Sad Little Tomatoes

So I am not doing any real gardening these days. The trees have just grow in so much that there isn't enough sunlight in our yard but I still have pots of things. A few pepper plants, a few squash plants, potatoes in a pot and yesterday I picked up some of the saddest looking tomato plants. They were in little 4 inch peat pots and apparently hadn't gotten much watering even though it has rained a lot here lately. They were marked down to $ .74 and I really think they are only worth about $ .10 but I was inspired by looking at my daughter and her fiancé's tomato plants. They have some wonderfully big plants that they just grew from seeds from a tomato from the store and they have quite a few tomatoes on just 3 plants! Anyway, I thought I would try to save these three. I brought them home last night and watered them real good overnight. This morning I found these gallon pots and with some Miracle Grow Potting Soil (the only kind we seem to have this year), they were re-potted. 

Then I decided to make more room in the house under the grow lights by putting the three basil plants I had in with them.



And now it is just a "wait and see" game. Not really anything major but I wanted us to have some before pictures.

What to Make With Canned Chicken--Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken soup is, of course, a really easy thing to do with canned chicken but I got a little more creative and made chicken pot pie today. I started by putting the filling in the crockpot for about 3 hours.

Two jars of my canned chicken (pints)
 one can of cream of chicken soup
a little water
Diced Potatoes- I only needed 4 medium potatoes
1/2 a small onion, also diced
salt and pepper to taste

Just before putting it in the pie shell I added one of those very small cans (8.5 oz) of peas and carrots.

Of course, you can add any veggies you want to yours and use frozen or home canned as well. I used what I had on hand.

 I made my own crust just using the recipe for a crust from my cookbook. For once it didn't fight me and tear or stick. I brushed egg white on top.

I cooked it in my little convection oven for about a half an hour. Delicious!

What Do You Make With Canned Pork?

Actually I knew I was going to use some of it for barbecue sandwiches even while I was canning it. I had never even heard of barbecue sandwiches until I moved to the South. At one time cooks used to roast tough meats over the fire and then shred them and make them into barbecue to make them tender enough to eat. These days it is more likely a pork roast is cooked in the oven, then maybe put on the fire- or not, sauce added and you have a good meal.
The canned pork I did was so easy since it was already cooked and easy to shred. I pulled it apart with a couple of forks.

It made a good bit more than I thought it was going to. Great for if you have more than two people eating. I added some barbecue spice and barbecue sauce, heated it up and that was it.
 

It really was very good. I'll try to post what else I do with my canned pork and chicken as we go along.

Self Sufficiency in the Next Generation

So my daughter has found the man she wants to be with and moved in with him last year. He asked her to marry him before the pandemic and she said yes....and then it all happened and everything got put on hold until they can actually make plans for the wedding again.
Anyway, we are slowly getting to know him more. My first suspicion that he was into self sufficiency was when he put up a shelf in their kitchen and bought grow lights (keep in mind they live in a townhouse with a tiny 5 ft back yard) and he was growing plants....and vegetables.
He has a 3D printer and made pots for his plants with it (he likes to make more useful than decorative things with it).
Then he got bees. No he didn't put them in that 5ft back yard but on some property that his parents have (where they go shooting--yup). Yesterday for Mother's Day they brought me some of the first honey. It is some wonderful stuff. Such a nicely flavored honey!
They also brought me some plants, pepper and potato, and then this wonderful self watering pot that he printed.
I am not just bragging here but trying to make the point that these young people with the phones stuck to their faces aren't all just wasting time, some of them are learning how to be self sufficient and then they are going to take self sufficiency to the next step.

More Pandemic Canning--Canning Pork

Today's adventure was in canning pork. I really had never canned pork before but I am trying to get one freezer cleaned out so my brother can have it and I am trying to have more meat stored, so two birds with one stone. I had bought one pork loin and when I checked the freezer I found 5 more packages of cut up pork loin. I thawed those over a couple days.

Then I cut as much of the fat off of them as I could.

The meat was then cut up into large chunks.



They were then packed in the sterilized quart jars. I added 1/2 tsp of hickory smoke salt to half the jars and a teaspoon of barbecue spice to the other half. Then filled with boiling water. You really have to be careful to get all the air out because the meat is packed in and traps air pockets.

Then in the pressure canner for 90 minutes.

They smell so good that they are making me hungry now!

Tomato Pie

I saw this recipe on facebook. I am not a real tomato fan but Phil is so I wanted to make it and see if we liked it. It is SO simple to make.

The recipe said roma tomatoes worked best but I just had regular sized tomatoes. They were fairly firm though so that may have been why mine worked fine. You start with your crust though and cook it first. Then you lay down a layer of tomatoes (my crust fell down the sides some so I put some tomatoes up the side too.). If you use the roma tomatoes you might need a couple layers but I cut mine fairly thick so only used one layer. Before you put your tomatoes in the crust though you need to sprinkle them with salt and let them drain in a colander for 10 minutes or so (while you brown the crust) and then blot them with paper towels to remove the excess moisture.

Next you just sprinkle on some red onion. Not like a "layer" really just sprinkle some all over the tomatoes. Then you sprinkle fresh chopped basil all over the tomatoes and onions.

The topping is just grated cheese mixed with mayonnaise. I used 3/4 of an 8 oz bag of cheddar and 3/4 of an 8 oz. bag of an Italian blend. You put just enough mayonnaise in it to hold it together. Then you spread it and flatten it out with a spoon on top of your tomatoes, onions and basil.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until the top browns. LET SET at least 20 minutes before cutting.

It was wonderful!!

The Rest of the Chicken

I was much more organized with my canning this morning and got the chicken cooked and put in the jars fairly early. I did the chicken first but it only made 8 jars so I added two jars of stock to fill the canner. Later I did a load with the rest of the stock.

While the canner was going, I got outside and planted some flowers. I had some marigolds and petunias that needed planting. 

There are rocks and thorny twigs in this last one to try to keep the cats from laying in it. It also has some coleus that I started in the house under the grow lights.

Later I went out to put bird seed in one of the feeders and heard lots of baby cheeping from the bird house. I have never really seen any birds use it. I pulled up a yard chair and sat there forever with my camera until I saw that it was a tufted titmouse nest. We have a lot of those here. I hope they are successful in keeping their babies and that none of my stupid cats get any.

Anyway, it's been a pretty good day. Back to work tomorrow....unfortunately...but at least we are still working.

Pandemic Canning and Things

I know I haven't posted in... forever and it is mostly because I really haven't been doing anything self sufficient in all this time but the recent worries about future meat availability had me digging out my canner today (after I finally found it).

I had gotten a good deal on 20 lbs of chicken leg quarters and also got 20 lbs of potatoes. I have definitely missed my canned potatoes but with the kids gone it just seemed a waste to can food just for Phil and I....but now seems like a good time to be storing more food.
I cooked 5 lbs of the chicken in my pressure cooker (I thought it would make more than 3 jars!), took the meat off the bone and then put it in the jars to be canned. I also saved all the chicken stock to be canned as well (might as well fill the canner). I love homemade chicken stock. So much better than store bought and makes the BEST chicken soup. The chicken and stock went in the canner for 90 minutes.

The potatoes were peeled and cut into large chunks, washed and then boiled for just a short time, put in the jars and canned for 40 minutes. If you would like more specific directions use the search for this blog and put in Canning Potatoes and it will come up with a post I did years ago on it.

The pictures is a little reddish because there are grow lights over the bar. It is filled with plants, mostly house plants, but there are some herbs (thyme, basil, chives) and a few pepper plants up there as well. Plus some flower seeds that I started for outdoor flowers.

The rest of the time during this pandemic, I have been working. Wal-mart did not take time off. I made masks to sell to my co-workers for $3 and $5. I know a lot of people have made them to give away but my money has gone into our "Buy a House of Our Own" fund and I am just not going to feel bad about that. Besides my co-workers were very happy to get them at the price I was selling them for.

Tomorrow is another canning day. I have 15 more pounds of chicken to do and I also have a bunch of flowers to plant. I won't make promises to blog more often. We'll just see how it goes.