Last Major Grocery Shop Before We Start Our No-Spend Challenge

We're gearing up to start our no-spend challenge tomorrow. This means that we will not be doing any major grocery shops for several months. We will need to utilize what we have on hand. It will force me, eventually, to get quite creative in the kitchen.

Here is a quick walk through of most of what I have to work with. Not pictured are the storage cabinets under our dining nook. I'm not getting down on the floor to take pictures. I apologize for some of the blurry photos, as well. Bob wasn't too impressed that I wanted him to lift up the bed so I could simply take a picture. There were 2 cats lounging on there and Rose thought she needed to join the fun.

Here are my 3 deep freezers. We have 2 smaller chest freezerz and an upright.

A lot of stuff I have frozen is from recipes that I didn't cut in half. I made the full amount and I froze the leftovers. I like to do that with things like Calico or Charro Beans.

Some of the contents are some of the stuff we grew last year, like strawberries. I see some trout that I traded my sister for. They love to go fishing, crabbing and clam digging. I trade her garden produce. It works out well for both of us.

More leftovers that we didn't feel like eating right away and didn't want to waste.

Peas from the garden from last year.

Yes, I have a lot of butter. We don't use margarine in this household.

The other thing we use a lot of is ground beef. When Safeway had it on sale for $2.97 per pound, if you bought 3 pounds or more, we wound up buying a couple of cases of it.

Yep. My upright freezer is ridiculously full. That ham will be for Easter dinner. While I don't really celebrate holidays, Bob does. I cook for him. In the bottom of the new chest freezer, I have 2 whole turkeys and a turkey breast. I think I have a turkey breast in the other chest freezer, too.

This is our new chest freezer. It was Bob's idea to buy the pre-sweetened, sliced strawberries today. We've not been having the greatest luck with strawberries from the store. They taste pretty disgusting. I'm not going to use the strawberries that we grew because those are for jam.

The older chest freezer. I see some kielbasa, pork ribs, etc. in there.

We have things stashed here and there. This is our outdoor kitchen cabinet.

The beers are for either beer batter or beer cheese soup.

Our outside refrigerator. This is where we keep our pickled stuff, extra milk and half & half and stuff like that.

Bob's carrots for the wild rabbits and deer. I use these, too. We do not refrigerate these because it's plenty cold enough outside to keep them pretty fresh.

I apologize for the blur on this photo. This is our under the bed storage. This is where I put my home-canned goods and, when I buy cases of stuff, like tomatoes or beans, we put those under the bed, too. It's quite cool under there and it's dark. It is the perfect place to store stuff.

It's getting to be that time when I need to go through my cabinets again and organize things. The reality of the situation is that I have a working pantry and things happen and it ends up looking like this.

This side is much more organized.

The extra dining bench is where we store our potatoes, citrus fruits, etc. I also use it to put my KitchenAid stand mixer, crockpot, yogurt maker, etc. Those big white bags are oatmeal and dried beans. I have a food grade bucket, underneath, that holds some extra stuff in it.

So, today, we went to Winco for our last major grocery shop before we start this challenge. Here is my receipt.



We're all set to get this ball rolling. I'll be blogging about this as I go along and I'm expecting this project to last 4-6 months, at least. I'd love to go a year, but I'm not sure if that's going to be possible.

 This was Bob's last chance for candy. It was my last chance to pick up a couple of Russian kielbasas. Those are my favorite! Actually, kielbasa is one of my most favorite things, right behind razor clams. We picked up a couple of packs of bulk breakfast sausage and, since I plan on making Moussaka tonight, we picked up a couple of eggplant.
On this no spend challenge, we will be able to purchase fresh produce and fruit (until the garden starts producing), Bob's coffee creamer (I cannot find a recipe that he likes and he's not putting Irish cream into his coffee) and milk products (limited to milk, half & half and heavy cream). We will still buy my club soda and Bob will be able to buy his soda. Other than that, we either make it or we don't eat it.

Wish us luck!

Making Peach Jam #EveryBitCountsChallenge

 It's that time of year that I start preserving different things for wintertime use. This is the first thing I've canned this year. I tend to follow the insert that comes in the box of Sure Jell pectin when it comes to canning. Those recipes are tried, true and they never fail. They are tested for safety. They take the guesswork out of it.

I will tweak things slightly, like seasonings, herbs, etc., but I leave the main components alone.

I digress.

I'm getting in on the Every Bit Counts Challenge. I'm a bit late to the party, but better late than never. This challenge is that every day in August, you make something to put up for the winter. It doesn't matter if it is canned, dehydrated, freeze-dried, frozen or you are simply making seed starter pots out of toilet paper rolls. It all counts. The past few days, I was working my way through 20 pounds of fresh peaches. The majority went into the freezer except the one that I ate and the ones I used to make this batch of jam.

So, without further ado, here's how I make Peach Jam.

I love looking at these golden jars of peach perfection!

This recipe starts out with 4 cups of chopped/smashed peaches. Make sure to measure carefully. 

 
In a separate bowl, measure out 5-1/2 cups of granulated sugar. When I'm canning, I make sure that I buy pure cane sugar. I don't want to use sugar that is made from beets. I'm going to attempt to grow out sugar beets next year and make my own sugar, so stay tuned for that...but for this recipe, it's pure cane sugar all the way!

I had Bob get out my big pot. Unless I'm canning quart jars, I like to use this pot to can in. It's just easier to handle for me.

I mixed the chopped peaches with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and a box of Sure Jell pectin. This is a case where I deviate from the recipe. I don't use fresh lemons. I use bottled lemon juice. Every single time that I've ever bought fresh lemons to use, something has come up and they turn on me. I find that if I just buy bottles of lime and lemon juice, they can last in the fridge almost indefinitely. I may go through a bottle of each per year.

This gets combined in a large pan. I used my enameled cast iron Dutch oven. It is the perfect size to make a batch of jam in.

You cook the peaches, pectin and lemon juice with a scant 1/2 teaspoon of butter until it comes to a full, rolling boil. What that means is when you stir it hard, you can't stir the bubbles down.

After the mixture comes to a full, rolling boil, you add in all the sugar at once. Just dump it in. The sugar actually becomes a liquid. That's why you measure out the sugar before you start and put it in a bowl. That way, it's just ready to go.

You bring that mixture back up to a full, rolling boil and boil it for exactly one minute. I have a clock that has a second hand on it so I can be uber precise with the timing.

Before I got started cooking, I got out what I would need. I put some white vinegar into a dish. I got a couple of paper towels. I use the paper towels dipped into the vinegar to clean the rims of the jars.

I filled the jars leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. You can eyeball it. You don't have to measure. They do sell a gadget that will measure for you, if you're more comfortable doing it that way.

This is the homemade rack that Bob made for me. He used floral wire to connect the lids together. It works perfectly.
If you don't have this stuff, you can put a kitchen towel in the bottom. You just need something to keep the bottoms of the jars off of the bottom of the pan.

I put my lids into a pan of simmering water. Some people don't do this. I do this.
I don't see how it will hurt anything, to be honest.

I put the lids and rings on each jar and screwed them on until they are just finger-tight. You don't want to crank them down super tight. Just barely finger-tight is enough. I put these into the pot so that they weren't touching.

I put the lid on, turned the heat on and brought it up to a boil. Once it came to a full boil, I set a timer for 10 minutes. Once that was done, I turned off the flame and set another timer for 5 minutes. That's when I removed the jars to set on a towel lined baking tray. I put my jars on baking trays because it's easier for us to move them around that way. I covered them with another towel and within 30 minutes, I heard that sound that is music to a canner's ears...the ping of a lid sealing...6 times, one for each jar of peach jam.

I don't really use peach jam on toast or sandwiches. I use peach jam as a base for other things, like BBQ sauce, Asian sauces, etc. I'll make an odd piece of toast here and there, but I made this for other things.

Here you have these peachy jars of perfection!

If you want to view the full recipe, look at the insert that comes in a box of Sure Jell pectin.

#EveryBitCountsChallenge

Pantry Organization & Spring Cleaning

 It was a beautiful day out yesterday. It was one of those perfect spring days where you want to sit outside and just absorb nature. I did do that for a few hours, for sure, but I also had a few projects that I wanted to tackle.
You guys already read about my instant gravy making adventures. If you haven't, click here to view that blog post. This is the other project that I wanted to accomplish was rearranging our pantry and dish storage cabinet.

This was ridiculous. I had so many Penzey's Spices. I asked my sister if she wanted them and if it was one that I hadn't used in the past 6 months, it is going to her. As much as I make from scratch, she makes more...and she lives in a house and has more room to put things. Anyhow, this is unacceptable. Things got really shifted around when we moved up here in January. Having the fifth wheel pulled up the driveway didn't help matters any. Our driveway sucks, but we like it that way.

Bob wasn't sure if this would all go back into the cabinet. I assured him that, if it came out, it would go back in.

It does look like a holy mess, though. 

That little half of a shelf is where all that stuff on the counter came from. I needed some space to work with.

My Ninja blender, vanilla, sherry and ramekins were all shoved toward the back. Now, mind you, I cannot reach to the back of that cabinet, so I rearranged things in an order that made sense to me, not Bob. Bob is 6'1". I'm 5'4". Big difference there.

I'm pleased with how my spice area turned out. I still have a drawer full underneath. I cleaned that out, as well. This also gave me a chance to see what I needed to stock up on and what I needed to use up quickly.

The dishes came down a shelf and I can now reach everything.

The tote holds all of our packets of stuff and our extra bags of brown sugar, etc. We're working our way through the tote and will start replacing a lot of those packets of gravy, onion soup mix, etc. with homemade versions that I store in canning jars.

Everything in here is now a lot more accessible to me, as well. The boxes are things that are very near or just after the expiration date and they need to be used up. I also have a can of pineapple that's about 8 months past that I will use to make a marinade. I'm thinking tacos al pastor sound good.

I did not stop with just organizing the pantry. I have a working RV kitchen. By that, I mean, I use the stove and I cook in there on a daily basis. Do I tear the stove apart and clean it every single time? No. I don't. I do, however, clean it on a weekly basis. I'm not going to lie, however. I have let it go for about 3 weeks. It was getting gross and it needed to be cleaned. This is real life and stuff happens. Anyhow, I don't use any fancy cleaners for my stove. I've discovered that I can get it super clean with just plain ol' baking soda. It removes the grease, it scours it and it's something that most everyone has on hand. Here is the before photo.

Here is the after photo. Yes, I have some permanent staining on there. Like I said, this is a working kitchen and stuff happens...but my stove is clean.

It was nice to have the door open with Mickey-Shark and Ravioli safely enclosed in their cat pen.
Today, I'm dehydrating apples. Tomorrow, I'm taking Bob to the hospital so that he can have his procedure. After that, I'm going to dehydrate potatoes. After that, it will probably be time plant out some more stuff. This is a homestead/farm in baby form and every single day, if we accomplish a few goals, they eventually add up to a nice place to live.
So, my parting words of wisdom to RVers is to not be afraid to use your propane stove. I think I'd have a hard time going back to electricity after getting used to this.