I find it so satisfying to sit down to a meal that mostly came from the garden.

Dinner

Carrot salad with carrots from the garden.  Crash hot potatoes with potatoes from the garden.  Kale chips with kale from the garden.  Chicken . . from Brown County Meat Market.

Sourdough Bread

And last . . homemade sourdough bread.  Good eatin’.  I love eating dinner at our house.

For anyone wishing to try making jam for the first time, this is a very simple recipe.  The jars are processed in a water bath canner, simply meaning that you place the jars, with the lids and rings attached, in a pot of water that covers the top of the jars by at least 1/2″ or more of water and boil for the prescribed amount of time.  No pressure canner needed!  The ingredient list is short and it’s common items most of us have in our spice cabinet already.  The jam makes a fairly small batch so you don’t have to buy a lot of fruit and if it fails (though it probably will not), you haven’t lost a lot.

Toast & Jam

This would make a fantastic item to go into a gift basket full of homemade goodies for any occasion.

This recipe is all over the internet so I have no idea who initially came up with the recipe so I cannot give credit.

19 half pints of jam

I made a double batch and it’s delicious . . though I wouldn’t say it tastes like carrot cake, or even carrots.  Vince thought it tasted like apples.

Ingredients

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups grated/shredded carrots
1-1/2 cups finely chopped, peeled pears
1 – 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, in juice, undrained
3 T. lemon juice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
6-1/2 cups sugar
1 package pectin

Simmering

Instructions:

1. Place carrots, pears, pineapple, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and lemon juice in a large pot.  I like to use a Dutch Oven.  It gets to boiling and you need to stir it so have plenty of room so you don’t have to worry about it boiling over.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover and continue cooking for 15 minutes, until pears are tender, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove from heat. Stir in pectin.  Return to a boil, stirring constantly.
4. Stir in sugar.  Continue stirring. Bring to a boil and boil continuously for one full minute.
5. Ladle into clean, sterilized half pint jars.  Using proper canning techniques, attach the lids and rings.
6. Place in water bath canner.  If not using a canner, place something in the bottom so that the jars are not sitting on the bottom of the pot.  You might place them on jar rings or any kind of rack to keep them off the bottom of the pot.  Be sure water is at least 1/2″ above the tops of the jars.
7. Bring water to a boil and boil for 6 minutes.  Remove jars to a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Last night, Vince and I both kept commenting on the difference in home grown versus storebought potatoes.  I suppose it’s the way it is with anything straight from the garden compared to having been picked or dug weeks before serving

Dinner

You can see the roast beef didn’t interest me much.  We’re having potatoes again tonight!

Pulled pork is one of my favorite things to cook in the smoker.  It’s hard to believe we’ve had that smoker for almost 8 years.  Can that be right?  We moved from KY around Christmas, 2006 and I think I got it for Vince for Christmas, 2005.  Time flies!

Pork Butt

If the internal temp doesn’t get at least to 205º, then it’s going to be sliced pork because it will not shred just using two forks.  I don’t like sliced pork nearly as much as I like pulled pork.  It takes about 12 hours for a medium sized pork butt to get to 205º with the cooker set to 225º, which is where I like to cook it.

I figured we would have pulled pork sandwiches for lunch yesterday so I put it on the smoker about 9 p.m. Wednesday night.  The smoker is under the carport at the shop, which is about 50′ from the house.  Last night, it was about midnight before I went to bed and I was smelling that smokin’ pork butt and it was making me so hungry.  The wind was blowing (always!) and the smell was sneaking right into the house .. the same way all that dust sneaks right in.

Yesterday morning I was working in the garden, thinking the pork butt would be ready about 10:45 a.m., just in time for Vince to get home a little after 11 for lunch.  At 10:40, when I stopped working in the garden and went to get it, the internal temp was about 190º.  No way that was going to pull and I did not want it sliced.  I quickly . . very quickly . . made chicken salad for lunch.

It was about 3 p.m. before the internal temp in the pork butt reached 205º, so I wrapped it in foil, turned the heat in the smoker down to 100º and left it there til time for dinner.

Pulled Pork

It was perfect!  Fork tender.  Shredded just the way I like it.  There’s a little bit of “bark” . . also just the way I like it.  The leftovers will be used for enchiladas or go into baked beans or maybe some tamales.

Good eating at our house last night!