Got Me Some Skills!

Well, I decided to be brave and attempt to do some canning. I have zero canning skills. I've never done it by myself, I only helped my Mom when I was a kid. And I use the term "helped" very loosely. On Wednesday, my friend Liz gave me a box of apples and I decided to do applesauce. So I borrowed my friend Tracy's Saucer and my friend Tyra's water bath canner and after scrounging up some jars from my basement, I was ready for the fun to begin. And, again, I use the term "fun" loosely. It was very satisfying, but after about 5 hours, it was no longer fun. Brady took the kids and slept outside in the camper, so it was a one man job. I had to scrub the kitchen in the middle of the night because applesauce hardens into industrial strength glue. (After 6 kids, I've had applesauce on almost every surface imaginable.) But I got everything cleaned up and I was so happy to get some new skills! Here are some pictures of the process:

Then, yesterday, I got another box of apples and decided I would do apple pie filling. Which sounds reasonable, except that I started the project 5 hours before we were supposed to leave for family pictures, thinking "I can do it! It won't take that long." HA! Famous last words. (Insert Brady's "I told you so!") So of course, I'm still slicing apples while hollering instructions to children about what clothes to wear and timing my shower while the last batch is cooking and we were all running late. I did not have time to clean anything, so I left the kitchen looking like this:

But in the end, we got some yummy apple pie filling and had a great time doing our family pictures. We always dread getting our pictures taken. It is just plain awful. Someone is always pouting, someone is always crying, Mommy is always frazzled and Daddy is always mad. But this year, we had our neighbor and friend, Tyra, take them at the university gardens and it was great! The kids liked being outdoors and picking where they wanted their shots. We had to hurry because it was overcast and we were losing light, but we were still able to get a lot of fun shots in. I'm really excited to see how they turn out, especially the individual shots of the kids. We also took some pictures up by the Rexburg temple. In a quiet moment, I looked at all of these people around me, all happy and dressed in matching brown and cream, and realized that they were all mine. And I loved them all and they loved me. I thought my heart was going to swell out of my chest with contentment. It was a fleeting personal moment, but I hang on to those. That's the stuff that moms cling to when we wonder "Why am I doing this again?" So a big thank you to Tyra and also to all my friends who let me borrow and mooch for my canning education. I finally got me some canning skills!

Look, Mom! I Canned Butter!

Well, it's not "true" canning because there was no water bath or pressure canner, but STILL, I did it! The process was pretty easy and can be found here. It can store up to 3 years on a shelf . I wanted some for my food storage (shortening on your toast, anyone?). 7 sticks of butter did 4 half-pint jars. I gave one away as a door prize during the food storage class I had last night at my house.

That class was the last emergency preparedness class I'll be doing for a while. The 1st one dealt with water storage, sanitation and 72 hour kits. The 2nd focused on emergency shelter, heating, and cooking. And last night we talked about long-term food storage. I woke up this morning so glad that it was over! Due to my amazingly honed skills of procrastination, I was up until 2 a.m. for four nights in a row trying to get things ready. The turn-out was smaller, but it went fairly well. I did get a little preachy (GASP! SHOCK!) but no one even rolled their eyes at me. Them's good peoples! When it was over we sat around and devoured yummy homemade bread and jam that a bunch of gals brought.

Bread making is a skill that I have not mastered. Something about working with yeast intimidates me. There just seems to be so many ways to screw it up--temperature, humidity, my mood.... Even the instructions are intimidating with their foreign phrases of "Raise until Double", "Punch it Down" and "Gluten Content." Part of it is laziness, since it seems to take up a whole day. My mother-in-law did help me make it once. And I tell ya, it's a little sad when you are that supremely proud of yourself for something that other people do every day of their lives. But hey--I did can butter!