Spicy Pickled Green Beans

I love spicy pickled green beans. They are so good on their own, but I really like them in a sandwich or as part of a Ploughman's Platter. Also known as a Ploughman's Lunch, this is one of my favorite ways to enjoy my pickles and an assortment of whatever else you have on hand by way of crusty bread, cured meats, roasted nuts, olives, hard-cooked eggs, cheeses, and a bit of fruit if you are lucky. These days as I'm not eating meat, gluten or dairy, my perfect Ploughman's Platter would consist of spicy pickled green beans, hot peppers, and garlic, roasted salted marcona olives, dried apricots and dates, some homemade hummus or this tomato almond spread (in my fridge now and just delightful), gluten-free pretzels or homemade nut and seed crackers and some cucumber slices. Ah, the serenity.

So let's get to it. Pickles are easy to can and everyone should try it. At first for some reason, it felt intimidating to me, but once I realized how I could simplify the process I changed my tune. Pickles, especially the interesting or spicy ones, are always among the favorite canned goods with friends and family. And the new Ball pint and a half jars (24 oz.) are especially perfect for the green beans as you almost never have to trim them down and waste all those precious end pieces. As well, the sizing of this recipe is highly variable and easy to scale down if you don't want to make a giant batch. Ultimately, if you run out of brine, just heat up a little more vinegar and water and you're good! Since you put the spices directly in the jar it doesn't matter much.

A word on the spice- I have tried as many ways of making a spicy pickle as I can think of (dried whole, crushed dried red, fresh chunks or strips, and cayenne pepper). You should definitely tailor these to your personal spicyness quotient. In my mind, dried peppers create the most mild "spicy" pickle, then cayenne, then fresh. If you are feeling mild when you make these, omit the fresh pepper and use a small pinch of crushed red peppers or a small dried red pepper.

Spicy Pickled Green Beans
adapted from hungry tigress' spicy pickled green beans

(for a large batch of 8-9 pint and a half jars)

5 lbs. green beans, washed and stem ends trimmed (it helps to hand pick them and choose straight ones- it's a bit time consuming, but you'll thank me in the end!)
8 c. white vinegar
8 c. water
3-4 jalapenos or other fresh peppers, chunked into 1 inch peices
fresh garlic cloves, enough for 1-2 per jar
Spices: canning salt, mustard seed, dill seed

Heat vinegar and water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and keep warm while you prep your jars. Get your water bath canner ready and your lids softening in some simmering water.

Prep jars~ For each add 1 large (or 2 small) garlic clove, 1-2 jalapeno chunks, and seasonings: 2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. mustard seed, 2 tsp. dill (for a pint jar reduce seasonings a bit per jar).

Fill jars with green beans. Pro tip! Line up the beans in your hand until you can't hold anymore. Tap them on the counter to line the cut ends up. Pop in your jar, which should be almost completely full this way. If you can fit a few more, slide them in along the side of the jar, which will help them fit in smoothly.

Fill each jar with vinegar brine, and then use a chopstick to bubble your jars (poke them to release air bubbles). In pickles this is more important to do than with jam because the beans all squished together make for lots of nooks and crannies for air to hide. Don't forget! =)

Fill back up with brine after releasing air bubbles, leaving ~1/4 inch headspace. Wipe your rims down, screw on the lids and process in your water bath canner for 10 min.

It's a good idea to leave your jars in the water bath for 5-10 min. after processing (turn the heat off) to let everything settle back down and not loose too much brine.

There you have it! The beans are fine to eat now, but will taste even better if you wait 2-4 weeks.

Week in Review

In the last week or so there was this,

skillet blackberry honey preserves

and some of this,

sleeping guys: mayor & tom peters

a bit of this,

vegan, gluten-free dinner: cauliflower coconut curry

a lot of this!

what's cooking?

homemade soymilk! delicious, nutritious, plant-based and thrifty.

More of this,

lacto-fermented pickled garlic and spicy carrots~ currently doing their thang in the cupboard for another week or so

a tidge of this,

the heirloom variety is doing well, though the fruit is more scarce than on the other plants

some of this,

portland cracks me up

lots of this,

got my gaming wrists on! (laptop gets pretty hot =P)

and lastly, this.

after 9 years, got the old tat retouched and jazzed up

My life in pictures. At least the parts I feel like sharing!

a happy ladybug on my 4 o'clocks~ plant mystery solved!

Frozen Lime Bars, raw & no sugar added!

Even if you don't restrict yourself dietarily, these lime bars are a treat! Especially on these hot days, (hello summer!) a frozen sweet-tart bar that melts in your mouth is the perfect dessert or breakfast. Because I eat dessert for breakfast, don't you?

So let's get to it! You do need a food processor for this, although I think a VitaMix would work as well. This recipe comes together in 15 minutes or less and then should be frozen for at least a half hour to firm up. Keep these in the freezer and pop them out whenever the mood strikes you! I made this the first time as written in a small oval baking dish, and the bars came out very thin. The second time I made a 3/4 batch of crust and kept the same filling amount, then shaped the bars into a loaf pan which made thicker bars. Either way, this recipe is very forgiving and easy to adapt. You can always just not use some of the crust and make powerballs with the extras (recipe coming soon!).

This is what cooking looks like in my kitchen

Raw Lime Bars
Adapted from Raw Model, via Pinterest

For the crust:
80g (~5) medjool dates
60g (~1/3 cup) cashews
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt

For the filling:
1 large (~160 g) avocado 
2 (~35g) medjool dates (or 1/4 c. honey/agave if you prefer)
1/4 c. (50g) coconut oil
1-3 Tbl. fresh lime juice

In a food processor, combine all the crust ingredients and pulse until the nuts are ground to your liking. I prefer a smaller bit of nut when I'm eating so I pulse until it looks like this:

Press your crust ingredients into a small pan of your choice lined with saran wrap or foil.

Rinse out the food processor, no need to wash with soap, and combine all the filling ingredients. Process until very smooth. I start with 1 Tbl. lime juice and add more to taste after processing. I usually add up to 1/4 c. myself, as I really like the tart lime flavor. Also, the dates will never be completely incorporated, so you will have some very tiny pieces. 

When the filling is smooth, spread on top of the crust and pop into the freezer for at least 30 minutes before eating. Cut into bars and enjoy! Keep the leftovers frozen as these "melt" quickly. So so good. 

Garden Progress

My Garden in Pictures:

how I get to my garden!

red, white, and blue flower border-  red geraniums should bloom any day now

this volunteer zucchini unidentified plant (any ideas?) is even bigger now- what a difference a few days makes!

the first of the tomatoes

the tomatoes received a good pruning after this photo!

I transplanted these squash and hope they survive!

my first harvest! home grown lettuce with baby heirloom tomatoes (purchased), avocado, veggie burger with homemade raspberry balsamic dressing

Canning without Sugar

no sugar added jam three ways: raspberry blueberry, apricot vanilla bean, strawberry

I've been having some difficulty getting into canning this season. Life is busy and, at times, stressful no doubt, but the main reason is that for the last 33 days, I haven't eaten any sugar. No sugar of any kind except whole fruit, nor any dairy, meat, gluten, soy or corn. I've been doing a modified allergy elimination diet, to kick start my health and help me see how certain foods affect my health and well-being. And wow! Seriously, I have been amazed at the results so far: more energy, sleeping better, fewer headaches or the ability to "cure" them quickly whereas before they'd last for hours and hours, clearer skin, healthier nails, and most of all a new connection to the foods I eat. I finally feel I've gotten a grasp on the foods I am choosing to put in my body and focusing all my positive energy on what I choose to eat versus what I choose not to. Because rather than say, "I can't have that, it has sugar" I have changed the way I think to "I choose not to have that, because I'll feel healthier if I do not".

I am adding foods back, one-at-a-time, to see how I do with them, and given that information I may or may not return to eating that particular food product with regularity. All of which to say that I haven't canned much because the task of making jam without sugar seemed daunting to me. Sugar is everything to canning! Many recipes call for cups and cups of sugar (usually refined white sugar at that). For the last 2 canning seasons, I have thought nothing of adding 4 cups of sugar to a typical fruit jam. 4 cups! My that is quite a lot of sugar. Luckily, there is a way to make tasty jam without any added sugar, something I never would have thought of prior to this experiment.

raspberry blueberry jam pre-processing

On a side note: did you realize that sugar is in *much* of what we eat? Even those of us who feel they eat healthy might not realize how sugar-laden our collective diet is. The most common thing I've heard when I tell friends and family I'm opting out of sugar (and maple syrup, brown rice syrup, honey, agave, etc.) is "Why worry about it if it's just a little bit, like in ketchup?" Well, for me it's because a little sugar in my ketchup (and that's the organic kind, not the HFCS kind!) plus all the other hidden sugars in "healthy" products like bread, cereal, condiments, sauces, nut butters, jams soups, etc. adds up to a lot more sugar than it seems and a lot more than is A) necessary and B) healthy, in my opinion. So for now, I am staying away completely, only allowing myself fruit. And even then, fruit has fructose and I watch how much I intake. It can be all too easy to realize I've had 5 servings of fruit and only 2 serving of veggies in a day if I'm not careful!

Anyhow, back to jam! Pomona's Universal Pectin is, of course, the answer! According to the product description, "Pomona's Universal Pectin is a sugar-free, low-methoxyl citrus pectin that is activated by calcium. Since it does not require sugar to jell, jams and jellies can be made with less, little, or no sugar." 


With the help of the recipe packet in the box and some inspiration from Hitchhiking to Heaven, I set about making my first batch of no-sugar-added Raspberry Blueberry Jam, using apple juice concentrate as my sweetener. I must say, it was delicious. At first the jam seemed too tart, as I'm used to conventional homemade jam (even my lower sugar recipes are still sweetened with at least a cup of sugar!), but as I let it set and especially the next day when I popped open my small test jar, I found it to be perfect. Definitely tart, but then the all the natural-sweet-goodness of the berries shined through. It was such a treat on my breakfast "cookies" (made vegan, gluten and sugar-free) along with some almond butter. 

such a treat!

Raspberry Blueberry Jam (no sugar added)
adapted from the recipe inside the Pomona's Universal Pectin box


~ 1 lb (2 pints) raspberries
~ 1 lb (1 pint) blueberries
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 c. apple or white grape juice concentrate (frozen, thawed)
4 tsp. Pomona's calcium water (comes with the pectin, follow box directions and keep extra in the fridge for next time)
3 tsp. Pomona's pectin powder

Add berries, lemon juice and calcium water to a large, nonreactive pot (I use my darling Le Creuset) and smoosh up a bit. I tend to heat the berries up at this point, to make the smooshing easier. Actually, this time, I took my hand blender to it, to create a slightly more uniform jam.

In a small saucepan, bring the juice concentrate to a boil. Very quickly add the pectin powder and either transfer to a blender or do what I did and pop your stick blender in it and whir until the mixture is thick and smooth, at least a few minutes.

Bring the fruit mixture to a boil and then add the juice-pectin mixture. Bring to a boil again and let your jam boil for a full minute before pulling the pan off the heat. Let it sit for 5 minutes or so, stirring frequently. This is supposed to help your jam avoid "fruit float", where the fruit juices separate from the fruit pieces, which then rise to the top of the jar. I however, would not know, because I neglected to let my jam sit for long enough, eager to get on with the project. Wa-wa. My fruit floated. Oh well, I'll just have to remind the recipient of my jam to give it a sturdy stir when first delving into the jar. And that person will be me, because I doubt I'll be sharing this with anyone! Too good and such a treat for me right now.

After letting the jam rest, fill your jars as usual leaving 1/4'' headspace and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. I don't sterilize my jars first if I'll be processing them for more than 10 minutes, but I'm not an authority and you should do what you feel is best.

Let the jam sit overnight or for the day and be satisfied as you look at your glowing red-violet jars, knowing that you made a healthy, pure fruit spread, with no added sugars and the taste of summer. And if you want to try it the way I did this morning, add 1 T. to this (sans sugar, of course). Marvelous!

apricot vanilla bean in my beloved weck jars

Variations:


I made Apricot Vanilla Bean (using a mix of white and yellow apricots) and Strawberry a few days later and both were excellent. Follow the proportions on the Pomona's Box for both. For the Apricot, I used 1 tsp. less pectin than on the box, as they tend to set up nicely on their own, white grape juice concentrate, and 1 scraped vanilla bean. For the Strawberry I used apple juice concentrate and no special add ins. For both I let the fruit macerate in the fridge with the lemon juice and 1/4 c. juice concentrate for a day or two. Voila! Now I have a pantry with 3 types of sugar-free, all-natural jam to enjoy!

no sugar added strawberry (notice the fruit float? just give it a stir when first opening)

It's Not Too Late.

For some time now I've wanted my own garden. It's a dream of mine to turn out like my mother, Carol, and have a flourishing and verdant green space full of flowers, fruits, veggies and garden tableaus everywhere you look. Over the years I have watched as her gardens take off and inevitably, eclipse every other house on the block, be it in our tiny condo backyard when I was in elementary school, to the expansive vegetable raised beds she now has. And not to forget my amazing step-dad, Stan, who builds the beds and tends to them with her, especially taking on pet projects such as Ellie's Potato Garden. This is his fantastic idea to dedicate the potato patch to my 1-year old niece for digging up come fall.

Unfortunately, however, until now I was under the mistaken opinion that a garden had to belong to me to be useful or worth it. As in, a house that *I* own, in a yard that is mine to dig and plant how I wish that will stay mine forever. This fantasy goes along with the "And then the prince comes down and kisses me and awakens me from 100 years slumber and we slay the dragon and move into our white-picked-fenced home on Cherry Street, USA where all the little children play Kick-the-Stick in the street and the wives greet the husbands with martini in hand" fantasy. Needless to say, not happening. Took me 30 years to realize that my life won't ever look like that. And I have to say, I'm okay with it!

So, onto the garden, then. I have one, it's mine for now, it's 11 blocks away and it is fantastic. I found a community garden plot opening and for $25 a year it's mine. Free water, okay soil and approximately 6x3 feet of space to plant!

Before

Now, I have to back up a bit and tell a little story. Nancy is the woman who runs the community garden and compost program. I signed up for the plot a month or two ago, paid my dues and then promptly fell into personal chaos, as is prone to happen. The plot went unplanted, and unheeded and neglected for that time. I was lamenting my life (giving little regard to my poor garden space) when I got an email from Nancy asking if I still wanted the plot since she had noticed no activity. I thought, I can't handle another commitment right now, so I emailed her back saying cheerfully that she might as well give it to someone who had more time and energy to plant, since I wasn't getting around to it. Well, Nancy emailed me right back and reading it from my phone, I saw in my inbox the email and just the first line. It read,


Jordan, it's not too late.

Whoa. I read that and stopped in my tracks. It's not too late. Not too late to plant a tomato and zucchini, is what she meant, but Not.Too.Late. is what I read. Not too late to find a career path, change my diet, find my inner sanctuary, save myself, be alive, live fully is what I saw when I read her email. So I emailed Nancy back with a chuckle out loud and told her okay, that she'd convinced me and that I'd get started that week.

What I saw when I got to my garden to plant!

When I got to my garden to plant, I found that Nancy had not only weeded my garden, but left a few volunteer plants (extra bonus plants that have sprouted up without having been intentionally planted): 4 tomatoes and 1 possible zucchini. Huzzah, my garden is ready to be planted!

After!

I ended up with 7 tomato plants, my volunteer zucchini, 1 crookneck yellow squash start, summer squash from seed, seed basil (if it takes), a few mixed lettuce starts, and lettuce from seed.

Added extra compost and grass clippings 

I added extra compost and grass clipping mulch a few days later. Hopefully it will help with my soil quality. I am still green (ha!) at this gardening thing and am constantly learning what to do and not do (see below! I planted the lettuce seeds a bit to compactly and will need to thin by 20-30%). Check back for garden progress over the summer!

Things are growing!

All Purpose Kitchen & Beyond Cleaner

This is one of my favorite DIY projects for everyday use around the house. It has transformed the way I clean and makes me feel so good when I wipe down the countertops. I'll admit it, I'm not the best about cleaning. Okay, so I'm actually not at all that good at regular household maintenance, but using my own products adds a certain pride that makes finishing up the kitchen after (ahem) 3 loads of hand-washed dishes seem a bit sunnier.

Plus there are good reasons to make your own cleaners! All natural, vinegar-based with the power of citrus oils and naturally antibacterial means it's safe for your pets, children and your food. I never worry if a spray goes awry and a tiny bit lands on my fresh strawberries. And you can customize the scent, which is super fun.

the players

All Purpose Kitchen & Beyond Cleaner
adapted from Big Box Detox and Just Like My Nan Made 

1 tsp. baking soda
~1/3 c. citrus infused vinegar*
1 tsp. vegetable-based dish soap (I like Dr. Brommer's castile soap)
2-4 c. water, depending on the size of your spray bottle
several drops of essential oils (optional: I like tea tree, eucalyptus, lemon, sweet orange, grapefruit or lavender)

*There are countless methods out there, see my Pinterest page for recipes- and for the record, I haven't yet in 4 months drained my vinegar, I just keep adding vinegar to the jar after taking out what I need for a recipe. I also use a variety of lemons, oranges and grapefruit.

To the spray bottle add your baking soda, dish soap and 2 c. of the water and give it a good shake. Slowly add the vinegar, no big deal if you lose some due to erupting baking soda volcano reactions. Fill the rest of the way up with more water and add a few drops of essential oils if you like. That's it!

I keep this out by the sink, with a small rag for cleaning off the countertops. Change out the rag every few days, and feel good knowing you are cleaning your house with something marvelously green!