My latest "venture"

I have been considering starting a new blog. I actually went to the trouble, about six months ago, of setting it up, tweaking the design and creating a few posts. I have been on the fence about whether or not I want to manage a THIRD blog. I am still not 100% sure what I want to do with it. What I do know is that I want to blog some of what I have been up to. I have devoted so much time in the past year to cooking, gardening and canning that I wanted to chronicle some of our experiences. I am hoping to show that even a super busy Mom has time to grow, cook and can her own food!

Over the summer we started getting into canning. We bought our water bath canner and canned tomatoes, apples, peaches, jelly, and a few other things. Since we had such great success we looked into canning things like soups and stews. I did a ton of research and finally invested in a pressure canner. It sat in the box for about four months before I got brave enough to try it. I read the instructions about ten times so I was sure not to blow up the kitchen or myself.

I finally braved my first batch of chicken rice soup. I was nervous as heck and at one point thought for sure the canner was going to explode but it didn't. It was a success. I cooked and canned seven quarts of my from scratch, homemade chicken rice soup!

Since my Dad got sick he has been able to eat fairly well. One of the things he likes best is soup and lucky for him soup is my specialty. SO for the past two months I have made (and canned) so much soup it's a little ridiculous. Chicken rice, vegetable, ham and bean, ham and corn chowder, ham and lentil and on and on. We have managed to put five pounds on his skinny body!!!

Now when I can I can do it in about two hours (including processing time) where it was taking my almost three. The best part is I LOVE making homemade, organic, often grown from my own garden foods. Makes me feel like I am doing something special for them.

Not sure if the new blog will get up and running. I am considering it. Just a place to talk recipes, canning, gardening, etc. Something to ponder...