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Scratch Cooking

Pickled Dilly Beans (Dill Pickled Green Beans)

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My first dilly beans were given to me by a true native Vermonter.  I mean ancestors back to the Abenaki old school Vermonter.  Beard so big you couldn’t see his chest mountain man Vermonter.  And here he was telling me. “You gotta be kidding me girl.  You ain’t never had dilly beans before?  What’s wrong with your girl?  You don’t know NOTHIN’ about good food.”

He went inside to get some of his mama’s old fashioned dilly beans, because if there’s one good thing about green beens it’s they’re prolific, so there’s always spare to be handed out to a flatlander that needs an education on good food.

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Heirloom Apple Blind Taste Test

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Every fall we go on a quest to find new apple varieties we haven’t yet tasted.  It all started out a few years back with an informal gathering of friends for “apple day” where we spent the week before hunting down every variety we could find for a blind taste test.  That year, we found 32 varieties and laid them all out, labels covered, for a blind apple show down.  Since then we’ve added varieties as we’ve found them at roadside stands, farmers markets and orchards.  It’s become a fun scavenger hunt for us each fall.

32 Heirloom Apple Taste Test

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Tomatillo Sauce (Salsa Verde) for Canning

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Tomatillos are one of those garden vegetables that even brown thumb gardeners just cant seem to kill.  They’re known to produce 10 lbs or more per plant, meaning you’ll need to preserve most of your yields to keep them from spoiling before you can get to them.

The first year we planted them the rest of our garden failed and we let the plot go back to hay field, only to find a hearty crop of tomatillos waiting for us under chest high grass.  We harvested 40 lbs of tomatillos from 8 plants completely untended and buried in grass.  More than once I’ve been given a trash bag full from neighbors or friends that wanted to try growing them but didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.

Tomatillos for Canning

40 lbs of tomatillos reading to make 4 dozen jars of canned tomatillos sauce

Green sauce (Salsa Verde) is a spicy sauce traditionally made with tomatillos, onions and lime juice.  The lime juice is added both for flavor, and to increase the acidity so that this recipe can be water bath canned.  Chili peppers, cilantro and cumin provide the dominant flavors.  Try slow cooking a pork shoulder in the crock pot covered in salsa verde, or make a quick weeknight batch of green sauce enchiladas.

Tomatillo Sauce Canned

Tomatillo Sauce Recipe (Salsa Verde) for Canning

Yield: About 12 pints
Process Time: 15 min for pints
Headspace: 1/2 inch

Ingredients

10 lbs tomatillos, husked & chopped
4-5 large onions, finely chopped
1/2 to 1 cup chili peppers, chopped (hot or mild varieties, your choice)
2 full garlic bulbs, peeled & chopped
1 cup cilantro, minced
1 cup lime juice
1 Tbs. ground cumin
1 to 2 Tbs. salt (to taste, start with 1 and taste before adding more)

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a simmer on the stove.  Simmer for 40 minutes to an hour to allow the tomatillos to break down and flavors to meld.  Taste and adjust salt accordingly.
  2. Ladle sauce into prepared pint mason jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes. (20 minutes for quarts)
  3. Remove from the canner and allow to cool at room temperature before checking seals to make sure all jars have properly sealed.  Place any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.

*Cook’s Note: For a smooth sauce, process all ingredients in a food processor and reduce stovetop cooking time to simmer for 20 minutes before canning.  This will save you a lot of time chopping, but wont work if you’re hoping for a chunkier sauce.

JUST GETTING STARTED CANNING?

If you’re just getting started canning, but plan on making canning and preserving food part of your lifestyle long term, try investing in an online canning course.  Pioneering today has a canning with confidencecourse that takes you through the ins and outs of canning from basic canning safety all the way through to pressure canning meat at home.  The course covers:

  • Canning Safety – Safe techniques to for home canning
  • Water Bath Canning – Jams, jellies, pickles, tomatoes, and other high acid fruits and vegetables including low sugar, no pectin variations.
  • Pressure Canning – How to safely operate a pressure canner at home to can almost any type of food for long term preservation
  • Troubleshooting and Storage – Figuring out why a recipe just didn’t work, and maximizing storage of your home canned goods.

TAKE A LOOK AT CANNING WITH CONFIDENCE IF YOU’RE PLANNING ON INVESTING HEAVILY IN LONG TERM HOME FOOD PRESERVATION.

Tomatillo Sauce Recipe for Canning (Salsa Verde)

Tomatillo Sauce Recipe for Canning (Salsa Verde)

How to Clean and Skin a Groundhog (Woodchuck)

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You’ve finally managed to get the woodchuck that’s been plaguing your garden all season, now what?  It seems a shame to waste good meat, especially when it’s been well fed on the food that was supposed to be on your family’s table.

Groundhogs are not only edible, they’re tender and delicious if properly cleaned and prepared.  They live on a completely vegetarian diet, and cary no life threatening diseases for humans.  Groundhogs are similar to rabbit in taste, and most recipes for groundhog have you prepare them in the same manner.

The main difference between rabbit and groundhog is the scent glands.  Groundhogs have scent glands that can impart an off flavor to the meat if not removed promptly.  The scent glands are small kernels a bit smaller than a pea just beneath their skin, located around the back, armpits and tail.

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Honey Lavender Cookies

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These honey lavender cookies are made with fresh herbs and no refined sugar.  The honey provides a lovely flavor, and all the sweetness these cookies need.  They roll out easy, and hold their shape when baked, making perfect cutout cookies in your favorite shapes.  I’ve used a honey bee cookie cutter, but pick your favorite shapes.

Honey Lavender Cookies

To get the subtle lavender flavor to come through in the finished cookies, use either a whole tablespoon of dried lavender flowers or a teaspoon of lavender extract which is much stronger.

They’re high on flavor, but low on sweetness, so they’re great for a quick snack without spiking your blood sugar.  You can use whole wheat pastry flour for a wholesome whole food snack, or stick with white flour if that’s what you have in the house.  If you’re hoping for more sweetness, drizzle just a bit of honey on top.

Honey Lavender Cookies with Honey Drizzle

Honey Lavender Cookie Recipe

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon lavender flowers or 1 teaspoon Lavender Extract
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose)
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter and honey until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, lavender and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  I prefer a soft, thicker cookie, but this is your preference. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. A honey bee cookie cutter is particularly appropriate, but your favorite shapes will do. Place cookies 1 inch apart on un-greased cookie sheets, covered with parchment or a non-stick silicone baking mat.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes for thinner cookies, 8 to 10 for thicker cookies. Cool completely before eating.  The honey and lavender flavor doesn’t really come through until they’re completely cooled.

Honey Lavender Cookies

Maple Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

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Strawberry rhubarb pie is one of the first home grown pies you can make in the spring and early summer, but with the tartness of rhubarb it’ll need some added sugar.  If you’re cutting back on refined sugars, try sweetening it with maple to add flavor as well as enough sweetness to balance out the rhubarb.

Maple Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Slice

Home grown rhubarb is one of the first vegetables to harvest in the spring, ready long before strawberries come to bear.  By the time weather warms enough for strawberries, rhubarb starts to get a bit stringy.  Make sure you peel your rhubarb, and cut it into thin slices across the grain so that your pie doesn’t come out stringy.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling

Strawberry rhubarb pie tends to be a bit runny because both the strawberries and rhubarb put out a lot of juice.  Add the liquid of maple into the mix and you may end up with pie soup if you don’t use a thickener.  With that much liquid, flour as a thickener can turn goopy, and corn starch thickened pies always taste grainy to me.  Thickening pie filling with tapioca flour adds just the right amount of bite to the pie without adding any off flavors.  If your strawberries are extra juicy, add a full cup of tapioca flour to thicken.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with a Maple Cream Glaze

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with a Maple Cream Glaze

I like to glaze my maple sweetened pies with a teaspoon of maple syrup mixed with a tablespoon of heavy cream, with helps them brown nicely and adds extra flavor to the crust.  Mix the cream and maple in a small cup and apply over the top of your pie with a silicone pastry brush.  If you don’t have cream on hand, substitute milk or half and half.

Maple Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Maple Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Maple Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Maple Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling

4 cups rhubarb, peeled and finely sliced
4 cups strawberries, stems removed and halved
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup maple syrup

Maple Sweetened Pie Crust

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry)
1 cup butter, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp salt
6 to 8 Tbs cold water
1 Tbs maple syrup (optional)

Maple and Cream Pie Glaze

1 tsp maple syrup
1 Tbs Heavy Cream (or milk)

Directions

  1. Prepare the pie crust by first mixing the flour and salt, and then cutting the butter into the flour until with a pastry knife or food processor.  The butter should be pea sized or smaller, and the flour and butter mixture will look a bit sandy.
  2. Mix a tablespoon of maple syrup into 6 tablespoons of cold water and add to the flour.  Bring the mixture together, adding an additional tablespoon or two of water until the dough forms a ball.
  3. Cut the dough ball in half, flatten into disks and refrigerate 30 minutes to 8 hours.  Or, skip refrigeration and just make the pie.
  4. Roll one half of the pie dough out and line a 9 inch pie pan.
  5. Mix the chopped strawberries and peeled and chopped rhubarb in a large bowl, adding in maple syrup and tapioca flour.  Pour the fruit mixture into the pie shell.
  6. Roll out the second half of the pie crust and top the pie, sealing the edge and decorating as you choose.
  7. Mix maple syrup and heavy cream, and glaze the top crust with a silicone pastry brush.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes at 425 before turning the oven down to 350 for an additional 30 to 60 minutes.  Be sure that the filling is bubbling before removing the pie from the oven.  Undercooked filling will not set.

Maple Sweetened Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe

For more maple recipes, follow here on pinterest.

Maple Banana Bread

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This maple banana bread is made without using any refined sugar, just maple for both sweetness and flavor.  The maple complements the natural sweetness of the bananas, and results in a ‘just sweet enough’ loaf that wont spoil your dinner.

Feel free to make it either with whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose flour.  This recipe in particular is a good place to use whole wheat because with the moisture from the bananas and maple, very few people can tell the difference.

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