Now, what does cleaning my cupboards have to do with Food Storage? Well, without some organizational system, I cannot find the pan I need when I need to use it! And I made it worse by buying some new bake ware! After almost 25 years of marriage, it was time. I bought some of my old pans at the dollar store (when dollar stores first came on the scene, and they had some pretty incredible stuff) maybe 20 years ago. Many were worn from years of use.
Being a frugal gal (not cheap, there’s a difference. I will pay for quality.), I didn’t set out to replace all my pans at once. The thought first entered my mind when I had problems making some quick bread for a friend’s son’s wedding reception. No matter what I did (using Pam, greasing the pan liberally), I couldn’t get the loaves out in one piece. It was frustrating to say the least. Then and there, I decided that I needed a couple of nonstick loaf pans.
I did a lot of research and decided that I wanted heavy-duty, commercial bakery type pans. I’d narrowed it down to two brands: USA Pan and Chicago Metallic. Both have great reviews, so I bit the bullet and bought a couple of larger non-stick loaf pans. I bought 10 inch x5 inch USA Pans (you can view one here). They make the perfect size bread loaf for my family.
After falling in love with them, I bought some USA Pan and Chicago Metallic mini loaf pans (with an Amazon gift card I earned through MyPoints.com). And aren’t they lovely?? Especially compared to my old pans which were looking pretty sad. See? (I sprayed them with non-stick spray, and the pans are so non-stick without the spray, I’m not sure I needed it.) Think those look snazzy? Check them out here and hereon Amazon!
Today, I made chocolate chip pumpkin bread to break them in (recipe here). The loaves came out of the pan so easily! I’m very happy! (And my boys are begging me to cut the pumpkin bread!)
I’m also very happy, because I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards and got rid of some old things which were gathering dust. Take a look at my organized cupboards now!!
I didn’t take before shots, but trust me, it’s a major improvement! And isn’t that life? A constant rearranging and reorganization of everything. Not just my kitchen, but my everything! And I wouldn’t have it any other way. It keeps things fresh. Life is a work in progress, and I love it!
How about things for you? Any kitchen pans or gadgets you want to add to your inventory? Or is there a closet, cupboard, or storage area that needs your attention? Please share!
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No, I am not an adrenaline addict, but I may be a canning addict. Who knows? Maybe you should ask my husband to stage an intervention. Although I had only done it twice before (chickenand pinto beans), I decided that I really like pressure canning. Maybe even love it. Maybe I love it more than traditional “water bath” canning. Why? Aren’t there potentially disastrous consequences to canning, like death?
Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m risking my life. Maybe I’m fooling myself, but I don’t think so. I have a pressure canner which is quite new and in good repair (I bought this one from Amazon). I follow the instructions RELIGIOUSLY! As much as I like experimenting and improvising in the kitchen, I NEVER improvise when canning, especially not when pressure canning. I want to keep my food as fresh as it was when I canned it, and I most definitely don’t want anyone getting sick from anything I’ve made.
Pressure Canned Ground Beef. Keep in mind, pressure canning is the only tested and safe method for home canning meats. Please do NOT use a water bath or steam canner or try “dry” canning for meat. Those methods have NOT be safety tested for meat.
Back to the “Why am I flirting with death by pressure canning at home?”, I like providing healthy food for my family, but I also like fast, easy cooking. Canning my own food gives me the best of both worlds. It requires a bit of work up front, but I know exactly what’s in the food we eat, and it’s so much faster and easier to prepare dinner at night when most of the items are “dump, heat, ready” foods. What is “dump, heat, ready”? I can dump the contents into a pan (or microwave safe bowl), heat it up, and it’s ready. No prep, no long cooking times, no standing over the stove for hours.
On Friday, I canned my own hamburger for the very first time. Remember the ground beef I bought from Zaycon foods? (See post here.) I took one tube (10 pounds) and canned it. I got 7 quart size jars plus a little extra out of that 10 pounds. I followed the instructions in my Ball Canning Book and my Presto pressure canner instruction book (you can see those online here). I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow the instructions exactly (both with a safety tested recipe and for your pressure canner)! This will keep your food safe, so you don’t get sick!
Want to see me risk life and limb for a few jars of canned meat? Here’s my photo step by step.
Before I started processing my meat, I put some clean 1-quart canning jars in a large pot of water and heated the water near boiling.
Then, I pulled this huge tube of beef out of the fridge.
I cut it into smaller chunks.
Next, I put it in a skillet to brown.
I broke the meat into smaller pieces, so it would brown evenly.
While the meat was cooking, I got out my canning tools: a funnel, a measuring/bubble removing tool, and a lid lifter.
I put the seals into a saucepan filled with a couple inches of water and heated the water until it was hot, but not boiling.
After several minutes, the ground beef was ready to can.
I removed my heated jars from the hot water bath and placed them on a rack.
I put my funnel into one of the jars, so I could add my meat without getting the top of the jar greasy (which would interfere with the jar and seal forming a good vacuum seal).
I filled the jars with the meat using a slotted spoon to drain any excess fat.
I made sure to measure my head space (the distance between the top of the food and the top of the jar). My recipe said I needed a one inch head space.
Next, I added salt to the jars (1 teaspoon to each jar). Salt is optional and is only for flavoring, I used a salt without any additives to prevent the liquid from becoming cloudy.
Next, I filled the jars with liquid (leaving the one inch head space). I used a “broth” mixture made from the fat and water as directed in the Ball cookbook. You can use plain water, broth, or tomato juice.
Then, I used my measuring guide/bubble remover to remove any air bubbles from the jars by running it between the meat and the edge of the jar. Then I measured the head space again to ensure it was still one inch.
Next, I used a damp paper towel to clean the top of the jar to ensure nothing would prevent a good seal.
With the jars ready to seal, I removed the seals from the hot water with my lid lifter. It’s a handy magnetic tool which removes the lids without requiring me to touch the hot water. Nifty, huh? Want one? Check at your local grocery or hardware store for a canning kit. Or take a look at this one from Amazon.
I placed one seal on each jar.
Then, I put the rings on the jars (fingertip tight). Do not over tighten your rings!
I placed my jars in my pressure canner and filled it with the amount of water specified in my pressure canner instruction book (which came with my canner).
I put my lid on, making sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions, and turned on the heat. Once the canner was expelling steam through the vent, I let it “vent” for 10 minutes before putting the weight on (as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Please follow the manufacturer instructions that came with your canner as they may differ from these.) Once the weight was on the vent, I let the canner come up to the appropriate amount of pressure (12 psi) for my elevation, yours may be different, and kept it there for the entire time required for processing (90 minutes). When the timer went off, I simply turned off the stove and let the canner cool completely before removing the jars. Never open a pressure canner while it is pressurized!
When I removed the jars with my jar lifter, they were still very hot and the meat was still boiling inside the jars. I left them overnight to cool completely. This helps ensure a good seal on your jars.
For the final step, I labeled my jars with the contents and the date processed.
This was even faster and easier than canning chicken (see post here). The most time consuming part was waiting for the canner to do its work, but I was processing the rest of the beef, so it wasn’t a big deal (posts to come). I was in the kitchen anyway.
Simple, huh? Think you might try your hand at pressure canning?
A few years ago, my sisters (who live in Maryland and Utah) were just RAVING about Cafe Rio, especially about their freshly made tortillas and their salads. Cafe Rio is a “Mexican” (notice the quotes) fast service restaurant similar to Chipotle. So, while stopping for gas when passing through Utah, I went by a Cafe Rio and ordered a shredded roast beef burrito. Mind you, I am not usually a “meat” gal. I usually opt for vegetarian dishes, but I was told that the roast beef was great. So, I tried it. It was fine, but not as amazing as everyone said. At least, that was my initial reaction. I could only eat half of my burrito (it was huge!), so I saved the rest in the cooler. When I ate it later, I realized how yummy it truly was! The roast beef was well flavored and tender, the tortilla was wonderful, and the salsas were fresh and yummy. Since then, I’ve been a Cafe Rio fan.
What’s the problem? For a very long time, there were no Cafe Rio restaurants anywhere within an hour drive of my home. I don’t know about you, but I don’t often drive an hour just to eat roast beef. It was tempting, but I couldn’t justify the gas expenditure. So I did what I often do… I turned to my friend Google and started looking for knock-off recipes. I found this one by Jill. (She has a great website full of yummy recipes. I highly recommend you take a look and poke around.)
Her recipe is a crock-pot recipe which makes it easy, right? Only when you realize it’s a crock-pot recipe before hand, and you give yourself enough time to cook it. So, there I was, in the early afternoon, ingredients assembled and ready to make dinner and not enough time to make it. I needed to stew the roast in the crock-pot for 9-10 hours. I didn’t have 9-10 hours! So, I adapted and made it on the stove. It was tender, delicious, and a big hit with EVERYONE at home! So much so that they asked me to make it again and again. I’ve made a couple of tiny adjustments to the recipe for personal taste and ease, but, for the most part, it’s the same as the recipe by Jill. Here’s my slightly altered version.
2-3 pound Chuck Roast (or Chuck Tender Roast, my favorite)
2 small cans green enchilada sauce (I use Old El Paso.)
1 tub of Knorr Beef Homestyle Stock concentrate mixed with 2 cups of warm water
2 8-ounce cans of tomato sauce (to taste)
1 tablespoon cumin
1 small onion, halfed and sliced
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
salt and pepper to taste
Oil for browning roast
Remove roast from packaging and lightly salt and pepper. Use a very light hand! Preheat the oil over medium-high heat in a heavy stockpot, then add the roast. Brown on all sides. If the roast is too large, cut it in half and brown the halves separately. Do not rush or skip this stage! It adds a fabulous flavor that you will miss if you don’t brown the meat.
When the roast is almost done browning, add the onions to the pan and let cook for a minute or two. Next, add the garlic and let cook for a minute. If you let it go too long, the garlic will get bitter, so better to under cook it than overcook it. After a minute, add the sauces, stock mixture, and cumin to the pan. Stir to combine, then put a lid on the pan and let the meat cook until tender (2-3 hours), stirring occasionally. Once the meat is tender, remove it from the pot, shred it with a fork, and return the shredded meat to the pan, mixing it in with the sauce.
Serve with rice, in burritos, quesadillas, tacos, etc.
It’s a super easy recipe, and it tastes great! You can do it in the crock-pot if you desire, but I highly recommend browning the meat first. It adds a lovely flavor. How does that flavor rate in a head-to-head test with Cafe Rio? For similarity in taste, this recipe gets a B. For overall flavor, I give this recipe an A+. I think it’s even better than Cafe Rio!
When I made it last week, I fully intended to follow the instructions above, but life got crazy, and I realized I didn’t even have 2-3 hours to stew the meat. So I used my trusty pressure cooker and had this super tender and flavorful beef ready in about an hour. (If this makes you want a pressure cooker, check out this pressure cooker on Amazon.) Watch how in my photo step-by-step.
As always, I start by assembling the ingredients. This recipe uses a canned green enchilada sauce. Please feel free to substitute a different brand or a homemade green enchilada or chile sauce.
I cut my chuck roast in half, because it was a little big for my pressure cooker. I put a touch of salt on this, but not much. Just a couple shakes with the salt shaker. I didn’t add pepper. I let my hubby, a pepper lover, adds that to his own bowl. He likes a lot of pepper!
I browned the roast in the pressure cooker one-half at a time.
While the meat was browning, I cut up the onions and used my well-loved Pampered Chef garlic press to prep the garlic. If you prefer, you can crush the garlic with the side of your knife or use jarred garlic. But, it’s MUCH better with fresh garlic.
When the second half was almost done browning, I added the onions to the pot and allowed them to cook for a minute or so. I added the garlic to the pot and the first half of the roast. I let the garlic cook for about a minute.
Next, I added the enchilada sauce, tomato sauce (I used 1 1/2 cans 8-oz cans), the cumin, and the stock-water mixture.
I stirred to combine and put the lid on my pressure cooker. After bringing it up to pressure, I let the roast cook for 30 minutes. (Sorry for the glare from the flash!) When I checked on it at the 30 minute mark, and it was not as tender as I like it, so I put the lid back on and cooked it for another 10 minutes.
After 10 more minutes (40 minutes total pressure cooking time), it was fall apart tender and ready to shred!
I simply removed the meat from the pot and shredded it with two forks. I removed any large pieces of fat before adding the meat back to the cooking liquid.
And dinner was served! Doesn’t it look delicious?
Dinner also included Cafe Rio black beans, cilantro-lime rice, and a tomato-corn salsa. I’ll share those recipes with you soon.
We make this pretty regularly, because as much as I love Cafe Rio, it costs us over $40 for 4 of us to eat their delicious food. We can’t do that every day or even every week. This lovely meal cost about $17. For that $17, we got several meals out of it: dinner for 5 the first night (with most people eating 2 servings); 2 lunches each for my hubby, me, and my youngest son; and at least 4 “midnight snacks” for my other two boys. So that makes 19 hearty meals/snacks for $17 which everyone LOVED. Not too shabby, huh?
What do you think? How about that for easy?
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My Foray Into Food Storage 