An epiphany (from Ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια Epiphaneia, “manifestation, striking appearance”) is the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something.
I had a day from hell Monday. Not only did the state keep me hopping with appointments, but I had a long tiring weekend before that. My kids are pretty crabby and taking it out on each other, which means when the noise levels reaches a certain point I have to get involved. That usually entails playing referee, trying to figure out who started it, who egged it on, and who gets to weed my flower bed (house rule, you have too much energy to play nice, I can help you burn it off until you can).
So, I have my head in the fridge at 5:15 trying to figure out what I'm going to cook for dinner because I (again) forgot to take something out for dinner and dinner is at 6. Nothing sounds good, or I don't have enough time. I see the meatloaf I canned last week on the shelf and say to myself, 'what the hell, we should at least try it before I can much more.' So, I decide on 2 pints of meatloaf, mushroom gravy (from a packet), rice, green beans, and corn bread. Dinner is served in 30 minutes with minimal work. While I'm eating dinner it comes to me. I had the wrong idea about canning and food storage. Canning is about convenience. It's about food storage. It's also about eating.
Yes you should put food away for rainy days, but you should only store what you eat EVERY DAY! No weird stuff you might eat if all that's left is the family dog. It may sound pretty simple to you, but I had this idea that you store all this food, watch the dates and rotate it before it goes bad. Eat it up before the next crop comes in. In an emergency, you are not going without. It never occurred to me that you eat it every day. It never occurred to me that eating what you can was the point of canning. And frankly, you can can ANYTHING! :) I'm on a mission to can lemon curd this year. My favorite pies are apple and lemon meringue. yumm.
So, I'm going from a suburbia mom who hit Winco every couple days to a farmer Browns wife who cans all of their meals, provided I don't kill us all while learning. I need to look at my meals that I normally cook and break it down to quarts and pints. I need to shop for bulk, but in a different light. Local whole chickens are 99 cents a pound. 4 whole chickens minus the breasts (canned separately) should give me 8 quarts of chicken soup/stock, if not more. The absolute convenience of making an entire healthy meal and having it on the table in 30 minutes is amazing! Add what ever fresh ingredients are in season and I'm set. Screw fast food, I'm saving money. :) BTW, the canned deer meat was fantastic! It definitely rivaled elk meat. Grumpy is now being encouraged to get me a deer, hamburgerized :)
This epiphany may not makes much sense to someone who has grown up on canned food, but in the last 2 generations my family has lost our canning way. My mission is to now find it. I have seen the light and it is cheap and convenient :D
I had a day from hell Monday. Not only did the state keep me hopping with appointments, but I had a long tiring weekend before that. My kids are pretty crabby and taking it out on each other, which means when the noise levels reaches a certain point I have to get involved. That usually entails playing referee, trying to figure out who started it, who egged it on, and who gets to weed my flower bed (house rule, you have too much energy to play nice, I can help you burn it off until you can).
So, I have my head in the fridge at 5:15 trying to figure out what I'm going to cook for dinner because I (again) forgot to take something out for dinner and dinner is at 6. Nothing sounds good, or I don't have enough time. I see the meatloaf I canned last week on the shelf and say to myself, 'what the hell, we should at least try it before I can much more.' So, I decide on 2 pints of meatloaf, mushroom gravy (from a packet), rice, green beans, and corn bread. Dinner is served in 30 minutes with minimal work. While I'm eating dinner it comes to me. I had the wrong idea about canning and food storage. Canning is about convenience. It's about food storage. It's also about eating.
Yes you should put food away for rainy days, but you should only store what you eat EVERY DAY! No weird stuff you might eat if all that's left is the family dog. It may sound pretty simple to you, but I had this idea that you store all this food, watch the dates and rotate it before it goes bad. Eat it up before the next crop comes in. In an emergency, you are not going without. It never occurred to me that you eat it every day. It never occurred to me that eating what you can was the point of canning. And frankly, you can can ANYTHING! :) I'm on a mission to can lemon curd this year. My favorite pies are apple and lemon meringue. yumm.
So, I'm going from a suburbia mom who hit Winco every couple days to a farmer Browns wife who cans all of their meals, provided I don't kill us all while learning. I need to look at my meals that I normally cook and break it down to quarts and pints. I need to shop for bulk, but in a different light. Local whole chickens are 99 cents a pound. 4 whole chickens minus the breasts (canned separately) should give me 8 quarts of chicken soup/stock, if not more. The absolute convenience of making an entire healthy meal and having it on the table in 30 minutes is amazing! Add what ever fresh ingredients are in season and I'm set. Screw fast food, I'm saving money. :) BTW, the canned deer meat was fantastic! It definitely rivaled elk meat. Grumpy is now being encouraged to get me a deer, hamburgerized :)
This epiphany may not makes much sense to someone who has grown up on canned food, but in the last 2 generations my family has lost our canning way. My mission is to now find it. I have seen the light and it is cheap and convenient :D
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