Grinding my own meat

Last year, my sister and I came across the grinder attachment for the kitchen aid.  I couldn't believe it!  You know what I couldn't believe more??  That the price was only $5.00.  That's right - $5.00! Oh, and it was also brand new.  So, never mind the fact I hadn't been looking for one - I HAD to have it just for the price alone. 😁

So, alas for a year, I've been wanting to try this out, but there really wasn't a need.  We used to buy part of a cow before we moved out to Arkansas, and so up until a few months ago, we were still enjoying that.

So last week was finally the week!  I had bought a 2.01 lb chuck roast shoulder on sale for $6.  Out of that, I got 1.11 lbs of ground beef.

I know you are figuring out the math right at this moment and saying - I don't know about this (The fact is yes it does make the ground beef a bit pricey at $5.41/lb) The process was super easy, not that messy, and the end result was a much, much higher quality food in Mr. Homemade Canner's opinion.

You might be wondering how it's done.  The Kitchenaid's Direction booklet recommended having the meat partially frozen (which was actually already done for me since I froze it immediately when I got home since it was going to expire soon!).

From there, you cut it into sections so that the grinder can do it's job.  It also said to make sure the mixer was on level 4.  And then away it goes - Yes it really was just that simple!!
For ground beef, it is recommended to put it through the grinder twice.

Here's the results before it turned into tacos!

The possibilities of this gadget are endless!!  The directions also showed how you can do nuts and veggies with this handy device.....

Looking forward to you comments as to what food I should try this out on next!



Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!


***Disclaimer - I'm not being paid or compensated in any way by Kitchen Aid for this review.



                                                                 
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Canning Strawberry Butter Recipe

As you know, I recently posted about canning Strawberry Syrup & I had leftover strawberry pulp.  I asked some friends what to do with this pulp, and one of them recommended Strawberry Butter.
So that's exactly what I decided to try!  And man oh man - am I ever happy that I did!  It is scrumptious!!!!!We  had friends visiting from out of state and so we were able to try this on biscuits.  The whole jar was gobbled up!!
Go ahead, try this recipe so you can have it at your next brunch.


Strawberry Butter Recipe

2 cups strawberry pulp (roughly 12 cups strawberries)
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

To get the pulp, first wash and hull 12 cups of strawberries.  Add the berries to a pot of 1/2 - 1 cup of water.  Boil for 5-10 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Place in a colander to drain for several hours if you wish, or press as much juice out as you can,  The pulp is what is leftover in the colander.  (Need a recipe for the juice?  Click here.)
Put pulp back into stock pot.  Add in the sugar and lemon juice.  Mix well.  Cook the mixture on low and let it thicken.  For me, this didn't take but maybe 30 minutes.  But it will all depend on how thick or thin you want your butter.
When it is the consistency you want - ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.  Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Enjoy this on biscuits, sliced bread, muffins, pancakes, & waffles!!

Looking forward to hearing if you like this recipe as much as I do!

As always, if you have a recipe you want me to try for you - leave a comment below!

Thanks for reading & happy canning 😊

The BEST Strawberry Syrup you will ever have!

There is nothing more delicious than homemade Strawberry Syrup.  Envision it over some delicious waffles, pancakes, crepes, or ice cream.  Do I have you hungry yet?  I hope so!
For several years I have been on the hunt of a good strawberry syrup.  And this year was finally THE year!  It's a crowd pleaser so far, and that is with just a dozen or so that has tried it so far!  So go ahead, try it out for yourself.

First you want to wash, hull & cut the strawberries into fourths.  Measure them out to at least 6 cups.

Now put them into a large pot with a small amount of water - around 1/2 a cup or so.  Boil them for 5-10 minutes, then reduce to simmer for 20 minutes.  Dump them into a colander.   I put the colander over a measuring cup to make it easier to see that I have hopefully around 2 cups of juice.  You can leave them in the colander for several hours to drain, or you can speed up the process like I love to do😉

Now add your juice to a large pot (I reuse the pot I boiled them in) - and add sugar & lemon juice.  Bring these to a boil.
While this is starting to boil, mix your water and clear jel in a separate container.  Once the juice boils, add the clear jel mixture & stir while boiling for 1 minute.  It will really start to thicken because of the clear jel.
Ladle into your jars, wipe the rim, lid and water bath for 15 minutes.

Presto!!!  Strawberry syrup is made!!!

🍓Happy Canning!!!

Strawberry Syrup
1 batch yields roughly 28 oz 

6 cups of washed, hulled, and quartered strawberries

1/2 cup water

3/4 -1 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/3 cup water

2 1/2 tbs Clear Jel

Place strawberries and around 1/2 cup water in pot.  Bring to boil and let boil for no more than 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Reduce to simmering for 20 minutes.  You are breaking down the berries to get as much juice extracted from them as possible.  Now place them in a colander over a measuring cup. Let drain for a couple hours, or like I do - speed up the process by stirring them up.  You need at least 2 cups of juice.

Now take your strained juice and put in a pot (I reuse the pot I just boiled them in).  Add your sugar & lemon juice.  Bring this to a boil.  In a separate container whisk together very well the Clear Jel and 1/3 cup water.  Once the juice is at a boil, add in the Clear Jel mixture and stir for one minute on a hard boil (a hard boil is one that can't be stirred down).  Remove from heat and ladle into your clean and warm jars.  Leave 1/4 - 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe rims and sterilized lids and bands - just tightened to finger tight.  

Hot water bath jars for 15 minutes. 

 

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Very Easy Grape Juice - 1 quart at a time

Imagine waking up on a weekend morning...Coffee being made for you and breakfast just about finished.  Yum!!  But then, what will your kids drink?  Homemade grape juice of course!  I can't promise that dream can come true - except for the grape juice!
My sister and I have been making this juice for quite some time now.  Kid tested and loved! We normally use my sisters concord grapes that she has in her backyard.  But for this post I'm experimenting with Red Table Grapes from my local Aldi, since we probably don't all have grapes just out in our backyard!! 

Make sure to have your water bath canner & jars ready! This is a very quick canning recipe.  Use as little as a cup of grapes - or as many as you want for this recipe.

Grape Juice Recipe
1 cup grapes
1/2 cup Sugar
Large pot of hot boiling water

Wash and take the grapes off stems.  Place 1 cup of grapes in a quart jar.  Add sugar.  Add boiling water to jar.  Leave 1/2-1/4 inch headspace.
Repeat with as many grapes that you have, or as many quarts of juice that you want.
Wipe rims with a clean cloth, add sterilized lids and bands - finger tight.
Place in water bath canner and process for 20 minutes.
Let cool to seal for 24-48 hours.  Make sure they have all sealed, and then these need to be left to store for 6 months before opening.  Once opened, be sure to strain the juice out and discard the grapes.
What a great treat to have in the middle of winter with all your family and friends!!

In my experimentation today - 2 lbs of grapes yielded 6 quarts of juice.  The color on mine are light now, but in 6 months time they will have darkened.  I will load a picture of them before I open them.

Happy Canning!!

Check out my video:








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Items for Water Bath canning

If you are just starting out canning, or just thinking about it - here are a few things that have really proved to be helpful to me....

• A Ball Blue Book.  It has been an essential item in my canning life. You can pick one up on Amazon here*

• I also recommend getting a jar lifter, funnel, & canner.  If you want all these items, you can get them in one spot here* - 

This kit also comes with a spatula - but I'll be honest, I don't use it for everything. It also comes with a lid wand, which comes in very handy -  
but something I love even more is a lid holder!!!!                                                                    
It was the PERFECT gift for me!! You can get that here - Lehmans 

• And of course - you will need jars, lids, & bands.  All new jars come with the lids & bands.  I have reused my bands for many years, but you should NOT reuse your lids.  I know, I know - that's a real bummer!  Of course, you'll need to know what size jars you want to use in your canning.  Most jams, jellies, & spreads are in adorable 4 oz, 8 oz or 12 oz sizes.  And these can come in adorable decorative jars, or just the plain jane.  My mother started canning with my sister and I a few years ago, and she always insists on using the decorative ones since she puts the canned yumminess on display.  😍😍  You can buy these at many retailers, but here's a link to Amazon*

         


Also there are wide mouth jars/lids & regular mouth jars/lids.  I made the mistake once of buying wide mouth lids when I didn't own any wide mouth jars!  Oops!!  I now use both types of jars in my canning.  But just to start out, I would just buy the regular size jars and go from there.

• Ok, you will also need a pot to sterilize your lids (a small one does just the trick), and a pot to cook your food in.  So yes, I do normally  have at least 3 burners going on my stove while canning!  If you have a dishwasher - that works great for heating up the jars. But that might be getting ahead of myself, since this is just a post on the items needed.  Sorry!

Here's a look at my must have canning items.  

The larger one is my actual canner.  The middle one I rarely use.  The small one I use for the lids.

I know it looks like these would take up a ton of space that you just don't have - but they really don't, they all stack well together!

This is the largest canner I use at times - with all the other pots & items in it.

I wish I had the actual water bath canner for the link I posted on the kit, but I bought all my things separately - before the big craze of canning.  But that's okay, these have worked well for me for many many years.  

Important to note, that the pot you choose to water bath your jars in - you do not want to then cook food in it.  You want it to be totally used just for water bathing.  You may wonder why - but after canning a few items, you will see you wouldn't want to use that pot for anything else!

So there you go!  Now go get your items so we can have some fun together!!




*Please note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Chocolate Strawberry Sauce

Mr. Homemade Canner loves the chocolate syrup and strawberry syrup I can, so I wanted to try something new - Chocolate Strawberry Sauce. Yuuuummmmm!

Fresh Strawberries

Unfortunately where I currently live, I couldn't pick my own strawberries. 😭  So I "picked" my strawberries at a local Aldi for $1.19/lb!!  Then I washed them & hulled them --- removed the stems ---- then cut them in half.  Typically recipes want you to use a potato masher to mash them, I find I want to do it quicker than that (Plus I threw mine out in a recent move since I never used it!), so I used my cup blender to get them smashed up a bit.

Here they are after I have blended them, I dump them into my measuring cup for ease

At around 6 cups of smashed strawberries, I dumped them into my cooking pot.  I added 4 tbsp of Lemon juice, 6 tbsp of Pectin, & 2/3 cup of Nestle unsweetened cocoa powder.  Whisk very well and let it come to a boil.  Once boiling, add 4 cups of sugar all at once and return to a full boil.

Boil hard one minute and then ladle that bad boy on into your canning jars for processing for 10 minutes!

Want to see the end result??  Of course you do!

Came out a bit gelled.  I'm passing it around to family and friends to taste test!!  

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Nestle unsweetened Cocoa Powder

6 tbsp Ball Pectin

6 cups crushed/smashed strawberries

4 cups sugar

4 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Prepare your boiling water canner.  Heat jars and lids.

Place strawberries into large pot.  Whisk in Cocoa, Pectin, & lemon juice.  Bring to a rolling boil, stirring frequently.  Add sugar all at once and return to a rolling boil.  Boil hard for 1 minute and stir.  

Remove from heat.  If you like, skim off any foam (I didn't have any with this recipe.)

Ladle into jars leaving 1/4 - 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe rim.  Apply lid and band just fingertip tight.

Process jars in water bath for 10 minutes.  

Remove jars and place where they can cool for 24 hours. 

Wait to hear the beautiful "ping" song as they seal shut!

Have a recipe you want me to try for you - let me know!  

Please note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

The Homemade Canner Herself

Hello!  I wanted to let you know a little about me.  My name is Samantha and my run in with the canning life was around 2001.  My sister wanted to make some grape jelly, so we did. And I thought it took FOREVER!  But I absolutely 💓the end result. From there I wanted to learn how to can tomatoes!  So around 2005 a sweet older lady taught me how to can tomatoes, but not the approved method for these days...and now I've been canning ever sense!
So stay tuned as I try to share my journey of canning.  There are many recipes I have loved and some I haven't liked so much, but I will try to share all of them with you.  Plus, I want to get recipes from you to taste test!
Thanks for reading!

Samantha
The Homemade Canner