Product recommendations

I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon when something new comes out. It took me a long time before I decided to buy an Instant Pot. It was after Sheila and Mandy had talked about how much they enjoyed theirs, and Crystal H. posted that they were on a good sale that I decided to get one. It is now one of my most used small kitchen appliances! I love how you can use it to saute, slow cook AND pressure cook. Plus it is great for making yogurt. It is also supposed to be good for proofing bread, although I haven't tried that yet. I love an appliance that is so versatile! The main thing with the Instant Pot is getting over your nervousness about using it and just dive right in. The internet has a ton of recipe ideas for it! I subscribe to one blog that is dedicated to cooking with Instant Pots. She has a lot of helpful hints and well as recipes for pretty much everything! If you want to check out her blog, here's the link: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/category/cooking-method/instant-pot/.

The one small appliance that I resisted buying the longest, though, is a vacuum sealer. I can kick myself for putting it off! I finally bought one around the first of this year, and I use it pretty much everyday! I'm either sealing up leftovers for putting them in the freezer or heating up something in them that I had previously frozen. Cooking for two means we have a lot of leftovers! Dennis has never been a big fan of eating leftovers, which is weird to me. He is one of the most boring eaters I know. He has a few things that he really likes and will eat them every day if given the chance (grilled cheese sandwiches, fried eggs, tacos or enchiladas to name a few). But if I cook something for supper, he doesn't want to eat it again for a week or more. So my vacuum sealer saves the day (or the food)!

I have also been preserving the fish that Dennis has been bringing home using my vacuum sealer. I have yet to cook any of the fish, since he is bringing home a mess every week right now. I'm cooking a batch and freezing the rest. The bags hold 2 bream each, which is about a serving for us. So when I am ready to use them, I'll just take out what I need to thaw. They ought to thaw quickly too, since they are a single layer. SO much better than the blocks of ice that we used to freeze fish in! (Those things would take all day to thaw!)

The thing that I really enjoy about it is that one day every week (sometimes two), I just rummage through my leftover basket in the freezer to find something for supper and heat it in a pot of boiling water. Super simple meal! No big mess to clean up either!

So if any of you are worse than I am about putting off buying kitchen gadgets, I really recommend that you get a vacuum sealer! I don't think you'll regret it.

We need to be more like Granny

You hear a lot of complaining these days about having to prepare all of our meals at home and not being able to get out and “do” things. I hate to admit it, but I’ve been guilty of it, as well. Then when I think about my Granny, I feel ashamed of myself and our society as a whole.

Granny ALWAYS fixed three meals a day. She and Granddaddy just didn’t go out to eat. Every great once in a while, they might go get a hamburger. Occasionally, one of their kids would take them out to eat Mexican food or fried catfish. But I’m talking less than a half-dozen times a year, total! Not only did Granny prepare all of their meals, she always washed AND DRIED dishes after every meal. No letting the dishes air-dry for her! She dried and put away every dish. Then she took the rinse water, which was collected in a plastic (at least in my time) dish pan, and watered her flower beds with it.

Granny never learned to drive. So, if she needed something from the grocery store (which was about a mile from her house), she either had to wait for Granddaddy to take her after work or walk. Needless to say, she made the most of her shopping trips. Other than that and going to church 3 times a week, she didn’t get out much…unless someone was needing to be taken care of (like us when Momma was sick and in the hospital). She didn’t really have much time for getting out anyway. She was busy keeping house, mowing the grass (pretty much for the whole block), tending to her garden, taking in ironing, taking care of grandkids and/or the two foster children she took in. In her “free” time, she was sitting at the kitchen table or telephone desk, with her magnifying glass in one hand and her bible in the other. (She did like to listen to “Swap Shop” on the radio while she ironed!)

I spent a lot of time with Granny. As I mentioned, she often came to take care of us when we were younger and Momma was down. I spent as much time as I could in the summertime at her house. Plus every holiday was spent there…along with all of the other cousins and aunts and uncles. In all of that time, I can’t ever remember her complaining about having to cook all of the time or about not being able to get out and around.

Even though Granny was special to all of our family, she was pretty typical for women in her generation. They worked long hard hours and stayed at home most of the time. They lived for serving others…their families, in particular. They exemplified the Proverbs 31 woman. Even though “times have changed”, people still have the same basic needs and wants. Society may have convinced us that we deserve more out of life than our grandmothers (or great-grandmothers) had, but do we really? Is it really so bad to stay home and take care of our families? Do we really need to spend so much of our time on entertainment and other pastimes? Do we really need to be served, rather than serving others?

This was just running through my mind today as I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch. Thought I’d share it for your perusal. As Ricky would say, “Take it or leave it. It’s your life. Do what you want.”