Save some bucks, can some beans

I have started canning my own beans lately. Mostly pinto beans but I've also done kidney and garbanzo (for quick hummus). Do you have a pressure canner? If you do, you can do this. It's so simple and so cheap.

I especially like having the pinto beans in larger portions so I can make up refried beans on the fly.

Ready?

Here's what you do...



Soak a big ole' pot of beans for a day or two.

Drain them.

Fill clean quart jars with beans to about 3/4 full.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart, then fill with hot water and process 60 minutes, 10 pounds pressure.

After two simple evenings of turning the stove on and babysitting it for a bit, I have 14 more quarts of beans.

They are so handy to have in the pantry, like money in the bank.

Storm warning

What should you do to prepare when a storm comes that threatens to knock out your electricity? What do you do?

After our week without water or electricity last December here and here we have some things that we do now.

We had some high winds and it looked like it was definitely going to rain. This was not just your everyday windy...it was WINDY! It blew our compost bin away!

We knew this was not the normal wind and rain.

Immediately, the boys flew into action.

The first thing they did was fill up both bath tubs. That was good thinking. I honestly thought they were overreacting a little, but I humored them and let them have their fun of preparing for a power outage. Little did I know how right they would turn out to be.

Why fill up the tubs?

Well, it's very handy to have plenty of water to flush the toilets, wash your hands with, wash dishes, who knows?

Unfortunately, I didn't take the power outage threat as seriously as I should have. This was what was in my sink when the power did go out. Not a good idea to have a sinkful of dirty dishes with no water. But it only lasted about 24 hours so we survived.

Lasty, get out your headlight, set out flashlights, lay out pajamas for bedtime and then get your current knitting project out and try to remember to be content in all circumstances.