Coping With Canning (or Onion Jam)

When life gets ugly, I tend to hide in my kitchen, making things and canning up whatever there is to put into jars.  Life's taken a turn for the ugly, so we're making onion jam today.  S.D. had his doubts when I was researching my recipe, but it looked good to me, so I figured I'd run with it.  

In typical fashion, I found about 6 recipes for the product, found similarities, differences, standardized the recipe to an easily divided amount that I might want to make, and then I created my own take on the idea.  The jam turned out to have a very pleasant sweet/sour flavor that I would also not call savory, but would very strongly complement a savory dish or roast.

So, here's the onion jam recipe, if you're like me, gather all the stuff, take a picture of it, and roll from there.

(all of my ingredients, gathered for your entertainment)

7# red or white onions, chopped
1/4c olive oil

(Start those in a large, shallow pan, I had to cook the onions in stages because they just wouldn't all fit into my biggest pan.  A pot would have cooked and reduced too slowly)

(honestly, I think all the onions look kinda like bait, really)

As my onions cooked merrily down on low heat, (I kept the cover on so they wouldn't burn) I peeled my:

5 head of garlic

I then measured and added:

1 1/4c red wine vinegar

1 1/4c apple cider vinegar

3/4c dry white wine

2/3c honey

1/2c balsamic vinegar

1/2c brandy

all of that got stirred in, and then I added:

1 package (12 sprigs) rosemary

I let it all cook about 20 minutes, and then I threw my chopped garlic in:

(by the way, I was officially not fucking around... I used the big Cuisinart for the onions and the little one for the garlic.  We're canning specifically so we don't cry.)

At this juncture, I stirred the garlic in and added:

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

All this fun stuff had to cook down for a while, I allowed myself the afternoon, but really, it only took about 45 minutes, during which I was able to clean up my workspace (all 3' of it), the dishes, and hunt down my 1/2pint jars, lids and the canner of the gods.  Give the jam a good stir now and again.

When it's quite a bit reduced, add:

2 cups packed dark brown sugar

And stir it in real good.

By this time, I'm watching the current episode of Grimm on the computer while it cooked down some more.  I'd pause the show to go stir here and there, and it was just beginning to caramelize when I decided it was time to put it into jars, but the show wasn't over, so I let it cook for about 15 more minutes, coming in to stir here and there.

Ok, show over, putting into jars time.  I put it into 1/2 pint jars and came up with 11 half pints of onion jam.

The tidy results of the afternoon's work

I pressure canned them for 15 minutes at 10# pressure.  I'm certain I could've just water bath canned them, but I like the thought of pressure canning.  There's likely enough acid and sugar in them to make them safe, but that there's oil in the recipe, there's garlic in the recipe, and onions are not an acid food, I'd rather pressure can them.

S.D. will be home soon, and we're going to try this out together with LvG and CvG, but when I was tasting it as I went along, it was pretty darned good.  I know S.D. was thinking savory, like a very condensed French onion soup, but it just didn't roll that way.  I may contemplate a variation on this, but for now, this is good.  And comforting.

Surviving the ZA can also taste good, we can be the gourmet survivors.

Civil Rights Movement, Thoughts

Today is the celebration of a great, great man; Martin Luther King Jr.  He was the figurehead for an entire movement to bring Civil Rights to blacks across America through non-violent means.  He was one of the last Great Americans, in my book, but how really, is he being honored?

In no particular order, some things come to mind, the bus boycott in Montgomery, the sit-in movement in Nashville, the de-segregation of schools in the deep south, so many things so very hard won.  But once the prize was won, once all people became equal, what happened?  In the words of a former and current Civil Rights activist, "we won, we had a picnic and went home."  

There has been no honoring the victories won, no maintenance of civil rights earned, when the bus boycott was won, Montgomery reacted by over time shutting down the bus lines that served blacks, opening them only on the anniversary of the bus boycott.  

The desegregated schools stayed desegregated, until whites opened expensive private schools that only privileged whites could attend.  Public schools became for the poor and black, without proper funding and support.

SNCC won the right to sit at lunch counters with whites, but the memorial to their efforts is now faded, rundown and ignored, funding pulled by the city of Nashville, to hide that chapter in history.  The statue honoring the slaves brought across the ocean is behind bars, where people can't learn from it or enjoy it, because it is so often a target of vandalism.

In the Delta region of Mississippi, slaves were brought out of the quarters to become sharecroppers, then brought into town, to live in row houses, working barely paying jobs, still scratching at poverty.  Without hope, without ideas or education to create a brighter future.  Corporate farms have purchased the available farmland, hiring those that would work the land at poverty wages.  There is no spark brought about by education, no concept of change, and no hope.  There are no community gardens, no farmer's market, the Delta region is a food desert.

This is how we honor MLK?  There was a victory, there was a picnic, and then everyone went home.  Why not honor him by coming back out of your shells, having pride in the parents and grandparents that fought so hard, and embrace civic pride.  The state obviously will not start the process, it's up to the new generation.  Honor your own Civil Rights, honor yourselves, open your eyes.

On the Subject of Legumes

I'm trying my hand at canning dry beans.  Y.A.M. and I found good prices on 4 and 5# bags of beans at the Indian market nearby.  I looked up how to can dry beans and the first batch were done today, they happen to be adzuki beans.  What many of the canning and preserving websites and books will tell you is how to can dry beans with a standardized recipe that appears to cover all kinds of dry beans.

They don't.

There are quick cooking dry beans and slow cooking dry beans, all of which need different pre-cook times and soaking before getting put into jars and canned.  One thing is consistent: your pressure for canning dry beans is 75 minutes at 10#. (adapt as needed for your altitude)  

Beans that I would term as quick cooking, needing a VERY MINIMAL amount of pre-cooking (bring them to temperature and that's all) would be: adzuki beans, black eyes, and large lima.  These are really delicate beans that will cook to death if you follow the "pre-cook for 30 minutes, then put into jars" method.  Remember, you are cooking these little guys for 75 minutes after being put into jars!  For a bean that needs 40 to 60 minutes of cooking in the real world, I would really say it's all combined into too much damn cooking.

I can't find the reference, but one blog had mentioned just soaking your beans, topping with boiling water, cover and can.  I am very strongly leaning in that direction, adding cook time to long-cook dry beans like: baby limas, kidney beans, garbanzos, pink beans, small white beans, and likely black beans.  I think I would cook them no longer than 15 to 20 minutes (boiling) before putting into jars.

Legumes are good protein, but you do need to eat them with a grain to take in a complete protein.  If you don't, you body will just take from your tissues the amino acids to create a complete protein, and that really gets you nothing, unless you are feeding in a particular amino acid that you are short on (and not many of us really are).  The highest protein per calorie is coming out (in my research so far) as the black eyed pea.  Good to know, but legumes are still fairly high in calories and carbohydrates to truly exchange them for animal proteins in the diet.  Now, when the ZA happens, animal proteins are going to be tough to come by, so legumes/grains might be the way to go, and we'll need those extra calories, as food will be harder to come by, too.  Something to consider there.  

The benefit here is that SD can just go get a jar of beans and some other stuff, heat and dinner is done, so that's the bonus for us.  Dry beans also will go bad after 6 months to a year, getting tough and taking longer cook times for an inferior product, having them canned encourages use and rotation of stock, because it's easier to deal with.  Also to think about is during the ZA, fuel sources and water might be scarce, so cooking your dry beans might be neigh on impossible to do.  Keep your options open.

The Obscenity of the Current State

http://news.yahoo.com/obese-third-grader-taken-mom-placed-foster-care-201731761.html

What I had discussed is happening: the GOONS are giving themselves power to take children away from their families and homes due to obesity.  Obesity caused by our industrialized food systems and media influenced lack of activities.  I can't emphasize enough!  Grow your own food! turn off the TV!  fight back!  It's just a matter of time before it becomes normal to have children taken away and "reeducated", perhaps chipped, logged, and tracked, like many drones for the state.

If the GOONS can't track your whereabouts by putting unwanted tracking units in your vehicle, they will find a way to do it on an individual level.  Keep yourself off the radar, literally and figuratively.  If the GOONS can't track you, you have freedom.

Any science fiction deals with loss of freedom, and we see it when future-based films and stories deal with "the company", that runs everything, from all restaurants being Taco Bell to the company that will sacrifice anything or anyone for a specimen for its weapons division.  This is what happens when there is no animosity between big business and the GOONS, and as it is, they are becoming one an the same quite rapidly.  Not only will they control what you eat, but by removing children with a flimsy excuse, reeducating them, eventually chipping them, they will be able to control where they go, and very likely restrict what they are allowed to do.

ZA aside, if the perfect storm happens, if we're not careful and fight everyday to control ourselves, we will be controlled.

I Never Really Mourned You

It was brought sharply to my attention that you left and I neglected to say goodbye.

Others have gone, but you were always there with me, now you are with me only in spirit.

When it came time for sweets, all I could do was cry and think of you.

The hunters are out in the field, and you are only there in spirit.

The deer await you, I never really said goodbye.

The cake on the table sits, I miss you more than ever.

Like us all, you never really leave, do you?  

Is that why is seems like only yesterday when I last saw you?

Were you there, standing behind me, with my other angels?

I think you were, I think you are.

I'm still not ready to say goodbye.

Using Dehydrated Stuff

DH Strawberry Muffins

 425 degrees for 25 minutes

Soak enough strawberries to fill a 1 cup measure, dry with 2 TBS honey, 1/2 tsp rosewater and enough boiling water to cover.  Let sit for half hour or more until berries are rehydrated.

Sift together:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup oat flour

1/3 cup resistant starch

1 TBS baking powder

2 TBS sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Beat one egg until frothy.  

Pull strawberries out of liquid, set up to chop.  Add to remaining liquid:

1 scoop whey protein powder

skim milk to make 1 cup overall.

Mix together liquids.  Add in chopped, rehydrated strawberries.  Mix all into dry ingredients, mix until combined.  Pour into greased muffin cups until cups are 2/3 full.  Bake 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until done.

They're not going to be very sweet, but they're basically good for you.  I may add more strawberries next time, as they do seem to disappear a bit.  Quite good served warm.

Ethics and Integrity

I could go on for pages about ethics and integrity, but will give you the short version.  If you would like to learn  more, that's where a philosophy/ethics class comes into play, for now, I'm just going to give you a gentle reminder.

Ethics and integrity combine to create something that many these days are very sadly lacking, and that is honor.  Now, we've all seen honor portrayed in the media as some kind of strange, 8-headed monster that destroys lives and generations, and that is not honor.  Just because someone way back when killed the pet frog of another clan, doesn't mean you need to pay for the sins of the frog-killer, it means that someone somewhere out there might step on your foot to hurt your foot and mean it because they can't put their big-girl pants on and grow the hell up.  

With honor, you need to understand that you cannot change the past, you can't change people, but you can influence what you do, how you do it, and what you say.  Those around you will change in accordance.  Every family has it's own concept of honor, unfortunately, many families have a very weak of concept of anything resembling honor, and you can't do much about them except avoid them.  

They're no good anyway.

If you happen to belong to one of the above-mentioned families with an unfortunate honor concept, consider starting with you.  You are the first generation on which to build honor and integrity.  If where you came from is no good, remember where you came from, and go to a different place on the map.  Build your family reputation at that ground level.

When you practice your ethics, it means looking at the overall picture of what is right and what is wrong and doing the right thing, even if it is unconventional to do so.  If someone comes to you for help, places their trust in you, believes in you, you are in a position to help, you help them.  Helping the person in need doesn't mean turning your back on them, lying to them, cheating them or in many other ways I can't think of, violating their trust.  It also doesn't mean killing yourself to do it, always save yourself, so you can save other people.  If you are not capable of making the commitment to help another grow and stand on their own feet, you have no business engaging.  

Ethics means not hurting another person needlessly, it means looking down the long road to see if what you are doing NOW will adversely affect them later.  It means giving your soul a workout.  Every day.

Integrity is strength, integrity means you will not betray your dearest held beliefs to accommodate someone with no honor.  Take integrity out of a human context and speak of "structural integrity of a building", if it's high, it will hold up to storms, if it is not, it will collapse.  Bring human context back in, if your integrity is high, you will survive, if it is gone, you will collapse.

When your back is against the wall, and the zombies are approaching, do you want to be with others that will protect you as fiercely as you protect them?  Now think about the people you surround yourself with, think of yourself; are you the type of person people want on their team?  

Our family has it's own standard of honor, we're not exactly Klingons in our passion for it, but our honorable name means the world to us, and we protect it by being what we expect our family to be.  That is honor.  We protect and guard our own, even the far-reaching ones we don't see.  Sometimes we do unconventional things to achieve our ends, but it is mostly done with ethics, integrity, and most of all, honor.

Keep your honor, give your soul a workout everyday, do the right thing, even if it makes people wonder what in hell you're up to.  Some day, (and, by the way, you're soaking in it...) the zombies are going to come, the GOONS aren't going to protect you, and you're going to be up against a wall.  Who are you going to be up against a wall with, and are you a good enough person that they'll want to keep you with them?

Think about it.