Why Can?

So, a new colleague asked me the other day, "Why do you can?" My initial reaction was going to be, "Why don't you can?" Then my brain caught me and I realized that it was a very valid question. Why do I can?

I've realized the answer isn't as simple but I think it starts with my dad. Most know that my dad passed at age 51 from melanoma. It was 2007. I was barely an adult (25). It was traumatizing. I am a firm believer that all this cancer crap in the world in environmental. Our life of convenience is killing us. Literally. I want to be around to grow old and watch my grandkids flourish. I want Jason to be there too. I'd give anything for my father to have met my children. I'll do what ever I can to keep us all healthy enough to live our dreams. So, I can food.

My dad isn't the only reason...

I'm a bored mom and wife. Yep, I said it. I'm bored. I work. I cook. I wipe asses... lots of asses. If there were 8 days in the week or 30 hours in a day, maybe I could do something for myself. So, what I do has to be multipurpose. Canning has stretched my knowledge, skills and helped me reach goals for my family. If you can eat it, I can can it! I've canned:

tomato sauce

italian tomato sauce

tomato soup

salsa

tomato paste

chicken stock*

diced tomatoes

pickles- dill and bread and butter

apple sauce- berry, strawberry, peach, vanilla bean

green beans*

carrots*

peaches

kidney beans*

black beans*

garbanzo beans*

beets

spicy pepper relish

jalapanos

blueberry compote

jam

(I am sure I missed something.)

Items marked with an * need to be pressure canned. See more info here.

So in short, I guess you could call homesteading/canning a hobby. My ONLY hobby! Everyone needs something they are interested in to feel like life is more than work. Canning and homesteading keeps me sane. Makes me feel human. Makes me feel successful. Makes me feel accomplished.

So, what does everyone need to show off their hobby? A pretty space!

Pictures above and below were our current storage options. In cases, shoved on shelves in the basement.

After a couple of hours on a weekend and some lumber and BOOM!

All of my pretty jars, lined up to show themselves off! Better than trophies!

Jason used this dead space in the basement along the hall to the quarter basement for them. It is a great use of space. It's pretty and also functional. When the jars are all crammed into cases, I can never tell what I have or don't have. I've tried lists over the years. They never work and then all of a sudden I'm out of something.

Now I have a new problem. They are so pretty. I don't want to use any of them! I am pretty sure that defeats the purpose! I see empty space and few and far between tomato products. I better get canning!

So, why do I can? Well they are pretty, duh!

4th of July, 2015

A little glimpse of our 4th of July holiday.

The festivities began early in the week with window painting and a trip to the dollar store to get proper bike decorating supplies.

Buckets for collecting candy needed to be found and cleaned out!

Bikes were decorated!

The parade was in the morning. It's great that we can walk to the route. Coletyn had been asking about when the parade was since... last year! A funny story, Coletyn believes an American flag is required for EVERY parade. We went to the Oak Creek homecoming parade last fall and Coletyn insisted on bringing a flag. I finally got out of him that he thinks if you don't have a flag you won't get candy thrown at you. THIS KID!

After the parade I made them sit for a picture! Cecelia wore the dress Charlotte has on for her first 4th of July!

After the parade we packed up and drove to my aunt's lake in West Bend. Jason and the kids were slotted to camp there. I drove home with the baby. In preparation I did some baking. Betty Crocker's blueberry muffins for Sunday breakfast and some different bars for desert- lemon bars and peaches and cream bars. Recipes are linked.

First jet ski rides!

circles in the paddle boat

I left as the fireworks were starting down the road. A neighbor puts on a show better than the local city so they all went down to the pier to watch. As I drove home through Milwaukee, I could see the fireworks in every city along the way. After the fireworks at the lake, they had a fire. Jason reports that eventually Cecelia requested to go to bed. Shocking as that has NEVER happened. Then I asked what Coletyn did. My cousin's wife reported the following, "Around 11:00pm he finally stopped talking. He had been sitting on my lap chatting away. Seconds later his head fell back and rested on my chest. Then within minutes all the toys he has in his hands fell to the ground.

Day Two

First tubing rides too!

I drove back that afternoon to spend some time and pick up the family. We were going to eat dinner when we got home so we stopped for ice cream (holiday remember) on the way home. Coletyn passed out in his carseat two bites into his Blizzard. Cecelia managed to finish hers then proceeded to pass out!

We had to drag him into the house. He never woke up until the next morning. I think he had a good time. Thank you Auntie Laurie and Uncle Bill!

I think I've had an epiphany about the Fourth of July. I like it better than Christmas. Don't get me wrong, both holidays are fun to watch your kids enjoy but the Fourth of July is a bit less work with just as much excitement!!

Pressure Canning... We Didn't Blow Up! #spoileralert

Why would you chance blowing something up? To can it of course!

To properly put up food that has a pH worthy of growing botulism (higher than 4.5), one must can under pressure. Why? Here, my favorite canning blogger can explain it better here!

So, step one, try not to kill the family.
How do you do such a thing? Just put your head between your knees and kiss your a$$ goodbye, my dad would say. Others may just use a pressure canner. Jason bought me a pressure canner for Mother's Day last year. Romantic. I know! That's how we roll on the Eiting Homestead!

It was scary for it's innagural run but in the end all was well! I recommend just following the directions in the manual.... RTFM!

Very, very basic steps for those who are curious (Do not use solely these steps to pressure can..)

Hot pack your food with pH above 4.5 into jars.

Pack jars according to directions with 3 inches of water in bottom prior to jars. This canner is big enough to get two layers in. Can't do that in a water bath. Why is that awesome sauce? 16 pint jars in one swing. A water bath will only let you do 8 or 9.

Find a heat source. We used the grill. We have a glass top stove which is not recommended for canning in general. I water bath can on it and hasn't broken on me yet. It's something about the temperature and length at which it is at that temperature can crack or shatter the glass top.. yadda yadda. But for safety, we decided to do it on the grill. Jason got a stainless steel plate to put in lieu of the grates. We have a natural gas grill.. yep, comes right off of the house feed, so we wouldn't have to worry about running out of propane and knew we could maintain a consistent heat.

Find a man to lift it onto grill. I couldn't lift it with 18 jars and the weight of the pot.

You heat until you see steam and then you wait 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes you put the pressure gauge on at selected psi based on food and altitude. Then let cook at that psi for time per recipe.

This is the, put your head between your knees and kiss your a$$ goodbye part!

You then let the pot depressurize for hours or overnight and BAM... done! Canned homemade beans.

Then, because you feel like such a rock star, repeat the next Sunday with a new recipe, homemade chicken stock!

All in all, not too shabby. Bad news, I would never be able to do this without Jason simply because I wouldn't be able to lift the pot! Good news, the freezer is no longer my only option for storing foods with pH above 4.5. Boo-Yah!

Tested Recipes!!

Homemade Chicken Stock- Pressure Canned

Pressure Canned Beans

Chicken Stock- Pressure Canning

So, this is my recipe. I know I got the basic portions somewhere...

I usually do this every few months. Up until now (ability to pressure can) I would make a vat and then freeze in Mason jars. No freezing any more!!!

The basic recipe for the stock is as follows:

1 package of chicken breasts on the ribs (my store sells in packs with three breasts)

Boil in as much water as you want stock. Count for some evaporation.

Add scraps from the produce drawer that aren't looking so hot. The butt of the celery. Last of the baby carrots. Shriveled up onion.

Also, a few cloves of crushed garlic, salt and pepper.

Cook as long as you can (I do at least three hours). I cook in my stock pot with the strainer in it. Then I just have to pull out the strainer and all the stuff comes with it. I toss the bones, skin and cooked veggies and throw breast meat into Kitchen Aid. With the paddle attachment, in about 5 seconds you have instant shredded chicken. We will then throw it on salads, make chicken tacos or quesadilla some night of the week, etc.

Here your stock is finished.

Next steps are for pressure canning...

Refrigerate the stock over night. Pull out prior to canning and skim off the fat. I was thoughtful to measure the water I put into the pot prior to making the stock so that I would have a ball park of how many jars I would need to can. Chicken stock has a pH of 5.8 so it can not go into a typical water bath canner. See further explanation here.

 Hot packing.

packing the canner

Easy! 16 pints ready for recipes!

For more information on pressure canning see Pressure Canning post!

Canned Beans

I've been trying my best to rid our family of all the man made crap in our food these days. One of the hardest to get rid of has been BPA from the lining of tin cans. Black olives and beans- kidney, black, etc. I've still had to buy in cans. I tried dried beans for a while but I would always forget to soak the night before so I always failed! UNTIL I READ THIS POST! This is one of my favorite canning bloggers. She solved my problem for me.. now just black olives. Hmmmm.

How to Pressure Can Dry Beans

You can pull the basis of the recipe out of there. I did it with kidney beans and white beans but used regular pint mason jars. With the beans I had had hanging around the house, I was able to get 6 pints of kidney beans and 6 pints of white beans!

Beans ready for recipes!

Why would you pressure can beans?? See post here.

School Lunches- Working Mom Shortcuts

I hate packing school lunches, hate, hate, hate. I hate them so much that I never pack myself a lunch.  I usually throw a cucumber and an orange into a bag and call it good unless I buy a salad at school. Unfortunately, this doesn't fly with a six year old. I actually have to pack her a lunch. Feed her hot lunch from school? No. Way. In. Hell. Have you ever seen a school lunch. They are the most unhealthy things you've ever seen!

So, how do I make making lunches easier for me? Well, I've learned a few things in the last two years:

1. I make all five lunches for my peanut on Sunday. I hate doing it so why torture myself five days a week. This also makes the already hectic week nights less hectic because I can just clean out Ya-Ya's lunch box and throw the next one in. Done!

2. In order to pack real food, not processed crap, you need containers. Who wants to pack and clean out multiple containers? No one. Nor do we want to throw a bunch of baggies a day into the landfill so I found these guys... Sistema Lunch Cubes. They are BPA free and you can usually find them for $3.99 at TJ Max. I've seen them at World Market and other places as well. Now, it's one container and if it's full I know I've packed enough food!

3. Real Food! I try to jam as much fruit and veggie options down Cecelia as I can. This isn't the easiest to do but with her right now, I notice if I pack a few of something in her lunch she will eat them. If I pack a lot of something she won't eat it. For example, a few pieces of orange she'll choke down. A whole orange, she won't touch. I'm sure she'll change her MO now that I've figured her out!

4. Sandwiches, how do you keep a sandwich with peanut butter and jelly packed to make it all week? Use toast and double coat the peanut butter. If you use toast the bread will stand up more and a thin layer of the nut butter of your choosing on both sides of the toast will insure the jelly or honey doesn't penetrate the toast! Also, I've found options to a sandwich. Cecelia's favorite are those no bake energy bites that are floating but minus the coconut and chai seed and double the flax seed. We like them better with almond butter but the mix better with peanut butter. Also, sometimes when I'm feeling overwhelmed I may let a cereal or fiber bar go in disguised as the grain for the week.. oops!

5. Food that comes home uneaten turns into a side dish for Cecelia's lunch. After a 5 year stint with constipation and then behavioral constipation, I am continually counting fiber grams for all the kids daily. Almost everything I put in her lunch contains fiber and if she wants bananas for snack, I double up on the fiber!! We prefer slippery poops in this house!! This also helps the, "well if I don't like it I'll just not eat it" part of eating lunch. I know, I am screwed once she realized she can just throw something away at school and I wouldn't be the wiser! I also buy the fiber one fruit snacks. They are basically sugar, I know but the kid wants food like what she sees her friends eating, she is a kid after all! Also, I kind of count it like the treat and even though they aren't the best fiber option, I figure it's better than an alternative!

So here are this week's lunches:

• those no bake energy bites- FIBER
• fiber one fruit snacks, sans packaging- FIBER
• a hand wipe- they don't wash their hands before they eat- YUCK!
• a low-sugar juice box
• raspberries- FIBER
• red bell peppers- FIBER
• clementine slices- FIBER
• heart snacks (from Organic section at Woody's- they are high in omega-3s.- FIBER

For snack this week, she picked bananas.-- FIBER

Done for another week. Yes, I realize that I have three kids and one day I won't be able to make 15 lunches to fit in the fridge (if they'd fit I would though) for the week. But I'll probably only do it a few days of the week... WAIT a minute... THREE kids.... 15 lunches a week. What was I thinking!! How long until I can get Cecelia to make everyone's lunches?! Muah ha ha ha!

Older Working Mom posts below!

Top Ten Working Mom Shortcuts

Meal Planner Working Mom Shortcuts

Google Calendar Working Mom Shortcuts

Use that Freezer Stash

Dutch Oven... love!

There's a new love in Jason's life... our new dutch oven! I've wanted one for a while and my uncle hit up the Chantal warehouse sale in Houston and scored me a red one!! 

I want to say it's my mad cooking skills at play but for real, this dutch oven is the cat's pajamas. For some reason (maybe the even heat distribution) or another (scraping all the good bits back into the food from the bottom of the pot) my old recipes have new life.

Turkey and wild rice soup in the pic above. This one induced groans and grunts while being consumed. I've tried to make a bunch of stuff that will freeze well and be tasty after we are locked in the house with the newborn. I can't wait to thaw this one!!

In the last few weeks we've done these recipes and they've been amazing in the dutch oven, if you need something new to try as winter officially sets in!!

Chicken Wild Rice Soup (used Thanksgiving's left over turkey)

Pepper Steak

Cheese Broccoli Soup

Beef Stew

Baked Potato Soup

Chicken Pot Pie (the guts)

I have a few recipes that I want to try in the dutch oven. Hopefully I can get to them before this baby drops. My grandmother's steak rolls, beef & broccoli and french onion soup!!

Yummmmmmmmmmmm!!!