Tag Archives: depression

Journal

Finding Clarity Through Tears: A Personal Story

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I have no idea what happened today. I woke up at my normal time, got everything done to make sure my husband wasn’t late for work, and did my meditation. It was supposed to storm all day today so I started watching blooper reels from the show “Supernatural,” It was a great start to what was going to be a wonderful day (I even had a topic ready for the blog)! Then this extremely dark cloud descended on me. I did my best to work around it. I started reading my next book (I just received my first Kindle on Wednesday) but it turned out I needed to read another one first. So, I grabbed that one but barely got through the first chapter (I could not keep my eyes open).

Thankfully, my son came over to visit or I would have been passed out on the couch and not sleep tonight. By the time my husband came home from work, I was in tears. What was I crying about? I have no idea and not being a crier makes it that much worse. I got angry because not only was I crying but I hadn’t written all day, had barely finished half my water, and it turns out it did not rain all day (so I could have actually done something outside).

I decided to relieve my husband of my company and go feel sorry for myself in the shower. I cried some more, then sat there envisioning the dark gunk inside me just washing down the drain. By the end of my “cleansing” this is the song that was rattling around in my brain:

I wish I could say the darkness is 100% gone but it is still sitting there just beneath the surface. Days like today rarely happen any more now that my kids are adults (and not quite so adversarial) but man, when they do it really sucks. I would love for every day to rainbows and sunshine but I guess we need the occasional rainy day so we can truly appreciate those sunny ones.

Canning, Dinner, Food Storage, Low Carb, Lunch, Preserving, Pressure, Recipe, Supplies

Homemade Corned Beef

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I can’t believe I didn’t post about this!  I made homemade corned beef last year, leaving out the sugar and the pink salt, and it was fantastic!  I thought, well, I could make this, then can it so I know exactly where it came from and what was in it.  I haven’t gotten around to canning this because it usually doesn’t last that long!

Anyway, if you are interested (I wanted to see if I could and I did), here is how I did it:

Print Recipe

Homemade Corned Beef

Author: brendanolen Cuisine: Courses: ,
Difficulty: Beginner
Servings: 12

Description

It’s so much easier than I thought!

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. To Cure:

    Mix all of the other ingredients, ensuring the salts dissolve.

    Remove as much fat as you want, leaving a minimum of roughly 1/4 to 1/8 inch.

    Place your meat and the brine in a container that will allow the meat to remain submerged. Submerging the meat is key to proper curing. Exposure to air introduces bacteria. I prefer plastic freezer bags. This allows me to actually remove all of the air and turn the meat with less mess.

    Place the container in the refrigerator for a minimum of 5 days, with 7 being preferred. Turn once per day. Now, it’s ready to cook or freeze.

     

  1. To Cook:

    Place the meat in a large pot along with enough hot water to cover it by at least 1″ and put the lid on. Turn the heat to medium, bring to a low simmer and keep it simmering for 30 minutes. If you boil it, it will get tough and shrink. Beware that the meat is cold, so when it warms the water will slowly move from simmer to boil. Keep an eye on it and try not to let it boil.

    After 30 minutes, dump out the water and cover 1″ over the meat with fresh hot water. Bring to a low simmer again, this time for 3 hours or until it is fork tender. Keep the meat submerged with a small plate.

    For Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner, remove the meat and let it rest. Now add sliced carrots, potatoes, and cabbage to the cooking liquid. Simmer until the carrots are tender.  

    Slice the meat across the grain and serve.

Keywords: corned, beef, brisket, pastrami, home, made

And here is how to can it (ever since I canned that chicken, I prefer raw canning meats):

http://canninggranny.blogspot.com/2011/05/canning-corned-beef-brisket.html

There you go!  Give it a shot (even if you only do one).  It really wasn’t as difficult as my brain said it would be!

Garden

Great Depression Cooking with Clara

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I hope and pray that all those that can are preparing for the growing season. Now is the time, especially with the state of our nation. I see this time as a combination of rationing during World War II and the Great Depression. If we do not now take care of ourselves as much as possible, there may be no one there who can (or will). Even if all you have is a giant pot of dirt, plant something. Ask a friend who has a yard if you can utilize some of their land for growing food in exchange for a share of it (or a share of the prepared food). We need to do this if we are to survive the coming financial storms. Oh, and just so you know I am not even close to being a great gardener (like Gladgrower), I’ll take a few pictures of my house and yard when it stops raining (I won’t even clean up the mess my dog made of a bag of cans). It was bad this past year. I am to change that this year!

On that note, I found the neatest website! It’s called “Depression Cooking with Clara”. She has some You Tube videos of some dishes her mom made when she was growing up.