Organizing Larder (Pantry) & Giveaway

Over the course of the last two weeks, I have canned about 50 jars of items which left my long kitchen counter cover with jars and no place to put them. Today I was on a mission to find more space to house the jars. With that in mind, My Knight and I tackled the pantry closet and wall.

We took nearly everything out of the pantry. Made sure all jars had labels (food item & year canned). Moved newer jars to the back and older jars to the front. We organized by type of food (i.e. Vegetables, Fruits, Meat, Soups, Juices, Tomato products, Jelly's and Jam's, etc.).

I usually tackle this kind of project a couple times of year. Even though it starts out like this, with 4 cooks in the house it never stays like this more than four to six months. If I don't do this then I would never know what I had or the older items would not get used timely and possibly ruin.

After organizing the Pantry Closet, we (I) moved over to the Pantry Wall. My Knight puttered out and moved on to other things. I took everything off the shelves and dusty them and the jars. Then as I put back the items I put them together with like items, making sure that all jars were labeled. This can be time consuming, but in the end it looks great. Anybody can find what they need. And I get a feeling of satisfaction of a job well done.

While we were putting items into place in both the Pantry Closet and Wall, I would write down how many quarts, pints, half-pints or quarter-pints I had of each item. From that list I updated a spreadsheet that I have created for each pantry area. Listing all items in each area with the appropriate amounts for each jars by size using a right slash mark. Then as I use an item, I make a left slash mark making an X in the box. There are also extra boxes for me to add items.

This is a very simple type of inventory control, but it works for me. Plus, the kids & my Knight can follow it well. I do print out the inventory sheets and attach them to the fridge for easy access and up keep. By organizing and setting up an inventory sheet, I am able to count how many jars that I still had available for use of any item listed. This makes life so much easier than searching through a ton of jars each time I need to know it I have something left or not.

Here is the Giveaway part. To the person who guesses the "closest" to the number of home canned items I have in my pantry, I will give them a jar of Banana Split Preserves. This stuff is delish!

You have from now until Friday, December 17, 2010 at mid-night to make a guess by leaving your entry in the comments section of this post. Good Luck!

Hugs for Everyone - Family Christmas Gathering #1

Yesterday afternoon, We attended the first of four Christmas gatherings that we will have this year. Today's was with my Father's side of the family.  It is always a fun time getting together with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and others, most whom we haven't seen very often throughout the year. 

Because our family has grown so much over the past several years, the kids draw names and the adults just bring a gift for a gift game. I call it "Chinese Christmas", but I know there are other names for it. Where everyone draws numbers and you get to pick a gift to open or steal an already opened gift from someone else.

This year the kids got some "cool" things and were giving the giver extra hugs. It was fun to watch the kids so willingly loving on their cousins and expressing thanks.

A good time was had by all. We had WAY too much food. We got to catch up on the "family news". We found out that we will have a new addition to the family next July.  Shhh...I am not suppose to tell (at least I won't say who). Plus, we got to spend one more Christmas with my Great Aunt Ennie and Great Uncle Ron.

When it was time for the adults to do their gift game, I got stuff stolen from me 4 times. I guess that means I make good choices, because everyone kept wanting my gifts. In the end, I got one of my gifts back that was stolen from me. It was garden stakes (made by my Great Uncle) and garden seed. Oh Yeah!  I have a jump start on my garden and it is only December....plus it is going to look so pretty with those row stakes.

So Happy Early Christmas to All!

Serina

Bountiful Week

It has been one crazy week around here. Besides being very busy with work projects and just the everyday norm, we were blessed on Tuesday evening with a bounty of food which means preserving it all before it spoiled. We were gifted small box full of potatoes, a sack full of carrots, a bag full of limes, some jalapenos and bell peppers. Much more than we could consume in a few days.

Wednesday evening I didn't get home from work until about 7 PM. Due to the lateness, I really wasn't planning on canning. To by surprise, when I walked in the door, My Knight had 7 quart jars washed up and filled with potatoes. They were just waiting for the final touches (salt and water) and to be pressured. Isn't he Mr. Wonderful????? ...well, I think so.

No canning on Thursday, just too busy with work. I took Friday off from work and focused all day long in the kitchen. I got up early started with 7 more quarts of potatoes. Then moved onto carrots. I canned 6 quarts of carrots. Then, 4 quarts of potato/carrot mix. 

My final canning adventure of the day was the limes. I have never canned just straight limes, usually I would make a jelly or dehydrate lime slices. I had plenty of both those, so I opted on canning just the limes by themselves. By noon, I was peeling limes. Boy those little things are hard to peel. I thought i was never going to get them all done. I then pulled them into segments. Jarred them up and added water. BWB for 10 minutes. Done. 5 pints of limes in juice. Awesome! Now we can have lime-aide, lime juice, or key lime pie.

Don't you just love the variety that you can have by canning your own? I do. I can make it to my families specifications and likes. I can mix things up, like canning potatoes and carrots together. The convenience of having the two in one jar makes it nice when it is just My Knight and I for dinner. I can open one jar heat it through and have 2 veggies.

Also, I washed, de-seeded and sliced up the bell peppers and jalapenos and placed them in the dehydrator. Ummmm....I was totally exhausted (mostly feet), but delighted that see all that bounty preserved in those beautiful jars.

We have been so blessed this year with venison, fruits and vegetables that my larder is full and running over. I think I am going to have to turn my upstairs linen closet into a pantry. Hummmm...Honey, I have a new project for you!!!

Happy Canning!

More Peaches.....

 More peaches!!! Yes, more peaches. Within the last two weeks or so we have been gifted with lots (I mean lots) of Tango Peaches. Thus, the dilemma was how to use them and not let them go to waste.

So for the past few post, I have been sharing some of the creative ways I canned up a variety of peach delicacies. Now I am not one to waste anything if I can help it. (I cut the end off the toothpaste tube to get the last little bit out) I know, pretty obsessed with getting the most out of everything.

How does that relate to peaches? If you have read the previous post for this week you have read about how my family spent the day in the kitchen processing meat and canning. That day I peeled and cut up approximately 20 pounds of peaches, which means I had peelings and pits from all those peaches. Waste not, Want not...is the motto.

So I took all those peelings and pits and put them in a large stock pot and added just enough water to cover. Placed on the stove and brought it all to a boil. Covered and allowed it to boil at a steady pace for about 20 minutes. Then I strained all that rich Peach Juice out into another pan. Returned the juice to the stove and added sugar to taste and a touch (1/4 cup) lemon juice. Heated it through until the sugar had dissolved. Then I ladled it into jars and processed in a BWB for 20 minutes for quart jars. This yielded 3 quarts and 1 pint jar of rich pure Peach Juice (no chemicals added).  

Peelings & pits being cooked down to juice.

Happy Canning,