It was a busy day on the ranch with all kinds of food preps. I thawed out 10 pounds of ground chuck, 4 pounds of chicken breasts, 6 pounds of chicken thighs, and 5 pounds of diced red beets in the hopes of getting all of it processed, cooked and packaged in one day.
I waited until evening to start the process of canning the beets. I wanted it to cool
off outside, so I could open the windows to keep the house cool inside while cooking the beets and the pickling brine, sterilizing the canning jars, lids and rings and heating the hot water to can the beets.
The stove was quite busy until nearly 10 pm.
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| The finished product. |
I purchased the frozen diced organic beets from Azure Standard a little
over four months ago. My plan was to can them right away, but Shingles doesn't care!
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| It was also time to harvest the basil micro-greens. |
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| Quite tasty! |
I took the scissors to the greens and gave them a haircut. I rinsed and drained them while I was canning the beets. I plan on using the food processor to puree the greens. I will freeze the puree in ice cube trays, then I will store the cubes in a freezer bag in the freezer. This allows me to pull out just the amount I need for making pesto.
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| Our little friends showed up last week. |
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| Number One Husband started the charcoal for the grill. |
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I made 15 hamburger patties to grill, and I cooked, packaged and froze the rest of the ground chuck. I packaged and froze the extra grilled burgers. |
The chicken is still partially frozen in the refrigerator. My plan was to make chicken sausage out of the thighs and lunchmeat out of the breasts. My Kitchen Aid grinder has developed a crack in the plastic, so I will not be grinding the thighs. I may try using my food processor, but I think that it may just turn it into paste. I don't want that. My other option is to butterfly the thighs and season them with sausage seasoning and grill them with the chicken breasts.
Mrs. Smith
