Senior Sustainable Living with Jo

So I went back to the store and hit a major sale on chicken leg quarters. We actually drove across town to a store we no longer frequent to catch this sale. It was even my off week for shopping. This store had leg quarters, in 10lb bags, for $4.  I snatched up the 4 bags, all that was in the case. Yep! This is one of the few times I'll do this. If you just browse the news, all they talk about is future shortages and how we are headed for the hyperinflation scenarios. Well, I've got a family to feed and care for. So 40lbs of meat will go a long way to stop hunger pains from happening.  Instead of deboning all forty pounds, I canned about half in whole pieces. Four chicken legs, or thighs, or a combination of both fitted nicely in my pint and a half jars. These I raw packed with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. I know the astringent qualities in sage will turn canned foods bitter so I make my blend without it for canning. I can add sage later when I cook it up. I did skin the...

I've never had any luck canning potatoes without an almost metallic after taste and smell to them. The jars would have so much starch in them almost half the jars were impossible to see the contents. So disheartened,  I quit canning them at all. What was the sense of canning potatoes like that? It was a waste of time and energy. As you may have guessed, I spend quite a bit of my time watching YouTube videos. With my strokes, I have difficulty reading and comprehending written instructions (actually most types of reading) without reading anything four or five times through or storing it in my long term memory because my short term memory is gone. So much got my photo- and phonographic memory. It's gone too. Now, I guess my memory is just like anybody else my age with CRAFT (Can't Remember Any Frigging Thing). It gives a whole new appreciation to the other anagram, KISS (Keep It Stupid Simple) me please. Whereas before, everything was easy, now it takes hard concentration to ...

I found some organic pickling cucumbers on sale this week. The general consensus in this house like dill spears. So instead of buying all new herbs and spices that goes in my pickling mix, I decided to give Mrs. Wages kosher dill pickles a try. After reading through the ingredients, I added mustard seeds, celery seeds, black peppercorns, and two heads of garlic as tweaks to make the pickles my own. It would take 9-11 lbs of cucumbers according to the recipe on the back of the package. I have a love/hate relationship with premade mixes as you can tell from my additional purchases.  I cut the blossom ends off and cut the cucumbers into jar height lengths. I was using regular mouth pint jars. the extra lengths that I cut off didn't go to waste, but were cut into bite sized cubes in a jar to themselves. To help hold the cucumber to cut the ends and wedges, I was lazy and didn't grab my cutting board with the pins in it, I grabbed a regular cutting board and used the grooved side. I...

 I told you about the mix up with my ordering Napa cabbage and they substituted regular green cabbage, didn't I? But I didn't give you the recipe. Well, here you go. I believe in waste not, want not. First, I shredded all 10 lbs of the cabbage on my mandolin, or almost 29 cups shredded, This was no mean feat given my inability to stand for more than 25 minutes because of some brace issues. It took me the better part of two days. Another day shredding 3 cups of carrots and 2 cups of onions for that much shredded cabbage. The recipe (Ball Canning Book, 1966) calls for 1 cup of carrots and 1/2 cup of onions and bell pepper, but since I do not put bell peppers in my coleslaw, I substituted carrots for the bell pepper. I figured this was a safe enough to do since the mixture was basically being pickled for shelf stability. I wasn't wrong because I've made this recipe yearly since 1989 and hadn't been sick yet from it. So I feel fairly confident to share it. Canned Colesl...