FLY LADY - Week 2 - Office

 

Good morning!

I realize there was not a Friday post as I'd planned. I was too busy actually 'stocking' my pantry to share with you. We'll get to that in a moment.

I did get the laundry room cabinets decluttered and the one drawer I needed for the food dehydrator supplies. I delivered a large box plus a small one to the local thrift store. I didn't get to the other drawers. Really, there is only one. I'll put it at the top of the list for next month - or hand it to Bob while he's home alone this weekend. lol

In the mean time, this week is all about the office. 

There are things in the living room that need to come back in to this space, but not until I get some other things configured first.

I'm still organizing art supplies.  Last week, I finally started breaking down Paper Pumpkin card kits from Stampin' Up!. Many were partly used, a few just opened to see what the kit was then closed and added to the stack. 

This is what I started with last week:

I've taken care of over half of this collection. Some are in envelopes to finish working up and others were nothing more than the tissue paper and the stamp set.  My plan is to finish those TODAY. Then I can use the work table to get other stuff organized. 

I have two 3-cube units to put together. One side should hold 'most' of my planner collection. Then I'm backing that with another unit in my 'sewing' corner but will actually hold writing related journals. I'm trying to configure that corner to have a comfy chair to curl up and write during the evenings for writing sprints or note taking. Still not sure there is actually 'room' in this corner but I won't know until I start configuring.

When I get this part done, I'll be able to put away printed planner items I've collected and sorted out on the sofa bed. From there, the sofa bed will get folded back up and ladder shelves put back in place.

I was initially leaving the sofa bed out from when we had company early last month because I was supposed to have company the last week in September then again the first weekend in October. Since neither of those are happening, I can get the furniture all back into place.

For now, I'm headed out to the garden to pick tomatoes. 

Last Friday I cooked down a large batch of chicken/ turkey carcasses I had in the freezer to turn into broth. I've had (3) 1/2 gal jars in the fridge letting the grease all come to the top. I can remove that this morning and get the broth into jars for the pressure canner. I got a good three cups of meat from that slow cook. I'm going to break that all down into two packages for the freezer. There isn't enough to can but from the freezer, the meat will make quick soup additions at some point. 

I also did and IQF (Individual Quick Freeze) of sausage patties. By freezing them individually first on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, the patties will retain their shape when I put them through the Food Saver. I do this with a lot of things I want to keep their shape.   So those, along with Tyson chicken nuggets will get run through the food processor this morning.

As you can tell, not a lot of 'cleaning' will be done this week but the food needs to take priority. As my mom used to say "canning doesn't keep".

What is your Action Plan for this week? What do you need to get out of the way so you can accomplish other things?  Let me know in the comments below.

Be safe, Be prepared, Be Blessed!

~ Kelly

PREPPING - Dry Canning

 Good morning, friends!

Hard to believe a new month has begun. As I write this, it is Sunday afternoon. We have sun but a cold wind. We've barely crossed the 55* mark. 

Inside, I have the heat all turned off since I have the oven on and we are at a comfortable 70*. Quite comfy for working around the house.

Since I've been canning for over forty-five years, keeping canning supplies on hand is nothing to me. When everyone was going nuts and clearing the shelves of jars and lids, I had a pretty decent supply. Mind you, I still picked up a few boxes of what I thought I might be short on. But honestly, I did not understand the purpose of people buying EVERY BOX ON THE SHELF! One lady on YouTube admitted to doing just that. Why? In my opinion, those are the true HOARDERS... and the folks who give the rest of us preppers a bad name. 

I bought four boxes of pint jars since I wasn't sure what I had on hand for lids. I knew I had the jars but if I didn't have enough lids, those jars weren't going to do my any good. Buying jars insured I had enough lids.  When ACE Hardware had the jars in their ad (but not on the shelf), the manager of a local store allowed me to rain-check five boxes. I ordered three boxes of the half-gallon since I knew at most I only had six of those not already in use, as well as two boxes of wide -mouth pints. Wide mouth are great for when you want to dip into the jar for measuring. That was it. No clearing off a shelf- even if I could have found them. I bought only what I knew I needed and would use.

I spent all day Sunday writing/ scheduling blog posts and dry-canning sugar and flour.

I put up 40 pints of all-purpose flour. I chose pints because most recipes call for two cups of flour... exactly one pint. As I type this (Sunday) I am not sure how many pints I'll have of self-rising, 7-grain or corn meal.

Sugar is one of those items you really can't pre-measure for recipes. With that in mind, I put all of the white sugar in half-gallon jars and the Stevia in Nestea Tea jars. Sugar doesn't have to be sealed or heated like grains so packaging these up were easy. With the amount of sugar I had already purchased, I wound up with 10 jars and 9 jars of Stevia. I have both on my grocery stock up for Tuesday to finish filling out the jars I have on hand. The Truvia brown sugar will be packaged in wide mouth pints and regular brown sugar in wide-mouth quarts. 

While I'll keep a flour and sugar canister on the baking counter, my goal is to eliminate items like the brown sugar and Stevia that I don't need to keep handy in quantity. Easy enough to grab a smaller jar from the pantry as needed.

They say baking items could be our 'new' shortage as we head into the holidays. I do a lot of baking so am glad I won't have to disappoint the business folks I know look forward to their holiday cookie box every year. 

What are shortage are you anticipating? Is there anything you usually buy this time of year that you are already having problems finding? Please share in the comments below.

Be Safe! Be Prepared!

~Kelly

WEEKEND TRAVELS - Pizza Sauce

While this is supposed to be a Weekend Travels post, most of our traveling these days is out to the garden. 

As I told you last week, I was putting Adrian in charge of washing all of those tomatoes she and Abby picked. This batch became half of a batch of pizza sauce. Making sauce has changed a lot from when I was learning how to can.

After the tomatoes were washed, I dropped them in scald water to slip the skins then into a sink of cold water to stop the cooking and help further release the skins. I peeled/ cored each one, cut them up then dropped them into the food processor where they were turned into a thin puree.

When I was a girl we would have put the puree into a pot on the stove and spent several hours stirring the sauce to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan as we cooked it to the desired consistency. I've learned a good shortcut... My crock pot is my friend LOL

I poured the puree into my 6 qt (?) oval crock pot covered with a lint free towel (NO lid!) and set it to low. From there, I just let it cook down all day. Just before bedtime, I stirred in a packet of McCormick Spaghetti Sauce mix then let it continue to cook down throughout the night. The next morning I had perfect Pizza Sauce consistency. I could have continued to cook another 6 hours or so for tomato paste. As the tomatoes continue to ripen (I have nearly half of a 5 gal bucket waiting), I might make the next batch into paste and put into 1/2-sized jelly jars.

So far I've put up three pints of diced tomatoes from last year's haul and these lovely seven pints of Pizza Sauce:

Now all I have to do is rearrange some things on shelves downstairs and make room. Wish me luck!

LET THE CANNING BEGIN!

 As you know, the grandgirls are visiting for the entire summer. Adrian, the 9-year-old in the picture below is my gardening buddy. She has been since the age of two. Not only does she love to eat tomatoes but she enjoys caring for them. That includes picking off the horned worms. We've not seen any yet this year.

But the first thing she does after breakfast each morning is walk the row looking for ripe ones. Saturday, she took her 5- year-old sister, Abby, with her. They both came back to the house with their arms loaded:

My canning experience began when I was 9. I started as chief jar washer, complete with butter knife and a dish rag, in the galvanized laundry tub set up in the yard. I'll be using wide mouth pints straight from the jar. They'll just need a rinse then a scald.

The tomatoes will need washed before diving into the scalding bath to slip the skins. So I'm putting Adrian in charge of washing the tomatoes. From there, she'll get to see the rest of the process. Each summer she is able to visit she'll have a hand in more and more of the process. I will be surprised if she stops showing an interest in what I do, especially with the growing number in self-sufficiency. Even if she never uses the skill as an adult, I can say I passed on the things my 'step' mom taught me.

A final shot of the tomato row. The plants are beginning to cascade over the top of the cattle panel. To prevent them pinching, I bought pool noodles from $Tree. Bob used his knife to cut a slit down the side and slipped them over the top of the panel:

Our traveling around the Ozarks have included places like Chuck E Cheese. Not exactly 'travel' worthy for the majority. Bob and I did take the girls fishing at Twin Pines Conservation Dept. Abby caught her first fish - a decent sized Bluegill.  This picture shows the length. She has about 8" from the bottom of her shirt to the breast of her knee. 

I'm hoping to get the girls out to a couple of places this week while the days are cooler. 

How is your garden growing? Have a blog? I'd love to see what you're doing. 

Blessings

Kelly

GARDENING - Looking Good!

I am really liking the Container Corn from Burpee. Although I did have a bit of a scare last week. Heavy winds and rain attempted to demolish my bales. Corn was laying over and I thought for sure I'd lost them. I gave everything a day to dry up a bit then I went out and stuffed them a bit farther down in the bale. As you can see, they are doing well. Here's a close up of Tassle and Silk:

Silk peeking out on that center stalk about 2/3rds of the way down.

Tomatoes are doing well:

If you look almost center of the picture, near the bottom you see an Amish Paste getting ripe. Now if they would just all do that at once so I can put up Spaghetti Sauce!

Plum Tomatoes finally setting fruit. They are also loaded with blooms. And when these fizzle out, I have a volunteer. This little guy came about when my MIL and I were tying up the vines, a couple broke off. I tossed them into the leaf compost in the center of the bales.

Potatoes are going crazy. Even the Sweet Potato vines are spreading out.

Onions are starting to die back. They seem a bit small. Wondering if shoving them down in the bale a bit farther will help.

In spite of the heat and the tiny plants, I have green beans! LOL These will definitely be a fall replant in a couple of weeks:

Finally seeing Banana Peppers. I could use these to produce a bit heavier though as I only have 2 jars left in the stock-up.

2 yellow banana peppers peeking out at the bottom left.

My best producer this year has to be my cucumber plants. Both the Pickling and the Burpless are going gangbusters:

I am picking an average of 4 a day from each plant.

Last weekend I put up 11 pints of bread and butter pickles. I prefer them on a burger. In fact, The Rodeo Bar inside the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas TX serves B & B pickles on their burgers. Yum!

Since I'm the only one who eats pickles here, I'll probably gift a jar or three around the holidays.

How is your garden growing? Leave a comment and let us know how yours is blessing you.