Mason Jar No Spill Drinking Glasses

Making a pickle jar and mason jar into fun summer or wedding glasses is very easy.

They are my hubby's favorite glass to use. Although in the summer one may choose to have a cover on their drink to keep it cold and keep the bugs out.

You can use mason jars with the lids and rings or you can use pickle (or any grocery) jar with a lid that screws back on nicely.

Quarter inch grommets are the best for this purpose. I took a pickle jar washed it out and pushed a screwdriver carefully through the top. Then I fanagled  the grommet through the whole. Quarter inch grommets fit straws perfectly and protect everybody from sharp edges. Next step is to fill with an icy summer drink and off we go!

Homemade Dog Food

Today we are making turkey tetrazzini with our Thanksgiving leftovers. We are also getting some beef jerky marinating overnight AND we are making dog food.
Please note I am not a vet or a doctor. Should you decide to make your own dog food you should check with your veterinarian.
Our crazy rescued dog has a sensitive stomach and we get dry dog food made for sensitive stomach dogs. We supplement his dry dog food with a good sized scoop of homemade soft food. I like the soft food because he likes it, because it is homemade, and because it is usually poultry and rice heavy which helps his stomach. I like to can it because we then have many cans in the house should we get snowed in. Plus it uses leftovers that I normally wouldn't know what to do with.
I have a gallon sized freezer bag going at all times in the freezer. I fill it over time with egg shells, chicken carcass, and left over vegetables and meat scraps.
When we have enough stuff to make a batch of dog food then we defrost it the night before.
We put it all in the pressure canner with broth and a few cups of brown rice and we pressure cook it for 90 minutes. This cooks it enough so that even the bones become soft and it can all go through the grinder. I check the bones to make sure they break easily when pressure with a spoon. I take out any large bones that don't break.

We grind it as soon as it is not screaming hot. I use my KitchenAid with the KitchenAid meat grinder attachment. Grind away and then put it in pint size canning jars. It should still be pretty warm. 

Getting ready to push on the bone to make sure it breaks easily.

Leave a very generous inch of head space because the rice still expands even though its already cooked. We also add broth at this step to help fill in the air holes. Notice in the photo that we use a skewer to poke through everything to eliminate even more air holes.

Wipe the rims with paper towel dipped in vinegar. Place hot lids on Pint Jars and tighten the lids finger tight.  We treat this as cold pack and put it in the Pressure Canner with warm water and heat the water and cans together.
I want to point out here that this is "rebel" canning and does not follow approved canning methods. Experienced canners can make their own decisions on when they can stray from approved methods at their own risk.
I process at 15 lbs for 75 minutes. Follow the times and weights for your elevation and times for meats.

Ready to Pressure Can

Body Butter

Tonight I am making more Body Butter. We had included it Christmas gift baskets and it got wonderful reviews! I love this stuff. It is clean and full of moisture and has no chemicals so skin drinks it in.

2 cups Cocoa Butter
1 cup Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
1 cup Almond Oil
3 tbsp EMU OIL (optional)
White clover infused olive oil
Essential Oil of choice

Melt the shea butter and coconut oil together. The best method for this is to melt them in a double boiler or set a quart sized canning jar in a sauce pan and boil the water. Once the oils melts, remove from heat and let sit for 1/2 hour to cool.
After the half hour, add the almond oil and emu oil if you have it. The emu oil can be left out. This is also the time to add your essential oils. I chose cinnamon bark for this batch.

Put it all in your mixer bowl and put in freezer for 30 minutes. This jump starts the set.

Whip until the mixture feels buttery. I used my KitchenAid Mixer with Wire Whisk . While mixing, if it clumps too much or is just sticking to the wisk, you add infused olive oil one tablespoon at a time until it literally reaches the consistancy of butter. I chose white clover infused olive oil that I have going on my windowsill at all times. If you don't have infused oil, you can use regular olive oil or even more almond oil. Just be sure to add conservatively. You can see how it peaks off the wisk in the photo.

And that's it. You have body butter that is creamy and feels wonderful on your skin. You can store in glass jars and they make wonderful gifts. I store mine that I keep in empty coconut oil jars.

Creamy like butta on the mixer whisk.

Use any essentials oils that you like. These were my choice for today.

Homemade Body Butter.