Monday, March 8, 2010

A nice sunny weekend! Part 1

Hi everyone!

Well this last weekend was great! Sorry about the long absence... no promises that it won't happen again, either :) I just don't have time while I'm still working but the good news is we probably only have another 6-9 months to go before I can officially be a STAY HOME MOM and won't that be great! I'm pretending that I'm one today... my little sister got married early last week and I took the entire week off last week and also today.

I've gotten a lot of project-y things done... mostly a lot of canning and we did some gardening in the beautiful weather. Sorry, no pics - my camera is officially kaput so I'll have to wait till I get a new one. I brought home the pressure canner from my brother's house (and alas, had to give him his excalibur dehydrator... sniff) and so I got lots canned. I canned up a bunch of ground beef, chicken, seasoned pinto beans and yellow potatoes.

So far we've tried the beef and the beans and they are both winners. I never thought I'd like canned meat and I don't know how well it would go over in tacos or something but put into a casserole it was quite good. And the beans were very good, lightly seasoned with salt, pepper and a shake of cumin but the flavor was light enough you could easily flavor them in any way you choose. I just wish I had some photos to share!

I also had gotten a new wheat grinder and so I tried that out, of course. The bread rose like it was no one's business! I didn't grind the flour quite fine enough for my taste so I used about 60% whole wheat and then 40% bread flour and it was great. I made just a standard honey wheat bread although I've been doing a lot of the "artisan bread in 5 minutes a day" breads and those have been delicious as well. I think I'll have a lot of fun with this tool once I get to stay home :)