My Weblog

It's been a rough week...........Icebox pie

Monday to Friday, 5 days, 3 days in bed with a muscle spasm in my back, 1 day with a raging headache, 1 day when all systems were set on "go'". Hard to get much done with a week like that.

I have worked outside for 15 minutes for 3 days. Not bad, considering. 

I had planned to can pork Friday, but after consulting my inventory, I decided not to do that after all. I have some pork chops, some country ribs, a pork tenderloin, but only1 small pork roast. I decided it made no sense to fire up the canner for 75 minutes til I have more pork to fill more jars. If I have to pay for the gas, I'd rather run the canner as full as possible. I could always can up some dried beans. Dried beans that have been canned work out to cheaper per ounce than those commercial cans of beans you can buy at the store. I'll have to work on canning some beans. Right now I only have some spicy red kidney beans and some garbanzos on my shelf. I can do better than that!

You probably know that I was raised in the south if you've been around here for long. But I was raised by "yankees" in the south. Maybe that explains it............ Apparently icebox pie is a big thing in the south. I know that somewhere along the way I've heard of it, but I don't think I heard about it and I'm sure I didn't eat it when I was growing up. Nevertheless, I made one during the past week and it was scrumptious. And it was SO easy! No wonder those southern ladies like making this kind of no bake pie! 

I've done some research since I did this. I found out there are MANY different ways to make this. Some ways to do it are way more trouble than I want to mess with, and some require some ingredients I'd never have around. I'll give you the ingredients: 1 8-ounce block of cream cheese, 1 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk, 1 packet of your favorite Kool Aid flavor, and 8 ounces of Cool Whip. 

I happened to have unsweetened Lemon Kool Aid in the house. So My icebox pie was lemon flavored. The lemon flavoring was not overpowering. It was light and all around delightful. First you whip the softened cream cheese. Then you pour in the sweetened condensed milk and whip it with the cream cheese. Then, into the cream cheese-sweetened condensed milk you add the Kool Whip and mix again. Finally add the Cool Whip and thoroughly fold it into the other ingredients. Then add the mixture to a prepared graham cracker crust. Chill about an hour and you can serve it. Prepare to be amazed with how good it tastes, especially considering it took you less than 10 minutes to make it. If you wanted to get fancy, you could decorate the top of the pie by piping some additional Cool Whip around the edge, or a dollop in the center of the pie with a slice of lemon artfully placed in the dollop of Cool Whip, or even by sprinkling some additional graham cracker crumbs over the top.

My mind has been churning on other ways to use the basic mixed ingredients. How about strawberry Kool Aid and either adding some sliced strawberries to the mix, or using sliced strawberries to decorate the top. I think next I am going to try making it with no Kool Aid, but substituting a can of thoroughly drained crushed pineapple. I think that would be good. I've also thought of using lime flavored Kool Aid to make a sort of mock key lime pie. I think the possibilities are only limited by the flavors of Kool Aid and your imagination!  But, no matter what Kool Aid flavor you select, I think it would be pretty hard to mess up the combined flavors of cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, and Cool Whip! Bon Appetit! 

If you have ideas for other flavorings, please comment. I plan to explore this icebox pie in many renditions in the coming weeks/months.

 

 

Plan to can

I have about 12 pounds of ground beef defrosting right now. All of that will be shelf stable in jars by tonight. Slowly I am relieving my concerns about having so much food in a 44 year old freezer. Particularly now, with prices so high, I do not want to have to try to replace this much food. And, I want more room in the freezer for other things. I don't know about you, but when I bring home a bag of flour from the store, the first place it goes is in the freezer. I have had no problem with flour weevils since I started doing this. I'm working on training myself to do this with all flour/grain products. A while back, I found flour weevils in a jiffy cornbread mix which I'd had in the cupboard for a while. And I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of sifting those little buggers out and eating the product anyway--an old timey depression era "solution" to the problem. So, cake mixes, BisQuik and the like, Jiffy mixes, oatmeal, cereals--yup, they all get a chance to spend time in the freezer. But that means there has to be room for them in the freezer!

I actually went outside yesterday and did some work. If you've been around here for a while, you probably remember that I had some hedges along my front walkway that I was keeping alive by watering them by hand. Unfortunately, when I tried to water them last summer, the hose bib had no water. I don't know what happened. I just knew that I was in no shape to try to carry water to 10 ft of hedges during a desert summer. Honestly, I was barely in shape to walk outside. So, those hedges perished in the heat. I've begun the task of taking them out, a little at a time. They are so dry/dead that they break off easier than I can cut them. Got in another session today. So, right now I have about 2/3 filled a 42 gallon contractor's bag with pieces of hedge. It'll take a long while, I fear, but I will just have to keep after it every day. 

It's evening now. I have 12 pints of ground beef in the canner. Should be ready to come out in about 40 minutes + cooling time. I'm proud to have gotten this done.

I've been wearing my slippers almost all the time. The last little while I worked, I even wore them to work. I found some bits of dead leaves in them tonight so I turned them upside down in the trash to get them cleaned out. And, guess what? The indoor/outdoor soles are cracked all the way across on both of them. I guess I don't have much choice but to spring for new ones.

One of the things on the to do list for today was to run the Roomba. So, first thing this AM I went around making sure the floor was clear. Picked up all the doggy toys, put away a random pair of shoes, and like that. Then I discovered that somehow the Roomba had not charged. So, it's been back on the charger for hours and I'm ready to run it again EXCEPT Miss Alissa has pulled out 7 doggy toys to replace the 4 I put away. She's such a helper, LOL!

Well, I'm gonna go try finding the floor and running the Roomba. I hope it's faster than she is!

Errands and CatchUp on a Monday

Errand day is Thursday. Catchup day during this tax season is Friday. But, it's Monday and I'm doing both things. It can get confusing, but I work methodically and that helps sort it out. 

My errands for today were purchasing some gasoline and purchasing some stamps and mailing a corporate tax extension. Got it all done. Gasoline at my favorite station was $4.72 a gallon so my $40 for the month didn't buy but about a third of a tank. That's okay. I go very few places and one of the things I really like about the area in which I live is that there is pretty much everything I could need within 1-2 miles. I basically go to 7-11 (1 mile away), the bank (about 1.25 miles away) and the grocery store ( 2 miles away). I think I can make it through the month okay even with what looks per the gauge on my dash like a very minimal amount of gas. I was also completely out of postage stamps. Within 1.5 miles, there's one of those "mailbox" places. And they were able to guarantee me that my outgoing mail would be postmarked today. Double win.

On my way to the mailbox place, I got to witness a 2 car accident. On my way home I could see that an ambulance had been called which surprised me. Both cars were moving pretty slowly so I didn't think injuries would be sustained. Seeing the ambulance gave me a chance to pray for the folks involved.

I'm catching up everything I can catch up today. Printed 2 returns on which I had completed work. Finished and printed 2 more. Fielded an e-mail from a client and I still have one phone call to return tonight. If I can get all the returns I've printed put together to turn over to clients, I've one more I can finish up quickly and then get it printed. Then I'd be down to one which is lying on my desk. That's the one I've been afraid to even take a peek at, LOL. 

I don't know what happened.........

It's not a major problem, but one of my 10 jars of chicken did not seal. I've never had that happen before so I'm a bit baffled. It's standard canning practice to wait til the canner cools down and all the pressure releases, and then to open it and sit your jars out to cool. The recommendation is to leave the jars undisturbed for 8-12 hours. So, it was about midnight when I got the canner open and the jars set out. At that point I could kind of tell that most of the jars seemed to have sealed. I double checked them about 5 minutes after my eyes opened this morning. And one jar didn't seal. So, I immediately moved it to the fridge. The other 9 are sealed just as they should be.

So, I will have to eat some chicken in the next few days. I've already been thinking about making some chicken salad. That, I guess, is my "punishment" for one jar not sealing. I don't mind that kind of punishment at all! I think it will taste fabulous--it sure smelled good in my house last night during my canning session. 

I would like to know why this happened so I could have the extra jar on my shelves. But, the truth is that many canners are posting about jars not sealing like they're supposed to. They seem to feel that is the fault of the manufacturer. In truth, the manufacturer has changed the material used to make the seal part of the lids. And, most of us feel it's this change that is causing so many jars to not seal. Most of the canners I am familiar with have been canning for 20 or more years. Several of them are certified master canners. We all use the same instructions, perform all the recommended steps. So, I guess at least I'm not alone. And, I've gone back over the steps I performed and I know I did what should have resulted in 100% success. So, I'm just going to stop thinking about it and enjoy my upcoming chicken salad.

Today I am working on tax returns. I have to tell you, it is SO aggravating how many people give me 98% of what I need to do their returns. I can't in good conscience call 98% good and print out a return. So, I end up having to chase down people for that one little detail they missed. It sure gums up the works around here!

When humans plan, God laughs........

Yesterday was canning day. Or, at least, it was supposed to be. Didn't turn out that way. I had two packs of 5 breasts each. They had been defrosting in the fridge for almost 24 hours when Friday morning rolled around. I wanted it about half way between frozen and thawed but both packs were still hard as bricks. I checked them again at bedtime last night and there was no real progress. But, by this morning, finally, they had softened just a little around the edges. Turnsout they were just right.

I have 10 pint jars in the canner now. Each jar contains about a pound of meat. That's way more than I can eat pretty much anyway you look at it. In general, I will get at least 3 meals out of a pint, more if I use the meat in a casserole. So, steaming away is the protein part of 30-40 meals. I paid less than $15 for the two packs of meat. So, if I only get 3 meals per jar, that's about $.50 per meal for chicken breast. Not too bad, considering the price these days. Even when I bought them, the regular price for the two packs would have been around $20. So, I know I'm way ahead. 

And, now, they are shelf stable. Additionally, the meat will be fully cooked so if I needed to, I could just open a jar and have some without additional cooking or baking. And, if I choose to put it in a casserole, I only need to bake long enough to heat the ingredients through, not longer because the meat needs to be cooked. The other neat thing is that each jar will contain some of the best broth around. Makes a lovely addition when cooking rice or in other applications. I also don't have to worry about losing that meat if the freezer has a problem (it's 44 years old, you know). And I don't have to worry about freezer burn. So, I guess you could say I'm pretty pleased that I'll be able to add those 10 jars to my collection tomorrow.

 

Shopper Gatherer

I worked and worked, trying to get my purchases whittled down to the weekly budgeted amount. In spite of the fact that I was buying NO meat, I just couldn't get it down to where I wanted it. I chopped some items off the list entirely, some I substituted smaller sizes, I diligently checked for coupons and found almost nothing.............And after all that, I discovered it has actually been 13 days, or right at 2 weeks, since I grocery shopped. So, my total being almost double my budget was okay after all. Phew! 

I have about decided that I am going to buy nothing that is not on sale. And, if something I normally use goes on sale, I'll buy some, whether or not I think I need it. If that fails, I'll have to try to go into the stores to shop. In general the pick up prices are the same as in store. However, in the store, it is possible to get items on clearance that are not reflected on the flyer. Meat, for example. If it has only one or two days before the "best buy" date, they'll put it in a special area. I'm gonna buy that stuff and freeze it immediately anyway, just as I always have. Maybe that will help. 

I bought 4 cans of beans--2 each black beans and red kidney beans. I grabbed 2 pints of home canned garbanzo beans and a store-bought can of green beans from the shelves. I dumped everything into a strainer and rinsed thoroughly. Then I made the "sauce". Two cups of Apple Cider vinegar, 3 cups sugar, a cup of water, and 1/2 c olive oil all went into a saucepan. I added 1 Tablespoon each of mustard seed and celery seed and started it cooking. I used some freeze dried onion which I added to the mix and 1 tsp of tarragon. I let it boil about 5 minutes and then poured it over the strained and rinsed beans. Stirred and voila! Yummy bean salad. I am full as a tick and I have a huge amount leftover. The beans will "pickle" in the sauce. And, when I've eaten all the beans I think I am going to shred some cabbage and make some cole slaw using this for the dressing. It was really tasty and it even was nutritious as well. 

I did 2 tax returns today. Tomorrow I have one more to do and I also have plans to can some chicken. It behooves me to have some shelf stable chicken rather than frozen, just in case the power goes out. I've kind of picked Fridays for cooking/canning day for the next few weeks. I don't want to get caught with a whole lot of frozen meat if there's some kind of power outage. I have two large packages, about 5 breasts each, to work with. I'm pretty well set up. Meat is defrosting in the fridge. Canner has a new pressure gauge installed and 3 inches of water in it. And I've sterilized a dozen pint jars which should be more than enough. 

I'm about to start scouring the weekly food ads for this week's purchases, somewhere between now and next Tuesday. The Smith's ad looks pretty good this week. Wish me luck.........

Miss Alissa

Alissa, my "new" dog has settled in quite nicely. She is a hoot and provides me with entertainment and more.

What I've observed about her: She is very off-put by the tube that follows me around from the oxygen concentrator. Parker used to step on it as though it were just part of the floor which usually ended up giving me something like whiplash. But, not this girl. She avoids it like the plague. This is a very good thing. If I leave the house, even if it's only for 15-30 minutes, she is ecstatic when I come home. She does "zoomies"--my name for the way she runs in circles in great celebration because Mom's home. She's a good watchdog, alerting me when someone rings the doorbell. Unfortunately, she can't distinguish between our doorbell and the sound of a doorbell on TV. She's learned to pull her toys from the basket I bought for them. We're going to have to work on her learning to put them back at bedtime!

I think she's been somewhat abused in her past life though the previous owners gave every impression of loving her to death. She backs away from her food dish if I come anywhere near her when she is eating. She'll actually back off 2 feet or more. She wants to be petted, but she ducks her head as though she thinks she will be hit when I reach out to pet her. She's generally a VERY non-aggressive dog.

She's smart as a whip. We've been working on '"stay" and I think she's about got that. We're working on "sit" and "shake". She has never been trained to properly walk on a leash so when the weather is consistently warmer, we'll try working on that. I'll bet I didn't spend 20 minutes with her before she figured out the pet door though she'd never seen one before. She has learned that she is going to be petted and kissed at bedtime. That was a struggle at first. She made herself at home sleeping on the bed but on the other side right away, but I couldn't even reach her to pet her. However, now when I get into bed and get the covers all pulled up, she approaches me for snuggle time. I'll be happy when we get the "walk" thing down because then I can start taking her with me wherever I go.

She'll eat pretty much anything. I found some entrees that were pretty old when I cleaned out the freezer. I sorted through them and so far she has eaten black bean soup, Marlboro man's sandwich meat (from The Pioneer Woman), and white bean chicken chili. 

I am absolutely convinced it was the hand of God that brought her to me. He made the perfect choice!

 

Happenings

Today I faced up to something I really needed to do. And it turned out to go much better than I'd expected. I went to DMV. 

First, I don't usually go that "far" out of my comfort zone. I am almost always within a 2 mile radius of my home. But, it was closer to 10 miles away. Traffic was blessedly moving smoothly. Second, I didn't see a single police officer along the way, coming or going. Third, I had an appointment which meant I didn't have to sit there interminably, waiting. Fourth, I got a really nice, patient lady with whom to work. Fifth, I was advised I needed to pay a penalty for renewing late (I couldn't get an appointment in time and the DMV website does not disclose anywhere that on Saturdays you can walk-in.) I held my breath about the penalty--it was $10 and I exhaled. Sixth, I needed information about how to renew my car registration. The lady with whom I worked was a fountain of inffo and gave me the answer to my questions. Seventh, eventually I want to get the "real ID". I didn't even attempt to do that this year because I couldn't even figure out how. Another blow for the functionality of their website......... She gave me just what I needed--even wrote it all down. Eighth, I use supplemental oxygen pretty much 24/7. I do not have a portable oxygen source, so I was concerned about being gone from home so long. I was also concerned about the "hike" from the parking lot to the entrance. And, I did not know I would have to stand in line for 10-15 minutes to gain entrance to the building. As one gentleman in line put it "I scheduled an appointment so I could stand in line". 

About the drivers license. I attempted to get an appointment before i was due to renew. I couldn't get an appointment for 5 weeks. There is no mention of a penalty and there is even a statement that one can renew up to 364 days late. In that the penalty is not mentioned, that would imply to me that there is no penalty. Obviously I need to have a talk with whomever maintains that website. I could have come there today with just enough cash as I thought I needed and no debit or credit card and walked away mighty angry at wasting my time over that $10 penalty. 

About the real ID: I got married when I was in college. Literally, we researched to find the closest state that would allow us to get married without parental signatures. We booked a flight home from Nashville, TN to Orlando, FL via the state in which we got married and told our parents we had a layover in that state en route. it was only later it came out we'd done the deed. In order to get a real ID, you need a paper trail for every name change. Well, it's been more than 50 years. I couldn't begin to tell you exactly where we got married and I can promise you in 9 moves over the years, I have no idea where that marriage license is. The lady with whom I met gave me a way to get it done anyway.

About the registration renewal. In December 2019, I had a lapse in my insurance coverage for a 6 day period. I can show proof it was only 6 days. And, it was cured before my registration renewal due date. I tried over and over and over through the website to renew. All I ever got from the website was an error message telling me to try again later. Like any reasonably sane person, I interpreted that to mean there was a problem with DMV's website. I continued to try and finally it occurred to me that maybe my problem had something to do with that 6 day lapse. I found a phone number on the website for questions about insurance. When I called it, I was told that my problem was indeed the lapse in coverage and there would be a HUGE penalty. I envisioned something like $600-$900 in penalties, plus the problems of how to get it fixed. Recently I have been very concerned about getting stopped by a police officer and ticketed for not having a current registration. But, still I could not find out from their website what I would need to fix the problem. Today I found out that what I need is just a current smog test, proof of current insurance, and a return trip to the DMV. I also found out the amount of the penalty--it IS a large penalty but far less that I'd been led to believe. In fact, if I take into consideration that if I'd been in compliance since then, it would have cost me $50 more than the penalty amount. So essentially I get the problem fixed and I save $50. And I no longer have to pray for police officers to be temporarily blind if they happen to pull up behind me at a stop sign! Praise be! That will also reduce my stress level when I have to drive 1.5 miles to pick up my groceries.

I had a tough time making it back to my car. I'd been off the oxygen for several hours by then. however, the Lord brought me through that too. And I will feel so much better when I get it all put together as it should be. It helps to know how...........

Confession and Preparation

Confession

I have been torn over this Ukraine situation. As you may know, I am a WWII history nut. I am fully aware of groups called the Einsatzgruppen in Ukraine. These groups were set up with German officers and many, many Ukrainian volunteers whose mission was to kill Jews. They succeeded. They killed 10's of thousand in ways far more violent than "showers" as used in the concentration camps. If you have any curiosity about this subject, look up "Babi Yar". Not only did Ukranians participate willingly in the mass murder of Jews, Ukraine is a country in which anti-semiticism was and is rampant. I saw everyone on social media posting about prayers for Ukraine, but I couldn't get there. I viewed these people as mass murderers of God's chosen people. Further, their anti-Jewish prejudices influenced many people to turn in Jews and others to refuse to try to help those who had managed somehow to escape the clutches of the Nazi's and their cohorts. I finally had to take some time and look at what was going on inside me. I realized I was having a hard time forgiving the Ukrainians for sins committed 80 years ago. It's a bit like asking me to pay reparations for slavery when my ancestors did not arrive in this country til after the civil war. Not good............ It struck me that my unforgiveness was wrong. The Ukrainians who are walking the face of the earth are extremely unlikely to have had anything to do with the mass murders. They'd have to be 100+ years old. And if I can't be punished for the sins of my father, neither can they. To complicate matters further, the Russians have not been known for their kindness to the Jews. You may be familiar with the term "pogrom". If you're not, you can google it.

After confessing all this to the Lord, I have finally been able to pray for wisdom for the leaders "so that we may live in peace". And I am able to pray for the protection of God's children among both the Russians and the Ukrainians. I am also praying for the exposure of evil at work in this scenario. Progress is being made.

Preparation

Being concerned to be a steward of what God has given me, I have become something of a prepper. Don't laugh--it's Biblical (Joseph was a prepper at God's command.) I do have plenty of food on hand, not that I'll be able to indulge every craving. But there will be SOMETHING in this house to eat for some time to come. In case of freaky weather like Texas had last year, I do have a tent and a sleeping bag to use IN the house to keep me warm. To the extent I can, I have some spare medication, both prescription and OTC, on hand. I am even the proud owner of 2 manual can openers, LOL. But among the many things I do not have was a way to cook food if the power was out. Well, I did some careful shopping last night, and to the extent I can afford anything, I found a rocket stove I can afford. I have a dead fruit tree and numerous dead shrubs in my backyard. I will have plenty of sticks to use as fuel for quite a while, should the need arise. Now, if only I could come up with enough for a solar generator..........or even an EMP shield.......I haven't pushed the button on that rocket stove, but it's in my shopping cart.

One thing about Amazon........

Amazon is very convenient. I told you the other day that the glass face plate on the pressure gauge on my Presto canner. I took a chance and worked without it and I think it was successful. However, I was canning broth. I can't think of much that's cheaper to make than broth. Maybe dried beans? I've never done any kind of calculation. I was willing to take a chance on broth because I did not stand to lose much. But, next is meat of various kinds. With today's prices, I don't want to gamble when canning meat.

In years past, one could order replacement parts direct from Presto. I started there intending to check prices to compare with other providers. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Presto is no longer selling replacement parts on its website. Instead, a customer is referred to Walmart or Amazon. I go out of my way to avoid Walmart as there isn't one close by. I was concerned that i might end up driving from place to place throughout the city, trying to locate the part I needed. The van isn't exactly easy on gas so the prospect of such a tour of the city wasn't fun to contemplate. So, I ended up ordering from Amazon.

And today I have a new pressure gauge received and installed. I noticed that the price for pressure canners has increased from somewhere around $80 to $170, more than double. Ugh! And, honestly, before Biden, one could sometimes catch that $80 canner on sale........ So grateful to easily get the part I needed so that I don't have to think about the current replacement cost of a canner!