Sunday Busy-ness

Almost every evening when I put away my stitching for the night, I think “I don’t have anything to do tomorrow so I can stitch all day.” That rarely happens but almost everything I do, I love doing so whether I’m cooking, canning, stitching, working in the garden . . it’s all fun and I enjoy it all. I think I should go to bed with anticipation of what tomorrow holds instead of trying to plan tomorrow.

This week, the weather and other activities kinda dictates the order in which I’ll be doing things.

Monday, the weather is supposed to be good. Speaking of good weather, today is sunny and 60 degrees! Can’t ask for better than that in early February. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, there are good chances (97%) of rain and/or snow.

Tomorrow the dirt guy will be here and I think Vince has a guy coming to help get started with a new antenna. I knew Vince would be busy and he won’t be available to help me (not that I usually need help!) so today he’s air frying a turkey.

It should be ready about 3:15. After we eat, Vince will pick the meat off the bone and I’ll save it in the fridge. I’ll roast the bones, then simmer them for a day or so in the crockpot. Once the broth is ready, I’ll can the turkey.

I boiled the liver, gizzard and heart for the dogs. I give them one or two pieces a day. I’m trying to train Oscar so that when I say “Crate”, he goes into his crate. I will say “Crate” and then put a treat inside it and, in theory, he goes in. He sometimes does and sometimes doesn’t. I thought these would be a special treat and might offer more motivation to go into the crate but no, he carried around a little chunk of turkey heart for half an hour. It was on the carpet, on the tile, in my chair. Everywhere I looked, I saw that piece of liver. I think he finally decided it was safe to eat. He’s such a weird little guy. He’s still afraid of everything – including foods he isn’t used to eating. I’m guessing he’ll probably always be afraid since he hasn’t gotten much braver than he was in the beginning. Rita, on the other hand, will gobble up anything you put in front of her . . no questions asked.

Next, there are three pork butts to be smoked – 24 pounds without the bones. I’ll be able to smoke them Monday before the rainy, cold weather moves in.

I needed to make more rub so I got all the seasonings out and dumped them (without measuring) on a piece of waxed paper. I rolled the butts, individually in the rub that’s on the waxed paper, then I folded the waxed paper over the butt so I could slip it into a vacuum seal bag without getting the inside of the bag greasy and messy (because then it wouldn’t seal), stuck the wrapped meat into the bag, removed the waxed paper, vacuum sealed them all. Then, started with a fresh piece of waxed paper, more rub sprinkled out and repeated the process. There were three large butts but two of them were too big for the vacuum seal bags, even after deboning, so you see five bags of pork butts in the tub below.

Thank goodness I have two sous vide gizmos and I don’t even remember why I have two of them. The two sous vide tubs barely fit into the laundry room sink. I’m always afraid to leave those tubs on the counter or on the floor since almost all our floor is either carpet or tile so I was glad they fit in the sink.

I will leave the pork butts cooking at 165 degrees til mid-morning tomorrow, then I’ll take them out, drain the liquid, but save it for adding to the canning liquid, add a bit more seasoning, stick them in the smoker for probably 4 or 5 hours. We’ll have pork butt, potato salad and baked beans for dinner tomorrow night. I’ll keep some out for leftovers but the rest will be canned when I can the turkey.

Since I had used all the pork butt rub from my pantry, and since all the ingredients were out from seasoning the meat, I went ahead and made more. I’ll need a bit more tomorrow to add to the meat before putting it in the smoker but it’s always good to have around.

Now, I’m going to sit and stitch til time to get the turkey out of the air fryer and get it carved.