Cleaning out my chest freezer is proving to be interesting. I have found all sorts of things I had forgotten were there.
I knew about the gallon bags of cranberries. I have been putting off dealing with them, I suppose, because I knew the work involved. But I finally dragged them all out and thawed them. I intended to make juice to can, but the recipe I use calls for much lifting of heavy pots and straining of berries and time standing on my feet stirring. My physical limitations put the brakes on that idea. So I just filled jars with the thawed berries. I used plain water instead of the usual sugar syrup. By canning them in water I can use the cranberries multiple ways - for cranberry sauce, in muffins or cranberry bread, or I can make juice, a couple of jars at a time. I wound up with 20 pints and 20 quarts of whole cranberries.
I found seven one-pound packages of yeast. Those I stacked in my closet pantry.
I also found a bunch of those small snack sized Ziploc bags full of chopped onions. I thawed them out, cooked them until they were translucent, packed them in half pint jars and pressure canned them for 45 minutes. I got 7 jars of onions. I usually use my dehydrated onions for cooking, but these canned ones are handy for when I need onions for dishes like hamburgers or meatloaf.
The next projects are a stack of quart freezer bags full of pumpkin puree to be dehydrated and a layer of quart bags full of sliced apples to be turned into applesauce. Those are going to wait a few days until the latest arthritis flareup subsides. Until then, it is quiet time for this chubby granny.
I can hardly wait to see what treasures lay underneath the apples. :)
Opus 2024-395: Built, Not Chosen
10 hours ago
Keep digging; if you find a big Porterhouse, I'll be over for supper! - lol
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to have to disappoint you Gorges, but a Porterhouse hasn't been within my budget for years. How about as nice roast chicken. :)
DeleteLOL - I couldn't afford the Porterhouse myself, Vicki, let alone the drive to your town from mine!
ReplyDeleteGorges...It's fun to think about though, isn't it. I would love to have you and your wife over for a meal. But I would insist you bring along the Mighty
DeleteDachshund. :)
maybe just can the apples and mash them later if you need applesauce, or they go into pie sliced as they are.
ReplyDeletedeborah...It makes sense to can the apple slices the way you said. I may just can them using water instead of a sugar syrup same as I did the cranberries. That way they can be used in a number of ways, adding sweetener as needed. Thanks for the suggestion.
DeleteIn reading this post, I'm struck that some times we just have to do things a bit differently then when we were younger. For me it's all about my micro-garden. The itty bitty 18-inch rows are about all I can maintain. No where near what I used to do in the garden when I was younger and had more people at home.
ReplyDeleteAnd, my canning. I'm doing batches of 3 pints at a time. And I'm thrilled that I can even do canning this year.
So - long winded way to say --good for you to figure out how to deal with all those cranberries.
I've also had to learn how to pace myself. I can no longer go all out and spend hours doing something.
Take good care of yourself. SJ
SJ...It has been a struggle to realize that I just can't do things the way I used to. And a challenge to figure out ways to keep adding to my food storage without doing damage to my already fragile body. You, with your 18 inch garden rows and me with my canning plain berries to use in different ways later - all ways we have figured out how to get the end results while dealing with limitations.
DeleteI am so glad you are able to do some canning this year. Each 3 pint batch is 3 pints more to have on your shelf. It all adds up until you wind up with a nice stash. Good for you!!!
Duane is doing a Farmer's Market run maybe this weekend for cucumbers and dill. He just loves my baby dill pickles and they're really easy to do. I cheat and use Mrs. Dash's dill pickle mix. They turn out great with a minimum amount of work.
After another day of rest and I hope to get back at it. You take good care of yourself, too. :)
It is like a treasure hunt! I am sure my mother never saw the bottom of her freezer. We had one incident of a pet that had died in the winter (a budgie I think). It was packaged up to be given a proper summer burial. That was a shock when my mom forgot what was in that package and decided to look.
ReplyDeleteJenn...I probably would never see the bottom of my freezer either if it weren't for the fact that it is going to live in Duane's apartment and I need to clean it out before moving it. He buys meat and other foods on sale and likes to freeze them. I can most of mine because I don't like depending on a freezer should we lose power. So moving the freezer gives him more freezer space than just the one in the fridge and gives me room for one more shelving unit. Win - win!
DeleteThat and I freeze food and promptly forget what is in the freezer.
Your budgie story is classic. :)
I do smaller batches and dehydrate more. Since my big freezer died, I only have the freezer in a very small refrigerator.
ReplyDeleteWhen Fancy, my favorite hen died, I had my friend put her in three trash bags and put her in the bottom drawer of the freezer. I wanted an autopsy performed.
One day, after not being able to get to the freezer for several months, I discovered the freezer was running but not cooling. The smell was horrendous and there must have been 10,000 flies in the room. He cleaned it out with gloves, improvised plastic garbage apron, and a huge chunk of Vicks Vaporub on a paper towel that he put in his nostrils and around his mouth and nose. My next freezer will have an audible alarm and be in a different place, a place where I can access it!
Fancy did not get her chicken autopsy!
Oh my!! That must have been a horrible mess! My previous freezer quit working but I caught it in time, canning up the meat, vegetables and fruit before it went bad. That is the biggest reason I prefer canning over freezing.
DeleteI canned caramelized onions and love them. Enjoy that treasure hunt.
ReplyDeleteKristina...I canned caramelized onions last year and have used all but a couple of jars. When the Great Freezer Treasure Hunt is finished, I will need to do more. They are so good!
DeleteYa-hooo -- another shelving unit!! Way to go.
ReplyDeleteTaking it easy today and catching up on blogs and reading. Cheers, SJ
Yep, SJ...I'm excited! Seemed like a good solution all around. Duane gets a freezer rather than having to buy one and I get more shelves. Like I told Jenn above, I like to can most of the meat I buy because I just don't like depending on a freezer. And I really like having meat pre-cooked in the jars. Makes for easy meals. Same with veggies. This shelving unit will have to be smaller - the others are 4 ft. wide, but it will still give me lots of room for storage.
DeleteI'm taking it easy today, too. Arthritis is still kicking my backside, but it is getting better. Spending time on my computer plus some hand sewing. My hands aren't affected - just hips and back. Hope you are feeling OK.
I never thought of canning caramelized onions! If the freezer is just down the hall, you might still be able to use it short term in a pinch.
ReplyDeleteLinda...Son and I have already talked about the sharing of the freezer if necessary. Same as we share the home canned food. It is all about family working together. :)
ReplyDelete