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JCK88

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Everything posted by JCK88

  1. Leah!!! What a sweetheart you are!! Somebody asked me for a recipe for these and I didn't have one...only..now I forgot who it was. But I'm also delighted with these. I might mess in them one of these times. I just hadn't gotten around to doing a search on this. What a great gift you just gave me. (I'm SO tired, having a Sjogren's flare up ...your post made my day!)
  2. Oh...I just saw that ArmyOfFive4God of asked about the lemons.!! Thanks for the bump Angela! I'm so sorry! I realize she posted this during my inlaw's visit when I just did not come on here. Since I always use "posted in last 24 hours for active topics, well,...some things fall through the posting cracks! Anyway... I dried the lemons in the convection oven until they were dry. Then I put them in the blender and pulverized them. Then, I sifted them because pulverizing in the blender doesn't reduce it to a powder--it makes a powder AND granules. The granules should be set aside for use as dried lemon peel. The rest of the stuff then can be made into a finer powder by using a mortar and pestle. This powder can be used to flavor anything from cookies to "instant lemonade" that you make by adding a teaspoon or two to a large glass of water along with sugar to taste. It does not dissolve into the water completely because some of the peels are teensy bits that just don't dissolve, but it doesn't mar the nice taste of the drink. I don't know if these instructions make sense--but that's just about all the entire mysterious process, LOL (check your food dehydrator book for a good temperature to dry at. I haven't found the optimal one as mine didn't mention lemons. Still, I have done this twice and it worked fine.)
  3. LOL Krissy...yes we can too start a fire without those !!! (we just don't wanna!)
  4. I melted a bunch of old candle ends and used them to make firestarters with a bunch of dryer lint and egg cartons. I have been going to the bakery markdown rack and the deli markdown "ends" shelf in the grocery store for breads and lunch items like cheese and lunch meats. I got a pile of really nice salami for sixty-seven cents today, and really good sourdough bread for fifty cents. (cheaper than I can make it) I like making a little forage run through the store to see what I can get for a couple of dollars that will stretch the food budget. In a way, it's like a little game. But then I guess I need to get out more, haha! During the good times, I stashed away craft projects for times like now, when I don't want to spend. I'm attacking my sewing like it's a canning project and the produce is going to spoil, LOL! With winter coming on, the projects are all practical things--PJ's for the family, house slippers, and from the remnants, catnip mice for my kitties and a draft stopper for the front door. I was going to attend a rug braiding class but didn't. Instead, I have gotten books and will be working on a rug from those directions. I've also taken an inventory of everything in the freezers and have made a list of canning projects. I thawed a pile of ground beef, mixed it with beef TVP and made batches of meat loaves, meatballs, cooked them, and froze those for future meals. Canned a bunch of ground beef. If you find one thing each day that will save you money and keep you busy doing something productive, you're doing preps because you aren't wasting time or money, I figure. Anyway, counting the blessings of hard work is not a bad idea, either.
  5. I am keeping busy making things, crafting, sewing. Also walking. Knitting is a great stress reliever, also. I am donating hats to the local SHARE program as they are quick, easy to make, and I can do them without directions.
  6. not here in New England. I have been buying lemons by the bagful at Costco, dehydrating them, and turning them into lemon powder for instant lemon drinks (that don't contain corn syrup or artifical sweetners) ALso lemon juice is available everywhere. I usually buy the big bottles at Costco. At canning time, I use a lot of it.
  7. http://couponmeister.com/blog/DuctTapeProm.jpg And let's not forget the duct tape prom dresses....Check out the link! LOL (I think the Duct Tape people run a contest every year on this) http://www.ducktapeclub.com/contests/prom/entries.asp
  8. We use a lot of the bottled lemon juice and I get it at Costco in the large size at canning time. Thanks for the heads up!
  9. I scored INFJ Counselor... So I guess I'm on that 1 percent bench with PJC. (I guess this score explains why I am usually misunderstood around here, come to think of it! LOL)
  10. LOL Reminds me of those elastic band things you hang on the doorknob and lie on floor and it's like running while on your back only the elastic does some wonderful thing. (until it snaps one day, don't ask, LOL) I had one of those things when I was about 30 years younger.
  11. LOL...the banana slicer cracked me up. (but I want to try one now...LOL..not buy one, try one!)
  12. Yes Tracie, once you get used to pressure canning, you will wonder how you got along without it. I have two canners and have them both going at once at times! (Usually in the winter while canning stews or meat...makes nice humidity in the house then) With a pressure canner, there is nothing you can't can--it just opens up the possiblities to you that you don't have with just water bath canning!
  13. Momo, that's what I mean! Cat Litter tubs are great! LOL (I haven't tried them upside down, though....good going! The designer compost container gets my vote for silliest product..LOL
  14. What about those upside down tomato planters that are wickedly expensive with high shipping costs? It would have cost $107 for two of them with their shipping charge! I have happy tomatoes growing in a worn out-waterbath canner, a couple of 5-gal buckets and some giant clay pots!
  15. SO true, Cheryl. I don't use any of that stuff either...I hate single-use things...even disposable razors. My husband hates those so bad he uses an old-fashioned straight razor!! (Well his Grandpa was a barber)
  16. Those paper mops. I like the old-fashioned kind of mop - the kind you swab decks with. If it gets icky, you sanitize it with bleach. I have a mop bucket with a wringer for it. I also like the old sponge mops, too.
  17. Ah....thanks for bumping it up so everyone can get the duck jokes. LOL LOL It was just...ducky!
  18. Cowgirl, right on. My mom says the ONLY way to survive is to have the best garden you can afford and to can what you aren't eating for dinner that night. Both of my parents went through the Depression. My father was a city kid, my mother a country kid. My mother says they had a cow ,a horse, and chickens and a pig and a large garden although they did rent their place. She says Grandma bartered for bushels of peaches. Two of her older brothers worked at a local farm in exchange for produce which my Grandma canned. They were able to do okay and nobody starved. All the kids had jobs. They all contributed to paying for the heat each winter. My Dad told stories of having to dig though the bakery dumpsters where old bread and cakes were stacked to take to a local pig farm. He and his brothers would be very excited if they found a decent cake in that pile. He says they saved bottles for refunds. They ran numbers and messages for the mob for nickels because the mob was the only group who had any cash in that Italian neighborhood. They crawled into abandoned mill buildings to find old pipes to turn in for scrap metal and get a few dimes that way. They saved and scavenged every single can they could for the same reason. They haunted the edges of the railroad tracks to pick up pieces of coal that fell off the trains. They often went hungry. My grandmother got post-partum depression around this time and my father and his sister and brothers were taken by the state and put in an orphanage for about six months. Grandpa visited them every day and the place let him eat dinner there with the kids. My Dad would make him take home the rolls and butter for his mom. Grandpa often pocketed his meat to bring home. People survived on very little. We don't need the big meals we often eat today. Pancake suppers were a frequent ocurrance at my house--a holdover, my mother said, from the Depression times when they had them for Sunday nights. Mom says they got moth-holed sweaters from the thrift shop, unraveled them and knit them into mittens. They went out into the woods and scavenged enough butternuts (sometimes called "pig nuts" in New England) to make fudge at Christmas. They gathered bayberries to make their own scented Christmas candles. Gifts were home made. Pennies were saved. Grandma had a cast iron dime bank that when full held $10. That was a small fortune to them. Big buckets of soup and home made bread would be dinner for a few days. Meat was scarce until my mom's brothers took up bow hunting. Lessons learned--make do with what you have--but if possible live in the country where you can make do with a little more. Today, many people would be at a loss. We won't be worried about modified this or that or organic whatever when we are because of necessity, growing our stuff at home. For practice, I am doing it now so I get the hang of it.
  19. THANKS for that recipe!! I printed it out for the binders..my family loves marinated mushrooms and this recipe is quite similar to my Papa's own...
  20. hmmm...EMP shielding??? It looks really nifty! Did the article say how those lids were stuck to the wall? Were they welded or soldered together? Were they glued?
  21. ARRGH....I resemble that remark too...!!
  22. Jules, Like Darlene, I started with a tomato canning lesson and progressed from there. It's like any other cooking. You follow the recipes and directions-- you have success and you learn as you go. You might as well ask, "How do you trust that your cooking is safe for your family?" because as you master canning and use and enjoy the foods, it becomes the same question. In more than 30 years of canning, I have never had anyone become ill from anything I've canned. The only "bad" thing that has ever happened is that when I gave strawberry jam as gifts everyone wanted more and more and more!!! LOL Just as when you first learned to cook it took a certain amount of faith that you would enjoy the finished product, so also does this apply to canning. Get the directions for the jam, read them through, get going! You go, girl! I'ts heartening to see someone new take up this most rewarding craft. It renews my enthusiasm to see your grand adventure unfolding:)
  23. Are you saying serious canners need...an intervention???? As in "Stop me before I can again???" LOL You mean it's not NORMAL to cook three turkeys for thanksgiving and spend the next day canning meat and broth??? HUH????
  24. I was thinking about this earlier today when I ran down cellar to get a jar of pizza sauce. I should have written "You might be a canning-a-holic AND a prepper if you took photos of your full shelves just because you thought the colors of the peaches, tomatoes, green beans, pears, soups and meats, and preserves looked so pretty but THEN you were afraid to show the pics to anyone or they'd know what you had in the stash!!! LOL
  25. You might be a canning-a-holic if you have photos of your full shelves just because you thought the colors of the peaches, tomatoes, green beans, pears, soups and meats, and preserves looked so pretty. .. If you've been the recipient of several boxes of canning jars and lids from one of your best pals at Christmas and thought this was a stupendous gift! And..you might be a seriously warped canner if you ever stood at the acquarium looking at those huge fish and wondered idly how long it would take to can one of those..... I dunno...I LOVE using canning jars for things like pencil holders. (but I use ones that have a chip in the top) I even have those mason jar glassware with the handles and the teeny mason jar salt and pepper shakers. My piggy bank is a quart jar....
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