Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!       It seems like a lifetime since you was with us, but then again, it only seems like yesterday.       As always, we don't appreciate what we have when we do have it.      And we figure that out, after it's too late.       Oct. 15th is your day.       It was always the day that you said we can expect our first frost and more often than not, you was right.      It was a rainy morning here but when I got up I wished you and a dear sweet friend of mine a "Happy Birthday".       I sent my friends wish in the form of an e-mail.       I sent your birthday wish in the form of a prayer, by Jesus and I feel rest assured that He delivered that "Happy Birthday" wish to you.       

I hope you are having a grand time on your birthday today.      I would love to know who all you have seen and spent the day with.       It would blow my mind, I'm sure.       And I also wonder what you would have talked about with all the people that has wished you a great day today.        I'm pretty sure that politics isn't a hot topic anymore.       The weather probably is out of your subject list too.       As well as religion, you've all found out that it's about Jesus and a relationship with Him and not all the hoops that man has said we must jump thru.        I guess you are talking about and walking those streets of gold today.       And I'm pretty sure that time has no sense of meaning.        

I'm sure you spend your days walking and talking with Jesus.      Thank Jesus for me for all the wonderful blessings that He has heaped up on our family.      You are one of those blessings.       And the greatest blessing for you was knowing that you accepted Him as your Savior just a few short weeks before you left us.     Talk about a blessing!!!!!!     Thank you Daddy, for accepting Him.      Others have come along now and are in a relationship with Jesus because of your step of faith.      Every time I think of that I shout just a little.    hahaha    

Sometimes I wish you was here with us in your new found relationship with Jesus for us to get to know.      I wonder how your relationship with Christ would have changed your relationship with your family.      That is something we'll never know, but it is interesting to think about.     

Daddy, all I can say is that right now your family could use some of your hard core wisdom.      It's crazy here and I'm almost glad you're not here to see just how crazy it is.       But then again, you might be the very one that could get thru some thick skulls.       I don't know.     One thing I do know, you was never shy about telling people what you thought, especially when you knew you were right.      Some people here right now need to hear what you would have to say.

Oh well, I guess that's beside the point.       I hope that you are doing some carpenter work along just to keep up on the latest trends.       Has Jesus shown you any pointers on how to build the perfect house?    You always said that you hadn't never built the perfect house, but you kept trying with each house to get closer and closer.      You maybe never got perfect, but you got closer then anyone any of us have ever known.      The people who worked for you learned from the best and they will all say that.      They all miss you too.      Some of them are even with you now.       A couple of your friends have recently joined you, Danny, and  Donnie.      

We're trying real hard to take care of Momma.     Billy is doing a good job and the rest of us does what we can.   Things are hard for her, but she just keeps right on going.    Most people would have done given up, but she keeps going.      Knowing what all she has been thru since you have been gone is almost more than any one human should have to go thru.      But she has gone thru it all with dignity and grace. I know she has been thinking about you today too.      I'm sure she has talked to you a lot.      I know she's been talking to Jesus too.    We all have Daddy.      We are living in some trying times.      God keeps providing a way and people keep rejecting it.       It's like God has built an Ark for us, but people don't want to get on and then they make fun of those who do get on.      Even some of your own.        I guess that's what hurts so much.       

Daddy, if you get a chance, crawl up in Jesus' lap and ask for a miracle for us, your family.     We'll not make any promises that we can't keep for a miracle.      But, I'll promise that I won't ask for another one until we need another one.      And I'll continue to thank Jesus for all the miracles that he has recently heaped upon us.      But please ask Jesus for a healing miracle for your oldest Grandson.       It's a sad situation and a miracle is what he needs.       I know that Jesus can do absolutely anything and I know that this miracle is possible.       So, when you get a chance please ask Jesus for a miracle for him and us.

Well Daddy, I hope you have had a Happy Birthday!!!        Tell Mamaw and Papaw and Maw and Paw that I said hello and that I think of them often.      And all our Aunts and Uncles are there with you.    I'll bet y'all have a lot of fun reminiscing.      Keep on having a grand time in heaven.    It won't be long till some of the rest of us will be seeing you there.       If you see my friend Jamie, tell her I miss her and that I'll be seeing her sometime soon too.       I hope you have cake and ice cream today and a real big celebration.      I guess I need to let you go now.       We all love you and miss you, but we know you are having a grand time right where you are.       I Love you Daddy!!!   hugs, patty

Sourdough Discard Cornbread Swirls---My Experiment

Good afternoon Y'all!!!!         I pray that your day, so far, is going great for you.      My day, so far is a good day.      I always say that any day my feet hit the floor, that's a good day.       I always have a little on my agenda to do each day and when I get that accomplished, that makes it a great day.      I have a few more things on my agenda, but we'll see if they get done.      If not, it's still a great day. ******************************    

From Thursday of last week to Monday of this week, my kitchen has been down.      The sink was stopped up to the point of NOTHING going thru!!!!        Wow, let me tell you how much I appreciate my sink!!!!    I'm a clean freak in the kitchen!!!!    I always have a hot soapy sink of water.      I probably fill it a dozen times a day, depending on what I'm doing.      We've been here almost 22 years and after finally getting the right stuff for the sink, I realized that the sink had always been running sluggish.      It's funny that you don't know what you don't know until you do know what you didn't know.      Now, my sweet sink will empty a full sink of water out in less than 5 seconds, no joke.       At it's best, before it stopped up completely, it would take 2 to 4 minutes to drain and it would back up in the other side of the sink.     It was a mess.      I finally told my sweet husband that the sink was stopped up and we set out to unstop it.      

During the days of covid, we don't want anyone in our house that hasn't taken all the proper precautions to keep those around them safe from any sickness.     We have chosen to keep us and anyone around us safe, that's our decision and it's also our decision to choose to keep people out of our home.     Having said all that, that's why we didn't call a plumber.       

But, Monday, after a few misses, we decided to go to Lowes.      Just to look and see, maybe even see if anyone there could help us.      It was my suggestion to go.       I'll point that out.     hahaha       Anyway, we went and talked to  young man and he tried to help us, he really did, but we was asking questions he didn't know the answer to.    He said, let me get the plumbing man for y'all.      BINGO!!!!!!       That young man done well!!!      The plumbing man came and talked to us.       He already knew what we had done because the young man had already told him our story to this point.       Mr. plumber man told us what to get and he said the sink would be clear in less than an hour.       I'm skeptical about a lot of things and I was skeptical about this.      Hubby had tried 2 or 3 different clog removers and we even bought a drain snake.      He actually got a big clog out with it, but that didn't solve our problems.         So we brought our golden goods home and done as he said.      Understand, we were still very skeptical.       We done as he said when we got home.       30 minutes later, we done another application and I was busy doing what I was doing and hubby also was busy and all of the sudden, a great WOOOOSHHHHHH happened!!!!!!    Just as Mr. plumber man said it would!!!!      We are going out to see him and tell how thrilled we were with him and his suggestion.      He was such a blessing to us.      I got my kitchen back and sink!!!!     What a blessing.       We take our sinks for granted!!!      Oh, and the best part, it drains better than it ever has since we have lived here.  

I mentioned a little earlier that it was my idea to go to Lowes.      A little later on in the evening, we was still talking about how that product worked and so quickly.      My hubby looked at me and said "thanks honey!!"       I asked "for what".        He said "it was your idea to go to Lowes and I wasn't really interested, but I knew you was, so we went, so that's the only reason we finally have that fixed.    You suggested and I relented."        hahahahaha         He fessed up!!     hahahaha       Oh, I really got a good hubby.       He listens to me sometimes.      Yay!!

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So, Tuesday, I played catchup with laundry and getting the kitchen cleaned up and all the dishes  cleaned up.        Today, Wednesday, I got some bread going.       Yay!!!      Back to doing what I love.    The pictures below kinda tells the story.      This is an experiment, like the title says.      I used sourdough discard instead of the usual liquid.      Then when it started mixing in the bread machine and the ball started coming together, I added a little water to get the doughball looking exactly as I wanted it to look.       I turned it out on my silicon mat with a little cornmeal on it.

I pressed the dough flat and made it into an oblong shape.       Pay close attention to the shape of it.      It should have been narrower by at least 2 inches and longer by the same amount.       The shorter it is, the better it rolls up and it will actually rise better.      But, I have a tendency to forget that one little bit of info.

I use a small and short dowel rod as my straight edge and a pizza cutter to slice it.      It works like a charm.      

This is all of them sliced.

This next picture is where I was brushing melted butter on the strips.    I have a story to tell about the melted butter a little later.

This is how I make my rolls.       I rolled  each one and showed you how I do it.

I place them on my trays with parchment paper.

They are now resting under a floursack towel, waiting for their time in the oven.       They sure do smell good, already.

I have been waiting for the rolls to rise and will pop them in the oven to bake.        When they come out, I'll show y'all what they look like.       Like I said, this is an experiment.      I wanted to see if I could use my sourdough discard as most of the liquid in my cornbread swirls.      If it works out, then I'll have one other thing that I can use instead of throw away.      I love sourdough bread, we both do.       I just really hate having to throw out the discard where you feed it.       If this works out, no more thrown away discard.     Yay!!!   Woohoo!!!!   Yippee!!!!!    hahahaha   Yeah, I get a little excited.     hahaha

Well, they are done!!!      I will let you be your own judge.       But, let me interject right about now, if I may.        These things are "stinkin" great!!!!       Oh my GoSh!!!!        They are so good and done much better than I expected.       I am so thrilled!!

These actually done much better than I expected.        I am so thrilled with the outcome.        The small try with 6 rolls on it was baked first and they never get as dark as the second batch does.      I'm ok with that because I store our bread in the fridge and then I pop it in the counter top oven to heat while I'm getting the rest of our meal together.     They warm up and get a little more color on them just fine.     I am as pleased a punch!!

This is just some close ups, I wish I had smell-a-vision!!        I had said that they were too long for rolling, but these turned out well.     They rose perfectly fine.      So, if I use discard, it will be good either way.

I just have to tell y'all, these make me very happy.

Almost pure perfection.       I really don't know what I could have done for them to turn out better.      I hope you have enjoyed my experiment with sourdough discard.        I have always used it in other ways.      I've even used it in cornbread, but not in a yeasty cornbread.       So, in reality, this has sourdough and yeast in it.      Best of both worlds.       Don't be afraid to experiment.       Just keep good notes so you'll know what was a success and what needs more tweaking.     Just have fun.       Oh, and by the way, these are DEEEE-LICIOUS!!!!!!!        hahaha

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Now, about the melted butter.        While I had it in the microwave oven, I heard something , a couple of different times.        I thought it noise my husband was making outside.     Not so.     It made the noise again and I happened to see what it was.       The microwave was sparking and smoking!!      It has bitten the dust.      So.........when my husband got done with what he was doing, we went to WalMart and got a new one.       I hate spending money on stuff like that, but we are so used to a microwave.      I don't cook with it, but I do a lot of reheating and y'all know as well as I do, that it's fast.      So, right now, my next chore is to get it out of the box and get it set up and see how it's gonna be.     It's a microwave, convection oven and an air fryer in one.      I love using my air fryer and I hope this turns out to be a pretty good investment.      If not, I'll take it back and get just a plain ole microwave.      The very thing that I'm used to.

We got it unpacked from the box and I got everything cleaned up and washed.     And I heated some homemade soup up in it for supper and it works great, so far.       I'm going to air fry some salmon in it tomorrow and see how that works.      It will take a bit of learning and time to get used to it.       The old one was so simple.       I really don't like to learn new things, but alas, I have no choice.       I just hope it lasts for a good many years.      The other one was at least 15 years old and it had been used a LOT!!!!

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Well, that's about it for the day.     But, before I go, if you get the opportunity to help someone do it.    You never know when the opportunity will present itself.      I always try to ask God to show me how I can help others.      When I was coming out from Aldi, after we had gotten the micro/airfryer at WalMart, there was a lady that went out in front of me.       She could hardly walk and she was hanging on to her cart for dear life.     She said to herself, "I hope I make it to my car".      I stepped up beside her and asked her where she was parked and she pointed at the car.    It was way off, even farther than my husband had parked, but in the same direction.      I told her that we would make sure she got in her car ok.      She was going pretty quickly even though she could hardly walk.      About half way to her car she lost control of her buggy and couldn't get it back in the direction it needed to go.     By that time I had gotten my groceries in the car and my buggy taken back and I seen she was really struggling, so I went to help her.       I got her buggy going in the right direction for her and helped her get it to her car and then loaded her groceries in the car for her.      She was so thankful and I was so thrilled that I could help her.        It certainly wasn't a hard thing for me to help her.     I was thankful that I was there for her and seen that she needed help.     I always ask God to help me see what He wants me to see.      This is what He wanted me to see today and I'm thankful I seen it.      It didn't take no time to be kind.      She was very receptive to it and appreciative.      We both were blessed and my husband also.      All it takes is to be ready willing and able.      If you see someone you can help, do it.      You both will be blessed, I promise!!!  

Blessings on you all tonight.       I pray that you have a wonderful, restful night of sleep, and are ready to good things tomorrow.      Just know that God loves you tremendously and I do too.     hugs and love, patty

Watermelon--------Done!!!! Yay!!!

Good morning blessed ones!!!       I hope and pray all is well in your corner of the world.      It's somewhat of a dreary morning here.      But that doesn't mean a whole lot.       I expect the sun to shine to brightly sometime today.      Even if it doesn't, that's ok.      There is always a lot to stay busy doing.    I got a new batch of sourdough starter going and I'm looking forward to baking something!!!      Right now I have some "discard" to use, before the starter gets completely ready.       When you feed sourdough, you take some off.    Taking some of the starter off before you feed it, helps to strengthen the starter.      In the past, people would throw it away or use it to start a new starter to give to a friend.    Many years ago I used to use it instead of tossing it.      I would make pancakes, biscuits, even put it in my cornbread.     It is fabulous in cornbread!!!!      Now, it has actually become a "thing", using the discard in recipes.      You can google "discard sourdough recipes" and be blown away with all the recipes.      hahaha       Who knew????        I was "hip" with my sourdough discard long before it became a "thing".     hahahaha        I think I have always been a trend setter, but just didn't know it.    I'm going with that.      hahahahaha

I had mentioned dehydrating watermelon and even showed pictures of some recently dehydrated.      I got a small watermelon on the dehydrator finally on Thursday.     It took me long enough, but it's done.  40 hours later, it's done.       It took longer this time than usual because I dehydrated it on 110* instead of 125*.       I always dehydrate at a lower temperature than most say to dehydrate, simply because I like to maintain color and flavor.      If you dehydrate some things at a high temp, it can actually burn the produce.      Not with a flame, but just by overheating for a long period of time.      You may not even notice it when you take produce from your dehydrator, but you will notice it when you open the container to use it.      It can smell burned and even look burned.      Then the taste test will prove that it burned.      So, if you have a dehydrator, start using a lower temp than what books call for and see if your outcome is better.       Mine always is much better and it always looks much better.

Just a quick update, I started this blog post about 7:15 am and mentioned how it was looking a little dreary, well, the sun finally made it high enough in the sky to touch us and it looks like it will be a beautiful day.     Yay!!!!       I can handle that!!

I took a few pictures of my watermelon process and will share them with y'all.  

The first pic below is where I cut the rind away from it and put it in the sink.        You can see too that I made what I call "watermelon steaks".        This was a small watermelon so I didn't get a whole lot from it.       But we did have one steak that wouldn't go on the dehydrator, so we got to eat it and it was delicious.

This picture shows how I sliced all the steaks and then put them on the dehydrator.      If I am being honest, this watermelon doesn't look really good.       But, it was!!!       Also, remember that when you dehydrate something like this, all the sugars in it will be concentrated, so it will actually be much sweeter than it was in the juicy state.      My sweet Momma, "eat it while it's still juicy!!!!!"      Well, we do eat it while it's juicy, but we can't have it of the evening because it keeps us running to the bathroom at night.       Like this, we can eat it of the evening and not have to take potty breaks at night.      Now you know our secret.       hahahaha

This one shows how I put them on each tray.

This one below is the finished product.      Once it comes to room temp, which won't take long, it will be crispy enough to snap just like a potato chip.       You can't leave them out in the open air very long at all because they will start re-absorbing moisture from the air and become damp and sticky.      Most of the produce that we dehydrate will do that.      I will take these off the trays and put them in the box that I store it in in the fridge and they will stay crispy as long they as I have them.       I have another small watermelon and I'll get it on the dehydrator now, so it can be done by Monday at least.        If you get the opportunity to try this, I encourage you to do so.       

I also have 3 bags of marshmallows to get dehydrated.       That is another VERY fun thing to do.        I have a bag of small marshmallows, a bag of small shaped colored marshmallows and a bag of the micro mini marshmallows.      I got those at the local Amish store.      This will be a very good project a little later on.      I still have a lot of peppers coming on and need to dehydrate them as they ready.     

I don't know if I have mentioned anything about the fermenting I have going on.      But I have a quart jar of honey garlic going.       That will a year.      Patience is a virtue.       That's what the bible says.    So we'll see how virtuous I am with this project.     hahahaha     Lord help me!!!!!       For this ferment, you take raw honey, it has to be raw for it to have the beneficial bacteria in it.     And lots of garlic.    For my quart jar, I used about 10 or 12 ounces of raw honey.      I heated the jars up in a pot of very hot water, but you don't leave it in the water long enough to pasteurize it, just long enough to thin it down a little so you can get it out of the jar.     I used 6 big bulbs of garlic too.      You mix it and the honey starts pulling the liquid from the garlic and the honey gets liquefied pretty quick.      The garlic floats, so you want to turn the jar over every day so the garlic doesn't mold.     I burp the jar every day too.      You don't take the lid off, just just crack it to the point of hearing a little "woosh" come from the jar and it stink wore than any "passy gassy" you ever smelled.      It's working!!!!!     hahaha       Supposedly, at the end of this process, the garlic will have lost all the sulphur compounds and will become sweet like candy and the honey will taste like garlic minus the sulphur.      It is a good immunity boost.      It's healthy for you.      Not practicing medicine here at all, just stating well known facts.      You can do your own research on that.  

I also have a small jar of dilly beans going.       I'm just nervous with my ferments, because I've not tasted real ferments, other than saurkraut and kimchi.       That's it.      Maybe fermented pickles.      But these dilly beans are so stinkin' good!!!!!!       I'm hooked on them from one little bite.      I just picked a handful of my beans and washed them real good.     I cut up a sweet pepper and a little bit of onion.    The onion is very prominent and the beans are very crispy.      I have to keep reminding myself that the ferments are raw.      The greenbeans are still raw although they are fermented and they are really crunchy.     Delicious!!!!!

I have a bag of hot peppers, onions and kombucha fruit fruit in a vacuum seal bag.      It's fermenting in the vac seal bag.      This is without a doubt, the easiest way to ferment.      Once you get all the air vacuumed out it is in an anaerobic environment, "without oxygen".       The bag will start puffing up.    It's not oxygen, but the gasses formed by the process of fermentation.      You'll want to make a tiny hole in the bag at the very top and release the gasses and put a piece of tape over the hole until the ferment is done.      When this ferment gets done, I'm going to make some hotsauce with it.      Should be interesting and hot, to say the least.   hahaha

I love this time of year.       It brings to mind sorghum and all the good days of being a kid and growing up in the country.      I have a lot of fond memories, some may just be dreams, some may be wishes, but my head is filled with a lot of good times from days gone by.     I wish, when I was a child, I would have paid more attention to the old ways.       I didn't know then that I was having the opportunity to learn a lot of things.     But, when you are a small child, that's not what's on your mind.     Oh well, I digress.  

I hope you have a wonderful wonder-filled day.       I hope you stop to thank God for allowing you to be a part of it.       I hope you tell someone today that they are loved.       I hope you know how much you are loved.       Share Jesus with someone today, you won't regret it and neither will the person you share Him with.      Always remember that Jesus loves you and so do I.  blessing and peace be yours today, love and hugs, patty

Dehydrated Watermelon and Sourdough Starter

Good morning blessed friends.       It is kinda soggy here in my neck of the woods today and that's ok.    I think most of the rain has moved on out.       It's always a change in weather that gives the opportunity to do something different.      I went out to what's left of my deck garden and got a hot pepper to cut up and put on my breakfast sandwich.       I love hot pepper on them every morning.      That's something that my Grandmother on my Daddy's side always done.      I remember when I was a kid she had a pot of pepper that she moved from window to window in her house and she kept that single pot of pepper for years.    It had the hottest little peppers I ever seen on it.     They were tiny, but they always say that dynamite comes in small packages.    If that's so, then these little peppers were dynamite.      hahaha       I love for memories like this to come to mind.       It's always good to reflect and remember some of the things from yesteryear that helped you to become who you are.  There are many things about my Grandmother, both of Grandmothers, that helped make me the woman I am today.       I seen both of them work hard.       I seen my Momma work hard.       All the people I came from were hard workers and I have tried to be like them.      I hope I have made them proud.      More than anything else, I hope I have made my Savior proud.  

Sometimes when we read scriptures, we want to read stuff into them that's not there.      Other times we want to gloss over or ignore what scripture actually does say.       Sometimes we think it says one thing and it actually says something else.       Or we will take scripture out of context and that's one way we try to make it say what we want it to say.     When we read scripture we must be open to the truth that scripture reveals to us.    When reading scripture, we need to be open to what the Lord wants to show us.    Scripture never changes but our understanding may change.     Scripture is the Living Word of God.     He may show us something in addition to what He showed us yesterday, from the same scripture.      What ever He shows us, we need to take it to heart, even if we don't understand it yet.     When I read the scriptures, I ask God to open my mind to the understanding of what I read and open my heart to receive what I have understood.       Understanding, knowledge and wisdom go hand in hand.     We will never have wisdom until we first have understanding.      Understand what we read.       Having a concept of what words actually mean.       If we don't understand words, we'll have a hard time understanding what we read.      

When I was still teaching a Sunday School class, I would take a word from the scripture that happened to be a focal word and I'd do an in-depth word study on that word.      When we got into the lesson and I started sharing about a particular word, I would see ladies having what I called "lightbulb moments".  Instantly, they got it.      And a word that they had known for 70 years took on a completely different meaning after we went thru the mini word study.      I have wept many tears of sweet joy when a lady or several ladies would come to me after class and tell me they had learned more in the last 45 minutes than they had in the last 70 years.      What a blessing.      I sure do miss that class.      Sadly, most of those ladies have gone to their heavenly home.      But they sure was a blessing to me.

I say that to say this.      If you find yourself struggling with understanding a particular word, do your own word study.     Find out what the word means in the secular world.       Then find out what it means in the biblical world.      See if the two arenas, secular and biblical, have any common ground and go from there with what the particular word means.      Honestly, I think that is how we come to grow in our understanding, knowledge and wisdom.   

I don't know what all I'll be getting in to today.       I am hoping to get some sourdough bread made.      I have a starter that I have been working on and I took out some of it this morning to make what is called sourdough "discard".      When you feed your sourdough, it's makes for a stronger and healthier dough if you take some out, "discard", before you feed it each time.      The discard is still perfectly wonderful to use in some type of bread.       I have used discard in cornbread.      That is some kind of "deliciousness" right there too.        I am actually looking for an english muffin to make with my discard today.       I'm trying to find something that  is lower in calories and carbs than the usual english muffins or even breakfast breads in general.       But, we'll see what actually happens today concerning my bread.      I need to go to the store sometime today too.      I actually need to go somewhere or make an online order and get me a new digital kitchen scale.      My digital scale is hit or miss.      I've had for many years and it wasn't great when I got it.      I just don't even know where to begin looking for one.  So, I guess I'll just start and see what I find.      I can do that.

If I do anything worthy of pictures today, I'll share with y'all.      Oh, I almost forgot, I have a watermelon I need to get cut up and put on my dehydrator.      The last dehydrated watermelon of the season.      Kinda sad to think about.      We have enjoyed our dehydrated watermelon.

This is what my dehydrated watermelon looks like.       Almost like strips of bacon.        It is delectable.  So funny take a bite of something that is so familiar, yet so strange and delicious.

Have you ever had crispy watermelon?        Well, if you have  a dehydrator, it's not too late to try it.       I cut it about 1/8th to 1/4th inch thick and set my dehydrator at 110* and then set it to 48 hours and let it go.      It's dry when it's dry and not until.      Time means nothing when dehydrating.      Everyone wants to know how long it will take.       Don't worry about how long it will take because you can NOT rush the process.      If you do, you get mold and that is definitely NOT the end result you are looking for.    For the watermelon, I store it in the fridge in a n airtight container and it keeps it really crispy and snaps when you bite it just like a potato chip.     Yes, it's that crispy.

Well, I guess that's about it for today.      Hope you read or seen something here that was interesting to you.      Tell someone today that they are loved more than they could ever imagine, by Jesus Christ.      I hope someone tells you today, "I love you".      If you haven't heard it yet today, well, you just read it and that was me telling you that I do love you all.      May you have a great day today, a day filled with blessings that comes only from our Father.      hugs, love and bountiful blessings, patty

Jar full of Potatoes, Yay!!!

Good morning Blessed Ones!!!!        How are y'all doing this morning???       I hope and pray that you're good.       I've had a somewhat of a busy morning.       I got out and cleaned up my deck garden and cut out everything I could and got my pots cleaned up and ready for storage for the winter.       I still have a bunch of peppers and tomatoes and strawberries in my garden towers.      The strawberries will winter in them and hopefully come back next spring.       They're supposed to anyway, but that's yet to be seen.      My peppers are still doing well right now.      I'm having to start watching the weather like a hawk, so I can put my frost covers on the towers if necessary.       My peppers in pots, hopefully I can get them moved either in the green house or to the garage over night, if necessary.      But it feels so good having that mess cleaned out.     At some point in time I'll have to start thinking about what I'm planting next year and start making notes and I would like to get some good seed starting soil and have it ready.    I think that may be one thing that I didn't do right for this year.      I didn't get the proper seed starting soil.     So, I hope I can do better moving forward.     We'll see.       I'm quick to say that I'm not a gardener.      But I do know the Original Gardener on a first name basis and He helps me.      I plant and pray and He blesses my efforts.    That's my kind of gardening!!!!      hahaha       Thank You Lord for blessing my efforts.

Yesterday I put about 4 or 5 lbs of sliced potatoes on my dehydrator.     I took them off this morning and almost filled my gallon jar.      Another couple of trays will fill the jar to the rim.      The jar holds what would be about the equivalent of 12 - 14 boxes of scalloped potatoes.

What I do is peel them.       I put on my stock pot with water in it and get it to boiling while I'm peeling and slicing the potatoes.      Then I slice them on my mandolin.      As I slice them, I drop them in water to help soak some of the starch out of them.       When I get them all peeled, I take them from the starch water and put them in the boiling water.      I let the water come back to a boil and set the timer on the stove for 4 minutes.     While it's coming back to a boil, I take the bowl that I had soaked them in and I fill it with cold water and ice.     When they come from the boiling water, I drop them in the ice water bath to stop them from cooking.     Once they are cooled enough, I start placing them on my dehydrator trays.     I set my dehydrator at 120* and set the timer for 48 hours and let it go.       They are done when they are done and not a second before.      hahaha       

These pictures are not of what I done yesterday, but they are of what I done in September.      I forgot to take pictures yesterday, but this is the exact same process.       This is of my potatoes soaking in water in my colander that  I use in my pressure cooker.       As a matter of fact that is my inner pot of one of my pressure cookers.     It's the perfect size.

This is when I put the colander down in the boiling water to parboil for 4 minutes.

When I took it from my stock pot, back it went into the pressure cooker liner filled with ice water to stop the cooking process.       After it was perfectly cooled, then I started putting them on my trays.    The pic below is of 2 of my trays filled.

This is a view of the potatoes inside the jar, looking thru the side.     It is a beautiful sight to me.      They are such a great color.  

This is a view of the potatoes down thru the top of the jar, just a really pretty sight.       I have to say that it feels really good to have the jar as full as it is.     I hope I can get it completely full.  

Well, it's just about lunch time and it's not fixing itself.      hahaha       So, I gotta get that done.       I hope you have a blessed rest of your day.       Tell someone that Jesus loves them.        It's the best thing that you can tell someone.      So, let me tell you that Jesus loves you and I'm pretty sure that there's a picture of you on His refrigerator.      hahahaha       I do know for a fact that He does love you.    He loves us all.      For that, I'm eternally grateful.     Just so ya know, I love y'all too!!!  hugs and blessings today, patty  (ps: forgive any typos, I try to correct them as I find them.)