Canned Hoppin' Johns

Hi, reader friends!! I hope today finds you happy and well! Have you seen the exciting news on my YouTube channel, My Modern Homestead?? If you haven't, here's your spoiler alert!!

We now have over 1,000 subscriber friends!! That is so amazing to me! I never even dreamed I would get 200, so I feel incredibly humbled and blessed to be where we are. If you are one of those subscribers, I want to give you my sincerest appreciation.

Since we can't sit and enjoy our favorite warm beverage together to celebrate, how about visiting over the newest canning recipe I just posted over on our channel? 😊

Today, I give to you how I canned Hoppin' Johns! You can view the video with stove top instructions by clicking here to go to our YouTube page.

Ingredients

2-1/2 - 3 lbs dry black eye peas, soaked overnight

8 cloves of garlic, minced

3 medium onions, minced

3 bell peppers, minced

1 bunch of parsley, chopped fine

1 can of petite diced tomatoes

8 slices of bacon, cut as desired

1-2 tsp Chicken broth base powder or bouillon per jar

1/4 tsp chili powder per jar

1/4 tsp paprika or smoked paprika per jar

1 pinch to 1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper per jar

Boiling water

To clean pint jars (this will yield at least 16 pint jars), add 1 cup of peas. Divide the onions, garlic, and parsley evenly among the jars. Add 1 tablespoon of tomatoes to each jar. Add 1/2 slice of bacon to each jar. Add the seasonings, including the powdered chicken broth base. You may adjust seasonings according to taste. Add boiling water to one inch headspace. Debubble and wipe the jar rims clean. Seal jars with a lid and ring just to finger tight. Process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs PSI (adjust for your altitude) for 75 minutes for pints.

To cook on the stove:

1 lb soaked dry black eye peas

1 onion, chopped fine

1 bell pepper, chopped fine

1 clove garlic, chopped fine

1/4-1/2 bunch of parsley chopped fine

1 can of petite diced tomatoes

2 slices of bacon, cut as desired

4-6 tsp chicken broth base powder or to taste

1 tsp chili powder, or to taste

1 tsp paprika, or to taste

1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

Salt to taste

Place all ingredients in a pot. Cover the ingredients with water. I like to start with about an inch of water above the ingredients. Bring the ingredients to a boil. Turn the heat down and cover with a propped lid. Simmer until the peas are done. Watch carefully so the peas do not run dry and burn. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking. I like to cook most of my water out and add back just a little more if needed to have thick beans. Many people like their beans with a lot of pot liquor. Add liquid to your personal taste.

I hope you have enjoyed our visit today! And remember! For the safety of your food, always do your own research and follow safe canning guidelines issued by the USDA through the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Always do as they say, not as I do sometimes. 😊😉

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!💕

Canning Sloppy Joes

Hello all my beautiful reader friends! I hope today finds you surrounded by blessings!

We have been supper busy the last few weeks putting away peaches and lots veggies. I took a day to use some of those veggies to make sloppy joes to can. I thought maybe some of you would be interested in trying it yourself, so today, for your viewing and canning pleasure, I present today's recipe! 😁🥰

Canned Sloppy Joes 

6 lbs. ground beef
1-2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1/2- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped bell peppers
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons paprika
3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 cups tomato sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/8 - 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
2 - 3 teaspoons Better Than Beef Bouillon

Brown meat and drain. Cool onions, peppers, and garlic until it starts to soften. Add meat back to the pot. Add salt, pepper, and Worcestershire. Mix well.   When vegetables are soft, add the remaining ingredients. Mix well and bring to a boil for five minutes. Stir often to avoid burning. Ladle the mixture into hot jars leaving 1 once headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe the jar rims with vinegar. Seal the jars with lids and rings. Process pints for 75 minutes at 10 lbs psi for a weighted canners or 11 lbs psi for guaged canners. Make adjustments according to your altitude.

You can use your favorite beef broth in place of the two cups of water and bouillon paste, if you would like.

If you would like to watch my video of me making this recipe, just click here.

There you go! Short and sweet! I hope you have been enjoying your summer. I know many of you have been struggling just survive this brutal heat! Maybe you just want to tuck this recipe away for a cooler day. Who could blame you for that? 

I would still love to hear from you? What have you been up to this summer? Leave a comment below if you would like to share. 🥰

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!

*Remember to always follow safe canning guidelines issued by the USDA to ensure the safety of your food.

Chicken & Bacon Burritos in a Jar

Hello all my beautiful reader friends!

I hope today finds you happy and well! What amazing- or ordinary- things have you been up to lately?

I have been busy trying to tame my garden. I am afraid that is a losing battle in many areas there, but the side where my green beans are growing is doing really well. I will tell you more about that in a later post, though.

For today, let's get to what I know you came here to see- the recipe! 🥰 Click here for the video!

Chicken & Bacon Burritos in a Jar

1/2 cup dry black beans 

1/4 cup uncooked brown rice (white or Jasmine work, too.)

2/3 c chopped bell pepper, onion, and whole kernel corn mix 

1-1/4 c cubes of partially cooked chicken 

1/4 c chopped crispy bacon 

4 T Rotel tomatoes 

1-2 T taco seasoning 

Chicken broth  

Layer ingredients in the order listed into a quart jar. Fill the jar to one inch headspace with the chicken broth. De-bubble the jar. Wipe the rim of the jar with white vinegar. Seal jar with a flat and ring. Place the jar in a cold canner. Continue filling desired number of jars. Process the jars for 90 minutes at 10 lbs psi for weighted canners or 11 lbs psi for guaged canners. Make sure to adjust weight according to your altitude. 

This is not a tested recipe. As always, you always can at your own risk. Always do your own research before canning any item or recipe. Never take my word or anyone else's for it! ❤️

If you decide to try it, leave a comment to let me know how you liked it!

Thank you for stopping by!

Until we meet again, may you be blessed! 💕

Canning Ground Beef

Hi reader friends!

It has taken me a while to get to this post. I guess I have been unsure of just how to present it. About a week ago, I used a large part of my day to work on some things for my pantry. I needed to get some ground beef canned, and I wanted to get some things I knew I wouldn't use within a year put away in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers so they wouldn't go bad. There was a lot going on in the kitchen that day. If you would like to see the video, click here.

The biggest part of my focus was on the ground beef. Ground beef is very easy to can. If you would like to view the video tutorial, click here. I started by cooking and draining the grease from my meat. Then I lightly packed the meat into pint sized jars to one inch headspace. I like to add a dollop of Better Than Bouillon Beef Paste and then add boiling water to one inch headspace. The paste is not necessary, though. You could use plain water, beef broth, or tomato juice. The air bubbles should be removed from the jars and the jar rims wiped clean with a little vinegar. Seal the jars with a lid and ring, place them in the canner. The jars should be processed for 75 minutes for pints at 10lbs pressure after the canner has been vented for ten minutes. Make sure to adjust the pressure for your altitude.

I hope you get the chance to try canning your own ground beef! Having some jars on your pantry shelf sure helps when you really need to pull together a quick and easy meal! 

What do you like to have on your shelf to make meals quick and easy? Let me know in the comments!

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!

Things That Help My Day Be More Productive & Ways To Teach Children Be More Productive

Hi reader friends!!

I took a half day to fully focus on some things I needed to do in the kitchen, and I thought I might share some things that have helped me through the years.

When I was younger, I hated the kitchen. Cooking made huge messes, and it took so long to clean up. After being married for so many years, I came to realize it was because I was never taught how to manage my time and resources in the kitchen. If that sounds like you, don't dispair! You can learn the skills you need to make the kitchen and other parts of your home your friend instead of that avoided enemy. I am far from perfect. There are plenty who have their act together much better than I, but I'm in no competition with anyone other than myself! I am just here to give you hope that you can be one who gets a lot done in the home, too. 

One important thing I have found that helps me is to really think through what needs to be done and prepare for success. Laundry need to be done? What can I do between loads? Maybe a room or part of a room can be dusted. What am I cooking or doing? What do I need to get that done? (This goes for any area in life, right?) What food, spices, pans do I need? Have them ready to go. Then I try to dermine if there is waiting time involved. If so, I try to fill that void with another quick task or two. Often, that time is simply washing dishes that were dirtied during preparation. I almost always wash as I go! There is nothing worse than spending your precious energy on a meal only to have to get up from the table to wash a sink and countertop full of dirty dishes. That's the worst, right?? No thanks! Let me do a few at a time as I work. That is not something that comes natural for some like me. It is a constant task that must be practiced over and over until the habit becomes second nature. In the beginning, it's much easier to just leave them for something that seems more interesting or relaxing like sitting on the sofa and vegging out on the phone or TV. But is that really satisfying when in the back of our mind the mess is taunting us? Get into the habit of stopping and doing what needs to be done as soon as you see it. A piece of trash on the floor? Stop and pick it up. That's not where it belongs. Mail in your hand. Sort it immediately. Don't lay it down for later- thanks for teaching me that one, Carla! Later may take a week if you sit it down. Taking a shower? Pick those clothes up immediately! You've got to walk over or around them anyway. Take those two seconds to bend over and pick them up, and put them where you keep your dirty laundry! 

Teach your children to do the same right from the start; they love having jobs and helping when they are little. Let them learn from an early age (this applies to many household chores) how to do these simple things. They will develop the skills they need to be clean, neat, and organized early when you give them the tools they need. You will high-five yourself later when you don't have to travel all over the house to track down dirty clothes. 

While we're here on this topic, let's have this discussion. It's perfectly okay and healthy to give your child these little jobs around the house! Why?

1. When they are little, it is not a job! It's fun for them to do what they view as grown-up things. Be a great model for them!

2. Everyone lives in the home, and everyone is on the same team. It teaches the child to be a team player in taking care of the home.

3. Teaching the child these basic skills teaches the child life skills! A child most likely won't live at home forever. That child is going to need to know how to take care of a home. Knowing how to care for oneself and a home is a confidence builder when the child is ready to leave the nest.

4. These basic skills will build cleanliness and organizational skills. If a child is learning from an early age not to leave a mess and put things where they beling, not to walk around things that need to be thrown away, and clean what is dirty immediately, those skills just become ingrained in who the child is.

But how do we do all that?? First, we MUST make it a part of who we are as a parent if it's not already! Children learn best by watching others. If that is not who you are naturally, you have the gift of learning right along with your child. Secondly, do these things you want your child to do with him or her! Make it fun; turn it into a game! For example, when I taught school, I liked to help our janitor by leaving my classroom as clean as possible at the end of the day. At the end of the day, we would play "The Magic Piece of Trash" game. The students would frantically scoop up all sorts of loose items from the floor. They knew I would let them know when the magic piece of trash had been picked up. I would let them know, and the person holding the magic piece would be rewarded. I let the game continue until the floor was clean. By the middle of the year, we would have to find new games to play, because the students had become proficient at cleaning up the classroom by then without me having to make much to-do over it. Children are only little for so long. Treasure these precious years. Don't sit and order your child around. You and your child will enjoy the time spent being silly and having fun together. Your sweet little one won't even realize the learning that is taking place. 

I hope something here inspires and helps you.  I have used these things for my own self, and have taught them to my children, too. None of us are perfect, though, and sometimes life gets crazy. That's okay. At least we have the skills to get right back on track before things get too far out of hand in the house! You can do it too! I believe in you! 

Go tackle the world, Tiger! --Well, at least the space you call home. 🥰

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!

Making Smoked Sausage

 

Today (Saturday) was our first time to try making sausage! It took us forever, but I was surprised at how easy it was to do. 

Last year, my husband had asked what I wanted for Christmas. I couldn't think of anything I really wanted, so I just tried to think of things we could possibly use around the house. In my search, I found a grinder/meal/sausage making kit for my KitchenAid mixer. I got it for Christmas, but it has been sitting on the shelf until today.

Over the last few months we have been gathering things we knew we needed to make sausage. We have also spent hours researching the process. We finally gathered the supplies we needed and found a weekend day free enough for us to try our hand at it. We recorded the whole process. You can find the full video here on my YouTube channel, My Modern Homestead.

Basically, to make sausage, you begin with your desired amount of meat and sausage. There is a bit of science behind that. We determined that we would use 15 pounds of meat with 3 pounds of added fat. This first time, we used our own meat plus some we bought. We also bought sixty pounds of fat that we separated into three pound portions for future projects. 

We kept that meat as cold as we could and ground it with a coarse grind plate and then a fine grind plate. Those came with the kit.

Next, we placed all the meat along with the spices, cure, and water into our 20 pound meat mixer from LEM. We did our best to mix it well without over mixing. That step is in the video, but unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture.

The next part was a little tricky. We had natural hog casings soaking in some water. I had to figure out how to separate one and get it loaded onto the stuffing tube. I eventually got it done, and we began stuffing the sausage. Both the grinding and the stuffing took forever with the equipment we were using, but after 10,162 hours, we got done!

Then we placed the sausage into the smoke house for a cold smoke. The house doesn't get hot enough to cook the sausage through. 

We then took the sausage down and bagged it up four links to a bag. The bags were placed in the freezer until we are ready to cook the links for a meal.

We ended up with fourteen bags.

Before we make more, we are going to invest in a bigger, heavier duty grinder and a different stuffer. What we used would be fine for a really small batch, but it just wasn't practical for the amounts we will be doing. I am now excited to try it again! We have our ingredients ready for our next batches but we will wait for our new equipment.

Do any of you make your own sausage? My husband wanted to make a sausage he could smoke and that could just hang in the pantry similar to how a salted country ham hangs, but he couldn't find any definitive information on that. Perhaps someone out there can offer him some wisdom and advice on the subject.

What have you been up to in your corner of the world? I would love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment down below.

I hope you enjoyed following along with us! I tried to include as much of the process as I could without making the post and video too long for you.

This is the information for the company from which I ordered our mixes. They have much more than spice mixes, though! Just call them to request a free catalog.

Home Butchering Supplies, LLC
715-623-0055

Love you all!

Until we meet again, may you be blessed! ❤️

How to Can Sweet Potatoes

May I start by saying that if you like canning sweet potatoes, bless you!

I don't think I've ever not liked canning something as much as I've not liked canning sweet potatoes!! Maybe if they had been fresher, the process wouldn't have been so bad. I don't know. 

If you DO want to try them, this is the process:

Start with nice, smooth potatoes. Most of mine were not. Scrub them well, boil them 12-15 minutes just until they are barely fork tender, peel them- the skin and yellow layer underneath, chop them into nice size chunks, and pack them into jars to 1 inch headspace. Cover them with boiled, hot water to one inch headspace. Seal the jars and process quarts for 90 minutes, pints for 65 minutes at 11lbs pressure for a dial guage, and 10lbs pressure for a weighted pressure canner. Make sure to check and adjust your pressure for your location.

Click here for my video tutorial on YouTube!

I wish you all the best, and may your experience not be so rough and tedious. 💕

In other news, we got two pigs last weekend. We were supposed to have three, but one got away in the loading process. She has since been recovered by the original owner, and we will be going to get her this weekend. Hopefully, she won't be as skiddish as her sister. Of the two pigs we brought home, only the piglet will come to us easily. She is the cutest little thing and will eat everything we put in front of her except onions. She is so much like a puppy. She "smiles", wags her tail, and grunts as she happily makes her way to us to see what treat we may have for her. She is so gentle and eats right out of our hand. This is her eating some peels from the sweet potatoes that I canned.

Maybe once we get the bigger pig's sister here, the bigger pig will come around, too.

I think, hope, the cold weather is past us now. We've had some wild and crazy weather here the last couple of weeks. The only thing we have put in the garden is corn. Somehow, it is all coming up! I don't know if we've ever had a year other than our first year when we didn't have to fight weather and animals to get it to come up. Praise the Lord! Thank you! Now, I need to work on getting our other things in the ground. I'll be working on figuring out where I want to put things for a little while this morning.

What have you all been up to? I would love to hear from you in the comments! I love hearing what is happening in your world even if it has nothing to do with the homesteading life!

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1

Until we meet again, may you be blessed! 💕