Cranberry Conserve

Back in the 80s I sold some baked goods, snacks and such to people we knew. Not a big business but it did pay for some nice pans and baking things. I enjoyed doing it. I stopped when my "real" job expanded and I was working longer hours. One of my popular items for sale was cranberry conserve. I did not can it but freshly made, it would keep in the refrigerator for several weeks...if it wasn't eaten sooner. I also canned for us using the fresh produce we picked at the local farms. (sure miss Jersey's produce!)
This year I'm back into canning for just us. I have several canning books and read them to get ideas. I came across a cranberry conserve recipe in the Ball canning book that is MY recipe! Exact same ingredients but it also included directions for canning. So, this afternoon I made the conserve and canned it. While the recipe said it would make about four 8 oz. jars, I ended up with a bit more. The recipe and pictures are below.

1 orange cut and placed in food processor. The orange is unpeeled - if there are seeds, try to remove them all (this one had none). Chop well. Place chopped orange and 2 cups water in a deep pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, partially covering, and boil gently until peel is tender, about 5 minutes. (now the peel is HOT so I sure didn't taste it...just timed it for 5 minutes then continued)

 Add 4 cups of cranberries that have been well rinsed, 1/2 cup raisins and 3 cups sugar to pot with orange. Stir this well to dissolved sugar. Then raise heat to get a hard boil and stir frequently until the mixture thickens. The cranberries pop and the mixture will foam and expand and thus I use a spaghetti pot that is rather high so that I don't get splattered while I stir. After about 9 minutes add 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Now you can use any kind of nut - I used chopped black walnut.

The sugar, raisins and nuts

The cranberries in the pot.

 After another 5 minutes or so (stir constantly) the mixture will really get thick. It looked like jelly. Remove the pot from the stove and if there is foam on the top of the mixture, skim it off with a spoon and discard.

At this point you can let it cool or can it. If you choose to can it, ladle the hot conserve into canning jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles and wipe rim. Center lid on jar and screw band down until resistance is met..then a bit more.

Place jars in canner that holds boiling water (low boil) making sure the jars are covered with water.

Bring water to a faster boil and process for 15 minutes adjusted for your altitude. (I processed for 20 minutes as we are above 1,000 ft over sea level) At end of the time turn off pot and let jars sit for 5 minutes, then remove from the water, cool overnight and then store.

This green thing is a jar holder from Ball that I had seen on line and found in WalMart. I use it for small batches as it fits into a stock pot. I had just lifted it out of the pot and let it rest here for a few minutes, then move it back out of the way to cool.

And here are the three sealed jars. They will sit here overnight and tomorrow I'll check the seal and remove the bands carefully and store. I have 2 more jars that I did not can and I will EAT them starting tomorrow. I haven't made this for several years and I'm really going to enjoy eating it!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A Gloomy Day

We expected rain and got it. It was misty this morning on the way to breakfast - not even enough to call it rain. Had an excellent breakfast and back home. After some chores around the house I headed out to the post office and then to work at the library. Left around noon and did some banking and then picked up milk at the local IGA. Leftover meatloaf for lunch, The rain was just a drizzle and B went out to blow the driveway and deck. Then the rain became heavier and now it's very heavy and very dark - as I said, gloomy day.

I've been down on the computer downloading pictures and then importing them into LightRoom and labeling them. I then saved some in jpg for the blog.

We got a new VW bug. The black one we had was to reproduce (for want of a better word) the bug we had back in the mid 60s. Ahhh the "good old days". Even though the engine was in the front when the original one had the engine in the back, it was pretty close to what we had. Sun roof, flower holder, black. However, it was not the most comfortable car to drive in, but it was more comfortable than the 1966 bug we had. Then VW changed the style and came out with a "new" beetle. While the overall look is similar, it is very different! More room, great sound system and navigation, generally better. And, silver does not show the dirt/dust as fast as black does. So, we now have a new car.

Honey was on the deck looking out. I cropped the picture. Notice the new collar? It's a bit wider and looks so nice.

She is on a leash - it just doesn't show.

She often goes out on the driveway with B and just sits. However, here she was kinda trotting along to get down the driveway to see what ever she could see. Honey loves to watch traffic. We don't have much traffic on our road but she can see the better traveled road from the end of the driveway and from the deck. She sits in anticipation of a car coming up the hill.

Our neighbors wave(as they pass the house in their car) since they can see her in the house as she stands on one of the chairs and looks out the windows. She is so popular, our girl!  LOL

A good day

I'm in the living room on the iPad. I can tell this is going to be tedious LOL

Right now I'm working on dinner. We had rump roast the other day and tonight is leftovers. B loves sliced beef and gravy over bread. So that's what he will have. I love rice do I'm now cooking rice. I put some EVO Ina pan and when warm added chopped onions. Then added the rice and then the water with a vegetable base added. And that is simmering.
I started a list of things to do yesterday which resulted in yes. Things I did! So several loads of laundry, vacuum maine level, iron lots of stuff while watching The Chew and several other programs.
So, a good time. And this is not Avery easy way to blog.

Hump Day

Well, yea, that's what we called it back when I was working.... half way through the week. The weather has been so nice it's hard to believe we got around 11 inches of snow last weekend! We have had sun the past few days and mild temperatures. A bit cooler today than yesterday but B got out to wash off the new VW and then painted the landscaping ties with his trusty roller. (yes, we got a new VW Bug...more in another post including pictures)

With daylight savings over, we are all adjusting to the "fall back" time. We keep Honey up longer and then take her out so she is still able to be in her crate until 5:30 when we all get up. Right now she is spread out on the floor asleep. She makes these funny noises - she just did a HUMMMM that accompanied a stretch and she is fast asleep. (it's 5:15PM and she just came in from a walk)
We get up and I take Honey out (that's the deal) and then make coffee and we sit at the breakfast table and check our email and such on the iPad (love that thing). And then B takes Honey out and they get the paper, back in for a carrot treat and I get the paper and then they finish their tour of the property and Honey does her "thing". We are coming up to Thanksgiving and we added Honey to our family the day after Thanksgiving and boy, has she improved this past year! Every day she behaves better and yes, every day we figure out better how to handle her.
 This morning, while I was checking my emails I got a notice that I had a dentist appointment at 9:30. So that kinda stopped my plans for the day that I made while I was making coffee. Well, I did get dinner decided on and partially defrosted (strip steak) defrosted in the microwave and then in the refrigerator. A load of laundry, puttering around and some work outside while B was doing his painting.
I'm reading a good book - Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues by Michael Brandman.  Parker is a wonderful writer - I first started reading his Spencer books... he is brief and to the point and a few words say so much! This book is a Jesse Stone novel. They have been made into TV movies with Tom Selleck (pure hunk) as Jesse Stone. Parker died and the producer of the series has continued the story and it's very good (not done the book yet) and very close to Parker's style.
So, that's today....and dinner is ready to go! Steak on the counter warming up. Rather than cook on the grill - since it's so dark and rather cool- I'll sear it on the stove and then pop it in the oven. I'm going to serve it with piorgies with butter and onions and a salad. Hope dinner is as good as it sounds.