What did you do to prep today?

[ChristieAcres]

Putting up the rest of the Apples, have all my Cabbages in, and made an appt. to see a 15 acre property on Tuesday. We have decided to move and DH will be building us a log home. May the Lord direct us to the right property! An update will follow...

[therosery]

I canned my first pears and they look great. I'm impressed with myself and canned some bacon. I love canning, especially when I use sale meat, knowing that our future meat will be very pricey, if available at all. I also just canned whole chicken breasts and took the leftovers and made soup, and canned the soup also. The more I learn, the better. Oh and I just passed my Ham radio test, too. That was hard for me but I'm very proud of myself!! Only missed one! Rosie

[carol b]

I canned my first pears and they look great. I'm impressed with myself and canned some bacon. I love canning, especially when I use sale meat, knowing that our future meat will be very pricey, if available at all. I also just canned whole chicken breasts and took the leftovers and made soup, and canned the soup also. The more I learn, the better. Oh and I just passed my Ham radio test, too. That was hard for me but I'm very proud of myself!! Only missed one! Rosie

Could you elaborate on the canning of bacon? What is it like when opened? How do you fix it? Thank you.

[therosery]

Could you elaborate on the canning of bacon? What is it like when opened? How do you fix it? Thank you.

I HAD to try it, Carolb. It was fine as I was just canning it for my baked beans and have run out of room in the freezer for it. My first batch was with regular sliced bacon and at the time I did not know that the outside of the pack, states how many slices per pound so I really bought the wrong one. Rather than trying to find a rare space for it, or throw it away, this is what I did:
The recipe online calls for thick sliced bacon, laid singly side by side on a piece of parchment paper, leaving some margin of paper all the way around. Once the bacon is laid down, you add another piece of parchment over and fold up the bottom and fold it again into thirds so it would fit into my pint jars. Then I turned it and rolled it completely up, leaving the leftover parchment at the top, and folding it in. The recipe calls for quart jars canned for 90 mins but since I knew (a friend tried it and told me) it called for thick sliced and I only had regular, I layered my bacon until 2 or 3 slices thick and folded it as stated above and rolled it up. I used a pint jar so it would only have to cook for 75 mins. to keep it from falling apart when open. When I took it out to see how it went, the bacon came out pretty well but not in true slice form. Some cooked down and the canned but uncooked texture was soft but since I'm only using it for frying and adding to my beans, it's wonderful. Now, I have since gone and bought another package of THICK sliced and I did it the same way but didn't layer. I have yet to open it. It smells and tastes just like bacon but is soft. I hope what I did is clear. I'm not sure the thick sliced bacon will come out a slice at a time but when this thin sliced is gone, I will pull out the thick slice and see how it goes. Most of the time, when I eat bacon, I usually eat Butterball turkey bacon but for my beans, I want the real thing. yum. If I have not been as clear as I need, pm me and I'll go over it again. rosie

[carol b]

Thank you very much. It was very clear. i appreciate your time.

[ChristieAcres]

Made too much cranberry blueberry relish/salad, so will be putting that up on "Black Friday," as I avoid shopping that day like the plague. Finally, I'll be making sauerkraut and soon to make horseradish sauce. There seems to always be one more thing for me to preserve. There are a lot of squash being stored in our travel trailer...

For those who venture out after Black Friday, be sure to scope out turkey sales. For those who are into preserving, that is a lot of meat per bird...

[willowlady]

eating and working... a lot of both! LOL!

[ChristieAcres]

Just finished using the rest of our cabbage; I made fermented sauerkraut and coleslaw for tomorrow.

[ChristieAcres]

Canned ham, turkey, also ham/mixed bean/lentil/pea/garlic soup, and turkey soup these past two days.

[Weps]

Went to the local "salvaged" goods shop. Found a package of QuikClot for $1.00 (normally $11+), as well as some powerbars for the BoB at a $1 each (usually $1.89+)

Need to make or buy some more shelves, I'm running out of room.

Also in the process of making a gun cabinet to keep everything in.