Hey, I'm actually being a good kid and remembering to start the tally promptly this year, woot!
1/21- 25 8oz jars of pickled mushrooms. Love it when they are on super sale and I pay 90 cents per bucket instead of 2.70. Plus I used homegrown garlic and herbs, so total cost for that many jars was around 25 bucks once I include vinegar (which was on sale at the time), pickling salt (it was a freebie), peppercorns allspice and bay leaves which ran around 50 cents max for it all, and the canning lids. I didn't count jar costs since all of these jars have been used several times now and have pretty much been paid off and then some :) Excellent way to start off the tally, I might be picking up some more mushrooms while they are on sale :)
1/23- another 21 8oz jars of pickled mushrooms- I almost was tempted to get more, but hey, at some point I gotta stop, lol. I didn't use the last two tubs of fresh mushrooms, choosing to use them for dinner instead. And hitting Hardings, they had 10 oz packs of shelled edamame on clearance for 99 cents each- three of those went into making 5 8oz jars of pickled edamame, and 1 8oz jar for the fridge.
January Shopping. Boxed pasta has been on sale 10/10. Citrus season has started, first clementines, then grapefruit and navel oranges, then lemons and limes. This goes on through the beginning of Febuary. Some decent canned soup deals. Avocado sales start with good looking very hard ones 1 buck each.
2/6- sugar was on sale, picked up three 4 pound bags. Made one bag into vanilla sugar, using five vanilla beans. Yield 2 quarts, one pint.
3/?? didn't do any preserving. Rather, worked on eating the hell out of the preserved food, use it up. The usual butter sales around Easter didn't materialize, though other baking goods were on sale. More citrus and random produce on sale. And of course beef brisket was on sale. Pork saw good sales too.
4/6- dehydrated 2 bunches of celery. Sugar snap peas were on sale and made two Milwaukee jars of pickled snap peas, one just regular, the other an Asian. Still got a couple more bags, but oops, finally and seriously out of onions?!?!!?
4/7- Hardings had frozen corn on sale, 88 cents a pound. Four pounds are now on the dehydrator.
5, 6, 7.. too much going on, no preserving done. Even flubbed a batch of dehydrated mushrooms. Butter as finally been on sale in July.
8/1- Picked up a half bushel of beets for 15 bucks. 8 half pints of pickled jalapeno slices, 12 pints of gingery pickled beets, 6 pints of regular pickled beets, 6 pints of spicy pickled beets, and quart of weird watermelon syrup.
8/2- 5 two pound packages of asparagus vacuum sealed and in the freezer .
Came to a realization that though I am real good at writing up tally, I totally suck at including information like where and price of produce, recipies used, and where my homecrafted recipes are filed. And often, how stuff turned out. Will be keeping way better notes, and track of recipes from now on.
8/20- 12 pint jars of pickled brussels sprouts. They were on sale at Meijer for 2 bucks a pound- normally four bucks a pound. 6 pounds/12 bucks yielded jars at generous adjusted other ingredients price of 1.50 a jar. Price in store for pickled brussels sprouts? 6-8 bucks a jar. Used Food in Jars recipe.
Two Milwaukee pickle quart jars of tangy lime fridge pickled zucchini spears. Picked up zukes for 88 cents a pound. Two jars plus generous adjustment, buck a jar. Can't even find such a thing at stores, but other fridge pickles sell for 5-7 bucks a jar. Crafted my own recipe after not being able to find last years pickling notes about this one.
8/21- half dozen jars of sweet and sour red pickled onions done- used food in jars recipe, and locally grown red onions that were cheap. Three trays of hot banana peppers and 7 trays of mushroom slices on the dehydrators. 8 ears of corn whole shucked and roasted dehydrating in the oven, about 2 pounds of raw corn. Corn was 4/1.00. And 6 quarts of corn stock, maybe 6 quarts, it's still cooling down, lol.
Eating notes: We cracked open a jar of the spicy beets. Yes, young, I know. But they were really good, will be doing that again. A month or two aging on them will be even better. And sigh, the last jar of dilly beans from last year is finally open and half gone. Since my green bean crop was pretty much null due to how dry the summer was- I'm going to have to keep my eye open for sales and good beans.
9/12- two gallons of ham stock in the fridge, awaiting bagging and freezing up.
Eating and buying notes- the savory pickled beets and the fridge lime zuke spears are delicious. The processed green cherry tomatoes are chucked, they were extra not good- fridge ones were ok, but not worth wasting the fridge space on.
Picked up 10-3 lb bags of yellow onions at Hardings, B2G3F. Picked up yellow and green beans, $2/Qt, petite brussels, shucked- $5/2 Qt at the farmers market.
9/13- one quart each of chili mix and mexican seasoning and one pint of cajun seasoning made.
9-17- 7 pints of spicy yellow wax beans, 7 pints of dilly green beans, 7 pints of Sweet and Sour Red Onions, and 6 pints of pickled Brussels sprouts canned up.
9-20- One quart each of fermented brussels sprouts, and fermented brussels sprouts kim-chi.
10/15- 14 quarts of turkey stock made and in the freezer.
10/29- One cube tray of nasturtium flower pesto, two cube trays of nasturtium leaf pesto done.
11/13- one quart of fermented cherry bomb halves with garlic and onion started. One gallon batch of fall kimchi started- tatsoi ribs and leaves, chinese cabbage ribs, bok choi ribs and leaves, purple and green kale ribs, onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, and a large amount of "beer garden" radish I pulled out today. One quart will be treated with dehydrated lime slices when I pack them off into fermenters tomorrow.
The fermented BS's of both kinds turned out tasty as hell. The kimchi version especially so. Decided to give it a second try :) Since most of it came from my garden, as well as the cherry bombs, I'm calling these jars freebies :)
11/18- packed the kim-chi today- half gallon jar. Picked up a two pounds of brussels sprouts to make another round of BS kim-chi. With the weather blowing in, I'll be able to harvest a lot of wee BS's to round out the batch.
11/24: half gallon jar of brussels sprouts kimchi started. Half gallon jar of fridge pickled mushrooms made, one gallon tub of anti-pasta veggies started.
Unfortunately, between work, personal garden failures, and failures in other local growers gardens- it was a pretty sorry year for preserving.
Welcome to Growbox Hill
Welcome to Growbox HIll!
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
The new year to begin...
So much has and hasn't happened this year. I can't sum it all up. There have been a few joys, and many sorrows.. and a strange slippage of time.
Christmas was very nice.... there is still quite a bit of Nightvale still up, in the form of winter village. Yes, I've been taking pics, will post them sooner or later. And who knows? Perhaps Fortunes Turning will roll out of it's sleepy winter colors soon enough :) 2016 has been quite the year in a lot of ways, here at Growbox Hill, in our area, state, nation.. and around the world.
Now comes the new year. And I am ready to get on with that...
Christmas was very nice.... there is still quite a bit of Nightvale still up, in the form of winter village. Yes, I've been taking pics, will post them sooner or later. And who knows? Perhaps Fortunes Turning will roll out of it's sleepy winter colors soon enough :) 2016 has been quite the year in a lot of ways, here at Growbox Hill, in our area, state, nation.. and around the world.
Now comes the new year. And I am ready to get on with that...
Kind of glad the holidays are over- now I can start screwing up my kitchen with mini greenouses, lol.
The first one went up today, and already has large pots of little gem and gourmet mix lettuces, toothache plant, sprouting garlic, and an herb garden of parsley, dill, and basil.
It's still far too early to start anything for the outdoor gardens other than some seeds that I need to get out for their cold treatment... And pretty much all the other edible plants in the house are in their hiatus except the hardy herbs... By gosh it's nice to be able to start with some fresh edibles indoors again. Within just a few short weeks we will be snacking on nice fresh grown produce again. With the way garlic sprouts usually shoot up, it might be quite soon.. yum.
I do have some interesting seeds that I need to get out for winterizing too. Bearberry, serviceberry, thimbleberry, and red and white currants. Red and whites are legal here, but black currants are a no-no in my area. However, josta berry is ok, and I have a couple of those in pots overwintering outside. I have a bunch of stuff in that straw bale box actually. A couple goji berries, some latham raspberries, a couple plum trees, an ornamental elderberry and a few random pots of flowers that needed the extra shelter. And I have seven potted Pixwell gooseberries that I saved before they went to the garbage- since they were considered the "purple" kind instead of the preferred "deep blushing green" kind, no one wanted them, and since they had been there a second season, they were going to be tossed when the snow flew this year.
I have a nice array of columbine seed to set up too- I was extra pleased this year that the extra spectacular lone one outside Marcs office yielded up goodly seed. I've been watching and coaxing and keeping that one isolated pretty much since we moved in. I also have heaps of other good flower seeds too. Time has come to shake out the first packet of poppy seeds over Pooks grave. I was told by several gardeners that if I could, wait till after the first snow and melt, and lay in the first round before the second snow. And repeat with the next melt off and snow in if possible. Keep going till I was out of seed or when sprouts looked like they were popping up in the spring. Well, I figured that time would have started weeks ago, lol.
So the new 2017 grow schedule spreadsheet is fully set up and already getting entries. We have a vault of somewhere between 450-500 seeds to start the season with. The tally on the sheet is 498, but I have a lot of spaces between several categories of seeds so..
I have some wind up notes to make with the 2016 preserving tally. That will come out sometime next week. But it was a pretty slim year. The garden yielded little- but then so did our area in general, it was a bad garden year. It wasn't just a lot of personal stuff going on, the weather didn't play nice either.
But important things to note.. boy oh boy do we miss pickled peppers. We are quite spoiled on homegrown and made pickled banana peppers, cherry bombs, pepperonchini, and jalapenos. Tomato stocks are missed too.
Anywho.. yay gardening.
The first one went up today, and already has large pots of little gem and gourmet mix lettuces, toothache plant, sprouting garlic, and an herb garden of parsley, dill, and basil.
It's still far too early to start anything for the outdoor gardens other than some seeds that I need to get out for their cold treatment... And pretty much all the other edible plants in the house are in their hiatus except the hardy herbs... By gosh it's nice to be able to start with some fresh edibles indoors again. Within just a few short weeks we will be snacking on nice fresh grown produce again. With the way garlic sprouts usually shoot up, it might be quite soon.. yum.
I do have some interesting seeds that I need to get out for winterizing too. Bearberry, serviceberry, thimbleberry, and red and white currants. Red and whites are legal here, but black currants are a no-no in my area. However, josta berry is ok, and I have a couple of those in pots overwintering outside. I have a bunch of stuff in that straw bale box actually. A couple goji berries, some latham raspberries, a couple plum trees, an ornamental elderberry and a few random pots of flowers that needed the extra shelter. And I have seven potted Pixwell gooseberries that I saved before they went to the garbage- since they were considered the "purple" kind instead of the preferred "deep blushing green" kind, no one wanted them, and since they had been there a second season, they were going to be tossed when the snow flew this year.
I have a nice array of columbine seed to set up too- I was extra pleased this year that the extra spectacular lone one outside Marcs office yielded up goodly seed. I've been watching and coaxing and keeping that one isolated pretty much since we moved in. I also have heaps of other good flower seeds too. Time has come to shake out the first packet of poppy seeds over Pooks grave. I was told by several gardeners that if I could, wait till after the first snow and melt, and lay in the first round before the second snow. And repeat with the next melt off and snow in if possible. Keep going till I was out of seed or when sprouts looked like they were popping up in the spring. Well, I figured that time would have started weeks ago, lol.
So the new 2017 grow schedule spreadsheet is fully set up and already getting entries. We have a vault of somewhere between 450-500 seeds to start the season with. The tally on the sheet is 498, but I have a lot of spaces between several categories of seeds so..
I have some wind up notes to make with the 2016 preserving tally. That will come out sometime next week. But it was a pretty slim year. The garden yielded little- but then so did our area in general, it was a bad garden year. It wasn't just a lot of personal stuff going on, the weather didn't play nice either.
But important things to note.. boy oh boy do we miss pickled peppers. We are quite spoiled on homegrown and made pickled banana peppers, cherry bombs, pepperonchini, and jalapenos. Tomato stocks are missed too.
Anywho.. yay gardening.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
And the closing of the season...
A bit of an update first.. I realize I haven't posted for weeks...
Won the November elections, I'm now a trustee for my township. My area will be parks, of which we have four. And being involved with the cleanup and utilization of one of our major riverways. How cool is that?
Watervliet called me back in at the beginning of October. I've been working a few days a week, filling in and helping get the place back into shape again. Gosh. That will be ending soon though, it's another temp gig.
Everyone in the house is in fair health. Been several personal upsets in the family over the course of the whole summer. We've lost a beloved companion, a family home, a beloved family member, and an extraordinarily dear friend and companion of a lifetime. It's been a cruel summer that has stretched into the warm autumn... Let's hope that has stopped with the final coming of hard frost.
Hard frost finally has finally come. We got a straw bale enclosure set up in front of the kitchen window and filled it with all my late season perennial purchases that I got super cheap. Had just enough left over from last winters compost enclosure, 6 bales. And got a double layer of frost cloth laid over the huge beer garden radish just in time on Friday. We got our first hard frost yesterday morning.
We got all the marigold borders picked of this years seeds- it's a lot! And all the marigolds are now heeled over to the outside of the beds to die off and drop their final seed heads. If I did this right when I set up the borders this spring, they should start self-sowing in there next year.
And just saying- will for real do the hunk of seeds full flat sowing with marigolds again next year. That worked out exceptionally well.
I've decided I'm going to try for advanced seed saving this year and try brussels sprouts. This years growing season was difficult, and I didn't get a good crop of heads. But I can shear off the bottom heads and leaves, mulch them all in, and use them for spring seed production next year.
Tomatoes were a total washout this year. Too little rain at the wrong time of the year combined with too little upkeep. We got to eat a bunch fresh, and I dehydrated a batch, but that's it. I ended up buying a couple 10 pound boxes of basic reds to do up some stuff with.
Same goes for peppers. All the blacks and whites failed. Totally. We did get a midseason flush of a few, and here at the tail of the season I got enough cherry bombs to pickle up a quart.
No squashes, cucumbers, or melons. Bean yields were seedstock only low, but at least I did get some seedstock.
The greens did well. Asian greens seemed to drop off early in the spring, but todays harvest of fall pickings was a half-bushel full. The kale garden has done really well too, and we are already tucking in on the good eats.
I've already started the 2017 seed season. Gathering seeds here and have hit a couple of good seed sales from a couple favored vendors. Completely organized my current seed collection- though I haven't finished cataloging yet. The solarium is finally done being sealed up.
I did the whole solarium in clear window film this year. And it was fairly cheap to do so. Out of 20 windows, three of the four north side windows have fogged plastic, the last will get a clear panel. The outside door and window to the right are fogged too. Three already had clear panels from last year that were still good. So that left 13 windows to plastic up.
Sounds expensive, right? Yes and no. After tinkering last year with clear and using 60" wide gift wrapping shrink film I had sitting around.. I used it again this year.
The plastic is thicker, sturdier, and holds up longer. It's nice to use- instead of unfolding a tiny compressed cake of super thin plastic and trying to dewrinkle it and cut it up to use... Shrink wrap comes in 30" wide tubes like wrapping paper. And like wrapping paper, it unrolls nicely. Especially on a clean table- it has static cling that makes it want to lay down to the table. It comes perfectly folded in half, and static cling is great here too- you have time to pin one half of the window down neatly before doing the other half.
A side benefit is that since it rolls out nice, leftovers can be rolled back onto a tube nice. And since the stuff is thicker, already smooth, and has static cling to lay it flat, it tapes up really well with clear packing tape to use up scraps.
Cost wise... It actually ends up being cheaper to use the easy to use 60"x9' rolls. Typically, brand name 6 window kits of 62x252 run 12-15 bucks. On sale 5-6 bucks. Jo-Ann fabrics often has 50% off coupons, when everything you want is already on sale. But shrink wrap rarely is, and runs 14-15 bucks. And wait for that additional 25% off total purchase coupon and a three pack of rolls costs 5.63. Sometimes their 25% off total purchase runs along with a shrink wrap clearance, typically after Christmas and Easter. If it goes cheaper than that half off, even better. I've gotten it for around 3 bucks with timing and luck, lol.
The flip side of this is you gotta buy your own tape- and that stuff can be costly too. But it too goes on sale at the bigger box hardware places, and it's well worth stocking up.
Penny for penny, the cost between the name brand fold out 6 window kit is comparable to doing it with shrink wrap on sale and tape seperately. But the wonderful ease of the rolling out of the much thicker film and ability to use the scraps up with as much ease is worth it. Hands down.
Of course, yes.. we have had Nightvale County up and building since the day after Labor Day. I took a ton of pictures of it before I started taking down the Halloween and Samhain Week celebrations. This weekend I tore down the whole End's Meet alley district, and the outdoor movie theater. Started clearing out the orphanarium- the theater is getting moved there and staying put through new years. It's way too cool to pack away yet.
But several of our spookier places have been pulled out and packed away. Zombies, ghosts, vampires, and mummies are going back to their winter homes. October beer fest patrons and folks dressed up for the chilly weather have started coming in for their winter bird stay. Thanksgiving time and the Third Harvest have settled in.. Hard Frost has come.
When I first came back on to Watervliet in early October, we had a full pallet crate half filled with small gourds. About 15 half-bushel baskets worth. I sorted out the whole thing, picking off early rotters, repacking into half bushel baskets.. and choosing off a select peck or so of super small gourds.. that I have been curing off in the solarium for weeks now. They are now ready for final cleanup to set up into the villages along with a lot of foliage that is getting pulled off and re-distributed.
Anywho.. homemade pizzas tonight. All sorts of goodness. But gonna post now instead of saving it for another day this time, lol..
Won the November elections, I'm now a trustee for my township. My area will be parks, of which we have four. And being involved with the cleanup and utilization of one of our major riverways. How cool is that?
Watervliet called me back in at the beginning of October. I've been working a few days a week, filling in and helping get the place back into shape again. Gosh. That will be ending soon though, it's another temp gig.
Everyone in the house is in fair health. Been several personal upsets in the family over the course of the whole summer. We've lost a beloved companion, a family home, a beloved family member, and an extraordinarily dear friend and companion of a lifetime. It's been a cruel summer that has stretched into the warm autumn... Let's hope that has stopped with the final coming of hard frost.
Hard frost finally has finally come. We got a straw bale enclosure set up in front of the kitchen window and filled it with all my late season perennial purchases that I got super cheap. Had just enough left over from last winters compost enclosure, 6 bales. And got a double layer of frost cloth laid over the huge beer garden radish just in time on Friday. We got our first hard frost yesterday morning.
We got all the marigold borders picked of this years seeds- it's a lot! And all the marigolds are now heeled over to the outside of the beds to die off and drop their final seed heads. If I did this right when I set up the borders this spring, they should start self-sowing in there next year.
And just saying- will for real do the hunk of seeds full flat sowing with marigolds again next year. That worked out exceptionally well.
I've decided I'm going to try for advanced seed saving this year and try brussels sprouts. This years growing season was difficult, and I didn't get a good crop of heads. But I can shear off the bottom heads and leaves, mulch them all in, and use them for spring seed production next year.
Tomatoes were a total washout this year. Too little rain at the wrong time of the year combined with too little upkeep. We got to eat a bunch fresh, and I dehydrated a batch, but that's it. I ended up buying a couple 10 pound boxes of basic reds to do up some stuff with.
Same goes for peppers. All the blacks and whites failed. Totally. We did get a midseason flush of a few, and here at the tail of the season I got enough cherry bombs to pickle up a quart.
No squashes, cucumbers, or melons. Bean yields were seedstock only low, but at least I did get some seedstock.
The greens did well. Asian greens seemed to drop off early in the spring, but todays harvest of fall pickings was a half-bushel full. The kale garden has done really well too, and we are already tucking in on the good eats.
I've already started the 2017 seed season. Gathering seeds here and have hit a couple of good seed sales from a couple favored vendors. Completely organized my current seed collection- though I haven't finished cataloging yet. The solarium is finally done being sealed up.
I did the whole solarium in clear window film this year. And it was fairly cheap to do so. Out of 20 windows, three of the four north side windows have fogged plastic, the last will get a clear panel. The outside door and window to the right are fogged too. Three already had clear panels from last year that were still good. So that left 13 windows to plastic up.
Sounds expensive, right? Yes and no. After tinkering last year with clear and using 60" wide gift wrapping shrink film I had sitting around.. I used it again this year.
The plastic is thicker, sturdier, and holds up longer. It's nice to use- instead of unfolding a tiny compressed cake of super thin plastic and trying to dewrinkle it and cut it up to use... Shrink wrap comes in 30" wide tubes like wrapping paper. And like wrapping paper, it unrolls nicely. Especially on a clean table- it has static cling that makes it want to lay down to the table. It comes perfectly folded in half, and static cling is great here too- you have time to pin one half of the window down neatly before doing the other half.
A side benefit is that since it rolls out nice, leftovers can be rolled back onto a tube nice. And since the stuff is thicker, already smooth, and has static cling to lay it flat, it tapes up really well with clear packing tape to use up scraps.
Cost wise... It actually ends up being cheaper to use the easy to use 60"x9' rolls. Typically, brand name 6 window kits of 62x252 run 12-15 bucks. On sale 5-6 bucks. Jo-Ann fabrics often has 50% off coupons, when everything you want is already on sale. But shrink wrap rarely is, and runs 14-15 bucks. And wait for that additional 25% off total purchase coupon and a three pack of rolls costs 5.63. Sometimes their 25% off total purchase runs along with a shrink wrap clearance, typically after Christmas and Easter. If it goes cheaper than that half off, even better. I've gotten it for around 3 bucks with timing and luck, lol.
The flip side of this is you gotta buy your own tape- and that stuff can be costly too. But it too goes on sale at the bigger box hardware places, and it's well worth stocking up.
Penny for penny, the cost between the name brand fold out 6 window kit is comparable to doing it with shrink wrap on sale and tape seperately. But the wonderful ease of the rolling out of the much thicker film and ability to use the scraps up with as much ease is worth it. Hands down.
Of course, yes.. we have had Nightvale County up and building since the day after Labor Day. I took a ton of pictures of it before I started taking down the Halloween and Samhain Week celebrations. This weekend I tore down the whole End's Meet alley district, and the outdoor movie theater. Started clearing out the orphanarium- the theater is getting moved there and staying put through new years. It's way too cool to pack away yet.
But several of our spookier places have been pulled out and packed away. Zombies, ghosts, vampires, and mummies are going back to their winter homes. October beer fest patrons and folks dressed up for the chilly weather have started coming in for their winter bird stay. Thanksgiving time and the Third Harvest have settled in.. Hard Frost has come.
When I first came back on to Watervliet in early October, we had a full pallet crate half filled with small gourds. About 15 half-bushel baskets worth. I sorted out the whole thing, picking off early rotters, repacking into half bushel baskets.. and choosing off a select peck or so of super small gourds.. that I have been curing off in the solarium for weeks now. They are now ready for final cleanup to set up into the villages along with a lot of foliage that is getting pulled off and re-distributed.
Anywho.. homemade pizzas tonight. All sorts of goodness. But gonna post now instead of saving it for another day this time, lol..
Monday, September 12, 2016
Holloween is FUCKING ON!!!
Friday, August 19. So like always.... lagging around.
Went out an about shopping in SH.. Menards for a propane tank.. and guess what? THEY ARE PUTTING OUT HALLOWEEN!!!! SQUEEEEE!!!!
Guess who picked up a tiny freestanding birdhouse for ghosts, and a creepy monster standing town square clock? This girl! Three bucks each, ouch. But I pretty much totally missed any smalls last year due to putting off to wait till sales, then missing it.
I've hit the amount of buildings point that I really wasn't interested in any buildings at all. I've almost got a couple too many honestly, and might be culling out a "poorer christmas" or two to set aside for next year to give me extra time.
I'll hit Michaels soon to see what they got for village shit this year too.
I'm far more interested in now that I legitimately have Halloween on- hey man, candy in the aisles counts.. anywho. I have a lot of projects that I want to work on.
150 tiny brains I picked up at GenCon to turn into various stuff like farmers brain patches, a brain tree, and some fun jewelry.
A lot of random stuff, like a bunch of presents from Christmas that I now get to bust out with and touch up for evil farming :)
A few buildings.. and other random detail stuff.
And now that I have a bunch of the materials saved up... I want to take a crack at some set building, and start a vertical cavern system for the fireplace corner.
So yeah, Menards, Meijer, Hardings, and Rite Aid.. vape shop, bank and auto store too. Had to get it done before evening cuz sis is borrowing the car to get to work this weekend- her truck is puking oil like mad and needs repair.
Sat, August 20.
Had severe storm action blow in mid-morning, and kind of effectively put a hold on a lot of preserving plans till after one in the afternoon. I wasn't going to start firing up a canning kettle unless I knew darn well I could keep it going till the canning was done. And a dozen pint jars of Brussels sprouts got done, along with two quart jars of fridge zesty lime zucchini spears. Got the two cases of beets and 8jars of jalapeno slices from before GenCon de-ringed, labeled, boxed, and shelved. Sure feels damn good to actually have canned goods back on the shelf again. I have to get into the spare bedroom and really clean up previous stock and take a tally of what we got. I know we still have some jellies and jams, and a bunch of sauces, especially enchilada sauces. And it's a good thing we had such a boom tomato year last year that I felt good with making up two years worth of those products- because this summers tomato crop is pretty much null- been too damn dry to keep up with most of the summer, and some late planting really stunted the shit out of everything.
I do have a couple of volunteer white tomatoes from last year going strong in the kennel beds. I've decided to support them as much as possible so I can at least try to get one good batch of white tomatoes set aside for my brother.
In general, haven't been out in the garden in about two weeks. Got in a couple good days of weeding right after GenCon, on the 9th and 10th- but overpushed it in light of my plauge- and we have had three solid days of good rain in the days between.. just enough that I was only doing up some mandatory and much needed mowing. And stringing up clothesline and getting a lot of wash done.
Heh, we have been without a dryer for a couple weeks now. I managed to break the knob on the dryer- cracked it so it spun out of round. Glued and clamped knob. Then the back panel that has to hold the knob falls out while trying to put knob back on. Well fuck.
We have mom and sisters dryer sitting down in the pole barn, so we can swap out- but sheesh, it's been bloody hell trying to get that done. We need the dolly.. and I finally go to fix the tires, and discover that they are tubeless, and I picked up those innertubes long ago for no reason, and I don't have any tire sealant- need another trip to the auto store.
Anywho.. I picked up a nice package of top round steak slices- not enough to make rouladen, sadly. So I did it up kind of swiss steak style with a pound and a half of fresh mushrooms that were on clearance, some baby carrots, and mashed potatoes. Yum.
Sunday, August 21:
Summer has broken. The earliest of Autumnal cools blew in overnight. I don't think we will see any more summer heat this season honestly. The Dog Days are over. Weather is predicting a particularly hard cold winter this year for us. I can't help but think of last year Labor Day Weekend and Argent passing away and summer broke when he did. I kind of have to wonder if I will always think about the first breaking of summer this way.
But no melancholy like that today.
Got a half dozen pints of sweet and sour pickled red onions done. Three trays of hot banana pepper slices dehydrating- I actually picked those up a couple weeks ago for canning, but other shit happened, and they ripened on the counter in the solarium instead. Now they are past prime for pickling, but perfect for dehydrating. Seven trays of mushrooms on the dehydrator- they too are past their perfection for pickling already from the day I bought them, but perfect for drying. Shucked 8 ears of corn, 4/buck, and drying- made stock from the cobs, as usual. It's still cooling, so I don't know final yield yet.
And hey... been cooking a LOT out in the solarium this summer. Using the nesco as a steam oven, canning and cooking over the electric hotplate and coleman stove.. and I really, really love it. So much so that I have kind of decided to do this much more year round. In the winter months I can do canning and it would be a welcome help to warm the solarium while still leaving the kitchen free for other cooking.
I'm also now much more comfortable with being not chained to the kitchen directly for use this way. I'm ready for firing up really big burners- AKA the darkstars, in a more outdoor kitchen situation.
I have noted that for outdoor kitchen action, I really need to pick up a few 5 gallon water jugs for potable water. The outdoor spigot on that side still isn't working for sink action. And I just want to use more potable water than the spigot for some of the cooking action.
I'm also much more comfortable now with small batch hotplate canning. When sales hit and it is cold, I will have no problem picking up a few more pounds and cranking out winter goods.
Something tells me that this winter will be buckling down for more than just the cold... I feel kind of instinctively prompted to extra store up now. It might just be fearful of me.. but I don't think a bit of an extra stock up now to prepare for the coming winter is a bad idea.
Perhaps it's because I've been closely reading over last years preservation tallies and feel the need to catch up too.
Dryer still broken- but the day was cooler and winds were crisply clipping along. So a load of house linens, bed linens washed and line dried. Must fix the line, lol. It's cheap cotton, and even with my poor props, it needs tightening up and I need to cut a couple of those long bits of wood for some proper clothesline props. I strung up a secondary line in another more discreet side yard for more delicate outdoor drying, as well as a three pole rack in the solarium.
I've now dedicated myself to being out at, and working at Bristol for the last two weekends. You know it I'm excited about this. It should be good times, and good friends, and hopefully not too much drama.. cuz, lol, you know there is always at least some drama out at faire. And holy crap, as always, figuring out five days worth of garb is a PITA- especially now that I have an expanded yesteryear collection to choose from.
Cleared off the workbench today while cooking in the solarium.
And LAMO.. it's September 12..
Nightvale county has been waking up since the day after Labor Day. Picked up a shitton of produce to start firing up. Dryer still broken. Bristol was frigging awesome. Started taking cuttings off the hibiscuses and fuchsias today. Made a couple gallons of ham stock. Taco night for dinner. It's sis's b-day, and I couldn't think of a better dinner request :)
Went out an about shopping in SH.. Menards for a propane tank.. and guess what? THEY ARE PUTTING OUT HALLOWEEN!!!! SQUEEEEE!!!!
Guess who picked up a tiny freestanding birdhouse for ghosts, and a creepy monster standing town square clock? This girl! Three bucks each, ouch. But I pretty much totally missed any smalls last year due to putting off to wait till sales, then missing it.
I've hit the amount of buildings point that I really wasn't interested in any buildings at all. I've almost got a couple too many honestly, and might be culling out a "poorer christmas" or two to set aside for next year to give me extra time.
I'll hit Michaels soon to see what they got for village shit this year too.
I'm far more interested in now that I legitimately have Halloween on- hey man, candy in the aisles counts.. anywho. I have a lot of projects that I want to work on.
150 tiny brains I picked up at GenCon to turn into various stuff like farmers brain patches, a brain tree, and some fun jewelry.
A lot of random stuff, like a bunch of presents from Christmas that I now get to bust out with and touch up for evil farming :)
A few buildings.. and other random detail stuff.
And now that I have a bunch of the materials saved up... I want to take a crack at some set building, and start a vertical cavern system for the fireplace corner.
So yeah, Menards, Meijer, Hardings, and Rite Aid.. vape shop, bank and auto store too. Had to get it done before evening cuz sis is borrowing the car to get to work this weekend- her truck is puking oil like mad and needs repair.
Sat, August 20.
Had severe storm action blow in mid-morning, and kind of effectively put a hold on a lot of preserving plans till after one in the afternoon. I wasn't going to start firing up a canning kettle unless I knew darn well I could keep it going till the canning was done. And a dozen pint jars of Brussels sprouts got done, along with two quart jars of fridge zesty lime zucchini spears. Got the two cases of beets and 8jars of jalapeno slices from before GenCon de-ringed, labeled, boxed, and shelved. Sure feels damn good to actually have canned goods back on the shelf again. I have to get into the spare bedroom and really clean up previous stock and take a tally of what we got. I know we still have some jellies and jams, and a bunch of sauces, especially enchilada sauces. And it's a good thing we had such a boom tomato year last year that I felt good with making up two years worth of those products- because this summers tomato crop is pretty much null- been too damn dry to keep up with most of the summer, and some late planting really stunted the shit out of everything.
I do have a couple of volunteer white tomatoes from last year going strong in the kennel beds. I've decided to support them as much as possible so I can at least try to get one good batch of white tomatoes set aside for my brother.
In general, haven't been out in the garden in about two weeks. Got in a couple good days of weeding right after GenCon, on the 9th and 10th- but overpushed it in light of my plauge- and we have had three solid days of good rain in the days between.. just enough that I was only doing up some mandatory and much needed mowing. And stringing up clothesline and getting a lot of wash done.
Heh, we have been without a dryer for a couple weeks now. I managed to break the knob on the dryer- cracked it so it spun out of round. Glued and clamped knob. Then the back panel that has to hold the knob falls out while trying to put knob back on. Well fuck.
We have mom and sisters dryer sitting down in the pole barn, so we can swap out- but sheesh, it's been bloody hell trying to get that done. We need the dolly.. and I finally go to fix the tires, and discover that they are tubeless, and I picked up those innertubes long ago for no reason, and I don't have any tire sealant- need another trip to the auto store.
Anywho.. I picked up a nice package of top round steak slices- not enough to make rouladen, sadly. So I did it up kind of swiss steak style with a pound and a half of fresh mushrooms that were on clearance, some baby carrots, and mashed potatoes. Yum.
Sunday, August 21:
Summer has broken. The earliest of Autumnal cools blew in overnight. I don't think we will see any more summer heat this season honestly. The Dog Days are over. Weather is predicting a particularly hard cold winter this year for us. I can't help but think of last year Labor Day Weekend and Argent passing away and summer broke when he did. I kind of have to wonder if I will always think about the first breaking of summer this way.
But no melancholy like that today.
Got a half dozen pints of sweet and sour pickled red onions done. Three trays of hot banana pepper slices dehydrating- I actually picked those up a couple weeks ago for canning, but other shit happened, and they ripened on the counter in the solarium instead. Now they are past prime for pickling, but perfect for dehydrating. Seven trays of mushrooms on the dehydrator- they too are past their perfection for pickling already from the day I bought them, but perfect for drying. Shucked 8 ears of corn, 4/buck, and drying- made stock from the cobs, as usual. It's still cooling, so I don't know final yield yet.
And hey... been cooking a LOT out in the solarium this summer. Using the nesco as a steam oven, canning and cooking over the electric hotplate and coleman stove.. and I really, really love it. So much so that I have kind of decided to do this much more year round. In the winter months I can do canning and it would be a welcome help to warm the solarium while still leaving the kitchen free for other cooking.
I'm also now much more comfortable with being not chained to the kitchen directly for use this way. I'm ready for firing up really big burners- AKA the darkstars, in a more outdoor kitchen situation.
I have noted that for outdoor kitchen action, I really need to pick up a few 5 gallon water jugs for potable water. The outdoor spigot on that side still isn't working for sink action. And I just want to use more potable water than the spigot for some of the cooking action.
I'm also much more comfortable now with small batch hotplate canning. When sales hit and it is cold, I will have no problem picking up a few more pounds and cranking out winter goods.
Something tells me that this winter will be buckling down for more than just the cold... I feel kind of instinctively prompted to extra store up now. It might just be fearful of me.. but I don't think a bit of an extra stock up now to prepare for the coming winter is a bad idea.
Perhaps it's because I've been closely reading over last years preservation tallies and feel the need to catch up too.
Dryer still broken- but the day was cooler and winds were crisply clipping along. So a load of house linens, bed linens washed and line dried. Must fix the line, lol. It's cheap cotton, and even with my poor props, it needs tightening up and I need to cut a couple of those long bits of wood for some proper clothesline props. I strung up a secondary line in another more discreet side yard for more delicate outdoor drying, as well as a three pole rack in the solarium.
I've now dedicated myself to being out at, and working at Bristol for the last two weekends. You know it I'm excited about this. It should be good times, and good friends, and hopefully not too much drama.. cuz, lol, you know there is always at least some drama out at faire. And holy crap, as always, figuring out five days worth of garb is a PITA- especially now that I have an expanded yesteryear collection to choose from.
Cleared off the workbench today while cooking in the solarium.
And LAMO.. it's September 12..
Nightvale county has been waking up since the day after Labor Day. Picked up a shitton of produce to start firing up. Dryer still broken. Bristol was frigging awesome. Started taking cuttings off the hibiscuses and fuchsias today. Made a couple gallons of ham stock. Taco night for dinner. It's sis's b-day, and I couldn't think of a better dinner request :)
Thursday, August 11, 2016
mid August report...
So the huge load of summer workload is pretty much over. My last day at the fruit exchange was last Sunday, and I'm offically laid off from there. I might go back and work there again in the spring, depending on what happens or not in the interm.
Sunday was my last day.. I took Monday off. Tuesday was the elections, and this gal won the democrat ticket for trustee with 35 votes. I have a competitor in the ring, threw in his hat as a write in on the day of- his name is Tim. He likely made his qualifying 10 votes to be on the November ticket. We got home from GenCon on Monday, and I had a Town Hall meeting that night that mom attended with me. Guess who wasn't there? Tim. Or the other two write in people.
GenCon.. again, fucking huge. The main exhibition hall has now taken up the full space that was gaming last year, and spilled over into the basement of Lucas Oil Stadium. Lots of good folks, fun times. Steam Crow is my hands down fave of the show. And of course, doing stuff like this with my sister always makes regular stuff extra awesome! It's just a blast doing stuff like this with her.
Took most of Monday off to decompress before the Town Hall meeting. Tuesday was some petty errands and waiting on hold with bill folks.
Wed was weeding, got the kale bed and kennel bed done. Made a version of Jambalaya for dinner. It was fucking good, and there's leftovers. I did it fast and easy, using up a couple bags of cooked rice (about 6 cups worth) that were in the freezer. Added in a pint of home canned tomato juice, a cup of home canned enchilada sauce, a handful of dried tomato slices, couple cans of undrained mushrooms, chunk raw chicken, few andouille sausage, and a half package of white fish fillets. This easily fed the 5 of us, with a few leftovers, so I would say 8-12 servings, depending on portion size. If I had been feeding more of a crowd, I would have added in a can or three of various canned dry beans of any kind, rinsed and drained. If I had less sausage or chicken on hand, or wanted to make a meat free version, I would for sure add 2-3 different kinds of beans. The seafood is critical, using whitefish, shrimp, or scallops is what's needed here at the end of the simmer to suck up the rich flavors.
So...
2-3 tablespoons bacon grease- butter or olive oil will do, but bacon grease is best for that porky flavor. If you have rendered smoked ham fat, that is even more sublime.
1 large onion, rough chop.
2-3 sweet bell peppers, medium dice. This is optional, but makes it way better.
6 cups cooked rice
1 large boneless chicken breast, raw, chunked in large two bite pieces
5-6 andiulle saugage, left whole, room temp. If they are raw, cook them first. If they are heat and serve, leave alone.
6-8 white fish fillets, or bag of raw large shrimp, or package of scallops- frozen. This is important, you want to add the seafood in it's frozen state, not thawed at all.
2 cups tomato juice- V8 and bloody mary mix works too.
8 oz enchilada sauce. This can be fudged out with salsa, or a can of diced tomatoes with some extra seasoning thrown into the mix, or use a bigger 15 oz can of sauce if omitting the mushrooms. Do NOT use premade spaghetti sauce or canned tomato sauce.
Canned beans, rinsed and drained. Optional.
2 4 oz cans of mushrooms, one drained, one not. If not using mushrooms, refer to the enchilada sauce note. Or add 2/3 cup water. Or if you want to make it HOT, replace the 2 cans mushrooms with 2 cans diced chilies or jalapenos.
Cajun seasoning. Usually I add 2-3 Tablespoons per batch. Adjust to taste and heat level.
Dried minced or wet jar garlic. Usually 2-3 tablespoons per batch
1 tablespoon salt, and one teaspoon black pepper
Sautee up your onion and peppers in the bacon grease till fragrant and starting to get a bit soft.
Add in the tomato juice, sauce you are using, half of the cajun seasoning, garlic, and salt.
Once that gets up to heat, add in your mushrooms or substitute, and raw chicken, and/or canned beans. It should be a bit soupy right now. If not, add in some liquid. Water, beer, and stock are good. Up to 8 oz depending..
Add in rice and stir in well.
Layer in sausage. Cover, reduce heat to low, and let simmer 15 min.
Add in half of the seafood, stir well, cover, let simmer 15 minutes.
Add in the other half of the cajun seasoning, garlic, and salt. Add in the black pepper. Stir well. Add in the other half of the seafood. Let rest on top. Cover, and let simmer on low 15-30 minutes.
If you find yourself on a hold.. kill the heat on everything up to adding the seafood. The addition of the seafood should be in the last wee bit before service.
A note to folks.. if you like eating rice a lot, and like to buy those single serve instant nuke packets of it... Consider making a double batch of rice next time, and freeze off portions. Rice freezes and reheats really well. If you tend to use pouches, use freezer ziplock bags or vacuum sealing. If you tend to do bowls of rice, use deli containers or butter tubs to give you bowl action.
This works great too for when you have a lot of leftover rice, either homemade or chinese take out.
Thursday was mulching in the kale bed, putting in the smother bed between the kennel bed and the garage, and weeding out the central lasagne bed since that's the only one that had shade, lol. Lots of watering. We are still disturbingly dry. We haven't quite hit the drought like in 2012, but it's creeping in there.
And cheesey baked potato bake for dinner. A dear friend of mine who happens to be a firefighter and hates cooking and I were chatting the other day, and I offered to help him out with some super easy recipes to feed 20 hungry firefighters. So I'm kicking off with another round of solarium cooking.
I baked off 5 pounds of taters in the nesco. Browned off one pound of bulk sausage- Jimmy Dean, Tennessee Pride, whatever- just mild or regular flavor. Did that up on the camp stove. And I'm baking the whole thing off in the Nesco. So.. recipe formulation time, using ratios I've used before.
5 pounds baked potatoes, large dice
1 pound cooked meat- this is a great way to use up leftover meat
1 can cream soup- we like mushroom or particularly, poblano queso cream soup. But any of the cream cooking soups are good for this- particularly depending on the meat used. Cream of asparagus or celery would go will with basic chicken, cheddar or nacho cheese soup would be good with chorizo. If you are making a double batch, you can mix soup flavors to suit since you would use two cans.
1 cup cream dairy product- this can be room temp cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, or a boursin style spread- that's what I'm using tonight since it was on hand and needed eating up. Do not use a sharp dairy like greek yogurt for this, use a blander/sweeter dairy.
1 cup sour cream. You can substitute sharp dairy like greek yogurt here.
1 8 oz package shredded cheese- I used a mac and cheese blend, but any blend will do. If making a double batch, you would use two packages anyway, so you can do two different packages of cheese to make a blend.
2 4 oz cans mushrooms, one drained, one not drained- if you can't do mushrooms, substitute in a 2/3 cup water with a beef bouillon cube, brown G's, beef stock. Or if doing a chicken or pork version, chicken cube, golden G's, or chicken stock. If doing a double batch using leftover meats of various kinds, 1 cup water plus 1 each of beef and chicken flavoring.
2 medium onions, halved and sliced across the grain
1 T each of thyme and parsley
2 T dried minced garlic
1 t each salt and pepper
1 t mushroom powder
1-2 cups veggies, depending on your veggie level. A drained can of corn or green beans, a bunch of broccoli, a couple cups a various frozen veggie tail end bags lurking around your freezer needing to be used up. Make sure you drain canned veggies, and get frozen veggies thawed out before mixing in. Even if you normally skip veggies, add in at least that can of corn or whatever. The moisture content from the veggies is necessary during baking.
Yes, you must use baked potatoes. Easy enough is to bake off a batch the night before, but doing it earlier in the day works too. Don't cook them till they are baked potato eating done- when you stick a fork into it to test it, pull off the heat when it hits about 10 more minutes till done time. Let cool at least till room temp, or better yet overnight. You want starches to set before slicing up, much like letting a steak rest to let it's juices redistribute before cutting into it.
You can use whole boiled/steamed taters for this too- but usually what you steam/boil whole is better suited for other applications like potato salad or smashed potatoes.
Meanwhile.. in a big frigging bowl, mix together everything but the taters and meat. Then fold in the taters and meat. Pour into a big baking dish and cover.
Normally in the oven, I would bake this off at 350 for an hour, then kill the heat and let rest for a bit before serving. Since I did it in the nesco, using a steam bath baking, I'm doing it at 400, utilizing the cover of the nesco for covering instead of actually putting a cover on the pan itself. I'm using a deep half hotel pan for this, and it could easily accommodate a double batch. If I were to do that, I would reduce the heat to 300 and let it bake for 2+ hours till a thermometer inserted in the middle reads at 165 degrees. Everything should be hot and melty.
I also sliced up a large hot banana pepper to put on top of half the pan, to up the kick a bit. If doing a double batch, I would layer in half the potato mix, a layer of pepper rings on one half of the pan, then the other half of the mix with a second layer of pepper rings on top. Or do two 9x13 pans, one pepper spicy, one not with a single layer of pepper rings on top of the spicy.
Sunday was my last day.. I took Monday off. Tuesday was the elections, and this gal won the democrat ticket for trustee with 35 votes. I have a competitor in the ring, threw in his hat as a write in on the day of- his name is Tim. He likely made his qualifying 10 votes to be on the November ticket. We got home from GenCon on Monday, and I had a Town Hall meeting that night that mom attended with me. Guess who wasn't there? Tim. Or the other two write in people.
GenCon.. again, fucking huge. The main exhibition hall has now taken up the full space that was gaming last year, and spilled over into the basement of Lucas Oil Stadium. Lots of good folks, fun times. Steam Crow is my hands down fave of the show. And of course, doing stuff like this with my sister always makes regular stuff extra awesome! It's just a blast doing stuff like this with her.
Took most of Monday off to decompress before the Town Hall meeting. Tuesday was some petty errands and waiting on hold with bill folks.
Wed was weeding, got the kale bed and kennel bed done. Made a version of Jambalaya for dinner. It was fucking good, and there's leftovers. I did it fast and easy, using up a couple bags of cooked rice (about 6 cups worth) that were in the freezer. Added in a pint of home canned tomato juice, a cup of home canned enchilada sauce, a handful of dried tomato slices, couple cans of undrained mushrooms, chunk raw chicken, few andouille sausage, and a half package of white fish fillets. This easily fed the 5 of us, with a few leftovers, so I would say 8-12 servings, depending on portion size. If I had been feeding more of a crowd, I would have added in a can or three of various canned dry beans of any kind, rinsed and drained. If I had less sausage or chicken on hand, or wanted to make a meat free version, I would for sure add 2-3 different kinds of beans. The seafood is critical, using whitefish, shrimp, or scallops is what's needed here at the end of the simmer to suck up the rich flavors.
So...
2-3 tablespoons bacon grease- butter or olive oil will do, but bacon grease is best for that porky flavor. If you have rendered smoked ham fat, that is even more sublime.
1 large onion, rough chop.
2-3 sweet bell peppers, medium dice. This is optional, but makes it way better.
6 cups cooked rice
1 large boneless chicken breast, raw, chunked in large two bite pieces
5-6 andiulle saugage, left whole, room temp. If they are raw, cook them first. If they are heat and serve, leave alone.
6-8 white fish fillets, or bag of raw large shrimp, or package of scallops- frozen. This is important, you want to add the seafood in it's frozen state, not thawed at all.
2 cups tomato juice- V8 and bloody mary mix works too.
8 oz enchilada sauce. This can be fudged out with salsa, or a can of diced tomatoes with some extra seasoning thrown into the mix, or use a bigger 15 oz can of sauce if omitting the mushrooms. Do NOT use premade spaghetti sauce or canned tomato sauce.
Canned beans, rinsed and drained. Optional.
2 4 oz cans of mushrooms, one drained, one not. If not using mushrooms, refer to the enchilada sauce note. Or add 2/3 cup water. Or if you want to make it HOT, replace the 2 cans mushrooms with 2 cans diced chilies or jalapenos.
Cajun seasoning. Usually I add 2-3 Tablespoons per batch. Adjust to taste and heat level.
Dried minced or wet jar garlic. Usually 2-3 tablespoons per batch
1 tablespoon salt, and one teaspoon black pepper
Sautee up your onion and peppers in the bacon grease till fragrant and starting to get a bit soft.
Add in the tomato juice, sauce you are using, half of the cajun seasoning, garlic, and salt.
Once that gets up to heat, add in your mushrooms or substitute, and raw chicken, and/or canned beans. It should be a bit soupy right now. If not, add in some liquid. Water, beer, and stock are good. Up to 8 oz depending..
Add in rice and stir in well.
Layer in sausage. Cover, reduce heat to low, and let simmer 15 min.
Add in half of the seafood, stir well, cover, let simmer 15 minutes.
Add in the other half of the cajun seasoning, garlic, and salt. Add in the black pepper. Stir well. Add in the other half of the seafood. Let rest on top. Cover, and let simmer on low 15-30 minutes.
If you find yourself on a hold.. kill the heat on everything up to adding the seafood. The addition of the seafood should be in the last wee bit before service.
A note to folks.. if you like eating rice a lot, and like to buy those single serve instant nuke packets of it... Consider making a double batch of rice next time, and freeze off portions. Rice freezes and reheats really well. If you tend to use pouches, use freezer ziplock bags or vacuum sealing. If you tend to do bowls of rice, use deli containers or butter tubs to give you bowl action.
This works great too for when you have a lot of leftover rice, either homemade or chinese take out.
Thursday was mulching in the kale bed, putting in the smother bed between the kennel bed and the garage, and weeding out the central lasagne bed since that's the only one that had shade, lol. Lots of watering. We are still disturbingly dry. We haven't quite hit the drought like in 2012, but it's creeping in there.
And cheesey baked potato bake for dinner. A dear friend of mine who happens to be a firefighter and hates cooking and I were chatting the other day, and I offered to help him out with some super easy recipes to feed 20 hungry firefighters. So I'm kicking off with another round of solarium cooking.
I baked off 5 pounds of taters in the nesco. Browned off one pound of bulk sausage- Jimmy Dean, Tennessee Pride, whatever- just mild or regular flavor. Did that up on the camp stove. And I'm baking the whole thing off in the Nesco. So.. recipe formulation time, using ratios I've used before.
5 pounds baked potatoes, large dice
1 pound cooked meat- this is a great way to use up leftover meat
1 can cream soup- we like mushroom or particularly, poblano queso cream soup. But any of the cream cooking soups are good for this- particularly depending on the meat used. Cream of asparagus or celery would go will with basic chicken, cheddar or nacho cheese soup would be good with chorizo. If you are making a double batch, you can mix soup flavors to suit since you would use two cans.
1 cup cream dairy product- this can be room temp cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, or a boursin style spread- that's what I'm using tonight since it was on hand and needed eating up. Do not use a sharp dairy like greek yogurt for this, use a blander/sweeter dairy.
1 cup sour cream. You can substitute sharp dairy like greek yogurt here.
1 8 oz package shredded cheese- I used a mac and cheese blend, but any blend will do. If making a double batch, you would use two packages anyway, so you can do two different packages of cheese to make a blend.
2 4 oz cans mushrooms, one drained, one not drained- if you can't do mushrooms, substitute in a 2/3 cup water with a beef bouillon cube, brown G's, beef stock. Or if doing a chicken or pork version, chicken cube, golden G's, or chicken stock. If doing a double batch using leftover meats of various kinds, 1 cup water plus 1 each of beef and chicken flavoring.
2 medium onions, halved and sliced across the grain
1 T each of thyme and parsley
2 T dried minced garlic
1 t each salt and pepper
1 t mushroom powder
1-2 cups veggies, depending on your veggie level. A drained can of corn or green beans, a bunch of broccoli, a couple cups a various frozen veggie tail end bags lurking around your freezer needing to be used up. Make sure you drain canned veggies, and get frozen veggies thawed out before mixing in. Even if you normally skip veggies, add in at least that can of corn or whatever. The moisture content from the veggies is necessary during baking.
Yes, you must use baked potatoes. Easy enough is to bake off a batch the night before, but doing it earlier in the day works too. Don't cook them till they are baked potato eating done- when you stick a fork into it to test it, pull off the heat when it hits about 10 more minutes till done time. Let cool at least till room temp, or better yet overnight. You want starches to set before slicing up, much like letting a steak rest to let it's juices redistribute before cutting into it.
You can use whole boiled/steamed taters for this too- but usually what you steam/boil whole is better suited for other applications like potato salad or smashed potatoes.
Meanwhile.. in a big frigging bowl, mix together everything but the taters and meat. Then fold in the taters and meat. Pour into a big baking dish and cover.
Normally in the oven, I would bake this off at 350 for an hour, then kill the heat and let rest for a bit before serving. Since I did it in the nesco, using a steam bath baking, I'm doing it at 400, utilizing the cover of the nesco for covering instead of actually putting a cover on the pan itself. I'm using a deep half hotel pan for this, and it could easily accommodate a double batch. If I were to do that, I would reduce the heat to 300 and let it bake for 2+ hours till a thermometer inserted in the middle reads at 165 degrees. Everything should be hot and melty.
I also sliced up a large hot banana pepper to put on top of half the pan, to up the kick a bit. If doing a double batch, I would layer in half the potato mix, a layer of pepper rings on one half of the pan, then the other half of the mix with a second layer of pepper rings on top. Or do two 9x13 pans, one pepper spicy, one not with a single layer of pepper rings on top of the spicy.
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