What a crazy month! I decided to start working on one of my new years resolutions, which was to learn something new. Mike helped me pick canning. Kind of scary. We've had a garden the whole time we've been married and I usually end up only using a fourth of what I grow! Wasteful I know. So this year I am going to concentrate a lot of my efforts to canning.
On a different note, Mike ran into Kent's Market the other day to grab a loaf of bread and came out with 40 pounds of chicken! 40 pounds! He ran into a neighbor of ours while standing in line to check out and she said she buys her chicken in bulk and cans it. They just happened to be having a sale on chicken that day. Sounded like a good idea to him. To tell you the truth I had no idea you could even can chicken. I mean, I have bought chicken in a can...very convenient and tasty, but it didn't occur to me I could do it myself. I was pretty nervous, since I have never canned ANYTHING. Chicken seemed like a bad place to start, but you have to start somewhere...right?
It really wasn't that bad. I borrowed 2 pressure canners from two wonderful neighbors and went to work.
Mike did most of the trimming. I hate touching raw meat. He also put the chicken in the jars. So really Mike did most of the work! :) I watched them cook. It had to cook for 90 minutes after the canner got to the right pressure. Then when it's done you have to let it cool down, which took a good 30-45 min. So this was an all day project, which was cut in half because I had two pressure canners. So I only had to do the process once instead of two or three times. I ordered a pressure canner and I'm just waiting for it to come. Now I think I am going to want two.
The chicken turned out really good.
It isn't pretty, but it does taste good. We only had 3 jars that didn't seal correctly and we've already used 2 of those jars. We just put the ones that didn't seal in the fridge. It's really nice to be able to cook without having to defrost the chicken and touch it...yuck! I just open a jar and wallah, instant dinner! So I'm a fan of canning chicken and I can't wait to start canning my veggies.
We are a little behind on planting some of our stuff, but I think we will be ok. We are going to try canning some spaghetti sauce, salsa, potatoes, tomatoes and maybe rhubarb. I'm also going to dry some of my own herbs...never done that before, so it should interesting. I guess I've never canned veggies before either, so that also should be interesting! 
We are a little behind on planting some of our stuff, but I think we will be ok. We are going to try canning some spaghetti sauce, salsa, potatoes, tomatoes and maybe rhubarb. I'm also going to dry some of my own herbs...never done that before, so it should interesting. I guess I've never canned veggies before either, so that also should be interesting! 
