Halfway through the week! Or for my SO, today was his Friday. It was a busy day. My MIL canned some cubed roast. I try to stay out of her way, but I like to learn a bit about the canning process as well. It’s amazing. She has the butcher cube the shoulder roast (beef) into 1 inch cubes. The UGO (United Grocery Outlet) has sales on red meat on Tuesdays. Having them cube the meat takes most of the hard work out of preparing to can.
Fifteen pounds of meat will fill seven quart jars, which fills one of the giant canning pots. You start with cold jars, cold meat, and cold water in the pressure cooker. It’s a lot easier than doing it hot, which means you have to heat everything beforehand. You leave about an inch of head room in the jars after you pack them with meat. My MIL seasons it with a spoonful of the Better-Than-Bullion. Then you cook it for 90 minutes, keeping the pressure above 10. If it goes below that you have to start all over. And you can’t let it go above a certain amount (15ish?) because that will shatter the cans. Super complicated, right?
It’s one of the reasons I haven’t really ventured into canning myself. I’m really blessed to have a MIL that loves to do this sort of thing. I’m trying to watch and learn from her while I have the chance. She’ll be doing a run of chicken meat on Friday and tomatoes sometimes within the next week as well. So that’ll be an adventure I’ll try to record.
Tomorrow I’m heading out to the library with the Bonus Child! I spent this evening downloading some audiobooks that I’m hoping will help with my mental health. I love to read but my focus is usually spread very thin. I’m hoping by having something to listen to, I’ll be able to do more and focus better. If you don’t have Overdrive/Libby, I strongly suggest grabbing it. You can use your local library card number to access their online assets. Libraries are so cool! (I might be biased as a bookworm, but seriously check it out.)
I have some recipes that I need to photocopy while I’m there. Once it starts to cool down in the Fall, I’ll probably try baking again. It’s just so difficult to bake during the Summer since the house is hot enough. Just the thought of heating things up with the oven makes me sick to the stomach. That’s probably why there’s so many ice box recipes for cakes so you don’t heat things up. And why people cook outdoors more often during the Summer. I personally would melt if I had to stand outside by a hot grill. Then again, I have a disorder that doesn’t allow me to sweat. (A story for another day.)
If anyone has any reading suggestions for me, please feel free to throw them in the comments! I’m adding a little Tik Tok clip I made. This is my Manic Brain. Enjoy! And thanks as always for reading.
Atelier Whootique 