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Canning Project

When you have to many sweet peppers, onions and tomatos you.....

can them for the winter!!

 

I will use these in soups, stews, roasts, and anything else that I put tomatoes, sweet peppers and onions in !

We can outside on our deck on the camp stove - in this heat its the only way we can be successful!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

So Far this morning.....

I have made a pot of homemade chicken soup and its simmering on the stove, yesterday I threw an entire tray of chicken breasts from Sam's Club into the crock pot to cook, for the soup I shredded some of that chicken added veggies, stock base, salt and pepper and now we wait!  I also made a loaf of homemade bread in the bread machine, put the dogs out watered and fed them

and took a few snow shots of our storm  and a couple batches of laundry, read my email, played a game on facebook, replied to Soul Scrappers comments and yes, took a breath in there somewhere!

This is my doggie, his name is TANK. He is border collie, kelpy and mcnab- in other words he is a REAL Cow dog with no cows anymore! lol kinda like me a born ranch gal who no longer has  a ranch. ( I am ok with that just miss my horses!)

He is about 14 yrs old and I have had him since he was about 2 but he is out of our old cow dog Toby the border collie.  I made him a warm bed on the front porch. He is such a funny dog! I just love him. He has one white eye and one brown and no, he isnt blind in the white eye- its a genetic thing - freaks people out!  lololol

 ok friends, now that some of my chores are done, I am headed to my studio until soup time! WIsh you were here to join me for lunch today!

See you later with some new projects!

 

Laboring on Labor Day

Yes, we worked all day. We made cucumnber relish 3 double batches Totaling 18 pints and 11 quarts of relish- PLUS 5 jars of homeade turkey soup were processed too!  Here are a few photos

Start with the larger cucs- keep your nice med to small ones to eat, wash and cut off the ends

we had to cut them into strips to fit my bosch mixer  attachment to shred them up

this is what it looked like shredded-  now we used the Dill Cucumber Relish Recipe right out of the Ball Canning Book you can buy at Walmart in the canning section for 5.00. Everything you need to know about canning everything is in that book!

Here is what it looked like while it was "curing" for 2 hours-  following the directions I added salt and turmeric stirred it up and let it set for 2 hours.  Then we washed it out and drained it then continued following the directions

I always cover my stuff to keep any flying critters away.  And here is our finished product!

  after the water bath method

  before the pressure canner

here is the canning stove- lol I love Kays method we put it on the deck or in the garage depending on the weather and it doesnt heat up the house!  I cannot can on my ceramic flat top stove- neither can anyone else-  you have to have a "burner" where your pot is not resting on anything but the burner for even heat and processing- PLUS you will crack or ruin your flat top if not immediately then eventually and they are just to expensive to replace!

 yup! its the camp stove!  It was fun to work with Kay as we prepared and he processed all these jars yesterday!   Now for homemade veg soup, veg beef soups and chicken soups that we will make in October because Sept is already full!   

I hope you don't mind that I share my projects that are not paper related with you on my blog because after all, they are what I do and they are important!

Have a great day- we are busy creating swap for regionals coming up and I will be sharing those the rest of the week!

Have an awesome productive day!

Tomato Juice, Cucumber Relish & Chicken!

We are still canning- canning- canning-  here are some more photos of our bounty

Stewed Tomatos

 

Tomato Juice in 4 quart jars- yuppers the HUGE ones!

 

and Dill Cucumber Relish

 

and now in 14 pint jars!

yummy this winter!  I love being an Ant and not a Grasshopper!  

Here is our canned chicken-  use the book in your pressure canner and follow the directions!  The house smelled fantastic!!

 

its fresh out of the pressure canner so yes, those are bubbles! lol it's still boiling.  the last 3 pints are processing now.  This was easier than I ever imagined and cheaper than buying it in tin cans for sure!  I will keep watching prices and keep putting it up!

have an awesome day!

We interrupt the "stampin fun" to bring you canning season

Yes, so far I have 39 quarts of tomatos.   I added celery, onion and garlic to some of them also.

 

Remember a few posts ago the photos about the trays of stuff in the food dryer?

Well here they are- onions and peppers!!  YUMMO!

 

altho its a lot of work now, and being an ANT and not a GRASSHOPPER, I love putting my home grown food by for the winter! And Another reason I LOVE being a Stampin Up demonstrator becuas what other job would allow me to can tomatos instead of be at work? Between processing times, I was able to do some creating- you can't do that at another job!

check back tomorrow for Kays newest video, the engineer in him is trying to make it "perfect", and I am trying to remind him just dont sweat the small stuff!

Have a great day, I have a hair cut, more canning, visiting Cassadie in the hospital (family friend who goes to school with Kasey and a good friend to Katie)

see you again soon!

 

Canning Season has Begun!!!

Well, You have all seen photos of our gardens, and here are some photos of pickle making day yesterday

remember to click the photo to see it full size. I love preserving my own home grown foods and foods bought at auctions, farmers markets or family farms! 

Saturday was DILL PICKLE DAY! 7 pints of dill and 3 quarts of kosher- altho to some this may not be much, its wonderful for me because I know the produce is FRESH and I know how it was grown and who grew it!

 I used my cuisinart to slice up the "pickling cucs"  DO NOT use regular cucumbers to make pickles they will not work!

I used this packet this time for the seasoning

Waiting for the "brine" to boil 

   used white vinegar and added my own home grown dill fresh from the garden!

 while waiting on the brine to boil I loaded the jars with my cuc slices using this canning funnel and put them into pint jars

  this is what the jars look like waiting for the brine

  pouring in the hot brine

  added hot lids and rings we are now ready for the canning

NEXT batch: these are the QUART jars-  there were only 3 of these and one jar is whole strips and the other 2 are chunks and I used a KOSHER DILL packet for these     YUMMO!   Stay tuned for more canning and preserving from our garden, I have spent my entire life (47 years) canning fruits and vegetables,herbs, soups and jams and jellies so feel free to email me your questions!

Making a grill from a #10 can

 

Click HERE  to get all the details,  this is absolutely AMAZING!  Creative Genius at work!

Today I have meetings all morning, work at the library using their DSL and then a funeral to cook food for that is tomorrow.

I will be back to creating asap !!!!  I have been trying to get outside things done while its not raining-  looks overcast and gloomy out there again today!

argh!

Are YOU prepared ?

first check out this AWESOME you tube video by Hillary Weeks  its awesome! lol

 

In our church we teach preparedness and today I thought it was a great time to share links to information about this very topic, feel free to share with friends and family!

Pandemic Preparedness Planning

Finances

Article  EXCELLENT INFO!!!!

Food Storage    to be used for job loss, income loss, pandemics when you are confined to home and cant get to the store, weather conditions that prevent going out are just to name a few reasons a family should have food storage-  minus the pandemic, I have been through all the other things and without food storage we would have starved - no lie.  It is the biggest blessing next to good health that anyone can have!

Family Emergency Planning

Growing a Garden   (be sure to send me photos of your garden this year and I will post them here on the blog!)  We are putting our garden in and growing extra food to can and put in the pantry for the winter as it is not only healthier than buying from the store, it is going to help us with our food budget crunch.

Everday foodstorage blog  AWESOME! check it out!

www.ready.gov www.fema.gov www.redcross.org www.osha.org Safety and health checklist for organizations engaged in disaster response.

Health

I hope you will click and read the info I have shared.  This is no time to procrastinate, I am not screaming the sky is falling but I want all of you to be prepared for whatever life throws at you!!

have a fantastic day, I have a ton of errands to accomplish and my momma is coming on Friday for a week to visit! I am so excited! I miss her so much!

hugs to all

 

the summer canning has begun!

Kasey and I picked 1 full bushel of green beans this week and the results? 12 jars of pressure canned beans for the winter! Yippee! When the last 5 jars are out of the canner this morning, I will photo and share.......And this was just the beginning..   I get so very excited about this can you tell!! ?? lol  Today we are weeding- yesterday it rained most of the day but the weeds should pull well today, it is overcast so it could rain some more so we best get to gettin..

Placing my SU pre order today and earning a level 3 scrappin kit to boot!

I am also ordering my gramma bonnies pie plates through longaberger today so that I don't miss out on the "special price"!  I love the quality of the pottery and use it everyday and I always have lovely comments from friends -  ( I think the pottery just makes the food look better, a gal needs all the help she can get! lol)

 

OH! and HSN had the new cropadile big bite on special a couple days ago and I ordered it too!  I HAVE To stop watching TV! lol  I did not order any of the other temptations tho......... phew........

 

Have a great day will be back this evening with photos of my stamp room redo.  Kay as been away on business to Austin Tx all week so Saturday is shelving day.  Hope your day is fantastic! Kasey and I are doing great!