Equipment jars regular mouth wide mouth quarts pints half-pints larger sizes lids don’t reuse warm in hot tap water reusable rings (both sides) lifter funnel bubble magnet tool tool kit water bath canner pressure canner Process temperature stack jars process times process pressures Storage LABLE rings off dark cool boxes […]
Frugal
9 posts
One of the facets of our ‘off the beaten path’ life that catches attention is home canning. Questions about canning come from different groups. Old-school canners want to swap war stories and recipes. Folks, who’ve made pickles or jam, want reassurance and information before venturing into pressure canning. Many who’ve […]
Liam and I married very young and VERY broke. We pretty much lived on beans, potatoes, and rice. Though we no longer scavenge for couch-cushion change to buy groceries, we still eat a lot of beans. Pintos and Cornbread, for example, are a family staple. We also eat Tex-Mex or […]
A few random facts about me: I love to cook. I hate to shop. I’ve lived through power outages, ice storms, job losses, and now a pandemic. Also…I like to stick my hands in dough and pretend I am Caroline Ingles, Angeline Wilder, or Elizabeth Robinson…in jeans and boots. Because […]
My kids are a little weird. Okay, maybe more than a little. And…maybe there is something to the theory of genetics. After all, that weirdness comes from their daddy’s side. Alright! Fine! We’re all weird odd strange doolally pleasantly eccentric. Yes, that’s it eccentric, and pleasantly so. I was confronted […]
Before we bought the farm, we had to remodel and sell our previous home. During the remodel, the house was uninhabitable. So, as a family, we made a pretty extreme decision. Liam, Jonah (16), Sam (12), Grace (11), Diarmuid and Grainne (120 lb dogs), Killian (a fat bossy tabby cat), […]
We have chickens. That usually means we have eggs. However, last year, we had snakes. Not poisonous snakes, but egg eaters. Egg eaters who terrify chickens…and sleep-deprived egg-gathering nurses. We usually have a couple of snakes each year, but last year the creepy things nested under our coop. The end […]
I think there’s a gene that controls the abilities to French braid hair, wake cheerfully, and enjoy shopping. I don’t carry this gene! My daughter wore ponytails until she learned to do her own hair. I stumble through the first hour of the day like a really drunk zombie (with […]
Breakfast at our house is a never-ending Tolkein tribute. Liam, who leaves for Mordor at 3:30 am, requires breakfast when he leaves and second-breakfast about 10:00 am. The boys are the Orcs of our domain. They’ll eat anything but consistently scream for meat. Grace is our resident elf. She eats […]