My Tireless Retirement – Week 122

 

We finally got a break in the weather with much, much cooler temperatures last Friday, enough that I was able to open windows and the back door, set the fan at the door and let in a lot of cool fresh air while I gave the A/C a much needed break.  I paid my power bill and it is the highest summer bill I’ve ever had, but my A/C units did keep the house nice and comfortable so I guess that makes it a fair trade.  The cooling spell was short lived and by Thursday we were embarking on yet another wave of triple digit temperatures.

 

Wildfire season is upon us

The Oregon wildfire that crossed over into Idaho as well as several fires of our own has kept our skies rather hazy.  We had one day the previous week that the air was so thick I swear you could taste the smoke.  That was bad and our air quality has been pretty awful, however it did break up here and there at times so we were able to get a break from it from time to time.  Are any of you dealing with wildfires in your area?

 

The break in the weather allowed me to get busy in the kitchen and do some canning.  I was gifted two rather large, but not too large, beautiful zucchinis and I instantly knew what I wanted to do with them.  I had made a small batch of my favorite sweet relish last summer and I was done to my last three jars and since my zucchini plants got eaten up by something (twice!) I didn’t think I’d have the opportunity to make any.  I was absolutely thrilled when my dear friend handed me these.

 

I also removed my very full scrap bag from the freezer to make bone broth and filled up my largest slow cooker with two chicken carcasses and a bunch of veggie scraps including the scraps from the onions and the juices after I had ground up all the vegetables I used in the relish.  I also added garlic and a sprig of rosemary from my garden.  After filling up the pot I let it cook for a good twenty four hours before straining and ladling the broth into pint jars and canning it for my LTFS.

 

This chicken stock is gorgeous!

I water bath canned the relish and pressure canned the chicken stock.  I had a bottle of lime juice in the fridge that I poured half of into an ice tray and froze so I could put the lime juice cubes into a bag to keep in the freezer and prevent it from going bad in the meantime.  It will be good to add to drinks, recipes or use when I can tomatoes in the not too distant future although I do prefer to use lemon juice with my tomatoes.

 

First harvest! 😊

Speaking of, my tomatoes are coming on and I’ve already had my first harvest of romas.  My plan this year is to stew them and can them for the LTFS shelves.  I tend to go through a lot of canned tomatoes in my cooking and I still have quite a bit of marinara and tomato sauce left from last summer’s tomatoes.

 

Meals I Prepared: 

The first couple days of the week I finished up leftovers from the week before.  I still had a few items left in the bin from my pantry challenge to use up so I made up the final box of Hamburger Helper using a can of roast beef from the LTFS as the meat.  It was so gross I couldn’t eat it and it did end up as food waste in the trash.  That’s okay because I won’t be buying either one of those items again in the future.

 

I had a pint jar of turkey soup and an open package of Chinese noodles that I used to make some homemade ramen.  It was okay, not the best soup I’ve ever made and again, I probably won’t be making that one again.  I did make a really could asian style cabbage salad to go alongside and that was quite enjoyable. 

Last, but definitely no least, I made up another small batch of my great-grandmother’s macaroni salad to use up a partial jar of cute little seashell macaroni I had in the pantry.  I needed a win and that salad is just so good.

 

I concluded the July pantry challenge on Wednesday and I’m very glad I did it.  Last week I turned a pint jar of applesauce into two beautiful loaves of applesauce loaf which I made with some whole wheat flour and then added raisins and chopped walnuts.  One loaf is in the freezer and I’m still working on the other one.  Two lone cans of Progresso clam chowder were still in my pantry so I took them into the senior center and placed them on the “Free” table.  They went home with someone leaving the bin now empty except for that large can of green enchilada sauce with I still have hopes will meet up with a nice pork roast someday soon.

 

This challenge did allow me to reallocate my grocery funds toward my winter stock up plans last month and I ticked a lot of items off the list.  It also allowed me to use up the last of the stragglers that had been taking up valuable real estate in my kitchen and make room for the newcomers.  With the exception of that one mea (HH stroganoff)l I was able to keep my food waste quite minimal and that makes me happy.  Now I am ready for some fresh produce as well as new meals to plan and prepare.  What was a favorite meal you prepared recently?