Basil Vinegar

This is how I learned to make Basil Vinegar from the Franklin Springs Homestead Blessings Herbs DVD with the West Ladies.  It made a wonderfully yummy vinegar a few weeks ago so I thought I'd share with you when making this next batch. 

The West Ladies' made their batches in quart size canning jars, I used pint jars since I didn't have much vinegar to use.  It is so easy...

 You will need basil which has been washed and dried, a mild vinegar such as white wine vinegar or rice vinegar (not seasoned rice vinegar, which contains sugar).  I had rice vinegar on hand and it worked very well.  The West Ladies' used white wine vinegar.

 Fill a clean jar with basil which has been torn to facilitate the vinegar absorbing flavor.

"Bruise" your basil a bit if you want, I used the end of a wooden spoon.

Fill the jar with vinegar and if you are using a metal lid, slip plastic between the lid and the jar.  The vinegar will react to metal.  As you can see here, I just slipped a sandwich bag over the Ball jar before putting the lid on it.

Place the jar in a place where it does not get direct light but where you can see it to shake a couple times a day.  At the end of two weeks (or longer), remove basil by straining the vinegar into another jar or (as I was able to do) just removing the basil from the jar.  It came out very easily and looked so pretty, as you can see in the first picture above (which is the vinegar I made previously).

You can pour the vinegar into a pretty glass container with a cork to give as a gift.  I had a couple plastic lids left from a previous project so I just placed one of them on the Ball jar and kept it in the original container with a pretty label.

I'm thinking of trying this with lemon verbena and seeing how it turns out.

Favorite Christmas recipes

I brought this over from Coffee Tea Books and Me...

Pretzel Candy

My favorite time of year to be in the kitchen is December when I'm baking and making candy gifts for friends and family. This year I won't be making as much but I'll choose a few favorites to have available. I will be picking from some of these...

Pretzel Candy... I made these (pictured above) for the first time last year and loved the recipe. It is tasty and easy to make. One of those great recipes for kids in the kitchen as older kids can spoon the white chocolate into the pretzel and small children place an M&M on top.

Rachel Ray's Fudge... This recipe was from one of her earlier 30 Minute shows. As soon as I tried this fudge, it became my Christmas "go to" recipe. So easy and everyone loves it!

Beverly Nye's Candy... The following recipes are all from my favorite Beverly Nye cookbook from the 1970s. Love her recipes! They are all easy and yummy. None of them require a candy thermometer.

• Peanut Butter Easter Eggs -- just shape them into a ball instead of an egg. :)
• Chocolate covered mints -- delicious minty flavor. Also, you can make the "filling" without dipping into chocolate for what we usually call "wedding mints". Just mold them in a candy mold for a pretty display.
• Homemade Mounds candy -- This one basic recipe can be made into all kinds of yummy candies by adding dried fruit, nuts, etc.

Raspberry Truffle Brownies - This is one of those over-the-top brownie recipes that is perfect for the Holidays. They are rich but everyone I know loves them.


Homemade Cocoa Mix - There are lots of recipes online for cocoa and other drink mixes. I made these for my husband's siblings last year. Part of the gift was the glass container, which was very inexpensive. The marshmallows and Christmas M&Ms are in jelly jars that I wash and put back to use for such gifts after the jelly has been used. They made the gift even more festive. :)


Christmas Jam - This is a great December jam to make when cranberries are available and the strawberries called for are frozen.

Of course, there are lots of cookie and cake recipes on my recipe blog, too. :)

Christmas Jam

This recipe was an award winner in Country Woman magazine many years ago.

Christmas Jam

• 2 packages (20 ounces each) frozen whole strawberries or 2-1/2 quarts fresh strawberries
• 1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries
• 5 pounds sugar
• 2 pouches (3 ounces each) liquid fruit pectin

Directions:

Grind strawberries and cranberries in a food processor or grinder; place in a Dutch oven. Add sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil; boil for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat; stir in pectin and return to a full rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Cool for 5 minutes; skim off foam.

Carefully ladle hot mixture into hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Remove air bubbles; wipe rims and adjust lids.

Process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Yield: about 14 half-pints.

Picture: Country Woman website

Canned Pie Filling

This is a wonderful Beverly Nye recipe for canning your own pie filling. I use it for apples but I have friends who have used it with good success for peaches.

I've written it out just as it came from Beverly's cookbook back in the 70s so from here on out, these are Beverly's words...

Canned Pie Filling

Combine in large kettle:

4 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt

Add: 10 cups water

Cook until thickened and add: 3 T. lemon juice

Fill canning jars 1/3 full of sauce. Peel and slice apples into jars, smooshing down into the sauce until the jar is full.

Put on hot lids and process in boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Fills 7 quart jars.

When you want to make a pie, just roll out the crust, pour in the filling, dot with butter, and cover with the top crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

You can also substitute other fruits such as peaches or cherries. You may want to vary the spices a little. Sometimes I (Beverly) use a little more cinnamon and nutmeg with apples.

Freezing Zuchinni

This post was originally posted on Coffee Tea Books & Me.

I shred the zucchini and then place it in a colander which is sitting on a plate to let it drain awhile. It stays there an hour or two and I "fluff" it when I think of it.

Some cooks salt the zucchini just a little to help take the moisture out but I prefer to let it sit in the colander since I'm using all of it for quick breads.

I then fill snack size ZipLoc bags with two heaping half-cup measuring cups of the green stuff. It's a little more than a cup total.

All of these bags came from just three zucchinis.

The snack size ZipLoc bags are placed in a gallon size ZipLoc bag. Since I'm putting a "bag within a bag", neither of them have to be freezer strength. I love snack size bags... use them for lots of things.

I froze the sliced zucchini exactly as above except they went into quart size ZipLoc bags and then in the gallon size for extra protection. I have read that some people like to blanch their sliced zucchini for about a minute but I didn't. I'm using them in soups and casseroles.

Freezing corn

The corn this year is especially sweet and that comes from (as I mentioned before) a corn snob. I won't buy corn on the cob in the grocery store. I'm sceptical of any corn I either 1) did not pick, or 2) buy from the back of a farmer's pickup truck down the road.

However, we were given corn recently so I happily accepted it and hubby shucked all the husks for me. I served some for lunch but froze the rest for fried (sauteed) corn this winter since I wasn't sure how old it was. In case you have never frozen corn, here are the easy directions (really easy if you got your husband to shuck the corn cobs!).

Bring a stockpot about 3/4ths full of water to a boil. Add corn into the water, one batch at a time. It took me two batches for this amount of corn. When the water comes back to a boil, set the timer for six to eight minutes (the smaller the corn, the less time it takes).

If you are freezing them on the cob, shock them by placing in ice water. If you are slicing the corn off into niblets, just drain them as shown above. This corn is draining on a clean dish towel.


When they have drained, I set them on the cooling rack I use for cookies until they are cool.


If freezing corn on the cob, after they have been "shocked" in the ice water and drained, place them in gallon ZipLoc freezer bags, getting as much air out of the bag as possible. Immediately place in the deep freeze.

I sliced this corn off the cob when it was cool enough to easily handle.


The niblets were placed into snack size ZipLoc bags. Since there are often only two of us at home, this size bag works very well for us. Otherwise I'd use the quart size bags or place them into freezer containers.


The individual snack size bags were placed inside a gallon size ZipLoc bag, especially since they are not freezer bags. The date was written on the larger bag (it can be used again and again when the smaller bags are all used).

I'm thankful now for the corn but how wonderful it will be to take it out in winter, sauteed in a little butter... or a lot... with a little salt and pepper... yum. :)