Weekend update part II

Another weekend, another busy canning session. The end results look a little something like this...

We made another batch of jalapeno jelly, a bushel of turnip greens in jars, and a bushel of apples are now apple sauce. We figure we have enough for six months of Sunday breakfasts in the basement now. The best part of the weekend is, we got to use my grandmother's jars. We rescued around three cases of jars my grandmother used for no telling how long, these are older than I am, no doubt. Some are Atlas brand, and some special gems are blue Mason's.

Keeping a family tradition alive is just gravy on our grits of a good weekend.

And speaking of Sunday breakfast, today we had a special treat.

Early in the week, Critter Gitter put a sniper shot on a squirrel, and requested squirrel gravy for Sunday breakfast. Who are we to say no? Best way to fix squirrel gravy is with a tender squirrel, so while working the pressure cooker this week, I put the squirrel in a pint jar and cooked it up. This made the meat tender, and preserved it until Sunday. We started by taking the meat off the bones.

Next it's into the cast iron skillet and butter for a little browning

Then it's business as usual for gravy

We also came to the end of our Foxgrape wine making. We opened the bucket up and poured the mash into a towel, straining the pulp from the wine. We ended up with just shy of two gallons.

I don't know the first thing about describing wine to people who know something about wine, but it's very fruity and a little sweet. We like it, a lot.

Kattie Grace had a friend over this weekend, after breakfast and after the gal pal was dropped off to her family, Kattie Grace took it upon herself to give "Fraidy Mutt" a bath.

Fraidy Mutt wasn't as excited about it as Kattie Grace was.

We also tried one more new thing this weekend. Cupcake, being the research specialist in the family, found a recipe for home made caramel. And since we had a bunch of apples on hand, we figured we would give it a whirl. Making it is simple, take a can of sweetened condensed milk, place it in a crock pot full of water and cook, unopened, on high for six hours.

Ours is still cooking, follow up report later. It's also "Chicken Wing Sunday" We hope everyone has had as good a weekend as we have.
K&K

Apple and Pumpkin update

Cupcake and I hit the ground running this morning, like we do most weekends. We started our day by using the leftover pumpkin we cubed up and baked earlier in the week for pumpkin roll. We had around a cup left over, and I suggested we use it for pancakes. Saturday is pancake day around The Acre. After we hooked Jake up with his chocolate chip pancakes, we dumped the pumpkin in the batter and whipped it until it was smooth. We added your pumpkin pie and apple pie spice and off to the griddle. They were a hit.

After breakfast we got to work on our next new project, home made apple sauce. Cupcake being the research specialist in the house found a recipe and we had about a bushel of apples on hand, so we were off to the races. First we sliced them leaving the peel on, and cooked them soft in a cup of water.

 After they soften up, we take the pot to the blender, and blend the apples smooth...

Back to the pot, and add some cinnamon and mix it together. We add no sugar at all.

Fill jars with the sauce, and water bath for fifteen minutes. Thats all there is to it.

I know all of America is tired of hearing how home made is better than store bought, but people, it's true. This stuff rocks! We made half a bushel today and got 20 pints and seven quarts. We have apple sauce cakes in our near future.

A little smoker prep work went into tonights dinner, earlier in the week Big Man smoked two whole chickens. We had one for dinner, and picked the second one for tonight's meal, smoked chicken and dumplings. I used Cupcake's herb garden to stuff the chickens, then put a slap ya mama rub on the outside and off to the smoker.

We also had a container of smoked brisket left over from the last brisket smoke. Friday was our first real blast of cool air, so in honor of fall we made a crock pot full of smoked brisket chili.

We made a large batch, and instead of letting it go to waste, we placed the leftovers into Mason jars, and pressure cooked them. Three more dinners on the shelf, just open and heat. And speaking of prep work, we have a squirrel for Sunday morning squirrel gravy. "Critter Gitter" put one down earlier in the week and wanted to use it for gravy. So we skinned it and soaked it, and while I had the pressure cooker going I put the squirrel in a small jar with some water and cooked it along with the chili. Now we have a tender squirrel ready for gravy.

Check back tomorrow for results.
K&K

Winter Predictions

Cupcake and I have noticed a few signs around The Acre here lately, and wanted to share our winter prediction. You heard it here first.....
There are four signs that are screaming bad winter, and all of them you can see from the back porch of the house.

Pine cones, and a lot of them, in bunches.

Pine cones heavy, but only in the tops of the pine tree. None down low

Maple trees are already turning, have been since the last week of August

And our friends the spiders, they are all building webs in the tops of trees and on the high spots of the house, which really excites Cupcake (that was sarcasm, Sheldon).
Everyone has heard that the wooly worm is suppose to be the winter prediction gold standard, but since we have a yard full of chickens, wooly worms are nowhere to be found. We can't say if it will be a winter of ice, snow, or just plain cold, but as they say on Game of Thrones  "Prepare yourselves, winter is coming".
K&K

Weekend Update Sept 7-8

Another weekend, another busy week. We tried a new thing to can this weekend, wanted to share with the world. Cupcake is a fried green tomato junkie and we were becoming depressed that the green tomato season would soon be coming to an end. BUT....Cupcake being the research specialist that she is, found a new way to keep the joy all winter long. Canned green tomatoes.

The process is probably the most simple of anything we can. Slice green tomatoes, pack them in jars, add salt and water. Water bath for seven minutes, you have preserved green tomatoes. We will be devoting the rest of our crop to keeping a smile on Cupcake's face this winter.

We also noticed the rhubarb in the garden was still long and strong. By this time last year the rhubarb had just about died off, but with all the cool weather and rain this summer, it appears to have caught it's second wind. We cut it way back and got about a basket full. Still have sprouts and new shoots, so we hope for one more canning, because rhubarb cobbler rocks.

Six more cobblers in the basement ready for snowy days.
The next thing we worked on this week was a pumpkin roll. Big Man loves some pumpkin roll so this is just another reason to love fall of the year. For added personal touch, we used one of our farm raised pumpkins to make it. We cubed up about two cups of pumpkin and baked it until it was soft. Then we added it to the mixer with three eggs and whipped it smooth.

We spooned in flour and spices by hand, and folded it together until it was smooth, then placed the batter on a greased cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Bake at 400 for fifteen minutes. We also added nuts to the batter, for another personal twist.

While the pumpkin roll was baking, Big Man made his world famous cream cheese filling using cream cheese, powder sugar and vanilla extract.

After the roll bakes, we rolled it into a towel covered in powdered sugar, rolled it up and allowed it to cool.

Then we unroll the pumpkin bread and spread the cream cheese. Re-roll the bread and cover with more powdered sugar, and you get a little something like this...

This is just the first of many this fall, we're pretty sure.

It's chicken wing Sunday, we hope everyone had a great weekend like we did.
K&K

An Updated Update

We have made a few updates to prior updates, we thought we would share a few just to catch everyone up. First, we did a little decorating outside the house. We cut down a few corn stalks from the garden and spread around some pumpkins, and let everyone know fall is here...

Earlier in the week, our half way point for Foxgrape wine hit. We had to remove the pulp from the mash and add a little sugar. The wine has a deep purple color, and has a very pleasant flavor. We're looking forward to this being done next weekend.

We broke into the jalapeno jelly this past week as well. We opened one for The Acre, and Cupcake took one jar to work with her. Neither jar lasted longer than two days. This one is a winner

Kattie Grace helped us stain the trim and doorways this week as well...

"Critter Gitter" took to the woods on opening day of dove season. We've seen dozens of the birds around The Acre all summer long, they set on the wires out front in large gangs. Since opening day, we've yet to see one stinking bird.

So we figure these guys won't be around much longer either, because bow season opens in a month. Don't tell us critters don't know when season opens...

This catches us up on past posts. New goings on in the works right now.
K&K

Shack Bitch

I had a sergeant back in the late '90s that took an eager young me out of patrol and put me into a plain clothes unit. To this day I hold him in high regard for giving me a chance to shine. It was by far the best duty (hehehehehe, I said "duty") assignment I had while in the Peoples Republic of Maryland. The point of my lead in is, he coined the phrase "Shack Bitch". I dunno if he actually coined it, but he used it and it stuck with me, so I give him credit. Since the theme for my little group of bloggers is nicknames, he was known as "Badd Dewd" in his day.
Any ways, a shack bitch is the guy in your hunt cabin who stays behind while the others trek out in search of deer. The designated shack bitch cleans up and preps a meal for the other guys, everyone gets a turn. Since I was wounded in '07 and retired in '08, I dont venture too far from the house on my bad knees. I do keep it clean, and have a hot meal waiting for Cupcake every night for the most part, so I refer to myself as a shack bitch.  Today was a shack bitch kind of day.
One of the joys of log home living is staining the thing. I was told every five years the stain would fade and it would be my destiny to re-do it. This summer is four years. Thanks Uncle Billy!
This is what the south wall looked like this morning...

And after a few hours of toil, it now looks like this....

The drawback to living in BFE is if you run out of something like say log stain, you have a two hour round trip to fetch back more. I know because I had a two hour round trip to fetch back more. I got most of the house done, but have a local handy man coming to finish the high places. I dont do ladders very well.
After a few hours of upkeep, I started dinner for Cupcake. Tonight is Smoked beef brisket baked burrito's. I thought I would share how to do them. First, smoke a beef brisket.
Then cube up a couple pounds of meat, add some burrito mix, a few special spices, and heat in a large pan. For the sauce I use one can of refried beans and a large can of enchilada sauce. Heat them together until the beans are smooth in the sauce.

After you get your fixings heated up, I fill a burrito up with the meat and fold it up. Place in a greased casserole dish...

Then pour your bean sauce over the burrito's, and cover with cheese.

Bake at 400 until the sauce is bubbling, dish and serve. Cupcake is on her way home as I type this, so I'm off to set the table.
Just K today

First Blog of September

Our weekend update is another busy one this week. First things first. Fall has fallen here at The Acre. Cupcake and I have been harvesting pumpkins and gourds for the past couple weeks, today we started decorating. When I say we, I mean I tried to stay out of Cupcake's way.

We dug our first five gallon bucket of potatoes this weekend. So we scrubbed them up and did our first canning of the year. Being a holiday weekend, we went all Red/White/Blue. 'Merica

We also had a gallon or so of jalapeno peppers from the garden saved up. Last year we canned "Lawman Candy" which is code for candied jalapeno peppers, but we still have quite a few jars of those left over, so we went with jalapeno jelly this time. First step in our jelly making is to slice the peppers and cut the seeds out. Cupcake uses a lit candle to beat down the pepper mist. If you've ever been hit with OC spray, you understand.

Next we put the peppers in a blender with one cup of apple cider vinegar and blended them smooth.

After we got them smoothed down, its into the cook pot with the Sure-Gel, add sugar, bring to a boil, then off to the jars.

We got nine jelly jars full this go around. Now we can hear you all saying "who could stand to eat that?" The sugar really cuts down the heat, and although it's still a little hot, we found a way to enjoy it. Take a cracker, a bit of cream cheese spread on it, then a dollop of jalapeno jelly, and you have a very tasty snack for entertaining folks, or just a special treat after another 14 hour day of working around The Acre.

What may be our last round of tomatoes came from Pop's garden this week, and to make sure they didnt go to waste, we made another batch of tomato sauce. This time we went all chunky and we believe this is how we will make all of our sauce next year. It really turned out well.

Eight more quarts of sauce in the basement, ready for a long cold winter. Tomorrow is opening day of Dove season, and "Critter Gitter" has decided to spend it in the bush, with any luck an opening day blog will follow with a few squab for supper. And as always it's 'Chicken wing Sunday'. We hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend. If you see one out, thank a Lawman/Fireman/EMT/Soldier for what they do, because they dont get to enjoy holiday weekends off.
K&K