My Weblog

Angry and Mourning and Frustrated

Last night, for the first time since I kicked whats-her-name out, I did some canning. You'll remember that I roasted a chicken and made some bone broth from the carcass. When I finished cooking the broth, I stored it in some canning jars. It was too late at night to start canning it. Yesterday I lugged that canner into the house. It's big, bulky, and, for me, heavy. So I am left fighting for air and a normalized heart rate by the time I get it in and set up on the stove. I pulled the canning jars out of the fridge and put them into the canner with cold tap water. It took a while, just sitting there, for the jars to warm up enough for me to even turn the heat on very low. When all the jars survived that, I began to increase the water temp. I finally got everything properly processed (I hope) and out onto the countertop to cool. around 11PM. 

I have always used a combination of the jiggler and the pressure gauge to make sure I was doing things properly. In canning, it is imperative to raise the heat inside the canner to at least 240 degrees. This causes the food inside the jars to heat and expand. The expansion of the food forces the air out of the jars and causes a vacuum to form inside the jars. However, the filling of the jars, the timing of the various steps of the process, and the accuracy of the pressure are all very precise processes. If they're done improperly, the possibility of botulism rears its ugly face. Imagine my reaction when I discovered the glass face of the pressure gauge is missing. I was so angry. I contemplated stopping the entire process right then and there for fear the gauge was also messed up, not just missing its cover. Finally I decided to proceed with just the jiggler. Many people own canners that don't have a pressure gauge. They just use the sound the jiggler makes to confirm they are canning at the right pressure. So, though this was a new challenge for me, I went ahead and processed my 5 quarts of broth. As of this morning, all seem to have sealed. I still need to wash the jars to remove hard water stains, label them, and get them onto my shelves.

Onward: I have unplugged the freezer and begun removing stuff. So far I have pulled out 17 pounds of butter. I also pulled out a box which used to hold entrees. Over the months since I was hurt all sorts of things have gone into the wrong boxes, so I will have to sort that out along the way. I know there are several 5# bags of flour in the freezer. Those can be pulled out if I can find an airtight place to store what's in them. I always put flour and grain based products into the freezer for at least 3-4 days to kill whatever might be in them. Most flour products contain the eggs which can hatch into what I've heard are called flour weevils. If left unfrozen, those little buggers hatch out and in time migrate to other flour based products, making everything unusable.

I had a tough time unplugging the freezer. My garage door cannot be opened. Most of the time I consider that a good thing as far as security goes. But, when it comes time to plug the freezer in again, the power box is very close to the garage door. I'm going to have to be inventive, prayerful, and brave in order to reach the outlet.

Anyway, there's much more work to be done. I quit the last round because my hands got too cold so I'll try donning gloves next time. Wish me luck.............

Disgust

Yeah, that's right. It's now 6.5 months since I evicted the roommate and her dog. I am STILL vacuuming up long, white dog hair. And, still, I am occasionally finding balls of that same dog hair laying around in various places throughout the house. Just Yesterday I spent half an hour with scissors and a wire brush, cleaning Roomie's beater bar. How many times now have I given up a half hour of my life to this task? has to be at least 50 hours gone on that task. I am just disgusted with the dog hair and that woman.

I am, however, pleased to say that Alissa does NOT shed. Seriously, that's hard to believe, but I pet her a lot. I have NEVER come away from petting her with a single hair on my hand. I have never seen a single hair fly through the air. It's like some sort of magic. It is certainly a blessing!

I have decided that I have to inventory the freezer tomorrow. I will also defrost it and reorganize it in the process. That means at least a full day's work. I am waiting til tomorrow because the high temp for today is supposed to be 59 and for tomorrow 72. If I have to stick my hands in there where it's literally freezing cold, I'd much rather do it on a day when the rest of me isn't shivering. The warmer temp will also help with the defrosting. If I tried to do it today, I'd end up spending even more time, hair dryer in hand, trying to get the accumulated ice off the inside of the freezer. So, I have printed freezer inventory sheets today. I will also be gathering old towels to soak up the liquid that accumulates in the bottom of the freezer. And I'll be digging out my insulated coolers to hold my stuff while I am cleaning the freezer.

I am at a crisis point on the freezer. I either have to can some meat or stop buying it. These days (pretty much the way it's been for a couple of years) I buy no meat that is not on sale. However, I've come to the firm belief that that is the way to live. I'm only going to be able to afford to eat meat if I've bought it on sale and stored it for future use. I'm also studying the digital coupons to see what I can use in conjunction with store sale items to save a little more. It all helps. I had a grocery store run yesterday. The total cost of the food was $84.00. However, with coupons and store sales, I saved $20.00. And I STILL ended up over budget!

I have been trying to keep a stock of canned veggies on hand. I've been trying to maintain 4 cans each of various types of veggies. So yesterday's shopping trip included 3 cans of veggies and 1 can of SPAM to replace inventory used in the last week or two. In that it's just me in the house, I have a decent stock of flour and bread as well. I have around 20 pounds of flour and 6 loaves of bread. I won't NEED either of those items for months. I also have 4 16-ounce jars of peanut butter on my shelves. I have 2 large containers of oatmeal and one small one. That'll hold me for a while. And, for quite a while now, I've been buying butter and freezing it whenever it's on sale. I also bought a large container of instant mashed potatoes yesterday and I'd like to get at least one more... So, bit by bit I've been adding to the food supply in that house. I call it food insurance..........

My FoodSaver is getting a workout these days. It is a blessing in this house and worth every penny I spent on it! 

Much to do..........Say Goodbye Gracie. "Goodbye".

 

I wish they were my neighbors.........

I watched the most amazing documentary on Amazon Prime last night. If you have Prime, let me suggest "No Place on Earth". If you've been around here for more than a few seconds, you know that I am very much interested in the second World War. And, as you might imagine from the title, this documentary is about a Jewish family during the '40's in the Ukraine. I've watched many documentaries about WWII. They are all interesting to me in one way or another. But this one............. I wish they were all my neighbors. I can imagine myself being bold enough to go to their homes to sit and talk over a cup or two of coffee. Oh, the things I might learn.

This was a large family. They were set to emigrate from Ukraine to Canada in early September, 1939. However, 7 days before their scheduled departure date, the Germans invaded and they were trapped. I won't go into the details, but this family spent 1.5 years living in a cave, hiding from the Nazi's. The "men" would go out and find food and other items they needed, but the women stayed in the cave for months on end. One of the ladies of the family, who was a small child when they moved into their hiding place, remarked that when that part of Ukraine was liberated by the Russians , and the family came out, she had forgotten there was a sun. Can you imagine? Inside that cave they made furniture, collected water from drippings that ran down the stone walls, ground wheat for food, performed all the daily tasks that were necessary for survival. 

It would be interesting, over coffee, to pick their brains about HOW they survived. What did they do for pots and pans? Where did the food come from? How did they keep warm? And so many other questions. 

Also, given the current world situation, I'd love to be able to ask questions about that part of Ukraine. 

And I'll take just a moment that this portion of Ukraine and Russia supply a substantial portion of America's wheat. It might be a good time to 1) stock your freezer with as much bread as you can shove in, 2) buy extra flour, 3) watch some youtube videos on how to bake bread and practice this new skill, and 4) fill your tank and gas cans with gasoline before it hits it's predicted price of $7 a gallon.

 

Today's Menu includes

some nasty potato soup. One of the well known home canners on youtube featured a "potato soup base" a while back. It had to be a "base" because dairy products are not recommended for home canning and we all know that potato soup features a "creamy" broth. Well, the idea was you put together all the ingredients for your soup EXCEPT the milk/cream and can it up. Then when you serve it up, you just add the milk/cream. 

Well, here's the problem: There's some sort of seasoning (herb/spice) that has gotten very strong in the canning process and taken over the flavor profile of the soup. The first time I tried it, I tried it from the jar. I HATED it. I waited a long while and finally talked myself into trying it again. The second time I tried it, I added the milk/cream as one is supposed to do. I decided that with that addition, the soup was tolerable. I decided to go for round 3 today for lunch. And I decided to try to add some nutrition and to try to change the flavor profile if I could. I added a good bit of milk and a bunch of freeze dried spinach. Then I added some paprika, some ground black pepper, and a little bit of red pepper flakes. Honestly, it's no better. I just plain don't like it! I still find that herb/spice overwhelming. 

But, I don't like wasting it. Nor do I want to waste the (at least) 5 other jars I have of it. But, sadly, I sure don't want to eat it myself. I ate what I could force myself to down and then (and some of you will be scandalized here) I put the bowl on the floor. I'll be darned! Alissa licked that bowl clean. So, since she likes some sort of "broth" with her dry dog food, I now know what I'll do with the remaining jars. And she'll be getting a nutrition boost to her diet. After all, I never heard of a dog having a problem with some extra calcium and nutrients from spinach. So glad it won't be wasted and she'll get a "treat" now and then.

And, if anyone is concerned about dog slobbers in my bowl, relax. That bowl will be pre-washed using a generous helping of Dawn antibacterial. Then it will be put through the dishwasher. It should come out clean enough to be used to hold surgical tools. 

Oh, and just in case I haven't really made you question your reality already today. I am still working on a half gallon of milk with a sell by date of January 24th. If my daughter were still living here, she would wait til i wasn't looking, and pour it down the sink......... But it doesn't taste bad or even smell "off". 

And, rest assured I will NOT be canning that particular soup "base" again...........

When God "Speaks".........

Last night I noticed that my phone was missing. My phone either lives on my keyboard or in my pocket. Well, last night it was neither place. The last time I'd used the phone was when I went to do a grocery pick-up and called to let them know I was there. So, I went out and looked around the van--checked the cup holder where I sometimes put it, the passenger seat, the floor on both the driver's side and the passenger's side, and anywhere else I could think of. No phone in the car.

I came back inside. If I had not left it in the car and it wasn't in one of it's 2 usual places, the only other possibility was that I'd brought it in and laid it down somewhere. I walked through the house, moving stuff, checking every flat surface. And, of course, I prayed. I have another phone and I tried using it to call the missing phone, but no luck. I was afraid somehow the battery had gone down on the missing phone. Finally, I got tired of circling the house looking for the lost phone and I went to bed. Again I prayed.

I had this crazy thing happen this morning. I was sound asleep. I awoke with a start. I had dreamt that someone called me and the phone was in my pants pocket. I had checked my pants pocket the night before and no phone. In my dream, I was trying to get to my phone but didn't find it in time. (You need to know that sometimes I wear my slacks two days in a row. I undress and lay my pants on the floor right next to the bed. In the AM I'll check the pants and decide if I've managed to wear them a whole day without spilling on them or sitting in something yucky. If so, I might wear them again. if not, i will empty the pockets, pull on a clean pair of pants, and move everything to the pockets in the clean slacks.) 

I crawled out of bed and went to the restroom. Still groggy, I greeted the Lord, and once again brought up the subject of my phone. Now, I've been told that God is ALWAYS talking to us. So, I know I don't "hear" Him very well. As I was praying, I told the good Lord if he couldn't make me hear any other way, maybe he could give me a dream.............Hey! Wait a minute! I just had a dream about my phone being in my pants pocket next to the bed. Maybe He'd already sent the dream???? I got down on the floor and went through the pocket of the pants that were there, nothing. I did find a quarter and a nickel that had fallen on the floor. And in the process, my hand brushed against something hard. There just under the edge of the bed, where it could not be seen by someone IN the bed, there was my phone. How did it get there? It had to have fallen out of my pants pocket at some point.............

And the really crazy thing--a telemarketer really did call me at 7:34AM. And, of course, it is illegal for them to call at that early hour.......... And, to be honest, I've been trying to figure out all day whether I really checked my pants pocket for the phone this morning or if I just dreamt that I did that........Only God knows..........

 

I am actually kinda proud of myself.........

I am not an impromptu kinda cook. I don't seem to be able to open the fridge, pull out 3 or 4 things, and create a meal. And, yet, tonight I got some sort of inspiration and what I created was actually palatable--good even!

I had some tortillas (2) in the fridge which were kind of old and needed to be used up. I dug around on the portable pantry and came up with a can of "seasoned black beans". Don't ask me where those came from. The only thing I can tell you is that they passed their sell by date 5 months ago. I also pulled out some grated Mexican blend cheese (from Kroger last week on sale), some sour cream, and some Herdez salsa verde. Then I went to work.

I used my cast iron skillet, dry, and warmed and softened the tortillas. I spooned some beans into the middle of the tortillas. Then I added some grated cheese, a few small dollops of sour cream, and a little of the salsa verde. I poured a little olive oil into the skillet and got it to warming up. I rolled the tortillas like burritos and placed them, seam side down into the skillet. They toasted up quite nicely and the melted cheese helped hold them together, even when I decided I needed to flip them. I ate one and a half of them and honestly didn't think I could squeeze any more in. I gave the last half to Miss Alissa who happily gobbled down every bite, every stray bean, every drop of sauce. She literally licked that paper plate several feet and then she got smarter and put a front paw on it so she could hold it still and lick some more. Honestly, that paper plate is so clean you'd never know it had been used for anything.

Anyway I made a very tasty and inexpensive and quick dinner in about 15 minutes from bits and scraps. I am not sure how that happened but I'm glad it did.

-Dog Meet Roomba; Roomba Meet Dog

Well, it's been a different kind of day. I have not used the Roomba since I adopted Alissa. That was intentional, not just lazy. I remember that gargantuan hairy dog the roommate had. It would stand somewhere near where roomie was doing its thing and bark non-stop. Big dog, big bark, deafening and never ending. I had no idea if Alissa had ever seen a roomba before and I wanted to be careful of scaring the dickens out of her. 

How did it go, you ask..........Well, I am definitely glad I waited to give her time to adjust to her new home. She doesn't like the roomba and is somewhat afraid of it. She was okay with it when it was in another room from wherever she was hanging out. But, when she was out here in the office and roomie crossed the threshold into this space, she tried to hide. I work with my keyboard sitting across an open desk drawer. She worked her way around my legs, banged her head on the corner of the drawer, and got back in the space between my legs and the kneehole under my computer desk. She didn''t bark at all, but she wasn't coming into contact with that thing if she could help it! This reminded me so much of Punkin's reaction to fireworks. I could almost look down at Alissa and call her Punkin. They are variations of the same color with Punkin having been more pumpkin-colored (orange), and Alissa more an orangey-brown color. And it doesn't help that both girls had/have a square nose/muzzle. But, Punkin is gone and Alissa is right here, right now.

So that was our excitement for today.

Wanna hear about yesterday's excitement? Do you remember me telling you about the young lady who volunteered to clean up my front yard and do desert landscaping out there--FOR FREE? I carried some trash out to the bin yesterday and was literally stopped in my tracks. My trashcan is full and overflowing with bagged yard debris. The lid is open about 3/4 of the way, like a big sail and bagged trash is holding it in that position. There are also at least 2 bags on the ground outside the bin. I don't know whether to be happy or afraid about all this. It is a relief to have the place look a little less derelict. However, I am wondering how in the world I'm going to get all that stuff to the curb come Tuesday. The bins themselves are oversized and heavy. I am sure I will not be able to move that thing to the curb as it stands. I am going to have to carry most of those bags by hand to the curb before I can ever move the bin. And, I think that means I start carrying bags to the curb today. That's probably the only way to avoid totally exhausting myself and running out of air in the process.

Oh, if you remember last week, I made a sausage and potato dish that was kind of bland. I was wondering how I was going to talk myself into eating that tasteless mass. Well, last night I took it from tasteless to very tasty. How? With the simple addition of a bit of green salsa. I will now have NO problem gobbling that stuff up!

Shortly it will be sunset, so I'd better get outside and move a couple of bags of trash to the curb..........

 

One Blessed Lady

Just a little while ago, I pulled two roasted chickens out of the oven. Oh, my, are they good. To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever roasted a chicken. I've cooked a lot of them, but never roasted one in the oven. I've been missing the boat! I pulled each of them out of the double bags they came in. Then I washed them down, inside and out. I pre-greased a roasting pan with olive oil. Then I drizzled one bird with olive oil and rubbed it all around. I stuffed the cavity with a sliced up navel orange, squeezing some of the juice on the exterior of the bird first. Then I coated the outside of the bird with this Pollo Asada seasoning mix I had in the cupboard and a tiny bit more garlic.

I tried to put the other bird into the same pan, but it wouldn't fit. So, I had to do a second pan. I did the second bird the same as the first and put both pans in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then I turned the oven down to 400 and let it go for about another hour and 15 minutes. The instructions said an hour for a five pound bird, but both of my birds were more than 5 pounds. Anyway, you'd be amazed at how juicy the meat is. I tried to take a bite of breast meat and the juices ran down my fingers and thumb. Amazing! 

I haven't yet dealt with bird #2, but I have about half a gallon bag of meat, hurriedly pulled from bird #1. I also put the carcass in a gallon storage bag. I'll be making chicken bone broth tomorrow.. I'll use the pan drippings to start. I figure I'll put the drippings into a Tupperware container til morning as I'm a bit achy to mess with it all any more tonight. If I put those drippings in the fridge til morning, the fat should rise to the top and I can scrape some of it off. I may pull more fat off later, but I'm sure I'll leave some for flavor. 

Anyway, I'm very pleased to have all this chicken meat to store for future meals. I figure I'll store it in 1 or 2 cup batches so I can use it in casseroles or chicken salad or whatever my little mind and my collection of recipe books can come up with. For sure, with the frozen entrees I put up (22 meals) and this chicken, I figure it won't matter to me in the least if the meat cases at the stores are empty til at least March 15th. 

In the meantime, I am making it my mission to grab some sort of meat out of the freezer each week and either use it to create another multi-serving casserole or can it. I have worked hard for quite a long time to acquire a stock of meat for times like this. 

I told you guys that several weeks ago I had a client haul that one truly gigantic dog bed to the curb. Alissa still has the smaller one and even it is oversized for the size of her. I'm pretty sure it would accommodate two of her. Anyway, sometime between yesterday and today, someone stopped, grabbed the gargantuan dog bed and took it away. I hope it's a blessing to whomever got it. I'm just happy I don't have to navigate around it anymore.

Kitchen Day

I had great plans to spend a LOT of time in the kitchen the other day. I had done a grocery pickup the day before, so I had the makings for many meals in my house. I actually managed to get 2 whole chickens. I feel pretty blessed about that. Whole chickens, on sale, have been pretty hard to come by. I got these for $.89 a pound. I've bought whole chickens at a lower price per pound, but that was then. Now, whole chickens are in short supply. Last week when I tried to get 2 whole chickens (and failed) at Smith's (a Kroger store), I was told that Kroger used to have a chicken farm in Kentucky. According to the employee with whom I spoke, the tornadoes in Kentucky "blew the chicken farm away". That leads me to believe that whole chickens, maybe even ANY chicken, is gonna be tough to find.

Nevertheless, I DO have 2 whole chickens. My normal routine would be to roast one and put the other in the freezer. I am going to try something different. I am going to roast them both at the same time. That will save me running the oven an extra hour down the road, and, thus save on the gas bill. I can eat a couple of pieces of chicken tonight, then pick the meat off the bones of BOTH later and freeze the meat. Then I can throw the two carcasses in the slow cooker at the same time and make some bone broth, same as usual except more! This will save electricity in that I only have to run the slow cooker once, not twice, but I'll accomplish what needs to be done for less money. 

I bought the few items I needed to make two different casseroles. The first is Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Noodle Bake. I used to make this often, but it flushed itself from my memory banks during one of the upheavals in my life. I ran across it again on a youtube video and knew I needed to make it. It is reminiscent of lasagne, but, somehow, seems to be less labor intensive. In any case it turned out yummy and I have 11 entree-sized servings for the freezer. I should note I doubled everything but the meat and the 11 servings are for a very hungry person.

I also made this thing called Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole. It is also a Pioneer Woman's recipe. It is okay but not outstanding and I'm pretty sure that's my fault. It calls for spicy sausage and a some cayenne. I remembered how I don't like spicy and got just the regular breakfast sausage. I sort of waved the cayenne pepper over the top of the ingredients and called that more than enough for a wimpy lipper like me. As a result, there's not a whole lot of taste to this casserole. I will make it again and the next time I will use the spicy sausage meat I should have used this time. I have 11 servings of this to freeze as well........

I was trying to figure out what I could use as a rub for the chickens. I remembered (probably because I recently cleaned, decluttered, and reorganized that cupboard) that I have some Pollo Asada seasoning. I also have some navel oranges which I decided to buy simply because they're in season right now and not likely to get any cheaper. I can cut up a couple of oranges, use a little of the orange juice with the seasoning mix to create the rub, and put the remainder of the cut up oranges in the cavity while the chicken is roasting. That ought to give that chicken a yummy flavor. Hopefully that will be happening today. 

I am hurting today, more than usual. I have aggravated the part of my upper back which is over my right shoulder blade. If I had someone else around, I'd be asking them to rub that part of my back with some "hemp cream". That's not a possibility right now so I'm going to risk my liver with a couple of ibuprofen. I have a large, heavy casserole baking dish to clean and then I have two large, slippery, heavy chickens to wrestle. I don't want to risk a muscle spasm......... 

Best made plans..........

undoubtedly make God giggle. I had planned to do some canning today. Not gonna happen. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. 

What happened? Well, first I decided that I need to cook the ground beef first. Not all the way done--after all it will spend 75 minutes under heat and pressure in the canner. But, enough to turn it from "pink" to brown. Then I decided that I might as well add some chopped onion to the ground beef to add that flavor to my meat. After all, I almost always add onion into my ground beef cooking. Might as well get that added in up front which will intensify the flavor when it all comes out of the jar. But, I do not have enough onions for this, so I need to process a grocery order and pick it up first. The order is put together, but I haven't uploaded it to Smith's yet. Hopefully I will get to that today. 

Secondly, I really NEED to have a clean kitchen when I can. There's a lot to canning--jars, lids, rings, canner, canner racks, canner tools, etc. For the ground beef I'll also need every large skillet I have. Then there will be onions, Vidalia Chopper, and so on. All that will occupy every bit of counter space I can muster. And right now that isn't much. Beyond that, there is a saying that you can't get botulism out of a canning jar unless you put some in. That means EVERYTHING needs to be as clean as I can make it. I'm definitely not there yet. 

Third, much of what I need is currently housed in the garage. Which means multiple trips in and out to the garage. And lifting/carrying heavy objects. I haven't done that yet either. 

So, yeah, I will not be canning today. Darn it. i'd like to get the freezer emptied out some............

Here's another great joy...........I've discovered that water is dripping from the toilet water box in the master bedroom. I have a bucket under there right now and I will use that water either to water some indoor plants or to flush the toilet. So, at least, I'm not wasting water. But, I'm gonna have to do something about this!

I also have had a non-functional garbage disposal in the kitchen for days and days now. This means the sink, if it gets water in it, takes an eon to drain. I have finally screwed up my courage and gotten down on my knees to push the reset button--that didn't work. Garbage disposals also come with a tool that's supposed to work in this situation. However, with two dummy hands, I am not able to use the tool. So, there is a call to a plumber in my future.............Bah! One of the bad things about being single and old is that I have a lot of honey-dos and no honey to do them............I have, in the past, installed my own garbage disposal. But I know I can't do that now. There is this one step where, while lying half in and half out of the under-sink cabinet, one has to lift the garbage disposal and hold it in place with one hand while screwing it in place with the other hand. My chances of accomplishing that are nil!