I’ve never been one for celebrating the “New Year” holiday as it’s honestly just another day on the calendar. I don’t make resolutions. I’ve never been good at them anyway, even the ones I make during the year.
I struggle to remember the things I want to do much less the things I hypothetically should be doing, like returning soda cans or picking up an organizing the 2nd upstairs bath so I can call the landlord to replace the flapper on the toilet.
In the meantime, I’ve just turned off the water and am not using that toilet. See? problem solved. Ok not really.
Since LB transitioned, time is even more fluid and slippery than it’s ever been. But I did accomplish one thing anyway.
I finally, after two years, have managed to get the chest freezer down to where I can actually defrost it.
That’s five years of ice right there, except for the stuff I whacked off with a hammer. Don’t do that.. they say don’t do that.. but everyone does it right? Ignore all the dents in the bottom. That’s from dropping marrow bones into it. This freezer is probably 20 years old and used to hold dog food. They don’t make ’em like they used to.
Currently I have just about everything shoved into the freezer in the fridge except for some chicken that is thawing for canning this weekend.
We aren’t going to talk about how old those peas are. I also don’t think I’ve ever jammed so much in there before.
I went to the grocery store yesterday as I had the day off for New Years Day and it was so nice to go to the store during the daylight. I picked up a lot of stuff for what I’m planning on putting in jars this weekend.
I usually get my meat from a local meat farmer but I have to do things when the mood strikes or it won’t get done at all. Chuck roast was “on sale” for $8.99 a pound (holy cats) and there wasn’t any on the shelf but the nice butcher at the grocery store cut two big hunks for me and let me tell you the cashier was really shocked at the $$ I dropped for 8 lbs. of meat (as was I and I was expecting it!)
The chuck roast is going to make 16 meals in pint jars so that was $4.50 in meat per jar and at this point, it might be cheaper to just buy cans of soup but I really enjoy these “meal in jars” from the All New Ball Canning Book (which is almost 10 years old at this point so that title didn’t age very well)
I have a bunch of chicken from the farmer that was in that chest freezer that I broke down from whole birds last weekend and promptly froze again as I wasn’t sure when I was going to get to it. It’s currently defrosting in my small dorm fridge I keep in my home office space. I usually have it stuffed full of soda but I’m taking a small break from drinking soda (I miss it!)
The kitchen fridge is currently full of the meat I bought, a 5lb port butt that was in the freezer and one whole bird that I couldn’t resist as it was $1.69 a pound. I can always use more chicken stock and this extra meat is a little insurance in case I’m short with what I need for the Hearty Chicken Stew recipe as at the last minute I decided to double it. The sausage? Lentil soup. Plus it was on sale.
So the plan:
- 8 pint jars of Beef Stroganoff (2x recipe)
- 8 pint jars of Pot Roast in a Jar (2x recipe)
- 12 pint jars of Hearty Chicken Stew (2x recipe)
- 6 or… ? pint jars of Roast Pork in Spicy Broth
- 3 – 24 oz jars of chicken drumsticks
I don’t know how many jars of Roast Pork I’m going to get as the recipe calls for 3lbs of pork. My pork butt is 5lbs bone in… so once I get that bone out, I don’t know how much I’ll actually have. The nice thing about this particular recipe is that it’s basically “fill jars half full of pork, add broth to 1 inch headspace” where the others require a lot more precise measurements. So for that one, I can weigh my pork before I roast it and then make a judgement call on that one.
I also have 6 drumsticks that need to be canned up. I will probably run them with the pork since I’ll hopefully have room in the canner without having to stack . I should and the time for quarts of raw pack chicken in 90 minutes and that’s how long the pork goes for. Since 24 oz jars are in between pint and quart, that is the safest route to take.
Last weekend I made 6 quarts of chicken stock because I’ll need it for canning the chicken and the pork. (the pork broth is .. chicken.. I know it sounds weird but it works.. if I had been thinking I would have made some pork stock from the bone .. but it’s still in the roast so … that didn’t work out so great) If there is any chicken stock left over I’ll be canning that in quart jars but I have a feeling it will be going in the freezer. For the beef stroganoff and pot roast I have beef stock I canned last year to top off those jars.
As you can see (heh), canning takes a lot of planning to reduce the stress of it. I even have a veggie prep list.
This way I am able to cut each veggie once and put aside what I need for each recipe, clearly labeled so when I’m ready to start each recipe, I just need to grab the mise and get started.
I should write on the very top of that list to prep the jars.. actually I think I’ll make a process flow checklist so that I can plan out my day. I’ll probably prep the meat last so that I don’t have to clean meat juice up before I cut veggies.. and for veggies, I cut the driest first to minimize mess on the cutting board. Potatoes will oxidize so they will need a tub of water to hang out in until I’m ready for them.
I know it seems like a lot of planning but it honestly makes things go a lot smoother.
That being said it’s now 7:50 PM on Friday and I have not done anything to get ready for tomorrow other than to drain the water from the freezer.
This was a very rambly post but who cares.. it’s a blog.. without ads so I can just vomit out some paragraphs if I feel like it.
As for the canning? It will all work out.
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