Bottled Chicken and Fighting Oil With Oil

Today my husband and I tried our hand at bottling chicken.  The process was actually much easier than bottling veggies.  We bought 40 pounds of chicken but was only able to bottle 20 pounds because we didn't have enough bottles.  From the 20 pounds of chicken, we were able to get 19 pints bottled.  I ordered more bottles from our local grocery store and they will be in on Tuesday so I guess we’ll bottle more chicken in the coming week.  For the 20 lbs we bottled today, we thawed it in batches in the microwave for 7 and 1/2 minutes at 70 percent power.  After thawing and cutting it up, we put it in the bottles ready to be processed.




After processing for 75 minutes, our kitchen sure smells great.  I can honestly say that bottled chicken isn’t the prettiest looking but as long as it tastes good and it’s food storage, that is what matters.




Now comes my exciting part of the blog (anyways for me).  Through the process of canning chicken, I was browsing the internet when I came across this blog that stated that to get rid of grease on your stove, etc., you need to fight oil with oil.  I didn’t have much hope because my stove is very old and has literally taken a toll over many years of use.  It sounded very strange but I gave it a try.  I put a little cooking oil on a paper towel and scrubbed away.  After cleaning with the oil, I put some Dawn on a rag and wiped away all the oil.  I was totally amazed at the results.  I wished I would have thought to take a before and after picture but if you go to the first picture I posted in this blog, you can see how grungy the black part of my stove looks.  And now, just look at the difference it makes after cleaning it with oil.  It even got rid of all the little spots I have been working on forever.  My stove almost looks new again.

My New-To-Me Ford XLT

I took these pictures just on a whim and my husband thought I was crazy and now I’m posting them which makes me even more crazy.  I guess it’s what I do when my husband is out home teaching and I’m sitting here being a little bored.  You could say I’m a little bored and excited at the same time because I’m posting about my new (new to me) vehicle I bought this past weekend.  I’ve been looking for months for a new vehicles, an SUV to be exact.  When I went to Utah this past week I was looking on kslcars.com when I came across a Ford Explorer XLT……a 2006 with almost 100,000 miles.  My nephew (by marriage) works as a mechanic at the place that was selling the vehicle so I had him check it out before I got too excited.  He stated that it had never been a wreck, had all original parts, rode really nice and seemed to be an ok vehicle so I bought it.  Agh-h-h-h!  I hope buying an older vehicle with that many miles doesn’t come back to bite me.  It cost more than I make in a year so that in itself was a pretty scary purchase for me.  I did, however, pay extra to get a 100,000 mile, 5-year warranty.  Not far from home, my new vehicle turned to 100,000 miles.  I pulled off the road, which my husband thought a little strange, and took pictures.  Pictures from both sides of my vehicle, the front, and the actual mile gauge.  I know, C-R-A-Z-Y, but that’s the way my life is sometimes.  Have to entertain myself somehow!

Savior of the World

This past weekend, my entire family had the opportunity to travel to Salt Lake City and see the live play, Savior of the World, performed at the Conference Center Theater.  If you get the opportunity to witness this play, you will thoroughly enjoy it….very professionally done.  The following site gives you all the information in regards to days and dates to watch this play.  And here, you can read about the set/stage design, etc.  You need to order tickets early as they go fast.

Before the play, we went to see the new City Creek Center and the Salt Lake Temple Christmas lights.  All were within walking distance of the play.  An evening very well spent!

Wild Turkeys Photo Contest

I have entered a new photo contest through our local telephone company, ATC.  My picture of some wild turkeys has been added to a group of thirteen finalists for the chance of winning a Kindle Fire.  I would like all who view this blog to please go to the following site and vote on my photo: www.atcnet.net/calendar .  There is a very short time for voting.....November 20th thru November 30th, so please cast your vote today and invite all your Facebook friends etc, to vote too!  All you need to do once you go to the atcnet site is scroll down to the big 2013 ATC Photo Contest (red) box, look for the blue rectangle under that box that contains Vote Now.  Click on the Vote Now, find my Wild Turkeys picture and click on the green, Vote Now, box.  It's that simple so please Vote! - Thanks, Marsha
Here is what my picture looks like: