What's That In Your Hand: 2/11/22

What's in your hand and what can you do with it?

Welcome to this week's “What’s That in Your Hand?’ edition where we strive to inspire you to focus on what you have to work with, not what you wish you had or hope to have in the future, but what you have right now ...

From time to time my husband’s job requires him to eat out or grab a sandwich on the go while out.  When he is given more condiment packages than he will use he brings them home and this is what I do with them … yep, I store them in jars and use them as needed!  (Ketchup, soy sauce, jelly, mustard, mayonnaise, etc)  What’s that in your hand?  

I had some ham bones that I was saving in the freezer, which were taking up quite a bit of room, so I got them out, put them in a pot, covered them with water, brought them to a boil, turned them down and let them simmer for a few hours.  The rest of the meat cooked off the bones and our dog got a treat when we took the spent bones out to him.

I used the last of a container of beef broth but before I threw the box away, I added about a half of cup of water to it, recapped it, gave it a good shake, then emptied the contents into the pot of beans I was cooking.  I was surprised to see that the water was a nice light brown color and it reminded me that this is a good way to get ‘all’ that I paid for from the container.  These beans and the ham mentioned above were turned into a delicious meal along with a side of collard greens. 

I had some dishcloths that were stained and had seen better days but instead of tossing them I just relocated them from where I keep my dishcloths to where I keep my cleaning rags.  Yep, those old, stained dishcloths are now being used for cleaning cloths.

I started fermenting a jar of garlic honey this week following the instructions in this video.  I plan to use it in cooking and in the vinegar and honey drink I enjoy for those times I’m not feeling too well.  

When prepping the garlic to make the fermented garlic honey I noticed that some of the garlic was just beginning to head in the wrong direction, so I chopped the most of it up and dehydrated it.  I left a few cloves in the refrigerator for cooking purposes but I will be sure to keep an eye on them for any kind of decaying.  If it does, I’ll either use the garlic immediately or chop and dehydrate the rest of it.

I washed zip-lock baggies in all sizes for the purpose of reusing.

I cut back my roses.  I try to do this in February every year along with fertilizing to get them off to a good growing season.  

I have gardening chores for every month of the year:  January is to inventory seeds and order any that are needed as well as plan as much of my garden as possible.  February is the month I start transitioning from inside gardening chores to outside gardening chores such as prepping roses for the upcoming growing season, pruning fruit trees, starting seeds, and cleaning up the yard from winter debris.  We’ll have more cold weather, but those warmer days are starting to creep in and are perfect for getting ahead in the garden and yard.

Another thing I did this week was to take a leisurely walk outside in the yard and garden and made a list of things that needed to be done or that I wanted to get done before gardening starts in earnest!  I’ll start working on that list as we enjoy those warm days mentioned earlier.

We mowed the yard for the first time this year!  It took as long to clean up the yard from winter debris as it did to mow it!

I had two small pieces of pork tenderloin left from a meal we didn’t eat in our buffet style ‘leftovers’ meal we have once a week.  I could have frozen and then added them to a future pot pie, etc but instead I opted to chip it up and add it to some BBQ we were enjoying.  It blended right in and was eaten!

I read a lovely post by Annabel over at the Bluebirds are Nesting on the Farm that really struck a chord with me.  In it she made the following statement, “She works to be prepared for problems before they arise”.   Head on over and read her post and tell her that A Working Pantry sent you, I just know you’re going to enjoy it!

I made valentine treats for the little people in our lives.  

Each treat cost approximately $1, everything else I already had on hand, and yes, the treat itself was purchased on sale!

We mailed Valentine goodies and treats to our grandchildren the first of February.  They got them this week! (not pictured) Our youngest grandchild loves to get mail and her mama is so good to do a video call with us when she opens G (grandma) & G (grandpa) mail.  I don't think I've ever seen a child gets so excited about receiving her own mail.  It's more than worth the cost of mailing packages to see her reaction!

I also made loaves of banana bread out of overripe bananas as valentine treats for some adults in our lives.  I'll package the loaves up in a pretty way before delivering them.

And finally, I've started updating my Goals 2022 page, check out what I ticked off the list this week!

That's it for this week ... look around you, how are you using your resources, your time, what’s that in your hand?

Until next time,

patsi

A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

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