Making Massage Oil For Arthiritis

Once again, it’s that time of year to make arthritic massage oil with natural herbs (Ginger Root, Echinacea Herb, St. John’s Wart, Boswellia, Serrata, Cayenne and Olive Oil). When you combined all of these herbs they’re suppose to help with relieving inflammation, fight pain and help with circulation. I could go out and buy each individual herb, instead, I ordered the mixture of herbs directly from The Bulk Herb Store , to save money and time from having to go into town and shop multiple health food stores. 

I pullout a wide mouth pint canning jar, fill it up with 2/3 cup of herbs (listed above) and fill the jar with olive oil, leaving 1 inch space from top.  Seal the jar with the top and ring, tighten by hand, place a wash cloth in the bottom of my crock pot, place the jar with herbs and oil in the center of the crock pot on the wash cloth.  Fill the crock pot with water until the lid to the jar is covered.  Place the crock pot lid on and turn your crock pot on to the low setting.  This oil and herb mixture must brew in your crock pot for 3 straight days.  Remember to check your crock pot continuously throughout the three days to make sure the water level remains over the canning jar lid.  If the level has lowered, add water. Do not use cold water when adding water to the crock pot.  Add warm water to bring the water level back up to above the lid on the jar.

After the 3 days of solid brewing, turn off the crock pot and unplug from the wall.  After letting the crock pot cool down, remove the canning jar.  Take off the ring and pop the sealed lid.  Be careful, sometimes the jar chips when removing the lid.  Now you want to filter the herb oil mixture.  Make sure to remove all the herbs from the oil, use a strainer and cheese cloth or even a coffee filter.  I filter my oil 2 to 3 times to remove as much of the herbs as possible.  Trust me, the person i.e. spouse you’re rubbing this oil on with appreciate a massage without the gritJ .

When removing the jar, you will notice powder substance
on the outside of crock pot and jar.  Also the lid and ring may have
started to rust (discard the ring and lid after done).

 

 

 

 

Filtering oil one more time

 

Once totally filtered, jar and label the oil for future use (I also date my oils).  The instructions on where to buy and how to brew this herbal massage oil for arthritis can be found here.

 

*Source: The Bulk Herb Store

 

Heirloom Seeds

One of the blogs I follow, Rocky Oak Homestead turned me on to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I’ve ordered 31 new packs of heirloom seeds to supplement the seeds I have stored for my upcoming spring garden.

If you’re looking for seeds for your garden checkout the above site.  Prices are reasonable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Morning

Yard sale finds!!!  Nothing like finding good deals, I’m happy J

Just need to clean up and add 2 mantles $4.00

$2.00 for the entire set

 

 

Cake Plate $1.50

 

 

$5.00 Pig Planter

Pitcher and bowl $4.00

X-Acto Knife Set $8.00

Magellan Shirt Excellent Condition (For Hubby) $1.00

Bowls - Prep - Canning Broth

 

I’m so excited; I received a package I had been waiting for.  About a week and half ago, I decided to bee bop over to http://www.etsy.com 

 just to window shop.  I came across a category on this site titled Vintage.  I went into Vintage Housewares and came across a bowl set.  Not just a bowl set, this set matched the bowl my grandmother once had.  Before my grandmother passed away, she had this bowl that was cream color with a gold rim and leaves/flower type design.  I remember it from when I was a kid.  This bowl would sit on the table at family dinners with soup or stew in it.  I found the same type of bowl and pattern on this website.  Bulldog Man saw the excitement on my face when I found the bowls and he said “Baby Doll, why don’t you buy those bowls.”  I did, I bought them. The bowls arrived, all in one piece.  When I pull these bowls out of the cabinet to use, I will always feel as if my grandmother is in the kitchen with me cooking.

 

 Today was a beautiful day to cut the grass. I tackled cutting the front, back and sides early this morning.  I came in, washed up, and started packing and preserving a 5 gallon bucket of rice.  I also pulled out my handy dandy Food Saver, and bagged the remainder of a 30 pound bag of dog food.   I didn’t want an open bag sitting on my kitchen floor.  It prevents an invitation for any bugs. 

 

 

 

 

Next, it was time to can some beef broth.  The last time I went to the butcher, I ordered 10 pounds of beef bones to process into.  I pulled out my Ball Blue Book and followed the recipe for beef stock; I doubled the recipe.

In a large stock pot, I placed 8 pounds of beef bones, 4 quarts of water, 2 medium onions, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 2 bay leafs and 8 small beef bouillon cubes.   I cooked the broth for 3 hours and removed the bones from the pot, and strained the vegetables out of the broth.  I placed the broth in the refrigerator overnight, making it easier to remove the grease from the broth.  The next day, I pulled out the broth and removed the grease. I placed the broth back into a pot and heated.  In the mean time, I prepared the jars for pressure canning.  I followed the Ball Blue Book instructions for pressure canning.  I processed the beef broth in quart jars for 25 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. 

Bones and water

Add vegetables and spices

Remove bones and vegetables

Remove grease from bowls

Clean and heat jars

 

Clean and heat lids

 

 

Reheat Broth

Place broth in hot jars and remove air bubbles

Wipe jar clean

 

Use tool to remove hot lids

Place lid and ring on each jar

 

Place jars in hot pressure canner

Close pressure canner and bring temperature up, make sure to
release steam for 10 minutes before doing anything else

Put the pressure regulator on the pressure canner

 

 

Bring the pressure up to 10 pounds for 25 minutes

 

After the canner has cooled off, remove your jars, and
place in an area that doesn't have a draft.

Was your day just as busy?



 

Going to the Butcher - Pre-Made Meals - Laundry - Helping

Today was the day to go to the butcher in town and pickup some beef; being that I have enough chicken and turkey in the freezer.  I ended up picking up ground sirloin 90/10, skirt steak, and an eye round roast. The meat is antibiotic free, hormone free and is grass fed.   

I started pre-making several dinners with the ground sirloin.  Chili was the first meal.  I browned the meat and added fresh garlic, onions, oregano, cumin, chili powder, cayenne powder, salt and pepper; then added 1 can of tomato sauce and simmered the pot for 1 hour.

After letting the pot cool, I placed the meat mixture into two separate freezer bags for a future meal.

When we eventually have this meal, all I have to do is place the two bags of ground beef mixture in a pot, add water and masa corn flour.  Mix well, let the pot heat up on a low temperature for 15 minutes then add 2 cans of any type of beans.  I usually use pinto beans.  This chili recipe is wonderful and can be found on “The Pioneer Woman’s” website. 

The second pre-made meal, meatloaf. Take a pound of ground sirloin, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon of pepper, ½ cup chopped onion, ½ cup chopped bell pepper, 1 beaten egg, 1 can 8 oz., of diced tomatoes and the juice and ¾ cup of oatmeal.   Mix well, form into a loaf and place in a greased pan (I use a spray can of olive oil).  I then coated the outside of the meatloaf with the following mixture: two tablespoons of brown sugar, ½ cup of ketchup, and 1 tablespoon of mustard.  I sealed the baking dish with tin foil and then placed the wrapped dish into a freezer bag ready to freeze.   When it’s time to bake the meatloaf, remove it from the freezer, let thaw, set oven to 350 and bake for approximately 1 hour.

The third meal was supposed to be premade taco meat.  The meat never made it to the freezer. We ended up having soft tacos for dinner.  I make my taco meat with ground sirloin browned, 1 can of potatoes and 1 can of green chile’s.

In between making freezer meals, I ended up getting all the laundry cleaned, folded, hung up and put away.

I helped Bulldog Man with a few things out on the back porch.  He moved some wood around, cleaned up the area and needed my help with some of the heavy stuff.

Then I made banana bread with several over ripe bananas and placed the loaf in the freezer for winter eating.

I think I’m going to watch the debate tomorrow to witness an old- fashioned ass-whoopin’.  Will you be watching?