Saturday, May 15, 2021

Canning and Curtains

So this past week I thawed some meat from my freezer in order to clear it out some and get the meat into jars. I find that living alone, I would rather just open a jar for a meal than spend time cooking. I filled my pressure canner with 18 pints, fairly evenly divided between chicken, turkey and beef. One jar of chicken didn't seal and that turned into a hot chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy for supper.

I found that I still have an abundance of hamburger in the freezer, so canning most of that up is the next canning project.

It has been at least a year since the old City Hall building across the street was torn down and a new 4-story building was put up on the property. It appears to be nearly finished. The upper three floors are apartments. That means I need to get busy and get some curtains up on my living room windows. It isn't like anything very exciting is happening in my apartment, but the thought that someone could look in my windows is kind of creepy.

A while back I made some curtain panels in a scrappy patchwork pattern, but when I tacked one panel up to see how it would look, I found it would make a better quilt than curtain.

The other day while browsing YouTube channels, I ran across one that had patchwork curtains in the background. The channel is called “The Last Homely House."  I liked the look, so I went through my fabric scraps, got the ones I will use ironed and was ready to start cutting out little squares of fabric when I discovered my rotary cutter was not to be found.

Preppers – two is one and one is none.

I will get started on the curtains as soon as my daughter brings me two new rotary cutters!

Take care, friends and keep on prepping!


11 comments:

  1. I've found that sheers stop peeping during the day if there are no lights on in the apartment. They're worthless at night, of course.

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    1. Gorges...When workers leave lights on in the building across the street, the inside of apartments are visible, so although I like sheers, they won't work for me. Might as well make use of fabric from my stash and make curtains that can be closed at night. Saves me from having to buy curtains.

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  2. Whitney of the Blog, "Whitney Sews" was kind enough to tell the story of how a rotary cutter can also be an "almost" finger shortening device.
    I still use my rotary cutters for sewing and vinyl work but I took Whitney's input and added a cut resistant glove.

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    1. Thanks for the reminder, John...I had forgotten about the glove and have added it to the top of my "must have" list. When I read your comment I was reminded of an uncle who was missing a thumb and a finger or two. His job? Sawmill worker.

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    2. I forgot to mention that I also have a pair of cut resistant gloves in the kitchen for the rare times we use the mandolin.
      That kitchen device is made of nightmares.

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    3. You are right about the mandolin, John...I hadn't thought of the gloves for using that, so thanks for the idea. I haven't cut myself on it yet, but I have trimmed a fingernail or two.

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    4. Hi Vicki, I use a "fish scaling" glove for my rotary cutting. It cost 2.95 vs 14.95 for the Official. Its orange, instead of pink, but does it really matter. Love your blog and sad about your son.

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    5. Thank you for your kind words, Kathi...We are coping with our loss as best we can. And thanks for letting us know about the fish scaling glove. Love the difference in price and I don't care what color it is as long as it protects me from my rotary cutter blade.

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  3. I've seen some rig up a handle with suction cups to hold the rotary cutter rulers as well. That doesn't help if you are free-hand cutting, or cutting around something like a garment pattern. Of course you can purcha$e an official handle for much more.

    Can mashed potatoes be canned? I've seen canned whole plain potatoes on store shelves, and frozen mashed, but not canned mashed that I recall. Or does the milk and butter do bad things during the canning process?

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    1. JustGail...I have seen those handles to help hold a long ruler in place while cutting fabric. And I have seen those who use small exercise weights to hold the ruler in place. Jordan Fabrics shows the weights being used in some of their quilting videos.

      I have canned potato chunks and diced potatoes, but never mashed. Since it is not recommended that we can mashed pumpkin or sweet potatoes, I would guess the same holds true for mashed potatoes. It has to do with the density of the product being canned.

      Canning milk or butter is not recommended either, but I do can butter anyway.

      If I am going to be honest here, I use my canned potatoes for frying and for dishes like potato salad. I find I am not crazy about the texture of canned potatoes when used like boiled potatoes for a meal. For storing mashed potatoes, I get the instant mashed potato flakes. They are easy to store and quick to fix for a meal. Just my preference.

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  4. I've made curtains out of pillow cases I liked because I am not a sewer.

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