I always liked to watch Grandma work with the vegetables we harvested. She would take her canning jars, wash them out, and put them in pots of boiling water for a while to sterilize them. She would chop the ends off the cucumbers and split each one into four long slices. After the cans came off the stove, she would stuff the cucumber slices into the jars as much as she could and pour in the mixture of vinegar she had prepared. She would screw the seal on with a lid and sit it aside to go on to finish the rest of the cans. I remember asking her what the popping noise was in the jars. She would always tell me it was the canning jars sealing themselves.
Grandma would do the same thing with tomatoes when she canned tomatoes and tomato juice. The only difference is that she would leave the peals on the cucumbers but remove all the tomato skin and some of the cores before she canned them. I don’t recall her ever preserving any melons though. I know she would cut squash up and freeze it, as she would also can green beans, freeze corn on the cob, and the potatoes would be stored down in the basement in huge open wire crates. The floors down there were dirt and cool, therefore, it preserved the potatoes. We had potatoes all the way up until planting time in the spring.
We are getting a Panda Express at our local mall sometime in the next few weeks. I really like their food and I am pleased that I will no longer have to make a long drive to the next town over to order from their menu. Their Orange Chicken is great, I haven’t been able to find any other place that makes Orange Chicken quite the way that they do. Their prices are affordable as well, so it’s all good!
I guess I’ll have to try it for myself and see if they really fixed it. I’ve tried their pizza a few times and never liked it. My kids always liked it, but it was the novelty of having it delivered. I hope they managed to fix it so it tastes good now!
Something that is good about the holidays being over and done with are the left overs that flowing over in the fridge. I love turkey sandwiches with Swiss cheese on rye bread. And I can eat ham over and over for days at a time, speaking of ham, it’s dinner time, I’m outta here………
Well I hope your Christmas was filled with fun, friends, family, and food. We had a quiet Christmas this year. Money and the economy being what it is, we cut way back on our Christmas gifts. We had a big family gathering at our place though, and everyone brought some food to share. We had a good time sharing old family memories.
Thankfully everyone seemed to get along fine. With this family, you never know what is going to erupt when we all get together! I’m glad Christmas only comes once a year! I don’t think my poor wife could stand the stress if it came more often!