Quilt Top Done! Oh, My Stars!

Son1's quilt top is finally done! I only plan on finishing one quilt a year.

I actually have enough blocks from other projects to finish 3 more quilt tops, but I don't have anyone in mind for them, so of course there is no deadline to finish any of them!

Son1 wanted a new quilt since his old one is shredded--literally!

He wanted a bright quilt with stars on a black background. He had another pattern picked out, but the Block of the Month class that I attend started this one a few weeks after we had the fabric and pattern picked out for the other one.

That means I still have black background fabrics and batik fabric for another quilt top. I'm not sure if I like that idea or not!

I had the top almost finished two weeks ago, but then decided I HATED one of the stars, so I made another block and took the first one out. I'm much happier with the newer block, even though it was extra work to replace it.

This was the ONE thing I wanted to get done this weekend... and I DID! I love it when I can accomplish  something on my list.

I still have to put the back together, and then take it to the lady who does the quilting, and then put the binding on it. But at least the biggest part of the project is DONE!

Bottling Beef

My neighbor wanted to come by when I was canning pork, but since I don't plan my days out to the minute, she wasn't able to come when I called.

I decided I would do a step-by-step tutorial on bottling beef just for her! I like her.... she lives behind us and loves to look at our animals.

Here's the recipe from the current Ball Blue Book (page 62) (Click to visit Ball's website.)

Use beef or other meat suitable for stewing. Cut into 1 1/2-inch to 2-inch cubes. Remove fat and gristle. Simmer meat in water to cover until hot throughout. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to each pint jar if desired. Pack hot meat into hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 1 hour and 15 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a steam-pressure cooker.

I don't cook the meat since I process the pint jars for 1 hour and 25 minutes. We have to process for a bit longer up at our altitude.

Here's my step-by-step photos:

I estimate about 1-pound of meat per pint jar ("a pint's a pound the world around" as Hubby's grandma used to say.)

I found roasts on sale at the grocery store. I bought 2 to put into bottles.
Just like the recipe, I trim off the gristle and fat, cut up the rest into 1 1/2-inch to 2-inch cubes and pack into clean, sanitized jars.

1/2 teaspoon of salt added to each jar. I use non-iodized salt.

Simmering lids. There is extra water in the pan because I use the hot water to fill the jars.

Add water to fill the jar. Use a knife to release air bubbles.

Put more water in the jars until it is about 1-inch below the rim of the jar.

I don't have the canning kit for my small pressure cooker. I found an old round cake cooling rack that happens to fit in the bottom of the cooker.

I can fit 7 pint jars into my small pressure cooker. After putting the jars into the cooker, add water until the water level is about 2/3 of the way up the sides of the jars.

Lock the lid and set the pressure cooker for 10 pounds (or high pressure in a small canner).

Light the burner before putting the pressure cooker on it.
Let the cooker get up to pressure and then start the timer for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

After processing for 1 hour and 25 minutes, turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker release its pressure on it's own, that means leave it alone until the lock releases.

Then take off the lid, but Sheepy taught me to leave the jars in the hot water until the water is luke warm. If you don't, the liquid seems to escape from the jar.

All done and ready to go into the storage room!

Well, not all of it will go into the storage room. Son1 is home this weekend and he'll take two or three jars back to school with him.

Someone's gotta feed those starving college students!

First Attempt at Salsa

I don't bottle and preserve as much as Sheepy does, she bottles or dehydrates almost everything that her farm produces. She doesn't have a freezer (Taco kept unplugging the chest freezer when he was young and she got discouraged loosing all that food!) so she puts lots of food in bottles.

I'm trying to preserve more.

Last year I dehydrated lots and lots of tomatoes. I still have half of what I dehydrated!

Since Son1 spent two years in Mexico, he likes SPICY food and this year I decided to try to grow tomatoes and peppers to make some salsa for him.

The hot peppers aren't ready but I found a salsa mix at the local farm supply store.

Here is my first attempt (including mistakes!) of making Son1 salsa.

6 lbs of tomatoes from our garden. Hubby picked them last night!

I know there are 6 pounds because I weighed them!
I love canning recipes that tell me the weight of produce I need
instead of how many cups.
I ran across Mrs. Wages Salsa Mix at the local farm supply store and
decided to give it a try. 

Tomatoes in boiling water for 3 minutes. I think it was about a minute too long because the skins had really split wide open and the tomatoes were starting to get mushy.

Ice bath ready to cool the tomatoes quickly after they come out of the water bath. The bowl is sitting in the sink because sinks are easier to clean than counters.

Chillin' tomatoes! Waiting to be peeled and put in the food processor.

After the tomatoes went through the food processor they looked almost like tomato puree. I think that was partly because the food processor is the cheapest one I could fined (Black and Decker) and because the tomatoes were in the boiling water just a little too long.

Mrs. Wages spices and 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar.
Simmer for 10 minutes (that was easy!)
Vet2Be said it smells delicious!

I love my new funnel. One of my friends gave it to me for my birthday. It covers the lip of the jar so I don't have to wipe off the lip with a rag before I put a lid on.
I put my clean jars on a towel because I make such a gloopy mess. This saves me some clean up time, I throw the towel in the washing machine and it does the work.

Only 5 jars. Hmmmm..... probably because the food processor processed the tomatoes until they were almost puree--my fault. I'll have to figure out how to cook the tomatoes less as well as work the food processor a little better. I hate using so much water for so few jars but my other pot isn't tall enough to cover the jars with water.

Outside canner set up: many people who can in our area use an outdoor propane canner because it keeps the heat outside. These are able to put out alot of heat quickly, too, which means that the water doesn't take forever to heat up.

The bottles are processing for 40 minutes now. The salsa should be done and cooled before Son1 comes home for the weekend.

He can be the guinea pig. He likes "Five Alarm Salsa",

the rest of us like "No Alarm Salsa".

All done!
I like making paper labels for my jars. I hate the sound of jars rattling, the paper helps with that. I can send anyone down to the storage room to find something in particular because each food has a color label and they are printed in large type! And printing labels is much faster for me than writing on each jar.

(Yes, the jar in the front on the left is shorter. It is an old Mrs. Richardson's Fudge jar and lid. My dad taught me to re-use lids and jars until they don't seal anymore--not USDA standard, but it works for us.)

Saturday's List

It's time to get ready for winter and we were able to get a bunch of things done on Saturday!

First job: finish constructing the new tarp garage for all the yard equipment (tiller, mowers, extra barrels and buckets, shovels, rakes....) so we would have room for hay in the barn.

Second job: We took down alot of trees this year and there are still lots of branches that need to be burned. We got through one more pile on Saturday waiting for the hay truck.

Third job: 297 bales of hay. No hay elevator, but 3 strong boys and hubby willing to unload and stack! 

Fourth job: seal the driveway. If it has a new coat of sealant the snow will melt much faster in the winter.

Beautiful! 

Clean gutters, too! Yay!

We also cleaned the poultry pen and covered the wire coop with new tarps. And finished building a new pen for breeding (we have 2 bucks visiting, plus Vet2Be's buck--so we needed 3 pens this fall).

There are still more chores to be done (aren't there always!) Weeding the flowerbeds, spraying more weeds, and planting grass seed in the dry lot by the barn.

It keeps us all busy and out of trouble!

A Yellow Caterpillar Brightens the Day

As I was processing pints and pints and pints of chicken on the patio on Friday I noticed this little guy/gal crawling along the cement.

I haven't seen a cute, fuzzy caterpillar is such a long time! This one brought a little more sunshine this afternoon!

I found another photo of him/her at Butterflies and Moths of North America. Apparently s/he is a Banded Tussock Moth or Pale Tiger Moth.

Too Many Canning Rings!

Aaaaggrrrr!

I hate canning rings! And I hate storing them in our little house. They are worse than feral cats! They multiply and are unruly and I find them everywhere!

Here's my new idea!

 I cut a hole in the top of a yogurt lid the same size as the fabric roll that I happened to save from a roll of fabric.

I cut slits from the edge of the circle to the center.

Then I pushed the cardboard roll through the top of the lid and put the lid on the container.

I wrapped duct tape around the wedges that were pushed up as pushed the cardboard roll through the center. This gave the roll a bit more stability.

I have one for large rings, and one for small rings!

Now if I could make sure I could keep my camera level when I take photos... you wouldn't have to tilt your head to see the rings on the cardboard polls!

If you have any ideas for improving the design, leave a comment! Or if you have a particularly helpful way of storing your rings, please let me know that, too!

Bottling Chicken

Yesterday I bottled chicken. I still have lots and lots to bottle. One of the local grocery stores had a great price on it and I wanted to stock up on pre-cooked chicken.

Canning meat is one of the easiest things to do, as long as you have a pressure cooker.

Here are the instructions from the Ball Blue Book

Raw pack chicken:
Pack meat into hot jars leaving 1" headspace.
If you wash the jars in the dishwasher and then leave them in there until you are ready to process the chicken.

Ladle hot water or broth over meat, leaving 1" headspace. Remove air bubbles.

Place lids and rings on jars.

Process pints for 1 hour 15 minutes (I process for 1 hour 25 minutes because of our altitude).

1 pound of chicken fits in a pint jar

That's it! Pretty simple.

Then I always have cooked chicken on hand for chicken enchiladas, chicken soup, or any recipe I might need shredded chicken for.

Here's a link for 40 different recipes using shredded chicken (I haven't tried them all--but they look delicious!)