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Nom, Nom, Nom

I mentioned in my last post that my canning session yielded one pint jar of pork that didn't seal. I put it into the fridge this morning. I took it back out this evening. I put just a bit of olive oil into a saucepan. Then I pulled the meat from the pint jar with a fork and began browning it in the oil. I added some garlic powder, some onion powder, some paprika and some red pepper flakes. I mixed the spices in and added the diced tomatoes I had left from the burritos i've been enjoying. I also added the broth the meat had generated in the canning process. I broke some angel hair into the pan with the other ingredients and let the pan simmer. Finally I added about 1/4 of a block of cream cheese and let it melt down. 

I wasn't sure how it would turn out but it was really delicious. I have at least another serving left. My taste buds want to take care of the leftovers now but my stomach couldn't possibly handle it. Lunch tomorrow, probably. 

It's hot as blazes

And it's gonna get hotter. I want to run away to the top of a mountain somewhere north of here before July and August get here. And, believe me, the rumors of blackouts coming don't make me feel any better. My plan is to get in the car and drive to the closest store that has power. Then I'll have to pray to find one of those scooters available so I can sit down. If that doesn't work I plan to refugee to a furniture store.

I unloaded my canner in the wee hours of the morning. Happy to have 6 pints of pinto beans and 1 pint of pork that are shelf stable. I also have one pint of pork in the fridge to be used soon in that it didn't seal. I'm not sure why it didn't seal, but it will be good eating anyway. I think maybe the meat rendered so many juices that the jar was over filled and some siphoned out, leaving a fatty deposit on the rim of the jar. 

For two weeks in a row, the local Kroger affiliate has advertised pork butt shoulder roasts on special. They run about 9 pounds. Both last week and this week, they've run out. Last week they substituted a better quality pork cut that only weighed 1.88 pounds. This week, they substituted something even smaller. Their reasoning seems to be I ordered 1 roast so they'll give me 1 something else in that they're out of the roasts. I am not a fan of that reasoning in that I'm hoping for enough meat to can and I don't want to can 1 jar at a time.

Oh, well, I still have meat to can in the freezer which is a priority with the prospect of blackouts hanging over our heads. I'm sure if I don't open the freezer door, the meat will last 2-3 days. At least I hope so. But I hate to risk it. I'm thinking that one week I'll have to get the absolute bare necessities at the grocery store so I can save a little $$ for more jars...........

And, now, for a little while, I'm going to head into the bedroom (on the east end of the house) and try to stay cooler 'til the sun makes it lower in the sky..........

Sometimes I surprise myself

I made myself some delicious dinner last night. It started with a search through the pantry. I found, oddly enough, a can of Rosarita "seasoned black beans". That's odd because I am not a fan of either beans or Mexican food, with a few exceptions. I dug around in the fridge and found some large flour tortillas, some sour cream, and some shredded Mexican blend cheese. I did not have fresh tomatoes or lettuce, but, at least, I had some canned diced tomatoes. I heated the beans and mashed them up somewhat with a potato masher. I put a good serving of those on the tortilla after I added a bit of garlic powder, and because I had no onions, a bit more of onion powder. I added a few pieces of the diced tomato, some cheese, and some sour cream. Then I ate it and I decided it was way better than the "passable" I expected. It was, in fact, delicious. It reminded me of a Burrito Supreme from Taco Bell. (That's one of the few "Mexican" things I like to eat though I am aware it may not resemble in any way a burrito a real Mexican would eat.) 

Anyway, as I figure it, it was not only good eats, but also a cheap dinner. I have a huge plastic bag of these large tortillas, purchased months ago. I'd bought the Mexican blend cheese so long ago I'm always surprised when I open it to get some out that I don't encounter mold. I got the can of diced tomatoes 2 case lot sales ago at my Kroger affiliate. The beans are a complete unknown to me. I have NO RECOLLECTION  of EVER buying those. I got the sour cream about a week ago, on sale. I checked and those beans are now $1.25 a can. I'm sure they must have been significantly cheap0er whenever I bought them. I'm guessing my dinner cost me well under $1.00. I was full when I had eaten and the burrito was high in protein (sourced in the beans and cheese), fiber (beans), carbs (tortilla, tomato bits, beans) and it even contained some fats (cheese and sour cream). And to sweeten the deal, I have enough of everything for at least another meal. Can't beat that! If I can have something that tastes that good so cheaply and with so little effort, you can bet I'll be doing this a lot more often. 

I am resurrecting some muscle. I am actually pretty surprised at that and pretty proud as well. I have continued almost daily to do the lower body exercises the physical therapist prescribed back when I fell. I've also begun some weight stuff for the upper body. After the accident, it was months until I actually got enough to eat. I never got breakfast. Lunch and dinner were teeny tiny and mostly finger foods--a little deli meat, maybe some cheese, some sliced fruit. That fit on one plate and was essentially all I had to eat. I could not get to the kitchen because of my leg injury and I couldn't have cooked anyway because of the huge cast on my right arm. I could not unscrew the lid on a jar of anything. So, I lost a lot of weight very quickly. I've been a mess of hanging skin ever since. However, whenever I stand up straight and put my knees together, there is a space between my legs up to 8 inches above the knees. I used to wonder how models made that happen--trick photography? And I have some pretty well defined musculature in my biceps, triceps, and shoulder muscles. I no longer have that flesh that dangles from the back of a grandma's arms. 

I am hoping these exercises will finally give me the confidence to take a bath. I have always hated showers and that has not improved, even if that is the only way I can get clean now. I am pretty well convinced that I would be able to get out of the bathtub now, if I could convince myself I'd be able to get out and get past the idea of being marooned there for hours--days. 

Anyway that's what's going on here. I hope to can some pork today or tomorrow (depends on when I get the meat chunked up).

 

My Daily Adventure.............

It happens every morning when I wake up. I can pretty well bet I'm going to hurt every day. The question is which part of me will be the culprit. Early in the week, the culprit was my back. All i had to do was try to sit up in bed and I knew.......Big time pain below the waist on the right side. I tried to work through it but finally gave in.  Took muscle relaxers and ibuprofen and laid down. It was better when I got back up about 6 hours later. But, it didn't take long for the pain to come back. So, back to bed I went. And so the whole day went.

Two days ago, it was my right knee. It not only hurt--I was also unsure it was going to support me. It felt like it might buckle under me at any time. It was bad enough I was ready to go for the cane I have since I got hurt about a year and a half ago. Then my right calf decided to join in the fun. It felt as though it was pulled tight and it hurt. When I woke up the next day, I was a bit more confident with the knee but the calf muscle was worse. Today that is pretty much better, but I have pain in the Achilles area when I walk. Both sides............ I figure, since we're running out of territory down low, next will be my neck.........

Canning is hard work..........

I finally got a load of sweet potatoes canned. 

So I HAD 12 jars of sweet potatoes on the counter in the kitchen. I managed to get them out of the pot around midnight or a little later. I'm thrilled to be able to put those on my shelves. If I want to eat a jar a week, I only need 40 more, LOL. I don't know that I have 40 more jars in me........I know I'd have a hard time coming up with 40 empty jars, just for starters. It's quite a process, getting those beauties in the jars. 

I reviewed the written instructions from the USDA. Then I watched a bunch of videos from canners I respect. The first question I ran across was on par-boiling. Some folks do, some don't. I decided for the sake of my wrist, I'd par-boil. It is supposed to make 'em peel like magic. The trick, though, is that you don't want to COOK them. If you do, you'll be eating sweet potato mush when you open the jars. Some folks recommended 3 minutes, others 5 minutes. Sweet potatoes are not uniform in shape or size. If you have a long skinny one, you want it out of the boiling water sooner. The fat ones can par-boil longer. I finally decided to par-boil 6 minutes. I checked them at 5 and those peels weren't even thinking about coming loose. I gave 'em an extra minute and it was not enough. I ended up after going to the trouble of par-boiling, having to peel those suckers, standing over the sink with my paring knife. Bah! That was what I was trying to avoid!

Then I sat down at the table and started chopping them into cubes. Lordy, that was hard and painful. They were definitely not par-boiled too long. They were hard as rocks and cutting through them made my wrist very unhappy. I peeled and chopped for hours and hours. I would have been faster with a different wrist.........

Then, of course, they had to be processed in the canner for 65 minutes. But, the 65 minutes does not count bringing the water in the canner to boiling, 10 minutes of venting steam. It also doesn't count the hour you have to wait for the canner to come down in pressure and temp when the 65 minutes have passed. I refuse to can in this house til sunset. I am just not going to make the house even hotter in the heat of the day........ So, it ends up being a very long day by the time I get those jars out of the canner and can limp off to bed.

I fought the urge to open a jar for days, but finally gave in. Unfortunately, I dropped the contents of a pint jar while getting ready to eat. So, I had to open another jar. They are delicious, but maybe a bit softer than I would like. I am saving my wide mouth jars for meat, and getting the sweet potatoes out of a regular mouth jar pretty much means you are just gonna put a little butter on them and mash them (the rest of the way). 

I just bought more. Another canning session or 20 coming up. I am really working on canning up the meat in my freezer in case we are hit with blackouts. In that my main freezer lives in the garage and we are already in 3 digit temperatures, I am concerned about losing meat. At least meat in jars doesn't need refrigeration.........

Today has not been my best day. My back was hurting a LOT when I went to bed last night. Now, after 2 muscle relaxers, multiple ibuprofen, and many hours flat on my back in bed, I am doing better. But, I've been moving very cautiously and very slowly during the time I've been up and around, trying not to undo the progress I've made.........