I Think I Can!

Ever since I moved up to NY, I have been interested in canning.  My (southern) family was never big on it, oddly enough... but it is a way of life up here.  With the amount of delicious fruits and veggies Kevin and I buy at the farmer's market, it seems silly not to try to preserve what we can to enjoy over the winter.  For some reason though, canning has always sort of intimidated me.  I'm just really afraid of screwing it up and wasting all of the yummy food.  Tonight, I decided to finally give it a go.

A coworker of mine brought in some delicious pickled beets a few weeks ago and I went crazy over them!  So, last Saturday I grabbed a huge bag full of fresh beets from the market.  I begged my coworker for her secret and decided to put my skills to the test.  As I type this, my canning project is sitting on the kitchen counter with strict instructions to be left alone for at least 24 hours... so the jury is still out on whether or not I actually made and canned something that is edible.  But... in the hopes that they turned out as delicious as my coworker's, I will go ahead and post the recipe.

Pickled Beets...  You will need:

• Fresh beets (I used about 1/2 a grocery bag full)
• 1 sweet/Vidalia onion 
• 2 cups Sugar
• 2 cups White Vinegar
• 2 cups Water
• Allspice berries or ground Allspice
• Whole Cloves
• 6 canning jars, lids and rings

This yielded 5 cans (pint size, I think?)... but definitely would have made 6 if I hadn't been umm... "quality control testing" the fresh beets while I was skinning them.  :/

Boil beets, whole, for about 10 minutes.  Then skin should easily peel off and they should be softened slightly.  Slice into 1/4 inch thick slices (or whichever size/shape you prefer... smaller ones can be left whole even)

While they are boiling, slice a sweet Vidalia onion into thin slices.

Also, while the beets are boiling, run your cans, lids and rings through the dishwasher (no soap!) on the highest heat setting.  Your jars should be hot when filling them.

In another pot, bring the following to a rolling boil:

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp Allspice or 10-12 Allspice berries (I used whole berries)

Place 2-3 whole cloves in the bottom of each canning jar.  Then layer the beets and onions.

Slowly pour the hot pickling liquid over beets and slide a butter knife around the outside to make sure there are no air bubbles.

Place lid/ring on VERY tight.

Arrange sealed jars in a large stock pot.  And fill with water until the lids are covered.  Bring water up to a rolling boil for 10-12 minutes.  (The jars will rattle around and you will swear they are going to explode, but somehow... it's fine.  I don't get it!?)

Remove the jars and set them on a towel.  Once you have them on the countertop... DO NOT touch them.  At all.  Period.  For 24 hours.

That's it!

It really wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be.

Here's to hoping they are super yummy!!

Roasted Beets and Carrots- A Perfect BLW Recipe

So I brought home this GORGEOUS assortment of fruit and veggies from the Farmer's Market last weekend.  

Don't you just want to dive right in?

Anyway, I have been dying to try this recipe I found on Kraft Foods (my absolute favorite site for quick and easy recipes... seriously... try their "Use What's On Hand section... Brilliant!), for Roasted Beets and Carrots, but I realized I didn't have Catalina dressing.  I improvised in a few other areas as well... mostly because I am terrible at following directions.  Regardless, my version turned out AWESOME!

This is a perfect Baby Led Weaning recipe for a few reasons... 

• Babies LOVE carrots and beets (at least mine does)
• I was able to cut the beets into easy-to-grab chunks and the carrots into thick slices... perfect for baby girl to pick up and feed herself
• The texture was perfect... not mush, but not raw.  The pieces didn't smash or crumble when she picked them up, but they were easy for her to chew
• Mommy liked it too!!  :)

So for my version...

• I used a foil pan instead of foil wrap... I had an extra one on hand and didn't feel like messing with the wrap thing, although a wrap would be fairly simple too.  
• I cleaned, skinned and chopped the beets and carrots at the same time rather than roast the beets whole (this is where I skipped the direction reading part, but it turned out just fine).
• I seasoned the beets with a little ground ginger (I never measure... ever) and roasted them covered with foil in the foil pan for about 45 minutes.
• Then I added in the carrots and tossed both in Russian dressing (Russian... Catalina... same difference, right?  Well, it was what I had on hand and it worked for me).
• I resealed the foil and roasted for another 15 minutes.

It was super simple and really delicious.  I'm sure this is a new family fav.  :)

Can you hear me crunch?

I had an interesting discussion the other night at work that really got me thinking, then I came home and talked about it with Kevin and chatted it over with some mamas in an online group.  This had me doing some serious soul (and pantry) searching, so I thought I would share.

Are you as crunchy as you think you are?

For those with kids... and are you more crunchy since you had kids? 

And... Are you as green as you would like to be?

If you had to guess... what % of the following is "green", organic, natural, etc. Has this changed since you had children? (Of course the baby part will have changed, but the others?)

1. Your food. (home grown, organic and farmer's market type stuff)
2. Your home and car. (solar powered, hybrid, etc)
3. Your clothes/shoes. (Organic, home made)
4. Your baby. (EBF, cloth diaper, natural soaps, lotions and creams, clothes/shoes etc.)
5. Everything else... Cleaning products, beauty products, hair stuff, detergents, soaps, lotions
6. Do you recycle? Repurpose items?

I have to admit that I really thought DH and I were doing really great in our effort to be more "green"... however after some reflection, I realized that we aren't quite as good of a job as I thought we were.

 
1. 30% we buy a lot of fresh fruits and veggies at the farmer's market, but when I opened the pantry to check it out, we had a TON of processed, boxed, packaged foods (mostly pasta, rice, cake mixes, etc) in there. I'm planning to finish what is in there (I HATE wasting food) but make an effort to buy less packaged junk. I also have not made the switch to all organic, grass fed meats yet, mostly because of price. This is something I keep saying I need to just DO, but when I get to the grocery store and see that the good stuff costs 3x as much, I go back to the cheap stuff. I'm disappointed here. I really thought we were doing better.

 
2. 5% Our home is a typical home, nothing green about it. I gave myself 5% for having a pellet stove that we use for heat, but that's it. I drive a gas guzzling SUV so I could probably take away that 5% but it makes me feel better, lol.

 
3. 0% I have maybe 1 or 2 organic/home made items (like scarves)... but not enough to even make a dent. This has not been a priority to me, nor will it ever be I think. Although I do buy a ton of stuff at garage sales or consignment... so maybe I could be generous and give myself 5% here. Maybe.

 
4. 75% Kennedy is much crunchier that I am. She was EBF until we started solids, still BF (never any formula). Her solids are probably 75% organic or natural since I shy away from giving her the boxed crap that I have no problem eating. She is cloth diapered and all of her lotions, soaps, etc are natural/organic. The only area that we are not all organic/natural are her clothes. She has a few organic and a few home made items, but not nearly enough to count for anything.

 
5. 20% In the last 6 months, I have made a big effort to switch over our cleaning products. I switched to Method first, but now I am making most of them myself. I made my own detergent and cleaning solution, I use baking soda and apple cider vinegar for most things. BUT... my soaps, lotions, hair stuff, etc is all store bought (and usually whatever is on sale). My next project is to work on making my own beauty products. Makeup is Target stuff, I don't think I will ever switch to organic, unless is comes down in price.

 
6. 50% We do recycle, but not nearly as much as we should. Maybe 40% on the recycling. We do repurpose often, I am constantly saving bags and boxes and bottles to use for other things. My favorite is the windex bottles that you push down on to make the cleaner pop up (I have to admit I bought this JUST to repurpose the bottle)... I rinsed it out very very good and now use it for my home made cloth wipe solution. It is perfect!!!

So... overall that would give us a 30%.  While we are not anywhere near as green as I would like us to be, I am happy with the changes we have made over the past year or so in our effort to live a healthier life and leave a smaller footprint.  This exercise also helped me to find areas to focus on over the next year so we can continue to make better decisions and positive changes.