Darlene

Awwwwww yes!!! Happy birthday BA! We love and appreciate all you do here!

Yeah I was so stressed when it happened, I contacted A and the moderators and we went into immediate pow wow. Our understanding was that it would have been done in short order (last Friday). When the days flew by and they didn’t reset it, we all discussed leaving it be. I had emailed Invision and asked them NOT to reset the site back but that we needed some questions answered and in the middle of the night they reset the site back to last Friday. So yes, I coulda shoulda. Gotta love that hindsight is 20/20.

We have been doing alot of work at MrsS over the past few months behind the scenes....working on a new logo, a new color scheme for the site...organizing our different forums, condensing where appropriate, removing, etc etc etc. I'll assume that y'all have noticed some of these changes...some of the changes aren't "live" yet, but will hopefully be so soon. Last Friday, I was in the Admin control panel, cleaning things up and changing things. I had noticed that Annarchy was listed twice in the Administration area. I didn't know why, so I decided to delete ONE of the id's to clean things up, and when I did, this message board program took it upon itself to completely remove BOTH of her id's, essentially deleting all the posts and history that she had had here at MrsS. I called A in a panic as soon as I realized what had happened. We contacted Invision where we host our message board and asked for help. Long story short, the only thing we could do, was to restore the site to a period of time right before I had made that deletion in the control panel. I asked Invision to restore the site to 12noon on last Friday, and received an email from their customer support that our request had been moved up to a Manager, and that they would contact me shortly. We waited all weekend and halfway through this week, but never heard back from them. Yesterday morning, I wrote them an email asking what had happened with our request. I noted that at this point, almost a week later, it was becoming increasingly difficult to restore back to last Friday, and asked numerous questions, and stated that we did NOT want to restore back to last Friday without answers to some of the questions I posed. At 2:53am this morning I received an email, apologizing for them dropping the ball, and to inform me that they went ahead and restored the site back to last Friday at noon. The good news is that it restored all of Annarchy's history and posts at MrsS, but I am very unhappy at the total disregard to my request that we discuss a few questions I had, and NOT to backdate the site before we had more answers. All of that is said to give y'all an understanding as to WHY, many of the posts that have been active over the past week, are missing. I am so very sorry for any problems or disappointments this has caused. The initial intent was to restore Annarchy's history, which was very important to me, but the longer Invision delayed, and after repeated requests from A to just let this go, I had contacted Invision yesterday morning to re-evaluate our initial request to restore the site last Friday afternoon. Anyway, I just wanted to give y'all a heads up, and to let you know what has happened and why. If you have any questions, please let me know, and I am sincerely and genuinely very sorry for the issues this original, unintended error has caused all of you. Hopefully, the dust can settle now and we can get back to normal, and move forward with updating this website and reveal all of the exciting and awesome changes we have planned.

Yep. I’m on a roll. Little by little

SMACK! Does it surprise you that I’ve been in excruciating pain for about 4 days unable to move my right arm. sheesh

After a year, it was time to start a new thread Let's start recording our Daily Diarys here!

Just wait. lolol

Welcome back! If you ever want to go back to your original id, just let me know and I'll temporarily re-set your password so that you can get back in under that. Or, if you prefer Orchid, that's fine too! We're just glad to see you again

Today I made the 2nd batch of my rustic chicken and cherry tomato pasta (or chicken and spaghetti), and portioned that out into the really nice little containers and put in the freezer. I had cleaned out moms freezer for her yesterday and threw out a bunch of stuff - some meats going back to 2018. That's what handicap issues due to people. The inability to rotate foods. I also divvy’d up the pork loin with sauce, cabbage and bacon and scalloped potatoes I had made in abundance the other day, and get those into the freezer too. That should clear out the meals I've made so far. I'm also going to make up a huge batch of taco meat and portion that out for the freezer so that all she'll have to do is pull out a container, heat it up and they'll have homemade tacos tomorrow. I also need to make the Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes as well as the pot roast and freeze that up for meals. I don’t know how I’ll do that in 36 hours but maybe if I start early and pound it out I just might make it. That’s the update for now.

I love the colorful history of moonshine lol

You're right. Appalachia. But, for some reason, I always think of KY, TN and WV as "South" lol. They DO have some semblance of that unique southern accent to me.

Or, in the Deep South, one could always go the moonshine route

Scientifically, vanilla beans are best extracted in proofs between 80-100. 180 Everclear will dry the beans out and certain water soluble flavonoids will not extract. A certain amount of 'water' is needed in the extract to pull certain flavonoids out of the vanilla beans, while a certain amount of alcohol is needed to pull out other flavonoids from the vanilla beans. 70 proof is the lowest recommended proof because anything below can put the vanilla extract at risk for mold growth. At 70 proof you may not get ALL of the alcohol soluble extractives. 120 is the highest recommended proof due to the higher alcohol % frying the beans and because there is not enough water to extract the water soluble aspects to the beans. For those who try to maximize their extraction, 90-100 proof is considered the sweet spot where the balance of extraction between water and alcohol soluble extractives can be extracted. There are also different grades of beans - A, B, etc. Grade B beans do better in lower proof alcohols (80) due to the beans having a higher water content in them. Grade A - a little higher proof (100). There's also the taste of the vanilla extract. Higher proofs will potentially have harsher tastes, and lower proofs will be less harsh. Obvious differences of opinions but there ya have it.

I started using the home ground grains (soft and hard) as well as the flaked oats from the groats decades ago. I can’t stand cookies made with the store bought flour anymore because of all the fresh ground brings to the party. This is all personal preference but I enjoy knowing that the stuff I make is extra loaded with nutrition.

It’s cheaper to make you own especially if you get into double, triple folds and pastes. More important is the fact that the taste is superior to commercial products. I use everclear because it’s the most tasteless alcohol but you have to cut it 50/50 with distilled water.

We can agree to disagree

Once you bust the grain you'll need to keep it refrigerated or frozen because all of the nutrients that the commercial companies pull out (and then add back a few vitamins) will go rancid unless used in a decent amount of time.

I do oat groats and flake my own oatmeal and also semolina.

No need to shake unless it makes you feel better. See my formula above to get an idea of how much weight in beans you need to how much oz of alcohol you need.

I have gallons and gallons and gallons of homemade extract. I tend to do a double fold extract vs the single fold that the commercial companies make. The formula is basically 1oz beans for every 8oz of alcohol. Double fold is 2oz oz beans for every 8ounce of alcohol. I don't split my beans, there is basically no flavor in the vanilla caviar. The flavor comes from the actual beans themselves. I'll pull a bean out of an extract and snip off the end, and then squeeze the vanilla caviar out into whatever I am making for the aesthetics of the vanilla caviar. But, I keep my vanilla beans in their alcohol for at least a year before I use...the longer the better. Once a batch is ready, you can re-use the beans, except this time you need double the beans/alcohol. For example, for a single fold on a re-used bean, instead of 1oz of beans for every 8oz of alcohol, you'd need 2oz of beans for every 8oz of alcohol. I also have what I call a "mother jar", where I put in the extra ounces of beans that are not enough to make a batch, and put them all into the same jar. Every country's beans have a unique flavor and aroma so to put them all into one jar gives a really kewl blend of vanilla beans around the world. I have beans from all over the world. Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, and a ton of other countries. I also make vanilla bean paste out of the beans, which is also very easy to do and is absolutely awesome in pastries. Anyway, that's a crash course in top shelf homemade vanilla extract!

Yeah, I'm going to make some easy scalloped potatoes tomorrow Dee so that I can portion them out and vacuum seal and freeze. I made shrimp scampi tonight and a ton of it but not sure how the cooked shrimp would freeze and reheat. I'll have to do some research on that. The freezer is full of ideas - meal components I've bought but not had much time to cook yet. Maybe tomorrow I'll start? The days seem to be side slammed with one thing or another it seems.

Thanks everyone for your ideas and suggestions. The good thing is that the vacuum sealer will preserve and protect for a long time, whatever foods I make for the freezer.

I'm sure everyone's different, but as everyone knows, when you feed the starter, you have to remove a decent portion of it to make room for the feeding. It's always been hard for me to throw away but it's very easy to get quickly inundated with an enormous amount of sourdough starter. I liked the ability to do the above, and to feed something exceptionally healthy to the chickens, whose eggs I also enjoy.

I'll be leaving on Wednesday to go back to Miami for a week to help my mom and dad while daddy is recovering from a 2 month hospital stay. I don't think I've talked much about what went on from last October-January in the main forums. It was a really rough time and I confined what little I did talk about, to the Moderator's forum we have. Suffice it to say that my dad has been unable to get out of bed, much less walk, since the middle of last October due to an almost catastrophic illness he had. Insurance is a joke and while they technically have decent insurance, it's like trying to fight City Hall on getting them to do what the policy says he deserves. Consequently, one of my brothers has stepped up to the plate and spends countless hours at my parents home, doing PT and OT and daddy is slowly making progress. Anyway, I spent 2.5 months down there helping in a variety of ways when my dad was in the hospital and inpatient rehab facility. I caught covid down there on New Years day and came back home to recover on a variety of levels. It has been incredibly difficult for my mom to carry both herself and my dad, so I am going down next Wednesday to spend a week cooking up a variety of meals in excess, to vacuum seal and put in her freezer so that she will just have to pull out a home cooked meal to heat up for her and my dad. I've been putting together a list of things that I can make that freeze well (not everything freezes well) and wanted to ask if any one has any other ideas or suggestions. This list is not all encompassing and I don't know if I'll make everything, but I wanted to make sure I had enough variety and see what the time there will allow me to make. I also know there are a ton of threads on this subject but I'm pressed for time and don't feel like doing a bunch of searches. Here's the list - and if y'all have any other ideas or suggestions, please share: Salisbury steak (I don't now if mashed potatoes freeze well...I think they freeze well but do they taste as fresh as when freshly made?) Tacos - basically the meat portion Bolognese - it's easy to just boil up some fresh spaghetti Beef barbacoa - basically a taco type meal with shredded beef Beef bourguignon - a fancy beef stew Roasted pork loin with a side of sautéed cabbage w/ bacon Chicken cacciatore Chicken with small tomatoes made into a sauce for spaghettil Stuffed peppers Swedish meatballs (does sour cream freeze and heat up well?) Homemade wood fired pizza (I'm thinking cooking it and freezing it might work?) Anyway, that's the list so far. Any ideas, comments or suggestions is appreciated.

I saw a video recently of a local woman around here who takes her excess sourdough starter when she goes to feed it, and pours it into little pancake like disks in a hot pain, quickly cooks it, and then turns around and feeds it to her chickens. I thought this was a brilliant way to use the excess sourdough starter and a very healthy treat for the chickens.