My love/hate relationship with canning

Some people love canning.  

Other people want to love canning. 

Others don't love canning. 

Then there is me. 

Some would assume I love canning, judging by my Facebook photos through time. 

But between you and me, I don't. 

I mean, I do, but I don't.  

It really is a love/hate thing.  

I love that I can transform things that would rot into yummy pickles and enjoy throughout the Winter.  I love that in January we can savour the taste of an Ontario Peach, picked at perfection. 

I hate how time consuming it is.

I don't have a great setup.  I have a flat top stovetop and a canner that is not flat.  So I use a conduction element and it takes FOREVER to come to boil.  

But I am very thankful that we have canning to help preserve our summer harvests all year long.  (Maybe I will try out my new pressure canner some time soon!

I am still learning, like everyone in this life, and despite canning since high school, I learned some new lessons this year.  

I want to share those things with you all my readers:

1.  Cans should not be stored with rings on.  The rings can force a false seal, leaving the seal down when it wasn't sealed correctly.

2.  You should not stack jars on top of seals.  This can cause your seals to be false seals also. 

3.  You should follow safe tested recipes and instructions to a tee.  (Bernardin and ball and National Center for Home Food Preserves are websites that you can search for safe recipes)

Do you love or hate canning?

Move over "Better than KD"

 A while back I wrote a post on a macaroni and cheese recipe that is easy and oh so yummy.  It is definitely not something you want to eat if you are trying to lose weight...but then it's mac and cheese.  

So...?

I mean...should we expect low fat?  Should we really worry about the fat???  But it did have a BUNCH of butter in the sauce.  BUT IT WAS OH SO YUMMY!  

AND it got a lot of love from the fellow mommies in my son's birth club.  

It was quick.

It was easy. 

It tastes amazing!

But I have found another recipe that may knock the first one off of its pedestal.  

Honestly!

I like to watch "videos on watch" on Facebook while doing the dishes or cooking.  I came across the video below: 

Fast forward to today.  Lu asks me to make KD for lunch.  

I buy two boxes of PC white cheddar mac and cheese when I shop at No Frills.  We ate them the day after. 

So, I had none. 

BUT  I remembered this 3 ingredient mac and cheese and how much I longed to try it.  

Oh my!  Not disappointed! It was so tasty and creamy!

I did make some alterations. 

I cooked the pasta in the milk...only scorching the bottom of the pan once...well entirely. 

So as not to make it tastes smokey (AKA BURNT), I poured all I could salvage into a new clean pan and continued to cook at a lower temperature.  So my advice, from my own experience, lower heat and watch it continuously!

Once the noodles were cooked I added shredded cheese.  We just chose the blocks that were almost done.  Today they were gouda and mozzarella.  (Next time, who knows?)

I added about a teaspoon of CCB from Epicure as I mixed.  (If you are not familiar with Epicure or CCB, you need to become familiar with it.  It is an amazing spice/flavouring blend - I can get you in touch with a sales rep too, just leave a comment below or send me a message and I will tag her on Facebook)

Mix up until all cheese has melted. 

Oh and I added salt and pepper.  Because, well, it's just good!  

Try it out!  It is the ultimate in comfort food!  

Take care, Friends.