5-9-2020

In my last post I talked about not having anything to say. Well, thank you Covid-19, because of you I have a voice again! I know that sounds so stupid doesn't it. Because of a virus I have gotten off my butt and gotten back to doing what I should have been doing all along. I have been dehydrating all types of food. Well, hang on... I know I tend to get ahead of myself. Let me explain.

When the shelter in place orders were looming, I went out and got my normal shopping done and picked up a few extra things. Nope, before you ask.... I was not one of the people who purchased huge amounts of toilet paper or any other items. But I will say I got a big box of those little shelf stable creamers. You know, coffee without cream is like a life not worth living! 😁

I already had potatoes and onions in the basement from the fall. That was what prompted me to pull out the dehydrator out. I was concerned that I would allow this food to go to waste and not have the ability to go out and get more. So what's a poor city girl to do you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I cleaned and cut up all the onions and got them in the freezer. I couldn't dry them as the last time I dried onions the family almost ran me out of town. So into the freezer they went. Then came time to deal with the potatoes. I haven't used my pressure canner in a couple years. So I don't even know if the seal or gauge is still good and I wasn't able to go our and get them checked. So this is where the dehydrator comes into play. I par boiled the potatoes, cooled them and then peeled. I used my hand grater because my grater attachment for the kitchen aid was buried in the closet. It didn't take to long to get that done. Then on to the trays. I honestly don't remember what temp and for how long. I can say it was at a lower temp and for a lot longer then I would have normally done it. Once they were dried and let to cool. I put them into my coffee grinder and ground them up. They are now in the cupboard as dehydrated mashed potatoes!

Since then I've done limes, oranges, pears, kiwi, cinnamon sugar apples. I found a bag of mixed veggies in the freezer and those went into the dehydrator as well. 

Now I have a confession to make. I'm not usually a fad follower, but since the pandemic and so much time on my hands.... I found that people have been buying up every bag of marshmallows that they can find. Almost a shortage situation. I know crazy right? The reason for all this is because they are dehydrating them. Well, let me tell you. I had a bag on the shelf. You know the mini type. Well, I put them in and they are going to be a mainstay in this household from now on. They are so good on there own. But to add to cereal or hot chocolate, they should be considered a food group all on their own!!!

I've got a grocery pickup tomorrow. I have like 8 bags of marshmallows in the order. Not all the same flavor. But 1 of each of 8 types. I can't wait. Especially since it is to cold for me to be messing around in the garden.

Smile Loudly

&

Live Blessed

Yart

Good to my Word!

I got started first thing Monday morning. Well, that is to say I got started after about an hour of searching for all of my utensils. My fault I asked children to put things away the last time I used them.... A year ago.

I start with carrots, celery and onion.

Then I mix in the meat and rice and spices.

Peppers are cleaned and the tops cut off.

Into the roaster they go.

Covered in a sauce of tomato soup and homemade tomato juice and of course more spices.

I let it cook on low most of the day. Sorry I didn't get a picture of them finished. But by the time they were cool enough to bag up I was tired. We ended up getting 7 bags of 3 peppers. 21 Stuffed peppers!! Now I know that if there isn't anything in the house to eat. He just has to take a pack out of the freezer and take it to work for lunch!!

As you may have guessed we are a house divided. He's a stuffed pepper man and I'm a cabbage roll kind of girl!

Two heads of cabbage blanched and cooled with the ribs cut out.

29 Cabbage Rolls cooking as I type. The only difference between the spices used is in the peppers I use something called slap your mama. And in the cabbage rolls I added dehydrated kale from last year.

These are the pepper tops from yesterday. I chopped them up and put them in the bowl. Which is 3.5 cups. Normally, to most people that would have been waste. Not here. I will be cutting up the rest of the peppers from the bushel and dehydrating them all. 

Not a bad haul, considering that I had no intention of doing anything this year...

LOL!

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Yart

Raining again

Yesterday I didn't buy what the weather man was selling. He said that we were going to get rain. But when I went out it wasn't to bad so I got a load of laundry out on the line. Came in and did some cleaning in the basement... (dungeon).... Brought in the first load and did a second. While that was drying I headed out to the store to pick up some pet supplies and a couple of box fans.... With all the rain and the water seeping in the basement it is very humid down there. So with that task done... I got the second load in.... I had some time before the monsters needed to be picked up so I decided that it was time to make the chive vinegar.

I got out my pretties jar... Good thing it was a 12oz because that is all the vinegar I had... Need to put that on the list. I cut a good amount of flowers, brought them in the house and cleaned them.... *NOTE* make sure to clean them as I had piss ants crawling on mine.... Then I added them to the jar and poured vinegar over top. Today the flowers have shrunk and are floating. The vinegar is a very pretty pinky purple. I will strain the flowers out in a couple of days. I hope to get more flowers later this week. I would like to give this as Christmas presents.

Since I could only find two of my inserts for the dehydrator I was only able to do a small. But I did get broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes done. I did green peppers to but they seemed to burn.... So off to the trash they went. I still have some more stuff in the fridge to get through. I get another box on Saturday... so my dehydrating days are far from over... LOL!


The season of puttin' up has begun once again!


I was able to get the grass in the front yard cut. It was starting to look rag-ged. After the ugliness of the last time I cut it I wanted it to look better. Now it could be the talk of the town. Before we got going this year I reseeded and fertilized. So now the grass is like frankengrass, it has an abby-normal speedy growth with all this rain. It sure looks prudy, though!


Today, Grim was home so we got some errands done. After a filling dinner of spaghetti, he had to go to work and I got back into the dungeon. Picky and I got the one half almost decent, almost. The other half is going to be a work in progress.


Gotta Run,
Yart