How To Make Herbal Mustards, Pickles And Sauces

Mustards

Mustards are delicious and give a lift to all sorts of savory foods. We all know the English, French and German varieties, but these recipes give them an extra lift and would make marvelous gifts for a mustard lover.

Minty Mustards

1 8oz jar wholegrain coarse mustard
4 tsp dry mint leaves, finely crumbled

Mix these two ingredients well and either return the mixture to the original jar or put it in smaller jars to give as part of a set of small mustards.

Tarragon Mustard with Vermouth

large handful fresh tarragon leaves
4 oz chopped spring onions
2 8 oz jars Dijon mustard
1 tbsp dry vermouth

Chop the tarragon leaves well and add the spring onions, mustard and vermouth. Mix together very thoroughly. Pour into a clean jar and seal with a tight-fitting lid. This mustard can be stored in the refrigerator for about one month.

Pickles

Pickles can add their own special zing to a meal and are particularly good with cold cuts of meat or poultry. Most vegetables will pickle, so here are some recipes that are especially good.

Dilly Cucumbers

24 small ridge cucumbers
5 pints water
1/2 pint vinegar
4 oz sea salt
1 large handful fresh dill heads
1 large or several small chili peppers

Soak the cucumbers overnight in a solution of salt and water, using 8 oz of sea salt to every pint of water. Then boil together the water, vinegar and sea salt and allow to cool. Drain the cucumbers and arrange in clean canning jars interspersed with layers of dill heads. The cucumbers can be left whole or cut into slices. Add a small chili pepper or pieces of a larger one to each jar. Cover with the vinegar solution and secure the lids.

Sweet Pickled Onions

2 lb pickling onions
1 bunch tarragon
1 bunch mint
1 bunch sweet chervil
4 oz sea salt
1 pint cider vinegar
6 oz granulated sugar

Peel the onions then arrange them on a tray, sprinkle with the sea salt and leave overnight. Carefully wipe all the salt and moisture off the onions and place in clean jars. Put a couple of sprigs of each herb in every jar. Heat the vinegar and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved, then leave to cool. Pour the vinegar over the onions, leaving a very small amount of room in the top of each jar. Secure the lids of the jars. The onions will be ready in about two to three weeks but are a lot tastier after about six to eight weeks, if you can wait that long!

Mint and Tomato Chow Chow

6 average tomatoes
1 onion
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
1/2 pint cider vinegar
2 tbsp finely chopped mint

Peel the tomatoes by placing them in boiling water for a few seconds and then carefully removing the skins. Peel the onion and chop the tomatoes and onion finely. Put all the ingredients in a lidded casserole dish and cook at 300F until the onion is quite tender (about one to two hours). Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Pour into wide-mouthed jars and cover each jar with a circle of waxed paper, then cover with cellophane and add a label.

Mint Relish

1 pint mint leaves
1 lb onions, peeled and chopped
1 lb apples, peeled and chopped
1/2 lb green tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 lb sultanas (gold raisins)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp French mustard
1 pint white wine vinegar
1 lb granulated sugar

Heat 1/4 pint of vinegar with the sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved. Leave to cool. Place the remaining vinegar in a saucepan with the salt and mustard. Put the green tomatoes in a food processor for a few seconds until they are mushy, then add to the saucepan. Repeat the process with the mint leaves, apples, onions and sultanas, adding them all to the saucepan. Then simmer all the ingredients until soft. Pour in the vinegar and sugar mixture. Boil the mixture for a couple of minutes and then leave to cool a little. Pour the relish into warm clean jars and cover with waxed paper circles. When completely cool, add cellophane lids and labels.

7 Homemade Spa Treatment options from Vacation Leftovers

From turkey enchiladas, to mashed potato fritters, we're constantly seeking for methods to place our holiday leftovers to excellent use. But what if we stopped shoveling it in and started off shoveling it on? Why not nurture your dry, winter skin with seasonal eats? And don't be concerned, we're not speaking a gravy mask or mashed potato soak, these spa treatment options are so indulgent you'll neglect their former glory fully.

If you want to glow even when it's gray outdoors, antioxidant-laden meals are a need to. Clear away on your own from the rush of the holiday season and program a DIY spa day with foods leftover from a holiday of indulgent eats. You'll really feel refreshed and prepared to get on the New Year.

1. Pumpkin Enzyme Masque
You built way too a lot pumpkin pur??e for that joyous pumpkin pie, homemade pumpkin pasta, or creamy pumpkin bisque but don't fret due to the fact it's the major ingredient to this soothing Pumpkin Enzyme Mas que. Also, pumpkin helps battle the dry winter air with Nutritional vitamins A and C, as nicely as zinc and helpful alpha-hydroxy acids. I would go with homemade pumpkin pur??e so that you know that your pur??e didn't shed any important enzymes for the duration of the canning course of action.

Pumpkin Enzyme Masque
? cup pumpkin pur??e
1 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tsp grated fresh new ginger
3 tsp honey
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

System
Combine all the elements collectively in a blender or with a wooden spoon. Use a thick layer all more than your encounter, getting mindful to stay clear of the eyes and mouth. Keep it on your deal with for about 10 minutes and then gently eliminate with a wash cloth and warm soapy h2o.

2. Homemade Cranberry Lip Gloss

How to Organize Your Favorite Recipes

Recipes: Most of us have a collection of family recipes we like to use and some we would like to try. Getting those recipes organized can be a challenge. Try creating your own family recipe book. Take an ordinary binder and add page protectors for full page ones and photo album inserts that will fit other sizes. These will help protect them from splattered ingredients and is a great way to hold them in place.

Another way to add recipes to your binder is to use ordinary loose leaf paper so you can tape each one to the papers inside the binder. Use whatever works to keep them in place. You can also insert dividers to separate each one into categories. Some category suggestions are... Appetizers & Snacks, Beverages, Breads, Cakes & Frostings, Candy & Ice Creams, Cookies, Desserts, Eggs, Cheese, Legumes/Casseroles, Fish & Shell Fish, Freezing & Canning, Meat & Lasagnas, Pasta, Rice & Grains, Pies & Pizza, Poultry & Chicken Entrees, Salads & Dressings, Sauces, Relishes, Salsas & Dips, Soups, Stews & Stir Fry, Vegetables, Special Helps and Miscellaneous. Binders can be very useful because they can easily be updated by adding or removing recipes at any time.

It also helps to write comments on or next to the recipes that you have tried (who liked them and how good it was on a scale of 1 - 10). Toss out the ones that no one liked; why keep them? Try to set aside one night each week to try a new recipe and see how fast you go through all those recipes you've always wanted to try. After you have tried each new recipe, immediately choose another recipe to try, that way you will have time to shop for the ingredients before you try out the next one the following week.

Water-bath Canning Vs. Pressure Canning

When choosing how to pickle or what pickle recipe's you would like to try, there are a number of things you want to keep in mind. One of those things is which canning method you would like to use. Home canning is a very simple process that can be done in two ways: pressure canning, or water-bath canning. Pressure canning is a process that requires a pressure canner, which can be often times, be expensive. You may however be able to find a cheap one with a little bit of hunting through garage sales or flea markets. Water-bath canning, on the other hand, can be done using only a couple of simple tools. We will assume that you will be using a water-bath canning method. The following article will explain this particular method.

Firstly, of course you will need a water-bath canner. You must make sure it is deep enough to hold enough water to submerge your canning jars by at least 1 inch. You will also need your canning jars, screw-on bands, and canning lids. It is the much-less-expensive, tried-and-true way of canning. It is a way of preserving hundreds of foods, including salsa, jam, jelly, pickled fruits and vegetables, as well as relish for hundreds of years. It is a great canning method for beginners, or avid canners.

A water-bath canner is basically a large pot with a rack that will hold up to seven mason quart jars or up to sixteen pint jars. By using a large stock pot and being creative with wire, one could improvise a rack to create their own water bath canner. As long as the jars avoid direct heat from the burner and are completely submersed in the water, a number of crafty setups could be used. If you would like to save the trouble of rigging your own, they can be readily purchased at many locations or online.

Canning Homemade Salsa Recipes Requires Special Care!

When working with canned salsa recipes special care is required because there is a health risk if not done properly. Because of the bacteria which grows in improperly canned food, the central nervous system can be damaged, and even death can result in the worst case, when this bacteria is consumed in small quantities.

Since most salsa recipes contain a mixture of low-acid foods such as onions and chiles, an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar must be added to prevent the growth of this bacteria. Special care must be taken to ensure that they contain enough of this acid to be processed safely in a boiling water canner.

When following canned salsa recipe instructions, make sure to follow them exactly. Use the amounts of each vegetable listed in the recipe and add the amount of vinegar or lemon juice listed.

Do not can salsas that do not follow these or other research tested recipes. Remember that you always have the option of freezing or refrigerating the salsa.

Living Off the Land

For some the phrase living off the land brings back an audio memory of a song from the 1970s; Dog Named Boo by Lobo. For others it means foraging and companionship farming. In the beginning of time all people lived off the land, hunting and gathering food. Eventually people learned how to grow crops and raise animals for food. These agricultural societies were dependent upon the land for their existence.

Living off the land, can mean learning how to grow food plants easily without employing high till, soil eroding methods requires that you give up the idea of neat rows of growing plants with dirt paths between them. A large amount of time is spent pulling weeds from traditional gardens. Weeds that are usually edible and give back nutrients that food plants remove from the soil.

American Indians used a method for producing three staple vegetables that they called the Three Sisters. Using primitive stone and bone tools they would prepare the soil in a circle. They would mound up the dirt. In the center would they would plant corn. Close to the corn seed they would plant three bean seeds. Around the edge of the mound they would plant squash. As the corn grew the bean stalks would wind around the stalk of the corn. As the squash grew, the large leaves would help retain the moisture from the rains to keep all three growing strong. Each plant uses different nutrients from the soil and puts back what the other plants need. Each species contributed to the well being of the other.

Homemade Canning - Pickling and Canning Is A Great Family Project

As a youngster my grandmother used to treat me and my mom to delicious canned vegetables gently heated up on the stove. Even though I was pretty young then, I still remember the delicious blend of tomatoes, zucchini, onions, garlic, and hot peppers she put into her jars. Later on as an adult, I learned how to can vegetables from friends of mine who were all in their 60's. Now as an adult on my own, I prefer homemade canning to store-bought, and it saves money!
Why You Should Can and Pickle
In a world of prepackaged foods and processed fast foods, we often opt for the quick and easy. Not only are we missing out on important nutrients, we are also spending more than we need to on food with empty calories.
In addition to saving money and improving our health through eating home canned fruits and vegetables, homemade canning can turn into family time. It is a chance to teach youngsters the wonders of home-canned foods, and possibly homegrown foods, as well as a great time to spend with the family as you get together to clean, chop, and cook fruits and vegetables and of course, gossip about your lives.