Three Bean Chili By The Jar

Today I'm canning chili!  I'm doing it by the jar so I don't have to make a huge pot of chili first.

The night before I put some kidney, pinto, and black beans to soak.  While I get all the prep work done for the chopped veggies, I put the beans on to simmer for 20 minutes.  I've found recipes that say to put the dry beans in there,  but I hate crunchy beans.  This way I know they will be cooked through.

In each pint jar layer....

1/2 peeled and chopped roma tomato
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup simmered beans
1/2 cup browned burger
1 Tablespoon chopped onion
2 Tablespoon green chilies (from a can)
2 Tablespoon tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/3 cup chicken broth

After all these ingredients were in the jars, I used a plastic spatula to go down the inside of the jars.  This got all the broth down into the air spaces between the beans and the burger.  I kept topping off the jars with hot water until it no longer went down into the air spaces when I used the spatula on the sides.  Then I filled each jar up to the 1 inch headspace line with hot water.  You could continue to use the chicken broth.  The amount I had heated up just happened to put 1/3 cup in each of my ten pint jars.

Process in a pressure canner for 90 minutes at 10lbs pressure (sea level).  Adjust process times accordingly for your altitude.

My inspiration for this came from here if you are interested in looking at their original recipe.

Watermelon Jelly

Watermelon jelly.  Sounds dreamy right?  Fresh watermelon is the best thing in the summer.  Wouldn't it be great to have that flavor in the winter too?!

Earlier this week I was inspired by this post.  The color of that watermelon jam just screamed at me!  Oh, cool watermelon on toast!  That just sounded heavenly.  So, I decided to try it!  Here are my alterations and how it all turned out.

Watermelon Jelly
1 seedless watermelon
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons of low/no sugar pectin (equals one box)

The first step is to crush all the juice out of the melon.  I used my food strainer, but it was still some work.  You will need a total of 6 cups of juice.  I didn't quite use one good sized seedless melon.

Put the juice, lemon juice, and sugar in a big pot and bring to a rolling boil.  Stir constantly. Keep it at a rolling boil for five minutes.  Then add in the pectin powder.

Bring back to a rolling boil and keep boiling for another 5 minutes.  Keep stirring!

Ladle into prepared jars and waterbath for ten minutes.

This recipe made eight 4oz jars and one pint of jelly.

Now, I opened up a jar this morning for my toast.  MMMMM!  But not what I expected.  It was a very soft set.  Most of my jelly is because it is low sugar.  It has a very mild sweet flavor.  Almost like grape jelly.  I don't taste watermelon at all.  It is good though!  So, if you want a nice mild sweet jelly that is a beautiful pink color (pictures don't do it justice!), make some!  If you are wanting that sweet melon flavor...not so much.

My First Harvest!

WAHOO!!!

 

I finally got food from my garden!!

 

 

It looks like this was the year for me!  I am finally having some success in my garden.  All the plants are looking happy and healthy.  I harvested several heads of broccoli and two zucchini today.  MMM..I'm going to fry one of those zucchini up in butter with garlic.  Oh, heaven!  The other zucchini and broccoli will go into some Kung Pao Chicken.  I am unbelievably excited by this little basket of goodness! 

 

It's been crazy around here.  We just got back from our yearly family road trip.  This year it was Yellowstone National Park.  I'll put up a post soon with pics.  Plus, I've been trying to get all the stuff organized for my classroom.  So many fun things to come!