Homemade MoJo's

This year in the garden I thought I would try growing potatoes. I had some good sandy soil in a part of the garden that I figured would be good for growing any root veg. It was succesful, except for the carrots (the deer at most of them).
Anyway, with the abundance of potatoes, I found a this recipe is sooo yummy!!

The basics:
The batter is just any pancake mix (the just add water kind). Make according to the package instructions. Add seasoning salt to taste. The amounts are going to vary depending on the amount of potatoes you slice. I started with about 1 1/2 cups of prepared batter and added about 1 tsp season salt and had 2 large potates.
Slice potatoes about an 1/8 of inch thick, dip in the batter, then deep fry 350 degrees 4-5 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the hot oil and place onto paper towels.

That's it!! Pretty easy and so good( but definately not somehting to make every day)
I did find that if I made the batter a little thinner than normal, they didn't soak up as much oil. You will need several layers of absorbant towels.

Pickled Green Beans

After moving from "town" about a year and a half ago, we had a nice garden that season. My pole beans were producing very well, so I had an abundance of them. I started looking around for different things to do with green beans, and I came across a recipe for pickled green beans. I can't take the credit for the recipe's origin, but I did change it a little to make it my own.

The basic recipe is:

2 1/2 cups vinegar

2 1/2 cups water

4 tsp salt

4 garlic cloves

2 pounds of clean green beans whole

4 clean pint size canning jars, seals and rings

Add the vinegar and water to saucepan and bring to a boil. Set it aside. Stem and clean the green beans and pack them into the sterilized jars. Add the 1 tsp of salt and 1 garlic clove to each jar, then fill the jar with the hot liquid ( to withing 1/2 in from the top). This is the basic recipe.

But to make the flavors different I experimented with different spices.

For example add to the jar before the hot liquid:

- one jalepeno pepper (scored)

or

- 1 tsp Bloody Mary spice mix

or

- 1 tsp 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's

or

- 2 more garlic cloves

You can use any combinations. Everything that I have tried so far has been really good. I put these in my cocktails, adds a little zing as a salad topper, or just plain right out of the jar.......mmmmm mmmmmm good!!

Use the canning method you prefer. I have tried pressure, water bath, and hot method, and they have all been fine. My favorite for this though was the water bath. The beans stayed a little crispier than the pressure method.

Canning Quest

I am starting this blog with the hopes that I will find other canners and home cooks. I was reading my friend Megan's blog, and I thought "Why not give it a try and see if it helps out others or gives some inspiration?!" Hopefully I will gain knowledge and friends along the way.