Freezing Corn / Canning Corn

 I don't remember Mom canning corn. I remember getting corn out of the freezer, they'd be on the door of the upright freezer in those white cardboard canning boxes.

My Version of Canned Rotel

I used frozen tomatoes that had been in the freezer for a few years. I thawed them in the oven in multiple pots while I cut the peppers and onions and got the jars ready. 

For the peppers, I used about a pound of jalepenos, the rest were mainly orange peppers with a few red and yellow. 

I used two medium sized onions as I didn't think there was enough. 

After it had simmered and I was ready to jar it up, I scooped four scoops of the veggies in each pint jar, then I added enough of the liquid to have a one inch head space. 

That left amount of mostly just liquids left. I pureed that and added that in separate jars to make juice. When the juice jars came out of the waterbath, the liquid had separated. I waited until the jars had coold and shook them so that it was mixed well again. 

I plan on using the juice for macaroni beef saute or something similar.

The recipe and pictures are from The Homemade Mess Facebook post from 8/28/26

I haven't used the canned Rotel yet, so I can't report on whether I want to use it again. I will have to try it soon though because there are more tomatoes I'm going to have to can.

Pasty Crust

 1 cup boiling water

1 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Combine boiling water and shortening, stir until shortening metals. Cool for several hours until shortening hardens on top. Add flour & salt, mix with fork. Divide into 10-12 pieces. Roll each out and add filling.  Top filling with one teaspoon of margarine and seal edges. Make a slit on the top to let steam escape. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Calico Beans

1 pound ground beef, browned

1/2 pound bacon, cooked and cut up into small pieces

1 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cup ketchup

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 teaspoons salt

5 16 ounce cans of beans, drained (butter, kidney, lima, pork & beans, etc)

Mix all ingredients together in either a crock pot (if cooking it that way) or a large bowl (if canning is the process you are using)

If cooking in crock pot, use high heat for a couple hours until the onions are cooked and flavors are well blended.

If canning pressure, use meat times.

If water bath canning, process three hours.

Note: The beans taste better the next day after the flavors have been able to blend, so I usually can the beans.