Waste Not Want Not

Hi De Ho there Peeps!!!

Just dropping in to say hello and show you what's been occupying my time lately.

That's 16 quarts of tomatoes, 2 pints of cinnamon applesauce, 4 quarts of marinara sauce canned and in the pantry. There was another ¾ pint of cinnamon applesauce and 24 oz jar of salsa that went into the refrigerator.   Then I added about 5 jelly jars of mandarin orange marmalade to the mix. 

We specifically bought the tomatoes from Bountiful Baskets to can.

I did a post awhile back about canning tomatoes and you can view it right here.  The best source for canning questions is always the Ball website and the link to tomatoes can be found here.

One additional tidbit of information that makes for great canning discussion,  I do not peel my tomatoes any longer.   I am fortunate enough to have a Vitamix blender and I have found that I can quarter my tomatoes, toss about 3 or 4 in the blender then pulse them until they get to the consistency I like and then dump them in a big stock pot until I get enough for a batch to cook.  The prep time for this process is more manageable, I use all the tomato (except the core) and while I enjoy having company in the kitchen on big canning projects using the blender makes it a manageable one person job.  

After doing 16 quarts of tomatoes  I decided to venture out and cook up a few batches of marinara sauce and can those as well.   I've never done marinara sauce this way so hopefully it'll taste awesome and we can free up the freezer space for other things coming this summer. 

In case you wondered you can get the recipe for the marinara sauce here but I'm also gonna give you a few modifications I've made over time.  

Instead of 1 can of crushed tomatoes I use a qt. jar of my canned tomatoes.

I also toss in a small can of tomato paste and a heavy pinch of red pepper flakes.

When I decided to can the marinara I made sure to toss in each jar some citric acid, the same measurement for a qt. of tomatoes.  

The applesauce was done because I had a bunch of apples that were about to go bad on me.  I absolutely detest throwing out food so while I was working on the tomatoes I decided to toss those in the crock pot and make some applesauce.  

If you are interested in doing something with your apples I used this recipe.  I adjusted the amounts to the quantity of apples I had on hand.  While the recipe I used indicates it is for apple butter, I just cooked the apples until they were pretty mushy and then used the immersion blender to get the applesauce to my preferred consistency.   Then I processed them in pint jars in the water bath canner for 10 minutes.  

On the whole issue of throwing out food, that's how the Mandarin Marmalade happened.  I also happened to have purchased a large box of the Halo mandarins from Sam's Club a few weeks back and they weren't the best we've had and there they were just staring at me so off to the internets I go and I found this recipe to use.   

We don't eat much in the way of jams or jellies in this house but at least it is preserved and I didn't have to toss it out.  That's a WINNER in my book!   

I did scour Pinterest and found more than a few recipes that use orange marmalade.  I'm thinking of trying my hand at some orange chicken, orange marmalade cake, orange muffins with a marmalade center, orange marmalade BBQ sauce for meatballs.  I think I'll have no trouble using that marmalade after all!!!

Not to mention it sure looks pretty on the windowsill. 

Now this morning I'm getting an egg out of the refrigerator and something smells "off".   I remembered I had bought a big bag of spinach for smoothies and it was beginning to get that I'm going bad smell.   Off to the world wide web systems I go again and I find where I can just dump all that spinach in the Vitamix blender and basically juice it smooth.  Poured it into ice cube trays and into the freezer it went.   When it is good and frozen I'll pop them out of the trays and into a plastic bag and throw it on the shelf in the freezer with the other cut up frozen fruits for smoothies.   Honestly I think maybe from now on I'll just do this when I get one of those big bags of spinach!

I also had 2 very large heads of broccoli that was about to get a little too limp to revive so I cut it up and roasted it.  I bragged on Instagram that I didn't have to share it.   Jokes on me!!!!  For gastro intestinal reasons we shall not go into, I don't recommend eating that much broccoli alone and in one sitting!!!     

What about you guys?  How do you keep from tossing out perfectly good food? 

Do you buy things in bulk and put it up for use in the off season?   I'd love to hear how your family deals with excess produce. 

I'm off to start painting and hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with the painting I've done so far and the progress on the next room I'm tackling!

Peace, Love & Preservation!

Tuesday Times

Hi Dee Ho there Peeps!!!

Long time no chat!   So so very much has been going on and I don't really know where to start so I figured I'd start with a Tuesday Times edition and catch everyone up a little bit. 










Reading:  I subscribe to a couple of different email lists that send me daily books that are free or almost free and I started the most wonderful book series: Bellingwood.  Here's the link on Amazon, I've finished 4 of the books and 1 of the novella short stories, ready to start #5.

                                                                  


Listening:  Listening to the dog snore, VERY loudly.

Not actual photo of him snoring but I thought you should be reminded of  Sir Winstons charming face

Watching:  Game of Thrones....does any other show matter??  I think not, especially since Fixer Upper is on hiatus. 

Trying: To make my upstairs craft room/ guest room / office balcony look like a New Orleans Bourbon St. balcony. I may bankrupt us in the process but it'll be awesome!!

Here's where we are so far in the transformation:

From L to R: My travelocity gnome, an orange tree that we started from seed from a tree when we visited Arizona State, garlic in the small blue pot.  Up on the railing basket we have purple and yellow and white trailing flowers ( from Home Depots HGTV collection) and back down to the middle we have a rectangular planter with 2 hibiscus plants.  I'm picking up another planter and 2 more Hibiscus plants this week to balance things out.  Then we have a Sun Parasol Mandevilla in Pretty Pink and over in the far right corner is the lime tree (with limes growing) that we've had for years.  Over in the back right corner that you cannot see is a Gardenia tree that is FINALLY starting to leaf back out, a pineapple plant that I actually started from a pineapple top and a rosemary plant. 

I've found a round lounger and a swing that I'm trying to decide between for this space and I'd like to cover the roof decking with either artificial turf or a large outdoor rug. I think it'll be a great spot for my morning coffee or evening glass of wine.  No one ever wants to sleep up in that room but by the time I'm done up here I'm betting it'll be the most requested guest spot.  

 Cooking:  Tried making a Gluten Free Lemon Blueberry Crumble doughnut yesterday.  I thought it was "chalky", Hubster loved them and the Abogg surprised me this morning and he loved them too.  I twitter chatted with a lovely blogger who gave me some tips on baking with GF flour mixes so I think I'll go find that recipe and maybe give it another try.

Eating: So in this crazy world of messed up change of life events, I was recently diagnosed with a wheat allergy.  Basically this means I cannot have anything made with flour.  In case you wondered, that's almost everything on the face of the earth.  Between the Hummus recall and the Blue Bell Ice cream recall, I may starve. Thank goodness for cheese. 

Drinking:  After I get my water for the day finished, it's Dos Equis time.  (yes, I can have that beer and believe me I've done HOURS of research on the beers I can and can't have). Yes I'm fully aware that I lead an uneventful life. 


Pinning:  I've been researching companion planting for the garden. Hours of time I've spent and we finally have everything in the ground.  We'll see how this goes-hoping for bumper crops and less pests.

Here's our little garden: cherry tomatoes, kale, cucumbers, sunflowers, basil, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, squash, dill, banana peppers, green beans, black eye peas, cantaloupe, bell peppers, LOTS of marigolds, onions, lavender.  That's all planted and coming up beautifully and when the time is right we'll add eggplant and okra.  

We finally convinced Hubster into another fire pit.  This is our little seating area off the back porch.

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Here's another view.  We enjoy sitting out here with the neighbors and plus it's a legal way to burn all the sticks and brush.  Woohoo

Tweeting:  My woes of GF baking and pics of products I review.  I'm @SammaSpot if you're a Tweeter! 

Crafting: I haven't really been crafting. There's too much yard work, gardening and general stuffs to be done.  

Doing: It's that time of year, when the inside of my house is a mess because I'd much rather be outside planting flowers and working in the garden and enjoying the non suffocating temperatures.  It's Sir Winstons favorite weather too!

Going:  We're making a trip to Arkansas this weekend for the girls Uncle Matt's wedding celebrations.  Uncle Matt married a delightful girl from Thailand and they've already married over in Thailand but now they are heading back to the States to celebrate their joyous new marriage. 

Loving:  My acupuncturist!  Seriously, she is DIVINE!   People I was dying, the allergies on top of my thyroid had me feeling so bad and down in the dumps that I knew I was ready to try anything.  My only question is WHY did it take me so long???  I've had 3 sessions and I'm feeling amazing (allergy wise-dang thyroid still misbehaves). I'm allergic to pollen, every flipping tree in Texas and wheat flour.  Seriously, is there any wonder to why I felt so bad?

Hating: Negative judgmental people.  Seriously ain't nobody got time for that!   I'm just leaving this one because the older I get the more this bugs me. 

Discovering:  That it really is time to get some decorating done around here. We've been here for a year now and we've done one tiny little powder room and that's it.  Time to quit pinning and start painting!

Enjoying: My friends, my family and my neighbors. Seriously, we have the best time with these neighbors.  Good people I tell ya, really good people.

Hoping:  For my sweet mama to feel better. She's having a tough time so prayers, good thoughts, positive vibes her way would be much appreciated. 

This photo was a little over two years ago, Winston was a wee tiny pup.

Smelling: Everything because my nose is no longer stopped up. 

Thanking:  Once again I have so much to be grateful/thankful for and I try to never take anything or anyone for granted.  

Considering: Which room I'm going to tackle first in this house.  It's open season, they all need something done.

Finishing:  The garden planting.  Our pepper seeds didn't come up so I need to get a few bell pepper plants.  However every stinking cucumber seed did burst forth so I've got to thin those out. If you need cucumber plants, come see me.

Starting: Finally going to get started educating myself and selling my Young Living oils.  A little extra cash to help out the flower funds around here.  Plus I'm out of about 4 oils so I need to get an order out.  Message me if you need something.

Reviewing:  I took out a couple of categories and am adding this one. Currently I'm reviewing YSL mascara for Influenster. 

 

Arrival day and unboxing.

The goodies!

Creepy before eye photo

Creepy after photo.  Can you believe that is only one coat?!

Pros:  Lengthens wonderfully without clumping
Doesn't flake off in my contacts
Stays on most of the day
Easy to remove

Cons:  I wish it thickened a bit more like my regular mascara
Does tend to smudge
Because it's easy to remove it isn't as long lasting as my other mascara

All in all it's a great mascara if you are looking for a lengthening mascara that's easy to remove.  Head over to the YSL page to see the product information and find out where you can pick up your tube.

"I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes."
       

I just threw this in for fun because these guys melt my heart!  When you wish things for your children you always hope that their lives are steeped in deep, wonderful friendships.  The kind of friends that you can go for months without seeing but the minute you do it's like no time has passed, friends that are there for you no matter what is going on in their life...that's these boys.  Another thing I'm ever so grateful for, my "other" sons as I call them.  I can tell you too that all the other moms feel the same way...blessed indeed!

Peace, Love & Spring