Friday, August 28, 2015

Canning Chick Peas

Since our garden didn’t do anything this summer I am going through canning withdrawals. So I decided to can some dry beans I have had in my freezer. I bought a bunch of dried beans a couple months back for like 4 packs for 1.00. So I also have a herd of those as well to can later on.
Figured I would post a pic of some of my beans. These two were left overs so they went into the fridge. I know I can pressure can more things with the two jars and if I was pressure canning them I could have used all pints. Anyway I had this much left over once I got my pressure canner full of pints. Had 9 pints in there and then I just put this in these jars and I will make some hummus with it.


Next is to get to canning those other dry beans. WHY can dry beans you ask? Much cheaper to can your own AND you KNOW what all is IN them. No nasty's in my canned beans. Winking smile Plus there is more in these pints than you would get from a can.


I found my recipe on the Homesteading forum several years ago and they said you could use all the spices and can several kinds of dry beans using them. I have been canning them ever since I tried them. The family just loves the seasoning in them as well. They’re not just plain unseasoned beans.

On these chick peas I canned today I only added just a touch of the cayenne pepper and I added sea salt, just a touch of cumin, 1/2 tea. of garlic powder and dried chopped onions as well. Since I will making hummus from them I didn’t want to add the chili powder and black pepper like I do to the other kinds of beans.

I LOVE having these nice seasoned beans in my pantry because I can grab a jar and make all sorts of recipes with them. Just like the other day, I had some left over rice that I needed to use. So I got me a jar or two of my pinto beans and fried some link sausage and made some red beans and rice with them all. Well pinto beans and rice but nobody noticed. ha

Then just a couple days ago I was searching for something to cook for dinner since I seem to get stuck on the same food all the time. I came across this recipe on the web and I can’t recall where I found it now. Someone shared it and they didn’t give the name so I just call it the Mexican chicken dish. I had all the ingredients to make it with and the ones I didn’t have I figured ways around them. But yep you got it, my canned beans came in handy yet again. I served mine over corn chips I’d gotten from the Dollar Tree. I also doubled the recipe because I knew we were going to like it. Hubby doesn’t even like cream cheese and he loved the stuff to. I didn’t have any of the Fiesta ranch mix, mine was just the plain kind and I used it. I knew my canned beans were spicy so it would have been much too hot had I used that kind of the ranch mix. Also the day before I found this recipe I had boiled some chicken legs so I just deboned them and used that meat instead of the chicken breast. I also don’t like the taste of the water in canned foods from the store. YUCK, so I drained the corn and just added fresh clean water, like 1/2 can or so. So you see how handy these canned beans are for meals. PLUS I am trying to put more fiber in my meals since we don’t get enough fiber these days. Please do try this recipe if you haven’t tried it. My family and I really loved it so needless to say it’s a keeper.


Mexican Chicken Dish


4 chicken breast
1 packet Fiesta Ranch mix (by the salad dressing)
1 can black beans
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can corn (not drained)
1 block cream cheese



On high in the slow cooker for 4 hours or 6 on low. Eat over rice or with tortillas!

EDITED to add: I just found yet another recipe using beans that looks awesome! My link isn't wanting to work so I'll just add it this way. :-) http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/black_bean_salad/

Now to get to canning those other dried beans and figuring out where to store them. Winking smile


Hope you guys are having an awesome summer and got to can a lot this summer.
Rose


Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Next Project

I was VERY blessed to get this camper and we’ve been working on it for a couple months now. Wanted to share it with you all. She was in such bad shape when we got her, but we’re working on her to get her back to her glory.

I’ll post some before and some after pix. She’s been sitting up for 4 plus years so she had some crud growing on her. I named her Classy ‘85 and have said she’s an ugly duckling now but soon to be a Classy ‘85.

Here she is before they got her off the trailer. She was hauled home on a trailer and she was too wide to be put on the trailer itself so she was placed ON the rails of the trailer and strapped down. In the pic they’re about to unload her off the trailer at our house. The normal 7 hour trip to TN. was a 14 hour one coming home with her. Had no problems just had to drive slower. 

Bigfoot 1985 G

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Shot from the side.

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Close up of her sitting on the rails of the trailer. They hauled her home like that all the way from TN. and she didn’t budge a drop. Got to replace the old tires and a few more things.

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Pic of the front.

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Pic of the front tongue area. The cover for the bottles is on the inside. Thank goodness they thought to put it on the inside.

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Back side

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Inside

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Another shot of the back

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Starting to clean her up. She had old moss stuff growing on her and it was very thick. We had to wash the worst off to begin with and then go back over her over and over scrubbing it off. It was very bad.

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The front getting a little cleaner.

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You can see some of that old moss stuff up on the curvy area at the back and it’s already been washed once getting a layer of it off.

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The Bigfoot clock inside.

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Getting closer to being clean.

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Hubby welding her tongue back. She had a crack in the tongue as well as in her frame. She was pulled with a 4 wheel drive that was up too high and it cracked the tongue and frame. She’s all fixed now.

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Scrubbing the roof now. With all that washing we did to her I had to put a heater inside to dry her out since we found 2-3 leak areas. So we put a tarp over it. We got some of the lights on the outside leaking scrubbing it so hard. They all need replacing anyway.

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See how nasty the roof was? She was sitting under a cedar tree.

 

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You can see where we scrubbed on the next one.

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I can see some shine now and she’s not even waxed yet. Going to put some oxidation remover and color enhancer on her soon. Wax is also in the mix. Got to re-paint the water heater cover there on the bottom.

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I’ve got the plumbing covers to replace the messed up ones.  Also ordered some butyl tape and going to remove all the windows and re-seal them all.

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Removing the awning. She was leaking at the area where my hubby is now. I’m not putting those brackets back on her. Going to use what’s called an awning in a bag with aluminum tent pegs.

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Had to clean the goo off where the awning strip was. Hubby had to cut the bracket off the trailer because someone had used like 3-4” bolts much too long and had piled on washers and they were rusted together. No way to get them off. We used WD 40 and everything trying to get them off.

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I raised the tarp up so I could get a shot of the roof once we got the top cleaned up. See how clean.

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And the awning is OFF! I washed and scrubbed the fabric itself so we could use that part for now. Maybe later on we’ll get another awning but not like this one. Don’t want anything that’s going to tug at her like this one did.

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Kept reading where everyone that had Bigfoot campers was going in an area and pulling back the carpet just a bit to see if vinyl was under the carpet and they all had vinyl. So I went under the table area and peeled it back and sure enough there was vinyl. I started pulling that carpet out like a mad woman Winking smileand this is what I found under it. Cool, MEGA happy woman! I then had to go back and cut closer to the edges with the box cutter and then get some needle nose pliers and pull all the carpet out that was under all the walls and stuff.

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I also got inside and put Old English all over her walls. She drank it like a sponge she was soooo dry. I can almost hear her breathing sighs of relief to have someone that is taking care of her and getting her all fixed up. Winking smile

 

Now I am hoping SOON we can plug her up and see that EVERYTHING is working on the inside. Open-mouthed smile I sure am praying it does!

Well that’s about all for now. We’ll post more updates as we go. Between the chickens, the house and yard and the camper we’re pretty busy these days.

Stay tuned for more. Open-mouthed smile

Edited to add: We did get her plugged up but she kept blowing the breaker. I think it might be the fridge. So I will unplug the fridge and try it again soon.