Food Preservation 2011 August

Wow Time sure is flying!!

My garden is doing well.  It was planted Memorial Day weekend and so far we have enjoyed kohlrabi, peppers and peas.  The boys have discovered the joy of garden fresh peas and green beans.  My experiment this year is edamame (green soybeans). I purchased 1 package and was intending to only plant 1/2 of the package, until the entire package was dumped into the garden as we were planting....so we have LOTS of plants.  Japanese/Asian Beatles like edamame leaves, and basil.  Thankfully they have moved on and both plants have survived. The soybeans are full of pods - I think there will be a bunch going into the freezer at the end of the month.

Whats in the freezer? So far I have put 6-7 half-pints of pizza sauce using Mrs. Wages pizza sauce mix into half pint jars into the freezer.  Dried 2 bunches of celery in the dehydrator - that dried down to a quart jar of leaves and a half pint jar of stems ( the celery is from my CSA Share so its different than what comes from the grocery store.  I have 1 more bunch I need to dehydrate tomorrow.

Tonight I froze 2 lbs of greenbeans, also from our CSA.  I followed the directions from http://www.greenbeansnmore.com/frozen-green-beans.html.  After the beans were blanched and in the ice water bath I used my salad spinner to remove excess water and divided the beans into 2 bags. The beans were left whole.  Wonder if I can get another bag from the garden - if the kids have not eaten them all, if so oh, well, right?  I will use at least some of these beans to make green bean puree/baby food in a few months.

I have also frozen a bit of roasted corn.  I would like to try dehydrating corn, really need to get on that this weekend before the corn is off the market stands.

RANDOM TIDBITS
Life with three kids is busy...but the summer was great!  Now the day care kids are back, hopefully once preschool starts I will find my balance again because currently it is missing. My oldest is in third grade and off to a great start!

Cloth diapers are in full use...not to find time to sew up some more girlly ones with snaps so I can quit using the hook and loop ones I keep pulling out of the bag - pocket diapers are so much easier to use day to day than prefolds.  Prefolds are a great way to get started and work well for infants but then I discovered pocket diapers... and now i'm ready to switch to them full time, again.

Welcome Baby

The last month has been a busy month at our house.  We welcomed a baby girl on May 9th - its hard to believe that she is a month already!!!  The addition of our little one had an impact on our grocery shopping and cooking - I was not doing much.  We were blessed to receive meals from friends, co-workers and my life group at church.  I have appreciated these meals more than with the previous births of my children - I think that is because we are so much busier than when we just had one child in the house.  So Thank you for the wonderful meals - and thanks for not bringing all pasta!!!

What meals have we received?

• Chicken Casserole, Salad, dessert
• Lasanga, Salad, Bread (the lasagna is in the freezer because we received 2 meals that night)
• Taco Casserole with tomatoes, taco sauce and shredded lettuce
• Pasta with a chicken alfredo sauce, salad, rolls, cookies
• Brats and hotdogs with buns, baked beans, potato salad, brownies
• Tacos - hard and soft shell tacos, taco seasoned ground beef, diced tomato, diced onion, cheese, sour cream
• Lasanga, salad with italian dressing, homemade bread with garlic butter
• A "Dad Meal"   - Mom was out of town but he wanted to bring us a meal - Takeout spaghetti, garlic bread, and a gondola sandwich, beverages for the boys and dad, bagged salad and chocolate Popsicle.

How are we handeling the transition to a family of five?

I am enjoying the break from doing child care and the ability to do things with just my children.  We are getting better at going places, but I do add and extra 5 minutes to get out the door.  I am working hard to not let the loss of income hit our pocketbook.  For several months I have put a little bit aside so that during my break I would have cash available. So far we have not changed much in our eating out habits - which eats up most of my cash.

We are using cloth diapers again with our little one.  It is amazing the difference between cloth diapers on a baby boy and a baby girl. I think I figured it out quicker with a boy than I have with a girl.  We are doing well with daytime diapers but she is a nighttime wetter - so I'm still trying to figure out nighttime diapers.  Two nights ago I changed her before her middle of the night feeding, in the dark.  When it she awoke a few hours later she was WET from head to toe, along with her pajamas and bedding. Where was the diaper?  Around her ankles.  She is a wiggler and kicked off her blanket and the diaper slid off too.  Back to the drawing board!

Currently my boys are playing with Trio Blocks.  (We were out and weeded the garden and planted some seeds - more about that in my post at my gardening blog - had to go outside before it got hot!  Today will be cooler at 90, but storms are predicted for this evening.  I"m looking forward to the 70's that are predicted for the next few days!)  I love Trio blocks,  I'm sure I've posted about that before. The offer SO much in the way of creativity and my boys BOTH enjoy playing with them.  Like most toys the come in "sets"  - you know, barn, castle, construction site, but once the initial set is built they have all ended up transitioning to some other creation, and that is okay with me.  It allows creativity to shine!