Carrot Cake Jam

This is the life of a stay-at-home mom: "The laundry is done, the floors are clean (for now), one kid is outside and one is napping, what should I do? Hmmm...make jam!"
Let me be clear, I do not like jam and I do not like Carrot Cake. Not one bit. But my husband does, so he benefits from my strange cooking binges. Even with my aversion to both parts of this concoction, I must admit it is pretty darn good. Spread this on a bagel with cream cheese and you will be glad you did.

You will need:

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1 1/2 cups peeled, sliced pears
20 oz. can of crushed pineapple with juice
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon powdered clove
1 pkg. pectin
6 1/2 cups sugar

**If you want to can this jam, start warming the jars now! See below for more info.

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large saucepan, simmer for about 15 minutes until the pears are soft. Stir if you are worried about anything sticking.

Remove from heat, stir in pectin. Bring to a boil, add sugar. Stir, bring to a rolling boil for one minute. At this point the jam is done. It is up to you if you want to can this or refrigerate this. This will make about 7 or 8 half pints.

**Canning jam is easy. If you have never canned before, this is a good place to start. Wash jars. Put just jars in canner, cover with water, start it boiling!**

Place lids in a bowl or pan with hot, not boiling, water until ready. OK...now your jelly is done and your jars are warm. Fill them up! One at a time, of course. Remove one jar from the canner, fill it almost to the top, wipe the lip, put the lid on, and tighten a band around it. Put it back in the water bath and repeat until you are out of jam. Make sure your canner water is boiling, and if it is, you are ready to go! Cover and process for 10 minutes.

When the jars are done, let them cool for awhile and you can check if they are 'done' by seeing if the tops pop. If they do, then your canning didn't stick and you will have to refrigerate the unsealed jars.

You can find some variations of this on line, have you tried different ingredients?

Slow roasted tomatoes

I don't know what the deal is with tomatoes this summer. I usually have tons by now...
So, the random tomato harvest has led to improvisation. I like to can the tomatoes, but canning 2 pints at a time hardly seems worth it. So I tried pickling some cherry tomatoes (eh, not great) and roasting some.
There are a few random tomatoes thrown in: Better Boys, Romas, and cherry.
These are great to keep in the fridge or freeze for later use. You really can't can these unless you are wanting a sauce consistency. They will fall apart during the canning process.
You will need:
Tomatoes! Whatever you have lying around.
Salt
Pepper
4-5 cloves garlic unpeeled
Some onion
Olive oil

Heat oven to 300°.

Cut small tomatoes in half, quarter Roma sized tomatoes, cut larger ones in eighths. Lay on a baking sheet with a few onion slices if you like and unpeeled garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 2 hours.

For freezing, allow the tomatoes to cool and freeze in 1 cup portions in freezer bags. They will add nice flavor to sauces or stews during the cold winter months! You can use them fresh for a nice spread on crusty bread or in a salad.

Use for anything pulled pork

This is a basic crock pot pork recipe. What is great about this is that it is an excellent base. What I mean is that you can keep this in the fridge and use it for several very diverse meals. We used it two nights, first night I made gravy and mashed potatoes. Second night I simmered the leftovers in Pepsi (don't use Coke) and salsa, broiled them and served up delicious carnitas.

You will need:

3-4 pound pork loin roast
1 pink lady apple (or honey crisp) thinly sliced
*1 onion, diced
*3 cloves garlic, crushed
*Parsley
1 cup chicken broth
Salt, pepper

Salt and pepper meat. Brown on all sides over medium- high heat.

Combine starred ingredients.

Pour chicken broth in crock. Place roast in crock. Put a few slits in the roast large enough for the apple slices. Put apples in the slices. Top with onion/garlic/parsley mix. Cook on low for 6 hours.

You can shred this pork when cooked, with apples or without; with onions or without. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this so I took the apples out.

I would also recommend this pork with BBQ sauce on a Hawaiian roll. Yum.