Loose Ends

With venison in the coolers on ice and soaking in a salt water solution. We start looking to making space in the freezer for our bounty. I found a cookie sheet of tomatoes which were the last of the season picked when the tomato rings were pulled up from the garden. So they went into the crock pot to cook down.

Before it gets too cold the last of the old hens were butchered. We timed that one well because when they were butchered none had eggs in them so they had all quit laying. There was no need to feeding them through the winter so they are going in the freezer as meat for casseroles and such. All that is left now are the younger hens that I raised this spring and the 2 roosters which we will keep until new ones are hatched next year. 

The broth will be frozen up for use in soups and I will use some for Thanksgiving preparations.

I found spinach on sale and ricotta cheese so I made up some stuffed shells to freeze. Some with spinach, ricotta and parmesan cheese.   

 Some just with cheeses

Those frozen tomatoes became sauce for the small batch of shells we had for dinner cooked with Italian sausage and topped with mozzarella cheese with a side of homemade garlic bread.

The remainder of the stuffed shells were individually frozen on baking sheets and then wrapped individually in clear wrap and then put into Ziploc bags and returned to the freezer. I can take out the number that I need depending on the number of diners. With homemade spaghetti sauce canned in jars to go over the top and venison Italian sausage this will be easy meals in the future. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter