you can be savvy and hang your tomatoes from your patio or put them in a large pot. If you have space for a raised bed or a conventional garden by all means don't just plant one, plant a dozen!

I grow Roma and Better Boy tomato plants in my garden. Last year I was a first time gardener and had six Better Boy plants. Everything that you could possibly do wrong when growing tomatoes I did; but I still got tons of fruit out of them! Of course I probably could have gotten more but I was happy with what I got. If you are thinking of growing your own, definitely look into starting from seeds. You can plant a tomato seed and grow a plant for about five cents or you can buy a plant and pay five dollars. That's definitely an easy calculation to do. Below is a picture of my tomatoes I started from seeds. In fact everything in that box was started from seeds. They got so big!

Quartered Tomatoes

First up obviously is quartered tomatoes. Which you could do whole tomatoes but I find that in most of my recipes I end up crushing them anyways so I figured why not make it easier on future me. Look at all of my beautiful tomatoes lined up in a row they seem to go on for-e-ver! Yes I just had a Sandlot moment :P

Here's the supplies you'll need:

1. Pressure cooker and canner
2. Jar lifter
3. Magnetic lid lifter
4. Canning funnel
5. Wide mouth quart jars
6. Lids and rings*
7. Canning & pickling salt
8. Large pot for boiling water
9. Large bowl for ice bath
10. Ice
11. Two large spoons or tongs
12. Sharp knife
13. Small bowl

*If you bought new jars they will come with lids and rings. If you already have jars you may need to purchase lids and rings. Rings you can use over and over again, lids you can't.

For more information on the different equipment to use with canning visit my other post The Dos and Don'ts of Canning Equipment.

First step is obviously cleaning. No one wants dirt in their tomatoes and these tomatoes were dirty! I soaked them for about 20 minutes in the cleaning solution I found here. The dirt just fell off I didn't even need to scrub them I just gave them a rinse and bam, clean tomatoes! Oh and at this point I also removed the stems that were still on the tomato.

Next you need to prep your tomatoes for a flash boil. You want to take a sharp knife and make an x on the bottom of all of your tomatoes. You want to break the skin but not cut into the tomato deep enough that all of the juices will drain out into the water as you boil them. You want those juices!

Fill up a pot half way with water and bring to a boil. Add enough tomatoes so that they float in a single layer on top of the water. Boil the tomatoes for one minute, no longer! You're doing this not to cook the tomatoes but to make it easier on yourself to remove the skins. Trust me this is a well needed step, don't skip it!

Now to stop the cooking process you need to soak the tomatoes in an ice bath for five minutes. Then pull them out and set them on some paper towels till you're ready to move on to the next step. When my mother did her tomatoes she just soaked them in cold water but regretted it later on. The water wasn't cold enough to stop the cooking process. So yeah I had barely enough room for the ice in my freezer and the bag got all melty on my floor but my tomatoes stopped cooking.

Now that all of your tomatoes are flash boiled you can start to peel the skins off and cut them into quarters. After boiling, the x cuts that you made should have started to peel back. So all you'll have to do is pull one of the edges and the skins should peel right off. My mom does this over the jar itself because when you peel and cut the tomatoes a lot of juices come out. But I found that doing it over the jar was harder and made a mess. So I did it in a bowl and then poured it into the jar using a funnel.

Okay a little note, tomatoes are extremely acidic and can sting your hands if you have dry skin, or like myself, eczema on my fingers. If the tomato acid starts to bother your hands wear gloves, if you don't, it will only get worse, trust me. After the tomatoes are peeled cut out the hard top (where the stem was attached) and then cut into quarters. Making sure to also cut off any bad or mushy spots.

Now some people add water to their whole tomatoes. Well I don't like to water them down I just like to eat tomatoes, not watery tomatoes! So to "fill" your jar with juices, take your fist and squish the tomatoes, all of the juices will squirt out and fill up the empty spaces of the jar. Keep doing this until the juices reach the bottom line of the neck.

Now that you have full jars it's time to add salt. You can use canning & pickling salt or table salt. The reason why canning & pickling salt should be used is because it helps preserve the tomatoes for longer and also deters discoloration. But it won't hurt the tomatoes to use regular salt. Some manuals will tell you to add citric acid or lemon juice, but I found that it doesn't make any difference whatsoever, so we don't do it. Add 1 tsp salt to every quart of tomatoes and 1/2 tsp salt to every pint. You don't have to mix it in, it will dissolve and mix in during the canning process.

Heat your lids in a pot with a simmering boil. If you bring it to a rapid boil you will find that the water evaporates very fast. Use your magnetic lid lifter to pull your lids out of the boiling water. If you don't have this you can just use a fork. But I highly recommend buying one it makes things SO much easier and no burnt finger tips!

Before you put your lids on clean your jar rims. If there is anything on them then they won't seal. Just take a damp paper towel or rag and wipe off the top of the rim where the lid will sit. Transfer the hot lids to the jars and quickly twist on the ring. Make sure to only twist the rings so that they are "hand tight" if you twist it too tight the jars could break in the pressure cooker. You can twist them tighter once they're out of the canner. For an example of what  I mean is if I tighten the jars as tight as I possibly can it's okay; if my husband tightens it as tight as he can it's way too tight. Hope that helps.

Pack your jars in your pressure cooker I have a 23 quart so mine will fit seven quart jars. Then go ahead and add your water mine calls for 3 quarts. Cook the tomatoes how your pressure cooker manual recommends. But my family has found after years of canning that some recommended times are necessary and some are not. For whole tomatoes we cook them on a pressure of 5 for 8 min. In my manual it says that they should be cooked at a pressure of 11 for 25 min. Last year when my mom told me what a short amount of time she did them for I was skeptical. I followed the pressure in my manual and put my time down to 15 min. Yeah, didn't turn out nearly as good. They were way overcooked! I learned my lesson!

After they're done cooking for the allotted time. Pull them out using your jar lifter which seriously comes in handy! If you don't have one you can use a gloved hot pad but I've still gotten burnt using that. Save yourself burns and just buy the right equipment it's worth it!

Keep your jars on a flat surface to cool. As the jars cool you will hear them start to pop. That is music to a canner's ears. That means your jars are sealing and you did everything right; this is the time to jump up and down with glee. To double check that all of your jars sealed, once cool, push your finger on the lid; if it's firm and doesn't budge, it's sealed. If it pops up and down alas it didn't seal.

Each quart jar is 32 oz. If the recipes that you tend to use call for more like 16 oz or a pint jar. Use those instead. I have a few recipes that call for 24 oz jar of tomato's and I just use my 32 oz jar instead, it always turns out great. Now keep those jars in a dry cool place until you find use of them.

I actually canned tomatoes in four different ways last year. I was going to put them all together in this post then I realized that that was a bit long. So I divided them into quartered tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa and tomato soup. I hope you enjoy your canned tomatoes and enjoy the recipes I'll be posting on how to use them up! Come back soon and Happy Canning!

The Dos and Don'ts of Canning Equipment

Hey everyone! I figured before I moved on any further that I should probably write a post about the equipment that you use with canning. There is a lot of stuff out there to choose from and choosing the wrong product can leave you frustrated and unsatisfied. I have dealt with some of that myself and have had to make a lot of returns and call A LOT of companies. It's just been a pain! So through my grief and struggling hopefully I can help you choose the product that will work best for you. I've made it convenient and provided all the links to my favorite products in this post so just follow the link to view and hopefully purchase :).

Canning Equipment

(Not an actual picture of my canning tools) 

Pressure Cooker's- There are so many brands out there it's hard to find the one that works best for you and you can easily be led astray when they all sound so great. I mean electric? What the... Never heard of that before and yes I'm very skeptical! Here are a few tips to consider when choosing your pressure cooker.

Dos

• The bigger the better! I have a 23 quart pressure cooker and I love it! You might be thinking hey I'm not going to be canning that much maybe a total of twenty jars this year I should just get a six or an eight quart; it sure is cheaper. Wrong! Here is why
• Time: There are some foods like corn and beans that take a VERY long time to can. For example corn takes an hour in the pressure cooker, beans take almost an hour and a half. If you're doing twenty jars of beans and only have a pressure cooker that fits four jars at a time, then it would take you eight hours just to pressure cook your beans! That time does not include all the prep work that goes into it! With my 23 quart I can get twenty jars in at once! And even then, I still got a ridiculous headache of how long it took to can beans and my pressure cooker is huge! So invest the extra thirty bucks and buy yourself a big one. You won't regret it!
• Obsession: I grew up with canning my entire life and still when I moved out on my own I wasn't that interested. Finally I started getting into it more this last year and the more I canned the more I wondered, huh can I bottle that? There's so much food that you can preserve and it tastes WAY better and is WAY cheaper then store bought. Which was actually a surprise for me with some foods. Once you start up it will be hard to stop.

Don'ts

• The right material makes all the difference in the world. You need to keep in mind what kind of stove top you have. Do you have an electric? Or gas burner?
• Glass stove top: I've heard some people say that their pressure cooker doesn't work on their glass top stove. I then think to myself... Wha?? I have a glass top and so do both of my sisters and ours always works. So what's the big deal? I had to find out. I did some research and found that pressure cookers tend to come in two different materials, stainless steal and aluminum. If you have a glass top DO NOT buy a stainless steal pressure cooker. The reason why is that Aluminum transfers heat better through the pressure cooker then stainless steal and therefore works better on glass top stoves.
• Gas burner stove top: It doesn't matter as much the material you use for this type of stove because the heat relays better. However aluminum is not only cheaper but lasts just as long.
• What time of year you buy your pressure cooker is very important. Why? Well you spend a fair amount of money on this piece of equipment. You want to make sure it works to the best of it's ability.
• DO NOT buy your pressure cooker in the winter time! Think about it, summer time is when it's canning season. When all of the products are at their best and cheapest. If you buy a pressure cooker in the winter you will have nothing to test it on. Any malfunctions then could be overlooked and when you find them out it would be pass the window of return. If you do buy in the winter the only food that I can think to use as a test food is beans, you can find dried beans to can year round at your local grocery store.

And of course I most definitely have a favorite brand for a pressure cooker. My 23 quart is cheap but effective and compared to others is WAY better. I highly recommend this one to anyone who's interested in canning. Here's a link to the best pressure cooker I've ever used.

Canning Tools-Like I said before there are a lot of different brands for canning. Canning tools are relatively up to the same standards. So it's not a bad idea to go cheaper.

Dos

• If you're a first time canner it is definitely a good idea to buy a set of canning tools. There are several sets that you can get each good in their own way but I bought this set based on that it has several of the tools I really needed and was a good price. All of the other tools that come with a set are usually a bonus but are not necessary; even though they do come in handy occasionally. 
• You can also buy these tools individually if you want more then one. I tend to like having at least two funnel's on hand. These are the basics you want to look for when buying in a set or individually.

• Funnel
• Jar Lifter
• Magnetic Lid Lifter

Don'ts

• This should go without saying but don't buy canning tools, that you'll be dipping into very hot and boiling water, that don't have protective plastic covering the metal. You are buying most of these tools to help make it easier for you. These tools will not be any help if they get hot and burn you. I've been burned a lot and my fingers are calloused beyond repair, learn from my mistakes!

Canning Jars-Buying the right jar makes a big difference. How long will the jar last? How expensive is it? How well will it store my food? All of these are factors you have to think about.

• There aren't really any dos and don'ts for canning jars. Just make sure to buy sturdy glass ones. The two brands that I see regularly are Ball and Kerr, but I prefer Ball. The jars are slightly squared and they're easier to store and stack. Plus Ball seems more like the brand I find better in my region. This is just a personal preference though. You can usually find canning jars in your local grocery stores around canning season, but if you live in a region where there's not much demand for them you might want to purchase online. There are a lot of different sizes to choose from and you should choose accordingly depending on what food you're canning. As we continue I will tell you which jars I prefer for which foods.

• Quart Regular Mouth Jar's
• Quart Wide Mouth Jar's
• Pint Regular Mouth Jar's
• Pint Wide Mouth Jar's
• Half Pint Regular Mouth Jar's

Well that's about it! If you have any other questions please feel free to ask. But this should get you through the beginning and hopefully I helped you find the products that work best for you. Happy canning!

Canning, A Lost Art: The Everything Burger

Welcome back! I'm going to be sharing one of my all time favorite burger recipes. This is something I threw together one night a few years ago and has become the only burger that is ever made in my house. This burger has all of the classic condiments that BELONG on a burger, that's why it's called the everything burger. Of course one of those condiments is our awesome canned pickles! Honestly other than eating our pickles as a snack; egg salad sandwich and this burger are the only two things I use pickles on haha. Okay this burger is awesome! I usually tend to eat healthy but when it comes to burgers forget about it! Talk about a cardiac attack all wrapped in one bun. Can't wait!

The Everything Burger

If you can't see the patty it's because it's smothered in melted cheese ;)

Beef Patties

1 lb ground beef
Worcestershire Sauce 2 1/2 T.
Kosher Salt 1/2 tsp
Pepper 1/4 tsp
Garlic Powder 1 1/2 tsp
Onion Powder 1/2 tsp

Toppings

Dill Pickles
Red Jalapeno's (Also garden grown and canned. I'll be sharing that later)
Onion's
Lettuce
Tomato
Cheese
Bacon

Sauce's

Mayo
Ketchup
BBQ Sauce

Mmm look at that crisp pickle!

1. First off if you're going to do bacon I highly recommend baking it. I will never fry my bacon in a pan ever again. It's so nice to not have any painful splatter. Make sure to put your bacon on a rack over a cookie sheet so you don't have to flip them. Preheat your oven to 450° F and cook your bacon for fifteen minutes or until crispy.
2. While your bacon is baking mix up your beef. Put your beef in a bowl add the worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt and pepper. Mix with a spoon but I prefer to use my hands wearing gloves.
3. After your beef is all mixed up flatten the beef into the bottom of the bowl and then with a knife cut into four equal pieces. Like cutting a pie ;).
4. Roll all pieces into a ball and shape into patties. You want to shape your patties thinner in the middle and thicker on the outside. When the patty cooks it will shrink and become all the same size.
5. When the bacon's done baking start cooking your burgers until browned. Ideally these burgers should be grilled, but if you don't have a grill, or like in our case it's winter time, they taste just as great cooked on a griddle or frying pan. 
6. About five minutes before your patties are cooked through add your cheese and let melt.
7. Now that your patties and bacon are cooked toast your hamburger buns.
8. Now top your hamburgers with the condiments and this is my preferred order. Take your toasted bun and put a light layer of mayo on each bun. Put your lettuce on the top bun and your onion, jalapeno's and pickles on the bottom bun. Place your patty on top of the pickle condiments. Put a light layer of ketchup on top of the patty, place your tomato's and bacon on top add a slight drizzle of bbq sauce and top with your top bun. Perfecto!

And what's burgers without tots and fry sauce??

Wow now that was good. I'm now going to exercise for an hour to work off all of those yummy fats. Yikes! Come back soon I'll be sharing how to can tomatoes which is the staple vegetable in our home!

Canning, A Lost Art: Devilish Egg Salad Sandwich

Well I've been having fun eating all of my canned food! I hope you've been enjoying the posts about food storage and the recipes that go along with it! I sure have enjoyed writing them all down. It sure feels good to be self sufficient in your own home. My dill pickles turned out AMAZING! Crisp, salty, deliciously tangy all in jars in my basement whenever I want them. Yes!

Devilish Egg Salad Sandwich

Well what's better to go with dill pickles then an egg salad sandwich! One of my classic lunches when I was a kid. I called and asked my Mom what recipe she used to make for us and she said "oh maybe some mayo, salt, pepper? I don't know..." So I'm thinking crap! What am I going to do! I really need an egg salad sandwich recipe. I looked at other recipes and wow they did not look appeasing at all. I don't want bland I want flavorful!

After thinking about it for a while I realized that I really like my mom's deviled eggs they're so flavorful and tangy. Well why not make it into an egg salad sandwich? I mean, hello why didn't I think of this earlier! So seriously, this is the most amazing egg salad sandwich you will ever eat and the crunchy dill pickle along side it is the most perfect touch.



Ingredients
4 servings

6 eggs
1/2 cup miracle whip
3 tsp. mustard
2 tsp sweet pickle juice*
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Paprika
Dill Pickles
Bread

*I don't like sweet pickles but I LOVE using sweet pickle juice in cooking. So just buy some sweet pickles at the store and use the juice that the pickles are in. This adds such a great flavor you won't regret it!

1. Steam your eggs until cooked through then soak in cold water. 
2. After eggs are cool peel off shells and put in a bowl.
3. Cut eggs up with a knife and then mush a bit more with a fork until chunky but not smooth.
4. Add miracle whip, mustard, sweet pickle juice, salt, pepper and paprika and mix together.
5. Spread mixture on bread and serve with your fresh canned pickles! Enjoy!

So seriously how good does that look, I'm all the sudden craving seconds. Thanks for stopping by and if you enjoy my blog feel free to share, pin, tweet or ya know all that other stuff ;) Happy canning!