July 30, 2026 - Busy But Nothing to Report

 There's been things going on but nothing worth writing a blog post about. 

Of course I've been canning - more salsa; while I have lots of bell peppers and Giant Marconi peppers, which to me are pretty similar to bell peppers, I've been canning ground beef as the base for two casseroles we love. One is Philly Cheese Casserole. I brown the ground beef - not even totally brown but enough that it will not clump together in the jars, add onions and bell peppers towards the end, put the mix into 1-1/2 pint jars, top it off with beef broth, leaving 1" head space and pressure can it. Then when it's time to have it for dinner, I'll pretty much follow the recipe except I will drain most of the broth off but cook the meat with a little broth until it's hot and the broth has cooked down, then go on according to the recipe. It makes for a super quick meal and you'd never know the meat came out of a jar.

The other is recipe I like to can while I have way too many poblano peppers is  Chile Relleno Casserole. I scorch the peppers, peel them, then set them aside. I brown the ground beef with the onions as in the other recipe. I add the salt but no other seasons. Then I add the ground beef to the 1-1/2 pint jars, but only put the beef up about 2/3rd to the top. Then I put four or five of the peppers on top, pour beef broth over, leaving 1" head space. 

The only seasonings I add to both while in the jars is salt. Pints are pressure canned at the appropriate (for your level) pressure for 75 minutes; quarts for 90 minutes. When using 1-1/2 pint jars, I go with the time for quarts. Since the time for canning beef is longer than for canning peppers, I'm not concerned about the peppers in these recipes.

For winter, I love having red beans/sausage, beef stew, chili, the Philly Cheese Steak Casserole, Chile Relleno Casserole, Split Pea Soup and Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup. 

Tuesday I spatchcocked a chicken, which is how I like to roast them because the bones are pretty flat and I can stick the whole "structure" in a ziplock bag and freeze it until I'm ready to make bone broth. Not pretty but it was delicious. I picked the leftover meat off the bones and today I made chicken and rice.

Remember the eggplant I made the other day that was quite a bit of trouble? I made it again today but was lazy about making it. While it wasn't pretty, it tasted the same. I peeled the eggplant, sprinkled it heavily with salt and let it sit for about an hour, rinsed it, dried it, and cut it into chunks. I dried all those with paper towels, dipped them in egg, then seasoned cornmeal and fried them.

Then I spread them out on a parchment lined baking sheet, heated up marinara and poured it over the eggplant, added mozzarella and stuck it all under the broiler til the mozzarella began to melt.

Took it out, placed it on our plates and topped it with shredded basil. That's in the picture above with the chicken and rice. The good news is there's plenty of leftover eggplant and chicken and rice so we'll have it again Friday or Saturday.

Finally, I've been working on a new journal and can't wait to share that. I don't have it all put together yet - hopefully I will have it by the end of Friday. It's going to be a separate journal just for the Blackbird Academy which will last August 1 - July 31, 2027 with a new project each month.

There's one page out of it. You may not be able to read my scribbly  handwriting. Sorry.

Then there's what's left of the garden. I wanted Vince to help me pull out the tomatoes, except for Cooper's tomatoes but his back is bothering him.  It's time for the tomatoes and cucumbers to go. The squash is already gone except for a couple that I planted a few weeks ago. The eggplant may last til Christmas at the rate it's going! I probably should not have said that!  I've been trying to keep the basil cut so it doesn't bolt, which it REALLY wants to do so whatever I cut has to be freeze dried or dehydrated.  Summer is not my favorite season, partly because of all the work in the garden and the canning, but I bring that on myself. The other part is the heat and having to water so much but I think most all of us are in that same boat right now. I'm ready for winter. I'm ready for it to be dark early and all the outside chores are done before 4 p.m. -- just a couple more months of summer heat!