Somehow, even though I sometimes think I am so very smart that I already know everything there is to know about, I dunno, canning and cooking and Thanksgiving, I keep finding out that there's very very cool stuff that I didn't know already.
And learning this cool new stuff is like getting a present wrapped up in a bow, except without the wrapping -- which is of course is even better, because that means it's a no-trash present. Yay for learning new stuff!
Here are three delightful (to me) things that I learned recently.
1. Inverted turkeys.
Cook a turkey upside down for the first two hours; then turn it over and cook it right-side up for the rest of the time. That way, the legs don't get all burnt, and the whole thing cooks really evenly and beautifully. How could I have cooked turkey all these years and not known that?!? It's like magic.
2. Vegetable centerpieces.
Our flower team at church is really astounding, and just before Thanksgiving they did a beautiful set of arrangements that used a few flowers but mostly vegetables: kale, broccoli, squash, peppers . . . and I was so inspired I made my own version for the big feast day in my home.
I love that I can decorate with food that later on, I'll eat!
3. Milk glue.
For this, I totally have to thank my alter-ego grasshopper, who mentioned at a Zero Waste meeting we held a few months back that milk makes an excellent glue for sticking paper to glass. Man, was she right! This has transformed how I label my canning jars, my leftovers, the stuff we stick in the freezer.
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| Jars, with homemade labels held on with milk. Magic, I'm tellin' ya! |
My first thought on milk glue is how well does milk glue last? I can't help thinking of spoiled milk. (And when something ate into my home-made juggling balls to get to the rice.) Is there something magical about drying out between paper and glass that preserves it? Or is it just such a thin layer that nothing happens? Or does nothing bad happen the first year and after that, the point is moot? And then does the label come off easily when you want it to? My brain is very confused!
ReplyDeleteThe milk doesn't smell when it dries -- it's wet milk that goes sour and smells bad. I'm not a chemist, but I'm guessing that what makes it stick well is the small amount of natural sugar in the milk.
DeleteIn my experience so far (one month, so I don't have a year of data yet), the label comes off very easily when you want it to -- easier than tape or anything else that's sticky. I've started using it for labeling leftovers in the fridge. But we'll see how the year-old canning jars hold up, once I have some that are a year old!