Harvest Moon

Saturday evening I got organized enough to take some pictures of the harvest moon.  I'm always trying to learn with my camera and the way it takes pictures.  Here's what I took:

During the weekend, I canned applesauce, dehydrated apples, dehydrated potatoes.  I didn't make a dent.  First I couldn't find my cone-shaped mill.  After scouring the house we decided to purchase another one.  I do not like it.  It is so much smaller than mine that it was hard to get all the fruit.  I wasted so much.  The next day I peeled and cored the apples.  I definitely got more fruit but it was time-consuming.  I'm not anxious to  process much more at this point.

I Can't Get Enough

I guess I didn't get enough canning done this year.  I feel needy still.  I love canning, baking, cooking, and quilting.  I can't get enough of any of them.  Today, I was reading Judy's blog and decided to try canning dried beans.  We love hammocks and bean soup.  I always have to plan for this meal.  Not any longer.  With canned beans in my pantry, I won't have to plan, soak or rinse.  This may not seem like a big deal and maybe it's not, but it's going to be a big timesaver.  Why not?  I have time today.

  I used Judy's recipe but added a bayleaf, garlic, salt and pepper.  Here's my recipe.

16 cups (5 pounds) of dried beans will produce about 16 quarts.  I had a couple of quarts not seal so I'm going to re-process them in pints with what is leftover.  So I got 14 quarts and 8 pints.  They're all in the pantry now just waiting for the day.

I hope you enjoy this.  Tell me if you tried this.


This post is being linked to Homestead Revival Barn Hop

Chicken Ahead

This morning I was reading this post about making chicken for a week of meals and decided to try it.  I have done this with Chicken Tetrazzini.  The Chicken Tetrazzini recipe makes enough for five meals.  I substituted chicken for the turkey.  I labelled each container and then froze them.  It was great to come home after work and be able to have a good meal without all the prep.  It was such a great experience that I decided to try Dicky's Chicken for a week.  Once the chicken has defrosted some, I will take out the giblet bag and the tray packing.  You can see it on the chicken in the front.

The chicken is in the roaster and it's Saturday, so I have time to do this.  I was glad that I had whole chicken in the freezer.  I bought these for $.79 a pound.  I buy the limit everytime they come on sale and of course, space availability in the freezer.

Now, I have all day to finish my quilt.  I've been saying this for two weeks.  It's a quilt I'm donating to the St. Paul Parochial School Auction.  It'll be held February 4. So you won't be hearing about it after that.  Then I'll be on another UFO (unfinished project).

I should be able to take if off the longarm today and make the binding and attach it.  I can make it.

How is everyone's Saturday?

Weekend Cooking, Baking and Firewood

Since the days have been cooler, I've been wanting to make some comfort food.  I started with soup.  No name actually.  I looked in the freezer for meat and found some hamburger patties and pulled them out, next I went to the fridge and found some leftover pork roast, pulled it out, with carrots and celery.  Soup needs onions so I went to the garage and cut off an onion from the braid we have hanging in there.  I went to my pantry and got some canned corn and green beans from last year.  So pretty much the soup was all homemade except the meat.

I added a finely chopped jalenpeno, potatoes, garlic, some tomato sauce, beef broth and let it simmer all day.  I didn't want to go to the store for bread so I made bread next.  DB has been talking about wanting some "stretch necks" so instead of making two loaves of bread, I used one for the stretch necks.  I call them "fry bread."  I love making bread, it's so easy and rewarding.  I love the smell of the yeast and the baking.

I didn't get a snap of the bread, this is from last weekend.

And because I was on a roll, I also made Overnight Cinnamon Rolls for Saturday morning.  I started these in the evening.  They only took a couple of minutes to mix together and an hour for the first raising.  I rolled them out and filled them with cinnamon, melted butter, a little nutmeg and some walnuts we harvested roadside last year.  I covered them with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge.  The next morning I took them out while the oven was preheating.  Thirty minutes later we had fresh, hot out of the oven cinnamon rolls.

Firewood:  DBs nephew brought us out a couple cords of wood.  Saturday morning we hauled it all to the back of the house and stacked it.  We'll probably have to get a couple cord more because we don't plan on using our oil heat too much this winter.

DBs in the living room right now, I hear the snap and pop of a fire getting started.  Ahhhh.

This post is also published on Homestead Revival.

Tomato Juice

I have not been feeling well and didn't think I would get this accomplished.  But the garden can't wait so I forged ahead at a slow speed.  I have more tomatoes to can so that will have to happen after work this week.  One canner at a time.  These are my Romas.  I have some Beefsteaks left to do.  My son brought them over from his garden.  It was welcome because this was not a good year for my tomatoes.  Seems like most of then have rot on the bottom.  My mom said it was "blossom rot" from inconsistent water.  I haven't looked this up yet but it's frustrating because I'm all out of tomatoes in the pantry.  We are on an irrigation system for our household and 5 others.  When our landlord irrigates his crops, we get water.  This year he grew grass seed, garlic, green beans and it looks like field corn for seed.  We had great water the beginning of the season, but after he harvested the green beans, he didn't need to water the other crops very often.  We've had water off and on, three weeks off, then on for 2 days, off, on, currently off.  I've spot watered with the household water.  The beets,  cukes, and green beans are ok, it just the tomatoes really suffered.  I glad my son is helping his ole mom out with produce.

French Cut Green Beans

I'm canning french cut Green Beans today.  Of course it's suppose to be 90 degrees today.  Isn't that the way it goes?  I've already done 7 quarts and have another 7 quarts in the pressure canner.

Garden Update & Misc. Happenings

The last time I posted I was in Montana visiting my family.  Since then, my mom and sister came out here for a couple days.  Because my mom loves to bird watch, so we went to the coast and visited Nestucca Bay National Wildife Refuge, Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.  We went to a couple of state parks on the coast.  She had her list of birds she wanted to look for and we found many of them.

We celebrated my birthday and watched the chickens.  We took her to the Woodburn Auction where we sold 6 roosters.  That really made my "girls" happy.

Well the garden has finally come into its own.  I've been canning pickled beets, kosher dills, hamburger dills, freezing broccoli and cauliflower, blueberries and peas.

Last night, DBF picked all the cukes and today, it's more of the same.  Hamburger Dills, Baby Kosher Dills and maybe some Bread and Butter Pickles.  Tomorrow, beets again.  We want enough to last two years.  We don't plan on growing beets next year so I have to can a bunch this year.  I think I can. That's all for now.  Talk to you all later.