Bits and Pieces...

 The pressure canner is put away until our quarter beef arrives mid-November.  Although my supply of canning lids has increased this week due to a good friend who surprised me and blessed me with a box containing enough lids for over 150 more jars of canned food, I am still putting off doing any more canning until I see how many lids and jars I need for the beef.  Oldest son has contributed half the price and yesterday we talked about what to can and what to keep in the freezer.  He says canning any kind of steak would be a sin and I tend to agree, but we both decided that we will set aside a few pounds of hamburger and a couple of roasts and can the rest of those.  My chest freezer isn't all that big so canning is the best way to have much of the meat preserved. 

In the meantime, the dehydrators are getting a workout.  I had dried cut green beans in the past, but decided to try dehydrating French cut green beans.  I had six 1 lb. bags of them, frozen, and they turned out fine.  I tried rehydrating a few in warm water and they actually rehydrated better than the cut green beans.  Even so, I expect I will use these, crumbled, in soups for flavor.

My memory, being a bit frazzled around the edges these days, had failed me when I discovered about 10 lbs. of onions in a milk crate stashed in a corner.  Lucky for me, none had gone bad, so I peeled and quartered them and ran them through my food processor.  The idea was not to puree them but to turn them into onion flakes.  They are in the dehydrator and when dried, I will be making onion soup mix using the following recipe:

ONION SOUP MIX RECIPE

3/4 cup dehydrated minced onion

4 teaspoons onion powder

1/3 cup beef bouillon powder

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

2 tablespoons sugar

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container. Stir each time before using. To make a bowl of onion soup, mix 2 tablespoons in a cup of boiling water. Simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes. For onion dip, mix 1 tablespoon (or to taste) in one cup sour cream. Let sit for a couple of hours in the refrigerator to allow onions to rehydrate.  Use this mix any way you would use the commercial onion soup mix.

In case you hadn't noticed, although I'm pretty sure those of you who stop by here have, the world around us has lost its collective mind.  There are those well paid thugs who like to burn and loot and harass and destroy that are threatening widespread thuggery should their boy lose the election.  There are food shortages as well as shortages of other products on the horizon.  Some of those shortages are already being felt in the stores.  And we have mayors, governors and candidates threatening to shut us all down again due to a virus with an over 98% recovery rate.  Because of the fear-mongering main stream media, we have people too afraid to live their lives normally.

I still keep up with the news because it is always good to know what the enemy is up to, but have found that in order to maintain a positive attitude, it has become necessary to limit my time absorbing the news of the day. 

Instead, most of my time is spent on 'stacking it to the rafters' when it comes to preparing.  And spending time doing what I love - sewing, crocheting, working on scrapbooks and genealogy, reading mystery books, etc.  If I weren't housebound, I expect I would be going for a walk in the park or down along the river, enjoying the beauty of Fall. 

Fear has turned us into a nation of sacredy cats.  We don't get together with friends or family.  We don't hug.  We mostly hide and wait for some government entity to tell us what to do.  That is just wrong.  It is not normal.  Humans need to be with other humans.  Living in fear shrivels the soul.  

We need to just live.