Freezer space....

THANK YOU everyone for your fantastic ideas. Tyler and I are going to the library after work tomorrow, you all have given me some great snack ideas for the kids, and I started right in yesterday afternoon organizing our biggest freezer - where we store all our meat:

And after cleaning it out, I goofed - BIG TIME. We are now down to 1 pound of ground beef - which is a staple in our house. And our steer won't be going to the butcher until probably May. Ooops - guess I'll have to call them and order some....or we will have to suck it up and not eat so much ground beef.

And next I'm going to tackle this freezer:

And this refrigerator freezer:


I am just anal enough that I actually then got on Excel on our desktop computer and did a spreadsheet with what is in the freezer and how much we have (right down to the 3 half gallon containers of colostrum for calves if it's ever needed). I'd show you a picture of it, but yesterday we lost power here for a couple hours, and my wireless router to that computer is now fried:(

The one thing I was REALLY hoping to find was a whole chicken that I could bake (I really thought I had one) but didn't find a single one. Guess when I go to the butcher to get some more ground beef - I'll see if he has a couple......

That's been bout it here. We've been enjoying mildly warmer weather here (40 ish) which feels wonderful after the incredible cold. Of course, with the warm comes mud. Have a great evening!

Kris

Pork and Saurkraut

Some of you may remember when I first tried making my own saurkraut. We opened our first jar over the weekend.


Oh. My. Gosh.




I have never liked saurkraut (that you buy in the store) at all. In fact, I wouldn't eat the pork that was cooked in the saurkraut. That all changed Saturday night. In fact, I should have opened 2 jars, as the kids could not get enough of it.



And to think, if I am being honest here, the only reason I made it was because our Amish neighbor gave me 7 heads of cabbage for 50 cents a piece, and I couldn't stand to see them go to waste. Guess that will teach me.





And since we had a surplus of eggs - I had to hard boil about 3 dozen eggs. At least the kids think a hard boiled egg is a good snack. Tonight I'm making beet eggs out of the rest.....

Kris

PS - as for the piggies. We have corn that we grew - so I think we are just buying the rest of the ingredients for the feed and are going to mix our own feed. But - they will only need about 6 weeks of finishing so it might be easier to just buy feed. And there is only 2 pigs coming - which shouldn't be too bad.

Candy & Cabbage

Last night was trick or treating at my parents' house - we always go with some friends up there - the kids come home with lots of great loot! At least we had a beautiful night for it - it was in the 60's when we were out there walking around.

Some of the houses go all out with their Halloween decorations:

And of course, Todd and Tyler had to check out all that chocolatey goodness in Jessie's pumpkin when we got home:

And then today, after my 2 1/2 hours of running errands, I ended up at the Amish produce stand. 7 heads of cabbage later, I'm in the process of making saurkraut:

Now it has to sit somewhere at room temperature for 10 days. The deal breaker is you have to keep an eye on it and keep adding brine to it during the 10 days. Then process in a hot water bath and you have yummy, easy to make saurkraut!

And last but not least, guess who's been sleeping in our house this afternoon (and yes, the kids put their blankets on him because he was cold):

I think he's bound and determined that he should be a house cat!

Kris

We are good

We are home, we are good. I think she is feeling lots better being at home - although she was bugging me all weekend to get up and play a lot.

The doctors at Akron Children's were fantastic. The ER staff - not so much. We ended up having to go there as a precaution - they did a CT scan at our local hospital and thought they saw something - could have been a broken blood vessel in her head, could have been nothing. So at 9:00 her and I headed off by ambulance to Akron and Todd and Tyler headed home. Of course, we get to Akron and the ER is a zoo. They had no clue and even with the CT scan and x-rays - still did not believe she had a broken arm (in fact, they told me at 11 we could go home, I call Todd - we can go home, come get us - at 11:15 it's oh sorry, you have to stay for the night - we did find what could be a broken blood vessel behind her eye. So back outside to call Todd - you can turn around and go home.) They got us up to the floor at 3:00 in the morning, and one there the nurses and staff were fantastic. Another CT scan Friday morning revealed nothing - no broken blood vessell, no broken cheekbone, nothing. So it was basically knock her out to set her arm, she ate, she drank, and we waited to be released.

We did get home Friday night about 8:00 - long day, longer evening, but she is so happy to be home. And she is so mobile. No pain in her arm, she's ready to run around like an 8 year old. I actually caught her skipping down the gravel driveway yesterday and trying to catch frogs out of the pond!

So she's off at school today - we'll see how it goes. Even if she makes it for 1/2 a day, I'll be happy.

And what was I doing before all this happened? I made this (zippered cosmetic/storage pouch):

And this (checkbook cover):

Both of them from the tutorials at Crazy Mom Quilts. Aren't they cute? I also worked on my bloggy birthday gifts - they would've gone out this weekend but....obviously that didn't happen:)

So the weekend was spent with cleaning house, cleaning up outside, drying chilli peppers, drying garlic (don't dry either of these in the house - it will reek for days on end!), making pepper sauce and Tyler's soccer game (which he scored 6 goals at - we won, 9 to 2).

And our chickens are huge. Tyler and I cleaned out the chicken coop yesterday morning - these guys (and girls) have grown an amazing amount - and they look like chickens now. Of course, every blade of grass that was in the chicken run is gone - so Tyler's been raking up grass clippings and giving them little treats. They also love tomatos and peaches. The first batch is now 16 weeks old - so I'm hoping here in a few more weeks we start getting some eggs.

See ya,

Kris

On Drying

I thought I'd take a walk when I got home - to make sure there is nothing pressing in the garden. With the fair last week, I let everything slide. BIG mistake (both taking a walk and letting everything slide:))!

So now I'm saucing up 1 last bushel of paste tomatoes, drying 1 last pint of basil and oregano, and I have to do something with the 1/2 bushel of hot peppers. And there's probably another 1/2 bushel of hot peppers out there to pick (but my basket was full). Habaneros, jalapenos, chili and Hungarian wax.

I'm voting for running them through the dehydrator. But Todd just mentioned on the phone canning them.

My response was that's fine - as long as you are going to help me do this!.

These are the yellow onions I ran through the dehydrator a few weeks ago. And oh how yummy they are in any dish that needs onions!:

I can tell summer is on it's way out.....

Kris

More Canning

Yesterday was peaches - have I mentioned that I LOVE being home from work by 2:30????




I started right in on the bushel of peaches that I brought, and ended up with 7 quart jars. But I still have 1/2 the peaches to go - they aren't ripe enough yet. What a pain in the butt to peel - even after dipping them in boiling water. Another day or so and the rest just may be perfect.



Todd tried out the pickles last night (I had 1 jar that didn't seal). He says they are good, better than the last time so....maybe my method of measuring really does work.

Jessie had a fantastic 1st day of school - loves her classmates, loves her teacher...it is so great when your child loves to go to school. She was a little bummed though that school cuts into blog reading time (yes, she does sit down and read some of the blogs that are out there with me), but she is so thrilled that after seeing Jacquie's quilt made of vintage sheets, Jacquie sent her the remaining pieces:

Thanks so much Jacquie!!! I was told I need to quit everything else I have in progress and get this done! I also got some more pinwheels quilted - I think I have 2 to go yet. Then the sashings and borders. I hadn't told Todd yet what I was doing - guess I just didn't want anyone in Wayne County to know (if I tanked, then oh well). Well, he found the entry slip and the tickets to the fair, and got all excited. Then he starts panicking - on whether I will have it done or not.

My response - shoot - I have eons of time left - and I work best under deadlines....

This past weekend, Todd also finished up 2nd cutting on hay - until the baler died. So he rented the roundbaler and went to town. I'm just so glad it is done - until 3rd cutting that is. Now he just has to unload it all....

And my SIL - Jenna - gave me these fabulous vintage sheets. Most are pillowcases, but oh there are some pretty ones in here...


That's all for now....off to work...

Kris

Food preservation haul #2

This weekend I froze 10 dozen ears of sweet corn.

Canned 17 jars of tomato juice and 3 jars of whole tomatoes:

1 bushel of cucumbers turned into pickles:

4 quarts of plums were frozen:

All in all - it really wasn't a lot of work, except for the pickles. The tomato juice I didn't cook at all - just heated it good and hot and canned it. The corn - I cut mine off the cob before cooking it and add water, sugar and salt to it while cooking - tastes exactly like corn on the cob would come wintertime (and somehow, it's quicker to cook it off the cob than cook it on the cob, wait for it to cool and then cut off). The plums I froze whole in baggies, and the pickles were.....let's just say we love them, but if I do a bushel of them at a time, I don't have to do them every year, which is a good thing as they are labor intensive!

Note to self: When I need to do pickles again during the next decade - don't even remotely think you need to do a whole bushel - I have pickles coming out the wazoo!!

Sweet Pickle recipe:

6 lbs. cucumbers

1 lb. onion

1 head garlic

1/3 c. salt

3 cups cider vinegar

4 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp. tumeric

1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed

2 Tbsp. celery seed

Slice pickles and onions - mix with salt and garlic cloves. Let sit in sink covered with 3 trays ice per side of sink and towels for 3 hours. Rinse and drain.

Mix up cider vinegar, sugar and spices - add pickles. Heat through. Place in jars and can in water bath canner 10-15 minutes for either quarts or pints.

(and if you are like me doing a bushel at a time - I'm not measuring any of this exactly, and they still come out just great:)!!)

Kris

A Little Sewing

In between canning tomato juice yesterday I did get in a little quilting:

I have about 1/2 of the stars quilted around, and hope to by the end of the week have the sashings and borders done. I picked a super easy pattern for the sashing and borders - I don't want to have to work entirely too hard at this!! And seeing as it has to be into the fair by September 3rd for judging, I don't have a whole lot of time. But I think I have enough....if I don't get too many more tomatoes out of the garden...

Oh, and we also went on a 4-H field trip to a fruit farm (where I brought my peaches and some plums) and went to my nephew's birthday party and swam all afternoon.

Tomato juice is too simple beyond words.

Today it's pickles (and church and more quilting) and Monday night or Tuesday night it will be peaches.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekends!
Kris

Chained to my Stove

Or....I hate my bushel basket!!



This will be my weekend:



These will be made into tomato juice (Todd likes it for a morning drink with something added - but I forget what), more tomato sauce and some whole tomatoes.

These I will make pickles out of - I'll post the recipe the next time I blog.


Plus the 10 dozen ears of corn I picked up from our Amish neighbor to freeze, and the bushel of peaches I need to pick up tomorrow to can.



And if all the tomatoes that are out in the garden ripen, I will have about 3 more bushels to do something with at some point. Too bad the weeds aren't putting a damper on my tomatoes.



But I'm not thinking about that just yet.

Kris

P.S. - I forgot I also have a dozen or so rather large onions to do something with - any suggestions??? (I'm thinking dry them in the dehydrator)

This weekend past

This weekend must have been the kick off for my food preservation weekend.


I froze 3 dozen ears of corn (I have 10 doz. more on order from our Amish neighbor - the racoons found our patch and demolished it):


A gazillion sweet peppers were frozen:


And made tomato sauce:




And Sunday I made a batch of soap and finished up the tomato sauce (I let it cook Friday night from 6-10 p.m., Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. and today cooked it from noon until I canned it in the evening). Unfortunately, so far my soap is not looking the way it normally looks (at least the last 2 times I've made it) - but from what I'm reading on the web, I can re-melt it and it should be better than before - so that will be tried 1 night this week. Todd thinks I'm just panicking because I took it out of the mold sooner than I normally would which could be, as I do tend to obsess about things like this.....

This week I hope to get peaches canned, another batch of tomato sauce (I picked almost a half a bushel on Sunday) and next weekend will be sweet pickles.

Yummy, yum....

Kris

First Major Garden Haul

This afternoon, I started out for the garden like this:




And came back with this:




The kids have already ate 2-3 tomatoes each. Off to make tomato sauce (and dry some more herbs:))! Guess my baskets from the Amish neighbor have finally come in handy.

Herbs - 2 types basil, cilantro, mint
Roma tomatoes, green peppers & sweet banana peppers
Kris