Putting Food By

We have been very blessed over the past week to be able to "put by" some food for later use.  We have put more venison, rabbit, and pecans in the freezer, and I was able to can 10 quarts of pear sauce thanks to a friend that allowed us to pick the pears from his trees.  I used my Vitamix to help process the pears into sauce and it was very quick and easy.  I will share my step-by-step instruction in a few days.

Being able to take advantage of food items such as these and store them for later times can help ease your food budget.  When I lost my job in July, one thing we knew was that we would not go hungry because of our stored food items.  I encourage you to look into options for storing food.

Here is a picture of the pear sauce after coming out of the canner.

Why I Love Canning

My mother canned when I was growing up, but I unfortunately never paid enough attention to learn how to can from her.  After I became a mother, though, I had a desire to learn how to can and to see jars of freshly canned items line my pantry shelves.  So, when I asked my husband for canners for Mother's Day, I am sure he thought I had lost my mind, but he got them for me anyway.  I decided to spend a Saturday familiarizing myself with the pressure canner and spent the entire day canning apples. (I now know that they didn't need to be pressure canned.)  I was so very excited when I completed the project without blowing up the house.

The thing I love most about canning, though, is the convenience that it offers down the road.  For example, since I am now back to work, I have to come up with a quick meal to get on the table when we get home every night.  I am usually putting something together while my husband and son feed the cows and dogs.  This past Tuesday, I had put a roast in the crock pot before leaving for work and when I got home, opened a quart of home-canned red potatoes and a pint of home-canned peas.  I made some quick 3-2-1 biscuits and it made for a quick, but delicious meal.  It is much easier to pass up the fast food restaurant on the way home when you know you have something that can be put together in under 30 minutes.

Here is a picture of the potatoes that I cooked.  I opened the jar and drained the liquid.  Poured the potatoes into a Pam-sprayed glass pie plate, sprinkled on my seasonings of choice (I used onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Tony Chachere's), sprayed them with Pam again so the skins would get crisp, and stuck them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Poppyseed Chicken and Rice Casserole

Since I started back to work on Monday, I have been looking for made-ahead recipes that I can pop in the oven for dinner when I get home.  Sunday evening, I cooked some rice and put together the remainder of the casserole on Monday morning before leaving for work. 

Poppy Seed Chicken and Rice Casserole

1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 quart home-canned chicken tenders (approx. 12 tenders, but you could use less)
8 oz. sour cream (I used half sour cream and half yogurt because I didn't have enough sour cream)
2 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 can cream of chicken soup (I used the cream of whatever soup mix that I had made earlier)
1 sleeve crackers, crushed

Cook rice until done.  Mix in remaining ingredients except crackers.  Spread crushed crackers along the top of the casserole and bake at 350 degrees until warmed throughout and crackers are golden brown.   Just before serving, I sprinkled some grated cheddar cheese on top and melted it.  It turned out very good!

3-2-1 Biscuits

We lived in Louisiana several years ago and some friends we had made the best biscuits.  They used a rough 3-2-1 recipe.

Homemade Biscuits

3 parts self-rising flour (can be made from all purpose flour if needed)
2 parts milk (I used milk made from reconstituted dry powdered milk)

1 part oil (you can use melted butter or oil)

Mix all three ingredients together.  Add additional flour if needed to get to the right consistency.

This is a very quick and easy way to throw together some delicious biscuits!

Tomato Gravy

On Saturday morning, my husband took our son squirrel hunting for the first time.  While they were gone, I decided to fix them a good breakfast.  My husband has always loved tomato gravy (which is odd since he doesn't like tomatoes), so I decided to make some for him.  I had never made it, but started with a basic gravy and went from there.  Here is the recipe I used:

Tomato Gravy

1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1 1/3 cup milk (make from reconstituted dry milk powder)
1 quart home-canned tomatoes, drained
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in skillet and add the flour a little bit at a time, stirring while adding.  Once flour and oil mixture is browned, add milk, stirring constantly.  Finally, add tomatoes and cook until thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

It was delicious!  I will share the biscuit recipe I used tomorrow.

Home Canned Pasta Sauce Secret

I mentioned earlier that I used my home canned spaghetti sauce for the marinara dipping sauce for the pizza and bread sticks. To do this, I just added some sugar to the sauce.  I added about 1 tablespoon to a cup of sauce, but you can adjust to your liking.  The current batches of spaghetti sauce that I am using were made with Mrs. Wages Pasta Sauce mix and number 10 cans of crushed tomatoes from Costco.  I have made my own sauce before, but I found these Pasta Sauce mixes on sale last year and stocked up.  If you were to pay full price for the mix (approx. $2.5 per package) and number 10 can (approx. $3 each), you could can you own sauce for approx. $1.70 per quart.  I haven't purchased spaghetti sauce in the store lately, but based on what I have seen, that does still compare favorably to the cost of those cans or jars of sauce.  This is a very versatile sauce.  I use it for pasta sauce, pizza sauce (with 1 small can of tomato paste added per quart), and marinara sauce.

Pictures from Around The Farm

It is beginning to feel like fall here, so I wanted to share some of the pictures I have taken around the farm this week.  The beauty of God's creation is all around us.  We just have to take the time to stop and see them.

This post is being shared at Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday and Homestead Revival's Barn Hop #33.