Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam...

Mother Nature is still serving up beautiful tomatoes for us, so I put up a beautiful batch of Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam yesterday. The result was ten jars of goodness and it only took about three hours, start to finish.

This recipe came from Marisa McClellan's cookbook, Preserving By The Pint. I purposely kept the jam slightly on the liquid side, because we use it as barbeque sauce. It's smoky, sweet, full a flavor, with just a touch of heat. Marisa's recipe calls for cherry tomatoes, but we used regular tomatoes and cooked them longer to reduce the liquid. It was perfect.

She also has a great recipe for green tomato salsa, so I know what I'll be doing with any of my tomatoes the fail to ripen before the weather turns.

If you do canning, Marisa caters to people who live in small spaces, or who don't have a lot of storage area. Sometimes you just want a pint or two, and her recipes are geared to small batch canning. HERE's a link in case you're interested in getting your own copy, (or you can click on the book title above to get to the same page).

Handsome let me know it's time to bake bread again. He's really helpful these days, lifting my big flour container so I can measure out a batch, and then helping lift the big proofing bowl in and out of the oven. He also dumps the dough onto the island so I can turn and fold, and then he puts it back into the oven until the timer signals it's ready to repeat. Once I get the dough into the bread pans, he can go on break, but I really couldn't bake bread in the usual quantities without him.

I'm also working on a new embroidery that I'll share tomorrow, and I'll debut the giveaway information on Saturday, so be sure to come back so you can enter.

A Gift...

It's easy to forget how blessed Handsome and I are to live where we do. Then, one day, you find a veritable bounty right outside your door. Such was the case this weekend. 

I was walking around the yard with my leashed Corgi at my side. He'd been dragging me all over tarnation and I was beginning to get a little cross with him. He really wanted to run, but the leash kept him in check. I figured the least I could do was let him explore to find just the right spot. He pulled me over to the old apple tree, and I'm so glad he did!

I've been neglecting the planting area between the apple tree and the large lilac bush for the past few years. I tell myself I need to cut back the weeds and tidy it up, but now I'm happy about that. If I'd been keeping it open, the birds wouldn't have planted seeds of their own, and I wouldn't have a volunteer black raspberry patch! It's abundant, too!

I stopped to pick and taste a few berries and found them to be very tasty, so after Tag was through with his meanderings, I took him back to the house and grabbed a bowl. I proceeded to pick until the bowl was full, and then went inside to see about a recipe for preserves.

I have a great cookbook I've told you about before called "Preserving By The Pint" by Marisa McClellan. I was tickled to find that she, indeed, had a small batch recipe for Black Raspberry Preserves. Based on the weight of the ripe berries I'd harvested, I can make two half-pint jars of preserves.

They've been cleaned and dried, so this morning, I'll make up the small batch while I'm waiting for my bread dough to rise. It won't take that long to make the preserves and I can water bath the jars between "stretching and pulling" my dough. Handsome has a concert in the park tonight, so I'll get everything done with time to spare.

By the end of the day, I'll have fresh loaves of bread, and preserves to spread on a few slices! The best part is that there are still lots of berries to ripen, and I'll be able to make more jam, while still leaving some behind for my feathered friends. After all, it's because of them that we have these beautiful berries in the first place.

Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam…

Brynwood Needleworks - Eight Pounds of Chopped Tomatoes

Sunday was a productive day. Lawn mowed, and then I chopped eight pounds of beautiful Roma tomatoes (grown in Shelley’s and my gardens) to make a double batch of Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam. (The recipe is in Marisa McClellan’s “Preserving By The Pint” cookbook.)

I made this recipe last year, and had to do it again. It’s a simple recipe, calling for tomatoes, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, ground ginger, red pepper flakes and (optional cayenne pepper, which I leave out). 

Brynwood Needleworks - Five Hours Later

Once all the ingredients are well mixed in the pot, they go on the stove to cook down to a jam consistency. The recipe calls for 45 minutes, single batch, cooked in a metal pan. As mine was a double batch, I used my jam pot, and it took five hours to cook down. Her recipe calls for cherry tomatoes, so I’m figuring our Romas accounted for the increased juice/cooking time. 

Brynwood Needleworks - Three Jars of Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam

I managed to fill three pint jars and then processed them in a fifteen minute water bath. The farmhouse smelled great, and now we have homemade barbecue sauce or a tasty topping for hamburgers, brats, hot dogs, or anything you’d like to have a smoky barbecue flavor.
Tag will be back tomorrow, and I’ll see you again Wednesday. It’s going to be a busy week. After coffee, I’ll be off and running. See you later…

We Make A Great Team...

Brynwood Needleworks - Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam

 

My productive weekend never would have happened without the help Handsome gave me. Before my surgery, we went to the Oshkosh area and purchased a bushel of tomatoes at a great price. Nearly fifty pounds of these red beauties yielded half a shelf of crushed tomatoes, many jars of tomato ketchup, and multiple jars of salsa. It was so nice to see all that goodness in our pantry, but only half of the tomato shelf was filled.

Brynwood Needleworks - Crushed Tomatoes In Pantry

 

One week post-op, I asked Handsome if he would help me with another bushel so that shelf would be full as we head into the cold weather. He agreed, so I contacted the same seller and we went back for another bushel on Friday morning. I need his help whenever anything over five pounds needs to be lifted, as that's my biggest restriction for a month after the surgery.

He lifted every single thing I needed all weekend (and beyond). He brought all the canning supplies I needed upstairs from my storage area in the basement, he measured all the tomatoes (20# per batch), and helped me load and unload my pots and the canner all day.

Brynwood Needleworks - Marisa McClellan's Canning Book

By the end of the day on Saturday, we'd processed just over forty pounds of red goodness, and added fifteen quarts of crushed tomatoes, plus two quarts of "mostly juice" (for soups or to add to roasts). Not only did we fill the rest of that shelf, but I had to move into another shelf space for the rest.

Sunday, I took four pounds and made a recipe I've been thinking about for months. I belong to the "Food In Jars" Facebook group, founded by Marisa McClellan, and they've all be raving about this recipe. I had to try it! I made her Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam (included in Marisa's Preserving By The Pint cookbook).

Now I know what all the other canners who've made this recipe know. It's delicious! Four pounds yielded four half-pints (one jar missing in the photograph, because that one was actually our test jar at dinner time last night) of tasty, smoky/sweet jam.

In case you're wondering, this jam can be used on a charcuterie tray as a condiment, on hamburgers or sausages, and after tasting, I can't wait to use it as a sauce on baby back ribs! Ladies in the group say it makes a great pizza sauce, too. So many applications!

So, we went through all those tomatoes, and I admit I'm tired. But, I can say, I'm not hurting, and Handsome was my hero as we did this project together all weekend. I'm feeling pretty chuffed at our shared accomplishments. We make a great team.