kappydell

Wal mart makes energy water flavor packets. Each one has caffeine equal to 1 cup of coffee...I usually make up a quart water bottle with 2 packets and nosh on it all day. Current favorite iis sugar free lemonade. Just get the ones marked Enenrgy...they also make some that are just flavoring. I get tired of coffee so I use these a lot and there is a lot of flavor variations...grape, leonade, watermelon-lime, and (of course) peach mango. Does not have the bitterness of coffee that upsets my stomach either. If you can handle the artificial sweetener in them you might try them for caffeination purposes. Their variety pack has several flavors you can try to see how you like them.

Im going all out....St Peters Palms (protects from storms, as I can attest) St Benedict medals (protect from evil & demonic influences) on all 4 corner of property plus driveway entrance, with a border of exorcised salt all around (the devil flees salt, which is one reason Christ called us "salt of the earth"). The cross is a great idea, I will do that too. More on each building inside and out. I buy in bulk and have them blessed upon arrival, since invariably someone else wants some I like to have extras to give away. Today our refrigerator looks empty - the space I cleared out of the freezers is now re-filled with "new" meat. After we made our 2nd trip we cut up 35 lb of steaks, 25 lb of ground chuck, and 6 pork tenderloins. We shared more with our prep team partners to help them fill their new freezer. And now....the press is starting to make noises about the return of covid....i guess they got tired of talking about demonstrations (or folks were getting too angry about the rioting) so they had to find something new to talk about. We figured something was up when the National Guard started setting up a field hospital in one of the county's larger empty buildings.

Good news and bad news....I cant figure out why anyone would say retirement is 'boring'. AFter I schlepped in my meat finds this morning, a prepper friend called us and sent us links from the Wisconsin TV news. It seems our old hometown is now having demonstrations, and the staging area just happens to be the (closed) motel where we were planning on staying at in a few weeks. As usual the peaceful demonstrations ceased shortly after they started and they morphed into nasty ones. 15 miles down the road in the state capitol, one of the state legislators had a run in with demonstrators and they beat him up (yes pbysically) quite badly. Covid rebounding has just caused more states to close their borders, Illinois is not letting non residents enter the state supposedly, and that could make going thru there pretty awkward if not impossible. The IL motel we had planned an overnight stop over in (we always stopped there before) is also closed and in the middle of more demonstrations. We decided to postpone our trip....so disappointing to all the folks we were going to bring cheese back for when we told them due to covid and civil unrest, the cheese was "back-ordered" until we could get north safely. In our county the national guard is here, supposedly for covid hospital operations for when the covid numbers shoot up again (they are starting to climb) or to aid LEOs with protesters (they are attacking war memorials, statues, religious statues, whatever apparently strikes their fancy and assaulting anyone who objects). The sheriffs dept has advised people there is a surge in burglaries and other crimes as well. We would rather stay home, uninfected, and keep an eye on our property and help our neighbors keep an eye on theirs (we all know each other). The good news? We went and got another batch of that sale meat (3 more ny strip loins, four more 5-lb hamburger chubs, and 3 more pork tenderloins) with the money we had planned to spend on gas. We do not know if we will see those sale prices again, or if another covid spike will cause shortages, and we have room in the freezer and empty canning jars to fill thanks to my canning up the freezer meat that was due to rotate. Mary said to go ahead and can up some of the new stuff too - I will probably do a load of pre-cooked hamburger crumbles, and some more steak cubes over the week end. I scored some Lysol spray and wipes for my doctor, who had lamented she cannot find it (it disappears from stores here by 6:30 AM). She runs her own medical offices (has two) and purchases supplies herself, so she does not have the resources of a chain medical operation. We do not expect her to shop at 5 am on the possibility of finding what she wants..that is one of the advantages of retirement is that I can do that extra mile. Her independence is one of the reasons we like her...she will go against the tide of corporate medicine, will work out financing with patients, and we suspect, if the mark of the beast becomes required for medical care she will work under the table. What makes us think so? Her reaction when we told her we would not accept repayment for any of the disinfecting supplies we took her. The exchange went something like this: "I want to pay" "No". "I insist" "No" "I will take if off your co-pay next time you come in" "I don't have a co-pay for clinic visits" "Shoot!" CM then says "tell ya what doc, if I get a boo-boo you can fix it up for me". "Don't you think I wont do just that!" "Deal". I just love a doc that will barter. Besides if that covid "bump" occurs (and she believes as we do, it will) it wont get any easier to find that stuff. So we get it now, when we find it, while we can afford it. She also confirmed (in front of Mary, so now I will never live it down) that she considers me extremely high risk due to my medical history. ("Keep wearing those masks and using sanitizer" she admonishes us, "and stay home!" ) So we will stay home, strengthen our personal infrastructure, and watch what happens. I think we are actually seeing that old curse "may you live in interesting times" occurring before our eyes. We will remain home...tend our garden....feed our critters....go fishing....and keep shopping those granny hours (5 to 7 AM) to keep our larders full. We finally got some rain tonight, enough to actually soak in a bit. Tomorrow we will pick the garden again before the sun gets high, then move indoors to process that pile of meat into manageable packages. 'I will start fortifying our perimeters with sacramentals (talked to CM about it to see if she thought I had slipped my trolley....she said to go ahead, it makes sense). I did not want her wondering if I was nuts or not, so I'm glad to see she agrees with my plans. Our AC actually froze up today so we have started turning it off long enough to thaw out on a schedule. This is no time to lose our AC but we have backup plans from the last time it happened ready in the wings. Life goes on, and we are more grateful than ever that we are where we are.

Today was my Social Security payday, so I got up for the new granny shopping hours - 5 AM to 7 AM. It was important to get up that early to bag some meat at decent prices....Kroger was having a sale....ground chuck in 5 lb chub for $3.99/lb; pork tenderloins $2.99/lb; NY strip half loin $6.99/lb; fresh peaches 78 cents/lb; I spend was was left after bills on this stuff. By way of comparison, Walmart prices (the only comperable game in town around here) runs ground chuck at $4.52/lb; pork tenderloin $4.36/lb; NY strip (steaks) $11.97/lb (yikes). Heck yes, I blew the budget! Wish I had more money, there were no limits on these meats. Those half-the-normal-price-price peaches will taste good on ice cream, too.... I do love it when the sale hits the same time the money does. Now to put a lock on the freezers.....

Mary & I go in separately & make several trips when they have good sales (rarely). Its the only way we can get enough to share with folks who cant get there while the supplies are there. We also use the self check out to avoid questions. So far so good.....our latest mission is to find Lysol disinfectant with bleach or hydrogen peroxide for my MD who says she cant find it at all. (Our last gift to her was 2 gallons of alcohol based sanitizer - and 4 qts of hydrogen peroxide. (She is still using that stuff which is good, as the supplies of it are even scarcer than when we found that batch.) Limits are ONE for sanitizer at Krogers, even less than at Walmart at the smaller town where supplies are slightly more plentiful. I will be going out in the wee hours tomorrow (granny hours are back to 5-7 AM again) to try to score some Lysol stuff. At least bleach is plentiful - many folks have bought into the idea that it is "too" corrosive to use...I just take the usual precautions, no problems. I like its versatility and to me, nothing smells as 'clean' as bleach!

washed the canning jars before labeling them. Got 5 qts of "steak cubes" from T bones & ny strip steaks in the freezer from last year. None were freezer burned. (Yay!) Put the trimmings into the crock pot for 14 hrs, it is cooling in the refrig. now so I can skim off fat & boil down to double strength tomorrow. Then I will can up a load of 'double strength stock - I get 10 pints to the canner load, most will probably be chicken since that is what I had the most remains to make stock with (bones & skin). Our dear friends & prepper pals' freezer came today, in the rain, of course. "only" $400 with shipping - prices on freezers are crazy, but their old one died and they needed something to work with and were happy with a little one so we fronted them the money until payday. At least the wait time was reasonable - only 2 weeks instead of that open ended time span we had with the Sears debacle. The garden is finally kicking out tomatoes - so far a couple a day - tonight we had our first plate load of vine-ripened tomatoes with our steaks & baked 'taters. Nothing else needed to complete our favorite summertime feast, but we had cheesecake on hand, so even dessert was decadent. If I had remembered that I would have picked some of our volunteer black raspberries for a sauce/topping. I think I will have to start picking & freezing some of them for when we want something a little different on ice cream. That has me wondering now - I never raised blueberries before. Do the ripen all at once or do I need to keep them picked so they make more? Such a delightful quandry. I think they are ripening now. Along with tomatoes, our "now picking" list includes green peppers, and summer squash. I even have some zucchinis to grate up for zucchini bread (the only way DM will eat it).I have recipes for the yellow summer squash too, but cant keep up with it since I have to use a cut down recipes. But it does give me the chance to use my cut little blue ceramic 3 cup casserole. Guess I'll have to freeze it. Have to look around and find out if I can freeze the casseroles, or if it is better done separately. The coyotes are moving around at night here lately. Either it is breeding season or the lumber company has disturbed their habitat by cutting in a new area. Now I have to go armed to feed the kitties. The first promise our neighbors extracted from us was an agreement to shoot coyotes on sight, as they kill pets around here. Id use my trapper training and put out traps, but too many dogs get loose and I would not harm a neighbors pet for the world. Oh well.

Yesterday and today I am making stock from my frozen trimmings. I put them in the crock pot for 24 hrs, then strain, chill, remove fat & boil down to 50% volume. I have almost enough for a canner full of pint jars. I figure double strength stock will be diluted down with water when I use it, so pints should do nicely. I cant believe what the stores are charging now for stock I also took a lot of steak package out of the freezer to cut up and can, mostly T-bones, porterhouse and NY strips. Last July seems to have been a good year for meat. We shall see what this year holds. So far its not looking very auspicious. But I am clearing out some wonderful freezer space as I go.

Sometimes you want to try to salvage it - especially when the budget is tight and the alternative is no meat. I, for one, am taking steps to watch my rotation of foods more closely so I do not have to utilize these tactics...hopefully....but I acknowledge that it is nice to know there are options "just in case". Sweet Baby Rays rocks! I especially like my sauces sweet! The last time i made BBQ to use up some "old" hamburger, CM said the sweet sour was a little sharp....but her taste runs to even sweeter than I am used to, so I have to remember to keep it more to her taste than mine (I am more flexible).

Nowdays with the price of meat going through the roof, more and more folks are not only buying freezers, but a lot of us are using up and rotating what they already have on hand to make room for new stuff. But once in a while, you run across some freezer burned meat, and you ask yourself "Hmmm, I paid a lot for this....can I salvage it?" The answer is yes, there is a good chance you can. First of all, freezer burn won;t hurt you or make you sick. It does however, make the meat tough, dry, and sometimes odd tasting. But it won't kill you, if you have to eat it. I just recently salvaged some steaks that spent a little too much time in the freezer by doing a little homework and trying one of the things other people recommended. Although I do not expect you to go out and deliberately leave things in the freezer that long, it sure is nice to know that all is not lost! Here is what I found out. SIX WAYS TO SALVAGE FREEZER BURNED MEAT 1. Slow cook with BBQ sauce. This counteracts the toughness, dryness and the odd flavor, which are the three main traits of freezer burned meats. 2. Grind or cut into chili dice pieces, then precook, drain & rinse well, and finish by making it into chili. 3. Soak in white vinegar which tenderizes & removed odd flavors. This is what I used except I sprayed the meat (I keep white vinegar in a spritzer to clean grease off my stove). I sprayed it around 30 minutes before dinner. The smell & flavor of vinegar disappeared with cooking and the meat was delicious simply grilled. 4. Pressure cook and make stew or curry. The tomato in the preparation be it juice or puree, works same as the vinegar, deodorizing and tenderizing. The pressure cooker speeds things up. 5. Marinate in any commercial marinade, then cook as usual. One of my favorite cheaper ones is plain old house brand Italian Dressing. Garlicky, so if you object to garlic, use vinaigrette without garlic instead. Or you can purchase an 'official' (but more expensive) marinade. if you have a good one, heck, make your own! 6. Cut it up, partially cook as for hot pack canning, then drain & rinse. Can it in a broth (I use bouillon cubes). As I clean out freezer to make room for new meats (just in case we get another covid bump in the autumn) I am finding some items that are older than I would like, but that I am using anyway, since meat prices are about 3 to 5 times higher than when I bought them less than a year ago. But I fear no freezer burn, for I have successfully counteracted it, and it worked, by gum!

Went back to the grocery store with the good sale on ny strip halves, they were out yesterday. Hey, they are out today, too. Maybe tomorrow the meat man says. Got some chicken breasts instead, they had bonless, skinless ones ones for the same price as plain ones with everything still attacked. Came home and divvied up the big packages into meal size ones. Skinned and boned the thighs bought yesterday. I guess I'll get up early again tomorrow and try again (yes the sale price at $7.95 a lb) is that good. Even plain old ground round is going for nearly that much. Got some yummy fresh peaches - the price on those is down to what I will pay so it must be peach season. CM says she likes them canned better than frozen for eating over ice cream. Now that is an easy dessert. The same store brought back their "grannie hours" (must have had a LOT of complaints, they suspended them when we started the covid opening up stuff). Its 5AM to 7AM on Wednesdays only. Since I have been getting up early anyway, maybe I'll have a look see to see if it is worth it. Whoever the heck told them seniors did not like to sleep in was wrong, but at least once I will have a look see. Heard a good one today....."Did you hear about the vaccine against covid? When someone coughs in your face, you just throw something and yell "No Justice No Peace" and it kills all the covid germs." must have been discovered by the same folks who keep posting that masking helps nothing, that it is just a sign of opression. (Junk science strikes again!) Tomorrow is voting day in my state....Ill be there even if I have to shower in rubbing alcohol! We have several senate and county judge races going, and those are (arguably) as important as the presidential race, as they are a lot closer to home and much more likely to affect day to day living. Like I always have said, if you don;t vote, you ain't allowed to gripe about the results!

today is a "quiet day: Since my computer does not do streaming well (lots of fits & starts) I wait until my church service is over to view it online. My church is so tiny that if we were to follow the covid re-opening guidelines perhaps 20 folks could sit in the church at a time, and maybe 30 in the church hall. Then the cleaning....my oh my....the church is over 200 yrs old so it would be a task and a half. So for now, we stream the services. Communion is available by knocking on the door of the office when you see the pastors truck in the driveway. He will bring out the consecrated host for you. I do miss singing in the choir though. A good side effect of the covid stay-home orders is an increase in introspection and my prayer life. I am finding there is plenty of time to pray once the rattleing and distractions of the outside world abate. I notice folks have reconnected with their children more, and this is also an unexpected blessing. It would be ironic if the "summer of covid" became a pleasant childhood memory for those who succeed in quelling the fears and accenting the togetherness. CM and I have not had to adapt a lot. Our lives have been more deliberate than most due to our budgetary restraints. It is hard to do a lot of impulsive things on a sparse budget. Yet we get everything we need, and finish everything we need to do. We just plan it out and do it a little slower. As I wisecracked when I was on the walker, "I used to hustle and bustle, now I just do a meditative amble. I still get there, though, and the trip is much nicer." Our tomatoes are starting to ripen....we are drooling with anticipation! Picked our first "make it into zucchini bread'" size zucchini. That is the whole reason we raise them, as CM does not like them any other way, and I find their flavor rather bland as a vegetable. Its a good thing we are making more freezer room. I will be pureeing and freezing all the zucchini we can beat the vine borers to as well as baking up zucchini bread out of the zucchini we will be replacing. Rotation can be tasty!

We found freezers on ETSY - new ones - with much better delivery dates (like 5 days.) Mostly small ones, but some big ones, too.

of all places we found a freezer on Etsy!~ Now our friends will have one, and so will we have two small ones. Yay! Free delivery, in 4-6 DAYS instead of months. And yes, there are more of them. So if anybody is looking....try Etsy. On to phase two....tomorrow I will buy 2 padlock hasps and some JB Weld and put locks on those things. I did learn from the internet NOT to drill and screw one on as one would expect....many freezers have coolant lines in the doors, and if you hit one, well, no more freezer. With the money we have saved CM wants to get more chicken to can. Wow...who's the canning fool now??

OK....the winter garden was a winner. We had 2 kinds of collards, kale, caggabes, broccoli, and mustard greens. The lettuce we planted in Dec was grown & we picked the last of it by mid-May. We had a ruffly kind, a bibb and cos. The onions we put in during Nov plantings kept us supplied with scallions all winter and we picked the last of them in April, planting replacement onions in their place. Sone of the "Beauregard" sweet potatoes I had in storage sprouted, so I rooted them during March. We planted them in April, but they just sat there until the weather warmed in May. For the early spring season we put in broccoli, more lettuce, more cabbages and kale in early February, and started picking them in May. The broccoli is petering out now, and I picked the last of the Jersey Wakefield cabbage last week (it made wonderful slaw - I use a recipe popular with many restaurants, a creamy one with poppy seeds). Now the tomatoes are producing, but they are not turning red yet; green peppers are starting and doing nicely. Vine borers got a couple of our zucchini, and we gave up and bought a drench to soak the soil & kill them when we replant. We have replacements in the wings. The yellow squash is producing, the borers either don't like it or have not found it yet. We also put in tomatoes, they are indeterminate. I told CM when she prunes out the suckers to save them and we will root them for replacements just in case we have disease or bug issues. The green beans are giving us a nice picking every other day. Some I cook fresh, some I freeze. Carrots have not come up yet. Okra sprouted once it got warm enough. CM does not like it so I only put in a half row (4 plants) which is enough for me. I am thinking of maybe planting more carrots in a pot, just to see how they do. As summer progresses we will battle bugs & diseases as usual. Keeping things watered is also an issue - CM has to water every other day or so. Our potatoes are getting "hollow heart": which is a watering issue, so we are attempting to increase the water to maybe get some good taters along with the hollow ones. We can always hope. As for flowers, the lilies are spectacular....we hate 5 foot tall trumpet lilies and smaller ones too But it is the big ones that make people honk and wave. Can you imagine a bouquet of 5 foot tall flowers with 6 x 8 inch blossoms? They multiply, so maybe in a year or two I will try cutting them for gigantic bouquets. Gotta find some equally huge vases, LOL.

Homesteader, those kind of medical folks (when I worked in the hospital) always spoke disparagingly of those who "self medicated" with alcohol. As if getting hooked on oxycodone for arthritis is better?!?!? i will never look down on ;people doing that, as long as they are mellow when they drink. Not as long as they have to put up with all the crap the system insists on dishing out. Now the good news....CM found a total refund for our sears order....every penny.....put back in our account this morning! And the executive expediter was very nice and agreed with me that the service folks were "incorrect" on everything they had tried to make me swallow. Looks like it was a case of them just trying to make me shut up and go away. Not a good attitude for customer service. I was assured it would be corrected. Our kitties are all healthy, and so is their mama. I was astonished at how calm she was at being packed up to go to the vet. I guess as long as the babies were with her she figured everything was OK. Now everyone is in the house as we are getting a week or so of rain. Mom is just hanging out with the babies, enjoying room service and her private meals and litter box. In a few days we will give Missy (our universal mama dog) a treat and introduce her to the babies so she can fuss over them. Its so sweet to see.....

My goodness! Why is it that we have to stick a boot up the posterior of people to get them to just do their jobs? Good heavens, doesn't anybody get fired anymore for failure to perform? Or do you have to have the wrong politics to get fired? Sheesh. Started my crockpot up with the beef trimmings to make broth for canning. Then ran outside and moved our mama cat into the carport with her 5 little ones, as her nesting spot, while nice for hot weather, is in the area where our roof drains down when it rains, and it was thundering and getting ready to rain. Fortunately mama cat is very calm and trusts us with the babies. We made her a nest box like she has had before, just inside where everybody would stay dry. CM wants to take the kitties in for a vet check - I dont know how young is too young, but the vet just loves babies so she will probably make a fuss over them. She was shocked that Scruffy's face had healed up so quickly and completely - and she was delighted too. She was NOT expecting such good results and said if it wasn't for the crook in his tail she would think we had switched kitties on her. One of our dogs is the motherly type...she loves babies of any species, and loves to cuddle and wash them be they canine OR feline OR avian....its all the same to her. I guess if we needed a foster mama she would be happy to step in. To her, babies are babies & she loves them. Fortunately it has not occurred to her to try to mother a fawn - that would be a little complicated! I guess every homestead needs at least one universal mama.

Wjy does that not surprise me. I just with they would come right out and SAY SO. We got so mad at Sears that we cancelled the order and demanded our money back. They kept telling us "two more weeks....two more weeks....two more weeks....;

today Sears messaged us with a 4th delay in delivery on a freezer we ordered back in April. CM was so angry that she cancelled the order I was the negotiator talking on the phone, she gets mad and hangs up. First they offered us #50 for our inconvenience...CM said no, $25 per change or $100.. Nope, Sears declined. I asked CM if since it looked like we were being messed with all over the place, should we cancel and mess back with them. Yes, she said. We cancelled a $800 order. Then they said there would be a non-refundable delivery fee. Oy! I was mad then, and asked them why a delivery fee when NOTHING was delivered. Unacceptable. (Like we would pay them to mess us over?) Another long hold, then "OK you get the full amount back". Then the next one...it will be 15 to 30 days before it is being returned. I asked them why? Are they slow walking it from Chicago? They tried to blame covid, saying the banks were slow. Uh-uh, I said....banks were open during the covid thing as a critical institution. Besides, the transaction was electronic....instantaneous to take the money during the covid business, so it should be faster getting it back. Lots of apologies, which by now sounded rather contrived. I could not get then to expedite it. So then I found out who the VP in charge of customer relations is and fired off an email, complaining of third world service.and requesting expediting of the check to restore there heretofore superior reputation in my eyes. We will see if it works at least I felt better after pestering a bigwig. Maybe I can sent another copy tomorrow....and the next day.....and the next...Needless to say, when we do get our money back we will count it carefully then go buy a freezer somewhere ELSE. I do mourn the passing of Sears. They sure have gone downhill.

I have a raised bed garden and its space is limited, so there are no mass pickings and no mass preserving sessions. Instead, everything is preserved bit by bit. For example, our usual picking of snap beans is around a cup (two handfuls) every other day. Unless I want to eat snap beans every other day, something needs to be done to preserve them. Enter the freezer. Many years ago I learned about a style of freezing called "sheet freezing: which is used to keep frozen pieces of food from sticking together. Instead they are spread on a sheet, and frozen individually, then stacked and bagged for longer terms. It works on just about anything, including cut up vegetables, and I use it to freeze those beans. I remove the bean tips, break them into eating size pieces, then blanch them as usual for freezing. Since I am only blanching a little bit of food, I can just use a saucepan on the stove and boil them to blanch as I make lunch. Then, after cooling, they are spread on a nonstick baking sheet with sides, or in a shallow cake pan, which is placed flat in the freezer. I actually hae a designated freezer pan that fits well in my over the refrigerator freezer. I stir the food pieces a couple of times during the day, and when they are frozen hard into a freezer bag they go. I move the larger bags to the big longer term freezers as they fill up. Cup by cup, bit by bit, I fill that freezer bag, then start another. This freezing tactic works for creating mixtures of frozen vegetables as well, and also allows me to remove less than a full bag of food to cook. I keep a bag of diced green peppers in the freezer door where I can just take out a tablespoon or two at a time to toss into other foods as I cook. How do they turn out? Like the bulk bags of frozen bags in your grocers' freezer. Easy, neat, frugal. I like all three. And when you have a smaller garden, it is a good way to preserve some of that goodness for later.

I have been cooking low sodium on and off for many years, but lately both my room mate's and my doctors have asked us about a low sodium diet. They have been happy with the steps we have routinely integrated into our lives and our diets, so I am passing on some of our hints and 'greatest hits' recipes. 1 Start by changing the salt in the shaker, substituting salt substitute for part of the salt. Since every substitute I have tried has an odd taste, this tactic hides it, and as I played with the ratio of substitute to salt, I find that we taste the substitute at around 3/4ths substitute and 1/4 salt, so we generally run ours at around 60% No-Salt. Guests do not seem to notice the difference, either. 2. Taste test the low sodium products but do not expect miracles. Also, when salt is removed, then manufacturers often add other things like chemicals or extra sugar. So I tend to use regular food. 3. When you use a 'salty' product, try diluting it to get the sodium levels down. I use the lowest salt soy sauce I can find, and dilute it 50% with water. It still gets the flavor job done. I diluteed my Asian Ginger flavor salad dressing (when they made it...its gone now) with a nonfat artificially sweetened "oil and vinegar" dressing which matched its texture, dropped the calories & sodium dramatically, yet still allowed the flavor to shine through. This works best with strongly flavored foods. I use the same technique to cut the saturated fats in foods. mixing my own table spread of 50% real butter and 50% canola oil. All the flavor, but much less saturated fat. 4. Search out low sodium recipes for what you cant find in the stores. Even though low sodium versions of many foods are made, it does not mean the stores carry them. I do with you luck, and if you ever find a commercial low sodium Miracle Whip salad dressing, pu-leese let me know where! Meanwhile, I have a decent recipe for it. 5. Rinsing canned vegetables in a colander under running water is a time honored trick to lessen the salt; Duke university did the research and found that rinsing canned green beans 1 minute lowered their sodium 41%; rinsing tuna 1 minute reduced sodium by 75%; and cottage cheese rinsed 1 minute went down 56%. Water is your friend! 6. Check your spices and spice blends for salt or sodium. I did not know chili powder has salt in it. Mexene brand has the least salt, but tastes flat to me so I add other seasonings to make it taste more "natural" 7. If you needed a reason to take up canning just check the sodium levels in tomato products. Tuna is bad, too. You do not need to add salt to preserve canned foods.....add it from your table shaker when you eat. BTW, canned fish comes out much like tuna, so if you have a fisherman in the family you can do it yourself. LOW SODIUM KETCHUP FROM TOMATO PASTE LOW SODIUM MIRACLE WHIP SALAD DRESSING (American Heart Association) 3/4 cup flour 3 cans no salt added tomato paste 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup vinegar 1 cup water 1 TB packed brown sugar or sugar substitute 3/4 cup vinegar 4 cups water 1 TB lemon juice 1/2 c finely chopped onions pinch of salt substitute 1/2 c finely chopped celery 1/2 tsp prepared mustard 1/4 c sugar or sugar substitute 1 egg plus water to make 1/2 up total liquid Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until totally smooth. Pour into Cook flour, sugar, water and vinegar in a double boiler. Combine remaining ingredients a saucepan, and add: separately. When flour mixture is thick, drop flour mixture by spoonfuls into egg-oil 2 TB unsalted margarine mixture. Beat smooth. Continue until all is incorporated. Makes 3 1/4 cups. 1 tsp molasses Per TB: 2 mg sodium, 6.5 mg potassium. 1/8 tsp each cloves, cinnamon, basil, tarragon, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. NO SALT ADDED TOMATO JUICE Simmer uncovered 1 1/2 hours or until thick and reduced to half volume. Blend 6 oz of non salt added tomato paste with 3 cans of water. Stir occasionally. Chill; stores in refrigerator up to 1 month. To keep longer, I use a blender for the smoothest juice. Mix in artificial sweetener to taste freeze in small amounts and defrost as needed.' and if you need it some salt substitute (I use 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp of my salt-blend). 1 TB = 20 cal, 0.4 g fat, 1 mg sodium, 48 mg potassium. Makes 1 quart. Makes 3 cups. Chill well before serving and to allow flavors to blend. CHILI POWDER (to make 4 TB) MEAT TENDERIZER (just try and fine one without salt....I dare you!) 3 TB paprika 1/8 tsp papain powder (order from the internet). Alternately you can grind your own if you eat 1 tsp turmeric fresh papaya...just save the seeds, dry and grind. Omit pepper, they taste peppery, use sparingly. 2 tsp finely crushed oregano leaves salt substitute, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, ginger, turmeric, beef bouillon powder, pepper 1 tsp ground cumin and sour salt (aka citric acid for a lemony flavor) combined to taste - taste before adding papain 1 tsp garlic powder You need 3 tsp of seasonings to add to the papain powder, as it is extremely strong and you do not 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper want to tenderize your meat to mush by using too much (it CAN happen, I speak from experience!) Sprinkle your designer blend of seasonings & papain powder sparingly over your meat same as TOMATO SAUCE FROM PASTE regular tenderizer. 6 Oz tomato paste, no salt added 2 1/2 cups water NO SALT ADDED TOMATO FRENCH DRESSING 1 TB Italian Seasoning 1 c sugar or artificial sweetener equivalent 1 TB dry onion flakes 1 cup desirable oil 1 TB parsley flakes 1 c no salt catsup 1 TB cornstarch 1 TB store bought yellow mustard 1 tsp sugar 1/4 c white vinegar garlic powder to taste 2 TB minced onion Combine dry ingredients. Set aside. Combine tomato paste and water Combine, blend 60 seconds in blender until smooth. 1 TB = 72 cal, 7 g fat, 7 mg sodium, 125 mg in a saucepan, whisking well until smooth. Mix in dry ingredients. potassium. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat, simmer until thick. Makes just over 3 cups. 1/2 c sauce = 26 mg sodium, 320 mg potassium. LOW SODIUM REFRIGERATOR PICKLES 6 c thin sliced cucumbers OVERNIGHT DILL PICKLES 2 c thin sliced onions 4 c firm med cucumbers sliced 1 1/2 c sugar substitute 2 tsp honey 1 clove garlic, halved 8 TB white vinegar 1 1/2 c white vinegar 2 tsp fresh dill chopped, or 2 tsp dry dill 1/2 tsp each mustard and celery seed 1/8 tsp cayenne Combine vegetables. Bring remaining ingredients to a boil. Put sliced cucumbers in a bowl; combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan, Pour over vegetables and let marinate 24 hours before simmer 1 minute. Pour over slices and let stand about 1 hour or until slices using. 1/4 c = 2 mg sodium are slightly limp. Put slices into a jar, pour liquid over them. Cover and chill before serving. These keep several months in refrigerator. 1/4 c = 75 cal, 4 mg sodium You can also pickle beets by omitting dill. Use canned slices, and rinse to remove as much sodium as possible. Heat liquid and pour over beets. Marinate a while before serving. You may notice lots of tomato based recipes here. It is because tomato products are notoriously salty! Cottage cheese and tuna are also high in sodium, and their no salt counterparts taste nasty! I can put fish in a jar, but cottage cheese without salt just tastes like sour milk to me. Some low sodium cheeses are ok, others are not. Baking without salt is not hard unless your recipe calls for baking soda....pharmacies sometimes carry sodium free baking powder. Just remember that baked goods will rise higher (and will deflate if left too long) without salts' inhibiting factors. I'm better with pies than cakes anyway, so that simplifies things. (Pies don't rise.) Hopefully this will help you adapt to a low sodium diet if you have to. These are the items I found hardest to find (impossible) in stores. Sad to say, I liked Wylers low sodium bouillon cubes, and they are also gone. Someone told me tonight they are out of business. That is part of why I am now canning no salt broth. Oh well..........

Little Sis, that is also my plan - I am canning up the older meats in the freezer so when the new one comes we can restock. My room mate (Chainsaw Mary or CM) likes canned meat but the commercial ones are pretty crummy AND say too salty for us two old biddies. She liked the broth I did and would like some soups & stews too so I pretty much have the green light for canning, at least until I run out of jars. With meat prices starting to rise we want to stock as soon as the freezer gets here - we are on our THIRD delay on that. (Sears did not delay in taking the money for it though! Nor did the salesman on the phone "happen" to mention to CM that there were shipping delays. No wonder they are closing stores with that kind of service!) I hope you can get to the canning again - I found that getting a smaller canner helped a lot. I have a huge one somewhere in storage, but right now I am using one with an 8-quart jar capacity (instead of the old one which could take double stacked quarts....it was HUGE. But I did get it at the resale shop for $20 so I used it!) Does your therapist give you any info on whether you will have total rehab and how long it will take? I am still doing exercises regularly, but my neuro doc said I could ditch the back brace permanently and am starting to be able to do more and more things like I used to. But between the cancer surgery and the back surgery it was a long haul. Now if I could just peel off a few pounds......

It has gotten crazier. I am waiting to see how the covid numbers go after these protests/riots. Lots of close contact. HIPPA....dont make me laugh. About as enforceable as the anericans with disabilities act....not.....too many "exceptions" built it.

of course, i did have some help....Wingnut likes to be where the action is... .

the chicken chunks I canned turned out really nice - I asked CM if she wanted bite sized, and the answer was yes. It turned out very nice, canned in broth, and I have enough leftover broth to make 2 qts of stock as well. I must admit, I was a little taken aback when 20 lbs of chicken fills 5 quarts, but the trimmings (skin, bones) were considerable. Tomorrow I will put away the canner and get out the large crock pot to cook up those trimmings into bone broth or stock or whatever you want to call it (chicken juice?). Then I will boil it down to half volume after removing the fat. The beef trimmings were also considerable, and I have enough for some very nice beef stock to go with the chunks I canned. When I browned it in the electric frypan, I also saved the pan scrapings (mmmmm!) to add to the crock pot with the trimmings. The house will smell SOOOO good!

Did 6 qts of sirloin steak chunks yesterday, trying out my new smaller canner. Much easier to handle, though 7 qts max is its limit. I am ordering a rack for stacking smaller jars (for fish....I am the only one who eats canned fish). Today I prepped 10 lbs of chicken (half-roasted, then skinned and boned). Tomorrow I reheat in broth then into jars it goes. It is amusing that I got a higher volume of trimmings (bones & skin) than meat, but I will make broth in the crockpot. I may can some of that up; lately my chicken broth has been pretty good and it does come in handy, adding depth to beans and other things cooked in it. My Kroger has a sale on jars. so I saved $3 a dozen on them. (bought 4 doz to start with). Nobody has them on the free recycling sites, and the only thrift shop I have been to had NO kitchen items at all, let alone caning jars. Hafta go look in the next town over, its more rurally oriented, instead of a big city wanna-be. Between bouts chicken chunking, I took 2 bags of produce to my local pastor, looked for deer corn at Walmart (they were out) and baked some fresh bread to tickle CM. Needless to say, dinner tonight was barbecued chicken on the grill, LOL. .