Welcome to Dana's blog!

canning and cleaning

My neighbor is doing ME a favor! I decided to can today adn needed celery for the BBQ sauce. I knew she had to run the little ones to preschool so I called to see if she'd pop in the grocery at in the small town (2 blocks away at most) and grab me some. Turns out she's running into the big town (shocking, I know) and said that she'd just get it at Meijer. Fine. Then I realized I was going to make a quadruple batch of stuffed shells and had no spinach! So I called to see if my personal grocery shopper would get me some of that as well!ROTFL!

So I'm getting my canning, dusting, bathrooms and several dinners done (nice for soccer nights) today. And I'm going to add honey to the BBQ sauce. I know that you can can w/it. I"m just hoping that it doesn't mean that I need to PRESSURE can it. It's still got vinegar so I"m voting no, but we'll see. I'm going to ask around online. I can always can it and recan them later if necessary. I just want it done and the mess cleaned up right now. This is the last of my canning, too.

I need to plug Mat too. He is an AWESOME help this year w/the canning! He LOVES to chop--HAVE AT IT!LOL It frees me up to get other things done.

tomato juice........

As if trying to recover from my 20 yr class reunion wasn't enuf (more on that later when I have time), today I hit it HARD! I got up and worked out and dove straight in. Dh had picked me three 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes. So I got started, the boys were doing school AND laundry was going. Monday is my big laundry day as well. About 11, I realized that I could do more tomatoes by the time that we needed to leave tonight so Mat and I picked a 4th bucket. Turns out DH pulled about half hte plants...Grrrrrrrrr. But there is enuf for me to make pizza sauce and BBQ sauce in the next week or so.

So 42 qts of tomato juice, 6 loads of laundry and a full school day later and I am DONE! I have not checked over Mat's stuff or eaten yet, but it's only 5.........LOL And I can barely move.;)

canning, canning, canning

I need to check where I"m at in my cycle. I was in a very foul mood last night and it hadn't improved by this am.;( I realized last night that I am supposed to go to town 8 times in the next 8 days!!!!!! And once to the 'big' town! It's $8/trip to town! I'm telling mom that I simply can't meet her and the geriatric club that she totes around to lunch next week. It's simply totally unnecessary. I'm sure the little old ladies will guilt me......... I do not want to miss my crop tomorrow, I feel strongly that the boys should attend church youth groups, 3 days are soccer (I was THRILLED that Mat and Joey practice AT THE EXACT SAME TIME! But Joey has practice on Thur as well and Mat doesn't. I thought they were only to have 1 practice and 1 game a week....) and then I have snack for MOMS on Wed and HS library. I knew things were going to be very hectic when all of this started and I'm grateful for skipping the HS co-op (it's about $15 round trip in gas), but in some ways, I think that might have been time better spent. I don't know. This is just the serious downside of living in the sticks. 

So I got up this am and worked out. I then hit the salsa hard. I did at least stop to think that I could re-can the 4 jars that did not seal last week. (An aside: Dh came home w/about 3/4 of a jar of salsa last night and THREW IT AWAY! Why? Cuz it sat out for a bit! I'm like IT"S SALSA! It's made to sit out 'for a bit'! I was just thinking of all the tomatoes that I chopped.........chopping them in large quantities eats thru my skin on my hands--thankfully that has not happened yet this year.) So I put those jars in the canner to 'warm up' and canned 14 more pints. So far only 3 haven't sealed, but 2 might yet. Oh, I also picked tomatoes IN THE RAIN to get as much done today as possible. I cut up 2 cantaloupe and ate that in between messes for bfast. I also made chocolate zucchini bars (recipe on my blog) to take to the crop tomorrow. Of course, I was rifling thru the frig (I have 102394871039247 large yogurt containers in there and I have to sift thru them all to find the right one!LOL) and found the dessert dip and realized that I could've saved myself making the chocolate bars.........oh well, the boys are out of snack food so this should serve them well. Then I made chicken salad. And had no hard boiled eggs and made the mistake of calling DH to ask if he liked eggs in it or not. Yes. Great, so the eggs are boiled and cooling so I can add those.

The boys were GREAT about doing school this am, too. I need to look over an LA quiz from Mat and that's it.

I'm trying to think positive--that all of this food I'm putting up now will help offset gas prices. But I"m super frustrated w/the garden as well. I've done 31 pints of salsa (one of which is now gone...grrrrrrrrrrr) and have stuff to make 18 more. That's only 49 nad I usually do 56 pints a year. Thankfully DH didn't find the 18 pints from last year so I should be OK if I can get enuf tomatoes to finish those off. I really need to do more juice. I've only got 21 qt (20 that I just canned last week). We're going to be eating lots of soup this winter.

Sorry this is such a grumpy post. I'm done for the day and have nothing to do tomorrow so I am hoping that my mood improves.;)

more canning!

I completely forgot that Mat has his youth tonight at chruch! I was going to wait to can pickles until then. My sister gave me some cukes to use (since mine are DEAD!). I worked out and then realized the error of my plan. I hung up the 1st load of laundry and checked the garden while trying to rework things timewise in my day. I had SEVEN cantaloupes ready (finally!), 5 tomatoes, 1 cuke, 1 zucchini. I also picked 2 beets and have quite a few green peppers that will be ready soon. So I came in and cleaned the beets and got busy canning 8 pints of dill sandwich stackers. I'm sure that Dh will be upset taht I did it in the house, but I don't know how to use his canning grill. Mat was a wonderful help and got school done and ran out the food trash and took some laundry off the line and they wrote their trucker buddy intro letters. I then cut up 2 cantaloupes (which are YUMMY!) and I cleaned up the kitchen. At 1, I REALLY got on Joey about not having school done YET! So we are all done w/that and I"m supposed to help mat clean out under his bed nad have to find the energy. I'm just dead.

pix of the canning stove that DH made

side shot:

Up close front shot:

Yes, he's pretty creative! We used it last night for the 1st time canning apples and he said that it worked well! We used to can on this grill (when it was a functioning grill) and he'd made supports for the side burner so it wouldn't break. But this contraption lets him not have to do that AND gives him plenty of work space for setting jars!

Can ANYONE tell me why photobucket pix come up SIDEWAYS on here even after I rotate them on photobucket?????

Pear canning!

Well I managed to can 12 quarts of pears. It took me 3 hours to peel/slice them! I have 3 quarts that have not sealed. I'm pretty sure that 2 won't seal, but that's OK. We can eat those.

I did NOT have a thankful heart while doing it tho. I told myself what a horrid steward I was being if I am GIVEN pears and don't feel like canning them! It's not honorable to ANYONE when I can easily save money like that and don't want to out of sheer LAZINESS! I hate the peeling. Really hate it.........mom offered me apples and I guilted myself into taking those. So last week was peaches, this week was pears and next week is apples........... The upside is that I'll have put up a minimum of 35 qts of fruit so that will be a very welcomed treat this winter when I gasp at grocery prices skyrocketing, yk? It will allow us to continue to support food pantries since I won't have to shell out as much at the grocery.

Beautiful day!

I've only worked out, dusted and cleaned the bathrooms. Oops, haven't done the shower yet--it's still got baking soda sprinkled in it!ROTFL! DH is working late so we're going to go bowling and then to the free dress rehearsal of Oklahoma. I can't seem to get Joey to understand that we are going to a SHOW and NOT THE STATE!ROTFL! But mom, it takes longer than one day to get to OK. YES I KNOW! WE ARE NOT GOING TO OK! WE ARE GOING TO SEE A SHOW LIKE TAMING OF THE SHREW AND LITTLE WOMEN, ETC! Hopefully he gets it AFTER it's over!ROTFL! But I figured for free, why not? Dh brought home 2 huge pork chops from some work meeting yesterday and that'll be their supper.

I also raided my garden and got 2 cukes (that I gave to my neighbor cuz I don't need them at the moment) and another zucchini (shocking, I know)! We should have plenty to send for hte Farmer's Market this week at least!

peach canning

I just put up 11 qt of peaches. I almost have feeling back in my right hand. Apparently I'm really slow at peeling cuz it took me FOREVER! Seriously, about 2 hours for 36 lbs! The 1st 6 qt have sealed so I'm very grateful for that. My back will stop hurting here in a bit and the last 5 are almost boiling in the water bath. I've got the mess cleaned up to boot. The boys both got school done and didn't care for water polo on the Olympics so they are outside riding bikes.

I need to sort thru the potatoes in a bit and read Freckles and I can call it a day.;)

FTR, I have cling peaches and that's why the peeling/slicing took so long.;0

grasshopper eggs......

Mat: MOM! I FOUND  GRASSHOPPER EGGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: YOU ARE NOT KEEPING THEM!

Mat: But MOM! I can use them to feed frog and toad.

Check and mate........we now have grasshopper eggs in the house..........ROTFL! Crickets are .10 each at the pet store.

how does your garden grow......

I'm ready to buy a stinking boat. The rain is CRAZY! I"m pretty sure that it's killed one of my flower pots! The one w/the crack looks AWESOME!ROTFL!  My cuke died and it's too wet to get out to replant. My broccoli and cauliflower are DREADFUL! They are both TEENY and the broccoli is already flowering!!!!!!  The peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and peas are all blooming. What romaine came up looks great. Too bad the arugala is done now!LOL The onions and beets looks really good as well.;)

Some peaches have fallen, but overall the fruit trees look fine.

Farmer's Market

And I made all of my doughs. I need to measure my totals better, but I think I used about $7 in flour. Not sure about the rest, but I'd say that was my biggest expense. So if I have $10 in 2 loaves of bread, a dozen bagels and 2 pizza crusts (these are 7 grain) and I sell the bread for $2.50/loaf ($5), $1/bagel ($12) and I"m not sure what to charge for the pizza crusts. I could not find ready made crusts for sale. So I"m leaning towards $4/crust. That would give me $15 profit. I just want to recoup my gas ($10) and inital $10 investment. Obviously that won't happen the 1st time, but I'm thinking by week 3, I should be seeing something. Mat's going to sell his radishes this week and I've got to get rhubarb ready to go.

I went in w/my mom and sister so there will be lots to sell!

flowers and landscaping pics

One of the 3 matching pots that I made for my back deck:

The hanging basket that I made my mom for Mother's Day (ignore the gerber daisy--it was not part of it!LOL):

Our flowerbeds:

Business venture!

Ok, this will by NO MEANS make us rich, but it should be fun and might put a little extra money in our pockets!

The little town back home is goign to try to have a Farmer's Market. My sister just called and asked if I help her w/it! It will take some logistics, but it's only cheap booth rent and only 10 weeks. And MY out of pocket costs wont' be much at all! As long as ppl show up, I think this will work. I'm always giving produce away so this might be a good solution. Plus Mat will be in charge of radishes and peas (which might be hard to pull off cuz it doesn't start until June) and he can keep his profits. I'm going to make a few loaves of bread nad see if they sell the first couple of times......

Weekly menu

This will be updated later:

Monday: Turkey tettrazini (it was AWESOME!)

Tuesday: turkey salad

Wednesday: either turkey pot pie or turkey divan (I need broccoli for the latter)

I'll figure out the rest when I see how the week shapes up. I know one night will be a roast.

garden update

The sweet potatoes were a bust. Just not enuf water......or too early a frost (not really, but considering when we started getting rain, it is!LOL). So I guess I"ll be buying a bag of those for Thanksgiving day. Unless someone gives DH some (happened before). 

The asparagus looks AWESOME. Well to my completely asparagus untrained eye!ROTFL!

Mat's gourds are awesome. I guess we'll have lots to give away. Most of the plants have died off so we'll harvest those soon. I'm hoping they stay good thru fall. Another new venture we tried this year. I know DH will be glad to mow the part of the yard that they invaded.

tomatoes.......

We picked what little I've left to do. Good thing the crop was cruddy! I've got maybe 60ish pounds to turn into sauce tomorrow and that will wrap that up.

Then to get them out of the garden. We got several out tonight, but there is alot more. There are 2 new watermelon that I hope are decent cuz we're dragging those on vacation w/us.;) The celery is shot and I'm pitching Mat's hot peppers since he's stopped picking them. The bell peppers are going great guns! We'll have those as long as there are no freezes!

We still need to dig the red potatoes, but it's much too wet. Outside of that, the garden is kaput!

56 pints of salsa!!!!!!!!!!

Salsa time!

garden update

I was scared to venture there, but I did tonight (w/Mat as back up!LOL).  I  pitched 9 muskmelons to the pigs and have 8 for us. 3 will be given away tomororw, 1 eaten and the other 4 saved for the party on Sunday. I have 3 watermelon that are fine.  The carrots are OK and I didnt' see much in the way of tomatoes. We picked some to get rid of tomorrow, but we can pick tomorrow night and I"ll put up more salsa on Friday.

I was glad that it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined.

garden update

I got 15 pints of salsa, and canned 14 of htem. Eleven of those sealed, which is good. But since there are alot of yellow tomatoes in them, DH will have to eat those pretty soon anyway.

We are almost done w/the 1st watermelon and I ate the 1st cantaloupe last night for supper!LOL I have another one on the counter nad I think it will be supper too!LOL

I also picked all the hot peppers and Mat and I will string them up so that they can dry today. There will be more later, but this will put a dent in them.

Presumably next week, I'll do more salsa. I have to can 56 pints so I'm about 1/4 of the way done. I've got quite a bit of spaghetti sauce to make too. Since the tomatoes are not doing all that great (grasshoppers nad blossom end blight), that's probably all I get. But I have enuf of everything else to hold us over for the year so that's OK.

Mat's gourds were trying to use my asparagus for uprights so they got a stern talking to after I untangled them!LOL I need those asparagus to live!LOL I don't care about the gourds so much!