Monday, July 27, 2009

Whirlwind Week

Good Morning Blogworld,

It's been a terrific week and a busy one, as well. I had the opportunity to talk with both Lorie Hutson, staff writer for The Spokesman Review in Spokane, Washington, and Debbie Arrington, of the Sacramento Bee, in Sacramento, California.

Lorie was working on an article for the food section of the paper about preserving food for folks with specific dietary needs. Our discussion centered on reduced-sugar jams and jellies and preserves made with sugar substitutes. The folks at Team Equal have been especially helpful in this regard. So, if you or someone in your family is diabetic, this is a great way to still indulge your sweet tooth and have some strawberry jam or other fruit spread on your morning English muffin or toast. Go to www.equal.com for some specific recipes.

The other topic we discussed was salt. You don't need to add salt when you're canning vegetables. It's not a preserving agent, but is there strictly for flavor. So, feel free to omit!

Debbie and I got into tomatoes! My favorites for canning are San Marzano and Roma. These are the meatier types and hold up well under processing. Their thicker cell walls give you a nice, firm product.

For your liquid, use tomato juice, instead of boiling water to fill the jars. This is where other varieties, such as Early Girl, Big Boy, and their juicy cousins come in handy. There's nothing in the rule book that says you can't mix and match varieties in the same batch.

Wednesday's topic is mixed veggies!

10 comments:

  1. Gee, it does sound like you were busy. It also sounds like wonderful publicity…good job on that. Did you mention my name, by chance??? No. Don’t blame you, I wouldn’t have mentioned me either…too boring.

    As a rule, I try to minimize salt…though I love it. I use Morton’s Lite salt, but wonder if I don’t use more of it to achieve the same results. Life is so difficult.

    Best Regards, Galen

    Imagineering Fiction Blog

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  2. Thanks, Galen. Salt is one of the food groups, I think. Sometimes I just crave it. Along with nachos, chocolate.....

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  3. Sure hope so! Working hard at it.Thanks for the support.

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  4. Just received your book in my last order (feeding the book addiction again) and am jumping straight to the section on drying and smoking. There is so much more to your Guide than we see on your blog. As I was thumbing through the book, I spotted the recipe for pumpkin butter. Mmmm. How good would that be on scones?

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  5. Pumpkin butter is wonderful stuff. Makes me think autumn harvest. I think you'll like the recipe. If you like the book please write a brief review on Amazon for me, Pat? Thanks much.

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  6. I love the tomatoes - so many wonderful recipes for tomatoes. Mmmmmm, the pumpkin butter sounds delicious!! Oh dear, I am getting hungry!

    Nancy, from Realms of Thought…

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  7. Great blog! I just canned for the first time this week and blogged about it, and a reader sent me your way. So excited to learn more, I will be back!

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  8. Great site you have here! I'm learning a lot! I have a blog as well, one that offers inspiration and wisdom. I was wondering if we could exchange links, let me know what you think!

    Jason
    TheWISDOMWALL.com

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  9. I didn't realize tomatoes could be so much fun. I like to visit your blog a few times each week. So much food, so little time. Congrats on the publicity.

    Stephen Tremp

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  10. Welcome to my new blog followers! Thanks for stopping by. Hope to be of help to you.

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I've been dabbling in learning German most of my adult life. Now it's crunch time. Fluency by December 31,2020. Come join me on my Final Approach to Learning German.