BBQ Sauce Part 2 & Edible Flowers

We love barbecue sauce, but dislike having to choose between an affordable sauce that has high fructose corn syrup or one that is more expensive but uses a better sweetener option. One of my goals this year was to can more sauces since we go through them so quickly.  In the past, we have canned Asian plum sauce, which we enjoy with meat, veggies, and rice or with Asian noodles. If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know we recently tried a cherry bbq sauce recipe that we like, but I didn't have enough to fill a canner.

This past week we were again invited to our friends' house to pick cherries. They had invited several people over to pick, but with a loaded tree and not enough people interested, the cherries were still plentiful and about to get overripe.  In a short amount of time, I filled my two small buckets. I ended up with ten pounds of cherries.  I was excited to have enough for a double batch of the cherry barbecue sauce. I pitted six pounds for the sauce and froze the other four pounds for later use, either for more BBQ sauce or for a cherry jam recipe I have been considering.

Cherry BBQ Sauce

On Saturday, I started the barbecue sauce. Because I had other tasks to do and not enough time to watch the sauce, I opted to start the sauce in the crockpot.  Once it cooked enough for the flavors to blend and cherries to soften, I used the Ninja blender to puree it and moved it to a large saucepan on the stovetop to cook it down faster. After cooking it for a while, the consistency was still not as smooth as I wanted, so I used the immersion blender.  It helped to smooth it out. The consistency was much better with this batch than with the first. I let it cook down while I collected my canning supplies and prepared the jars. I wanted a sauce that would pour well rather than one that has to be spooned out, so I didn't quite cook it down to half the original volume. I ended up with 7.5 pints of BBQ sauce to can. I was pleased that they all sealed properly.  They are now labeled and in the pantry for use later in the year.


Edible Flowers

I had some iceburg lettuce in the refrigerator that we needed to eat, but had no other vegetables in the refrigerator to add. Since our nasturtium plants grew well this year, it was a good opportunity to finally try nasturtium flowers. I went to the garden and collected a few greens, some nasturtium blossoms, and a few daylilies. It made for a much more colorful salad! Next time I will try the nasturtium leaves as well, since the whole plant is said to be edible.

Have you tried edible flowers?  If so, what kinds? Let me know in the comments below.  I am always looking for colorful edibles to add to the garden!



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