Thanksgiving Week

Planning Ahead & changes

I MEANT to write this yesterday. But plans change- grin 🙂

I’ve learned over the years to do things ahead when hosting a big meal or event. When each of our sons graduated from high school, we hosted a large open house and had plenty of food for everyone. So I learned from someone else (maybe my sister-in-law) to make some things a few days ahead of time. Huge batches of sloppy joes, and even Mac and cheese were made ahead of time. To save refrigerator space, I stored them in gallon zipper bags, which stacked up and stored very compactly in the fridge (I know plastic isn’t the best choice, but they hadn’t made silicone bags back then).

Nowadays, hubby & I watch a lot of YouTube in the evenings and I enjoy quite a few homesteaders. One of my favorites is Ruth Ann Zimmerman of “Homesteading with the Zimmerman’s”. She and her husband were born & raised Old Order Mennonite (very similar to Amish). Early in their marriage, they heard the gospel and became Christians. They now live using modern conveniences, but raise their children to work hard & be responsible people.

She shares some of the recipes she grew up with and one I plan to try (and meant to make yesterday) is a make ahead mashed potatoes.

Hopefully I’ll get to it today as well as maybe make a pie.

Mennonite Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

The fat from the butter, sour cream and cream cheese help frozen food keep its consistency after freezing

9 med-lg potatoes

1 t salt

1 c sour cream

4 oz cream cheese

4 T butter

2 t onion powder

1 t salt

Peel, cut into even sized pieces,

cook in salt water until fork tender. Potatoes should easily fall apart when pricked with fork.

Immediately strain all the water off. Cover with a cloth 5-10 minutes so the steam can be absorbed by the cloth.

(letting the potatoes sit in water will make them turn gummy) Even if you strain the water off and let them set in

their steam they have a tendency to turn gummy)

Mash the potatoes on low speed until they are smooth,(once you add

ingredients to the potatoes you wont be able to whip them any smoother)

Dont overmash. Dont use high speed- use longer time to get them smooth.

Once smooth, add butter, sour cream & cream cheese.

Also add optional onion powder or ranch, if desired.

Add some peices of butter on top before freezing or baking.

Refrigerate for up to 7 days, bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until hot all the way

through.

Or freeze for up to a month. Defrost in refrigerator for 12-24 hours then bake at 350F for

45 minutes.

I have also heated these in the slow cooker on Med/Low until they are hot. Figure

approximately 60-75 minutes

Wiggle wire channel

In one photo above you’ll notice the piles of bags of leaves I’m collecting! (Also remains of last years protective plastic) I need the leaves for the chicken run. We’re looking for ideas of how to store those in a nicer looking manner- both for the neighbors, and for ourselves. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments if you have some.

This past January we had just put our chickens (young chicks)out in their coop & run. It turned bitter & very windy, so they didn’t want to go outside much. My nephew helped me get some plastic and staple it over all the mesh openings of the run. Boy, did the chickens love that! There were a couple of places left uncovered for ventilation; but it made such a difference that they were back out there most of the time.

Hubby is always looking at how to take care of things so materials we build with last longer, as well as look nice. So we were brainstorming ideas of how to cover the run each winter without putting new staple holes in the wood every time. Plus, could we find a way to make the plastic look less junky.

He is creative & always thinking outside the box. We’d also recently assembled my greenhouse (Hoophouse) kit using special channelled metal that you stretch plastic over and fasten it to the channels with a sort of zigzagging thick wire frequently referred to as “wiggle wire”. So his idea was to put channel around the panels of the run and use wiggle wire. It would look nicer, and it would make the plastic reusable since it wouldn’t rip out from staples when the wind was strong. He was concerned with how the run would look in summer when you could see those channels attached. I suggested putting it all inside- and that hatched our plan.

A few weeks ago, we purchased the channel & wiggle wire & plastic from the Mennonite business we’d gotten the greenhouse from. But other things in the schedule prevented us from working on installing it.

Hubby had taken this whole week off work. Yesterday, the weather was supposed to be the warmest of the week, but initially there was a high chance of rain. When we woke up yesterday, hubby checked the weather and we had until late afternoon before rain! So everything else (particularly indoor stuff) was put aside so we could focus on this project!

Our grandkids’ school has off this whole week, so I went & picked up our almost 12 yr old grandson to help us. Hubby is working on training him to be a worker, helper and the value of working for money. So he came to help for the day. Hubby taught him safety and handling & gave him the chance to cut the metal channel with the angle grinder. After we’d measured and written down all our measurements, we ended up doing an assembly line to be the most efficient.

Hubby cut the pieces and pre drilled screw holes, grand-cub #1 filed the inside cut edges and I filed the outside of the cut ends. Then we went out and installed the channel. In between some cutting & installations we took a break for lunch. We got all the channels installed, but had forgotten to stop at the store for bolt cutters to cut the wiggle wires to length (so we can avoid the angle grinder & all the filing). Consequently, the plastic is not yet installed. Hopefully today or tomorrow that will happen.

Next we did some MUCH needed cleaning out & reorganizing of our shed! Sadly, there wasn’t time to play croquette with grand-cub #1 as I’d agreed to, by the time his dad came for him. But he did get paid well for his work & time and is excited that he now has enough money for a Lego set he’s been saving for.

After they left, we swept the garage & straightened up the mess. Then, while it was still warm, I put out Christmas lights on the shrubs out front. Then we went & got the bold cutters as well as some things for dinner- then we crashed for the evening to a Christmas movie.

It was a long, but productive day! It feels good getting these bigger projects off the to-do list!

Now on to making these mashed potatoes!

What are you making for Thanksgiving or planning ahead for?