This morning I started to can the Burritos in a Jar. I knew I had everything I needed . . but I didn’t know that some of it was already packed and neither of us had a clue where it was.
Where’s the Rice?
I buy rice in a 10 pound bag and I always have at least two extra bags on hand. Pre-Covid, I kept one extra bag but then rice got hard to find and we have rice almost every day. I knew there were two 10 pound bags in the sewing room because probably Tuesday, I took them out of the freezer to make room for okra.
When I got the bag out in the kitchen, there wasn’t much left in it. No problem. I walked over to the sewing room . . Vince, where are the two bags of rice that were right here? He had packed them “at least a week ago”. No way because I didn’t even get back in town til Monday and I took them out of the freezer on Tuesday. I guess the look on my face showed a bit of panic because I had already started filling the jars. He went to the store (which he loves to do). Did he get one 10 bag of rice? No. Two? No! FOUR – that’s 40 pounds of rice and he’s the one telling me that every pound we pack costs money. He said “You can take two of them to MO.” Fine but I already have two in Missouri. I didn’t even tell him that. I just said “Thanks!”.
The Wind!
I can on the front porch because our house is so small and when we’re sitting in the living room, we’re about 10 feet from the kitchen and that canner making noise for 90 minutes about sends me over the edge. I always check the wind before starting to can because no matter which direction it’s blowing, it seems to draft around that porch and interferes with the flame and sometimes blows the flame completely out. There was no wind so it was a good day to do the canning outside.
No sooner had the canner gotten up to pressure and the wind started blowing. It blew the flame out twice! I said “Vince, I need help blocking the wind.” He said “I don’t control the wind!” WHAT?? I stacked up everything I could find – totes, boxes, big rugs . . trying to block the wind. I managed to get through the 90 minutes without the flame being blown out but I had to sit out there and knit and watch it to be sure the process was working.
Locked Out:
The icing on the cake . . I was sitting out there knitting. Vince came out with Rita and asked how much longer I had to babysit the canner. I looked at my phone – 4 minutes!
Then he went back in with Rita and I didn’t know it but he locked the darned door. The canner finished. I turned everything off. Grabbed my knitting to go back inside. Got to the door . . locked! I could see Rita standing at the other door, which told me Vince had just walked out that door. I yelled “VINCE!! VINCE!!” Nothing.
I had no shoes! I was out on the porch barefooted. To get to the other door, I had to walk through grass burr infested weeds. No! I looked around for something I might use and briefly felt like I was a Naked and Afraid Contestant.
There was a 5 gallon bucket and a stainless bowl on the porch so I tried putting one foot in the bucket and one foot in the bowl and sliding my feet but I must have exceeded the weight limit for the bucket because the bottom shattered. Sun does that to plastic . . so it might not have been the weight. That’s what I’m telling myself.
I found two boxes on the porch so I put one foot in each box and I was going to slide my feet along but they had been there forever and one of them came totally unglued so I opened the other one and planned to put one foot on one, the other foot on the other, then put both feet on one and move the one behind me in front of me and keep doing that til I got to the front of the house but then the wind blew the small box off to where I couldn’t get to it and there wasn’t much I could do with one box.
Vince had a pair of leather gloves on the table that he uses with the pizza oven. I thought I might could put my feet in them and slide my feet along but they were full of dirt dauber nests. Then I decided to do like I had planned to do with the boxes . . step from one glove to the other and then move the behind glove ahead. That worked. I made it to the front of the house and was able to go in through that door. I put my shoes on and went to the sewing room where Vince was working. I wasn’t happy. I said “You locked me out!” I explained how I had to get around to the other door and he said “You should learn to wear shoes all the time!” That wasn’t what I was wanting to hear. Sorry would have been nice.
Give Me That Screwdriver!
I’ve always kept a heavy duty flat head screwdriver out by the canner because the lid sticks sometimes. The screwdriver was nowhere to be found. I said to Vince “Do you know where the screwdriver is that I sometimes use to open the lid?” No .. but he went and found another one. The All American canner has these little tabs that kinda lock in place when you turn the lid to close it and then it moves out of the locking position when you twist the lid but you can’t open the lid til you twist it to the unlock position. Vince had taken the screwdriver, taken the screws out of those locking mechanisms and removed them! Why? He thought that’s how you opened the lid. NO! You twist the lid and then they’re in the unlock position. He put the little tabs back on . . all is well.
Canning was so much easier when he worked . . I never got locked out and I never disassembled the canner to get it open! 🙂
Teri says
Oh my — what an ordeal! Hope the burritos in a jar are super delicious and worth all this!
Dottie Newkirk says
So sorry……sounds like a Murphy’s Law kind of day.
Paula Nordt says
We call my husband “Chief of Homeland Security “. He is constantly going around locking the doors. I told him if he locked me out one more time, I would find some way to make him pay dearly.?
Judy Laquidara says
It usually isn’t a problem because we have the push button code lock on all the doors except the one Vince locked today and if it weren’t for the grass burrs and me not having on shoes, I could have just walked around to the other door. We really are going to have to come up with a plan in MO so one of us doesn’t get locked out there.
Marilyn Smith says
I think it is time to stop canning and freeze drying veggies. Just eat out of your freezer or what canned goods are not packed. If the first truckload is being moved in Oct., I would imagine you would be there for the unloading. I hope you have a freezer to put your food into and will be cold when you arrive.
Judy Laquidara says
Nope. No freezer in MO. Can’t find one to buy . . freezers have been in short supply since March. I’m not going to stop freeze drying the veggies from the garden because I want to save them. Vince said he’d rather move full jars than empty jars so . . we’ll get it all done. There will be another moving truck later so whatever doesn’t make this trip will make the next trip or . . we don’t really need it.
Doreen says
I’m not sure that that method is worth the potential risk….https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/safefood/2020/06/09/say-no-to-dry-canning/
Judy Laquidara says
I pretty much follow USDA and education canning sites and I’ve never done any dry canning. I will vacuum seal beans, rice, etc. in jars and have never had a problem but those things are pretty easy to smell and see if they’re still good. I never quite understood the purpose/effort to dry canning.
Pauline Kennelly says
Judy, I recently discovered dry canning dry foods like rice, beans, flour, pasta, corn meal, etc in the oven!
Basically, for quart jars it’s a 250? oven for one and a half hours. Put your lids in a pie pan in the oven for
the last 10 minutes. Remove and seal jars one at a time and they are good for 30 years! So easy. No worry
about botulism and space I used in the freezer for flour is now free for meat etc.
Judy Laquidara says
I’ve never thought dry canning was a great idea. I prefer to put those type items in jars, add an oxygen absorber and maybe a bay leave or two and vacuum seal them. Even better – pour the contents in big (really big) mylar bags, add oxygen absorbers, squeeze out as much air as possible, seal the bags. Then put them in 5 gallon food safe buckets with gamma seal lids. Rice and flour is not going to keep for 30 years (and I doubt it will dry canned either). Wheat that can be ground into flour will keep much longer than already milled flour. Rice will keep much longer in vacuum sealed jars.
Carolyn says
What a story! Nothing is easy! Soon all of this will be over and you’ll be settled permanently in your new home and Texas will just be a memory. Your Sharon shawl is beautiful!
Kathy C says
o my gosh – what a day! My husband routinely locks me out in the backyard, to the point I had to put a note on the lock/handle to remind him to NOT lock the door when I’m still outside.
Joyce says
What an ordeal! I will admit I was laughing at your attempts to get to the other door without shoes! I hope the burritos in a jar are extra good. You will be thinking about the whole ordeal every time you open a jar.
Judy Laquidara says
Probably not til you said it! 🙂 Now, you’re right. I will remember all I went through to get inside the house every single time I open a jar!
Mary says
Sorry,but that was hysterical. I’m glad no one was physically hurt in the process.
Nelle Coursey says
WOW I hope you two survive this ordeal! I know you will, but it may not seem like it now!
Judy Laquidara says
You’re right. It seems like, at the moment, that we may not survive! I know we will but we are so tired.
Twyla says
James left to go to the dr and locked the door. I was outside in my gown watering my plants. Thank goodness we have a key hidden outside. Just had to think a minute to remember the good hiding place.
Karen says
Maybe you could get Vince to add a door bell to the back door at the MO house? That would save you from having to bang to get his attention.
Judy Laquidara says
That happened in Texas where two of our three doors do have push button/combo locks. We’ve ordered one of those for MO too. But, since I was at the door that didn’t have it in TX and since the grass burrs are so bad and I was barefooted, I couldn’t get to the door I could open and go in.