The Fruits of my Labor

For the last few weeks it would appear that I have had a big focus on food. Not eating it, but stocking up. I didn't really set out to have this happen, but somehow an interesting turn of events has occurred and I find myself with a full freezer, fridge and pantry.

It all started with the Totino's pizza sale at Albertson's a few weeks ago. I was able to buy Totino's for $.55 a piece. Jeff loves Totino's so I definitely wanted to take advantage of this sale. Between the two of us (I made him do some of my coupon shopping), we bought 40 Totino's pizzas. Why 40 you ask? Well, to get the deal you had to buy in groups of 10 and I had great coupons and one thing led to another and well, here we are with 40 Totino's.

As you may have guessed from reading this far into the post, I've never been much of a naturalist when it comes to food. I don't really care about buying organic. I've never grown my own garden, never canned anything but jam and truthfully have never had much of a desire to do so. Until this summer. In this post I will be sharing with you the beginning of my transformation into a canning and freezing Diva (if I can be so bold as to label myself as a Diva of anything)!

It all started with buying frozen berries from our church's cannery in Garden City. This place is amazing. Several times a year, they offer frozen berries for sale at an excellent price. So this year I bought a bunch of berries. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and marionberries. After making several batches of jam and setting aside many bags of blueberries to eat for snacks throughout the year, I was left with still a lot of berries to find a home for. So, I looked up some recipes for pie filling, bought a canner and canned a bunch of pie filling.

Doesn't sound that significant, but the moment that I tasted the marionberry pie filling changed me forever. It was like those moments in the movies when someone falls in love or something and they play the Hallelujah type music in the background. This stuff is good. Way better than anything out of a can from the store. Mmmmm. Here is the recipe:

1 cup granulated sugar



1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp Clearjel or cornstarch (I used cornstarch)



1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

 but, definitely add the cinnamon!

1-1/3 cups cold water



1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp lemon juice



3-3/4 cups fresh berries (Marionberry, Loganberry, blackberry, raspberry)

**


Wash one quart jar. Keep hot until needed. Prepare lid as manufacturer directs.

 (I used pint jars)

Combine sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon (if desired) in a large saucepan. Add water. Stir mixture and cook over medium-high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in berries.



Ladle hot filling into hot jar, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe jar rim with a clean, damp cloth. Attach lid. Process in a boiling water canner for 30 minutes.



Yield: 1 quart

* This recipe is for one quart of pie filling. The amounts can be multiplied by the number of quarts needed (up to 7 quarts at a time).



** Frozen berries may be used. If they're sweetened, rinse off while the fruit is frozen. Thaw and drain juice away from berries. Measure drained fruit, and use the juice in place of the water, adding water to measure 1-1/3 cups.

Now on to the corn.

A few months back we were invited to dinner at some friends' and they served the most amazing tasting corn. I had to find out how this stuff was made. My friend recently gave me the recipe which was pretty similar to something I had looked up online as soon as we got home from their house that night. I combined the two recipes based on the sweetness level I thought we would like. Well, the end result was oh. so. good! Here is the recipe I used and there are several similar online if you search.

8 cups uncooked corn, cut from the cob

1 cube butter

3 Tbsp. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup water

Combine ingredients in pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for about three minutes. Cool quickly (I just stuck the pot in a large bowl half full of ice water, then stuck the pot in the freezer for about 15 minutes.) Place corn in freezer bag, or some type of frozen food container. I made sure that some of the liquid made it's way into the freezer bag to make sure that yummy flavor stays with the corn!

How can you go wrong with butter, sugar and salt, right? However, the star of the dish was fresh and local and you can't beat that either.

You may notice in the picture above that nestled snugly in with our Totino's and corn are several containers of Cool Whip and bags of Kraft cheese. Oh my. Should I even share this? Some of you will think that I am a hoarder of food. I don't blame you. I realize this is excessive. Honestly, I don't know what has gotten into me. It just feels good to get a great deal and know that our freezer is stocked, I guess. Maybe I need therapy. Well, I've had lots of therapy already so I really don't know if any more will help. I'm just resigned to the fact that I am addicted to shopping for good deals on food. Is that so wrong?

Anyway, this week at Albertson's they are having a promo on Kraft products where if you buy five items, you get $5 off your next shopping order. This deal alone makes their bags of cheese $1 and Cool Whip free after you figure in the $5 you get back. Well, then along comes an additional coupon from Kraft for $5 off when you buy five items, making the cheese FREE! So, I went to Albertson's paid the initial $5 for five containers of Cool Whip. I got back $5 off my next trip coupon and rolled that over and over and over so that now I have 20 bags of shredded cheese, 10 8oz. bricks of cheese, and five containers of Cool Whip (probably will go back for five more). After the initial $5, all I paid was tax for all of this cheese! I think I ended up spending like $9 total and I have a coupon for $5 off my next shopping trip.

So, now our freezer is stocked with Totino's, cheese, Cool Whip, corn, blueberries ready to be snacked on, and Breyer's Rocky Road from a previous sale. Very balanced, I know.