Last week, Part Uno

Last week was a busy week, so I’m going to start with that. I canned, there were fabric hijinks, and did I mention that Jeff and I are (very cautiously) inspecting this house-purchasing idea?  You know, I don’t have a fear of relationship-with-person-commitment or long-term-pet-ownership or anything like that.  What I do have is a total fear of commitment to a given locale.  I’m not a fan of rental properties, but they still offer me the ability to pick up and take off for parts unknown at any time.  Not that I do this (at least not as regularly as I used to), but I can if I want to.  It’s almost like claustrophobia for me, this idea of “settling down.”  You can see why I’ve never owned property.

Back to canning!  I mentioned my initial canning adventures with okra … well, here they are.  I’m partially doing this because I’m impressed that I canned something, and I’m offering proof here that such a thing actually occurred in my kitchen.

I’m also doing this because some of you have told me that canning brings to mind horrible memories of days on end in a hot kitchen having difficulties.  I thought this process was rather simple and quick, and it was air conditioned.  So I’d be interested to know what about this is hard, or if y’all were talking about pressure canning maybe?  These vegetables are not the sort that need pressure canning.  I’m not ready for pressure canning yet, not convinced I ever will be.

CANNING STAGE 1

Cut up and otherwise prepare your veggies.  Boil jars for 10 min.  Heat lids (but don’t boil).  Meanwhile, boil your pickling liquid and simmer for 5 minutes.  My pickling liquid consisted of apple cider, kosher salt, sugar, dill seed, mustard seed, pequin peppers, and a few peppercorns.  After boiling the jars, I set them on a clean cloth to cool for about a minutes.

CANNING STAGE 2

Stuff the jars really full with okra - I had a couple cucumbers, so I did some of those, too.  Add 2-3 garlic cloves each.  Fill with pickling liquid to 1/2 inch below the lid-screw-marks.  Put on the lids and screw on the bands really tight.  I was kind of ginger with handling these … seems to me I’ve heard bad stories about nasty things getting into canning jars, so I kept everything clean.

CANNING STAGE 3

I put the filled jars back in the water bath for 10 minutes to boil.  My jars didn’t sit on anything in the pot, because I have nothing, and besides my canning equipment consists of jars and my biggest dutch oven.  Afterward, I put the jars on a rack covered by a towel to cool down.  That’s them there, all done.  After this the recipe just instructed me to wait 24 hours before trying them.

Did I mention I tried them?  They were good … I think … unless Jeff and Paula were fabricating their reaction so as not to offend … Personally, I thought the okra was great, but the pickles need to sit a bit and be less sharply vinegary, but that comes with waiting a bit longer than 48 hours after they were made, you know?