Notes about Recipes in this book

• Frozen string beans

  • averythingcooks on August 24, 2025

    Very straightforward instructions to prep a lot of garden beans for my freezer.

• Dilly beans

  • A.H on July 19, 2025

    Pickles

• Pickled beets with cumin and cloves

  • krobbins426 on July 25, 2013

    Added a little grated orange zest also. Delicious.

• Granny's chow-chow relish

  • averythingcooks on September 22, 2025

    I used the food processor for the onion, pepper & green tomatoes but went with a knife for the cabbage...and was happy with both choices :) I was a bit worried about the amount of all-spice but a quick taste from the pot confirmed that this stuff is very tasty. A 1/2 recipe gave me the 5 x 250 mL jars predicted with very little left in the pot.

• Cantaloupe granita

  • franniepie on August 25, 2022

    Great texture. I added a very small amount of anise extract to it. Mint would be great, too.

• Pickled chili peppers

  • nphillips on July 23, 2017

    This is my favorite brine for pickling jalapeños. The little bit of sugar is delicious. Best to process for only five minutes, to avoid mushiness.

  • averythingcooks on August 01, 2025

    I used roughly 8 oz of jalapenos (1/4 recipe) and made 1/3 of the brine for 2 x 250 mL jars and had JUST enough brine. I'll update this when we actually open a jar :)

• Orange marmalade

  • spharo00 on March 09, 2012

    This is a very easy marmalade recipe compared to others I have tried in the past. It wasn't fussy and had few ingredients so the orange flavor wasn't overpowered by a bunch of spices. This is a sweet marmalade, with just a little tartness. Remember - it is made over the course of three days so allow plenty of time.

• Fennel and onion jam

  • krobbins426 on July 26, 2013

    Makes a phenomenal sandwich when paired with goat cheese.

• Pickled garlic

  • averythingcooks on August 24, 2025

    I used this very simple brine to can 2 x 125 mL jars of garlic. The big test is always the 1st taste but other than the time needed to peel garlic fresh from the garden, this was ready for the canner pretty quickly.

• Classic basil pesto

  • averythingcooks on September 20, 2025

    This is a good, classic pesto that I have frozen in 2 tbsp portions for use all winter. One thing...since she begins with the oil in the food processor, I started with 1/2 and then after everything else was in, I started to drizzle in more, likely using less than the total amount called for (more than once, I've been caught with a super oily pesto with no more basil left to add :(

• Dill with feta pesto

  • spharo00 on July 22, 2012

    I had a little less dill than the recipe called for so used more parsley to make up the difference. I also substituted pecans for walnuts since that is what I had on hand. I drizzled the olive oil in at the end, instead of putting it all in at the beginning, and ended up using much less than the recipe suggested. This may have still been a bit too much as the final pesto tasted more like olive oil than anything else.

• Rhubarb jam

  • goodfruit on May 31, 2014

    make with brown sugar for a more caramel flavor

• Sofrito

  • averythingcooks on September 05, 2025

    I wasn't sure how authentic this is as a sofrito (although some research resulted in several different combos of ingredients) and regardless, it is very tasty. Making items for the freezer during the "so precise" canning season is very freeing as you can improvise (ie a little heavier on the garlic & a big mix of red, green, yellow & orange peppers). This is being frozen in 1/8 cup portions and I know I'll find lots of places to use it.

• Salsa verde

  • averythingcooks on September 06, 2025

    I'm unsure about this stuff....I did like the method of roasting 1/2 the tomatillos while leaving the other 1/2 raw + the use of the food processor to puree all the ingredients BUT a quick taste had a pretty sharp vinegar hit...perhaps I should have gone with the lime juice variation instead the distilled white vinegar? Of course, the proof will come after it has mellowed in the canning cupboard but my idea is that this will be used as a cooking sauce rather than a dip.

• Easy-bake tomato paste

  • rchlnnmllr on May 22, 2013

    This makes an absolutely incredible tomato paste, but is very time consuming, heats up the kitchen tremendously, and produces very little paste for the number of tomatoes.

• Roasted tomato sauce

  • averythingcooks on September 16, 2025

    This an easy way to prep a mix of "any amount of any kind of tomatoes" crowding your counters for the freezer. She suggests freezing in the form they come out of the oven but I prefer to give them a couple of passes through the food mill (1st for skins & then for seeds) before portioning/freezing. This time of year, I reach for this kind of idea almost every day :)

• Oven-dried tomatoes

  • averythingcooks on September 25, 2025

    With just tomatoes & oil, the true main "ingredient" for these guys is always time. I have made different versions from my books and this one works well...I have far greater success at 250 F rather than the 275 called for in some recipes. I love having a good stash of these delicious tomatoes in my freezer.