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| Pie filling and apple sauce |
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| Apple peels and cores |
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| Cadco CSR3T |
Happy Wednesday :)
Melissa
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Apples apples everywhere!!
I started my weekend journey with the last run to the apple orchard... far and few in between... I was up and down ladders all morning to pick all that I wanted for my final apple canning feat. This weekend's round involved apple sauce, apple pie filling, apple butter(my first time) and to top it all off, apple jelly from the peels and cores(Thanks Angie).. well as of today my apple jelly has not set up yet... so with a little advice I am going to re-boil it.. this time over flames instead of a glass top stove!!! Here is hoping this afternoon's adventure ends with success of apple jelly!!!
Why throw out those peels and cores.. Make jelly with them!!! I stored them in my refridgerator until I had enough to fill the pot I was going to use. This is my turkery roster rounded...
After all was said and done... I drained 6 quarts of liquid apple goodness added the sugar and set it to boil.. If anyone has every attempted to boil large amounts of anything on a flat top stove you will definitely understand how long it took to boil... I believe it has not completely set up yet, due to lack of rolling boil so this afternoon I am gonna pop open the 7 quarts and 4 pints and bring it to a rolling boil over flames!!! I love my out door cook stove(Thanks hubby). Have propane will boil.. This year I am going to ask my hubby for one of these beauties..
They are about 100-120$$ depending on where you buy them, but this coil burner will be much easier for canning and cooking(lobster pot, corn, etc.) where a flat top just does not keep constant heat. The second wonderful thing about this bad boy is that I can do Pressure canning during the winter inside.. Kinda hard to keep a canner up to temp when the outside air is about freezing.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Freaky Friday
Today is a workshop day at my school and we have a state science meeting... so we have some great displays and a former high school friend from Wildlife Encounters is here with some of his animals that he travels with and educates students with. We also have an indoor planetarium... haven't had the pleasure yet, but hoping to get in today to see it.
Last nights entertainment was brought to me via the Toy Auction... every year a local hall has a toy auction every Thursday night and there are a number of things that can be bid on, from toys to food items, from auto supplies to clothing. One of the best things about the auction you can get some stuff reasonably cheap, but the funnest is the people watching... I swear you would think we were inside a circus with the outfits(or lack of) these people come in wearing.. There was this guy in front of me who's fruit of the looms just didn't cut it, if I had some wall putty I would have filled that crack!!! What the Hell is all I have to say. My group of friends that go and I laugh, are loud and have a good time.
Canning and couponing are on the agenda this weekend.. gonna try to squeeze in an orchard visit then 3 day weekend involving canning and more canning... apples are on the menu.. left a message with a local farm stand to see if they had any tomatoes left to attempt a few more tomato items( Angie's tomato soup and definitely salsa). Maybe next year I will try my hand at ketchup(catsup) whatever way you spell it, my daughters go through this condiment like it was water and I would love to can my own and get one more item off my grocery list...my version will be all natural veggies with no added preservative crap... but alas it will have to wait until next year.
Happy Freaky Friday
Melissa
Last nights entertainment was brought to me via the Toy Auction... every year a local hall has a toy auction every Thursday night and there are a number of things that can be bid on, from toys to food items, from auto supplies to clothing. One of the best things about the auction you can get some stuff reasonably cheap, but the funnest is the people watching... I swear you would think we were inside a circus with the outfits(or lack of) these people come in wearing.. There was this guy in front of me who's fruit of the looms just didn't cut it, if I had some wall putty I would have filled that crack!!! What the Hell is all I have to say. My group of friends that go and I laugh, are loud and have a good time.
Canning and couponing are on the agenda this weekend.. gonna try to squeeze in an orchard visit then 3 day weekend involving canning and more canning... apples are on the menu.. left a message with a local farm stand to see if they had any tomatoes left to attempt a few more tomato items( Angie's tomato soup and definitely salsa). Maybe next year I will try my hand at ketchup(catsup) whatever way you spell it, my daughters go through this condiment like it was water and I would love to can my own and get one more item off my grocery list...my version will be all natural veggies with no added preservative crap... but alas it will have to wait until next year.
Happy Freaky Friday
Melissa
Wonderful Wednesday
I am an advisor for the graduating class of 2017 and this week is our Spirit Week... Today's theme was Western Wednesday and after school we are decorating our spirit hall... Themes for halls this year included Romance(ours), Comedy, Horror and Action. So my class has decided we are going to do cheesy tunnel of love.. and the end of our hallway will be the Chapel of love!!! I know I know cheesy, but I think it will be fun.
With Valentine's day so far away, there was no chance of us finding any cupids.. so the Google searches revealed some nice cut outs we are going to use..We have cut out hearts and come have cheesy pick up lines. I can not wait to see it finished and just laugh at the fun we are going to have. Streamers, fake church at the end, flowers, red everything.. what could be better??? thank goodness we can not bring any kind of water items.. 2nd floor does not hold water well..
Tonight will continue my canning adventure!! Tonight will be some apple pie filling and I have learned that 1 inch of head space is never enough, I have had to go to 1.5-2" only because of the expansion I do not need it to pop out of the lid again(First time canning pie filling last year). I think I will try to go picking this weekend if the orchard is open and finish more apple pie filling and apple sauce.. then the final leg will be apple jelly.. Thanks Angie from http://bigredcouch.com/journal/ she has definitely opened my eyes with some great recipes to can and helped me become more self sufficient with great canning tips/recipes and excellent advice. I love to look at my canning rack and see what I have put up this year and what I do not need to buy!!! I definitely can do more and are in the process of planning next years garden to harvest more.. Gonna have to try turnips and who knows what else..
Have a happy canning/couponing day!!
Melissa
With Valentine's day so far away, there was no chance of us finding any cupids.. so the Google searches revealed some nice cut outs we are going to use..We have cut out hearts and come have cheesy pick up lines. I can not wait to see it finished and just laugh at the fun we are going to have. Streamers, fake church at the end, flowers, red everything.. what could be better??? thank goodness we can not bring any kind of water items.. 2nd floor does not hold water well..
Tonight will continue my canning adventure!! Tonight will be some apple pie filling and I have learned that 1 inch of head space is never enough, I have had to go to 1.5-2" only because of the expansion I do not need it to pop out of the lid again(First time canning pie filling last year). I think I will try to go picking this weekend if the orchard is open and finish more apple pie filling and apple sauce.. then the final leg will be apple jelly.. Thanks Angie from http://bigredcouch.com/journal/ she has definitely opened my eyes with some great recipes to can and helped me become more self sufficient with great canning tips/recipes and excellent advice. I love to look at my canning rack and see what I have put up this year and what I do not need to buy!!! I definitely can do more and are in the process of planning next years garden to harvest more.. Gonna have to try turnips and who knows what else..
Have a happy canning/couponing day!!
Melissa
Monday, October 7, 2013
Homesteading
I know quite a few people who are homesteaders and have the ability to grow and stow.. which is great.. I try to grow what I can, stow what I can, but I do not have the ability to have animals more than chickens(yet).. I will tell you that I am in complete awe of people who have the ability to raise their own meat and dairy.. I am learning the art of cheese-making(December for a class woohooo excited) and hoping to learn how to make soap.. heck home-made soap last longer than store bought, plus it will have better benefits.. The more I learn the more self sufficient I will become!! The more I can make the less I am dependent upon big stores...Heck I might have to find a local farmer who I can barter with... Canning services for meat.. hmmmm could be something there... now to find the farmer..
I love to coupon and it definitely saves me money.. I love to grow a garden because it gives me the ability to can all that yummy-ness and put it up for winter months and months where the paychecks do not stretch... Who doesn't like fresh tomatoes from the garden in salsa, spaghetti sauce or just over elbow noodles??? I love baking apple pies with the apples of the season!! of course pears in lite syrup are yummy too.. and who doesn't love pickles or applesauce?? My oldest daughter always grabs a quart or two when she is home.. man I need to get more made if she continues at this pace... I grabbed tons of green beans and put them up along with some yummy carrots... the only veggie I didn't get was corn.. but its ok.. if I have to force myself to buy 1 veggie all winter I guess I can suffer with corn.. Potatoes I have gotten from a local farmer who sells them for 20$$ for a 50 lb bag.. and some of those are going into jars this week for the winter season as even if they are in my cool basement, they never seem to last long enough before the sprout begins.
Preserving food is not hard to do at all.. Yes it can take time, but it is so worth it when you are finished and you have that food item to use instead of a store bought item!!! I always practice and use safe canning guides.. Botulism is nothing to play around with... Pressure Canning and Water-bath Canning are the 2 tried and true ways to preserve your harvest... Now you are probably thinking oh my god not the pressure canner I have heard horror stories of how my grandmothers grandmother blew up her kitchen.. Well not so true these days.. Yes a pressure canner is a piece of equipment that must be respected as with all equipment, but with proper use, you will never have an explosion. I have 2 pressure canners, one Presto (from Walmart) and one All American Canner, made in the USA and it is pricey, both I use regularly and both are different.. my All American has no gasket, it is a metal to metal seal with 6 pieces that hold the lid in place. My Presto has a gasket and it twists to lock into place. Both can hold 7 quarts at one time and that is what I mostly do. Each has its own water requirements, but both work with a weighted system for pressure regulation. If you live around my area and ever want to learn sometime time.. just give me a holler I am sure I will be canning something and will show you the process.. and if you want to learn more about safe practices here is the site I swear by.. of course its a government site, but they have tested and certify that if you follow the guidelines correctly your food will be safe for consumption. http://nchfp.uga.edu/ The National Center for home food preservation... You can actually download the entire book as a pdf.. heck print it double sided, hole punch it and put it into a 3-ring binder for your reference.
New to canning start small.. try jelly, apple sauce, try anything that used water bath canning.. then start slowly with pressure canning and viola you are a canner and starting your homestead. Grow it and Stow it.. one of the Facebook Pages I follow always says Grow it Stow it.. and he is right.. the more you grow(or purchase from local farmer) and the more you stow the healthier your family will be and the less dependent you will be on box stores when the Crap hits the fan.. Again if you ever want a hand, have a question ask me!! If I can not find the answer I have good resources and good friends who do!!!
Couponing and Canning.. two of my favorite food things.. Hooking and spinning, crocheting and knitting a few of my favorite crafts!!! I still keep trying to talk my husband into a few small animals like goats/sheep.. heck even pigs.. but alas I do not have a barn type shed for their housing.. hmmm guess I am gonna have to learn to build... can not be too difficult.. Watch out you-tube.. I just may come visiting for some helpful ideas.
Happy Homesteading!!
Melissa :)
I love to coupon and it definitely saves me money.. I love to grow a garden because it gives me the ability to can all that yummy-ness and put it up for winter months and months where the paychecks do not stretch... Who doesn't like fresh tomatoes from the garden in salsa, spaghetti sauce or just over elbow noodles??? I love baking apple pies with the apples of the season!! of course pears in lite syrup are yummy too.. and who doesn't love pickles or applesauce?? My oldest daughter always grabs a quart or two when she is home.. man I need to get more made if she continues at this pace... I grabbed tons of green beans and put them up along with some yummy carrots... the only veggie I didn't get was corn.. but its ok.. if I have to force myself to buy 1 veggie all winter I guess I can suffer with corn.. Potatoes I have gotten from a local farmer who sells them for 20$$ for a 50 lb bag.. and some of those are going into jars this week for the winter season as even if they are in my cool basement, they never seem to last long enough before the sprout begins.
Preserving food is not hard to do at all.. Yes it can take time, but it is so worth it when you are finished and you have that food item to use instead of a store bought item!!! I always practice and use safe canning guides.. Botulism is nothing to play around with... Pressure Canning and Water-bath Canning are the 2 tried and true ways to preserve your harvest... Now you are probably thinking oh my god not the pressure canner I have heard horror stories of how my grandmothers grandmother blew up her kitchen.. Well not so true these days.. Yes a pressure canner is a piece of equipment that must be respected as with all equipment, but with proper use, you will never have an explosion. I have 2 pressure canners, one Presto (from Walmart) and one All American Canner, made in the USA and it is pricey, both I use regularly and both are different.. my All American has no gasket, it is a metal to metal seal with 6 pieces that hold the lid in place. My Presto has a gasket and it twists to lock into place. Both can hold 7 quarts at one time and that is what I mostly do. Each has its own water requirements, but both work with a weighted system for pressure regulation. If you live around my area and ever want to learn sometime time.. just give me a holler I am sure I will be canning something and will show you the process.. and if you want to learn more about safe practices here is the site I swear by.. of course its a government site, but they have tested and certify that if you follow the guidelines correctly your food will be safe for consumption. http://nchfp.uga.edu/ The National Center for home food preservation... You can actually download the entire book as a pdf.. heck print it double sided, hole punch it and put it into a 3-ring binder for your reference.
New to canning start small.. try jelly, apple sauce, try anything that used water bath canning.. then start slowly with pressure canning and viola you are a canner and starting your homestead. Grow it and Stow it.. one of the Facebook Pages I follow always says Grow it Stow it.. and he is right.. the more you grow(or purchase from local farmer) and the more you stow the healthier your family will be and the less dependent you will be on box stores when the Crap hits the fan.. Again if you ever want a hand, have a question ask me!! If I can not find the answer I have good resources and good friends who do!!!
Couponing and Canning.. two of my favorite food things.. Hooking and spinning, crocheting and knitting a few of my favorite crafts!!! I still keep trying to talk my husband into a few small animals like goats/sheep.. heck even pigs.. but alas I do not have a barn type shed for their housing.. hmmm guess I am gonna have to learn to build... can not be too difficult.. Watch out you-tube.. I just may come visiting for some helpful ideas.
Happy Homesteading!!
Melissa :)
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Todays chat
Coupons!!!! I know I know some of you are like get real Melissa.. but tell you what.. with the government in shut down(for who knows how long) will you be able to get things for your family if you loose more than half your income??? Jen and I have taught a lot of people how to coupon and I still am in awe of what I see people drop big $$ at the grocery stores... I know it can be a bit time consuming depending on the sale.. but saving almost 70% is worth it!!! Hell if I save 50%% I am happy.. that is less money that I have to give to a conglomerate and more in my family's pocket..
Take the current sale at shaws..GM cereal(lucky charms, cheerios, etc) are on sale for 1.88 each... I had coupons for both I paid less than .30 a box.. normal price on those bad boys was 2.99 I will take that any day of the week. I even stocked up on Hamburger helper..Why not when normal price is over 2$$ and I got it for .38 I may not eat it but once in a while as a quick busy night meal, but for that price its worth it! I was able to score 4 boxes of cheerios, 4 boxes of lucky charms, 12 boxes of hamburger helper, 3 pound butter( on sale 3/5$$) 12 grands jr biscuits, bananas and strawberries all for under 30$$ I saved over 67% ... Now will I eat all those biscuits.. before they expire.. YES.. they do not expire until January and with the cold weather coming.. a lot of stews and soups are on the menu.. cut them into thirds, roll them in sugar and cinnamon and butter, quick easy monkey bread...
The biggest thing I hear is "there are never any coupons for anything I use".. OK Seriously. I have seen coupons for everything from butt paste to hemorrhoid cream, from toothpaste to toe nail fungus and everything in between. There are things I never pay money for.. that list is different for most, but my big ones are shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, razors some food products and heck some times if I am paying attention toilet paper.. do you use any of that stuff??? I don't know about you, but I brush my teeth at least 1 time per day...deodorize every day, shower every other...I know you are saying, Yeah but I use xyz brand.. Ok I hear ya.. but there are coupons for those!! I am only loyal brand to 2 items.. I must have Miracle Whip and I must have Diet Pepsi... everything else doesn't matter... to me coupons have allowed me to break my brand loyalty.. Hell to be honest here, my only loyal brand before coupons was the store brand..
Sales always cycle around.. if you watch any of the ads for local drugstore/pharmacies you will see they all basically have the same deals.. each offer a "reward" with purchase, sale price that "Can not be beat" and other gimmicks to get you in the door.
Stick with me and I will show you how to get it cheap or free!!! :)
Coupon on!! Melissa
Take the current sale at shaws..GM cereal(lucky charms, cheerios, etc) are on sale for 1.88 each... I had coupons for both I paid less than .30 a box.. normal price on those bad boys was 2.99 I will take that any day of the week. I even stocked up on Hamburger helper..Why not when normal price is over 2$$ and I got it for .38 I may not eat it but once in a while as a quick busy night meal, but for that price its worth it! I was able to score 4 boxes of cheerios, 4 boxes of lucky charms, 12 boxes of hamburger helper, 3 pound butter( on sale 3/5$$) 12 grands jr biscuits, bananas and strawberries all for under 30$$ I saved over 67% ... Now will I eat all those biscuits.. before they expire.. YES.. they do not expire until January and with the cold weather coming.. a lot of stews and soups are on the menu.. cut them into thirds, roll them in sugar and cinnamon and butter, quick easy monkey bread...
The biggest thing I hear is "there are never any coupons for anything I use".. OK Seriously. I have seen coupons for everything from butt paste to hemorrhoid cream, from toothpaste to toe nail fungus and everything in between. There are things I never pay money for.. that list is different for most, but my big ones are shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, razors some food products and heck some times if I am paying attention toilet paper.. do you use any of that stuff??? I don't know about you, but I brush my teeth at least 1 time per day...deodorize every day, shower every other...I know you are saying, Yeah but I use xyz brand.. Ok I hear ya.. but there are coupons for those!! I am only loyal brand to 2 items.. I must have Miracle Whip and I must have Diet Pepsi... everything else doesn't matter... to me coupons have allowed me to break my brand loyalty.. Hell to be honest here, my only loyal brand before coupons was the store brand..
Sales always cycle around.. if you watch any of the ads for local drugstore/pharmacies you will see they all basically have the same deals.. each offer a "reward" with purchase, sale price that "Can not be beat" and other gimmicks to get you in the door.
Stick with me and I will show you how to get it cheap or free!!! :)
Coupon on!! Melissa
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