The Birthdays continue

Today is Aunt Chery's birthday. The family wanted to go to Chili's, but I have tummy trouble, and didn't want to go. Some of you know that due to a serious case of E-coli poisoning 4 1/2 years ago, I cannot digest animal protiens found in red meat, poultry, dairy or eggs. It makes me extremely ill, with digestional distress, (you know what I mean) for about 3 days after exposure. I am manic about checking my food to be sure it is okay for me, and sometimes, well, I am not as diligent. Yesterday, I made a fabulous german chocolate cake for the birthday party held yesterday. I love cake batter, and I ate some from the bowl. Yes, there were 6 eggs in the large bowl of batter, but, even knowing I could get sick, I decided to chance it. If the cake is baked, it doesn't bother me so much, but raw eggs are really bad. So, in Walmart, (yes, I went back again today with Becky and Aunt Cheryl) I was looking around, and a horrible cramp hit me, with the most disasterous urgency to make it to the ladies room. I was very sick, and couldn't understand why. I carry pills for this, but they were in the car, and I sat in the ladies room getting really angry, because there was no reason for me to be so ill. After a while, I began to feel better, and went out to continue to look around. WHAM! Hurry, hurry, I had to go again. Now I am really getting mad, because I had eaten nothing today to affect me. Then, I remembered, the cake batter. Now, I did not just tast the batter, but got a big ole honkin' spoonful. After that, I licked the beaters and fought Kayliegh for the bowl.

When I came home from Walmart, I was feeling just awful, but I remembered that I had two turkeys that I had thawed so that I could home can them. It came to about 34 lbs of turkey, and they were already thawed out, so, I had no choice but to get to work. By the way, the turkeys were free, one from Jessica, and one from Nanamee, given at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those turkeys were so much work, cutting them up and then cooking the pieces, and I had to use the biggest pot I owned so that I could do it all at once. I put the birds on simmer, and went to lay down, but I fell asleep for 4 hours. I awoke with a sense so panic, something had to be done, but what? Then, I smelled the turkeys and ran into the kitchen. There they were, simmered to perfection and waiting for me. My stomach hurt, and I didn't want to continue, but I had to. I asked the Gentle Giant if he would help me cut the meat from the bones, and to my surprise, he said yes. We sat at the table with Aunt Cheryl, and deboned both those turkeys, sneaking scraps to the dogs, and getting ready to bottle the meat. My niece came down and asked what we were doing, and I put her right to work. She enjoyed learning about home canning, and I enjoyed the help. When I went to start the pressure cooker to seal the bottles, Aunt Cheryl asked why I was starting at that time. She reminded me that we only had 40 minutes to be a the restaurant for her birthday, and I told her that I would stay home (using my tummy for an excuse). She told me if I didn't go, she wasn't going. So, I went. We went to Chili's, and the whole family was there and we took up 5 tables, end to end. The poor waitress was very good, but there was just too much going on at once, and all the orders got screwed up. She kept running back and forth trying to correct everything, but it was the fault of the kitchen for not getting her orders right. Finally, Jessica spoke to the manager, who was a friend of mine from college! He aplolgized, and comped the whole table! Hundreds of dollars, and it was free! That was really nice, and anyway,after I got there, I began to feel hungry, and I enjoyed my veggie burger, so I was really glad I went. Everyone told stories about Aunt Cheryl, and we all laughed and laughed. Tonight, as I write, the pressure canner is going, and I have to wait for 90 minutes until the jars are done. I am glad to have time to write, with nothing else to do except wait for the canner to be done. I feel very accomplished when I continue to stock my food storage, if I keep on like this, I will have a year's supply in no time. I am glad that I listened when Heavenly Father prompted me almost two years ago to get food stored. I didn't know why then, but now I know it was because we would be facing unemployment. Oh, and the girls and women in the family are interersted in home canning, and that is another plus. They too, will be ready when the time comes for them to stock their own food storage. Until then, as long as they continue to give me items to process and store, I will do it for all of us!