Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Winter canning

We are pretty much snowed in right now, with about a foot of snow on the ground. It sure is beautiful! Evie has been going out in the snow all bundled up, playing with Sierra. I have been busy trying something new...canning beans! We have a whole bunch of dried beans that I haven't been using because it is so much of a pain to prepare them. I started looking online at how easy they were to pressure can, and so much easier to use after they have been canned. So today I canned kidney beans. I did 7 quart jars, and I have 10 pint jars in the canner right now. I am soaking 5 pounds of navy beans to can tomorrow, and after that pinto beans. So I should be busy for the next few days! Beans that I have soaked and cooked have always given us some digestive issues, but for some reason the canned beans from the store don't seem to bother us. I'm hoping the home canned ones will work the same way as the store bought canned ones for us.




No job news at all. We were blessed with the biggest tax refund we have ever gotten, which was such a God thing. It will help us a lot. We have been living on 401K money, which isn't ideal, but at least we are able to keep our house and stay here until Jeff gets a job. It has been almost 8 months now. That seems unreal. The jobs in this area have been pretty scarce. Jeff has been looking elsewhere, but we still believe God could bring a job for us here. The waiting is hard, but I really do enjoy having my husband home with me :).

3 comments:

SchnauzerMom said...

I certainly hope and pray that Jeff finds a job very soon!

Daisy said...

I will keep you in my prayers for a job Jen! One year my dh's company went on strike for almost a whole year. Boy was that hard on us, and we had to use our savings. Thankfully the strike ended before things got too bad.

That's a neat idea canning your beans. I find the store bought canned ones aren't as hard on the digestive tract too!

April said...

I've never thought about canning beans! And I eat beans a lot - all kinds... in soups mainly that I make every week or two. I do the soaking thing and haven't had many problem with digestive issues - but Mike does. Maybe I'm just used to them. Canning them is an interesting alternative though... I must do some research! :)