Dry Canning. Easy-Peasy.

When you buy dry stores in bulk (oats, lentils, barley, beans), you are sometimes left with storage problems:  creepy-crawlies in your oats...or no room in your freezer.

Black beans, brown lentils, oats, red lentils

I read an article a while back in Countryside Magazine (Sept/Oct 2011?) that described dry canning - and I couldn't believe how easy it was!

Basically, this is what I do:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Take clean, dry quart or half-gallon canning jars and fill them with whatever I am canning.  Put them in a roasting pan, or other high-sided pan.  I do this strictly for ease of getting them in and out of the oven - you can also put them on a cookie sheet.  Once the oven has preheated, put the pan with open, filled jars (NO LIDS) into the oven and close the door.  Leave them in the oven for one hour.  Remove from the oven and, being very careful NOT to burn your fingers, wipe the jar rims quickly with a damp cloth and place clean, dry flats on top of the hot jars and screw on the rings.  Let the jars sit and cool.  As they cool, you may hear the telltale "ping" as they vacuum seal, depending on how quickly it works.  Test for a seal.  That is it.  If a jar does not seal, which happens on occasion, I put that jar to the front to use first.
This way, I can take advantage of a sale at the co-op of 25# of organic rolled oats!  Have I mentioned that I eat a lot of oats?  So far, I have dry canned oats, black beans and lentils.  According to the article, you can oven can:  flours, cornmeal, rice, beans, pasta, dried onions, oatmeal, box cereals, potato flakes, dried vegetables - even some nuts, such as almonds and pecans.  The trick is to make sure the food stuffs are dry (no more than 10% moisture) and do not contain a high level of oil, such as walnuts.  I would imagine that dry milk could be dry canned as well.

It is a great, frugal way of storing food for years.  Try it!

Ewe is fluffy, not fat.

At least that's the story we're sticking to.  I caught the broad side of the blimpos at the feed trough - Icelandics are quite hilarious-looking, I think - zoftic bodies with long, dual-fiber coats on top of tiny little twig legs.  I am actually quite enamored of them.

Sweet Linden on the left, feisty Juno on the right.

Monday Musings.

Why is it that, when there is the glorious prospect of a three-day weekend and all that time off to look forward to, I end up cramming way too much into it and WHAM, it's almost over?  It's that pesky weekend/vacation/holiday time warp - where time morphs into a sprinter and is gone before you know it.  Damn.

Most of my musings of late have had to do with a sort of nostalgic view of community.  I have been talking to my parents and neighbors, both elderly, who have imbued me with their own sense of longing for what was.  Back when there wasn't a subsidy for everything, communities pulled together and helped each other out.  People were not spread so far apart and neighbors were aware of what their neighbors were going through.  It is still true that people who have the least, tend to be the ones who step up first to help.  I've noticed a lot of that sense of community in the blogosphere.  It often takes the shape of prayers, healing thoughts, or what have you, but it also takes on a physical presence as well - an unexpected package in the mail containing a small, handmade gift to cheer the recipient - neither the giver or the receiver ever having actually met.  It's quite a phenomenon.

Not surprisingly, I have always been rebelling.  I was a contrary kid and that didn't change much through my 20s, 30s and well into my 40s.  I still chafe at conformity, but I've learned to pick my battles instead of battling everything.  I rebelled against the war.  I learned a lesson many years ago, the summer between my junior and senior years in high school, when my father signed me up to accompany a busload of city kids from a church group who were going out to the Dakotas to help 'save' the Indians. Long story short, it was the other way around. The Indians saved me. They opened my eyes and showed me what true dignity and compassion was all about.


I still have some very passionate feelings and beliefs that I will defend to the death.  While these days I don't grab a sign and go march in a protest, I do what I can within my daily living to contribute to the cause.  For instance, I will not buy anything from India.  I will not support a country that brutalizes its women.  I try to limit what I buy from China.  I try to recycle and reuse everything I can.  It may be delusion, but I feel that even small acts can make a difference.  Earth Day still means something to me.   I also feel that it is important to be involved in the well-being of your community.  I contribute monthly to our food pantry - which also provides monetary assistance to families for heating oil and other necessities.  There is almost no tax base in this community - no job opportunities, the education level is not great, we are in the middle of Booneyville, so people with limited means are almost trapped here. 

I am hopeful that civility will make a comeback - maybe it will become as retro as tie-dye and distressed denim.  But, when it comes back in style, I hope it's back to stay.

Soup Sunday

If you could wear this soup (other than by accident), it would be like wrapping yourself in a large, warm, soft blanket that your dearest granny knit for you.  Mmm-mm.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup
(adapted from Allrecipes)

1 medium onion, chopped
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans
1 can whole kernel corn (drained)
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 bottle beer
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilis, undrained
1 pkg taco seasoning (I used my own combination: cumin/chili/cinnamon/cloves)
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts

shredded Cheddar, sour cream, crushed tortilla chips

Put onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker.  Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend.  Put chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down until just covered by sauce.  Turn cooker on to low heat, cover and cook for 5 hours.

Remove chicken and allow to cool until you can handle them.  Shred and return to soup.  Cover and continue to cook for 2 more hours.  Serve topped with cheese, a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of tortilla chips.

I use my own home-canned beans, corn and tomatoes and add a can of green chilis.  As with most soups, you can make it your own.  This makes a lot and freezes well.

Think you're cool? Think again...

Source: themetapicture.com via Daniel Bear on Pinterest

New Experiences That Aren't Really New.

This week was such a week of 'firsts' (relatively speaking): 

My first movie in an actual theater in over 8 years.  It was one of those 'plexes' and I was surprised at how small the viewing area was.  And how expensive the popcorn was!  I decided to take myself out on a movie date, since waiting for the arrival of a real date would probably post-date the existence of theaters.  And, since it was a date, I opted for non-cholesterol-free popcorn with butter.  So there.  I did choose the smallest size and I did bring water.  I haven't had a soda for ......

as many years until Tuesday!  When I had a diet ginger ale.  Now I remember why I don't drink them.  I burped all afternoon.  And spent a lot of time worrying about the safety of drinking out of a can, took another half hour to locate a straw, then fussed so much with it that I wouldn't be surprised that my next one won't be for another 10 years, if ever. 

Both of these 'new' experiences have made me realize how far out of the mainstream I've swum.  I saw Les Miserables and enjoyed parts of the movie but, for the most part, I spent most of the time at a disconnect.  I was disconnected from the characters, critiqued the singing, wondered why they would cast a boy with a Cockney accent so thick you could have shoveled it as a Parisian urchin, and spent WAY too much time contemplating Hugh Jackman's tongue (before you get any ideas, go see the movie).  This unwillingness on my part to throw myself with abandon into the movie experience bothered me all the way home (an hour round trip, thanks to booneyville living).  Then I realized that I have spent a good 14 years cut off from the arts.  No wonder, I sez to me.  I need to ease myself back in!  And I need to go with an actual date - talking to myself is not as much fun as sharing a whine...

So, I am going to take me to the movies once a month.  Providing, of course, there is anything I want to see. 

Peeved.

I recently had the same problems that a lot of you have mentioned - I could not upload any photographs.  As in all things Google, you have to Google your question to dig through a myriad of problems, questions and issues that are not addressed directly by Google.  There is nothing forthright about signing up for Blogger.  What a surprise to find that I had reached my maximum load of photographic files!  I mean, I am not exactly Ansel Adams with my blog posts.

I spent a frustrating hour trying to work my way through the murky path towards attaining a bigger file.  Not surprisingly, there was a price on it.  Now, mind you, I am not adverse to paying for a service.  But PUHLEEZE, Google, let's shed a little light on it, shall we?  When I went into Picasa Web, the holder of all things blogger photographs, I found that there were at least ten copies of many of my pics in there.  And I did not post them ten times.  This means - to me - that they are artificially padding the album to make sure you run out of space sooner than later.  That, quite frankly, stinks.  They tout Picasa Web as "free" photo sharing on Google.  I think that is misleading.  "Free", in this case, is relative.

You can go into your album on Picasa Web and delete photos.  A disclaimer pops up, telling you that it make take 24 hours to delete it from your album.  I would assume that, if you deleted all the false duplicates, you would have a lot more room "free". 

Kramer does not approve of Google.

It seems a bit low-handed and greedy on their part.  Why not be upfront and let people know that they can have X amount of file space for free (ACTUAL file space) when you create your blog, then you have to pay a nominal monthly amount.  Is it that difficult to be honest?  These are the people who can put a picture of your front yard on the map, so is it that difficult to come up with a way to let folks know their photo album is getting full?  Do they think we'll all flee to another provider of blogs, leaving our reader base behind?  Really?