Classy BLT’s are in, right?

My mom and sister do not eat bacon. Say what? In this time of the bacon renaissance, when everything from bandaids to doughnuts to toothpaste. can be found bacon flavored, they just don’t eat it. Crazy!

So at home we would eat turkey bacon, which didn’t seem terrible at the time. I didn’t understand the whole bacon craze, really. We would often eat TLAT’s, turkey bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato. Always on toasted whole wheat bread. They were good! Fast, easy, and still yummy as a leftover, and I’m really picky about leftovers.

Then I married Hubbins, and turkey bacon would not do. Real bacon for us, or none at all. And oh goodness. REAL BACON IS SO DELICIOUS!!!! Who in their right mind eats turkey bacon?? We eat a lot of bacon around here, Costco packs of it. But one thing I couldn’t make was BLT’s!!

Well, I mean, I could MAKE them. But Hubbins doesn’t like tomatoes. Or avocado, weirdo. So BLAT’s were a no-go. Then one day, perusing my cabinet full of various canned concoctions, a lightbulb went off. Tomato JAM!! Delicious on burgers, so why would bacon be different?!

It’s not. It’s fantastic. I upped the ante this time and made easy rustic bread, so simple to do and makes your BLT worthy of a classy upscale diner. This is the recipe I used and it’s great. It makes two loaves, so freeze one for later. I toasted one side of the bread in the broiler to make the outside crusty and the inside soft.

Just in case you don’t know how to make a BLT, it’s bacon, lettuce, and tomato (or tomato jam!) on bread with mayonnaise. I used fresh red lettuce from my garden, and I think some added avocado would be sublime. All you need besides fresh crusty bread to make it fancy is the tomato jam! Here’s how you do it:

This is a canning recipe from one of my favorite books, so if you want to can, this recipe makes 3 half-pint jars. Half it and you’d have a batch to use for a couple rounds of sandwiches without canning.

Combine: 1 dry quart (about 2 lbs) chopped orange grape tomatoes with

• 1 1/4 C granulated sugar
• 1/4 C bottled lemon juice
• 2 TBSP cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp red chile flakes
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

in a large nonreactive pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally, until it’s nice and jammy, approx 45 min.

(If you are canning make sure all your stuff is sanitized and jars are boiled and ready, fill them with 1/2 inch headspace and process 15 minutes. If you are unfamiliar with hot water bath canning please look up some info before jumping in!! There’s important food safety to consider.)

Yum yum yum, a sandwich fit for a king! Or a picky husband. But I’d still eat my momma’s little whole-wheat TLAT’s. They were good.

Mistake Pickles, or Why You Should Always Read Directions

This is part two of my post about canning, for part one, please click here!

So in this post I promised some more beginner tips on canning. Perhaps the biggest tip I can give is always always ALWAYS read the directions, and follow them. And then read them again just to be sure. Last summer I made quite a few batches of dill pickles, which are easy and fast and a great beginner canning adventure. Last week I linked to the fabulous book Food in Jars, which has a straight forward pickle recipe that is nearly foolproof.

Unless of course, you don’t read the directions.

I DID read them, the first two times I made the pickles. The third time I was distracted, no doubt by the twenty other canning projects I was attempting to juggle simultaneously, and I neglected to thoroughly read them again, bolstered by my many many hours of expertise in the pickle making department. (I’d made like two batches. I was totally a pro.) So I boiled my vinegar and spices, except I forgot the part to add water. So when I went to put the brine in the jars, it only filled two of the four… and then I remembered. I hadn’t COMPLETELY filled my jars yet, so perhaps all was not lost; I quickly boiled some water in the kettle and added it to the remaining brine in the pot and tried to top off the half filled with vinegar jars. (I also attempted to spoon some of the vinegar out of the jars.) Not only did I royally mess up the brine, but I added some little tiny mini cucumber things we found at the farmers market, instead of just regular pickling cucs, so a year later when we were finally brave enough to test these pickles… we were disappointed. The mini cucs turned into slimy mushy blobs of grossness. The regular cucs have a definite bite, while not UNedible, they are not what you expect. I imagine we opened the too much vinegar jars, who knows what the maybe not enough vinegar jars will hold. Sigh.

The moral of the story is, READ THE DIRECTIONS!! And do what they say! Now, I will say that I HAVE had success filling out my pints with a few lemon cucumbers when I just didn’t have enough picklers, but don’t go crazy with substitutions. Also, remember how I was juggling so many recipes? Probably don’t do that either, although I really didn’t learn. If you DO plan to can many things in one go, reading the directions is even more vital for timing. It’s more than frustrating to get ready to start making some delish carrot relish (from Preserving by the Pint, seriously these books are so great) only to find that your shredded veggies need to sit for a couple hours before you can continue.

Another tip which I mentioned briefly last week, is to take it slow. You aren’t attempting to exclusively feed your family with this stuff (or maybe you are, more power to you), so you don’t need to devote a spare bedroom to house your canned goodness. I was feeling pretty spectacular about the 50 jars I put up a couple weeks ago, until we visited some older friends of ours and she was telling us about the days when she would can something like 1500-2000 jars EVERY YEAR..! Bubble burst. But then she added that for $50 she could fill the back of a pickup with side rails with produce. I can’t do that. I don’t know anyone who can. Unless you own your own farm, but even then you probably pay more to water it that $50. So find recipes you like, for food you will definitely eat, READ THOSE DIRECTIONS, and figure out how much is doable for YOU. And soon you’ll end the summer with a cabinet or two JAM packed (snicker snicker canning pun) with the tastes of the season for you to enjoy deep into winter and early the next spring.

Tune in next time for a recipe for Spiced Blackberry Brandy!!

My posts may contain some affiliate links, this just means if you buy a product I recommend in a link, I get a small portion of the selling price, with no increase in price for you! I only recommend products  I actually use and believe in. Thanks for your support!