Grass - Organization - Pantry - Storage

First thing this morning, I decided to tackle the grass.  Even though it was slightly wet, I figured just get it cut.  We are expecting rain everyday this week.  If I left it until it stopped raining, we would be living in the jungle on the property.  You would think we were feeding the grass Wheaties by the way it grows.

Bulldog Man purchased another shelving unit for me.  We added it to our kitchen wall (our make believe pantry).  This way I can put some of our larger appliances, canning materials and water up for storage.  We placed the microwave on the shelf.  This allows us to use the microwave stand for our water filtration system (once it’s built, I will take pictures and post them later this week).

I canned some potatoes the other day and I’m not impressed.  I think they look over- processed.  I’ll have to try again. 



Need to wipe down the jars before storing.



I also did some organization of cabinets and drawers.  Give it a couple of days and everything that’s organized will be in disarray, lol.

 

We also picked up several food grade buckets for long term storage.  Friday, I will go into town and hit up Sams Club for more food grade buckets.

That’s all for now, life is good!

Simple Things

I took a drive down to the local grocery/bulk store to pick up a few of the essentials to add to my pantry. Canned beans (because some days I am just lazy and don’t feel like cleaning beans, lol), extra broth, flour, sugar, rice, apples and oranges.

 I have been trying to perfect my pinto bean recipe for some time now.  My husband, Bulldog Man loves pinto beans.  He pretty much grew up eating them as a staple.  I really didn’t know anything about pinto beans from growing up.  I was raised eating green, black or kidney beans.  So Bulldog Man had to, I guess you could say, train me on how to make pinto beans that he could stomach, lol.  I have perfected a recipe that seems to satisfy Bulldog Man.  Who knows, maybe it will satisfy your taste too.  

My Pinto Bean Recipe

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

*4 cans pinto beans (rinse the beans in a colander)

2 ham hocks (if ham hocks are real smoky, use only 1)

½ onion (or onion to taste)

1 can green chilies (Hatch is the best)

½ cup salsa (homemade or store bought)

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon garlic salt

½ teaspoon pepper

14 ounces of chicken broth

Directions

Place all ingredients in a large pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 45 minutes.  Take out ham hocks and trim off the meat.  Place meat back in large pot and trash ham hock bones. Serve as a meal or side dish.

*Substitute can beans for 1 pound of dry pinto beans, add water as you need when cooking.

We had a wonderful surprise today, our son, Dakota found his class ring.  He found it in the dryer (actually it was in his pants pocket and it fell out in my dryer).  Now I don’t have to strangle him! J