Everyone who grows a garden eventually asks themselves do I can my produce or do I freeze it. It seems that all the new preppers like to can all their food because they don't have to worry about the electricity going off one day. If you freeze your produce and the power goes off you'll lose your frozen foods.
Great Information On Canning Vegetables
If your looking for great information on canning your harvest then you need to check out the below link.
Click Here For Information On Canning What You Grow
Don't for get that you can also use a food dehydrator and preserve a lot of your gardens harvest that way. You can also make deer or beef jerky and also dry fruits. Dried apples are oh so delicious and fried apple pies made out of dried apples in the middle of the winter are oh so delicious.
Click Here To Learn To Can Tomatoes
Stewed Okra And Tomatoes
When I was a kid one of the things I looked forward to was homemade stewed okra and tomatoes. We usually had it over at my Grandma's house and it was served over homemade biscuits. You know it was over 50 years ago but I can still almost taste and smell how delicious those homemade stewed okra and tomatoes were over my Grandma's homemade biscuits.
Recipe For Stewed Okra And Tomatoes
1. One Pound Fresh Okra With The Ends Cut Off And Then Sliced Thin.
2. One 10 Ounce Rotel Tomatoes With Chilies.
3. One Eight Ounce Can Tomato Sauce.
4. One Half Teaspoon Ground Sea Salt.
5. One Level teaspoon Ground Black Pepper.
Wash your fresh okra and then cut the very ends of the okra pods off where it was connected to the plant. Then slice the okra up thin.
Put all the ingredients into a small stock pot and cook for about one hour on medium. You'll end up with wonderful tasting okra and tomatoes. If you want to you can buy about a dozen fresh ears of corn and slice the kernels off your corn and then scrape the corn cobs off into the pot. If you add the corn add 2 cups of chicken stock and cook down the corn, okra, and tomatoes until slightly thickened.
My Grandmother Hattie Propst and my Mom Virginia Walker made the corn, okra, and tomatoes and put up at least a hundred cans of it every year.
In the winter both fine cooks would fry out hamburger meat and fine chopped onions and then they would add the cooked and drained hamburger to a couple of quart jars of the corn, okra, and tomatoes and we would have the most delicious homemade soup over cornbread. Oh man it was so good.
Red Beans And Rice
I remember almost every Monday we would have red beans and rice. I've made red beans and rice all my life. I remember how good the red beans and rice my Grandma would make would taste.
Ingredients For Red Beans
Take a pound of red beans the night before and carefully check them for any small rocks or dirt. Then wash the beans well with cold running water while the beans are in a colander.
The next morning you can drain the water off your red beans and then add the beans and the below to a large slow cooker or crock pot.
1. One Cup Each Bell Pepper, Sweet Onion, And Celery all diced very fine.
2. One Pound Andouille Sausage Sliced Thin.
3.One Teaspoon Dried Thyme.
4. One Teaspoon Dried Oregano.
5. One Teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper.
6. One Teaspoon Ground Sea Salt.
7. One Teaspoon Dried Parsley Flakes.
Once all your ingredients are in the crock cover completely with water.
If you'll check your supermarket or grocery store probably carries Andouille Sausage. I know I can find it here in North Carolina. If you can't find it use Kielbasa Sausage.
Turn the crock pot or slow cooker on on high and cook about eight hours tightly covered. Keep a eye on the pot to make sure your beans don't cook dry. If they get too thick or too dry add more water. Also be sure to stir often.
My Grandmother always seved the red beans over hot buttered rice with cornmeal muffins on the side. She also often diced green onions up including the tops and served them on the side so people could add what they wanted to their serving of red beans and rice.
In the old south and New Orleans Monday's were usually wash day and the meal served that day was usually red beans and rice because the women could cook the red beans and rice while they did the wash. Often the bone and left over ham from Sunday's dinner was used in the red beans.