Category: Healthy Recipes

This month was one of those when multiple activities and responsibilities involving church and school, happened to land on us. If you’re familiar with the Mennonite culture, we take our turns cleaning the church house, being  Sunday lunch host, etc. I was on for cleaning, for school hot lunch and Jerald was on for school devotions. We also visited the classrooms that morning. Then it was our turn to host this past Sunday. There’s a family prepared each Sunday, in case there are visitors who may need a place for lunch.

For school hot lunch there’s always two people helping each other. For something fun, we took Nachos. We spread aluminum foil down the center of the tables, then spread out piles of chips, and in between, taco meat topped with cheese sauce. They fixed their plates with rice, beans, and veggies, but then they could dig in and dip nachos to their hearts’ content! We also served root beer floats and pumpkin muffins.

I’ll include the taco meat recipe I made, although it’s more guesstimates. I had done nachos two  years ago for school, so mostly followed what I’d written down for that. I keep a tablet by my cookbooks where I write down my menu and amounts I make for hosting or other events. I love this for later reference! I also write down who we hosted or what the occasion was.

I fried 5 pounds of hamburger and added approximately 3-4 Tablespoons homemade taco seasoning, 2 pints salsa and 4 pints of pinto beans, pureed in the blender. This helps stretch the meat, plus I like the added bulk. And you’d never know there’s beans in it! The salsa adds in peppers and onions. 5 pounds was plenty of meat for our school, but I wanted leftovers for my family later. We served 16 people. It takes quite a bit more meat when you spread it out like this, so keep that in mind if you want to serve this. And here’s a tip- whenever I have large amounts of hamburger to fry, I’ll put it in a big roasting pan, add water and bake at 350 for a couple hours. It’s super simple. None of this standing at my stovetop stirring burger and splattering the top with grease!

When we visited school, I took caramel popcorn for a treat. This recipe uses coconut sugar and zero corn syrup!

For Sunday lunch hosting, I branched out and served pulled pork stacks, a newish menu for us. I like to think outside the box when I’m cooking for others, if it’s something doable and not overly time consuming. In my current stage, I need no fuss menus! Since we bought the meat from a local food trailer who smokes their pork, it was super duper simple! All I needed to do was heat it.

Pulled pork stacks consist of: pulled pork, barbecue sauce, baked beans, coleslaw, shredded cheese and top with Frito corn chips. It’s scrumptious!! Our guests loved it! This recipe idea comes out of Simple Cooking.

I also bought the baked beans. But I have a tasty recipe to make your own here.

I also served dinner rolls, apple crisp, and ice cream. Much as I love to bake fresh milled breads, my husband gave me orders to buy dinner rolls to save time. And indeed, I was grateful I did. My baby keeps me hopping; it seems I simply forget I don’t have as much time as I used to.

We had plenty of apples on hand that needed used up, so that made an easy choice for dessert. I baked it on Saturday and reheated it Sunday after we got home from church.

I often use coconut sugar for a brown sugar replacement, but it tends to make the food darker plus has a stronger flavor. Recently, I’ve started making my own brown sugar. I wanted to use that for the apple crisp, since it was for company. I use the Morena (zulka) cane sugar from Walmart and drizzle in molasses according to color. I don’t measure, but probably had around 8 cups sugar and 1/3 cup molasses. Mix thoroughly with your hands to completely combine.  Don’t hold me to these amounts but it gives you an idea.

When you think of fall festivities, you also think of plaids, burnt orange, or mustard colored sweaters, warm hats and cozy boots. Or that’s how my brain does it. But every outing this fall, except one, I was hot. How disappointing!

We’ve had a mild fall with downright hottish weather. I’ve been pining for cooler temperatures, especially since I’ve been on the excessive side of warm-blooded since Macie was born. (Either hormones or the mom flab that likes to hang on- uhhm) I mean, I like sweaters! But its ridiculous to wear them when it increases the heat.

Our church had an outdoor hymn singing one Sunday night hosted by Jonas and Miriam. The weather was almost perfect- just a little too warm in my opinion. There was a hottish sort of breeze, but as the sun set, it died down and became more pleasant. I wore boots and hoped for a sweater, but it was in vain. I was so warm I wanted to pull those boots off! We all brought snacks to nibble on afterwards, alongside a table of hot drinks. Although I, in my overheated state, had not the slightest desire to partake of anything hot.

Our church also got together to make apple cider again this fall at Norman and Kathryn’s farm. We ourselves don’t actually drink much cider, but it’s a fun activity to do with friends. It was a perfect evening with pleasant temperatures. Really, it was. I wore flops, no sweater, and was comfortable, if that tells you anything.

One evening, our family had a fun little outing at a pumpkin farm near Avoca, Nebraska.

And so it was, on this particular evening we were heading out to Bloom Farms, I was stewing about all the jackets and stuff we were dragging along. Earlier in the day it had been sunny. Backstory- twice, in just a couple weeks, we piled in all the things for outdoor evenings and, as I figured, it was useless. The children even ran barefoot the one night! It makes so much extra unloading when we get home.

So, on this night, I only grabbed a light sweater for me. Wearing flip flops raced through my mind as I sailed out the door, but it seemed a little off for a fall outing, so I slipped in shoes. And what a shame it was- I could’ve put my new boots to use! Late afternoon it clouded over and the north wind blew strong! It was COLD! For the first time in probably months, I was actually chilled. I was grateful the children had jackets and the thick blanket we had for Macie. Whenever I shivered or mentioned the cold wind, Jerald kept ribbing me that it was exactly what I wished for! He thought it was a good joke on me. I kept fearing for Macie in that cold wind. Lest you fear my mothering skills, I promise I had her bundled up. In typical dad fashion, Jerald kept saying, “she’s fine- the fresh air is good for her.” And so she was. She has not been sick yet, for which I am grateful!

It’s been over a month since I last wrote. I have no deadline to meet as to when I write, which is lovely.  But it bugs me when I want to write and I lack inspiration. (Writing when you have no inspiration is like yacking when you have nothing to say) And some people certainly yack without saying much, and others don’t talk much but say a lot when they do. 

I don’t know what all is going to come out in this post, so beware. Don’t tell me I have nothing to write about because I am, after all,  writing about my lack of inspiration.

I couldn’t tell you how many times in the last weeks it weighed on my mind to post another blog, but what?! Oh sure, I have ideas, but my ideas tend to be loftier than the realities. Some of my ideas take research, which equals time and my time kinda spins out on me with trying to keep myself, baby and family alive and nurtured. And there’s always the fun things like organizing spaces or rearranging furniture and such things I’m fond of. Of which we did both this last week. (I said ‘we’ because hubby helped with the furniture.) But I did the pantry myself, of course.  I had to show him though, because he would hardly notice. And because it means so much to me to have a good-looking space again!

Back to the stalled inspiration. I wish I could inform you all on deep health subjects that sent everyone on massive clean-out-the-toxins sort of syndrome. You would throw out all the processed foods in your pantries. You would ditch all the plastics, polyesters and synthetic fragrances in your home. By the way, I’m trying to do this as much as I can, or that is reasonable. For example. I’m switching to more glass jars for food storage.  (Honestly,  I’ve got way too many modular mates in my cabinets than I care to admit and I don’t forsee me excommunicating those anytime soon, sad to say.) But I also have a growing collection of jars hosting dry items in my pantry, so it’s not like I’m not trying!

I am also getting rid of those plush, fuzzy wuzzy throws everyone loves. I’m replacing them with 100% cotton throws.  Because there’s plastic in those things! Ya’ll! Plastic is an endocrine disruptor! Don’t sleep with plastic, you could suffocate! Possibly even die. 

Instead of eating Hamburger helper and instant pudding, you would cook red beets and eat homemade saurkraut. You would burn beeswax candles and sew all your clothes out of hand spun wool or linen. There would be no plastic wrap or baggies in your kitchen drawers. Only cloth coverings or beeswax wraps. You would wake early, while it is yet dark, (Proverbs 31) and milk the cow, churn the butter and butcher a chicken for the day’s guests. You would fry up liver and onions on a regular basis for a nourishing meal. Or, you would swallow beef liver capsules in abundance. (which I do, and I’m sure some of you do too- hurray for a strand of homesteadyness in us!)

There’s moments we may dream of the slow paced days of yore. Where the homesteading Mama is doing all those virtuous chores plus more. She even made her own lye soap to scrub her family’s clothes. The wooden bowls and cutting boards were necessities, not aesthetics from the department store. But really. Would we want to trot to the outhouse 3 times in the dead of night? I bet the panthers and coyotes were real fears. What about taking only one bath a week?  And draw our own water besides? Or how bout sharing the bath water?!

These sort of thoughts whip me right back into the 21st century with a high dose of contentment. I’d take the less toxic life, for sure, but some things I’ll pass, thank you. 

To tell the truth, I have plans to write a long post or two on a subject of health that typically affects everyone with a beating heart. Actually, it affects the dead too. I mean, you could die from it and even dead people are afflicted with this malady. It sounds kinda deep, right?  Maybe I’ll hit the clean-out-the-toxin syndrome next round?! 

I’ve got accountability now, and perhaps that will inspire me to gird up my loins and write about this deep and gory topic I have long avoided!

P.s  I think this Mama had too much caffeine today by the looks of this post. Starbucks is rare for me, but today hubby said ”treat yourself,” and I sure did. I ordered a grande, then couldn’t even finish it.

Oh actually,  I was going to let you in on a sweet, crispy, healthy dessert for the season! I resurrected this recipe just yesterday or the day before, so I better type while the urge hits or I might lose it again. 

Baked Apples

Take 4-6 apples and carve out the insides as much as you can without hitting bottom or ruining too much good flesh. I used a knife and grapefruit spoon. Then fill the cavity with this mixture:

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans,  1/3 cup sucunat or coconut sugar,  1/4 cup melted butter,  1 teaspoon cinnamon,  1/2 teaspoon ginger

Bake at 375* for 35- 40 minutes. They will be piping hot so proceed with caution!

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Fresh strawberries are a rare fruit this part of Nebraska. Sure, we can find them in the grocery stores, but I mean sun ripened, fresh picked, juicy berries. 

When I was growing up, it was a common thing to visit a local strawberry patch open for picking. And oh, I miss that! There’s just no strawberry farms locally. The few that are within an hour or two away have prices that scare me away. 

Many years ago, our family picked strawberries to fill orders for Mausts Strawberry Farm in Accident, Maryland.  We’d leave early and pick before it got too hot. Mom would pack cereal boxes and milk in a cooler. Breakfast was completed with a side of fresh berries. I’m the little girl in blue and suspicious I wasn’t much help🤭 This is a picture of an old scrapbooked photo, hence the caption.

The first few years we lived in Nebraska, I’d get a stock pile of strawberries from Aldi, when the price dropped as low as 99 cents a box. Yet it still repulsed me to put store bought berries in my freezer! The past couple years now, they’ve never dropped that low (thanks inflation) so I’ve not put any strawberries in the freezer.

Some weeks ago I began dreaming and praying about fresh strawberries. Fresh strawberry desserts and strawberry jam…. my mouth nearly watered with anticipation! I knew of a farm many hours away that sold them for $2. a pound. My dreams were just that. Dreams. All my lofty plans to travel and see relatives while in the process of acquiring red berries, crashed down (as feared) when my logical hubby started figuring travel expenses combined with the cost of berries. He checked into other farms within a few hours drive, but like I mentioned, the price was enough to drive any budget conscious person away!

But God still answered my prayer! I was able to aquire 14 quarts of fresh strawberries without traveling anywhere! Last week, my in laws, Luke and Arlene Rhodes came out to attend the local funeral of Glenn Bender. No, it wasn’t the kind of circumstances you would ask for, but since it’s strawberry season in southern Indiana, I asked her if she could bring me some. I didn’t even have to pay for postage! Although the berries weren’t cheap at all, and were actually over ripe and on the small side, they were wonderful for  strawberry shortcake, delight and jam making!

Now next week, my Mom (from KY) is coming to visit us. Due to my Dad’s unstable health the past years, she hasn’t been able to leave him. But he’s been in good professional care for quite some time now, which makes it possible for her to leave a couple days. It’s been almost 5 years since she was last here. We are quite pleased she has a ride out here, and can you guess?! She plans to (hopefully!) be bringing me 2 or 3 gallons of fresh strawberries!!

And to be on the safe side for berries next Summer? My ever ingenious gardener of a husband went and ordered 50 strawberry plants!! And no, this is not for a ”you pick” patch. It’s for Rhodes family picking! I presented him my fears of weeds and all the work it takes to keep them alive. He calmly assures me, he’ll see after them. Check back with me next year and see if I’ve had my fill of strawberries or strawberry plants!

Here’s a few snapshots of our delightful strawberry desserts we’ve enjoyed the last couple days. They can’t be eaten in silence. There’s always some noisy groans of “mmmmmms” erupting somewhere!

Strawberry Lemonade

Doesn’t the very name suggest a sort of summertime tea party kissed with dappling sunshine? An old quilt thrown on lush grass beneath the stately maple. Little girls in pig tails scamper outside clutching plastic cups and the bag of pretzels Mama gave them to enjoy. Inside, the remains of the lemonade making are still strewn on the counter. Their patient mother kindly ignores it and wipes up the sticky spills. Now, if she can have ten minutes of silence and an iced coffee to collect herself, she will be most grateful! Doesn’t that sound refreshing?!

I don’t really have a cut and dried recipe. (How would it be possible to have a cut and dried recipe for liquids anyway?!) Don’t ask me! 

Basically, make a gallon of Country Time Lemonade mix according to directions on canister, but go scant on the water. 

Thaw frozen strawberries (or use fresh) and blend until a nice puree texture.  Add 1 to 2 cups puree per gallon of lemonade. Recently, when I made it for a bridal shower, I did 2 cups puree. It was really good but was more red than pink in color.  Using less puree allows the yellow of the lemonade to shine through better. 

Unless your strawberries already have sugar, then I suggest adding in a bit more to the lemonade to help combat the sourness of the berries.  I don’t know how much I added…. maybe 3/4  cup? Or you can totally use stevia to round out the sweetness.

When I made this for the bridal shower, I threw in whole, frozen strawberries to help keep it chilled. And you gotta add in a couple lemon slices!

For a healthier version of this, make your usual fresh lemonade with juiced lemons, then stir in the pureed strawberries. I’ve made it both ways. 

Strawberry Jam

This is another one of those nostalgic recipes. I mean, if you grew up Mennonite, did you even eat bread without homemade strawberry jam?! What’s better than a piece of toast from homemade bread, slathered in butter and a well rounded spoonful of Mom’s strawberry jam?

Because Jerald and I don’t handle gluten, we haven’t been eating bread for years (to speak of- here and there a bite or two). Thus, we also eat very little jam. I do make sourdough bread for the children. But very recently I began dabbling with organic, fresh milled wheat for bread making. The flour being fresh milled is key to the vast expanse of vital nutrients found in it. Flours on the shelf are bleached and stripped of nutrients, then synthetic vitamins added back in. A far cry from any health benefits. 

All this to say,  I’m holding my breath to see if we can handle this kind of bread! And if we can, bring on the strawberry jam!

There’s massive amounts of ‘gluten intolerance’ around these days. I don’t say that lightly because I know for a fact how it affects me if I eat regular flour. But stay with me here-  I’ve heard it explained that there are other things in store bought flours that can irritate the gut more than the actual gluten content. So, for many people, organic, fresh milled flour may just be tolerated by them! 🤞

What a long bunny trail to go down to get to the strawberry jam! Today’s jam recipe is quite healthy compared to the normal versions. I just couldn’t stand to make jam for my family using atrocious amounts of sugar, or the boxed Surejell or Certo. Some years ago I saw a recipe using Granny Smith apples for pectin, but since I never made jam anymore, I finally deleted the email.  That’s all it took to need it. Gratefully, Gina Martin sent me the recipe link when I asked her for it. Here it is.

And to clarify, since the jam is in jars, this is still freezer jam, not canned. I happen to have an affinity with glass for most food related storage.

It feels like the playful temperatures of Indian summer have indeed left us for the fierceness of winter. Still, the dreary, chilled days make it feel cozy inside with warmth of heat and the ambiance of candles. I’ve started burning my favorite Welsh Mountain Candles.  I love their clean wax and essential oil scents.

My stomach ulcer has been flared up considerably the last 2 months. Anytime I have too much going on, it gets worse. My brain tells my body I can’t handle much stress. We have intentionally needed to cancel some events and plans to lighten things up for me. It feels rather intimidating when others can be busy and going full throttle, yet they don’t seem worse for the wear. But then I have to watch my thoughts, or I’ll be slipping down the well-worn tracks of despondency at an alarming speed, for this treads closely to comparison. And, comparison is the thief of joy. But more than that, the Bible admonishes us that we are not to compare ourselves among ourselves. (1 Corinthians 10:12) Nobody is superwoman anyone, right?! Even when it may look like it from a distance.

And so it is, I’ve been puttering around home  trying to rest both mind and body. There’s still the daily care of my family and house work, but prioritizing naps and saying “no” to big projects has felt amazing. I’ve definitely not been doing  major things like fall house cleaning or sewing or decluttering or the like. I did very little canning this fall too. And this restful mode has felt so so good!  I get a sort of panicky feeling when my week fills up with lots of outside obligations. Anyone else know what I mean, or am I the only weirdo?

So here’s a glimpse into what I have been doing. If you get bored, you’ve got full permission to read other people’s posts with more flare.

With the fall season, there seemed to be a need for pumpkin pies. Two weeks ago, I made two pies and took one to carry in dinner at church.  It felt like minimal work since I had crusts in the freezer. Plus, I also baked 2 dishes with only filling because we don’t eat much gluten around here. I don’t know how to adequately describe the lusciousness of my mom’s pumpkin pie recipe, but I’ll have to say it’s the best there is! Rich, creamy, and comforting goodness! Mom always made large batches of this pie when I was growing up. Large as in a dozen pies! It’s like, if you’re going to the bother of making pie, make it worth your time and make a bunch! (I still like big batch cooking for efficiency.) She frequently made pumpkin pie for company, plus, I had 5 big brothers who ate a lot of food! The boys loved when the basement refrigerator was stocked with extra pies because this is one kind of pie you can sneak and eat on your way out to do chores! To this day, it is a favorite for me and all my siblings. 

We don’t have the brilliant display of leaves in this area like the trees up north. Ours are more dull colors of rust, gold and pale yellow. This has its own kind of beauty, but I miss the mountains with their dazzling splendor of maples in autumn garb.

I was hankering for fall colors inside my house the other week, So one afternoon, I decided to bring fall foliage inside to spruce things up. I parked the Yukon and climbed up the bank beside our road and feverishly cut weeds with a scissors that was much too small. It was windy and cloudy with a chill and beginning to rain. I fervently hoped no one would come along and ask if I needed help because I didn’t.  It just looked like I did. Of course, someone had to stop just as I was  getting back into my vehicle. I quickly informed them of my mission but figured they probably questioned my words. I mean, who would be out picking crusty bouquets in this weather?!

One day the other week, I met a friend at a cute coffee shop to chat about life.  It was such a refreshing time. I came away grateful and thanking God for the privilege of friendship!

I felt very accomplished to be able to defrost both my freezers in the last weeks. That and the pumpkin canning I’ll tell you about later,  are the biggest jobs I’ve done the last month.  Defrosting freezers is a job I hate. But find it’s best to do it twice a year to simplify the process. What really irritated me was that the very week I cleaned my chest freezer, was the week we put in our jugs of apple cider. About half of the jugs spilled out their stickiness and made a brown river down the center of the freezer! It was like the rest of the freezer items whispered cold secrets to the cider that they were in a freshly cleaned space. And the cider decides it should do its share of “mess- making” in an effort to give the housewife job security. I’ll admit I re-cleaned the freezer with plenty of groaning and moaning as I saw the entirety of the mess and all the food that was required to move to clean underneath! At last, my freezer and I can both rest in peace!

Here’s a few tips for freezer cleaning:

* Unplug the freezer.  (In case your blonde and might forget this step)

* Use ice chests or coolers to stack in the majority of the food. 

* Set up a table to pile other things on that don’t matter to set out for a few hours.

* When it’s totally empty, get a rag and a bucket of hot water and a scraper of some sort. Soak the frosty spots with hot water and scrape off chunks the best you can. 

* When all the sides are cleaned of frost, get a dust pan and scoop up the water and pour into your bucket.  This is a quick way to rid all that water and ice chunks. 

* When it’s mostly emptied of liquid, get rags to wipe out remaining moisture.  Lastly, get dry rags to wipe down the whole freezer.

* Now you get to organize and stack your foods back in. I love the dividers and baskets that came with this freezer.  But in our upright freezer, I find it very beneficial to use baskets to keep the variety of meats and things separated. Adding labels is always a good idea.

* Plug in the freezer and enjoy your chill food space!

I was also pleased to restock my freezer with Sunday dinner mashed potatoes last week.  I made a tremendous batch that should last until the end of the year.  This includes a Sunday or two of being gone plus carry in at church 2 Sundays. And oh, yes! I must tell you I changed up my recipe again🤭 We had red garden potatoes that needed to be used up, so I cooked up a batch of mashed potatoes without peeling! Still added the cream cheese and sourcream, etc. They freeze fine, and we don’t mind the peelings and little chunks of potatoes in it. We all love these potatoes just as much or better than the instant ones. After eating these a couple of Sundays, I got kinda convicted about eating instant potatoes on a regular basis. Not peeling them is key to speed, which is why I decided I could go this route. You won’t catch me peeling 10 lbs of potatoes on a regular basis. 

One evening when Jerald was gone, I mixed up a batch of Caramel popcorn. The children enjoy making popcorn, but the Caramel makes it extra yummy. It’s a special treat now and then, and the reason it’s special to me is that it does not have corn syrup in it! The children sat coloring at the bar while the popcorn toasted in the oven. Along with stories, the evening passed rapidly. With the ages of my children, I enjoy doing these sort of things with them. They both get so excited about being all coo-zzy inside on a cold or rainy day/evening. Playing games, reading stories and drinking hot chocolate rate high on their list of all things cozy! It’s these kind of moments we all want our children to remember in years to come, isn’t it? And so much of it is up to us moms to make those moments happen.

With the recent freezing temperatures, I brought in our butternut squash and pumpkins that we had for fall displays. I bit off more work than I expected when I started this project. The squash was minimal effort- the pumpkins a different story. I baked the squash and scooped out the meat. Reece and I have been eating it for lunch topped with butter, salt, and nutritional yeast. We deem it tasty and nutritious!

I wanted to be this frugal, virtuous, homesteading sort of wife. So I thought I ought to save those pumpkins to can. After all, we had paid good money for them at the Pumpkin stand. (Honestly, if I was truly homesteadish and frugal, the pumpkins would have been homegrown.) But if I could can them, it would help combat the cost.  I had two hefty ones that I cut in halves and baked. Three of the pumpkins were the kind without much flesh; I was awfully grateful I didn’t need to process all 5!

I placed pumpkin halves on cookie sheets and added water, not realizing how much liquid they make as they bake.  And did I have a mess! Two of the cookie sheets were just at the brim of overflowing when I caught it. So imagine trying to dip out or dump water off a cookie sheet with hot temperatures all around, without creating a flood in the bottom of the oven or scalding my hands in the process! I had both ovens going and had the privilege of cleaning them both too! Scooping out the flesh was easy. But then I had to put it all through the blender and fill jars.  Out of those two pumpkins, I got only 14 pints.

But the labor was not over. The dishes kept cropping up as if thrilled to be adding to the workload. The pumpkin skins had to be taken out to the pigs and chickens to keep up with this homesteading life. My son and I traipsed down together laden with slop. Ah, but the animals were so grateful! And I was glad to contribute to their joy, for it could not be anything but dismal to be an animal out in an old cold barn. At least we got fresh air and a bit of exercise to benefit us.  But now on to the next step.

I rinsed the seeds to save for roasting. I read how they must be thoroughly dry or they won’t crisp up well.  So I spread them on a towel and ran a fan over them for an hour or two. Finally, I divided them in bowls and made 3 different flavors. They crisped up pretty well and they look great stored in glass jars on the counter. But. I’m sorry to say, they have more to their looks than their taste. Actually, two of the flavors are pretty good. Perhaps it’s more the way they gum up in your mouth. We find ourselves chewing them, and depending who the chewer is, we have the need to spit them back out, which is not frugal at all!

And would you like to know how beat out I was, when my husband comes along and asks me what the price is of a can of store bought pumpkin?!! He quickly did the math and obviously, my ambitions completely missed it when it came to being frugal! A dollar and twenty-two cents for a 15 oz. generic brand of pumpkin is not unreasonable. My precious, home canned pints of pumpkin came to about 3 or 4 dollars a jar! And to think of all the time and energy I put into my attempts at being frugal! There may be more reasons I don’t can all kinds of food. But I’m hoping my hard, honest toil would allow me to be ranked among the virtuous.

If you’re interested in the canning process, here it is:  Simply fill your pints, wipe the rim, and add lids and rings. Place jars on bread/cookie racks on top of your oven rack. (This adds stability to the jars) Turn oven to 250*. Bake for 4 hours.  Turn oven off and let set until cooled- at least 10-11 hours. I got mine started around 4:30 pm and turned it off at 8:30. The next morning, I got them out around 7.

My pressure canner sits neglected on the shelf since I’ve learned the ease of oven canning.