Putting Food By Dilemma-Canning Lids

This year, I'm having to join the ranks of folks attempting to find flats or canning lids. As I said in my previous post, I've started buying Harvest Guard/Tattler reusable flats and gaskets to replace my lids for my jars. Since the fall, I've been buying them in 100 lid lots each month. This set me back about $130 a month.  

From the 1,500 jars I have on hand (1/4 pint, 1/2 pint, pints, pint & half, and quarts.), about half of the non-pints are wide mouth so I added a lot of of wide mouth to the mix. To date, I've successfully bought enough reusable lids to take care of a full year's worth of canning for me, but I'm not stopping there. My canning goal for this year is to put up two and a half years of  food stuff. This includes dehydrated and vacuum sealing as well as traditionally canned goods. Providing that I freeze all dry goods before I either dry can or keep in buckets staples it's doable thanks to Uncle Sam's stimulus checks. I'm pinching my pennies wisely. I never would have been able to afford these many lids otherwise.

The plan is to keep buying lids and gaskets until I have one for every jar I have on hand and to buy extra set of gaskets for each set. Everything I've researched says the gaskets should be replaced after 10 sealings. So by the end of summer/early fall, my plan should be complete with no actual monies out of pocket.

So what am I canning this week? Pulled chicken and grilled chicken strips. Yes, I bought another $110 meat package this week. When you raw pack your chicken for canning do you par cook it first for "pretty chicken" or do you just put it in the jars raw for "ugly chicken?" I'll usually grill mine first to seal in the smoke and seasonings before I slice it and put it into my jars. I have twenty pounds of Dolly Parton sized chicken breasts just begging to be processed.

Since it's been gorgeous (weather wise), I couldn't resist firing up our charcoal Webber. I put all my chicken breasts in the sink, seasoned it with my blended seasoned salt, tossed it around a bit while the coals heated. I calculated it would make about 18-19 pint jars of chicken and leave us some for dinner. The plan was to make 9 jars of chicken strips and the rest would go into jars as pulled chicken. I pulled two pints of my knock-off Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce from stores already.

Since I was basically canning chicken two ways at once. The only difference was how it was cut up when putting into the jars. I was still raw pack/dry canning it. It would be a "not-so-ugly canned chicken. So I threw the seasoned half breasts on the grill and cooked them 6 minutes on each side. Just long enough to get some of the hickory laced smoke onto the meat and grill marks, but not cook them fully.  I figured one to one and a quarter per jar to gill them.

For the strips, I cut each breast across the grain into 1/2" strips. These would be for casseroles, Fajitas, pot pies, and soups. Leaving a 1" headspace, I wiped the rims, lidded, ringed them  and placed them in my canner. For the pulled chicken, I diced the breasts into 1" cubes. I placed 2 TBS of BBQ sauce in each jar, and then loaded the chicken. I wiped the rims, lidded, ringed, and placed them in the canner. I ended up with one chicken breast leftover. This one I coated with BBQ sauce and threw it back on the grill for dinner.

I pressure canned a full canner load of chicken for 75 minutes for my altitude. I removed the jars from the canner. The next day I washed each jar in warm soapy water after checking the seals. All of them sealed. I labeled them and placed them in my food stores building. Next, I added the jars to my computer inventory program that Mel designed. (For Sale under the "For Sales" tab) So I can keep a running tally of what I have on hand at any given time at the touch of a key.

I plan on doing this several more times in the coming year to meet my goals, but for now, I've got 18 delicious meals that are heat and enjoy. For dinner, I took that one Dolly Parton BBQ-ed breast, shredded it, added a bit more of my knock off BBQ sauce, slapped a scoop of coleslaw(canned coleslaw) on it on one of my homemade buns. I added some microwave potato chips, and a fermented dill pickle on the side. 

Boy, Howdy! A meal fit for a king! It was totally yummy for my tummy! So what have y'all been up to? The weather has been great. I wish I could be playing in the garden. I see the surgeon later on today so I should get my up to 15 lb clearance and my ability to bend forward back. I've been a "good girl" I have over the last two weeks, but I'm chomping at the bit to get into the garden.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: The BOB of the Cookbook & Italian Wedding Soup

BOB refers to the back of the book  Of course, I'm talking about the cookbook I've been compiling for the past four years. The last section has to be written out of the cookbook  I have to work on is my seasoning blends and dry mixes. I still need some goodies for the sweets section too, but otherwise I'm finished with compiling the recipes. The canning and preserving section is huge! It's been a long process with taking pictures taking the longest. There's almost 300 recipes by the time I called a halt to it. (over 160 published here on Wednesdays) This has been a true labor of love. Scratch cooking and baking at it's best from my homestead perspective.

I probably have a few hundred or more recipes and how-tos left in my brain for at least another cookbook or two. You can't have worked in food service, globe trotted, or listened for decades to older folks without collecting a recipes or two along the way after 60+ years on this planet. Yeah right, who am I kidding! Who would want another cookbook? Would you pay for an e-book or printed volume when you can just download 80% of the recipes from this area for free? Maybe my children would want a copy or my grandchildren if nothing else for posterities sake. Still there might be someone out there who might be interested in it. Who am I to deny them?

I haven't even started on the cover nor have I come up with a title as yet. I'm not sure what to do for the either. I figure our logo should be on it, but that's as far as I've gotten with it. This is totally unlike my previous writing experiences. n those cases the title and cover popped into my head while writing and in some cases before the story was story boarded. I'm tempted to do a plain background with our logo and just let it go. Whether I add colors to it...I dunno. I'm not as creative nor fru-fru as I once was. I also don't have my drawing software on this HP Stream either.

Now for the recipe I promised, Italian Wedding Soup. Most people find it daunting, but really it's quite easy especially if you've canned the meatballs previously. That's what I'm serving for dinner tonight along with some crusty garlic bread.

Italian Wedding Soup

Serves 6

What you'll need

1 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 c diced carrots, diced 1/4"*

1 1/2 c diced onions, diced 1/4"*

3/4 c diced celery including leafy green leaves, diced 1/4"*

5 pints chicken bone broth, or regular chicken broth

1 pint jar mini meatballs, if not see below for a recipe*

1 c orzo pasta

1/2 c dry white wine, such as a Chardonnay

2 tsp minced garlic

12 oz fresh spinach, escarole, or other tender green, chopped into 2" pieces

1/2 tsp dried basil

Parmesan Cheese for service

Notes=* I use the small grate on my Vidalia Onion chopper to make short work of chopping my vegetables a uniformed size.

* On average of 4-5 meatballs per serving. What can I say, I cram those little suckers in a pint jar. 😂

Putting it all together

• Drain the meatballs in a colander. Reserve the beef broth for another application.
• In a stock pot add the oil and bring up to heat, almost to smoking point.
• Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery to the pot.
• Allow to sauté until onions are translucent.
• Pour in stock wine, and basil. 
• Allow the soup to simmer for twenty minutes.
• Add pasta, spinach, and meatballs to the soup. Cover and allow to get happy for 10 minutes at a simmer.
• Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese for service.

If you have not made meatballs previously, you'll need to make some for this soup.

You'll need

3/4 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground chicken

2/3 c bread crumbs

2 tsp garlic, minced fine

3 TBS dried Parsley

1/2 c Parmesan/Romano cheese, grated

3 TBS milk

1/2 tsp basil

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Putting it together

• In a bowl, place the bread crumbs and milk with the beaten egg. Allow 5 minutes to soak up all the milk/egg mixture.
• Place all ingredients into the bowl and mix together thoroughly.
• Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Take a TBS scoop and form the meatballs. 
• Brown the meatballs in a skillet or in a 350℉ oven.
• 
  Add to the soup.

Serving suggestion- Add a tossed salad with an herb vinaigrette and a slice of crusty garlic bread for a balanced meal. My version is so hardy that there just isn't room in our tummies for salad too. By using my home canned meatballs, this recipe is a thirty minute fix and sit down to eat meal.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: Easy, But Oh so Good Éclair Cake

 Of all the desserts I prepared for my beloved in 25 years of marriage, this Éclair cake was one he requested over and over again. It even beat out my apple pie with sharp cheddar cheese. He loved it so much that he even requested it the week before he died. At the time, he was eating only a tablespoon of real food at a time because it took too much energy to eat. I can't even remember where I got the recipe from it's been so long ago. 

For its fancy name, you'd think it would be hard to make. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Simple ingredients that can be store bought and layered. Of course originally, I made the components from scratch, but after my strokes. I went back to the simplified version. I'll give you the simplified version and you can substitute the from scratch version as your heart desires. It's only five or six ingredients that you may have in your cupboard and refrigerator already.

Éclair Cake

Serves 9

What you'll need

1 box Honey Graham crackers

1 small box of instant vanilla pudding, made according to directions

1 8oz tub of whipped topping

3 oz chocolate syrup

1 small container chocolate frosting, I used dark fudge

Putting it together

• Line 8x8 pan with parchment or waxed paper.
• Fold whipped topping into the prepared vanilla pudding. Fold in completely.
• Place a single layer of graham crackers in the bottom of the pan.
• Top with half the pudding mixture and spread smooth.
• Add a single layer of graham crackers.
• Spread chocolate syrup to cover the graham crackers.
• Add remaining pudding mixture.
• Top with final single layer of graham crackers.
• Spread this layer with chocolate frosting.
• Cover with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate for four hours. Or, freeze for two hours and allow to thaw for 20 minutes on the counter before serving.

Now when I first made this, everything was made from scratch: graham cracker squares were baked, vanilla pudding was cooked then chilled, real heavy cream was sweetened then whipped, chocolate syrup was made in advance and canned for a rainy day, and the fudgy, chocolate frosting was beaten within an inch of its life to be light and fluffy. But those days are gone with my strokes or so I thought.

At times I wonder if my beloved noticed the changes in taste of his last two batches of his favorite dessert. All the preservatives and chemicals wouldn't hurt him now, but I did the best I could at the time. 

This week I made this dessert from scratch for the first time since his death eight years ago. Partly in remembrance and to ease my sorrow. But, the main reason...it's just that yummy for my tummy!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo

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