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February 27, 2022February 27, 2022

Soup Saturday

Regardless of world events, this has been a very weird week. As I’m writing this Sunday morning, it’s 40 degrees and raining. However, just four days prior, it was minus 3 degrees with three inches of snow on the ground and the wind was howling.

We’d just posted about the unusual spring-like weather, when an arctic cold front dropped onto Central Oregon. With it came freezing temps and snow. Mostly we just stayed home, sat by the fire, and caught up on our reading. So there’s nothing to post about, sorry.

We do want to share this image of chili getting canned as part of an ongoing winter canning project. We started making soups for Saturday dinner and that evolved into a canning project. Mostly . . . we wanted to get away from commercially canned soups that have shot up in price, have way too much salt, and are actually getting harder to find. Once you have the soup cooked it’s not that hard to load a few pints into the canner.

Over a steamy hot bowl of “Wendy’s Copycat Chili” we are planning next week’s adventures. There is rain forecast, but we’ve got some road trips mapped out. Enjoy your week!

Print Recipe

Wendy's Copycat Chili

Super easy chili recipe that is very tasty ...

Equipment

2 lbs ground beef
29 oz tomato sauce one large can
29 oz kidney beans 2 cans (15 oz)
29 oz black beans 2 cans (15 oz)
1 cup onions, diced 1 medium
½ cup diced green chili 1 small can
¼ cup celery, diced 1 stalk
3 med fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 tsp cumin
3 Tbsp chili powder Gephardts is our fave
1 ½ tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
2 cups water

Instructions

Brown the ground beef over medium heat, drain off the fat.
Using a fork, crumble the cooked beef into pea size pieces (a potato masher works too)
In large pot, combine beef, plus all remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over low heat.
Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2-3 hours.

Canning

As the chili simmers, prep your pressure canner and warm 6* pint jars and lids
After cooking for 2 hours, ladle chili into jars, clean rims with vinegar, set lids and screw on canning rings finger tight. Place canner lid and vent steam for 10 minutes. Bring pressure to 10 psi and hold for 75 minutes. Allow to cool naturally, remove jars, and let sit for 12 to 24 hours.
* If you don't plan to have a meal from this recipe, you can get 7 pints from a batch.

December 12, 2021December 11, 2021

Holiday Prep

This week we finally embraced the Christmas season. A couple of things keep full holiday regalia at bay in our house , . . the first is cats, the second is a lack of Santa believers. Yup, I finally gave up on the jolly old elf.

Seriously though, we did manage to find cedar garland, a wreath and a small tree that weren’t moments away from shedding their needles. Got the exterior decorated just before the snowfall started. And strung some tiny lights on the tree. Fire up the holiday play list, cue the snow, and let the season begin.

Jack and Tip exploring Big Bend on the Crooked River

The first part of the week was a trip to the Crooked River. Seemed like we were the only ones there. Perfect time to wet a line at an area that is usually filled with RV’s, trucks and fishermen. The river levels remain low, even for winter flows, but the fishing was good. There is a reason this spot draws a crowd.

Didn’t see any raptors, but spotted loads of magpies and robins.

Winter migration is in full swing and flocks of birds filled the trees. Tip had a great time roaming the bank and keeping us company. The sun even poked out a couple of times to take the chill off. However, it is definitely winter fishing season.

We don’t go full on holiday decoration anymore. A fullsized Christmas tree is out of the question as our cats do enough damage around here already. Not really the best idea to set up a climbing post covered in shiny, breakable orbs.

We settled for a live pine tree, potted and perfect for the counter. Outside we strung some garland over the front window, hung a wreath and trimmed them with a string of lights. It may not measure up to some lightshows in the neighborhood . . . but it is festive enough for us.

August 22, 2021August 20, 2021

Food Sourced Local and Fresh

During the last couple of months we’ve had to replace most appliances in our house. The result … better ‘fresh storage,’ as well as additional space in our fridge. In turn, this allows us to have more fresh fruit and vegetables on hand.

Since moving to Central Oregon we’ve not missed working in the garden … but we do miss fresh produce.

We’ve been looking for a CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture). CSA memberships are a great way to eat seasonally and connect with a local farm. Sure, there are local small “truck farms,’ but few of them offer subscription services. Farmer Markets in Bend are OK, but not dog friendly and are only open a few months of the year.

Carrots, beets, tomatillos, kale, and zucchini are part of this week’s box.

JQ found “Agriculture Connections” and it’s an ideal solution. This organization offers farm direct sales from a collective of area farmers. Their weekly, or bi-weekly boxes are available all year with seasonal market fresh vegies and fruit from different farms, most within 125 miles of Bend. Vegetables for each box are typically harvested the morning of delivery. It doesn’t get much fresher.

At the same time we’ve started to notice that other shortages are showing up at grocery stores. This pandemic has dropped a wrench in the supply chain.

Whoa, that isn’t a good look at the grocery store

Our interest in locally sourced foods lead us to a cattle ranch near Sisters, Oregon. The Sisters Cattle Company practices ‘regenerative grazing’, and is a great source for beef. Their IG stories and TicTok vids are entertaining and packed with information.

The addition of an upright freezer has made buying in quantity possible. It saves a bit of money, but more importantly, we get better quality food. We cut out a big chunk of an inefficient supply chain while supporting local agriculture.

We’re only a couple of weeks in, but so far we like the results. The Ag Connection is allowing us greater access to the local food distribution system. This is not buying into rhetoric from conspiracy theorists or SHTF preppers. As America’s market basket burns it seems like a perfect time to connect with a food supply that is closer to where we live.

July 18, 2021July 17, 2021

Smokey Days

Wildfires are burning all around us. This week instead of subjecting you to another appliance upgrade ‘update’, we’re just going to leave a picture of this morning’s sunrise on the AM walk. Yeah, it’s kind of smokey.

There are 600 acres burning on the eastern edge of La Pine, 4 houses were lost and a bunch of outbuildings. That blaze has a fireline around it. However, there are 6 thousand acres burning east of Sisters that still threatens homes up there. To the southeast of us is currently the largest wildfire in the western US. The Bootleg Fire is burning 220 thousand acres and remains very active.

A heat dome and the wildfires have kept us pretty much at home. Hope you’re doing better than us … though as the winds shift you don’t need to be close to a fire to still get covered with smoke.

This is an interesting web site to track not just fire activity but the smoke cover. We’ve seen a shift from good to poor air quality as the winds moved more westerly this last evening.

July 11, 2021July 10, 2021

It’s Was a Hot One

The past week was marked by record high temperatures in the PNW. As Oregon melts, we are in the middle of an appliance install project. A new laundry pair is in place. Kitchen appliances are ‘staged’ which means they exist somewhere in a wonky supply chain.

Mask wearing is only part of pandemic pain. Try buying a major appliance. We had to make choices around availability when it came to the pieces that really needed to be replaced. Even so, we are over a month on the first delivery and another 4 weeks (maybe) on the last.

Even just a LED makes laundry day a bit better.

The laundry (which is complete) was a big job as we had to repair some water-damaged dry wall. A process that evolved into pulling cabinets and a small counter off the wall which added to the repair work.

Sheetrock, mud and tape is not my strong suit but the job was small enough that we managed to end with a decent looking wall. New paint and shelves help camouflage imperfections in the patch work.

Paint was a big part but we also pulled up the vinyl flooring and put down tile. Setting floor tile is a bit more in my comfort zone. The room isn’t exactly square which made for some interesting ‘fitting’ moments, but we managed to lay down a nice new floor covering.

Now we wait on the delivery pipeline. The freezer side is more ‘just colder’ these days.