We are fortunate to know several people with peach trees and we were blessed with a bunch this year.  When you get that many ripe peaches, you better get eating/cooking right away.   We made peach smoothies, peach crisp and this yummy peach jam.  I love the way this jam turned out.  It had a great flavor;  the vanilla and cinnamon was so perfect with the ripe peaches.  The recipe didn’t call for all that much sugar – compared to some recipes.

Peel and slice peaches. Place sliced peaches, sugar, and lemon in a bowl.

Cover and let sit for one hour, so the peaches will release their juices.

Place peaches, cinnamon and vanilla into a large pot and bring liquid to a boil.

Using a potato masher begin to mash peaches down.

Use a wooden spoon to continue stirring as peaches cook. We cooked ours 30 minutes.

While your peaches are cooking down, sanitize your jars by placing in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat, but keep jars in and add lids to the warm water until you are ready to can.

Right before canning, remove your jars and lids from the water. Ladle hot fruit into each jar, leaving a 1/2 inch at the top of the jar. Wipe the rim and screw on lids securely, but not too tight.

Place in boiling water for 5 minutes (the water should completely cover the jars).

Using tongs, remove jars carefully from the water and set on the counter. As the jars cool and seal, you should hear them ping.

Peach Jam

4 pounds of peaches (7 cups or so)

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Peel and slice peaches. Place sliced peaches, sugar, and lemon in a bowl. Cover and let sit for one hour, so the peaches will release their juices.

Place peaches, cinnamon and vanilla into a large pot and bring liquid to a boil.

Using a potato masher begin to mash peaches down. Use a wooden spoon to continue stirring as peaches cook. We cooked ours 30 minutes.

While your peaches are cooking down, sanitize your jars by placing in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat, but keep jars in and add lids to the warm water until you are ready to can. Right before canning, remove your jars and lids from the water.

Ladle hot fruit into each jar, leaving a 1/2 inch at the top of the jar. Wipe the rim and screw on lids securely, but not too tight. Place in boiling water for 5 minutes (the water should completely cover the jars).

Using tongs, remove jars carefully from the water and set on the counter. As the jars cool and seal, you should hear them ping.

Finally! A blog post that doesn’t involve sugar! 🙂

Homemade salsa is one of my mom’s specialties- and for good reason- it’s delicious! Her homemade salsa has the perfect amount of spiciness and the cilantro and green onion add really good flavor. Even though this salsa isn’t super spicy, there is definitely a kick, so modify the amount of jalapeno to match your taste. There are a lot of things you can do to “customize” this recipe- here are just a few changes that we’ve made before:

• using homegrown jalapenos instead of jarred
• adding some fresh diced tomatoes and chopped green onions to the finished salsa for extra texture
• substituting fresh tomatoes and spices (salt, cumin) for the canned tomatoes (we’ve tried this before and have decided that the convenience and flavor of the canned tomatoes is unbeatable)
• and making a yummy black bean and corn relish with the homemade salsa

That bean and corn relish is one of our favorite versions and makes up the second part of this post.

We think that we got this recipe many years ago from my mom’s friend Susie. Susie’s all about efficiency, so the ease of using canned tomatoes makes the salsa come together very fast.

The recipe has continued to improve, over the years, and I think one of the best discoveries my mom made was pouring the finished salsa into two mason jars instead of a normal plastic container. Even though we don’t seal the jars (the salsa is eaten too fast to make that worth it!), the jars keep the salsa much fresher. Plus, anytime we can use jars we will- they make anything cuter and are perfect for transporting to the beach or a backyard barbecue.

Rinse cilantro and place in the bottom of the blender.

Chop the roots off the green onions and cut the green onions into 3 pieces and put in the blender with cilantro.

Pour Mexican tomatoes into the blender…

and throw in the jalapenos.

Pulse until just combined.

Pour into canning jars or other container.

Now for the bean and corn relish. This stuff is so good. It’s perfect just with tortilla chips, but it’s also really yummy on top of tacos or nachos. And it’s so easy.

Combine all ingredients, and mix well. Yep, that’s it- it couldn’t be easier.

^^because of slight miscalculation, we had to switch containers while we stirred 🙂

Yum!!

Homemade Salsa

2 cans S&W stewed Mexican tomatoes

about 6 green onions

a large handful of cilantro

5 slices of jarred jalapenos

Directions:
Rinse cilantro and place in the bottom of the blender. Chop the roots off the green onions and cut the green onions into 3 pieces and put in the blender with cilantro. Pour Mexican tomatoes into the blender and throw in jalapenos. Pulse until just combined.

Black Bean and Corn Relish

2 cups of fresh or frozen corn

1 can of drained, rinsed black beans

1 can of Rotel tomatoes, drained

2 chopped green onions

1/4 – 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 cup of homemade salsa

the juice of 1 lime

A bit of salt to taste

Directions: Combine all ingredients, and mix well.