No Need to Panic

Had a lovely day today.  Put the carrots I canned into the cupboard...

... along with a few other finds in the mark-down bin at the supermarket.  Still have a few jars of salmon left from last year.  Yum.

Picked up some corn to can.  I hope to get that finished up tomorrow morning, social events permitting.  My sister-in-law came over with news, another bun in the oven.  This will be her third New Year baby.  Woot!

Hubby has been talking about hunting rabbit and squirrel, and doing some fishing.  Hopefully, this actually progresses beyond the talking stage.

Onions are one of my favorite foods, but our little hole in the ground is a little too humid this time of year to store them, and by the time its dry enough, the prices for onions have gotten over the top. I'm thinking of canning half-pint jars of regular and carmelized onions .  Last year I canned onion "jam" and have just one half-pint left.  It is absolutely wonderful just right out of the jar.  I used this recipe from CDKitchen

Carmelized Onion Jam

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons butter
4 large onions, sliced
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup brown malt vinegar
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

DIRECTIONS:

Heat butter in large pan, add onions, cook gently for 20 to 30 minutes until onions are very soft and lightly browned. Add sugar, stir to melt sugar, simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally until mixture is thick and caramelized. Add vinegar and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes until thickened slightly. Stir in the rosemary.

I processed it in a water bath canner for 10 minutes in half-pint jars.

***DISCLAIMER:  This is not one of those approved by nanny government (USDA) canning recipes, so if you choose to can it, it's at your own risk.***

I also went to "The Recycler", which is what we call the local repository for unwanted, unsaleable junk.  The best time to go is the Monday or Tuesday after a nice weekend, when people bring all the crap they couldn't sell at their yard sales.  I've scored some great books, a bagful for $2 or less.

Here's a look at some of my "Recycler" scores:

The Woman's Build-It & Fix-It Handbook, by Florence Adams
Build-It-Better-Yourself, Country Furniture, published by Rodale Press
A Barefoot Doctor's Manual, Rev. & Enlarged, 1977
New Choices in Natural healing, ed. Bill Gottlieb
Uncommon Uses for Common Household Products, Gayle K. Wood
Fast Fixes and Simple Solutions, Gayle K. Wood

And a handful of novels.

We also got some barely used camping gear.  In a total non-sequitur, this reminds me of a camping gear related incident which occurred in June.  Hubby and I were at the local national chain hardware and automotive outlet, and there was a yuppie family there shopping for camping cookware.

Honest to god, the mother/wife/queen dog was making a huge ordeal out of the whole process, picking over every single set, and finding fault with it all. Clearly, she was not on board with this "camping experiment" her family was all gung-ho about, and was dragging her high-heels.  Yeah, she was wearing high-heels to "buy" camping gear. (Another non-sequitur here, or maybe not) -  Why are some women making such a bad name for the rest of us?

Well, anyway, that's my two cents worth.