She can can

I took the canning class one week ago and didn't waste any time buying a canner and trying my hand at canning. As soon as I got home (well I unpacked first), I bought a canner from amazon. This is not a pressure canner, just a boiling water canner but it worked great! The class gave me the confidence to do this on my own. Today I canned: mustard relish, strawberry jam, and dill pickle relish with the leftover cucumbers from our garden!

My new canner

 The mustard relish recipe was the one I made at the canning class during Ohio Outdoor Woman camp. The recipe is:
1 quart chopped jalapeno peppers (plus 1 red pepper for color)
1 quart cider vinegar
1 quart yellow mustard
4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt
The flour, water, and salt should be mixed separately as a thickening agent. The jalapenos should be chopped with seeds removed (I used my food processor to chop them). Put everything in a pot and boil for 5 minutes. Then process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

Mustard relish on the stove - the house smelled heavenly

Washed all the jars and had them sitting in hot water before filling them

 My canner came with a kit that included a funnel. This was very useful for filling the jars. Having hot mustard splash all over you is not great.

Me with my mustard relish!

 I made two batches of homemade soft pretzels to eat with the mustard. Erik absolutely loves the mustard relish. I think I'll be making a lot of pretzels :). Two of my jars did not seal properly. One was a larger pint jar (the rest were half pint jars) and I didn't fill it all the way. Many recipes talk about headspace and apparently that must be important. I'm not sure why the other jar didn't seal.  However all my jam and dill relish jars sealed. This means they are safe to store and don't need refrigeration. I'm so excited about this!

My successful canning experience

My exciting canning weekend came at the expense of our camping trip. We had to cancel our reservations for Halloween weekend at cross creek because Sarah was very sick on Thursday.  I took her to the pediatrician and her fever was 105°F. That is scary high. She was vomiting and listless all day. I was worried for her. Of course today she was jumping around like nothing was wrong. I'm amazed at how fast she bounced back. We missed Halloween weekend but Sarah needed to heal up.  Lately Sarah's favorite food has been biscoff spread. She often wants biscoff sandwiches instead of peanut butter and jelly. To help her feel better, Erik made her a biscoff smoothie. It was actually pretty good.

Erik making a biscoff smoothie

My friend Lynn who has fought breast cancer this year found out the cancer metastasized to her brain. Her surgery was on Thursday and went really well. Apparently she is already home! From brain surgery!! Thursday was a day of prayer at our house. Praying for Lynn and praying for Sarah. I'm so thankful her surgery went well and Sarah is better.

52 points on Quiddler today