Glazed Carrots & Pantry Cooking

We leave on the 16th for our winter vacation and will return on the 25th. With the new grandbaby and everything else going on I decided to rely as much as possible on pantry and freezer cooking. I want the fridge as empty as possible when we leave so that means no new food coming in if at all possible. This is one reason that I keep a multitude of ready to use homemade meals in my freezers. In fact just this past weekend I was able to put a lasagne together without even going to the grocery store and it was all homemade other than the noodles. All was from the freezer and pantry so that was pretty nice. I think the only way I could have improved was to have it ready to go in the freezer which is what I usually do.

What I hadn't planned on doing was canning however the opportunity presented itself through a very generous gift of just over sixteen pounds of fresh carrots. I could not let this opportunity pass by so decided to can a few jars of herb glazed and plain carrots. A nice bowl of buttered carrots for the fridge sounded enticing too.

Buttered & Canned Carrots

The instructions for canning plain carrots are in the blog archives. Still, I can't help showing today's session off as they look so nice in the jars. I ended up with eight pints of plain carrots and a good amount of buttered carrots.

Buttered carrots are simply boiled or steamed carrot coins, drained then salt and butter added while still hot and allowed to cool. I make these any chance I get then keep them in the fridge for a quick side. They warm-up in the microwave easily. They also vacuum seal well in boilable bags for freezing. I have dressed them up by stirring in honey and rosemary.

Herb Glazed Carrots

Glazed carrots are always a nice treat to have on hand. I like adding herbs to mine instead of leaving them plain. For this batch I made three using dried rosemary and three with dried parsley. The amount of each herb used was 1/2 teaspoon. If you want a thicker sauce just heat and thicken with a cornstarch slurry. I find a bit of butter when reheating just gives the right flavour too.

Glazed Carrots
Source: Ball Blue Book, 2005. Pp. 75

6 1/2 pounds carrots
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups water
1 cup orange juice

Wash and peel carrots. Wash again. Cut carrots into 3 inch pieces. Slice thicker ends in half lengthwise. Combine brown sugar,
water and orange juice in a saucepot. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Keep syrup hot. Pack carrots tightly into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Ladle hot syrup over carrots, leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two- piece caps. Process pints and quarts 30 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a steam-pressure canner.


Pantry Meal

As mentioned previously I'm cooking from pantry and freezers only without buying anything if possible. Last night's pantry cooking included from the freezer fancy potatoes, turkey slices sauteed mushrooms and from the canning rack a jar of home grown green beans. It wasn't a fancy meal but it was healthy, home cooked and quick to prepare. I really enjoy meals like these especially when things are busy so I keep a lot of pre-cooked ready-to-use homemade dishes on hand. I like to flash freeze then vacuum seal.

There is just enough turkey left-over to make a creamed turkey casserole for tomorrow night's dinner. It's a really easy comfort meal to make, one I got from my mother in law. I cook the rice in turkey stock then stir in homemade mushroom soup from the freezer but you can use canned mushroom soup if you wish. Then I stir in left-over turkey pieces, frozen peas and a little milk. The casserole is topped with a bit of fresh grated parmesan cheese then baked. This is a quick and very economical meal to make. Rich and creamy...true comfort food!