Baked onion dip (jed)

Peanut Butter Truffles

1 ½ lb. chocolate

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Follow instructions for truffles

CANNING

Apples Freezing in Syrup

This syrup recipe will make 5 1/3 cups syrup which will cover approximately 6 pints or 3 quarts of apple slices. Use rigid freezer containers or zip-closure freezer bags.

3/4 cup lemon juice (added later)

4 2 cup sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup cornstarch

2 tsp. nutmeg

In large kettle put 10 cups of water plus 1 tsp. of salt. Heat. Then add the above mixture. Heat until thick, stirring often. Add lemon juice and stir. Peel and slice apples into quart canning jars, packing lightly. Pour filling over the apples, leaving 3/4 inch head space. Tighten lids firmly. Process in boiling water bath canner for 30 min.
Hint: I have found it best to leave the jars in the canner to cool down a bit before removing or the juice boils out of the jars.

RASPBERRY JAM by Fern Nelson

2 cups water

1 pkg raspberry Kool Aid

1 pkg pectin

3-4 cup chopped onions

2-3 cup

2  tsp. cumin 

 2 cloves of garlic or 2 tsp. of powdered. 

1  tsp. pepper  

 2 tsp. oregano  

8-16 chopped jalapeno peppers with seeds

Mix garlic cloves, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers.  I freeze the jalapeno and then cut off top and put in chopper to make it fine and it will reduce any irritation to fingers.  Wear gloves if not frozen or cutting with knife.  Add vinegar and salt, mix and boil, stirring every little bit to prevent scorching, until veggies are tender and sauce slightly thickened (40 minutes or more).  Fill hot sterilized pint jars ½ inch from the top and seal. Cook in hot water bath for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts. Makes about 11-14 pints or 6-7quarts.

You can start cooking veggies and spices in vinegar and salt, then add tomatoes as you dice them, to reduce pounding the tomatoes into a sauce.  Also a couple of tablespoons. of starch added at the very last can thicken, but one must beware the acidity and keep it high to preserve the salsa and resist botulism. Ideal tomatoes to use are Roma. I like to use about 2/3 to ¾ Roma and the rest being regular tomatoes, (Big Boy, etc)
Tomatoes can have skins on if not too ripe and you won’t notice it in salsa too much. (Lazy way if no one else is helping you, otherwise you need to scald and slip the skins which is best if 2 people are doing this.) Leaving skins on will increase pulp and keep it thick.
To make fresh salsa: 1. Use garlic powder rather than cloves. 2. Use Ripe tomatoes and don’t worry about Roma vs. regular as you won’t be cooking it. 3. Don’t add vinegar or starch. 4. Don’t add seeds from peppers. 5. Add Cilantro at your own risk (I hate the stuff). 6. I still recommend letting the salsa sit for several hours and stirring periodically to mix flavors.

Sun-Dried Tomatoes

5 pounds Cherry Tomatoes

Fine sea Salt

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Halve each tomato crosswise. Arrange the tomatoes, cut side up, side by side and crosswise on cake racks set on cookie sheets. Do not allow the tomatoes to touch one another. Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Place in the oven and bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and feel dry, anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. Check the tomatoes from time to time: They should remain rather flexible, not at all brittle. Once dried, remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow them to thoroughly cool on cake racks. (Smaller tomatoes will dry more quickly than larger ones. Remove each tomato from the oven as it is dried.) Transfer the tomatoes to zipper-lock bags and freeze them. The tomatoes will last indefinitely.

COOKIES:

I loved

I never cut the hearts out flat -

The two sides would never match for me.

I always folded and centered

And scissored out a half a heart

That opened into perfect symmetry.

So they never had a side that was fat

And a side that was skinny.

I loved them for that.
I felt sort of nice and tidy that way

The day we saw the shape of our being one -

As if it had opened from some good design

That made two matching halves,

Yours and mine.
But I find that we don’t stay put like paper.

We are not comfortable with glue.

Your edges have shifted, stretched,

And mind have too -

But not to a pattern.

If we folded our halves up today

They would not fit.

Occasionally I itch for the scissors,

I will admit.
Ah, well!

I will put away childish things -

Cut them off like braids.

We are no valentine, you and I.

We are something so alive, so moving,

So growing, I can not yet

Put a name to the shape.

I only know it goes on and on,

Pressing toward whatever border

There may somewhere be.

And between the halves there is flow.

That is much.

I will let the edges go.

Apple or Blueberry Squares by Kristana Miskin

1 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/w cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking. Powder

¼ cup margarine.

1 egg

¼ tsp salt

½ cup brown sugar
Mix flour, baking. powder., salt, cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside. In pan over med. heat, melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in sugars, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour mixture, apples (or blueberries) until thoroughly mixed. Spread into greased 8x8x2” pan. Sprinkle with 1Tbsp cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 for 30 min. or until browned.