Preserving Eating Spending

Who says that preserving your own food is cheap? I just bought four cases of pint jars and one case of half pint jars. I gave away about two cases of pint jars to friends when I gave away my tomato sauce. I've gotten a couple of them back, but it will be a while before everyone is done using them up. And in a couple week I have the massive job of pressure canning a lot of my sweet potatoes. I look at the photo and you know what I get excited about? The box. The only brand our local hardware stores sells is Ball and they don't have real boxes. I like real boxes because they stack easier.

Then my vacuum sealer gave up the ghost after 15 years. It was a cheap brand. It worked just OK. The vacuum wasn't really strong. So I bought myself a FoodSaver sealer. Well it turns out you can't use regular bags like my old one could. It needs better bags with little ridges on them so it can get all the air out of the bag. The vacuum is amazingly strong. I'm sure it get so much more air out of the bag. But the bags are not cheap. Using Ziploc freezer bags and cutting off the zip it cost me about $0.06 each. With and off brand bag that conforms to FoodSaver standards it will cost me $0.17 per bag. Ouch. Name brand ones are about $0.25 per bag. I'll find out if it was worth it after a couple of years.

I did a little preserving this week. I made up three jars of dilly beans. Except only one of them was dilly. Another used tarragon and the last used basil. I've never had dilly beans and figured I'd see which spice I like best. Right now I wished that I had tried rosemary beans since I have so much rosemary in the garden.

I'd been meaning to make veggie burgers for ages now. All the recipes online use nightshade crops which I can't eat. So I had to adjust. Last week at Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard, TS told me the recipe that she uses. It has oatmeal as the binder starch. I liked that. I wanted it more as oat flour though so I ground it up. I wanted to add more umami taste to the burger too and used mushrooms and soy sauce to help build that up.

Daphne's version of Bean Burgers

• T oil
• 1 c diced onion
• 1 1/3c chopped mushrooms
• 2 clove minced garlic
• 2 T soy sauce
• 4 t Worcestershire sauce
• t cumin
• 1/2 c oatmeal
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
• 2 T chopped fresh cilantro (if in season)
• 1 egg
• Pint jar of canned beans

Add oil, onions, and mushrooms to a saute pan. Cook until the mushrooms start to turn brown. Add garlic, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and cumin. Cook until the liquid evaporates.

In a food processor grind oatmeal until it is a course flour. Add salt, pepper, cilantro, and the onion mushroom mixture. Process. Add egg. Process until all blended.

Mash beans with a fork then mix in the contents of the food processor. Form into patties. Cook in a fry pan until cooked and brown on the outside.

So there are no peppers or tomato in my version. The beans, onions, garlic, and cilantro came from the garden. I topped it with mustard (sadly not mine yet), bread and butter pickles (from the garden), and pickled onions (from the garden). The bun was a home made 1/2 whole wheat bun with sesame seeds. When winter hits it will be a nice garden meal that I can still make.