Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

I do cook apples and onions with my pork roasts; the guys adore it. I usually use dried apples, and add a splash of apple cider to the mess (once I used apple cider vinegar instead because it was all I had; it came out kind of like a sauerbraten only with pork)

I canned up the last bit of the ground pork this morning- for a total of 9 quarts between last night and today. Filled the remainder of the canner with some chicken too, and froze about 8 meals' worth too.

I bought 3 cauliflower heads on sale and shredded them (borrowed my GF's food processor so it wouldn't take all day) and packed them in ziplocs, 2 cups each, and froze them. I can use it as a low-carb substitute for rice. They should stay good in the freezer for at least a couple of months; it made 10 packages. The first batch is going into some Hopping John.

 

[Denim Deb]

What's Hopping John?

 

[Britesea]

Hopping John is a southern dish that is traditionally served on New Year's Eve for luck the whole year, but it's so good I like eating it at other times too. The basics are black eyed peas cooked for hours with smoked ham hocks, spiced up with Cajun spices and rice. Everything in there is fine for me except the rice; hence the cauli-rice.
I have a quickie version that's good for weekday cooking- I'll post it in the recipes thread.

Today I'm going in to town for water aerobics class. It's free at a local assisted living house. Then pick up DH's medications at the pharmacy and home to finish canning the last of the chicken and finally I'll be able to clean out the ice chest (only place I had room for the extra chicken). When that's done I can start drying apples.

 

[hqueen13]

You make me so jealous of your cooking skills! My mouth always waters when I read your posts!
I also wish I had as much energy as you, and a better kitchen! I don't think I could can that much stuff that quickly if I tried lol

 

[Denim Deb]

I just wish I didn't have to go in 2 different directions every day. Most days (like today), I'm too beat to cook.

 

[Britesea]

Ha! You guys are the ones I envy- you manage so much work outside. My bad back precludes a lot of outside work. Kitchen work like slicing and dicing, measuring out ingredients- that can all be done sitting down; and for the days when I'm too beat to even do that much, I have lots of home-canned meals. I can't tell you how many times dinner has been nothing more than a can of chili beans with hot dogs sliced into it and some corn tortillas, lol.
I admit though, that I love to cook. Chalk it up to having a French mother, I guess. And being too poor for expensive, tender cuts of meat that don't require long cooking to make them tender enough to eat.

I did it! I finished canning the chicken! I put the last batch of jars into the canner at 1am, and as soon as the pressure was up and the heat stabilized I told DS (who rarely goes to bed before 3) to turn off the heat when the timer went off- then I went to bed.
One jar did not seal, so I guess we'll have something with chicken again tonight. I made Chicken with Long Rice last night- turned out great. The reason it's called Long Rice is because it uses cellophane noodles instead of rice; but according to Wiki, cellophane noodles are bean threads, not rice sticks... go figure!

I am really feeling the water aerobics class today- but that's a good thing, right? Today I have an appointment with the audiologist to pick up my new hearing aid, and I'm meeting some girlfriends for coffee. Tomorrow I have to go over the mountains to the Main VA to pick up my new glasses. This week is filling up fast. And I still have all those buckets of apples waiting for me.

oh, and @hqueen13, my kitchen, like the rest of my house, is tiny. No room for a dining table, I don't even have room for my refrigerator in here- it's in the utility room next to the washing machine. I had to get rid of the microwave to make room for the dehydrator, and the canners have to sit on the floor because they won't fit into the cabinets. But one of the nice things is that we have an antique baking table (with pull out bins for flour) that is the perfect height for me to be able to sit in a chair to do a lot of prep work. Still, I've learned how to make dinner in about 2 feet of empty counter space when the rest is full of dirty dishes because it's baking day or I've been canning.

If I ever come into a bunch of money, the first thing that gets done is we bump out the kitchen to make it bigger.

 

[hqueen13]

Wow, now I admire you even more! Sounds like the little "galley" kitchen we had in the townhouse my ex and I lived in.
See this is where community would be helpful... someone to do the outside work and someone to do the cooking! I don't mind helping in the kitchen, I'm just not all that confident. If I had someone to cook with that might be better.
I guess I'll get there some day! Yay on the canning of the chicken. Good luck with the apples!

 

[Denim Deb]

Don't know how many times I've made dinner in even less space than that because hubby's made a mess in the kitchen, and didn't clean it up. He keeps saying we need a bigger kitchen, we don't just one that's better organized.

 

[hqueen13]

That's half my problem, Deb, the clutter and mess. Ugh.

 

[Britesea]

I used to joke that I needed a wife...