Part XVIII: Prepping for Success

One of the things I'm looking forward to in retirement is not stressing about wanting to eat dinner the minute I come home.  I'll be able to do a 2-3 hour cooking project any day I choose.  Since I'm not there yet, I'm reluctantly getting into banking my own freezer meals.  One bacon western cheeseburger is a fun treat after a hard day.  More than one after-work drive thru in a month is a cry for help.

I already do this with baked goods.  It started with making four half-pound loaves out of a batch of challah dough and freezing them until needed.  It has gotten to the point that up to half of the chest freezer at any given time is bread, cookies, or another baked product.

It doesn't take much time or money to make your own freezer meals.  Whatever you're making, double it and freeze the rest.  This works great for lasagna, casseroles, and stews.  Buy the larger piece of meat if there's a sale, cook all of it, and slice the leftovers for another use.  Make that double batch of cookies or brownies and freeze what you don't need yet.  Cook up a whole pound of dry beans and freeze the result in 2-cup (one can) baggies.  If you keep an inventory taped to the freezer, items won't languish.  Just remember to update it whenever you add or remove items, or you could end up short one meal.

Yes, I know many people don't have a chest freezer.  The trick is to make the space you do have work for you.  Turn the little half-bags falling out every time you open it into something.  Rotate so nothing is freezer-burned.  If something is in there longer than six months, ask yourself why.  (For me, that's nuts and a bag of cranberries.  Nuts are a given since that's the best place to store them, but I really do need to use the cranberries.)

Most recently, I threw too many veggies into a teriyaki stir fry.  It ended up being five servings, so I was able to freeze the rest.  Another day, I grilled a whole tri-tip roast.  A pound was left after four servings, so that is in Freezer Camp for a month or two.

I haven't yet dedicated a day to intentionally making freezer meals.  Haven't had time for it.  When I do, that will be shared.  It's also a way to get ahead of holiday cooking.  Six weeks until Rosh Hashanah.

Freezing Eggs

I don't know what made me think I could go through 40 eggs in a month.  The sale was two 20-packs for $4, or 10¢ each.  I'm still paranoid about egg prices since the bird flu shortage.  I tried baking and adding them to other dishes, but I only have breakfast at home 4-5 days per week.  Plus, I was about to go on vacation for a week.  It was time to look for other ways of preserving them.

You can't freeze hard-boiled eggs.  It turns the whites into water.  You can dehydrate yolks, and the new dehydrator came with a recipe.  You salt-cure them first, then dry into something similar to a cheese that is then grated.  Not something I'm interested in.  That left freezing them uncooked.

You can freeze the yolks and whites of raw eggs separately.  The whites will not be usable for meringues, but you can scramble them up.  The yolks will still have their thickening power.  The majority of the eggs I use are for omelets and whole in baked goods, so I went the scrambled route.

The process is very easy.  Crack into a bowl and scramble.  You can add a pinch of salt and/or pepper to make seasoned eggs.  Not knowing the final use, I opted for plain.  Pour the egg into ice cube trays or silicone muffin cups.  Freeze, pop out, repeat until you've made as many as you want.

The frozen eggs can then be transferred to a freezer bag or other container and kept frozen.  To use, bring out desired number and thaw overnight in the fridge.  Scramble them back up to redistribute the water content and you're good to go.  The bags will be a loss, as I don't reuse plastic bags that have held foods requiring cooking.  I could have used the FoodSaver, but I wanted to be able to store many in one bag and pull out one or two as needed.

I'm not going to do this all the time, but it was a solution to the problem on this day.  It turns the eggs into a long-term food item, with a storage time of up to three months.  And I will watch my urge to get a good deal in the future.

Freezing Vegetables

I was planning to buy frozen broccoli and cauliflower a few weeks ago.  They were on my shopping list several days in advance.  Then Super King advertised both at 49¢ per pound, which is about a third of what the market was charging.  Ok, fine, I'll do it myself.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has guidelines for more than canning.  I followed their very basic instructions for broccoli and cauliflower.  Don't freak out over the part about soaking for bugs; that's mostly for home-grown vegetables.  Chop them into reasonable pieces, blanch for a few minutes, pat dry, freeze flat, and transfer to a freezer container.  Ten minutes of work, an hour or two of inactive time, and you're done.

You do get more vitamins in store-bought frozen vegetables.  They're processed soon after harvest.  This was the next best option.  And it turned out the other market didn't have frozen cauliflower anyway.  Since bags of veggies are often 12 oz now, I have the equivalent of two bags of each for $3.  I'm pretty happy about that.

Difficulty rating  π

My New Dehydrator

Two months in a row, my electric bill was a lot higher than I thought it should be.  Some of it could be higher rates, but I really think it's from running the oven as my dehydrator.  I decided that I'm at the point where it's more cost effective to buy a $50 small appliance in order to save $20 or more per month in electricity.  Besides, I had enough Amazon credit to cover it, even better than when I got the pressure canner.

I intentionally bought one without digital bells and whistles.  On/off button and one dial to adjust the temperature.  A dehydrator is just a heating coil and a fan.  I wanted as few parts that could break as possible.

This model has five trays.  The height of each is adjustable based on which side is up.  It doesn't come with tray liners, which was a bummer, but the parchment I cut will be reusable until something really messy sticks to it.  If it gets very annoying, I'll buy replacement liners for some other dehydrator and cut them to fit.

The manual did not say anything about what kind of surface to place it on.  I was putting it on a wooden counter between rooms, rather than against a wall, for better airflow.  To protect the wood's finish, I put it on a tile on top of a cloth placemat.  Still haven't decided where it's going to live when not in use for a while.  I'll move the box around until I figure it out.  Probably in the canning supply closet.

The first thing I dehydrated was the giant pile of calendula flowers amassing on the counter.  Once I infuse some in oil or make them into a "tea", it's supposed to be good for dry skin and eczema.  Did not know I'm allergic to the pollen.  In one day, they were fully dried and in the jar I've had set aside for them since I bought the plant seeds.  There's enough room in the jar for another round.  After that, I'll probably pull half of the plants.  Some of them don't look great, and I'm assuming they've done their job on the nematodes by now.  I could use the space in the pond back.

As long as I have kale growing, I'm going to segue my monthly drying of it to the new appliance.  I plan to test small amounts of various vegetables, herbs, and fruits to discover what I like.

The dehydrator came with a small recipe book and guide.  Half of it is for jerky, which I had not planned to do.  Beef, pork, and fish jerkies can be made in it.  It does not go to 165º, so no poultry or ground meats.  There are also some vegan cookie recipes, like hiking snacks, that I will definitely try.  Already bought cashews for one.  I might buy a dehydrator cookbook, or at least bookmark sites like The Purposeful Pantry.

One thing to note with dehydrated foods is that they don't last as long as canned.  You can increase the time with vacuum sealing, refrigerating, freezing, or oxygen absorbers, depending on the type of food.  Still, you're looking at 6 months maximum for ideal freshness.  These foods should only be items you use regularly, and don't try to store a year's worth.

I won't be posting a lot of recipes on how to make dehydrated foods, since they require an additional kitchen appliance.  I might post them with how to make them in a conventional oven, or how I'm using these ingredients in regular recipes.  I do expect it to save me money, primarily by reducing my electric bill and also by preserving purchased produce that was on the verge of spoiling.  Just one more layer in my quest to make the most of what I already have.

Mini Tomato Crisis

For anyone who has gone to buy fresh tomatoes recently, yes they really have gotten expensive.  There have been poor harvests in the southern U.S. and northern Mexico, where we get our tomatoes this time of year.  The wholesale prices have skyrocketed, and the quality is not always great.  I did an invoice at work, and it was $95 for 20 lbs of slicing tomatoes.  At Smart & Final, it was $83.  The case of Romas I bought last year to can for $15 is now $45.

This is kind of like the year eggs were expensive due to bird flu.  Now you can find them for 99¢ on occasion.  It's supply and demand.  I fully expect prices to normalize within a month, as more tomato crops start to come in.

Meanwhile, I'm popping open those jars I canned last year.  I'm eating 69¢ per pound tomatoes, when Romas are $2.49 today.  Ok, yes, they're canned and it isn't exactly the same thing, but they still taste good in salads and burritos.

There's the possibility that this current shortage will show up in canned product prices in six months.  It may not happen, if back supplies are sufficient.  Commercially canned tomato products have a shelf life of close to two years.  The problem is that, unlike many other vegetables, tomato products aren't sold frozen.  Your choices are fresh or canned.  There is freeze-dried tomato powder, but you might as well just get canned tomato paste for that.

The lesson from this is to know your supply options.  When eggs were pricey, I experimented with egg replacer powder.  In a tomato shortage, I'm finding other vegetable workarounds.  Beef is expensive, so I'm eating less red meat.  I'm supposed to limit it on my current diet anyway.  There's plenty of food in the stores.  You just have to learn to cook with what's available at the price you're willing to pay.

Two New Grocery Stores

I have been having a terrible time finding chickpea flour, and I prefer not to order food from Amazon.  Yes, I know it's safe, but I don't trust the packages not to break in transit.  So I searched for Indian grocery stores on my way home from work one day.  It was more of a detour than I expected, and I was not really in the mood to shop, but I got my chickpea (besan) flour for a better price than I was expecting.

What had not occurred to me was all the other things I would find at the market.  Of the two aisles in the shop, half of one was giant bags of spices and blends, like a pound or more each.  There were teas, 25 pound bags of atta flour and rice, every Indian legume you can imagine, and quite a few other things I didn't pay attention to because I was there for one item.  They didn't have as much produce as I was expecting, but they did have those cute egg-sized eggplants I like.

I forgot to take photos, and I'm not going to go back without a shopping list and much more energy.  Not the store's fault.

The other new store I tried was a supermarket that just opened near me.  With grocery prices these days, I have stopped being loyal to one store and go where prices and products match my list.  Although, I did just win a $50 Albertsons gift card from one of their promotions; loyalty rewards can pay off.  Super King is a local chain with only a few stores.  This is the first within shopping distance.  Off their ad, I saw cherries for $1.29/lb and butter for $2.  I figured I'd scope out the place and pick up $5 of groceries.

It's a wonderfully open floorplan, with half of the space devoted to fresh produce.  The cherries were terrible, so I passed them up, and they were out of the cheap butter.  I still spent $18.

So this is now a haul post.  For fresh produce, I got two Persian cucumbers and a bunch of radishes to make a quick-pickle salad to have on taco night.  Total for that was 73¢.  They had decent strawberries for $2 a pound that I got instead of the cherries.  They also had the baby eggplants, but I didn't have a plan for them and let them be.  I figured I was done, but kept walking around.

I had been under the impression that Super King was kind of like a Sprouts that catered to a partially Hispanic market.  Not at all.  Yes, there are south of the border foods, but I'd say close to half of the inventory specializes in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and South Asian groceries.  That means I don't have to trek to Westwood anymore.  I found four brands of frozen fava beans, the ones I had been looking for in March.  Got one package.  I did not get the frozen parathas.  Still trying to decide if I want to attempt to make them.  There was also a monthly special on store brand avocado and olive oils.  I've never bought avocado oil, simply because it's expensive.  $6 each for 750ml bottles.

I would call both shopping expeditions successes.  I learned about myself and what I would like to have in my pantry.  Passing up an ingredient is just as important as what you buy.  And if I see an unusual ingredient in a recipe, I now know where to find it.

Non-Canning Preserving Options

Spring is always a big time for my garden.  I enjoy cool-weather herbs and vegetables, and they grow well in my climate because it's such a long season, from November to May.  The parsley I was growing for Passover will now last me the whole year.  I'm having trouble unloading the oregano the same way people try to foist off extra zucchini.

The trick is to preserve whatever I can't use or give away.  The boss who took my extra kale transferred out last year.  I had to toss a lot of it over the winter, but the heat waves killed all the bugs and it is thriving again.  I chopped up and froze a gallon bag of very clean leaves.  It's the less pretty ones I dehydrate.

The heat wave also made the artichokes bloom a little early.  Not very many of them this year, but they all threatened to bloom at the same time.  Simmered up a round of the largest to save just the hearts.  The next dozen, I kept more of the leaves to do quarters later.  Both baggies are in the freezer.  I don't think the last batch is going to amount to much.

Last up for freezer day was making lemon ice cubes out of the other half of the lemon I used to prevent the artichokes from browning.  Any time I need a bit of juice in a recipe, I can toss in a cube or two instead of bringing in a whole lemon.

The next week was dehydrating.  My green onions got out of control again, and I was missing having dehydrated green onion on hand.  Just two of the giant onions dried up into over half a cup.  When I'm ready to use my leeks, I may try to dry those leaves.  Either that, or they'll go in the broth bag.

My calendula are finally blooming, so I'm drying the flowers to use later in teas.  Half a day in the oven on the dehydrator setting took care of it, and got rid of the onion smell.  I planted them to heal the soil and to harvest the flowers.  Judging by how well the kale is doing, mission accomplished.  I should be able to plant nematode-susceptible plants next year.

I did hang the oregano to dry naturally, instead of forcing things in the dehydrator.  There is so much of it, way more than I thought I could grow.  Maybe I'll tie some up to dry as decoration, or give it away as party favors.  Leave it in a basket in the driveway with a "free" sign.  I mean, there's a lot.

Part of growing your own produce is being responsible for it.  Eat what you can fresh, give some away, or preserve it for later.  Freezing and dehydrating are the easiest and safest methods.  They don't necessarily require special equipment, if your oven has a dehydrator setting like mine does.  "Putting up" doesn't have to mean canning.

Pantry Challenge 2-Month Update

It's the end of Month 2 of the Pantry Challenge, my brave attempt to tidy up the inventory before Passover sorting.  Here's a progress report on the state of my pantry and freezer.

I will be able to get everything in the kitchen freezer before Passover.  I could probably do it now.  It was a huge concern.  By making a sincere effort to base meals around freezer items, I was able to reduce the inventory significantly.  Sticking to my grocery list also helped.  Plus, I decided not to make more challah or wheat bread when I finished the last loaf.  I'm having other baked products with breakfast, like finishing a box of pancake mix and the sweet potato cornbread.  Trying very hard not to bake more than I can finish in a week.  It will make the schlissel that much more special after the holiday.

Now that that goal is accomplished, March's focus will be the dry pantry.  Mainly, I'm still working through the cookies and other dessert ingredients from December.  This whole low-sugar diet makes a box of cookies last way longer than it ought to.  I'm not buying Girl Scout cookies, and I really wanted to try the new ones.  And this is with having some kind of dessert every day.  I eat dinner too early not to have something before bed.  I'm also opening a can of soup a week, after stocking up during a nasty cold that refused to test positive for Covid.  After two months I can see the change, but it still looks overstuffed in photos.  The goal is easy sorting at the end of the month.

All this working down of the inventory does not mean I'm not preserving or restocking for long term.  I canned meat and beans one week, then restocked the dry beans.  I've already bought the lamb roast for Seder.  (It's at the bottom of the chest freezer.)  The rest has been dehydrating herbs and kale.  I put dried kale in my morning omelet almost every day.  Before the recent storms, I harvested a bucket of it, in case they died, and got over a quart of dried leaves.  And that's with tossing a significant amount due to aphids.

While I did spend more during February than I did in January, it was still below my $150-200 average.  I made smarter choices.  I shopped my pantry and freezer first.  And I have stopped being loyal to one grocery store.  Since I started shopping around the past year or so, I've learned which stores have the best deals on the products I enjoy.  Ralphs (Kroger) has better meat prices, but doesn't carry the yogurt I like.  Pavilions has the yogurt and a very good price on liquid eggs.  Trader Joe's has the cheapest kalamata olives and eggplant.  Smart & Final has club store per-unit prices on smaller quantities.  And Sprouts has bulk bins for better unit prices on expensive dry items.  I'm more strategic with my grocery list and plan around which store carries the key ingredient on it.  While prices in general have risen, the bottom-line amount I'm spending has gone down.  I'm doing something right.

All Parts of the Pantry Dinner

The problem with a Pantry Challenge is that the meals can be uninteresting to post.  Then I remembered that the point of this blog is how to use what you already have.  The actual recipes are a bonus.  So here's how I used ingredients already on hand for a no-purchase meal.

The original plan was to enjoy whatever jars of meat didn't seal from a canning session.  I did a pork shoulder and about three pounds of chuck roast.  All nine jars sealed, which is awesome, but then I had to decide if I wanted to open one or come up with something else for dinner.  I decided to bulk up a large can of soup to turn it into four meals.

And that's the cool part of a well-stocked pantry.  You can pivot at the last minute.  You can handle extra guests at a dinner party after your last trip to the grocery store.  When you're sick, you can stay in for three days without worrying how to feed yourself.  I had plenty of options for my protein and chose one that worked well with my sides.  I don't often open three cans for a single meal, but there's no reason not to.

From the dry pantry

mashed potato flakes
can of pickled beets I bought by mistake
can of cut green beans a month past their date
can of Campbell's chunky split pea with ham
milk powder
oil, vinegar, and spices

From the fridge

margarine

From the garden

lettuces
green onion

The Meal

Split-pea and ham stew
Oniony mashed potatoes 
Garden salad with pickled beets

Pantry Challenge 2026 Progress Report

We're almost done with the January Pantry Challenge.  It's time to evaluate my usage, purchases, and what's left.

First, the wins.  I think I've gone through everything shelf-stable past its date.  Doing that in only a few weeks means I am not hoarding food.  I've done my last shop for the month, and have spent $28.16, which is ridiculous.  Not for this week, for the whole month.  It would have been a dollar less, but I wasn't happy with the temperature of the egg case this week and got protein shakes instead of liquid egg whites.  My lists were almost entirely yogurt, eggs, and bananas.  While there are still some home-canned goods older than a year, none are a safety concern.  My rices and legumes are a lot more streamlined.  That makes me very happy.  I have gotten rid of most of the gallon-sized freezer bags in the kitchen freezer, with the new amounts fitting in quarts or even used up.

There may be more in the chest freezer than when I started, which is driving me nuts.  Not taking a photo of that.  I turned some older ingredients into baked goods, then froze them.  Some preservation projects involved repackaging items for the freezer.  I've also cut back my portion sizes at meals to something appropriate for my current metabolism, so "four" servings is more like five or six.  I need to set aside time for exercising.  Those extra lunch-sized portions end up in the freezer.  I'm trying to eat them the following week.  I do still have two months until the great defrost.

What I'm learning is that I have plenty of food on hand.  I'm one person who only needs 1,400-1,700 calories per day.  How little I eat was very evident at Chanukah, when I put what I think of as a week's worth of food on the table for one dinner party.  If the drama of shopping like 2020 happens again, I could make it a month, even the vegetables.  I'm going to do this again in February, primarily to see how long the vegetable situation stays stable.  I do need some items that aren't necessarily food but end up on that bill.  I might be able to keep some categories going until Passover, which will offset the increased cost of KLP items and what I spend on Seder itself.

I've found that my schedule has made me opt for canned or pre-cooked beans most of the time.  I'll can up some more soon.  I also have 3 lbs of chuck roast and a pork butt coming out of the freezer to can next week, when "shredded meat" is on the meal plan for any jars that don't seal.

It has been so hard to keep myself from buying all sorts of groceries for "later".  I make more impulse purchases than I realized.  I talked myself out of b/s chicken breasts for canning, since it turns out I don't use Ugly Chicken, as wonderful as it tastes.  I do use the beef and pork, and mine is far superior to store-bought canned.  I did buy four cans of tuna at 69¢ each.  I could have deducted that $2.76 from my total according to most people's rules.  That's enough for the year unless I really get in a tuna mood.  I refrained from stocking up on anything else.  It took a lot of willpower.  I miss grocery shopping.

Repurposing Leftovers

A big part of this year's Pantry Challenge is just getting through random stuff in the freezer.  It's usually because I didn't get quantities right when I was cooking the original meal.  Other times, I went a little overboard and knew it, but that's how much you end up with when there's an egg in the recipe.  That sort of thing.  

Half the zaalouk was still there after Chanukah dinner.  I was using it as a sauce alongside the chicken, so not a surprise.  There was also more of it than I had expected.  I stuck it in the freezer, to figure out a purpose in January.

What I decided to do with it was use it as a curry starter.  It would have made an equally good pasta sauce.  There was an extra potato I never made into latkes, so in it went.  I increased the spices a bit to compensate for the dulling effect of potato.  In went a can of chickpeas for protein, a cup of heavy cream because it needed to be used, and some basmati to serve it on.

I believe in not wasting food.  It's important to preserve excess or make something new out of it.  The most expensive item at the grocery store is the one that is never eaten.  Also, this was a delicious, quick meal that stayed in my Mediterranean diet.  I have three months to clean up my a1C before my next physical.  Definitely went overboard on sugar during the holidays.

Pantry Challenge Game Plan

Tomorrow is 2026!  Wow, how did that happen?

I feel like I'm not going through my pantry in the proper amount of time, so I'm doing Pantry Challenge January.  It's a chance to use items before they go bad and challenge myself to come up with new uses.  It saves money when all the December bills come due by using what you've already bought.  You can evaluate why an ingredient is languishing while others seem to run out, and adjust what you stock accordingly.

The big rule is that you set your own rules.  The ultimate goal would be not setting foot in the grocery store for a month, but that is not necessary.  I have a list of items I'm permitting myself to buy, generally highly perishable ones.  Can't keep bananas fresh for 31 days.  Any recipe I make should have as few new purchases as possible.  If there's an exceptional deal on something I know I'll use, like toilet paper or coffee, I can stock those and not count them as current grocery purchases.

In particular, I need to do something about the kitchen freezer.  It's where I keep my vegetables and a few other items.  All the stray bits and leftovers are crowding out what I prefer to keep in there.  Also, I need to have room in it for the chest freezer defrost in March.  Because I'm already thinking about that.

The last time I tracked my spending during a pantry challenge, I stayed under $50 for the month.  That was 2022, so I'm not holding out for the same result.  At some point, I'm bound to celebrate the extra room in the freezer by filling it with ice cream.

What I'm focusing on isn't simply reducing the quantity of an item in the pantry or freezer.  I want to use the oldest items and anything "best by" the first half of 2026.  I want to reduce the condiments in the fridge.  The kimchi is almost a year old.  So are the cranberries in the freezer.  This is about rotating through ingredients and deciding whether I want to buy them again.  Maybe I'll remember I love something I've been passing over and incorporate it more.

The real trick is to continue coming up with new recipes.  Can't have peanut butter pasta every night, as tempting as that may be.  If I do this right, you'll never notice that I'm only using items on hand and from the garden.

Assorted Food Preservation Projects

During August, the Three Rivers Homestead channel on YouTube tries to do some preserving every day called the "Every Bit Counts Challenge".  She's a stay at home, homeschooling mom with a mini farm, so a lot of these projects count as education for the kids.  I don't have that kind of time or energy.

But I have gotten into the habit since early this year of doing at least one preservation project per week.  It could be hanging herbs to dry one week and putting them away two weeks later.  Maybe dehydrating celery leaves or kale.  I even consider baking for the freezer to be a form of preservation, since I'm making something for a later date.  Not all preservation involves hauling out the pressure canner.

The easiest one was trimming the basil to dry on a cabinet handle.  The plant needed pruning, so up it went.  Basil doesn't take well to forced-heat dehydrating, so I always hang it.  Two weeks later, it was dry enough to put in the jar with the rest of the leaves.  The bonus is creating a healthier basil plant for fresh use.

My 13 tomato plants picked up their production, faster than I could put the cherry tomatoes (6 of the plants) in omelettes.  Those were cooked into confit and stored in the freezer until there was a meal to use it.  One of the Monster tomatoes split on the vine before it had finished ripening.  I salvaged it by turning it into pickles.  I was not about to waste a half-pound tomato if I could help it.

All the tomato peels and guts from canning day went through the food processor until smooth and were scooped out into one ounce portions to use as tomato paste, then frozen.  The larger portions in the silicone muffin cups will probably turn into tomato soup.  All a soup would need is water, seasonings, and a quick run through a strainer.  That got me roughly $10 in tomato products out of the "waste".  Remember, the case cost $15.  Today, that same case at the same store is $21.  Calling that a win.

I picked up some ground turkey at 30% off.  That became sausage patties to have for breakfast.  Sort of a mix of meal prep and freezer banking future meals.  I was able to make this from-scratch item, meaning far healthier than convenience sausage, as a do-ahead and for slightly less than buying it.  That counts as preserving.

Until about a hundred years ago, preserving the harvest and preparing for the scarcity of winter was an annual event.  Even in cities, certain foods were only available in season, so you had to figure out how to preserve it if you wanted it at other times.  Today, we have the advantage of reliable freezers and imported food.  It can still save money to preserve in season.  Plus, you know what's in it and get bragging rights.

Dehydrating Greens

I finally gave up on the last two broccoli about a month ago.  I could have gotten another small harvest out of them, but they were starting to attract cabbage loopers.  The kale don't need any help bringing those in on their own.  I decided to harvest any non-nibbled leaves and dehydrate them for future use.

Drying foods isn't only for herbs.  There's a whole subset on the NCHFP website for how to preserve by drying.  It doesn't pose the same inherent risks as canning, but doesn't preserve as long.

Having dried greens of any sort can be a way to sneak veggies into a recipe, like spaghetti sauce or casseroles.  You can powder them for smoothies.  They can be used in soups, where they pretty much disappear.  When you buy "green powder", that's most of what's in there.  Dehydrating is also one way to keep greens you bought from going to waste.

The procedure is very simple.  If you don't have a dehydrator, a convection oven can do it.  I set mine to the lowest it will allow, which is 110ºF.

Wash the leaves, then pat them dry with a towel.  Remove any thick stems.  Spread them out on a lined baking sheet.  I had better luck with the parchment one than the Silpat.

Set the trays in the oven and go do other things.  After two hours, check the progress.  They will have gotten smaller from losing water, so you can rearrange them for best airflow, and rotate trays if necessary.  After another hour or two, depending on original moisture content and oven temperature, the leaves should be completely dry and shatter with minimal pressure.

Stuff the leaves into a dry container, or powder first if that's how you want to use them.  Seal the jar to keep out moisture and store in a cool, dark place.  Use within six months for best quality.

Difficulty rating  π

One Year of Pressure Canning

Asparagus was on sale, reminding me of the four pounds I canned last year.  Looking at the date on the lids, I found that it has been a year since I got up the courage to use the pressure canner.

So, how do I like this investment?  I'm still scared of botulism every time I open a jar, which is probably why I haven't opened more of them.  I save the lid for three days.  This is not something I do with water-bath jars.

The quality of the product is amazing.  When I open a jar of ugly chicken, I wonder why I don't do it more often.  The only thing I've canned that I didn't like was the vegetable broth.  That's so easy to make as needed on the stove, I probably won't go to the trouble again.  Also, I'm not saving money by canning chicken or beef broth, considering how rarely I use them.

One thing I've discovered is that I don't open as many cans or jars of any one thing as I thought I did.  There are still two jars of asparagus.  Most of the chicken is still on the shelf, as is half of the chicken broth.  I'm almost out of all the beans, though.  There's a lot more sweet potato than I expected, but I didn't plan to make that many jars in the first place.  As much as I love the products, I'm one person and I have a huge variety of items in my pantry and freezer.

So, what's on the canning list for this year?  Pretty soon, some beans.  I'll do it next time I need canned (in case one doesn't seal).  I would love to get a case of Roma tomatoes to make about eight jars of quartered and the rest as tomato sauce.  I already have the citric acid for the project.  I'm only doing it if it's cheaper than buying commercially canned.  The excessive amount of tomatoes I planted this year may or may not supply enough for both canning and dried.  I'm almost out of canned pork, which may be my favorite item.  Sort of tied with beef.  They both come out as easy shredded meats.  For water bath canning, I'd like to have more sliced fruit.  I'm finding it the easiest thing to put in my work-lunch yogurt.  Fresh and frozen are best, but I'm enjoying the ease of canned, and sweetening it with a spoonful of the syrup.  It also works well when I take a break from yogurt to pack cottage cheese for a couple of weeks.

As far as the canner paying for itself, once I've finished last year's products, I've probably broken even on the canner itself.  The jars and lids will take another year or so.  Aside from attrition of jars breaking, I think I'm done buying them.  There are a lot of empty jars in the closet.  I now have a realistic idea of how much home-canned food I should be making for a year.  I have plenty for a few days without power, and much more using it in rotation with other pantry items.

One thing I did note was the price increases over last year.  The boneless-skinless chicken breast I canned was $2 a pound.  It's now an absolute minimum sale price of $3.  The asparagus has gone up fifty cents.  Pork is still $3 a pound for shoulder roasts, but beef chuck is a dollar more.  So, what I have canned is last year's prices.  Something to keep in mind.