Author: Connie Brannen

Categories
Canning July 2020

Safety First

Hello everyone. I hope this night finds you with peace and contentment. As I was sitting here on this nice cool Florida night, I was thinking about sharing this post about pressure canning safely. I know that there are very many people out there that are scared to death to even begin to try out a pressure canner or pressure cooker for that matter.

You are really missing out if you don’t have one of these. You can take a roast right out of the freezer and pressure cook it in 25-30 minutes. No defrosting time at all. As for the pressure canner(it is way bigger). You have the world open up to you on canning just about anything that you can buy in the store in a can and that saying a whole lot of stuff and if you follow directions to a T. Then your food will be safe for years.

Here in this post, I talk about problems and how to fix them for your maximum safety. And all will always be safe if you keep watch for these problems and correct it by following directions’ step by step.

The biggest mistake that you could ever make is to open the cooker while it is hot! It will explode. So be sure it is cooled down to zero and that there is no steam left. Only then can you open the pot and aim it away from you as there will be steam coming off the water in the pot. And you don’t want that to burn you.

I am going to talk about my hard day yesterday with all of you as it is a subject that needs to be discussed for safety. Pressure canning is an awesome knowledge to have as you can do boundless canning with one.

As I was trying to can my jars of homemade chili yesterday I had a lot of trouble with the number dial not moving off zero and going up to the 10 pounds of pressure. If you have been following my blog then you already know that it takes a lot of time just for the canner to begin letting out steam on medium temperature setting’ so that you are slowly building up pressure. If too fast and higher dial setting then you will lose all the liquid from your jars.

So you wait and watch for the steam to build up so that you can now put the weighted jiggly thing on top of the canner. Then you wait some more and wait again. When the number dial gets up to 10 lbs of pressure(or the recommended pressure) for what you are canning then you turn on your timer. And lower the stove dial to 3. But you have to keep adjusting if the pressure gets too low or too high. My chili was 90 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure.

Wouldn’t you know it’ my dial never moved off zero in 15 minutes of time with me constantly checking on it. So I had to turn it off and walk away for an hour before I could open it safely. I flipped the rubber sealing band around the other way and stuck a toothpick in the holes of every pressure release dial and started out again.

Well I went through a whole lot of time again and went through each step to get to the steam coming out the vent. And putting the jiggy thing on. Well after 15 minutes’ the number dial gauge still sat on zero again. So I turned it off again and left it for an hour to cool down so that I could open it again.

This time I used quite a few toothpicks on every vent hole again. I noticed that there was a calcium build up on most of them and a few had black gunk(nasty) in the tiny vents. When you can some liquid always escapes from the jars. I startred running toothpicks through all vents. And I began the whole routine again but I also added more water to the pot that matched the temperature of hot water in the pot’ as my canning jars of chili have been in there this whole time.

So here I go for the third time and not to say that I was a little bit aggravated. Everything went as planned and worked like a charm!

Most people are scared to death of a pressure canner because years ago if used incorrectly and opened while still steaming hot then they have exploded I have heard of a very few times. But If you follow safety rules like I have described here then you will always be safe and open to a world of canning adventures! Keep viewing my blog for my chili how to canning and photos.

PS. My very favorite thing to can is chili in quart jars! No more chili from the store from me. It has to taste like the best pot of chili that you have ever had. That’s good chili and more meaty than a drive through.

Thanks for visiting and do please come back soon or stay awhile and read some more posts if you will.

https://www.wisdomforpennies.com

Categories
Soup

Lucious Spaghetti Squash

This is a pretty much healthy recipe that we made up today. And yes it was as good as it looks!

Cheesy
Building the casserole.

The Ingredients are three deli chicken breast shredded by hand and sprinkle with garlic salt and onion salt.

Bake two spaghetti squash with olive oil on them for 40 minutes. Take a fork and shred them and put aside in a dish.

Dice one large tomato. Wash two huge handfuls of spinach. Spray a very large glass pyrex dish with oil spray and put chicken-spinach-squash into bowl.

I use block cheese like Velveeta and cut off a two-inch finger size block. Add this to a small microwave bowl and add in 6 tablespoons of milk. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir it together so that you have a creamy cheese sauce. Then stir in 1 1/2 cup of plain yogurt and 1/2 cup of sour cream into the cheese mixture.

Pour this over the ingredients in the casserole bowl and add a 16 oz size jar of Prego cheese sauce. Mix everything well and cut up some off the cheese block to place on top of this recipe. Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Plated.

https://www.wisdomforpennies.com This recipe was almost fought over from the adults to the kids. I hope you make this and enjoy it. It is pretty diet friendly also as that is the reason this was created.Love and hugs to all!

Categories
June 2020

Powdered Sugar

If you happen to run out of powdered sugar and do not want to go out to the grocery store, then all you need to do is put your amount of sugar needed into the food processor or blender and grind it into powdered sugar. Let it grind a little while so that you do not have any sugar granules left over. As always love and hugs to each and every-one of you from me to you. https://www.wisdomforpennies.com

Categories
Life Stories

Pledge of Allegiance to God

This came to my mind a few minutes ago. As our country is being destroyed from within by one another.

It used to be back in the day that we said the Pledge of allegiance to God and Country every-day in school before the day started out.

As we did this -, everyone of us felt that proud feeling of being United with one another and to God and to our country. Where has that proudness of one another gone? Where has that United gone/ Where has God gone? Please turn back around and reach out to help each other with the love that is way down deep in your heart and not kill one another and take the path to destruction. As I know that you have love for your children and God has enough love for us all.

This country is being ripped apart from within and we are not seeing this until it may be too late. Wake up people of every creed and color and make your generations proud to become united as one under God!

As always hugs and love to each and every-one of you.

https://www.wisdomforpennies.com

Categories
June 2020

Honey Mustard Recipe

This is an awesome for chicken nuggets.

Just add 1/2 cup of mayonnaise to a small bowl and add in 2 tablespoons of mustard and 3 tablespoons of honey. You just whisk this together and serve. https://www.wisdomforpennies.com

Categories
Canning

Canning Tomatoes

I love to can my own tomatoes! For many years I have done this as I like the freshest tomatoes you can find to cook with. I also like to find bargain tomatoes that have been marked down to a cheaper price. They will have some spots on them but that”s ok and at 50 cents a pound that’s good for me!

Fill up your sink with water and wash all the sand off the tomatoes. While you are doing that job you could have a medium to large pot of boiling water only half-full. Gently fill pot with about 6 tomatoes or more if they fit.

Watch for the skin to crack open on the tomatoes maybe 3-5 minutes. Take them out and replace with more in the pot if you have more. I keep these in my kitchen sink to cool down so I can handle them. When cool you cut out any bad spots on tomato and use a fruit corer for the core or a little knife to cut core out. The skins will slide off.

I have my pressure canner with the water level mark filled with water on the stove on medium heat with a dash of vinegar added to the pot so you don’t have calcium buildup on your lovely finished product. I also have had my pint jars cleaned up and ready with the lids and rings beside them on the counter. I have a long chopstick for air bubbles and a tiny container with vinegar in it along with some napkins ready for wiping the tops of the jar before they get the seal and band put on them.

It helps to have everything ready at hand. You will also need your heavy duty jar lifter and a folded towel rifht beside the stove to put the jars on when done as they are hot and heavy.

Showing some lovely tomatoes as we continue onward.

Your tomatoes should still be warm or if you refrigerated then for the next day’ then heat them back up. They need to be warm and so does the water in your canner to match each other. I have warm to hot water in about 4 of my jars and as I fill one I pour water into an empty jar.

You will need a wide mouth funnel (which I forgot) to tell you to have ready. And a soup ladle dipper. I have my pot in the sink and jars on the counter o fill. I put a dash of accent or salt in each jar before I ladle in tomatoes with juice and them fill to 1 inch of the top of the jar while leaving that 1 inch headspace unfilled. If they need more liquid you can add water.

Next I de-bubble each jar with my chopstick or whatever you have to use,Now dip a napkin in vinegar and wipe jar rim very well. Time to put on the seal and next comes the ring. Only finger tight that band on jar,Do not crank down as tight as you ca!

Now these are ready to be put in the canner. If you have an empty space in pot you just fill a jar with hot water and put lid on and add to the pot so that jars will not rock around and break.

Time to put the lid on the canner now. Have heat set on #7′ there is no hurring this.But leave the toggle weight off until you have seen and felt lots of stem coming out of the toggle fitting on top of the pot.Now put on the toggle weight and wait until you see the pressure gauge rise up to 10 lbs of pressure reading. (If gauge does not rise from 0 after 15 minutes then turn off stove and cool down for an hour and then lift lid while checking rubber seal and all vents(use toothpick ) to clean vents well. Put lid back on and restart your steam coming out and back to the putting toggle on and seeing rise to 10 lbs of pressure.

This is a pain but rarely happens. Safety comes first though! When you see 10 lbs of pressure holding up)set timer) for 15 minutes for pints or quarts. Ok, now you have to keep watching the pressure dial so that it will not keep climbing higher and higher. I usually turn my stove knob from #7 down to #3 and keep watching for it to hover at 10 pounds of pressure. Be glad this is only 15 minutes!

When your timer goes off you turn off the stove and come back an hour later when pressure is at ZERO. Now you open the pot with the lid faceing away from you as there is hot steam in there. Take your jar lifter and take out each jar and set on a towel right beside the stove. You will soon hear the pinging sound as each jar seals! Then I take the bands off of the jars and wash and put away for next time.

You are now a canner! I hope that you always can and preserve food and please pass it down to many others! They can come to this site and view it for instructions on many things anytime they wish. I get tickled as punch when my views go up in number so please do share my webpage around https:www.wisdomforpennies.com! Hugs and love from me to you! #Tomato #Canning

Home-canned tomatoes. Absolutely #Tomatoeshttps://www.wisdomforpennies.comy nothing beats this!
Categories
Dairy

Keeping Milk Fresh

I found this little idea last year in 2019 and I have used it ever since!

Does your gallon of milk spoil before you can use it all up? Well, mine used to all of the time’ until I learned this handy tip.

This is the tip. I smell all foods that go through my kitchen so it is only natural for me to smell my milk before using for anything. So just as you smell it or taste it going slightly off this is what extends your milk’s life for another 5 days of time to use it up.

I sprinkle into my milk jug about 10 little salt grains (any salt will do) I only use pink Himalayan salt as it does not contain chemicals in it. This does not make the milk taste salty at all. And it extends it’s life so that you can use the milk for anything you need it for.

This sounds crazy but it really works! #Dairy #Tips

PS. My milk has June 16th as the expiration date and today is June 27th and the milk in the jug is still fresh as when I bought it! So that’s 11 days of extension.

https://www.wisdomforpennies.com

Categories
Casseroles

Squash Casserole

#yummy

This is a favorite recipe of mine and I thought it’s time to share it with you!

Use 8-10 large yellow squash and wash them well in the sink. Then slice all of them and put in a large pot with one large onion diced up. Put a lid on the pot and add one cup of water as you only want to saute until slightly softened. Then drain off the water.

Add four beaten eggs to a medium sized bowl. Stir in one can of cream of mushroom soup (or other type). Stir in one and a forth cup of milk. Add two tsp. salt and two tsp. accent and one tsp. pepper

Use a medium bowl to grate uo 3 cups of cheddar cheese ( or buy shredded). Use two rolls of ritz crackers and beat them up slightly with a rolling pin. Now you mix the cheese and crackers together in their own bowl. Melt one stick of butter and add to the cracker and cheese bowl.

Butter a 9×13 pyrex bowl (or pan). Mix half of cheese mixture into the large pot with the squash mixture in it. Spread all of squash mixture into 13 x 9 bowl and top with all the rest of the cheese mixture

Bake @ 400 degrees for 35 minutes until golden brown. #Squash #Casseroles #Connie Brannen

https://www.wisdomforpennies.com

Categories
Meats September 2020

My Sloppy Joe Recipe

This is the best tasting sloppy joe recipe that I have ever tasted. No more can product from the stores for me anymore.

I will add the image later, when I can pull it up. You brown 2 pounds of hamburger meat and drain off the grease. Then you add the smallest can of tomato paste. Fill can with water 3 times and stir into the skillet of meat and sauce. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and also sugar. The sugar helps cut down the tomato acid.

Last of all add in 4 tablespoons of your favorite barbeque sauce and stir and cook for 5 minutes. Serve this on toasted hamburger buns!

http://www.wisdomforpennies.com

Categories
June 2020 On-The Cheap Vegetable

Dehydrating

Red potatoes with box grater.

I picked up two $1 bags of red potatoes na decided to deydrate them for dry storage as I an running out of room for my freezer storage and now my canning jar storage room. I am addicted to storing food in so many different ways like our Ancestors used to do! This just draws me closer to the old ways of preparing and storing the garden harvest as our past generations used to for survival. If you can understand that’it is just a bond that pulls me to the past ways of our families.

First you wash the red potatoes from all dirt. You may need a scrub brush if fresh from the garden.Mine were from a produce store so it was not too hard to get them cleaned up. Next you use the grater on the slicer side as you want circle cut potatoes. Slice 8 medium sized red potatoes and put ito a bowl of water that covers them.

Have a big pot of boiling water ready so that after you drain water off of potatoes’ you can drop into boiling water for 5 minutes only’ then pour into a strainer to drain and cool a little while. Now arrange as single file as you can on your dehydrator trays’ some overlapping is ok. Plugin and dry for 3 hours while rotating trays around one time. These have to be completely dry with no dampness anywhere.

Slicer side of grater.
All this from 8 medium red potatoes.

Now store these in a gallon freezer baggie. I did two times of dehydrating for 16 potatoes total to fill this bag up. When I order myself some oxygen absorbers I will put a few in each gallon baggie and then store baggie in a tote so no critters can get in to them and these will last 30 years.

http://www.wisdomforpennies.com #Potatoes #Dehydrate #years