January 29, 2012

Outside Temp: 47 F (seriously!  I'm trying to be patient, but winter is taking it's darn sweet time... I know... I'll hate it by April... )

What I cooked today:
French Toast: I love making breakfast for everyone on the weekend.  Since the kids eat at school, we don't do breakfast on weekdays.  So, I'm left with weekends to make awesome carbohydrate filled meals that you can pour pure sugar on...

Chicken and Rice Soup: Since I was making stock, Patrick was concerned that my pressure canner didn't actually do it's job last week.  So, to prove that it was fine, we used the canned stock from last week for soup today (which was kind of stupid, since I had about 10 quarts of stock simmering on the stove).  We popped open the jar, and there was no funky smell or anything.  It just smelled like chicken stock.  We made up the soup, and it tasted great.  So, now he is comfortable with me pressure canning my stock.  Oh thank goodness, since that was totally keeping me up at night.

Chicken Stock: about 10 quarts of the stuff.  I bought 2 fryer chickens at the store this week (only to find that they were cheaper this week.   I borrowed an 8 qt stock pot from Patrick's mom, since I could only fit one chicken in my pot.  So, all day long, the stock simmered.  I would add some extra water throughout the day, making sure it stayed right up there at the top.  Then after dinner, I sterilized the jars, filled them, and placed them in my pressure canner.  Of course, my pressure canner can only hold 7 quart jars.  So, we had to pressure can them in 2 batches.  According to my instructions, I needed to pressure can them for at least an hour, and up to 1 1/2 hours.  Since we got the (first batch) of jars into the canner and got it pressurized and going around 10:30, that would make the first batch done around midnight, and the second batch done around 2am.  Oh lovely.  That was NOT my plan.  Oh well, the things you do for good food.

Update:
Because we've been having such awesome wind, we decided not to go skiing today.  I know, total shocker.  No skiing?  How could it possibly be a Sunday that doesn't include skiing.  And yet, here we are.

Allen was invited to a movie with a friend, so he was gone by 1pm.  Spoiled kid... didn't have to help with the dishes or the laundry all day!

I got caught up on my laundry, which took about 7 loads.  Granted, there was some laundry to be done before the septic issues, so I was feeling guilty.  And since we didn't have anything else to do today anyway, I spent it babysitting my stock and folding laundry.  But no complaints... I love my working septic system.