Guess it pays to give your UPS guy jam for Christmas so he knows you can. Or maybe he delivered while I was in the garden or canning something, I don't know, but I'm glad he knew who to call when there was a stash of canning jars that needed taken.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Scored Some FREE Canning Jars
Guess it pays to give your UPS guy jam for Christmas so he knows you can. Or maybe he delivered while I was in the garden or canning something, I don't know, but I'm glad he knew who to call when there was a stash of canning jars that needed taken.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Catch Up
Here's a quick catch up post. It's cold. It hasn't snowed in the last week and there's still lots of snow on the ground, but it is useless snow because it is so dry you can't pack it into a snowman or anything. It's the kind that "crunches" because it's dry and cold. Don't figure it's going anywhere anytime soon.
The pigs we had that I didn't write about much because sweet husband and dear son mostly headed up that project are in the freezer and quite tasty, although I think we'll try another packing plant next time because the bacon's a little salty for my liking--still good, just a bit on the salty side. Where is Springville Meat when I need them? What? Two hours away? Nevermind, I guess I'll try another local place.
The chickens have slowed on egg production quite a bit and a few more eggs broke on their way into the house from being stashed in coat pockets. Guess an egg basket of some sort would be in order. I actually had to go buy 2 dozen eggs a couple of weeks ago to make sure we didn't run out. And then they do not like the snow, so son got to shovel out their entire coop (twice) so they'd get out of their house. Funny birds.
Christmas was nice. The kids got what they needed, but of course not everything they asked for. A hovercraft is kind of hard to come up with. We got a few smaller items to add to the preps and had a great time with the Stocking Stuffer Swap. Got some good stuff there, so thanks to those who stuffed my stocking and sweet husband's. We'll probably do it again next year.
With the new year coming up, I've been thinking a little bit on goals for the next year. There are a few items I really want to add to my preps, so saving up for them will be on the list. Sweet husband's job went from 5-8 hour days to 4-10 hour days and now they're requiring a full day furlough (mandatory time off without pay) this coming month. Coincidence they did that after they switched to 10 hour days? I think not. Anyway, he said there's rumors that it will be a monthly thing, and that's not going to help the budget any, but it sure could be a lot worse. I have some things I want to learn and do this next year also. We'll see how things go. What's on your New Year's Resolutions? Anything you want to learn I can help with? Let me know. :)
The kiddos are still out of school of course, so posting might continue to be sparse the next week or so.
And now the pro's and con's of a birthday on New Year's Eve:
Pro: Almost everybody is celebrating on your birthday.
Con: Places you could normally go out to eat unannounced now require a reservation. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, then all the restaurants are closed because it's a "holiday".
Pro: Mom got a tax deduction for a baby she only had for one day of the year.
Con: Birthday almost always falls on the same paycheck as Christmas . . .
Pro: It's difficult for people to forget your birthday since it falls on a holiday.
Con: It's cold--no pool party. :)
Hope you're all thinking of ways you can improve your preparedness and self-reliance levels in the coming year. Now I'm off to make some dinner--the natives are getting restless. ;)
The pigs we had that I didn't write about much because sweet husband and dear son mostly headed up that project are in the freezer and quite tasty, although I think we'll try another packing plant next time because the bacon's a little salty for my liking--still good, just a bit on the salty side. Where is Springville Meat when I need them? What? Two hours away? Nevermind, I guess I'll try another local place.
The chickens have slowed on egg production quite a bit and a few more eggs broke on their way into the house from being stashed in coat pockets. Guess an egg basket of some sort would be in order. I actually had to go buy 2 dozen eggs a couple of weeks ago to make sure we didn't run out. And then they do not like the snow, so son got to shovel out their entire coop (twice) so they'd get out of their house. Funny birds.
Christmas was nice. The kids got what they needed, but of course not everything they asked for. A hovercraft is kind of hard to come up with. We got a few smaller items to add to the preps and had a great time with the Stocking Stuffer Swap. Got some good stuff there, so thanks to those who stuffed my stocking and sweet husband's. We'll probably do it again next year.
With the new year coming up, I've been thinking a little bit on goals for the next year. There are a few items I really want to add to my preps, so saving up for them will be on the list. Sweet husband's job went from 5-8 hour days to 4-10 hour days and now they're requiring a full day furlough (mandatory time off without pay) this coming month. Coincidence they did that after they switched to 10 hour days? I think not. Anyway, he said there's rumors that it will be a monthly thing, and that's not going to help the budget any, but it sure could be a lot worse. I have some things I want to learn and do this next year also. We'll see how things go. What's on your New Year's Resolutions? Anything you want to learn I can help with? Let me know. :)
The kiddos are still out of school of course, so posting might continue to be sparse the next week or so.
And now the pro's and con's of a birthday on New Year's Eve:
Pro: Almost everybody is celebrating on your birthday.
Con: Places you could normally go out to eat unannounced now require a reservation. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, then all the restaurants are closed because it's a "holiday".
Pro: Mom got a tax deduction for a baby she only had for one day of the year.
Con: Birthday almost always falls on the same paycheck as Christmas . . .
Pro: It's difficult for people to forget your birthday since it falls on a holiday.
Con: It's cold--no pool party. :)
Hope you're all thinking of ways you can improve your preparedness and self-reliance levels in the coming year. Now I'm off to make some dinner--the natives are getting restless. ;)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Christmas Break
Well, the kids are out of school for Christmas Break or Winter Break as they are calling it. Whatever. I'm going to declare blog holiday for a few days and enjoy some time off with the kids and the snow. Don't forget to enter the Herb Seed giveaway from campingsurvival.com that ends on the 24th (if you're the lucky winner, you might not hear about it until after Christmas).
And for a bit of fun, here's one of my all time favorite Christmas songs for you. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!
And for a bit of fun, here's one of my all time favorite Christmas songs for you. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Fabulous Homemade Canned Salsa
I was going to write something fantabulous about Christmas or winter or something, but to be honest, my brain's about done, so I'm pulling out the Salsa post I've been wanting to write. It's kind of Christmasy because some people I love are getting some of my salsa as gifts this year. There you go. A Christmas post after all. :)
To make salsa, you need a good recipe. If you don't have one, don't worry, I'll share mine. Salsa is a staple around here, at least for my husband and son who like spicy stuff. The ingredients are easy to grow in your garden, and if you don't grow them in your garden, they're pretty easy to find at the market.
Here's the magical salsa recipe:
For every 1 quart tomatoes add:
1 onion
1 Bell pepper (or equivalent other mild pepper)
1 jalepeno pepper (or equivalent other hot pepper)
1-2 cloves garlic (optional)
Boil until thick, skimming juice, then add:
1/4 c. vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 TB sugar
Just before canning add:
1/8 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp ground cumin
dash cayenne pepper (optional)
Cilantro (1-2 bunches/10 quarts tomatoes)
Process 10 minutes in your boiling water canner.
Now, for the step by step. First you need some tomatoes. Growing your own is vastly superior to buying them at the store for cost and quality, but do what you can. The good thing about this recipe is that it can be made with a few tomatoes or a lot of tomatoes. However many tomatoes you have, that determines how much of the other ingredients you'll need.
If your tomatoes are romas, wash them and cut the stem end off. You don't need to peel them because their peels don't separate when they are cooked. If they are another variety, follow the first few steps in the canning tomatoes post (up to getting the tomatoes peeled).
Wow, missing a few pictures here. Anyway, after your tomatoes are prepped, pop them in your food processor and chop them to the desired consistency. Measure as you pour it out of the food processor and into the pot. The pot needs to be one that doesn't burn stuff again. I like my pressure canner pot. It's huge, so I can do a big ol' batch of salsa plus it has never burned anything I've cooked in it.
Next add the peppers. One bell pepper and one jalepeno pepper for each quart of chopped tomatoes. I usually have about 12 quarts of tomatoes, so I add 12 bell peppers. Core them and get all the seeds out.
Then pop them in your food processor (yours is probably nicer than mine--I got mine from my mom when she got a new one--I'm pretty sure it's 50 years old, but she says it's probably only 30).
And proceed to chop them to bits:
Add the pepper chunks to your pot of chopped tomatoes.
Now, if you like your salsa hot, go ahead and chop and add the whole amount of hot peppers. If you don't, add about half that much and work up from there after it's cooked for a bit and you can taste the hotness. I'm just shortening your learning curve here. Peppers from the store are not nearly as spicy as peppers from my garden. One year I didn't grow jalepenos, so I bought some from the grocery store. I used 1 1/2 peppers per quart of tomatoes and it was perfect hotness for me. The next year I grew my own jalepenos. I put in 1 1/2 jalepenos per quart of tomatoes just like the year before and when I went to taste it before canning it, it was so hot my throat tried to swell shut. I about cried. I didn't know what to do with that giant pot of salsa I'd been working on all day. I just wanted to throw it away and go cry myself to sleep (must've been one of those days, but I vividly remember how I felt when it was so much too hot). Anyway, sweet husband came home before I got so crazy as to throw it all out and he tried it and declared that it was perfect, so I canned it all up and he ate it. Thankfully I got another round of tomatoes and I did a mild salsa batch with it that year. So since then, I've stuck to the "half the hot peppers rule" and I'll add more at the end if it's not hot enough. It's worked out pretty well.
Another thing about working with hot peppers is that the pepper oil gets on your skin. I did not know this when I first made salsa. I cut the jalepenos and cored them by hand without gloves. Yeah, dumb. Don't do it. My hands suffered chemical burns and I had to wear rubber gloves to take my contacts out that night so I wouldn't burn my eyes. Now I wear gloves and just cut the tops off the hot peppers and throw them in the chopper without coring them. I know they're hotter that way, but really, the less I have to contact them the better for me.
This year we didn't have jalepenos, but I had LOTS of these other hot peppers, so I used those instead. Turns out they are so hot that half the hot peppers was still too much. Ugh. Another pot of salsa for sweet husband this year.
When the peppers are in the pot, add the onions. Quarter them and put them in the food processor and chop them to bits. I figure about 1 medium onion per quart, so if I have giant onions or smallish onions, I adjust the number accordingly. If you're adding the garlic, toss them in with the onions so they'll chop up nicely. My food processor doesn't like chopping a few small things, it likes to have some volume to work with.
You might open the window when you're chopping the onions. Really. Put the chopped onions in the pot with the peppers and tomatoes. It should look something like this:
Yummy. Now let it boil down. Stir it occasionally so you know how thick it really is because the juice comes to the top and the chunks kind of sink, so you might get it boiled down too far if you're not stirring and checking the consistency. If you used romas, it won't need to boil as long because they don't have as much juice. Romas are really the way to go. I just didn't grow any this year.
When it's boiled down to salsa thickness (however runny or thick you like your salsa) add the vinegar, salt, and sugar. We tried a little something different this year and substituted lime juice for the vinegar. You CAN substitute lime or lemon juice for vinegar in a salsa recipe, but you cannot substitute vinegar for lime or lemon juice because the vinegar is less acidic and you need a certain level of acidity to make the salsa safe.
Then add the oregano, cilantro, cumin and cayenne pepper if you want it (I leave the cayenne out). My crazy little store didn't have cilantro on my salsa day, so I used dry cilantro. Not quite as good as dried herbs usually aren't, but it worked. Thanks to my mom for bringing me a whole bunch of cilantro that she grew and dried in her dehydrator so I have some for emergencies like this.
You can taste your salsa once everything is in it--take a spoonful out and put it on a little plate or bowl and let it cool down. If it's not hot enough, chop up a few more peppers. If it's too hot, send it to my husband, he'll eat it. Seriously, you could make more salsa without the hot peppers in it and mix the two together or something like that if you wanted to salvage your too hot salsa. I briefly considered that when I made that one crazy hot batch, but I didn't have any more tomatoes at the time, so I thought I'd cry instead. Crazy girl.
After it was all in the pot and I was happy with the flavor, I heated up the boiling water canner and a little pot with lids and filled the pint jars with salsa.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids, put the jars in the canner and process for 10 minutes. Voila. Salsa. Yummy delicious too-hot-for-me salsa. :) I tried bottling it in quarts once (process 20 minutes), but we didn't use it fast enough once it was opened, so we've stuck with pints.
Contrary to canning tomatoes, this is definitely cheaper than buying salsa and much better tasting than any store salsa I've found. When I don't make it too hot that is.
To make salsa, you need a good recipe. If you don't have one, don't worry, I'll share mine. Salsa is a staple around here, at least for my husband and son who like spicy stuff. The ingredients are easy to grow in your garden, and if you don't grow them in your garden, they're pretty easy to find at the market.
Here's the magical salsa recipe:
For every 1 quart tomatoes add:
1 onion
1 Bell pepper (or equivalent other mild pepper)
1 jalepeno pepper (or equivalent other hot pepper)
1-2 cloves garlic (optional)
Boil until thick, skimming juice, then add:
1/4 c. vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 TB sugar
Just before canning add:
1/8 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp ground cumin
dash cayenne pepper (optional)
Cilantro (1-2 bunches/10 quarts tomatoes)
Process 10 minutes in your boiling water canner.
Now, for the step by step. First you need some tomatoes. Growing your own is vastly superior to buying them at the store for cost and quality, but do what you can. The good thing about this recipe is that it can be made with a few tomatoes or a lot of tomatoes. However many tomatoes you have, that determines how much of the other ingredients you'll need.
If your tomatoes are romas, wash them and cut the stem end off. You don't need to peel them because their peels don't separate when they are cooked. If they are another variety, follow the first few steps in the canning tomatoes post (up to getting the tomatoes peeled).
Wow, missing a few pictures here. Anyway, after your tomatoes are prepped, pop them in your food processor and chop them to the desired consistency. Measure as you pour it out of the food processor and into the pot. The pot needs to be one that doesn't burn stuff again. I like my pressure canner pot. It's huge, so I can do a big ol' batch of salsa plus it has never burned anything I've cooked in it.
Next add the peppers. One bell pepper and one jalepeno pepper for each quart of chopped tomatoes. I usually have about 12 quarts of tomatoes, so I add 12 bell peppers. Core them and get all the seeds out.
Now, if you like your salsa hot, go ahead and chop and add the whole amount of hot peppers. If you don't, add about half that much and work up from there after it's cooked for a bit and you can taste the hotness. I'm just shortening your learning curve here. Peppers from the store are not nearly as spicy as peppers from my garden. One year I didn't grow jalepenos, so I bought some from the grocery store. I used 1 1/2 peppers per quart of tomatoes and it was perfect hotness for me. The next year I grew my own jalepenos. I put in 1 1/2 jalepenos per quart of tomatoes just like the year before and when I went to taste it before canning it, it was so hot my throat tried to swell shut. I about cried. I didn't know what to do with that giant pot of salsa I'd been working on all day. I just wanted to throw it away and go cry myself to sleep (must've been one of those days, but I vividly remember how I felt when it was so much too hot). Anyway, sweet husband came home before I got so crazy as to throw it all out and he tried it and declared that it was perfect, so I canned it all up and he ate it. Thankfully I got another round of tomatoes and I did a mild salsa batch with it that year. So since then, I've stuck to the "half the hot peppers rule" and I'll add more at the end if it's not hot enough. It's worked out pretty well.
Another thing about working with hot peppers is that the pepper oil gets on your skin. I did not know this when I first made salsa. I cut the jalepenos and cored them by hand without gloves. Yeah, dumb. Don't do it. My hands suffered chemical burns and I had to wear rubber gloves to take my contacts out that night so I wouldn't burn my eyes. Now I wear gloves and just cut the tops off the hot peppers and throw them in the chopper without coring them. I know they're hotter that way, but really, the less I have to contact them the better for me.
This year we didn't have jalepenos, but I had LOTS of these other hot peppers, so I used those instead. Turns out they are so hot that half the hot peppers was still too much. Ugh. Another pot of salsa for sweet husband this year.
When the peppers are in the pot, add the onions. Quarter them and put them in the food processor and chop them to bits. I figure about 1 medium onion per quart, so if I have giant onions or smallish onions, I adjust the number accordingly. If you're adding the garlic, toss them in with the onions so they'll chop up nicely. My food processor doesn't like chopping a few small things, it likes to have some volume to work with.
When it's boiled down to salsa thickness (however runny or thick you like your salsa) add the vinegar, salt, and sugar. We tried a little something different this year and substituted lime juice for the vinegar. You CAN substitute lime or lemon juice for vinegar in a salsa recipe, but you cannot substitute vinegar for lime or lemon juice because the vinegar is less acidic and you need a certain level of acidity to make the salsa safe.
After it was all in the pot and I was happy with the flavor, I heated up the boiling water canner and a little pot with lids and filled the pint jars with salsa.
Friday, December 18, 2009
FoodSaver GameSaver Winner!
We have a winner for the FoodSaver GameSaver Deluxe from Ready Made Resources! First I want to thank you all for your comments and entries and again thank Ready Made Resources for sponsoring this giveaway. Thank you Thank you Thank you!
I used random.org to generate our winning number last night and got entry 18 which on the fancy schmancy spreadsheet of entries was Mariah S.! Congrats to Mariah, and hope you have a wonderful time vacuum packing every thing you can get your hands on! :)
I used random.org to generate our winning number last night and got entry 18 which on the fancy schmancy spreadsheet of entries was Mariah S.! Congrats to Mariah, and hope you have a wonderful time vacuum packing every thing you can get your hands on! :)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Reminders
A couple of quick reminders--those of you participating in the stocking stuffer exchange, make sure and get your stuff shipped out by tomorrow (12/17) if you haven't already. You might also mark the box in some conspicuous manner so the recipient knows it's not something they ebayed or whatever in case they want it to stay a surprise. I also want to know how it went for any who participated--you can wait until after Christmas, but I'd like to know since this was a trial run if there are things to change or do differently to make it better if we do it again next year. Thanks!
Reminder number two is the FoodSaver giveaway from Ready Made Resources ends tomorrow night, so if you haven't signed up for that, make sure you get that done! They were so fantastic to sponsor this giveaway, make sure you head over and give them some business if you're in the market for any of the wide variety of items they sell.
Been busy Christmas-ing: wrapping, packing, shipping, gifting neighbors, etc. the last few days. I've only got a couple of odds and ends left to pick up. I'm thinking I'm going to take a few minutes one night and just have hot cocoa on the couch and stare at the tree lights for a while with the Christmas music playing and relax and smile. :)
Reminder number two is the FoodSaver giveaway from Ready Made Resources ends tomorrow night, so if you haven't signed up for that, make sure you get that done! They were so fantastic to sponsor this giveaway, make sure you head over and give them some business if you're in the market for any of the wide variety of items they sell.
Been busy Christmas-ing: wrapping, packing, shipping, gifting neighbors, etc. the last few days. I've only got a couple of odds and ends left to pick up. I'm thinking I'm going to take a few minutes one night and just have hot cocoa on the couch and stare at the tree lights for a while with the Christmas music playing and relax and smile. :)
Monday, December 14, 2009
Canning Tomatoes
Today we have another flashback to summer post. Canning tomatoes. I was going to do salsa, but the first steps of salsa are the same as canning tomatoes, so we really need to cover canning tomatoes first.
Canning tomatoes starts with getting some tomatoes. Really not cost effective to buy your tomatoes at a grocery store, maybe at a farmer's market. But it's for sure cost effective if you grow your own or get them from a friend that planted 100 tomato plants and has "a few" extra tomatoes (really, that's where I got most of mine this year). Wash the little guys off.
If you grow your own or get free tomatoes, there will probably be some with imperfections like bruises, scrapes, black spots. That's okay. We'll just cut those off and use the rest of the tomato. By the way did you notice my nice stainless steel sink? It's not mine. I canned tomatoes at a friend's house. Canning really goes much quicker and is quite enjoyable if you do it with a friend. You'll see her nice stove and countertop also. Makes for good pictures. :)
Get a pot of water boiling. After your tomatoes are washed, put them in the boiling water a few at a time. I have a really cool wire basket thing that holds my tomatoes while they're in the pot then I can lift them all out at once--saves lots of time over fishing out individual tomatoes.
After they've boiled for a little bit (a minute or so I think) their skins will start to crack. Now they're done and they need to be taken out and put in a sink of cold water. See the cracks?
When they've been put in the cold water, it's time to core and peel them and cut off any bad parts you didn't already get rid of. If the bad part isn't too big, I just let it stay on the tomato until I get to the core/peel stage. Then I have a knife handy and just do all the cutting at once. It also helps the tomato stay together in the boiling water if you don't have chunks cut out of it.
Coring is pretty easy. Get a sharp knife and cut a cone shape out around the stem or where the stem used to be. That's it.
If the tomato is ripe, the skin will slip off easily. If it's not ripe, you'll have to help it out with your sharp knife a little bit. This one was nice and ripe.
Now we've got our tomatoes peeled, it's time to decide in what form you'd like to bottle them. I usually cut mine into little pieces. You can bottle them whole, sliced, chunked or pureed. We pureed these. Popped them in the blender after they were peeled and then poured the blended tomato into a pot. She doesn't like chunks.
Use a good thick pot for heating your tomatoes--I use my standby pressure canner pot because it doesn't burn anything. I've used a cheapo pot and burned the tomatoes to the bottom. Ick. I canned them anyway--that was 10 years ago and I just yesterday emptied the last 3 pints of burnt tomatoes so I could use the jars for something else. Really if you burn the tomatoes, you probably will not want to use them and they'll hang around your food storage room for 10 years like mine did. Your call. You could save yourself all that trouble by using a nice thick pot that doesn't burn stuff.
Heat up your lids. Really, it used to be that this wasn't so important--I used to put lids on jars cold all the time. But the lid manufacturers have gotten cheap and are not putting as good of gummy stuff on the lids and it really needs to be heated or it won't stick to the jar right away and your liquid will leak out while your stuff is canning. Just my theory, but it's backed by lots of my own kitchen evidence.
After your tomato pot is nice and hot (like boiling for a while) and you've skimmed off any extra juice you want to get rid of as well as foam (this pureed stuff foamed, I don't remember my chunked tomatoes foaming), it's ready to go in jars. Put 1 T lemon juice and 1 tsp salt in each quart jar, then pour the tomatoes in to fill it up. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings and put it in your water bath canner for 30 minutes.
When it's done canning, pull the jars out and let them cool off. This stuff is great for chili and soup base or whatever you use canned tomatoes for. Yummy yum yum.
NOTE FOR ROMA TOMATOES: If you have roma tomatoes, you can skip the whole boil and peel section. Their skins don't separate, so they can just be washed, cut the stem end off, and cut them as desired and put them in the pot to heat up. They also are a "thicker" or "meatier" tomato--not so juicy, so you won't have to skim much juice while it's boiling. Romas are awesome. Especially for salsa. But alas, romas weren't free this year, so I didn't can any. :)
P.S. Have you entered the giveaways for the herb seeds and the foodsaver yet?
Canning tomatoes starts with getting some tomatoes. Really not cost effective to buy your tomatoes at a grocery store, maybe at a farmer's market. But it's for sure cost effective if you grow your own or get them from a friend that planted 100 tomato plants and has "a few" extra tomatoes (really, that's where I got most of mine this year). Wash the little guys off.
Get a pot of water boiling. After your tomatoes are washed, put them in the boiling water a few at a time. I have a really cool wire basket thing that holds my tomatoes while they're in the pot then I can lift them all out at once--saves lots of time over fishing out individual tomatoes.
When they've been put in the cold water, it's time to core and peel them and cut off any bad parts you didn't already get rid of. If the bad part isn't too big, I just let it stay on the tomato until I get to the core/peel stage. Then I have a knife handy and just do all the cutting at once. It also helps the tomato stay together in the boiling water if you don't have chunks cut out of it.
Coring is pretty easy. Get a sharp knife and cut a cone shape out around the stem or where the stem used to be. That's it.
Heat up your lids. Really, it used to be that this wasn't so important--I used to put lids on jars cold all the time. But the lid manufacturers have gotten cheap and are not putting as good of gummy stuff on the lids and it really needs to be heated or it won't stick to the jar right away and your liquid will leak out while your stuff is canning. Just my theory, but it's backed by lots of my own kitchen evidence.
After your tomato pot is nice and hot (like boiling for a while) and you've skimmed off any extra juice you want to get rid of as well as foam (this pureed stuff foamed, I don't remember my chunked tomatoes foaming), it's ready to go in jars. Put 1 T lemon juice and 1 tsp salt in each quart jar, then pour the tomatoes in to fill it up. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings and put it in your water bath canner for 30 minutes.
When it's done canning, pull the jars out and let them cool off. This stuff is great for chili and soup base or whatever you use canned tomatoes for. Yummy yum yum.
NOTE FOR ROMA TOMATOES: If you have roma tomatoes, you can skip the whole boil and peel section. Their skins don't separate, so they can just be washed, cut the stem end off, and cut them as desired and put them in the pot to heat up. They also are a "thicker" or "meatier" tomato--not so juicy, so you won't have to skim much juice while it's boiling. Romas are awesome. Especially for salsa. But alas, romas weren't free this year, so I didn't can any. :)
P.S. Have you entered the giveaways for the herb seeds and the foodsaver yet?
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Making the Perfect Christmas Tree
We like to hunt our own Christmas tree. No, not from a lot or from the store--from the woods. Besides being a fun activity for everybody (even the dog), it's cheap. Only $10 for a tree permit. And you know I'm cheap. Granted, if the snow isn't too deep we can easily spend that much more in gas to get to the top of the mountain where the pines are, but this year we stayed close and picked up a Pinyon pine instead. This one.
Our ceilings aren't very tall, so our tree doesn't need to be very tall. We figured out last year that instead of tying it to the top of the suburban in the cold, we could just stuff it inside with the kids and the dog and be on our way. So that's what we did. (It's on a tarp so it doesn't sap up the whole vehicle.)
The thing about real trees is that they're rarely perfect. They have holes and flat sides. The branches aren't spaced evenly around. They're a little fatter or skinnier than you thought once you get them in your house. You know. So here's what we do. We cut the tree too tall, so when we get home we have to take another foot or so off the bottom. With that go a couple of branches. We use those branches to fill in the empty spots on the tree. Just whip out your screw gun and put a couple screws in each branch. Like this:
Then for the branches that need to move over or be pulled out of the walk way we use fishing line to tie them where we want them. Like this:
Light it up and decorate it (can you believe this little tree took 400 lights?), and voila, the perfect Christmas tree!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Product Review: Best Prices Signature Canned Meats
In planning our food storage, one area that's caused some trouble is meats. Now I know meats aren't on the "wheat, beans, powdered milk, and honey" plan, but I like meat. So does my sweet husband. So do my kids. I really want some in my food storage. The standard way to store meats is to have some in the freezer. This works fine if your electricity doesn't go out or if it does and it's real cold outside and you can just pile your frozen stuff in the snow to keep it frozen. But it's not the best way to store meats, especially long term--frozen meats that are not packed just right develop a bad case of freezer burn. So if you have meat in your freezer, what's your backup plan?
Your other options are to buy freeze dried meats or canned meat. Neither are cheap, and I've not had great experience with freeze dried meats (maybe because it wasn't great meat before it was processed?) Now we come to canned meats. Canned meats are a good thing. Most people's canned meat storage consists of tuna fish or spam. Yep, I have a case or two of tuna fish. I despise tuna fish. I don't have any spam--I really despise spam. I also bottle meat from the hunts. I have some canned chicken in the squatty fat cans that I'm not real crazy about because it's super processed, chunked and formed hunks of meat that was formerly chicken in a can with lots of water. Got all that? Sounds delicious, right? Well, here's where our review comes in.
Internet Grocer/Best Prices Storable Foods sent me some of their canned meats to try. I received a sample pack with canned chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and ground beef.
The first one we tried was the beef.
This is the large 28 oz. can. Each of the meat varieties are available in large cans or smaller 14.5 oz cans. Here's the open can.
One of the great things about Internet Grocer's canned meats is that they are not packed in a bunch of water. The ingredients say: "Beef, salt" That's it. So the juice in the can is just juice from the meat being processed. The meat also comes from hormone-free animals. I'm already liking this stuff.
The pieces of meat are stiff enough you could put them in a stew or casserole if you didn't smash them up, but they shred really easy, so I made chimichangas with it. Now we come to another great thing about canned meats in general: they are ready right now. You could open the can and eat them cold if you wanted to (which I did with some of this beef). I used a recipe that said to cook your meat 2 HOURS so you could shred it, but it only took about 30 seconds to open the can instead (perfect for dinner procrastinators). Ahhh, chimichanga filling in 10 minutes or less:
I tasted this beef cold, warm, and all mixed up in my sauce and it was good every time. I'm pretty sensitive to the taste of preservatives, maybe since most of the food we eat around here is "from scratch", and I could not tell this beef wasn't from a roast I cooked in my crockpot all day. I was also concerned about the salt--I want my meat to taste like meat, not salt (think spam), but the canners got the salt level just right--enough to enhance the flavor, not so much that you taste salt. Nice work. And I don't recall seeing canned beef on the shelf at the grocery store, but maybe I just haven't looked.
Ditto on the pork. It was really good. Packed in its own juices, not too salty.
This is one of the small cans. Nice size for one meal for an average family (actually went farther for us). Here's a picture of the pork right out of the can:
See how you can see the grain of the meat? Yep, you know it's real meat. I also ate this cold, and warm. We made barbeque pork sandwiches. Really, you don't have to shred this canned meat to eat it, I've just been on a shredded meat kick lately. You know the pulled pork sandwiches that take all day in the crockpot to get the pork to shred? Here's the same thing in 10 minutes--and it only took that long because I was making the sauce up as I went:
It was fabulous. Even sweet husband liked it. I liked the taste, the texture, and the ease of cooking with it. And who has canned pork? That's another one I haven't seen at the store.
The only issue I had with the meat was the price. I'll admit it, I'm cheap. Really cheap. So a large can of meat for between $8.45 and $9.10 seemed kind of steep. But here's the deal. It's a very large can of meat. The can of beef easily made 2 meals for our family (actually more since sweet husband's been sick and not had his whole appetite) as chimichanga meat. If it were in a stew or casserole it would have gone even farther. And the meat is really good. Not all processed and watery like the squatty cans of chicken that I pay $2.50 for. So if I stacked those chicken cans up to equal the size of one of Internet Grocer's large cans it would be $7.50 (3 cans high), then if I squeezed all the water out of those cans I'd need another can to make the same amount of meat, so now we're up to around $10.00 for a comparable amount of meat and who knows where that meat came from or how it was processed. So you see it's not so expensive after all. :)
So if you're looking to round out your food storage with some quality meats that will store 5 years or more, (or if you've procrastinated on getting the prepper on your list something special for the upcoming holiday) head on over to Internet Grocer and pick up some of their Signature Canned Meats. They have my approval.
As required by the FTC: I received a sample pack of Best Prices Signature Canned Meats in order to write my review. I received no monetary compensation. You know if I review something it will be thorough and honest, so the opinions expressed here are my own honest opinions.
Your other options are to buy freeze dried meats or canned meat. Neither are cheap, and I've not had great experience with freeze dried meats (maybe because it wasn't great meat before it was processed?) Now we come to canned meats. Canned meats are a good thing. Most people's canned meat storage consists of tuna fish or spam. Yep, I have a case or two of tuna fish. I despise tuna fish. I don't have any spam--I really despise spam. I also bottle meat from the hunts. I have some canned chicken in the squatty fat cans that I'm not real crazy about because it's super processed, chunked and formed hunks of meat that was formerly chicken in a can with lots of water. Got all that? Sounds delicious, right? Well, here's where our review comes in.
Internet Grocer/Best Prices Storable Foods sent me some of their canned meats to try. I received a sample pack with canned chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and ground beef.
The first one we tried was the beef.
One of the great things about Internet Grocer's canned meats is that they are not packed in a bunch of water. The ingredients say: "Beef, salt" That's it. So the juice in the can is just juice from the meat being processed. The meat also comes from hormone-free animals. I'm already liking this stuff.
The pieces of meat are stiff enough you could put them in a stew or casserole if you didn't smash them up, but they shred really easy, so I made chimichangas with it. Now we come to another great thing about canned meats in general: they are ready right now. You could open the can and eat them cold if you wanted to (which I did with some of this beef). I used a recipe that said to cook your meat 2 HOURS so you could shred it, but it only took about 30 seconds to open the can instead (perfect for dinner procrastinators). Ahhh, chimichanga filling in 10 minutes or less:
Ditto on the pork. It was really good. Packed in its own juices, not too salty.
It was fabulous. Even sweet husband liked it. I liked the taste, the texture, and the ease of cooking with it. And who has canned pork? That's another one I haven't seen at the store.
The only issue I had with the meat was the price. I'll admit it, I'm cheap. Really cheap. So a large can of meat for between $8.45 and $9.10 seemed kind of steep. But here's the deal. It's a very large can of meat. The can of beef easily made 2 meals for our family (actually more since sweet husband's been sick and not had his whole appetite) as chimichanga meat. If it were in a stew or casserole it would have gone even farther. And the meat is really good. Not all processed and watery like the squatty cans of chicken that I pay $2.50 for. So if I stacked those chicken cans up to equal the size of one of Internet Grocer's large cans it would be $7.50 (3 cans high), then if I squeezed all the water out of those cans I'd need another can to make the same amount of meat, so now we're up to around $10.00 for a comparable amount of meat and who knows where that meat came from or how it was processed. So you see it's not so expensive after all. :)
So if you're looking to round out your food storage with some quality meats that will store 5 years or more, (or if you've procrastinated on getting the prepper on your list something special for the upcoming holiday) head on over to Internet Grocer and pick up some of their Signature Canned Meats. They have my approval.
As required by the FTC: I received a sample pack of Best Prices Signature Canned Meats in order to write my review. I received no monetary compensation. You know if I review something it will be thorough and honest, so the opinions expressed here are my own honest opinions.
All Natural Culinary Herb Seeds in a Can Giveaway
Holy cow, things have been nuts around here lately! I have a pile of posts that should be getting posted and have had no time to post them! I think I might have a few minutes to do some posting today, so as promised, we'll start with another fun giveaway from our friends at campingsurvival.com .
Think eating beans and rice might get a little monotonous? Or do you like bland? Have you stored spices? How would you like to grow your own herbs to complement your food storage or just have in your garden. Well, here's a great place to get the herbs to spice up your meals. One of my lucky readers gets to win this #10 can of herb seeds from campingsurvival.com! The seeds are all natural and have ...
1) No fungicides, etc.
2) Non-hybrid
3) Non-GMO (Non-Genetically modified)
They can store 4+ years in the can (personally, I'd get them out and start planting though!). They are non-hybrid seeds so you can collect seed and replant as long as you want. The can includes the following varieties:
ROSEMARY 300 Seeds
SAGE, Broad Leaved 200 Seeds
SPEARMINT 300 Seeds
TARRAGON, Russian 200 Seeds
THYME 200 Seeds
FENNEL, Florence 200 Seeds
MARJORAM, Sweet 300 Seeds
OREGANO, Italian 300 Seeds
PARSLEY, Italian Flat Leaf 300 Seeds
PEPPERMINT 300 Seeds
BASIL, Genovese 200 Seeds
BASIL, Lemon 200 Seeds
CHIVES 200 Seeds
CHIVES, Garlic 200 Seeds
CILANTRO, Slow Bolt 300 Seeds
DILL, Bouquet 400 Seeds
The packets are resealable, so you can plant some now and some later, and the can includes complete planting instructions. Very cool. I want some. For more information, visit campingsurvival.com's information page here.
So here's the instructions to sign up for this giveaway. You are welcome to leave a comment on this post, but it won't count toward the giveaway. :) To enter, you'll need to fill out the form.
For your first entry, put your name and email in the form. This is required for entry in the giveaway. If you don't want to put your real name in the name slot, I guess that's okay, put whatever you like to be called in that space. Signing up for this giveaway will also sign you up for campingsurvival.com's monthly email newsletter that highlights their new products, sales, etc. Really a useful bit of information, and it's only once a month. You email won't go anywhere else. Promise.
Additional entries are available for the following:
1. Become a follower of Adventures in Self Reliance (you know my posts are worth reading!)
2. Follow Adventures in Self Reliance in a feed reader (or by email feed subscription)
3. Share this giveaway via a post on your blog (make sure to link to the giveaway and leave the link to your post in the form)
4. Twitter a link to this giveaway (include @momof3angels in your tweet and put your twitter username in the form)
5. Share this giveaway by some other method like facebook or email your friends
The giveaway will end on Thursday, December 24th at 11:59 pm and the winner will be contacted by campingsurvival.com for their shipping information. Good luck!
Think eating beans and rice might get a little monotonous? Or do you like bland? Have you stored spices? How would you like to grow your own herbs to complement your food storage or just have in your garden. Well, here's a great place to get the herbs to spice up your meals. One of my lucky readers gets to win this #10 can of herb seeds from campingsurvival.com! The seeds are all natural and have ...
1) No fungicides, etc.
2) Non-hybrid
3) Non-GMO (Non-Genetically modified)
ROSEMARY 300 Seeds
SAGE, Broad Leaved 200 Seeds
SPEARMINT 300 Seeds
TARRAGON, Russian 200 Seeds
THYME 200 Seeds
FENNEL, Florence 200 Seeds
MARJORAM, Sweet 300 Seeds
OREGANO, Italian 300 Seeds
PARSLEY, Italian Flat Leaf 300 Seeds
PEPPERMINT 300 Seeds
BASIL, Genovese 200 Seeds
BASIL, Lemon 200 Seeds
CHIVES 200 Seeds
CHIVES, Garlic 200 Seeds
CILANTRO, Slow Bolt 300 Seeds
DILL, Bouquet 400 Seeds
The packets are resealable, so you can plant some now and some later, and the can includes complete planting instructions. Very cool. I want some. For more information, visit campingsurvival.com's information page here.
So here's the instructions to sign up for this giveaway. You are welcome to leave a comment on this post, but it won't count toward the giveaway. :) To enter, you'll need to fill out the form.
For your first entry, put your name and email in the form. This is required for entry in the giveaway. If you don't want to put your real name in the name slot, I guess that's okay, put whatever you like to be called in that space. Signing up for this giveaway will also sign you up for campingsurvival.com's monthly email newsletter that highlights their new products, sales, etc. Really a useful bit of information, and it's only once a month. You email won't go anywhere else. Promise.
Additional entries are available for the following:
1. Become a follower of Adventures in Self Reliance (you know my posts are worth reading!)
2. Follow Adventures in Self Reliance in a feed reader (or by email feed subscription)
3. Share this giveaway via a post on your blog (make sure to link to the giveaway and leave the link to your post in the form)
4. Twitter a link to this giveaway (include @momof3angels in your tweet and put your twitter username in the form)
5. Share this giveaway by some other method like facebook or email your friends
The giveaway will end on Thursday, December 24th at 11:59 pm and the winner will be contacted by campingsurvival.com for their shipping information. Good luck!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Thanks and We Have a Winner
Just wanted to post a quick note to say thanks to all the brave souls participating in the stocking stuffer exchange! It will be fun. I'm still waiting on a couple of them to respond with their shipping address, so if you want to join in this morning I can still get you on the list! :) Read the rules here.
Another item of business. We have a winner for our WaterBOB emergency water storage giveaway!
Elizabeth in Oregon! Congratulations!
Thank you also to all who participated and to campingsurvival.com for sponsoring the giveaway.
In fact, campingsurvival.com had enough fun with that giveaway, they've offered to do another one which I will be posting shortly, so stay tuned!
Another item of business. We have a winner for our WaterBOB emergency water storage giveaway!
Elizabeth in Oregon! Congratulations!
Thank you also to all who participated and to campingsurvival.com for sponsoring the giveaway.
In fact, campingsurvival.com had enough fun with that giveaway, they've offered to do another one which I will be posting shortly, so stay tuned!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Preparedness Stocking Swap
I'm going to try something a little crazy here, so bear with me and play along, okay?
You all know Christmas is coming. If your house is anything like mine, you've got stockings to fill, and usually Santa is a little more sparse on the grown-ups stockings. Do you stuff your own? Use a sticky note to remind your Santa not to forget the stocking? End up with stuff in there that you really don't want or need? Of course I've never had any of those happen, I'm just asking ;)
Anyway, this year, I thought I'd have a little stocking stuffer fun, so I am hosting a preparedness stocking swap here at Adventures in Self Reliance. If you are interested in giving and receiving some fun preparedness/self reliance related stocking stuffers this year, please join in the fun. Here's the basics: I will assign each participant a new friend for whom they will prepare and ship a stocking full of prep related goodies. And another new friend will be shipping goodies to you. How fun is that?
Here's the important details:
- Sign up to participate by sending me an e-mail here. Please include your ship-to adress and your blog address if you have one. The deadline to sign up is Monday, Dec. 7th. Please only sign up if you are for sure going to participate, we don't want anybody left out.
- I will e-mail you the info for the person to whom you will be sending stocking stuffers. I should be able to get all this information out by Dec. 10th at the latest, probably before. Get to know them, read their blog if they have one, and get some ideas. Think preparedness and self reliance . . . things like cooking or canning supplies, items for an emergency kit, flashlights, candles, you get the idea.
- Choose gifts. Be sure to include preparedness type items--that's the point here--have fun and get better prepared. I would encourage you to use your imagination rather than your wallet. Be creative. There are quite a few preparedness items that are cheap or free or you can make yourself. You probably already have a few extra items around your place you could use in the swap. I don't want to have a dollar limit, but I also don't want anyone to feel they got shorted, so I am recommending about $20 total. And they should all fit into a standard size stocking, which you will NOT need to provide. (No Mom, not the ginormous stocking you made sweet husband, a STANDARD size stocking.) You all do have your own stocking, right?
- Ship your stuffers by Thursday, Dec. 17th so everyone will have them by Christmas.
- When you receive the package, you can let someone else stuff it in your stocking so you're actually surprised on Christmas morning, or not. :)
I really hope a bunch of you join in on the fun here, but even if only a few want to participate it will still be fun. Please feel free to invite a friend, or post about this stocking swap, or grab my stocking swap button my sweet friend made me late last night because she loves me that much (thanks Sharla!). Just copy the text in the box and paste it on your blog. Men, you're invited too of course!
<a href="http://selfrelianceadventures.blogspot.com/2009/12/preparedness-stocking-swap.html" ><img src="http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff340/apaskett/stockingswap.jpg"/></a>
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