Hot...

and humid.  Too hot to cook.  Too hot to do any canning. 

A thunderstorm rolled through this morning.  A little rain and lots of thunder booming lightning.  More of the same forecast for tonight.  And then more heat.

I shall be found in my recliner with plenty of iced tea and a mystery novel.  Big box fan is helping the air conditioned air move about the apartment.  I will surface when things cool down some.

Tough

This is my youngest daughter, Jeri.  I always knew she was tough.  But I didn't know she was 45 lbs. of halibut tough!

She is on vacation in Alaska with her boyfriend Jim and her daughter Nicki and Nicki's boyfriend, Chris.  She called me this afternoon to make sure I checked FB where she had uploaded the picture.  She and Jim went halibut fishing today.  Earlier they each caught fish, weighing 20 lbs. each but were too small to keep.  Then she hooked the monster in the picture.  Reeled it all by herself, she did.  Apparently, when a fish that size gets up to the boat, they harpoon it.  Jeri said she got lucky for when Jim harpooned it, the fish got off the hook.

They are going salmon fishing tomorrow.  If they all catch enough to make up 50 lbs., they will ship the salmon home.

And if that happens, I get some.  :)

Northern Minnesota Vacation

A few weeks ago my youngest son, his wife and their three progeny rented a cabin on a lake near Ely, located in northern Minnesota, just south of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.  Their cabin had no cell phone service and no WiFi.  I wondered how the kids would do without their electronics, but as you can see in the following pictures, they managed quite well.

There was swimming.

There was fishing.

There were pontoon rides.

Oreo, my grandpuppy, loved the rides.

They checked out the local scenery, 

went hiking in the forest, 

explored a waterfall

and paddled canoes.

And there were books.  Real books made of paper.  I wonder how many still use them.

The north country in my home state has some beautiful scenery.  I am partial to the North Country.  I was born in the northern part of the state as were my parents.  No matter where I have traveled, it will always be home to me.  I often wish I was still there.  I am so glad that my kids and grands can enjoy all that part of the state has to offer.

The end.

The Great Biscuit Caper

So I am doing this biscuit experiment - freezing already baked biscuits to be reheated and freezing biscuits that have not yet been baked.  Yesterday I heated and baked to see which method I liked best.

I heated two previously baked biscuits in the microwave.  I set it on 'defrost' for  a couple of minutes and then on 'high' for 30 seconds.  They came out tasting like they had been microwaved and were  a bit tough.  It was my least favorite method.

The next two biscuits I popped into a 350 degree toaster oven for about three minutes.  They were heated through and tasted like a biscuit should.

I cranked up the toaster oven to 400 degrees and pre-heated the regular oven to the same temp.  Two of the raw biscuits, still frozen, went into each.  They baked for about 15 minutes.  Times will vary with different ovens.  All four biscuits didn't raise as much as biscuits baked fresh, but they all tasted good. 

I like the idea of having ready to bake biscuits in the freezer, but I think I will go with freezing baked biscuits.  For me, living alone, one batch of biscuits is good for about three meals.  If I just freeze the leftovers whenever I make biscuits, it won't take too long until I have I nice stash of them frozen, ready to heat in my toaster oven or regular oven whenever I want biscuits but don't want to mess around stirring them up from scratch.

And thus endeth the great biscuit caper.  :)

The Girl Has a Car

My youngest son called me earlier today.  I asked him how he was doing.  He said he was nervous.  When I asked why, he said he was following his oldest daughter as she drove her first car home from the dealership.

Yep.  The girl has her first car!

They were stopping at a gas station on the way home to make sure Boston knew how to run the gas pumps to put gas in her car.  Tomorrow her Dad will show her how to check the oil and other things under the hood.  He will make sure she can change a tire.  And I'm pretty sure there will be some rules put into play.

Boston isn't just handed a car.  She has a job to pay for expenses.  My grands are being taught responsibility and about the fact that there is no free lunch.

I'm thinking she could get in some driving practice by coming to visit her Grandma.  :)

Canning Bacon Success

Patrice over at "Rural Revolution" has a post about canning bacon that shows the process way better than I am able.  You can see it HERE.  Go take a look.  I will wait.

There are a couple of small differences in what she did and the way I did it.  I had parchment paper on hand so I used that to wrap the bacon.  I  cut the bacon slices in half and used pint jars instead of quarts.  I used the regular thin sliced bacon and it looks like she used thick slices. 

The thinner slices of bacon got a wee bit mushy in the pressure canner, but by using a spatula it was possible to remove the meat from the paper.  I like to cook bacon on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven, and the canned bacon browned up nicely that way.  Still, I will use the thicker slices next time.

I will still can more in pint jars for smaller servings for one or two, but I think I would also like to have quart jars of bacon on the shelves, just because.  I can always freeze leftover strips of cooked bacon.

My youngest son stopped by while I was canning, and he wanted to know why I didn't just freeze the bacon instead of going to the trouble of canning it.  I told him that I do keep a pound or two in the freezer.  But a couple of years ago a tornado went through a part of Minneapolis.  Some of those people, the ones whose homes weren't damaged, were without electricity for nearly two weeks.  If that kind of thing happened to us he would be cooking meat from his freezer like mad, trying to save as much as possible after it thawed.  Me...I don't need to worry.  Most of mine is in jars.

Even with the thinner slices of bacon, I am really pleased with the results.  I know that I can buy canned bacon and many who aren't into home canning do, but the cost is way above my pay grade.  So I will can more myself because, after all, one can never have too much bacon.  :)

Worrisome Update and Food Experiments

My cleaning lady didn't show up this morning, so I had to call to report that she missed two weeks.  I am paying for the cleaning service and the home health care through a county program.  Even though the rates I pay are heavily discounted, I still don't want to pay for no service.  I have no idea what happened with her and I really hate to see her go.  She did a wonderful job.  Wherever she is, I wish her well.  Those in charge of the program will find me a new cleaning person.  If the new cleaner is half as thorough as the other, I will be happy.

On another note, I saw some videos about canning bacon.  I already can bacon bits, but the videos were about canning bacon slices.  So in the interest of adding to my home canned goods stash, I ordered four pounds of bacon which should give me 8 pints.  I will give this a try over the weekend and let you know how it works. 

I have another food experiment going.  I made up two batches of baking powder biscuits.  One batch I cut and baked the normal way, put them in a freezer bag when cool and popped them into the freezer.  The idea was that when I want a biscuit or two I can grab a couple and heat them up for a meal.

  The second batch I rolled out, cut the dough into biscuits, put them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and froze them for about an hour.  Then I took the frozen raw biscuits and put them in a freezer bag and back into the freezer they went.  The theory is that I can take out as many as I want and bake them. 
 
  I will test both methods to see which one I like best.  It is sort of fun to test new ideas to see if they really work.