Canned chicken and doing dishes!

Time for a little update on the things I'm up to! There's some progress in how we plan to set up our food storage and I'm waiting for this years seeds to arrive, but that's not all we've done this week.

We did our first batch ever of canned chicken, hopefully not the last. We still have to try it and see if we like it, but I ended up getting everyone in the family involved in the process of canning them. The smell once they were canned was out of this world! We did a hot pack with some broth and I was brave enough to use the presto in my kitchen instead of out in the barn. I get more and more comfortable using my presto.
All the jars I canned this fall ended up getting frozen and I just didn't had the strength to start taking care of them before, but yesterday I started taking them from our barn and cleaning them, checking to see if they broke. The first jars shows no signs of damage so I hope I don't have to replace any of them.

We did some hot dog buns earlier this week and I can tell you that storebought is no more. I hope to get at least one batch done next week. They turned out great, but a bit too big. We did 20 buns so I figure I can make 30 from the same amount of dough to get them a bit smaller. I have thought about trying to make them myself, but I kept buying buns because I always buy them. It's just one example of the things that we use that I can make more of myself.

I got some new friends to. I do all of our dishes by hand and anyone who knows me can tell that I hate doing dishes. When our dishwasher broke I figured it can't be all that bad doing dishes by hand. I was right, it's not all that bad. Getting the dirty dishes out of the kitchen sink to be able to do the dishes turned out to be worse. So I got myself a plastic bin for the dirty dishes from Dollarstore. I just lift up the bin and then I have a nice and clean kitchen sink to start with and the dishes are done in no time! I also got some new dish brushes from Iris Hantverk and they are amazing! I'll never buy another plastic brush if I can choose a wooden brush instead. They are a bit more expensive, but I'd rather pay that extra money and be a little more happy while doing the dishes.

I feel great about the progress I see in our life, however small they might seem. I've started to organize the small pantry I got under the stairs by the kitchen and judging from the space I get I think I might get away with storing all the things I need. I have the food cellar for things that can handle the dampness like jars and other things that are packaged well enough. I'll get more into that as I get it set up. For once it's the right time to get it done, soon enough we'll be busy gardening and building our cabin.

Until next time, be well.
//S