How to Can Homemade Salsa | Recipe Included!

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Today I wanted to share with you my water bath canning instructions on how to can homemade salsa! We have tried many salsa recipes over the years and this one right here hits all the marks and is so superb!

Time: 90-120 minutes Makes: 12 HALF pint jars Ingredients: 12 tomatoes 2 Jalapenos (seeded or not if you want, we used half the seeds for added heat) 1 1/2 diced white onions 1 1/2 cups of cilantro chopped 7 cloves of garlic diced 2 tbl chipolte spice 2 tbl cumin 1 tbl cayenne 2 tbl black pepper 3 tbl salt

For a half recipe try this one below!

Makes: 6 HALF pint jars Ingredients: 6 tomatoes 1 Jalapeno (seeded or not if you want, we used half the seeds for added heat) 3/4 of a diced white onions 3/4 cups of cilantro chopped 3 cloves of garlic diced 1 tbl chipolte spice 1 tbl cumin 1/2 tbl cayenne 1 tbl black pepper 1 1/2 tbl salt

Products I use in real life and share on YouTube are now in my Amazon storefront! https://www.amazon.com/shop/elizabethhuskey-richey

**Note; I may make a tiny commission off of any items you choose to buy on from my Amazon storefront but it doesn't cost you anything extra. Love you!! Directions:

-Bring water to a boil in a sauce pot to prepare your tomatoes. Drop 3 or 4 in the pot at a time after it is a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Then remove and add to a bowl of cold water or ice water for 1 minute. Then remove from cold water and peel the skin off with just your fingers. After peeling the skin then cut into 4 or 6 chunks and throw in your food processor. Do this with all 12 tomatoes and put all processed tomatoes in a large bowl.

-Peel your white onions and put in the food processor to dice up until you have diced up 1 and a half onions. Add to the tomato mixture.

-Cut open your jalapeno peppers and carefully remove the seeds (wear gloves, I didn't and I burnt my hands and face, beginner's mistake). Dice up the jalapeno peppers and add to the mixture and then if you want your salsa to be mildly spicy add half of the seeds you removed back to the mixture.

-Remove the skin from your garlic cloves and then put all 7 in the food processor to get them all chopped finely and add to the mixture.

-Add all ingredients to a sauce pot and then add all the above seasonings and bring to a boil.

-As it is coming to a boil, prepare your mason jars to warm them (either by oven warming, really hot water or the dishwasher). Start your hot water bath canner to bring to a boil.

-After the mixture has begun to boil turn down to a medium high and put a lid on to let it simmer and all the flavors merry. After 10 minutes taste your mixture. If you need to add any more seasonings then simmer another 5 minutes and taste. Do that until you feel it is right. We boiled for 5 minutes and then simmered about 20 minutes to get it to the final measurements we have on the spices above.

-Pour your liquid mixture into a container that is easy to pour and then use your funnel over your mason jars and pour in to leave a quarter inch head space. Put your lids on "finger tip tight" and place 4-6 half pints in your canner, as many as will fit.

-Cook/boil in your hot bath canner for 10 minutes for each round.

-Once done in the canner put on the kitchen counter on top of a dishtowel to cool and leave for 10-12 hours or overnight. Cans will pop as they properly seal, they should do it within an hour if you cooked the mixture long enough.

xoxo,

Elizabeth

Cheeseburger Soup Recipe

  

CHEESEBURGER SOUP

This soup is insanely delicious!

Ingredients

½ pound ground beef (use 1 pound)

¾ cup chopped onion

¾ cup shredded carrots

¾ cup diced celery

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

4 tablespoons butter, divided

3 cups chicken broth

4 cups peeled and diced potatoes

¼ cup all purpose flour

2 cups of Velveeta processed cheese cubed (I used 16 ounce)

1½ cups milk

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ to ½ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup sour cream

Instructions:

-Brown the ground beef in 3 quart saucepan. Drain and set aside.

-In the same saucepan add 1 T butter and add onion, shredded carrots, parsley flakes, basil and celery. Saute until tender.

-Add the broth, potatoes and beef and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

-In small skillet melt remaining butter (3 T) and add the flour. Cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to the soup and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low.

-Stir in the cheese, milk, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat and blend in sour cream.

xoxo,

Elizabeth

Winter thoughts from a Gardner

Here we are, sliding into winter and almost Christmas! My mind gets very active this time of year, not with 100 things to do like in the summer but rather with introspective thoughts and endless questions of the universe! This is the first year I've gardened so hard in the summer and fall and accomplished so much I set out to do that come November I was truly and genuinely exhausted and READY for an escape from the garden. I walk over to see her about once a week, maybe more sometimes, and I appreciate her calmness. I remember the lushness of summer and not only how gorgeous she was but how much came out of her. In the throws of summer I think too many of us forget to take the time during all of that to stop down and truly be grateful. I know I'm guilty of that and I did try numerous times throughout the summer, more so in the fall, to pull myself back in, inward, to be present, mindful and appreciative. 

This year trying to make my garden make a profit to start a side business of selling veggies and flowers at market, took a whole lot of joy out of the process for me and that was a curve ball I was not expecting. I fought with myself on inner dialogue about the whole thing all summer. I'm very savvy in business and run several other small businesses, quite successfully, so I saw this as something else I could research, study and tackle. Unfortunately, after much effort and countless hours, I came to accept that our local small community is not the greatest market to appreciate and buy fresh, local, organic produce. So by the end of the summer I shifted my focus on how I could produce as much as possible for my own family to can. And THAT mission was a success. We put over 250 jars of food in our pantry and that feels like a win every time I walk in there! 

So this summer and this entire growing year taught me a lot about myself and the garden, as it always does each year. That is another thing that never ceases to amaze me, that I can do the same thing (gardening) every year and still learn so much, have so many failures and successes with the same exact tactics. I think that's why gardening still gives me a childlike joy after 5 years. I feel like I'm just on the peaceful, fulfilling, meandering path with mother nature and together we experiment and a lot of times she shows me who's boss and other times I get big wins and we smile together.

Back to today, it's a cold, dreary, super rainy day in December and we're about to get ready to head to Branson for the weekend for some Christmas cheer and festivities with all the kids. Just before a trip I always feel so full of gratitude because not only does my wandering heart LOVE to travel, but I also love to see new things and show those things to the children, to help increase their world view. So I hope today finds you blessed and if you're a gardener like me I hope you're always counting your blessings, challenging and growing your skills and finding peace and sanctuary in the garden. And in the winter I hope you find the light and blessings in the stillness of winter, to allow your body and soul to truly rest!

xoxo,

Elizabeth

Spring 2020 Plant and Seed Starting

Spring FEVER has hit and is in full swing! This year I'm focusing my energy on planting ALL THE THINGS at my fiance's house, in preparation for our marriage and wedding in the fall, then and after this will be OUR home. In February we put in almost 200 bulbs all over the place and have 60 more on the way from Holland Farms Bulbs!! #hollandfarmsbulbs

In the big tractor tire we put in tulips and daffodils leaving space to add sunflower seeds in the back later in the season! #tulips #tuliplove #tulipplanting

Around the front porch there are some hostas thru the middle so along the back we did tulips and crocus and dwarf iris! #iris #bulbflowers #lovebulbs

Later we went back and decided it was time to plant a few more and we have a small deck beside the above ground pool so we created new beds on each side and planted hollyhocks and gladiolus! The hollyhocks will give us 5-8 ft in heigths to back up the back of the bed and be a real eye pleaser and the gladiolus will fill out the bottom!! #hollyhocks #flowerbeds

I created a new flower bed on the north side of the house. This is the very early stages and I started by putting down weed fabric and planted 3 rose bushes. The opening in the overhead canopy of oak trees will hopefully allow just enough sunlight to this location to allow the rose bushes to flourish! There are 3 different varieties but I'm probably most excited about the bright yellow that I put right in the middle, it'll be under the kitchen window! I plan to create a border for this bed soon, add some perennials, annuals and mulch it...all in the coming weeks!!!

Getting back to gardening season makes my soul so happy!!

Switch on over to my place and in my NEW grow room I've been starting LOTS of seeds!!! I have a ton of perennial flowers and herbs and annual flowers I've been starting, all to fill in these new and established beds at Jeff's house! #growroom

After just almost 2 weeks, things are going SO well in the grow room! I've had a great germination rate on most! #cosmos #yarrow #basils #catnip #catgrass

#lemonadecosmos #hollyhocks #peppers #tomatoes #cucumbers #watermelon #babysbreath #allysum

My grow room has only been established for about 2 weeks now and we grew from 4 grow lights to 6 this weekend so at least 2 more trays to go in very soon! At this point I have started all the veggies that I will be starting from seed and anything else new going in will be more flowers! I think we have plenty of herbs at this point too, lol! This is my grow room on this beautiful Saturday morning in North Central Arkansas and it is just as glorious as the weather today!

The last project I'll share for today is transplanting natural daffodils, my honey prefers to call them Jonquils, lol! They are his favorite flower and favorite thing about Spring and they grow all over the place in the wild. So I took our new Honda Pioneer we recently got (a huge HUGE win for our gardening and veggie growing adventures and love!) and dug up a bed full!

They transplanted so nicely and have stayed alive and happy even after a week. I put them in front of this log that Jeff is working on for me. He is going to carve out a section in the middle for me to plant some spiller flowers into. I already know exactly what is going to go in it, Proven Winners "Supertunias"!!! Come on April!!!! #provenwinners #supertunias #arkansasgardening

Thank you for stopping by to check on what is going on with my many gardening adventures. Now that spring has hit we'll be working on projects EVERY weekend. We absolutely love to be outside and working on things together and including the kids when their attention spans allow, lol! I am going to try to update weekly to create this beautiful log of the creation of a masterpiece, our place!

xoxo,

Elizabeth

Spaghetti Meat Sauce in Instant Pot

The catch with good spaghetti is in the sauce and you have to simmer it low and slow for HOURS to get that Italian Grammy feel! I have loved Italian food all of my life and I can't blame that on any ancestry I'm just a pasta junkie. So I spent years perfecting my meat sauce recipe to what it is now and the only thing that ever differs is which SURPRISE VEGGIE I'm sneaking in for my kids! hahahaha!

So what this recipe entails is making the sauce in an instant pot, combining both ground beef and sausage, several herbs and spices and cooking it low and slow! The best way to cook almost anything actually!

Here's what you'll need:

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb of ground beef

1 lb of ground sausage (any flavor you like)

1 large can of prepared spaghetti sauce (any brand, traditional/plain flavor is best, I use Ragu)

3 small cans of tomato sauce

2 cups of water

4 tsp of garlic powder

3 tsp of onion powder

2 tsp of pink Himalayan salt (link)

4 tsp of black pepper

2 tsp of Avocado oil (link)

1 package of spaghetti noodles

1/2 cup of diced onion (any color)

1/2 cup of diced bell pepper (any color)

2 garlic gloves diced

1/2 cup of any veggie diced (I usually go with squash, zuchinni or something with a very mild flavor)

2 tbsp of butter

1 cup of cheese (either mozzerela, colby jack or any type you prefer)

1/2 cup of Ricotta cheese (optional, if you prefer a creamier sauce)

INSTRUCTIONS:

-Dice your onion, pepper, garlic cloves and surprise veggie into small pieces and put in a sauce pan with the 2 tbsp of butter and caramelize them. You want to cook them on about a 7 heat for 3-5 minutes, don't burn them.

-Add your ground beef and sausage both at the same time to the caramelized veggies, add 1 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of pepper and the 1 tsp of Avocado oil to the meat mixture and break up and cook down the meat mixture.

-After the meat mixture is cooked through, add your can of prepared spaghetti sauce, all your tomato sauce cans and give it a good stir. Then add 1 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of black pepper, 4 tsp of garlic powder and 3 tsp of onion powder. Let this combine and simmer on the stove top at about a heat of 5 for maybe 10 minutes.

-Pour your meat spaghetti sauce into your instant pot and put it on the "stew/meat" setting for 5 hours, adjust it down to the lowest pressure and turn your pressure valve to sealed.

-Once the timer goes off on your Instantpot, start your stock pot of boiling water for your noodles, add 1 tsp of avocado oil to help the noodles separate as they cook and get that turned up to high to bring it to a boil.

-While you're waiting for the noodle water to come to a boil, open your Instant Pot, give it a good stir and add in 2 cups of water, stir it again and then add your 1 cup of cheese of your choice. Mozzarella makes a good compliment to the tomatoes but so does Colby jack and I've tried Gouda in it as well and it was nice! If you want to go for a creamier sauce (less chunky and meaty) you can add 1/2 a cup of ricotta cheese to the sauce at this point as well.

-Put the lid back on the InstanPot and put it on the "stew/meat" setting again and set it for 15 minutes.

-Once your water comes to a boil add your noodles and cook based on package directions, usually 8-10 minutes, pulling the noodles apart and stirring them around every 2-3 minutes. Once done, drain the water off the noodles. Then put them in a big bowl with 1 tsp of butter and stir them around to let the butter coat the noodles.

-Open up your InstanPot when done, stir your sauce and give it a TASTE before you do anything else. At this point you might want to add a touch more salt, pepper, garlic powder or onion powder. Make it however you like it. Once you feel it's perfect you can serve up your spaghetti in separate or combined, in whichever fashion you choose! Enjoy!!!

xoxo,

Elizabeth

#spaghetti #spaghettirecipe #gramasrecipe #instantpot #instantpotrecipe