Tuesday, August 31, 2010

When Things Get Sloppy...

I just finished wiping the jars from this weekend and putting them in the pantry...

Think I'm in trouble???

Now you know how much I like to call myself idiot...Today I get a capital I...

I had three layers of towels underneath my jars and it still happened!  I did the same thing two years ago on a smaller scale.  Which is why I now have a piece of countertop that I place on my table.  But for big jobs, it isn't enough.  Last year we brought in an old table and set it up in the kitchen.   With the addition of the pantry however, there was no room for the table this year and I don't have more countertop pieces to lay around...Sloppy Canner = Idiot!

Speaking of Sloppy, we cracked open a jar of the Sloppy Joe that my girlfriend Heather and I schemed up.  It got the thumbs up from Pig Pen and LLL.  I pulled a fast one on my brother Donnie and let him try it with just the notion that it was homemade, not homemade and canned.  He said it was "excellent"!  So I thought I would share it with you!

Sloppy Joe

6 Qts Tomato Sauce (I used mine straight from the Garden) Set Sauce aside for now.

Start off with:
4 Green Peppers
8 Celery Stalks
4 Onions

Chop and Saute w/ a smidgen of EVOO till crisp tender then add:

2 C Brown Sugar
1 C Apple Cider Vinegar

Once it Carmelizes, add:
3 T of Ground Mustard
4 Dash of Worcestershire

Cook down a bit and allow to incorporate, it sort of looked thicker at this point.

Add mixture to your Tomato Sauce and cook down to desired consistency.

Yielded 6.5 pints which would also of course depend on how long you cooked it down.
 
Jar it up with hot lids and rims, HWB for 15 Minutes
 
When I cooked it last night, I used 1.5 lbs of burger seasoned to taste and browned, added the sauce and then simmered it for about a half an hour.
 
Funny thing, before I jarred it the other day, I let my Mom taste test it to see if it was missing anything.  She said,"Yes...Hamburger!"  I thought it could use a bit more brown sugar, but of course that is to your own liking.
 
Ok, back to putting my kitchen in order...Harvesting the Honey tonight!  The Coop Pictures will wait for another day I suppose!

7 comments:

  1. Watch out, the canning police will be after you for making up your own recipe. I have to laugh at this because I know my grandmother never had a recipe nor did she water bath anything. Just heat the jar, fill with hot food, put on lid and let seal. She never once had any trouble.

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  2. Well I ain't killed no one yet! At least that's what I always say! At least I did HWB them, so that should lessen my sentence, right?

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  3. Ouch, sorry about that table! But that sloppy joe sauce looks yummy!

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  4. What is that on the table? Will it come out? If not...BUMMER man!!! I guess you might have to have Jan whip you up a fancy table cloth :-)

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  5. Wow that looks so good!!!!! If I can find enough tomatoes in our fungus ridden patch I will make some of that!!! YUMMY!! That will be a quick and easy meal for us after a days work!

    Thanks for stopping by!!!

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  6. So sorry about the table damage, but at least you ended up with lots of canned goods, right? That sloppy joe sounds and looks delicious. What time is dinner? :)

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  7. Jen, it's from the heat/moisture. It will have to be buffed out...again!

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