Disaster Preparation

I think, with the coming of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Sandy, many people have seen the plus and the minus of disaster preparedness. We can prepare all we want, but if we are in the direct path of such a storm, and our house is lifted from its foundation and moved down the block, it may do us no good. However, if we are prepared and because of such a storm, we are without electricity for a few days to a couple of weeks, the preparedness will save our families from more discomfort and disaster than there must be in such a situation.

In addition, if you and I both prepare, and your house is destroyed, but mine isn't, then I can share with you, and vice versa. We've seen examples of forest fires skipping over several houses and then burning others. Tornadoes do the same. In the case of a storm like Sandy, there were still houses that stood, maybe a little higher and above the flood, or maybe the wind didn't hit the house just right.

Even though I wasn't in the path of Sandy, it caused me to pause and reflect on my stored supplies. I decided I definitely have to have more small propane bottles. I also decided a sterno stove and some cans of fuel are a must. I had been thinking in terms of using my grill and solar cooking, but both of those might be impossible, so a third alternative needs to be available. If it's chilly, and I'm without power for several days, I might need more than the propane I have stored for my heater and lanterns. It doesn't do any good to have 10 cans of oatmeal if I have no way to cook it! I am adding a new recipe today. This one doesn't depend on the shelf-safe long term storage. It's a good meal for any time, but would work well in a Dutch oven over charcoal, too. Note to self: Buy more charcoal and don't store it in the bags.

The Harvest Fruits

Okay, so not my own harvest - the tomatoes and peppers are gone now. Still, the grapes and apples I bought from Bulk Natural Foods were someone's harvest, so it counts. I hadn't planned to purchase grapes and apples in the same order. In fact, I specifically chose NOT to purchase the apples. However, when someone else backed out of buying them, I wound up doing so.

First, let me talk about Concord grapes. Oh, my gosh! I never knew what a difference it makes what kind of grapes you use for jelly. I've done all kinds in the past, and even made it with my first graders from frozen grape juice. It all tasted fine to me! But let me tell you, there is a huge difference and now I know it. The Concord grapes I bought were not that great for eating. They were okay, tasty enough, but just not what I would consider normal eating grapes. The skins have an interesting flavor. That flavor is what makes them so perfect for jelly, or jam, I suppose.

The skins on the grapes split easily, and, faced with an entire box of them, I decided to simply pick out the dessicated ones (very few) and the one dead bee, rinse them and get rid of any tiny spider webs, and call it good. I filled the pot with about half the grapes, stems and all, squished them by pressing down on them with a pint jar, and let those boil down. I added about a cup of water to keep them from burning before enough juice could come out. Then I poured the juice that came off easily into a gallon glass jar, put the rest of the pot of now-smashed and drained grapes into the collander over a bowl, and waited for that to drain out. Then I did it all over again.

In the end, I had about 6.5-7 quarts of beautiful dark purple grape juice. I froze one of the gallon containers, shared some of the second one with my good friend, drank a couple of glasses (and was it ever good!) and now it's jelly making tomorrow.

Today, I went through the whole process with the apples. That corer/peeler/slicer I bought was used on these apples. It's magic! Sort of. I intended to simply toss out the peelings and the cores, but after doing that about 4-5 times, I could hear my grandmother's voice screaming in my head that it was a terrible waste, so after that, I tossed them in a couple of huge bowls instead.

When I'd made two batches of applesauce and a batch of apple slices, I took the skins and cores, and random odd pieces that had broken or had seed bits, and put them in the big pot to boil, just like I had done the grapes. The apples didn't yield as much juice - about half a gallon, but considering it came from throw-away food scraps (no, no, I don't mean I dug the ones out of the trash!), that's not so bad, is it?

So, tomorrow is jelly day. I'll get pictures and post them.

It's Fall!

Okay, not exactly officially yet, but that means harvest time! Though the berries are gone, the tomato plants dried up, the peaches finished, still there are things coming my way that will provide canning opportunities.

I will soon be ordering grapes and apples from Bulk Foods. I had a "warning" of what's coming yesterday, so now I'm waiting on pins and needles to see exactly what will be offered. LOL

I see grape jelly, applesauce, apple butter, apple cobbler, dehydrated apple rings, and many other good things in my future in October! Maybe pumpkin pie later in the month!

My apple corer is all set to go.

I've ordered one that is more massive-amounts friendly, and peels and slices the apple, too. This cast iron one which clamps onto the counter:

I think I can clamp it on the counter at the edge of the sink and drop all the sliced apples into a bowl in the sink. I'll keep you posted!

What Good Luck, What Bad Luck!

This week, I was at Girls Camp with 125 girls, 12-18, from my stake. As a friend put it, they were "between the ages of 'pain in the neck' and 'trouble'." The week was great, of course! There were many spiritual moments, there is nothing like hearing this song sung by 125 young women's sweet voices.

It was a wrench to come home from those special moments to real life again! At home, I found my good friend had brought my box of peaches and left them on the kitchen counter. What Good Luck!




However, before I found the peaches, they were discovered by Sugar Ants. What Bad Luck!

An ant massacre ensued, in which every ant warrior was killed. What Good Luck! For me, anyway. Not so much, for them.

Half the box was already bruised and getting soft. What Bad Luck!

I was able to save enough from that half to make 3 batches of peach jam. What Good Luck!

Sadly, I had only enough of the pectin I like that uses only small amounts of sugar for two batches. What Bad Luck!

I made a double batch, and froze the rest of the peach smash. I can get more pectin at the berry farm. What Good Luck!

Today, I canned the other half of the peaches, and there were about half a dozen left (after the one I cut up on my cereal for breakfast - yum!) so I froze those for another batch of jam, too. What Good Luck!

I didn't want to smash them too much, so they are floating in the syrup.

You might wonder why I can in pints instead of quarts. I'm only canning for one - me. Each jar holds about 2 very large peaches. If I had cut the pieces smaller or smashed them, I could have gotten more in, but I wanted them bigger.

Jam info: The only thing I did differently from the directions in the Pomona Pectin was that instead of 1/2 c. of lime juice, I added 1/2 c. of Real Lime juice. That's the concentrate. I could have watered it down to lime juice, but it adds just a little tang of lime to the peach jam that is yummy.

Syrup for peaches: I made ultra light syrup. I used about 2.5 cups I had left from the raspberries, and added another 3 cups of water and 1/3 c. of sugar plus 5 teaspoons of preservative to keep the color from going dark. I boiled that while I heated jars and sliced the peaches. Then it was stuff the jar full, pour in syrup, get bubbles out and cap with a hot lid and ring before plunking into the water bath. Can 25 minutes at boiling for pints and 30 minutes for quarts.

By Noon on Thursday

It wasn't a deadline. It was a surprise. By noon, I had these two projects complete!

Jam:

Cobbler berries:

I wanted to get a view of the beautiful jewel color of the jam, so I took it outside and set it on the deck railing. I don't think it really comes through, even with the sun shining, but my eyes can see it when I look through the jar. However, this is a great example of good bokeh, without even trying! Bokeh has been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". In other words, it's the blur behind the focus. This is a good one. Sometimes that kind of thing is awful, but not this time. Still, I wish you could see the sparkly, clear color the camera couldn't catch, at least not with me behind the lens!

The berries were picked in the first cool of the morning on Tuesday, after rain the night before. It was the first cool morning around here in a while. I wish I could say I went to the forest and the berries were free, but I have no clue where such things might exist around here. The best berry picking I ever did was with Paul, my husband of many years, in Jenny Jump forest in New Jersey. We picked black raspberries glutinously! It was my first time picking. That bounty was turned into so many jars of jam, mostly over a wood fire, adding a smokey flavor. My first jam making experience, too, and it was so much I didn't mind giving some away. We had so much fun in our week's vacation!

Over the years, Paul and I made many, many batches of strawberry jam, working as a team to get it in the jars, wiped down, lids on and into the water bath. It's a little trickier for me to do it alone, but it worked and now I have jam and the makings of small cobblers for one.

Take advantage of the summer's bounty, whether by picking your own (that was about $8 cost for berries, and I only used a scant 1-1/4 cup of sugar in it) or buying at great prices at the grocery store.

The pectin I used came from the farm. It's called Pomona's Universal Pectin and you can find it at their website or farm stands and co-ops. I love it! It worked like a charm, and allows you to use as little or as much sugar, honey or artificial sweetner as you like.

One box is $6, but it is for 2-4 batches, depending on whether you make single or double or even triple batches. The recipe I used (included in the box, and others on the site) used 2 teaspoons, and there shoul be enough for 3 more batches in the box. Economical. The pectin is not activated by sugar, as with Sure-Jell and Certo. Instead, it's activated with calcium (included in the packet with directions for use) from orange peelings. It was so super easy, and I know it jelled nicely - I scraped the pot after it cooled! Those scrapings were yummy, and I could have used less sugar still, even though my berries were definitely on the tart side! Next time, I'll know.

The recipe for raw packing the rest of the blackberries came from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, and I used the ultra light syrup listed.

Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies

Because I'm a "what if" kind of person, I wondered what would happen if I combined my sourdough cookie recipe with my oatmeal cookie recipe. This is a quick recipe, if your starter is multiplying too fast in the fridge. Plenty to eat and give away.

Here are the ingredients I used:

1/2 pound of butter (2 sticks), softened (or butter powder, reconstituted)
3 large eggs (or 6 T. egg powder and 6 T. water)
1-1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 t. vanilla
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt.
2 c. flour
1-1/2 c. sourdough starter
3 c. rolled oats
3/4 c. light raisins
3/4 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. chopped dates
1 c. chocolate chips, favorite variety

This makes a sticky dough.

1. Cream the sugar, butter, eggs, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and vanilla.

2. Add the sourdough starter. Blend well.

3. Add the flour and blend well.

4. Add the chocolate chips and dried fruits and blend well.

5. Add the oats, one cup at a time, mixing as you go.

6. Drop by rounded spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.

7. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Cookie spreads a little, so I put 5 rows of 3 on my big Oneida cookie sheet, and only 3 rows of 3 on the smaller flat one with no sides and one end bends up a little. In case you have that kind.

They are still baking, so I'm not sure, but guessing 6 dozen cookies about 2.5-3". My cookies are generally oval because I don't round them nicely when I drop them. =) My first sample was delicious! I might cut the sugar down next time to 1 cup, because there is sugar in the sourdough starter, and they are sweeter than I usually make my cookies.

Sourdough Cookies

I better post this recipe so I can sort of replicate it again! =) These cookies are so delicious, I have almost made myself sick with eating them warm from the oven. I don't even want to think about how many calories that is, but the good part is there isn't as much sugar as many cookies have. I used the Herman sourdough starter that lives in my fridge all the time. I'm going to put that recipe on the recipe page, because there are SO many things you can bake with this sourdough starter!

Ingredients:

1 c. starter
3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 c. butter (1 stick, 1/4 lb.)
1-1/3 c. sugar
4 T. egg powder
1/2 c. water
3/4 c. dried cranberries
3/4 c. chopped dates

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix everything together, except flour. When it's well blended, add the flour. It will be a sticky dough, sort of halfway between bread and cookie dough.

3. Drop by rounded teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 11-12 minutes.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies about 2.5" across.