Andrea

How about thumbprint cookies with the jam I just made? https://ladyleeshome.com/thumbprint-cookies-recipe-with-mulberry-jam/ I also made a mulberry liqueur several years ago but we just don't drink anymore. So that one is out!

I have a bumper crop of mulberries this year! I'll freeze the majority of them for smoothies throughout the year but looking for other recipes to try. We don't really eat pie. I'm going to start with this one: Mulberry Jam Recipe | Hilda's Kitchen Blog (hildaskitchenblog.com) Recipe review: It's delicious! I just took it out of the canner and had a bit leftover that wouldn't fit anywhere except on a piece of toast and in my belly. It looks like it's going to set just fine. I was concerned at the amount of lemon juice (my tree grows big lemons) but the tartness is perfect. This recipe is definitely a keeper! The jars are pinging as I type.

It's super easy and low tech. Fill your jar (powdery things like flour, cocoa powder, etc you need to place a paper coffee filter on top of the product to keep it from being sucked into the pump-n-seal), place your canning lid and ring on the jar, poke a hole in the center of the flat lid with a push pin, place the tab over the hole, place the pump-n-seal over the tab and then "pump and seal." It's small enough that I keep it in the drawer with all of my canning utensils. The bonus is that I can reseal the jars, although I usually don't since I seal in small amounts. It does take space to have a lot of quart and 1/2 gallon jars in the pantry but the upside is that now that we're a family of 2, I'm not stuck opening a bucket of something and having it go buggy before we can use it all. Not to mention that as I get older, it's not so easy to move those big buckets of grains, beans, and other supplies around. They are HEAVY. If you're building storage for a large family, this may not be the product for you. But for us and the time of life we are in, it works great and extends the life of dry goods far beyond the "Best Use By Date."

My device is at least 25 years old and still going strong! I started with the purchased tabs and now I make my own out of electrical tape! I do something similar to picture 2 at this link except that I use a second piece of smaller electrical tape that goes over the push pin opening. https://muedemaus.blogspot.com/2010/01/freshsaver-homemade-with-tab-chek-style.html

I like this gadget for vacuum sealing canning jars: https://pump-n-seal.com/ I recently went through my long-term storage. I found that the quality was much higher in the vacuum sealed canning jars than my number 10 cans. Auguson Farms is okay but the LDS #10 quality of beans and rice is lousy. The fact that I control the quality of the products I vacuum seal in jars probably has something to do with it. LOL I've been restocking after the remodel and tent fumigation and I'm focusing on vacuum sealing things in 1/2 gal or quart sized canning jars. The bucket method is simply not practical for us. I also found the failure rate of the mylar seal to be too high for my comfort and it's just not practical for the size of our family to have a huge bucket of wheat berries open. One of these days I'll get it figured out! LOL

Update: I made the wine salt, it spent three days in the dehydrator and it is still super sticky. I don't cook with a lot of salt so I'm not the best judge of the flavor but honestly, I don't think this recipe is worth the effort. I think you get more wine flavor by marinating your meats directly in the wine or using the wine while making soup stock. Cool idea, glad I tried it, but I won't be repeating it. The nasturtium salt is okay and I will be making this as gifts in the future but I think the nasturtium vinegar is the best recipe when I have nasturtiums taking over the yard.

I freeze our leftover pizza fully cooked in individual serving sizes. It reheats great in the oven.

Oooh, this sounds great! I no longer drink wine but I have a full wine cabinet. It might be time to experiment. And speaking of salty things, I came across this recipe for Nasturtium Salt: How to make nasturtium salt & other nasturtium recipes - Stephanie Hafferty (nodighome.com) I've neglected my garden the past few years due to life challenges and it's become a mess of New Zealand Spinach, Nasturtiums, and chives. So I'll be making the nasturtium salt in the next few days. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Do you have a source for the second statement? I've lost 6 friends to Covid. The first 5 before there was a vaccine available. The 6th was reluctant to take the vaccine because of anti-science, conspiracy memes on facebook. She is dead now and missed meeting her first grandchild by 5 weeks. Fully vaxxed and boosted and proud to be able to help protect those I love by being vaccinated. Maybe those of you in less populated rural areas don't have as much to worry about but for those of us in urban areas, Covid hit and hit hard. If you've done your research (peer-reviewed scientific studies not conspiracy bs like Steve Quayle spouted while he was in the hospital for Covid) then okay. But if you are doing your research from memes and Coast-to-Coast interviews, please expand your knowledge base. The lives of those you love may one day depend upon your research. Sorry for getting serious in the humor section but Covid isn't funny. If you want an eye-opener, visit r/HermanCainAward over on reddit. Covid isn't funny.

I made a huge vat of Chicken Tortilla Soup. We'll eat it for a few days then it will be packaged into individual servings and put into the freezer. Soup and salad are our go-to meal. (I don't can as much since I got my chest freezer. . .) I also finally finished all of the laundry/bedding from having a full house over the Thanksgiving Holiday and did just enough Christmas decorating to make it look festive but I won't be spending a week putting everything away. Then, I spent three hours sleeping through 1 1/2 movies on the couch. At the beginning of the pandemic, I came down with an extremely rare autoimmune condition. In fact, I missed the first six weeks of quarantine because I was either in bed or being driven up to the ER in the middle of the night (when they weren't busy) for IV hydration. When I over do things, like I did at Thanksgiving and the weeks leading up to it, I have to take a few days off. Those days are NOW. The upside is that my disease has finally taught me how to prioritize and to accept that I cannot possibly do everything that I want to. It's been a humbling experience. Hope you all are well.

Dogmom - I'm so very sorry for your loss. (((HUGS))) I've been very, very busy. We had a great Thanksgiving - full house - all vaxxed and boosted. It's been a very long while since we've had overnight guests so the two weeks before Thanksgiving were spent cleaning and organizing. Everything thing went well and we got to meet the parents of dd's long-term boyfriend. (Finally after five years) Today I returned from the post office (had to mail my Mom's phone charger cord to her that she left) to find that the neighbor's tree trimming service had cut my Mulberry down to the ground. Not happy and not a darn thing I can do about it. I don't think we'll be staying in this house long enough for another Mulberry to mature to fruit. The tree guy pointed to the cement mow strip and told me that he was supposed to cut everything back on that side of the mow strip. I pointed to the correct mow strip that divides our two yards. We have a privet problem here - the stuff grows like weeds and the neighbor asked him to cut down all of the privet. Not sure how you mix up a mulberry and a privet. I was furious and told him to keep away from my Bay Tree. He did offer to replace it but I simply can't deal with it right now. Grinding out the stump will chew up the sprinkler pipes which dh doesn't have time to fix and why spend money on a tree that I will most likely not ever enjoy the fruits of? So much for my mulberry liquor. My last batch is in the back of my fridge. I probably won't share as much this year. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Washing the 100+ year old china and crystal for the holidays. Tomorrow is the silver . . . sigh. But, this will be MIL's last holiday season so if it makes her happy. . .

I popped into MotherEarth's radio show just now. This was posted in the chat:

The Dollar Store carries the magazine boxes in decorated cardboard.

Mother - if you are looking for aesthetically pleasing lemon slices for a dinner party, buy fresh. Otherwise, frozen is just fine.