Showing posts with label preserving food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preserving food. Show all posts

How to Make Roasted Red Peppers

Roasted Red Pepper Recipes

How to make Roasted Red Peppers

My cousins, Jim and Carmie are as passionate as I am about preserving old family recipes and creating new ones. This easy Roasted Red Peppers Recipe is just one example.

 If you've read some of my previous posts you'll see that I've called on them before to help clarify an old recipe.

Not many people can do this outside on their grill in January, but they live in Arizona and the temperature was 80 degrees.  Much warmer than here in Western New York. Following is their simple process of roasting Red Peppers for our enjoyment.

Roasted Red Peppers by Jim and Carmie

We have been making our own ROASTED PEPPERS for over 40 years and finally decided to write down our process and capture it on film as best as possible.

First, we start with a bushel of red bell or pimento peppers. You can do 3 or 4 peppers or as many as you feel comfortable with. It’s simple, all you need is your gas grill.

 Place the peppers on the grill with the grill set on high (no need to wash them) and then cook until they're burnt and blistered.

 Place the cooked peppers in a large pot and keep covered. Continue until all the peppers are cooked.
Next, you’ll need news paper, a small bowl of water, and a large bowl. Lay the news paper out on a table. The table can be uncovered or if you prefer you can use an old table cloth. (We use an old table cloth.)

 Start by peeling the skin from the peppers, then open the peppers and remove the stem, seed pod, and all the seeds. Then tear the pepper into large sections. One to three sections and place in the large bowl. 
make roasted red peppers
(We have found that dipping the pepper into a bowl of water prior to peeling makes the process easier and that two people makes this easier also – one peeling and the other deseeding and tearing into strips.) Be careful during this process as the juice from the peppers will be hot.
roasted red pepper recipe
After peeling, deseeding and tearing all the peppers into strip’s we divide them into one-quart ziplock storage bags and add a heaping teaspoon of chopped garlic to each bag. 

The peppers will yield their own oil and as you bag them the oil will transfer automatically. Lay the bags flat on a cookie sheet and freeze.
preserving roasted red peppers
 Keep frozen until ready to serve. Thaw either in a microwave or allow them to come to room temperature.

 They are great by themselves, as a side dish or in a sandwich. Season to your taste with salt and pepper when serving.

The bushel of peppers we used contained 68 peppers and yielded 13-quart bags. The whole process took about 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Check out these Grilled Stacked Veggies made with roasted red peppers.


As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy!

How to Can Tomatoes

easy recipe canning tomatoes


Every spring I help my daughter Jamie plant a small garden. This year Jamie planted about a dozen tomato and pepper plants, some onions, and fresh basil.

This gave us plenty of fresh tomatoes and peppers into the late summer months. Last season Jamie decided that she wanted to do some canning. I was so excited and offered my help right away, as I hadn’t canned anything in years.

Although we had some tomatoes and hot peppers left from her garden, we wanted more, so we proceeded to go out and buy more. We decided that two more boxes of tomatoes would do the trick, and the following is how we did it.

With the tomatoes from her garden and the two boxes we purchased we figured that we had a bushel or more.

Instructions for Canning Tomatoes

We didn't have our old family recipe, so we used the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving as a reference. This book was a great help. We didn’t have a pressure cooker and this book walked us through the process.
  Step 1 

Tomatoes in ice water

We put the tomatoes in boiling water for 60 seconds, and then put them in ice water; this process makes it easy to remove the skin and the core of the tomato. Then we cut the tomatoes into quarters and put them in bowls. We did this all by hand.

Step 2

Preparing the canning jars

After washing the jars in soapy water and thoroughly rinsing them we added: 2-Tablespoons of Lemon Juice and 1-Teaspoon of pickling salt to each jar. Then we filled the jars with the cut tomatoes and packed them down tightly.

Step 3

Remove the air bubbles from the jars

After the tomatoes were packed in the jars we ladled in boiling water until it was just over the top of the tomatoes.

Then Jamie worked out the air bubbles with that handy little tool that you see in the picture by pushing all around the jar. Wipe the mouth of the jars clean. Place the lid, rubber side down and screw on the ring to secure the lid

 Step 4

home canning tomatoes hot pack


We then put the jars in boiling water making sure there are at least two inches of water over the tops of the jars, cover the pot with a lid and boil for 55 minutes.
Lift the jars out of the pot using a jar lifter, let them sit for 48 hours, look at the center lid of the jar, it should be concave after this process.

The Finished Product

Finished jars of canned tomatoes

We yielded 26 quarts of tomatoes for the day. Now we'll have fresh tomatoes for pasta, salsa, and chili.
This was our big weekend of canning, we had so much fun.

I hope you enjoyed our method of canning tomatoes. Please feel free to leave any of your tips for canning in the comments.


As always thanks for stopping by.

How to Preserve Hot or Sweet Peppers

Preserving hot peppers


Get your gardens ready and be sure to plant plenty of hot and sweet banana peppers. If you don’t plant a garden you can buy a plentiful supply of peppers at any local farmers market. This is an easy wat to preserve hot peppers without canning.

I like hot peppers on pizza, sandwiches, and even in salads. This is a simple brine, and it's so easy to make, for preserving hot and sweet peppers so you can enjoy them all year long.

We especially enjoy finding the hot banana peppers, and cutting them into rings. I pack the peppers and seeds tightly into every jar. Add you garlic and seasoning, then pour in the brine. Top off with olive oil and close the tightly.

In about two weeks you'll be enjoying tasty hot peppers for whatever you choose to put them on, it’s that easy to preserve hot peppers without canning.

 Now here is all that you need to make the brine:

·  1/2 white vinegar to 1/2 water (equal amounts) we used 4 cups of each

Now add these ingredients to the jars:

·  1 tsp of salt
·  1/2 tsp. of Oregano or Italian seasoning
·  3 cloves of Garlic, per one jar
· Olive oil (we use light olive oil)

Instructions To Preserve Hot Peppers:
  1. Boil the brine for 25 minutes, and then let it cool
  2. While the brine is cooling, cut the hot peppers into rings, about 1/4" or more  (Be sure to wear gloves)
  3. Add the salt and oregano to the bottom of each the jar
  4. Pack the peppers tight into the canning jars (you can use pint or quart jars)
  5. While you're packing add cloves of fresh garlic (we added 3 per jar)
  6. Pour the cool brine into the jars to cover the peppers. Just enough to cover the tops.
  7. Add the 2 tablespoons of oil on top of the brine
  8. Seal the jar and give it a few shakes to mix it up well.
  9. Wait two weeks before using
  10. Enjoy!!!

Preserving hot peppers
Here are the simple ingredients for the brine


Preserving hot peppers
Cut your peppers into rings and pack them tightly in the jars

 Tip: After you empty your jars of these amazing peppers save the garlic in the jar. Now you can use the garlic for cooking.


As always thanks for stopping by and enjoy.

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