I got a chance to get a little stitching in yesterday. My choice, by far, over standing on my feet making hickory syrup for a few hours before going to work for six hours. 

In the time I had to lose myself in this project, I managed to add the chipping to my Corgi's face. I still have to do the white on his paws, but I really wanted to finish the facial features before turning my attention back to the white couching. I'm glad I did. I love the look of the cider-colored brilliant check thread, with a bit of gold accenting the ear and the forehead area (referred to as a "stop" on dogs).

I'll work on this again on Saturday, and hope to complete it over the weekend. I do work on Sunday, filling in for another clerk who needed the time off. She'll be working a day for me next week.

Well? Do you like how he's looking so far? I think he'll make a beautiful brooch, and I'm looking forward to seeing this one to completion. Then, I'll make another for a CorgiAid fund raiser in honor of Tag. I hope to raise some money to help other Corgis in need.

We have a milestone occasion this weekend, and I can't wait to tell you about it...tomorrow. Happy Friday!!

I Was At It Again...

The day began with my trusty sidekick sleeping on my foot as I perused some of my canning cookbooks. She opened her eyes when Handsome stopped to take this picture. Once I decided what I was going to do, she had to relocate so I could move. She did keep my foot warm for a while, though.

I grabbed my trusty British Kilner pot and put all my thawed strawberries into it. I didn't drain off the liquid, which would come back to bite me later. sigh

This is what I took out of the water bath...fourteen beautiful jars of strawberry jam...that wouldn't set up. I went back to my books to learn that it was probably because of all that liquid I retained with the berries.

As I didn't need fourteen jars of ice cream topping (what I do with runny jam), I decided to redo them, adding another package of Certo to the pot - and removing some of the liquid from each jar as I poured it back into my by-then clean pot. After all was said and done, I had eleven half-pint jars of jam. Good enough!

 

 

I did a little rearranging in the end pantry cabinets. I still have space for the hickory syrup, which I didn't do yesterday. Perhaps I'll get to that this morning. I work from 4-10 pm today, standing in for someone else, so I'll have my morning tea and see how I feel. I might stitch on the corgi brooch for a while instead.

Yes, those are eggs on the bottom shelf. They still have the bloom to protect them, so they needn't be refrigerated. Behind the divider is my large jar of water glassed eggs, too. Still saving those for a rainy day. 

I have thirteen or fourteen gallon-size ziplocs of beautiful Roma tomatoes in the freezer. (Did you know that frozen tomatoes sound like billiard balls when they knock together? Yep.) Those will become homemade Rotel™, homemade pizza sauce, and stewed tomatoes. I'll do those soon, too, to free up space in the freezer, as well as refill the pantry until the vegetable garden yields in late summer/early fall. I still have to get the beds ready for planting. That won't be for a couple weeks, unless I can steal an hour here or there before then.

 

It's going to be a busy spring, for sure. The weather is gorgeous these days, so I want to get as much done inside as possible, to be able to spend more free time outdoors. It was a relatively mild, but long winter and I'm anxious to enjoy our Wisconsin spring and summer. Alas, it will be over far too soon.

 

Monday's Canning Results...

Monday was quite productive. Let me first explain my motivation for canning the sorts of things I show you. When prices started climbing a few years ago, I got miffed because the Pastorelli Pizza Sauce we used to purchase by the case had gone from $.99 a can to $1.79. We were already growing tomatoes, so canning our own pizza sauce was the first thing on my list.

Then, I looked in our pantry cupboards and assessed what sorts of things I regularly purchased at the grocery store, and what I might be able to do here myself. I'm talking about the things you usually find in the center of the store...not the things around the edges. I refer to the "edges" as produce, meat, dairy, but not the bakery area. I already handle that myself.

That's why you'll see many of the things I can are from the "center of the store"...jams, cake/muffin/brownie mixes; canned tomatoes and other tomato derivatives; spices; beans. You get the idea.

About the beans. I've been asked why I can beans when the dry beans last indefinitely. My reply is that in order to cook said beans, they're usually either quick cooked - which isn't really quick, or soaked overnight and then cooked. By pressure canning, I'm essentially cooking them as they're preserved, and I only need to crack open a jar and reheat them. Much simpler, don't you agree?

In the first photograph, I've canned chicken breasts (cubed). I found the Amish chicken breasts (no preservatives, no additives, no medicines in the meat) on sale, so I bought four and a half pounds. Three pints are seasoned with a taco seasoning, and the other two are plain, in their own broth.

I also canned half of an eight pound bag of pinto beans, which yielded eleven pints of finished beans. Are you getting the idea we like Mexican food? You'd be right.

The other bean I canned on Monday was a red kidney bean to which I added home mixed chili seasoning. When I want to make up a batch of chili, I chop onions and celery, brown them in a large pot, and then add my home canned beef, chili beans, and home canned tomatoes. I also add a bit of beef broth into the mix. I have a tender meat chili in less than an hour! The best part is that I know what's in every ingredient, and know I'm serving healthy food. I have sixteen pints to put on the shelf.

While the canning was going on, I took all the beef fat I'd trimmed over the past few months (that I'd frozen until I had a good batch) and cut it into 2" square pieces. Into an aluminum pan, and into a 350º oven. That roasted for the entire time I was canning, so I think that was close to four hours. At the end, I checked the temperature of the oil to be sure it was around 225º F, at which time I pulled the pan out of the oven.

I removed the remaining solids, and strained the liquid gold through a fine sieve, lined with multiple layers of cheese cloth. When that was done, I ended up with a full pint jar, plus half of a small one. I set it aside to solidify.

 

This is the end result. A beautiful, creamy tallow that I can use for pastries, baking, and even frying. When asked how to use it, my reply is wherever you would use Crisco, you can use tallow. Additionally, there are some who even use the tallow to make soaps and creams. I think I'll leave that to others, and use mine for the kitchen applications.

  

This is my last photograph for this post. I wanted to show you what's on these two shelves. On the upper shelf, you can see how I package all my mixes. Shown are my brownie mixes, corn muffin (Better than Jiffy!) mixes, and a basic muffin mix that I could add blueberries, or another fruit to. On my list is to package up my recipes for white cake, yellow cake, chocolate cake and spice cake to add to the shelf.

The second shelf has all my baking nuts from hickory, to pecan, walnut, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and more. 

To the left of the nutty assemblage are my home canned broths. I currently have turkey and vegetable, but I'll add chicken, and beef soon.

So there's a peek into our pantry cupboards. I'll share more contents after I add more this week. Today I'll be canning strawberry jam from the fruit I froze late last year. I'm also going to put up a number of bottles of hickory syrup. We've been using Dutch Honey lately (explanation HERE), but it's time to go back to our favorite.

So you know the drill. If you're looking for me today, I'll be in the kitchen (again), making and preserving more "Goodness from the Farm". I think it's a great way to spend May Day!

Happy May Day, friend!