Fresh Canning

I'm so excited. Clark bought me some freezer jam jars, a water bath canner and a pressure canner this weekend. I have long talked about canning and having fresh food for us all winter long, but never seemed to get it done (plus pressure canners scared me after hearing the horror stories my mom and grandmother would tell) but this year I'm going to get it done. Since we have a small garden this year and it is doing well and the price of food it going up all of the time, I want to make a greater effort to can and freeze as much food possible. I'm starting with freezer jam which I have done successfully before. I have found a great recipe for freezer jam that use Splenda as the sweetner so Clark can have as much as he wants. Also Ball now makes a No Sugar Added pectin for canning so that will help with any jams and jellies that I decide to can for the winter. I also have experience with the water bath canner and canning tomato sauces, but I normally just use my stock pot so I can't seal very many jars at one time. With my new canner I can seal seven quarts or ten pints at once. Much better! The pressure canner will be my new experience so I plan to read the directions very well and talk to people who can on a regular basis to get any advice possible. So if you have any to throw my way, go ahead. It will be greatly appreciated. For the things that just do not can well, I still have my chest freezer to store things in. I plan to put food up from my garden, trade things from my garden for things from my friends gardens and of course buy from the farmers market. I can't wait until harvest time. We have a few things at the farmers market now, but it will really pick up by the end of June. This gives Clark a project to work on as well. I need somewhere to store all of this wonderful food, so it is Clark's job to build some shelves in our downstairs office closet. It is coolest room in the house and I really don't store anything in that closet so it will be shelves and Ball jars from floor to ceiling. Wish me luck and of course I will post updates!

Sweet Pictures!

I just love it when you get a good candid photo that you know will mean so much later when you look back on it. This is my new favorite picture of my daughter. I was changing out my closets the other night, switching the winter clothes to the guest room and bringing in the summer clothes to the closet in our room. Clark offered to take care of Abbey for me and so they just played on the bed and watched TV in our room so we could all be together and I looked up and saw this so I ran and got the camera as quickly as I could to have it as a reminder of the two people I love the most in this world. Just wanted to share!

More good news on the baby scene!

Many of you know my cousin Shanna, who I'm very close to. Some of you might also know that she and her sweet husband Josh have had a hard time getting pregnant. Although the reason behind the difficult time was different than our situation, the empty feelings were the same. They tried for two years and saw a couple of different doctors who told them the same thing. Chances were slim and they might want to concider InVitro. This coming on the heels of our success with IVF, they were eager to give it a try, and I'm proud to say that this morning they discovered they were expecting. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They used the same doctor and the same clinic we did so it really became a family affair and we are so happy for them. It will be a couple of weeks before they know if they are having twins or not and even longer to find out if it is a boy or a girl, but that just gives them so much to look forward to. Now I get to dig up all my pregnancy books to pass along to them and I do so gladly. Great going guys!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see Abbey's little cousin and have history repeat itself. I know they will be very close too.

Garden Update

Don't try to grow tomato plants from seed unless you have a greenhouse. I set my plants out last week and they all laid down on the ground and died. They just didn't have strong enough stems to keep them up, so I bought new ones yesterday at a local greenhouse and planted them. They aren't the interesting varieties that the others were so I won't get anything different than other local growers, but at least I can get them fresh from my own garden. That is the only thing that I have planted so far. Since it keeps raining, Clark hasn't been able to go back over the garden spot with the tiller to brake it up a little more so I can plant my seeds. Hopefully I can get them in the ground by the end of the week. Also an update to my second job. I went in Friday night to Designer Cakes and worked till midnight to get things ready for Saturday. I loved it. I learned so much from Joan. Hopefully it will work out for me to go in on Thursday and Friday nights to help out. Everyone enjoy your week and check out these pictures of the new tomato plants that I planted. I have Better Boy, Golden Boy and Super Sweet 100 (Cherry Tomato).

OAMC (Once a month Cooking)

Well, my weekend was spent cooking. I have done freezer cooking before, but normally I just double a recipe or just use what is in my kitchen when my cabinets and refrigerator get too full. I have done once a month cooking before too, but I try to vary my recipes. This time I did a hamburger session because Kroger had ground beef on sale last week. I made and put in the freezer the following:

Spaghetti Sauce
Sloppy Joes
Upside down Pizza sauce
Firehouse meatloaf
Cheeseburger meatloaf
Burritos
Taco rolls
Breakfast Bread
Corn Casserole
Twice baked potatoes
Baked Beans
Shepherds Pie
Sunburst Casserole
Salisbury Steak
Cheeseburger Quiche
Taco Seasoned Meat

I made two servings of everything but the casseroles and only made one of those. I made four meatloaves and eight burritos. I was cooking from 8:30 Saturday morning till 5:00 Saturday night. It was worth it because now I just have to go home, put dinner in to heat up and fix a side dish (normally a salad or can veggie for us). This will save so much time that we could spend with Abbey or working on other chores that aren't getting done now. It also saves money because you buy in bulking. I guess I will have to have a chicken day and maybe a pork and side dish day to even out the freezer. I can't wait until the fresh veggies start to come in this summer, then I can put up those in the freezer. I hope everyone has a great week!

Not much going on...

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but I haven't really done much. My tomato plants are still growing and so is my favorite little girl. Abbey is really getting big and she is finally on a routine. She goes to bed around 10 and sleeps till about 5, then a bottle, a diaper change and back to bed until time to go to MeMe's for the day. They seem to have a routine too. Then I pick her up at 5, go home for a bottle and we play and watch TV until time for a bath at 8:30 and bottle at 9:00. Finally we read books from 9:30 till 10 and its off to bed. I can't believe she is in such a good routine at three months old. Of course it doesn't always go this way, but most of the time it is close. As for my other project, we have to till up our garden spot this weekend and start getting it ready to plant next week. We are really tired of the tomato plants being in the kitchen. They have gotten so big that they take up my whole counter just about. They really need to go outside. I hope it will be nice this weekend so I can leave them out to get used to the weather before we plant them. I have seeds to plant also and those need to go in the ground in the next week. I'm so excited. Well, I'll leave you with a sweet little picture of Abbey being held by her friend Avery. I just love Avery's little pig tails.

More Veggies

I have now bought seeds for everything that will go in my garden and these are the veggies that I have decided to add: cucumbers, zucchini and okra. Check out what they are suppose to look like. I also plan on planting a regular yellow squash and a pickling cucumber. I think my eyes are bigger than my ability to grow things, but it will fun to try.