well the zucchinis have arrived and
we're you know trying to use them all up
now and this is one of the recipes that
we really enjoy that I thought I'd share
with you um you need some zucchinis and
then some fresh peppers and green
peppers are starting to come in now so I
just ran out to the garden and a couple
green peppers and then I picked actually
picked an assortment of peppers because
I don't actually have any red peppers
yet but I'm just gonna use the yellow
ones instead they start out as always
you have to make sure that you really
thoroughly wash all your you know jars
basically I'm using new jars now cuz I
got a bunch of them for Christmas so
make sure that you're you know washing
out good and really rinse all the soap
bottom because that can ruin the product
and you know one of these foam brushes
really is a handy thing to have to be
able to get in there and you know wash
the lids with hot soapy water while
you're at it and then I just got them in
the pot ready to go on here you can see
some of the Dookie knees actually you're
getting overgrown now and I brought a
couple of them in to wash good first
actually I only needed like a little bit
over one for this recipe so I do have a
couple extra so you know I get out the
mandolin and I start trimming the ends
of the zucchini first now it's a nice
tool to have if you're gonna be even
making like the zucchini spaghetti 's
and stuff like that but it works really
great but if you're not experienced with
it you may want to get one of those cut
proof gloves to use with a mandoline
because zucchini can be slippery but you
know there's what you get you get like a
nice 1/8 inch square pieces slices off
of it and you know just have to really
be careful because you can't use a
little pusher when you're doing a big
zucchini like this so you know make sure
to do kinis big enough and you know in
reality get a cut proof glove if you
have any doubt so it only takes a couple
passes over to to get all the good meat
off it and you know just avoid any of
the seeds when you get to the seeds you
just turn and start the other side
now this is how fast I wish I could chop
but you know I can't so like start out
with 4 cups of zucchini all chopped you
know really fine like that you can see
and then I need some onion so I'm gonna
use some of the dahlias and for some
reason all the Battaglia's that we we
bought this year have like a little
onion growing in the middle up I don't
know what it is something about the
weather or something like that but we
always have to take that out kind of
like a wasted piece but it could just be
that they're getting old or something
like that too
anyhow you just you know you use any
kind of onion I like to be Dahlia
because you're a sweeter on you for this
recipe so just have to take them you
know chop slice them first and then you
stop them about an eighth inch also just
like the zucchini and you just need two
cups of chopped onions um now this
recipe is from the ball blue book that I
I have and I don't see it in a new blue
book so that's why I'm just kind of you
know listing the ingredients and
instructions here and then you need a
I've actually doubled a recipe so you
need a cup of chopped green pepper so
I'm gonna start with my green peppers
there and you know just kind of clean
them out and chop them fine
try to get them down to about the 8th
inch square pieces and then you're
supposed to have red pepper but these
are supposed to be the red peppers they
will be red in about another week or so
but you're still kind of you know not
yet so I'm gonna use them anyway they
have the flavor but they just don't have
the collar to make it look real pretty
in the end and just you know these have
some real fine seeds so you really have
to rinse them and um that's a good thing
about this new sink that we put in it's
got that real deep strainer and its
really great for veggies because that
thing catches everything you can just
take it and dump it easily so there's my
zucchini my onions and my peppers and
next thing we do is take and put them
all in a large stainless steel bowl here
and just kind of mix them all together
because basically you have to salt them
down and
let him sit for a while so I'm just
gonna start by putting everything in a
you know a larger bowl here you can see
and then we get this pickling in canning
salt from our in bulk from our Amish
store up the road but you know you can
buy it anywhere and I'm just gonna use
the four tablespoons of that that they
call for sprinkled on top of this
mixture and you know once that's on
there you just have to just cover it
over with cold water and then just put
it aside to sit for two hours now comes
out a little prettier if you use red
pepper but it'll still have the same
flavor there it is just let that sit and
the meantime since we redid the kitchen
here I found my wife a nice yellow cast
iron sunflower trivet there and actually
got her a good set of those all-clad
tools there that she could use now so
she doesn't have the old junky ones
anymore and I'm gonna get some spices
out and the spice rack that I made a
couple years ago it's been really great
for keeping track of everything and you
know having it right at your fingertips
so then I'm gonna start with 2 cups of
cider vinegar make sure it's a 5%
acidity vinegar I know they have some
that you drink now that actually has a
lower percentage um and then three and a
half cups of sugar so you know you can
tell this is definitely gonna be a sweet
relish it's just plain old you know
sugar and then you need some celery
steed there's four teaspoons of celery
seed gets sprinkled in the pot here and
you know you want to start with a you
know decent sized pot so it won't boil
over on you when you add everything to
it and then a little bit of mustard seed
goes in at the end so you got two
teaspoons full of mustard seed I'm gonna
sprinkle in that pot too
and my wife is getting me trained pretty
good at just cleaning it up and put
stuff away as I go so I don't wind up
with a big mess at the end so that you
know I've been working out better so
then you just uh you know put that pot
and bring it to a simmer but what you
want to do is you want to do so much
sugar in there that you want to make
sure that you mix it up every once in a
while just so that nothing burns to the
bottom of the pot and now after two hour
you're taking your drain those all the
veggies through a colander like that and
just run cold water on it to rinse the
extra salt off of them so now you want
to you know just you can see how that
sugar takes quite a while to get
dissolved before you know gets up to a
boil so it's when I just keep mixing it
up until it gets up to a simmer there
and then throw the all the rinsed
veggies the zucchini and onion and
peppers in there and um just bring that
up to a back to a simmer again and you
know I made sure that once I I got
everything in the pot there and turned
the heat up a little bit that I did go
back and stir it up good every couple of
minutes just to make sure that you know
it's heating evenly and nothing was
gonna burn so just keep giving it a stir
until it comes up to a simmer in the
meantime I got my first crock of pickles
going and they've only been going for a
couple days now what they are really
good just so many cucumbers all of a
sudden so now that you know that's
starting to heat up and starting to get
up to the point of simmering again what
you have to do is just I time it for ten
minutes and just simmer it for you know
ten minutes and then it'll be ready to
put in the jars and I do stir it
occasionally as it's you know as its
simmering just to make sure I don't burn
anything to the bottom of the pot doing
that ten minutes is over it's time to
you know take the jars out and the jars
have been preheating for some time now
also so they were all you know nice
clean and sterilized
you can see I'm supposed to get eight
half pints or four pints out of this
batch and I always throw some extra jars
and just to make sure I'm ready in case
I come out with a little bit too much so
now it's time to start filling the jars
and I you know I keep a burner on low
underneath the pot just to make sure
it's still at the simmering level when I
goes in the jars and stuff and just take
my time and fill up each of the jars now
you can see this is just a small batch
so it goes pretty quick and you can do
it in a half pint jars too and um you
know you just process them a little bit
shorter time if I fill up the jars and
then take the there's that little
headspace gauge that you get for canning
that there it is they just poked in here
to remove any air bubbles or anything
and then I'll go back and make sure the
jars are full and check the headspace on
each one and just adjust it down to that
quarter inch and then go back and
actually just wipe this heel surface off
to make sure there's nothing going to be
in a way of getting a good seal now
these things were washed a while back
and then I'm still using the ball lids
because I have a lot of them left but
I'm gonna switch over to different ones
later on in the season and then you know
what two lids around just add the Rings
here and just adjust them and snug them
up and time to put them in the the water
bath pot
and you can see you're pretty much
dealing with a lot of steam and hot jars
here so yeah I just want to take your
time and go careful and uh want to put
them in here I you know I was short a
couple jars I started with seven jars
that had to go back in an some water to
get in an inch over the seal surface
here and then you just turn the pot up
and just bring it up to a boil and there
you can see my wife's trained me well to
clean up as I go along and you know I've
already got that all cleaned up there
and dishes being washed and everything
that's all I had left out of uh you know
the batch so it really did turn out
perfect so now just you know once that
comes to a boil I start the timer and uh
for the pint-sized jars I've been using
fifteen minutes for the half pints it
says to use ten minutes so you know if
you do it in smaller jars you can take a
little less processing time and then
once that 15 minutes is over I I like to
take the jars out but you can just
actually leave the pot on the stove and
let it cool the jars in it and all if
you want to it's a little safer than
handling hot jars I think so you know
either way works whichever way you're
comfortable with but I I'd somehow I
always take them out and just you know
set them spaced out on like a wood
cutting board to cool so there it is you
know still gonna take a little while to
float down and everything else but
they're just added a pot in there you
know already to put away and dirty our
day later everything is all cooled down
ready to be washed off and put in the
root cellar yes it this is just one of
those recipes from the ball blue book
that we really enjoy and I thought I'd
share with you thanks for watching
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