Chocolate Raspberry Sauce

Chocolate Raspberry Sauce

This sauce also makes a wonderful gift.  The only problem I had was the smell was so incredible in the kitchen while it was boiling I hated to put it all into jars!
This recipe is slightly modified from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. The yield is about 8 half-pint jars.

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 cups crushed raspberries ( I used frozen and let them boil off the water)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin
7 cups sugar or Splenda

Combine the first 4 ingredients. Bring to boil over high heat. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Bring to a rolling boil.

Canned Apple Pie Filling

Today's adventure was Apple Pie Filling.  This was a water bath canning.  First I washed about 3 dozen apples.  Different varieties to add to the flavors, some red delicious, granny smiths and golden delicious.  This was the first time I got to use the apple corer that Bob bought me about 10 years ago...............  It worked really well on the apples that were fresh and hard.  Had some trouble with it on some of the overly ripened softer red ones.  They just kind of broke apart as the spindle turned but overall it worked perfectly on most of them.  So, washed up a bunch of apples, cored them and dropped the slices into hot water with a lemon to keep the browning process down some.

Firecracker Carrots

Bob and I did these tonight in a water bath.  The recipe didn't call for processing but we wanted to see if  they'd heat up even more over time.  Made 5 pints.

Can't wait to taste them...........here's Alton Brown's recipe for them from the Food Network site:

Chicken Soup Base

Starting things off with my latest canning adventure: my Chicken Soup base.


This base can go Mexican, Italian or New England even.

The base is 5-6 lbs. of chicken breast, cooked in a large pot of water, salted.
Remove the chicken when cooked through and shred into smaller chunks.
Return the chicken pieces back to the broth to stay warm.
In a large pot, heat one large bag of frozen corn, 2 boxes of frozen spinach, one bag of frozen onions/green pepper pieces. Cook down the water from the veggies and add some jalapenos if you like it spicy.