Laundry Room

One of the house cleaning projects of my list for this year is to clean the laundry room.  It seems that everything that does not have a home gets pitched into the laundry room, mud room, or bedroom closet.  This morning Mom came up to help me get some things to the basement.  We opened the grate in the mud room and handed down all the canned jars, canned goods, empty canning jars, canner, extra toilet paper and other items that do not belong upstairs.  It took about 15 minutes to do this and saved many, many steps up and down the stairs to the basement.  Great thought Mom, it worked wonderful.

Next I took everything out of the laundry room.  I took all the clean clothing hanging in the closet and baskets with clothing that needed folded out to be put away.   I knew that mice had been in there but I was not ready for all the mouse turds under the laundry basket of junk and the rag box.  I took out a lot of things I had in there that were to go to the recycling center and just burned it in the barrel.  I swept, wiped down the walls and ceiling, scrubbed down the appliances, and scrubbed the floor. 

I got a small shelving unit at Agnes & Clarence's sale with something else I bought so I put that in the laundry room under the window to put some of the extra things that I do not have room for in the kitchen cabinets.  I put the ice cream maker, vacuum sealer, bread machine and thermos drink container on it.  There are three laundry baskets in the closet to sort out laundry into and do the laundry when a basket is filled.  I hope this helps to keep up with the laundry and to keep the laundry room more organized.  It really looks nice now.  I wonder how long I can keep it looking like this.

 

First Project Completed

Hooray!!  I have completed one unfinished project from my list of goals for this year.  It has only taken me 2 1/2 months to get it done.  At this rate I will never get them all done but at least something is done.


Last fall when I went with my parents to visit my brother in Bismarck, AR, I took several projects with me to work on.  We were able to stay with him for 2 weeks.  With that as well as driving time and a weekend with my sister in Wichita we were gone for a full 3 weeks.  I purchased this little piece of colored fabric that was stamped with color and lines for embroidery.  I picked out all new colors of embroidery floss for it with the intentions of having this for my traveling project.  It was a nice size to take along.  I did not get it finished while in Arkansas but did finish it shortly after I returned home.  I now have it framed and sitting on my buffet.  Here it is.

Rose

Happy birthday to me & Canning day

Saturday, March 1, was my 57th birthday.  Where did the time go.  I am now in my upper 50's.  I'm not sure I even qualify for middle aged any more.  I am kind of in between middle age and old age right not.  This seems pretty close to 60 to me.  I still do not feel like I am old enough (grown up enough) to get married or have children.  Maybe that 'grown up' feeling is more emotional than physical.  Physically the time for having children is long past for me.  I have 19 wonderful nieces and nephews who are not getting married and having families of their own.  I have 16 great nieces and nephews now also.  These are my kids.  I had many wonderful birthday wishes from them.  Maybe one day I will be 'grown up' enough to find that special man to share my life with.


Now for how I spend my birthday---
I bought a 25 pound bag of flour when in Wichita since I brought home some sourdough starter and a bread machine.  Remember, I live on a farm and you never know what kind of critters may get into this old farmhouse.  I have been reading about oven canning dry goods for long term storage so decided to try it.  I went to the barn to find some of the old canning jars that I got at Aunt Agnes's auction. I have blue and green tinted jars, square jars, a 1/2 gallon jar and a couple that must be 1 1/2 quarts.  Aren't these cute jars?

I filled the cleaned and sterilized jars with the flour and placed them in the oven at 200 degrees for one hour.  During the last 10 minutes I laid the canning flats on the pan in the oven to warm them up.  Taking one jar and flat at a time out of the oven, I placed the ring on the jar, hand tightened it down, and placed the jar on a folded towel to cool.  Within a half hour or so I heard each jar 'ping' as it sealed.  Who-hoo!! It worked!  This is how I did it. I had some flour left over so placed it in a Mylar bag that I had from some other food storage project.  I purchased a vacuum sealer food saver and wondered if it would work on the bag.  I gave it a try and it worked also. 

While the vacuum sealer was out I wondered if it really would seal a canning jar with a flat.  I had the attachments for it so decided to try it with chocolate chips.  Oh, my goodness, it worked too.  Here explains how I did this.


While I had a mess in my kitchen, (o.k. I admit my kitchen is always a mess) I decided to clean out my freezer some and took out 5 quart bags of home butchered and ground hamburger.  I browned this all up, added some salt and pepper, chopped some onions and ended up with a 6 quart dutch oven full of browned hamburger ready to can.  I drained the meat, packed it in jars, put on flats and rings then pressure canned it at 10 pounds for 90 minutes.  I did not cover the meat with juice but some do.  I like the texture better this was.  I really like this video and this blog post.
Here's the day's conquests.

I really had fun doing this.  Now I suppose I should clean up my kitchen. Ugg.
 Rose

Visit with Karen

January 30 I went to Wichita to stay with my sister, Karen, for a while.  On Jan. 31 she had surgery on her foot.  I wanted to be with her and help her out till she was better able to do more.  The surgery was intense and the recovery will be slow.  She had a lot of pain and walked with a brace on that leg and foot just to be able to walk.  When I brought her home from the hospital after surgery, she was in a huge wrap and can not put any pressure on the foot.  It was so hard for her to get up and down from the chair and bed, to the bathroom and to change clothes.  Showering is still the most difficult activity of all.  After 10 days, she had the stitches removed and is now in a cast but still could not put any pressure on the foot.  An accident or two with pressure have sent her pain level sky rocketing.  She is back in school using a knee scooter to get around and that makes it so much easier than if she would have had to use crutches.  Today she can now begin to put a little pressure on the foot and on March 18 she is to get a walking boot.  She hopes then it will get easier. 


Besides spending time with her and her family, I was there to help her.  I really do not know how much help I am since cooking and cleaning are not my best chores.  But I drove her around, helped her get around, fetched and took orders.  Karen and I always enjoy spending time together.  We have many common interests and can visit for hours and hours.  Usually when I spend time there, we sew and sew, working on a quilt for one or the other of us.  Not this time.  Her sewing room is in the basement and it is her right foot (the sewing foot) that is casted.  She did work on a hand quilting project and some crocheted edges on baby blankets as she sat in her chair.  I worked on a hand embroidery project that is on my list of goals to do this year.  We sat and did hand work as we watched 5 seasons on Mad Men on Netflix.  We also watched several movies.  Poor Ron, her husband, was mostly kicked from his chair as I sat in it all day.  I'd offer to move my little next of computer and sewing in the evenings when he got home so he could have his own chair in the living room but he said no.  He watched TV in the bedroom since he did not want to watch the same thing Karen and I did. 


I did laundry, dishes, changed bedding, cooked and tried to clean up the messes I made.  I actually had a lot of fun cooking since I actually had someone to cook for.  It is not so fun to cook for myself, cooking for one.  The thing I had the most fun making was bread.  I have never been able to make good bread.  Karen has a sourdough starter and a Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook.  I wanted to try to use them while having someone to try it.  I made a loaf of regular sourdough bread first.  Then I made cinnamon rolls which were really good.  Then I made a rosemary Parmesan bread followed by two loaves of french sourdough bread.  I made one french loaf the regular long way and the second one I made round.  We took the round loaf and made the bacon cheddar ranch bread (Crack Bread) from it.  That was SO wonderful.  I also made pizza dough and soft pretzels.  Karen and I made pizza pockets (made like bierocks) for the freezer.  The soft pretzels turned out really good also. 


I found out a few things from my experimenting with bread at Karen's.  I like the bread machine much better than the Kitchen Aid.  I would just use the dough cycle so I could make what I wanted from there.  Emily had two bread machines she had gotten really cheap at garage sales.  She gave me one that needed the kneading paddle.  I got that ordered right away and now have it.  I am excited to begin making bread at home.


I also spend one day making Chicken Cordon Bleu.  I had never made it before but have always really liked it.  Judy had made some for Christmas dinner.  I looked at a lot of recipes on the Internet and made a combination of a couple of them.  It was actually pretty easy and turned out great.  That and the Crack Bread were two recipes Ron said were keepers. 
I stayed 3 1/2 weeks with her.  She is back in school full time.  Ron takes her and picks her up on his way to work since I left on Tuesday.  One evening she had him run her around to run errands.  He asked how much longer this was going to last.  I'm not sure which one of them is more anxious for her to be able to drive again. 


It was great to spend time with my sister.  It is also nice to be back home again.  I get the feeling that maybe I was a little bit missed here as well.  It is always nice to feel needed and wanted.


Recipes I used:
Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Sourdough Soft Pretzels
Rosemary-Parmesan Sourdough Bread
Cheddar Bacon Ranch Bread-aka-Crack Bread
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Sourdough Pizza Crust


Rose