The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Prepping & Preserving Thanksgiving with The Canning Diva

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

We share some of our favorite Thanksgiving dinner recipes that make the holiday so special. The Canning Diva also discusses techniques to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner much easier to pull off and even what to do with all those leftovers!Check out more from Diane www.canningdiva.comThe Preppers Black Friday Catalog https://bit.ly/3M7wAk7Get Prepared with Our Incredible Sponsors! Survival Bags, kits, gear www.limatangosurvival.comEMP Proof Shipping Containers www.fardaycontainers.comThe Prepper's Medical Handbook Build Your Medical Cache – Welcome PBN FamilyPack Fresh USA www.packfreshusa.comSupport PBN with a Donation https://bit.ly/3SICxEq

Good morning, PBN family. We got the Canning Diva with us again. What's up, Diane? Hey, how's it going? I'm doing good. How are you? Oh, I'm doing great. So glad you could join us.

And the timing was epic. We were kind of figuring out, like, when do we bring you back on? And then it was just like, oh, duh, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, food, heaven. Yeah, right, prepping, canning, leftovers, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so here we are. Here we are. Currently we are, let me double check, make sure we're live over there on Instagram.

Sometimes they give me trouble. No, we are live on Instagram. We are live on Rumble and YouTube. And we're going to talk turkey carcasses and canning foods and prepping foods. And don't worry, I won't be a silent partner. in this thing, too. I've got a lot of experience. I cook the Thanksgiving dinner here and have since since we moved in, really, to be honest. Bravo. Oh, that's awesome. We definitely can, you know, share tips and recipes, all that. Yes, I want to, yes, I'm all in for swapping recipes. I'm not

all knowing. I mean, the more I learn and the more ideas I get, that's usually the, that's what gets the creative juices flowing, you know? Sure. Yeah. So maybe we start off with the, some of your favorite things personally, not to prepare necessarily, but, you know, what does the canning diva like to eat at Thanksgiving? Okay, so my favorite, and I'm doing this, my aunts are going to stay with me. Yeah, I know. I'm so excited. You know, they're both, oh, I shouldn't even say their age. They're not going to like that, but they're older. And we have some holiday favorites, and I'm happy that one of mine is one of theirs, and it's my stuffed mushrooms. So, So, yeah, that doesn't come from a jar.

I make these from scratch, but I get the really nice white, round, full white mushrooms. And then I mix together frozen spinach, obviously thawed. I use a spicy Italian sausage. Oh, man. Yes, diced, very finely diced onions, a ton of parsley, and then cream cheese. And I stuffed those mushrooms and bake them. I could eat that just for Thanksgiving and be happy. Jeez, cream cheese, Italian sausage stuffed mushrooms sound awesome.

Definitely. I know. So I'm going to make a double batch because I figured me and my aunties will probably enjoy munching on a few of those before we bring them to the Thanksgiving dinner. So I'm going to make a double batch of those. So that's probably my favorite. And then my other would be, I know a lot of people don't like Brussels sprouts, but if you try them this way, I guarantee you're going to love them. So you obviously clean up, prep all the Brussels sprouts, cut them in half.

And then I like to do the sauteed onions, fry up some bacon. I use pine nuts and then parmesan and Romano cheese and grade that. Ooh, yeah. And then bake it. You will love Brussels sprouts. after that's a great one you know yeah that's a great one i do a you're familiar with like a bake what a bacon lardoon is or a lardon a lardon yeah it's just like a little slice of like a plank small plank of bacon basically cut the bacon thick so we do the the bacon lardon we do the then saute

the halved brussels you know salt pepper time whatever and then finish it at the end with blue cheese. I mix the blue cheese in at the end. You can do walnuts, too. A little walnuts, yeah, yeah. See, we have the same thing. We just pick the different nuts. Yeah, we got the nuts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, that's a good. You know, I'll have to try that with some blue cheese. I hadn't, see. What about balsamic vinegar? Do you get into those? Sometimes people do it?

Yeah, I never, I mean, it's good with them for sure, but I never did it in that particular mix. the phoenix is in the chat room j fergus with us hey awesome yeah i um i think do you agree like it's the side dishes now don't get me wrong we love the turkey right yeah but and sometimes that's the only time i really eat a lot of turkey is is in november but the side dishes are so much fun and it's when those of us that truly enjoy food and creativity we get to have the most fun and fun little twists on on you know heirloon classics right like i mean the green bean casserole i mean we all laugh like we have to have it because we've had it our whole lives you know

what i mean that the portion size gets a little smaller and smaller each year yeah it's literally yeah this literally dish in this topic it got so funny that you bring it up yeah because it's it's one of those things that not many people that come even eat, but it's one of those things that I love to make because I really do it up. You know what I mean? No cream of mushroom. Like I do the, you know, reduce the mushrooms down. That's the whole thing. And it's, yeah, it's one of those, yeah, it's definitely one of those classics for sure. You know what my sister-in-law did that I just was, I was enamored with. I thought, oh my gosh, this is so amazing. She adds beans sprouts. to her green bean casserole

I was like I never thought of it at the end I guess yes because you think it's a little crunch yeah because it gives it just a little texture and I thought it was so good it was so brilliant so every so often I'll do that or dice up some water chestnuts to give it a crunch and add those towards the end

don't bake them in you know add yeah yeah everybody's throwing some things in in now about what they like squash cheesy casserole and sweet potato pie. Yeah, those are two winners. Those are two. When the Firewolf's Forge says deviled eggs, deviled eggs are great. They are great.

See, I'm a big fan of that pre-meal spread on the table. Like, I really love that, like, you know, a sliced Italian meats, good cheese, olives, crackers, you know, all that kind of stuff. Deviled eggs on the table before the meal, veggie trays, that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. That's fun. That's fun. Because usually it's like the in and out of the kitchen.

people talking and eating and yeah yes and i i remember that even as a child like my mom she always would put out like the the crudette and then she'd have like olives and pickles on a separate glass um entertaining tray yeah and my sister and i loved black olives we still do but she would have to purchase a second can you know for when for when the you know the guest came because her and my sister and I would be like sneaking and eating them you know oh for sure yeah that's what it's all those were expensive back then I remember my mom saying it these are pricey these like nothing like the uh nothing like the olives of today at the old olive bar man $20 a pound or whatever it is J. Ferg what is the relish tray I don't think I know what the

relish tray is in lightness tell me tell me in lightness on that one yeah there There's so much, though. There's so much. We do, you know, it's a really good one? We do like a whipped sweet potato with sliced almonds and, and, like, real vanilla and cream, like the vanilla bean halved into the cream and then, you know, mash it up with that. And that's one of those, like, decadent. Oh, absolutely.

Where do you get your vanilla beans? I use the vanilla bean king guys. I don't know where you purchased. I'm sure I get them from Amazon, probably. Yeah, yeah. Which is vanilla, the vanilla bean kings, I believe is the brand I love. But they, I get the Madagascar kind of, well, I make my own vanilla extract, you know, obviously. But yeah, just slicing one of those open and getting those, the bean seat out into like a paste and into the food.

I love the smell of the vanilla bean. You know what I mean? It's got that, it's got vanilla smell, obviously, but it's got something else to it. It's kind of like a musky kind of thing. Like an earthy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's nice.

That's a good one. You're making me hungry. Like, I'm got some of I shouldn't have eaten. Yeah, well, you know, that's kind of a show like this. It's how it's going to go, you know? Well, maybe a good place to start with sort of the informational side of things is kind of pre-prep stuff. You know what I mean? Like, what can people do ahead of time?

Right. Because I do a lot ahead of time, you know what I mean? at a time or even using your home canned goods. And that's why I was excited. Yeah, you have me on because there are some things that we might have prepped already earlier in the season when a particular fruit or vegetable was plentiful. And whether we put it in a jar or we froze it, dehydrated it, or even freeze-dried it, doing that ahead of time really does save time.

So, like, something of that nature would be cranberry sauce, right? Or even a cranberry jam. So as much as it's fun to make on the stove top, which I love, because it makes the whole house smell amazing because you're adding that citrus. Sometimes what I've done is when the cranberries went on sale after Thanksgiving or after Christmas, come January, I am creating cranberry sauce in a jar using my recipe, which I would love to show everybody. It's cramberry sauce. Yeah, definitely. Let's see the Canning Diva recipe. Yeah, let me show it to you. Yeah, let me show it to you. Super yummy. But I canned that up. And then, you know, when the holidays come

and we're all at the store. So there's my, there's my, I don't know if you guys can see that yet, But there's my cranberry sauce in a jar. Yeah, I just make it ahead of time when they go on sale. And usually it's about January. But you can see I also have, let me get you. It looks great. Oh, it's so good. But I use the fresh cranberries.

I sweeten it naturally using a little bit of the pineapple juice. Of course, I'm going to use some brown sugar. If you prefer it sweeter, you can scroll down and see you can also add some stevia. or you can add honey or maple syrup, whichever sweetness you, you know, prefer or want to capture. And then, of course, I do use two oranges. So there's quite a bit of citrus. Cranberries are obviously highly acidic enough on their own, but you want to balance that out. And so I, this is how I make it for the most part on the stove top.

And then I just give the instructions on how to go ahead and get it into a jar. and voila. Now you can put a pint size or a half pint jar, right? And that's one less thing that you have to create on the stove top. Or in my mind, remember how the cranberry jelly, was it ocean spray? And it would come out and it would be the shape of the can. You know, instead of purchasing that, which has, you know, preservatives, a lot of sugar. I got to have those.

I know. I know. I'm so bad with it. We did that ourselves, but if you want to have an alternative or in addition to, you know, your home canned cranberries, just free up that stove space because we all know we have to do that dance. We are literally up early figuring out what goes in at what time so that everything can be timed up properly to set at the table. What you need to make early and reheat or heat through before you. Yeah. So it's just one less thing. Um, but another would be some of the vegetables. So like the green bean casserole, if you've already canned your green beans, right? Oh, that's a good tool. When they came into season, usually August, September. Um, yeah. Well, you could can the sauce too, right? The with as long as you're not using like some people, listen, how do I say this?

Some people love using and canning their milk based sauces. Yeah. I'm not going to tell anybody what to do. knock yourself out. I personally have not created it and tested it, but that doesn't mean it's not working for those that have been doing it. Because of the mouth, I've seen great successes. I have watched people do, you know, the mushroom cream, celery cream, onion cream, chicken cream, and they're doing it successfully. I just personally, and as a business, have not created it and tested it myself. But the more activity I see it getting, I'm like, maybe I'm like, maybe

I need to add that to my next lab list of items. What I did is I put a QR code up there next to your head that goes to canningdiva.com. Oh, cool. Thanks. If you guys, scan that. If you guys see a recipe that we're going over or something from the website, the website is canningdiva.com, if you see something like, you can go directly to the website or scan that QR code up there, it'll take you right there. Yeah, thank you.

There's definitely more in store. Yeah. But I like this canning of the vegetables, the sweet. Oh, sweet potatoes, even like you said, the pumpkin or the squash. Also, like dry packed carrots, you know, instead of canning them in water, you dry pack them using a ghee or some type of fatter oil. Yeah. And they retain their texture so you can reuse them, whether it's in a recipe or you just want to, you know, use them as a side dish. That I've never done before.

No? I've never done the dry packed in a guise. E. Yeah. But I love the sounds of that. That sounds great. It keeps the integrity better. So that way, see, the longer things are stored in water. What happens? They break down. You know, they become water logged. It's not from oxygen. It's just from, you know, the H2 out of the water. So you drive back carrots. Let me show. Yeah, I love that idea. That's a great idea. Because it's great, too, when they come out of there. Yes. And they are sweeter. instead of all of the nutrients escaping into the water because vitamins and yeah

yeah yes and here are them oh i better share my screen i got to get in that habit better all right so here is the um dry packed carrots okay oh sorry so there's a close-up but um very simple as you can see here the geese started to solidify you know you start with it melted but then as I was mixing it to disperse it started to solidify but super easy um and actually one of the things I talk about in the recipe on my website at Canning Diva is how the heat exposure and air is hotter than water within that jar actually makes your parrot's healthier there's a few vegetables out there that exposure of heat, make them not only easier to digest, but more nutritious. So this is a really healthy way to preserve your carrots. And then I do give you not only the recipe. I like that.

Yeah, but how to how to use them, you know, why it's safe, how you can do this yourself, and then recipes in which you can create, right? And then I have some videos on my YouTube channel where I've showed you the texture, the moisture level afterwards. So yeah, there they are. I'll finish up. So you do get some shrinkage if you notice, which is no, you know, it's fine. You have the same volume. They're being coated in the ghee and then can, not necessarily like submerged.

Correct. Just lightly coated. And if you don't have ghee or you don't make your own ghee, you may use butter. Some people prefer to use olive oil. So it truly is your preference. less is more because we don't want that leaching up onto the top of the jar rim and causing the lid to not seal. Yeah, that makes me. They cook during processing.

Look how beautiful they are. And they've kept their shape and their integrity. And they're not going to be submerged in water, which unfortunately then breaks it down. And then you get such mushy carrots that by the time you drain them, you can't do anything with them. Because you give them one quick stir and it's like, you know, just. You got mashed carrots, you know, mashed carrots. I mean, I'd love to see what it would do with like something like as delicate as as as asparagus. You know what I mean?

Yes, asparagus holds up well. What doesn't hold up well is sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes, I don't know who named this vegetable or root crop because it's not a potato. A potato and a sweet potato or two totally, one's a tuber. One's a root. Take a guess. Ah, I see. Yes.

So because it's a root and not a tuber, it unfortunately has a different chemical makeup and it doesn't withstand the heat like a traditional potato would. They're two totally different things. So I still encourage people to dice or cube their sweet potatoes, place them in a jar, cover them with water, and then process. Because for whatever reason, that gentler heat, because, water isn't it's gentler than air yeah it just seems to keep their their shape better and they don't degrade you know as they would if you dry packed them like those carrots you notice how the

carrots kept their shape a sweet potato would have like dropped down to a third of the jar and it would have all been mush it can't take it so yeah which might not be too bad if you're planning on mashing them anyway i guess exactly the problem is is is your volume level you know you're you'd now have to use four or five jars to accomplish which you may have been able to do um yeah either on the oven or you know again it depends on why you're using them you know if you know you got a lot of people to cook for to make a sweet potato pie for then you're going to can it in quartz and you're going to pack it as full as you can yeah of course you know i seen uh one of our members Volcano had a really good potato harvest and

And she canned up a bunch of peeled potatoes in water. They look pretty good. I guess, you know, long term, maybe not. But they look pretty good. But I guess they're going to nice and fry, right? Yeah. Yeah. They're good within that first year.

I noticed going into year, too, they start to lose their shape because it's all winding up on the bottom of the jar. That's why dry packed potatoes were so popular. I'll show you that one. That one cracks me up. some of these, you know, what shouldn't cause controversy, which none of us are immune to, right? Like, nowadays in today's technology world, you know, driven world, it's like you say one thing and it's completely, oh, yeah, yeah, either blow it out of context or there's no context or there's no critical thinking or common sense used. We run into that. The real problem is

just that you can't just say this is like my stance and then move on like with the milk canning thing like you did that well i can tell you've had your favorite talks about whether you can or cannot because you navigated that really well oh thank you well you know here's what it comes down to you know i'm an educator yes i'm a i'm a business uh i'm an author i'm a creator right i create recipes but i would never tell a fifth generation individual who's been doing it that way for five a different way to oh you're not safe now and and you better do it the way i say i just don't live like that it's your kitchen your rules you know what i mean and there's something that has been forgotten in the conversation when the term science gets thrown around so loosely

there's also something to be said for time-honored proof. Oh, right. It just always has to be proven in a laboratory, right? And even that, I'm glad I'm not the only one. But, you know, I'm not going to tell somebody not to do it. And when I see it successfully done, all that does is get me excited to say, you know what, I'm ready to do it. And I'm going to put a little bit of science and math behind it for my,

myself and those that, you know, choose to make my recipes. And that's where the dry packed potatoes came in. And I didn't create this. I'm going to show it to you. This was done years ago. I want to say we're getting close to 20 years ago by a gentleman who happened to just share it in his, in the group, that Rebel, original Rebel canning group. and oh this is the one with potatoes and here i'll show you this one this i added uh potatoes

with bell pepper onions and garlic he created his just plain uh with with the ghee wow okay yeah so um his name is ron and he all he did was get us all excited and everyone's been eating it and making it and so i was like you know this is logically sound let's put some science behind it from a thermal standpoint, right? Heat transfer, air is hotter than water. Water is a good, you know, conductor, but it's also a gentler heat. So I thought, well, my gosh, that makes so much more set. So I started working with a laboratory. We worked on that project for two years before I ever even published the results, and it's so funny. Wow. I lost their minds when I published the results. They're like, well, you didn't do it right.

I'm like, okay, so you want to tell that bacteriologist that he doesn't know what he's doing, but you behind a keyboard had no science background and now you want to call me i haven't called a killer or sorry we can't say that word of the k word you can say whatever you want to say on this show well thank you but so this is really look at how easy this is scrub the potatoes peeling is optional that's your personal preference you add the bell peppers the sweet onions and mint garlic and then i use ghee personally, but you can also use the melted butter. It tastes better, in my opinion. Olive oil does work. I have used it. I've also tested it, but I really like the flavor of the butter or the ghee. And then boom, no water. You're just putting it, and they're going to look like

this. Here, see? Yeah, that's cool. This is definitely cool. I don't know how many people are familiar with this technique, to be honest with you. It's growing. Um, it's totally. I always heard of, but dry pack, this is. Yeah, we call it dry. Just, you know, I guess I didn't mean to convolut the canning community, but raw packing has this, it is raw, but we always associate raw packing with putting water or a liquid. Always. Yeah, me too.

Always. Right. So it's like, how do I differentiate that? I can't really say raw pack and then not add water. So I just went with dry packed. Then come to find out there's this, you know, old, it's back in the 30s and 40s, housewives were canning using their oven and calling it dry canning. And that was, yeah.

So people were misassociating dry packing with dry canning. It's like, oh, you know. So we had to do some education. But honestly, you ask anybody who has made these, we love. them. And this has been around for more than 20 years now. It's not like I just pulled this out of a hat. And so not only did I piggyback off of what someone did and use a lab, the cool part is we have over 20 years history of this being done successfully, consumed, and enjoyed. So there's the proof in the pudding. And that's an excellent side dish. Or what I like to tell

individuals, it's the day after Thanksgiving sometimes. Yeah, you want to pull out the leftovers, but if the mashed potatoes didn't make it because everyone loves mashed potatoes and you need a starch that next day, just opening up a jar of your dry pack potatoes and throwing those in a skillet, getting them nice and brown, boom, you know, or you could even do that for Thanksgiving. If you're not a mashed potato fan, who says that? Yeah, there are those weirdos. Yes.

Who does it like that? Potatoes. See, one of my kids actually doesn't really like them very much. My son didn't either. It was a texture thing. Weird, right? Yeah. It's a very weird thing because I feel like their generation is like yogurt.

You do like everything that kind of smooth is a winner with them. Ice cream, you know, icing, that kind of stuff. Then you give it a potato and they're like, no. Do you think it's warm? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. They associate smooth with cold because, you know,

applesauce yogurt like you were saying yeah i don't know my son grew out of it though so oh that's good yeah mine have not yet and it's really weird because our mashed potatoes are insane i mean they're they're really crazy they're this recipe from a guy named you might know them because you're into chefs you know joel robichon robochon yeah so he does a palms robichon a potato's robichon And, like, all he does is Yukon gold potatoes that are peeled and you add nothing but butter and salt. So you just couldn't. Oh, because they have a natural. Yeah, they have a natural creamy texture.

So you don't need to add the cream. Yeah, they're just naturally. Ooh, yum. No season. Oh, it's delicious. They're absolutely outrageous. It's expensive. You know what I mean?

You use a lot of butter to do it. And I'm sure they're terrible for you. But it's Thanksgiving. You know what I mean? We only do it once. Nobody. Yeah. nobody's counting calories at Thanksgiving.

Yeah. Or Christmas. That's exactly right. But you brought up the day after. You brought up the sort of, you know, leftover day and how that goes. And that's a big part of the holiday, right? What you keep, what you toss.

Are there any things that you toss immediately, like that you're like, it's not going to be kept. It's not going to be canned. It's gone in the trash because it's just not going to work. not that I can think of honestly no I don't know if I do either yeah I really I mean I know I mean if I if I'm

even the carcass right we talk about that yeah oh definitely yeah you know if I don't have the energy or the time right after Thanksgiving that carcass goes in the freezer yeah that's a good thing I am making turkey stock I'm I also make pet friendly stocks and broths with it too like you can divide that up so if you have pets you can you can preserve for your pets that's an e-book that i'll be launching this week as a matter of fact oh that's a huge

on amazon yes that's a huge one people don't take advantage of the all i see all this food that people pay exorbitant amounts of money for that they can make it home for their dogs for way cheaper if you're into like the fresh food thing yes and if you're already home canning or dehydrating or freeze drying or even just using your freezer to help, you know, maximize on some good deals, specials, or if you go in on a cow with your family, whatever the case may be, that's food preservation. And if you're already doing it for your human family, you can easily integrate it into your fur family and give them the healthy nutrients. I spent a lot of time in the book educating people on what dogs and cats need to thrive, right, from a nutritional standpoint. And

what they cannot eat and should not eat because that's where leftovers, especially, you know, back my, I asked my mom, you know, before she passed away, I was like, you were in an era before commercial dog food. I'm like, what did you feed your dogs? She said table scraps. They go, yeah, but what about all the seasonings and spices? She goes, well, that's the kicker. There was a lot, it was more bland in her family back.

Oh, of course. Yeah. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. They didn't use, you know, half the seasonings or even a quarter of the seasonings that I, it was typically salt and pepper. Right. And that, you know, garlic wasn't as much of a staple. It's a staple in my home now. But yeah, I don't know what I would do without my garlic. But that's a no-no for dogs and cats. So I see how the transition went, you know, human eating and and pet, you know, food. But there's so much we can do if we're already preserving for ourselves, even those green beans we talked about, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, our dogs can eat that.

And it's healthy for that. Sweet potatoes like crazy, right? They're the sweet potatoes showing up in every fancy food there is nowadays for dogs. Yes. And I educate people on the ratio of how that food needs to be dispersed from a protein, an organ meat, a fruit, a vegetable. Like there has to be a proper ratio for dogs. and then cats are obligate carnivores.

Like, they're not really eating a lot of vegetables. Yeah, yeah. So we won't have to indoor any vegan cat food recipes in the book. I am saying. No, no, no, no. And if your cat is a vegan, I'm, that might be like a Guinness Burko World Records because they need the touring from the, the organ meat and the protein that, you know, animal cruelty is what it is.

Aye. You know what I mean? Feed your cat, man. And I'm just kidding. But, no, I, I can't think. I'm still trying to think of anything I really throw away. Yeah, I don't know if we do either. Unless it's like something that was a picky tray kind of thing and like everybody had

their fingers in it, sat out for like the whole day. That might go in the trash, you know. There, I'm with you, James, because I can't think of any. You know, the leftovers go. I mean, that's sometimes also the fun part of it, don't you think? you know oh definitely leftover sometimes things just taste so much better

like the next day that's a good point yeah especially if you're doing that homemade cranberry sauce the day of like that stuff's way better a day two days after that's I like the home canned version yeah I think you're right on that yeah that second day

third day flavor but now it's in a yard so I don't usually or I'm responsible for bringing the cranberry sauce this year with the stuffed mushrooms and I think I also oh I have to make stuffing because i make that from scratch i toast all the bread and it's a process so um it's the best though yes yeah in chat uh jordan's talking about the turkey and cranberry sandwich oh yes yes yes oh you're right i eat them i eat them like for days after thanksgiving

you know what you got to be careful though if you get one of those dry turkey cranberry stuffing sandwiches and you're you don't chew it up very good that's thing can all get just stuck right here and you're like uh oh this may be my last thanksgiving i'm done i'm done that's why i don't know about you let's talk about turkey like i love brining the turkey to avoid it getting that dried out texture which typically happens it's it's a leaner meat right i still do the blasphemous stuffing of the turkey like yeah i still blah i still stuff it i don't care I guess we've never had I mean it's one of those things like you're talking about like that you read online like I ate a stuffed turkey my whole life you probably won your whole life all the sudden online somebody says oh you better not stuff turkey you'll get sick and all the sudden you stop stuffing the turkey I just never stop and I said well I'm going to have little kids that you know if they get sick or something I don't know why they would because none of our kids ever got like us in the little bit sick I don't understand that I mean you're going to get sick from undercooked meat possibly far quicker than you you would from any stuffing unless they're saying it didn't get cooked all the way through.

I think that was the concern. Yeah. But yeah, we stuffed that thing, man. Brine it, stuff it. I always slide butter up underneath the- Oh, yes. You rub the whole thing with butter. Yes. Yep. Time up in there. Yeah, it's great. Salt. I usually salt it multiple times. I don't know if you do this. But I usually salt the outside in. Salt the outside. Yeah. But then I'll also salt it later because I feel like a lot of it kind of runs off, you know, because all kinds of moisture comes out of the, we like that nice, salty, crispy skin.

That's like, that's the kickoff. Yeah, that butter comes in handy there, I tell you. Butter is your friend when you're making a turkey. Oh, yeah. Especially if you wanted to have that crispy, almost glossy like exterior. But you start with the high oven and then cut it down. That's something my mother always did, and I do it because she taught me that way. going at like 400 and then go down because otherwise if you don't all the moisture that you want

to retain in the turkey is yeah i mean when things get hot what does what do the water molecules do they evaporate they escape so i don't want them escaping turkey's already a leaner meat i want it to be as juicy as possible um so yeah i like the slow and low um component now one year this isn't very healthy but my husband at the time we did the deep fried oh yeah I've heard a lot of good things no we've never done it I've heard a lot my son was talking about a couple years ago he said we should try it it's so good granted you know we we spent a little extra on some good oil I don't know what he picked up I let I let him that was his man the friar don't set the house on fire yes I was out in the driveway yeah he's out in the driveway he's out in the driveway

with the big hook and, you know, lowering it in. It was really good. I bet. I just, I'm not a big fried food person to begin with. So I was like, I don't want to make it an annual tradition. What became annual was the brining. And we had a lot of fun. Yeah, with the seasonings, that was a lot of fun.

Yeah, the brining is key. It's tough. I usually take a shelf out. I don't know how you do it. Because we grind stuff in the, you know, industrial kitchen restaurant world all the time in big giant tubs that are made for brining and then you try to do it at home and you're like oh i don't have no refrigerator what am i going to do so that's what i do i do like a big you know like a big stock pot take a shelf out of the fridge into the fridge that's a good way to do it um yeah i

i like i so much loved waking up on thanksgiving day at our house and smelling the turkey in the oven that it was one of those things that always kept me from cooking it outside like i wanted my kids to wake up and be like oh dad's cooking a turkey it's thanksgiving you know what i mean and then having the whole house smell like it it's just one of those one of those things that i really that's the nose to brain you know that's the reminder the nostalgia that that that you carried with you that they'll carry with you i i i get it yeah that's a huge one yeah this year um just making the sides though and having my i've got phant like i said my answer staying with me and we're going to my cousin's house um i get to walk in and smell that it's nice right it is nice i may have

to try the canning diva stuffed mushrooms this year that sounds like awesome really awesome i'll share the recipe is so good and actually i'd have to write it down because i just always do it from memory um i mean i can i don't know if you cook that way oh are you a little of this a little of that yeah 100 it's probably to my family's detriment because i'm sure it's not the same every time but But it is what it is. But, yeah, you know, another weird one, a wacky one that's worth trying, my sister makes, she roast beets, hollows them out, and then stuffs them with cheddar cheese and bake some, tops them with cheddar cheese and stuffs them. Oh, she does cheddar? Cheddar cheese, yeah.

And they are really good. Like, she takes the, so she'll take what she scoops out of the roasted beet, chop it up, mix it in with the cheddar, stuff that back in and top it with cheddar cheese, bake them in the oven. they come out you eat them like you know you try to eat them oh yeah yeah yeah and now see i hear that and i go back to your blue cheese oh yeah blue cheese i would almost want to do the beats with the blue cheese and i bet a mix would be good i bet like a brie blue cheese maybe a little you know maybe another pro pro i don't know something there'd be a good mix right something gooey oh goat i don't know yeah goat probably good like i said you're making the you're making like a Chopped up beet and cheese stuffing, basically.

So a mix of cheese is probably good. Oh, they're so good. Yeah, they're so good. She may put another cheese in there. I might be, I might be short selling her with just cheddar, but it's not, it's nothing crazy. It's definitely shredded cheese, but it's awesome. But the simplicity sounds. Yeah.

I love, I love beats. I do. I could eat those every day. They're an amazing food. One of the things. I actually have, oh, go ahead. The pickled beats, I feel like don't get in. enough credit. You know what I mean? For people who like pickles nowadays and

kimchi cheese and all that kind of stuff, like the pickled meats are, God, they're so good. I should make them more even. I'm one to talk. I should have them in my fridge right now. I would love to eat a couple of pickles. Yes. Yes. Or did you, when you were growing up, did your mom do this too where she would make, she wouldn't, my mom wouldn't water bath them. She'd do a huge half gallon jar or sometimes a big gallon jar. And she'd make the pickled beats. they'd stay in the refrigerator and then she'd hardboil and peel a bunch of eggs and stick the eggs inside the pickled meat juice and then they absorb it oh oh i loved grabbing one of those after school for like a snack and they'd be all pretty purple you bite into it you know oh yeah yeah the phoenix jordan she makes um she makes pickled eggs that are phenomenal oh usually she has them at prevar camp actually but she brought enough this year. She had enough to tell. I got to bring some stuff next year. Well, with me moving and then it was like a... It's always that. You know what I mean? It's always that. It's always like,

oh my God, prepper cams a week away. And I, you know, there's 70 different things I want to do. And I realize I don't have time to do anything, but pack what I need to pack. Yeah. Yeah, but they're good. I've done the pickled eggs with the with like the sweet brine with the jalapinos. Have you ever done that i think it's called like spicy kind of like a cowboy candy with the pickled eggs oh yeah it's good that's good i have not done that that sounds amazing i like what i actually i actually sold it to ask a prepper the the article and the recipe so i could probably find it and put it in chat for everybody i was going to say ask a prepper yeah aska prepper dot com Would you, did you do cowboy, how did you, how would you do that?

Cowboy pickled beets? I think that's what they wound up calling it. I'll find it here in just a second. Interesting. That sounds like, cowboy candy pickled eggs. Cowboy, oh, I found it, yep, cowboy candy pickled eggs. There you go. All right, show that.

I'll throw it in all their cats for everybody. Ooh, Nask a crap. Yeah, they're good, man. Spicy, you know. But also a little sweet, because that's like the cowboy candy, right? Yeah, that's beautiful. Okay, you know what I'm going to be made. Maybe I should try these for like a little something to munch on with some protein,

but yet a little flavor. Ooh, thank you. Yeah, no problem we have you guys talking about food. Oh, man, yeah. Talking food is the best. It's the best. But that'd be a great one to put out on the table. You'd have to have some adventurous kids.

It's hard to imagine a kid coming home pulling a purple egg out of a jar and eating it today, right? Like, mom, where are them purple eggs? Yeah, they'd be like, why is it purple and what is that? You know, like, what are you? Right. Forget about the fruit roll-ups. Where's the purple eggs at? You know, my daughter would eat it.

It's my son who would not. He didn't like anything of vinegary. Yeah, boys are weird. Boys make no sense. He was real different, but like, he was a good eater. Yeah. But he wasn't a condiment kid. I don't think he ate ketchup until he was

It was either high school or college I mean he'd really be very funny about anything vinegar Well it's probably my fault because I've been cooking sour Making sourcrow out and cooking sourcrow Like since he was in you know diapers I get it when he was in my womb and he just could not stand the smell of sauerkrauts Oh yeah I think I ruined him a little I always loved it growing up

My mom would cook pork chops in it kabbas in it And I just always loved it I don't know why. It is a weird one. You'd bring the friends over and the friends would be like, you know what, I ate. There were a few things that my friends would not eat because they loved my mom's cooking. But when it was like, you know, kabbasi day, they'd be like, I ate or I'll eat when I go home.

I'm good. Thanks. Yeah, they didn't quite get that one. I guess I'd have to ask Caleb. I don't know if he even eats it to this day. I know. Gosh, I don't know. You know what?

I'm going to have to ask him because I don't know if that's something. thing he grew out of but now he'll do condiments mashed potatoes a lot of the things like i made homemade applesauce and i i flavored it sweetened it with blueberries when he was young yeah because he was into like blues clues and i thought oh my gosh he's going to love this he did it start crying you know applesauce it then boo mama like he was really upset like i just so i made muffins with it, you know, blue, and they try out cool purpleish color, yeah. Good recovery on that one. I made like 24 jars of it thinking he's going to love it. That's exactly what I'm picturing. I'm picturing your whole kitchen shelf covered in these things and your son's like, ah.

You were so mortified. And I was like, oh my God, I just spent like six hours making I have a lot for it. What do I do? Yeah. Yeah. Kids are like that, man. They are definitely like that. My kids,

the funny thing they do is that they, you cook a vegetable, they don't want anything to do of it. You give it to them raw, they'll eat it almost anything. You know, you cook carrots, give it to them,

they're like, uh, cook broccoli. I give them raw broccoli as their vegetable. My one son's 14 years old. Oh, they love it. They absolutely love it.

Oh, my. Yeah, it's crazy. But if I, boil it or steam it or definitely if i like want to get chefy on them and saute it with something they'll be like i'm not touching that give it to them raw they'll eat the hell out of it it's crazy i don't know if it's because the garden i think it's because the garden like when they grow up like picking stuff out of the garden and eating yeah they think it's natural i guess they get used to

that texture or something i don't know isn't that funny yeah i mean i used to for kela i don't think so much for Audrey, but obviously when she came around, it's like, well, I'm not going to not do it for her, but I would make, whip up a quick cheese sauce on the stove top. Oh, okay. And that kind of helped, you know, and then I got creative to, honestly, I would, so my garden spaghetti sauce recipe that's on my website, I started shredding carrots, shredding zucchini, squash. They were getting their veggies.

Yes. They just didn't see them, you know? That's a good move. Yeah, because I like that. Gotta get creative, you know. Why don't you tell us about the massive sort of giveaway fest that's happening on your website right now, too? I would love to. Yeah, because I would love anyone tuning in.

You guys, follow me on Facebook, Instagram. I'm doing some really fun giveaways. Let me pull up my webpage. You can get all the details on my website. at canning diva.com on my homepage. I do have a post. You'll see it. It says November 2025 giveaways from the canning diva. Let me share my screen because I'm doing, I don't know, this is so much fun for me, right? It's skip giving season. The camp chef stove. It's a two-burner outdoor stove.

Yeah, that thing is sweet. Oh, I'm telling you. And then that's in your Black Friday Pepper Catalog as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah, all these giveaways are listed there. Yeah, I really want everybody to take advantage of these things. And here, let me get down to that one. Right now, there's several. So there's a signed book giveaway. You get Beginners Guide to Canning and my latest book Meals in a Jar with the

2026 canning and gardening planner. I'm going to do two random winners will be drawn um actually this Thursday so um head over to Facebook or Instagram follow the instructions you could win that and you can you guys can join in on all of these giveaways you don't just have to pick one join them all the other is a hundred different excuse me a hundred reusable canning lids from Harvest Guard. You'll get 50 regular mouth and 50 wide mouth to one lucky winner. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah.

And we're going to draw that one on Thursday, December 4th. He's Jeff, the new owner of Harvest Guard Reusable Canning Lids is going to join me on my Facebook Live and we're going to pick the winner. And then here is the one we just spoke of for the outdoor camp stove. That's about $160 value. That thing's beautiful. I need to check it out. I'm so excited.

I think the cooks were using that thing at Preper Camp, that same stove, weren't they? Yes, yes. I used it for cooking, canning. And I love to have it outdoors, too, so I'm not heating up the house in the summer, competing with the air conditioning. Now that I'm in Florida, I can pretty much use it year-round. but that one is going on now as well. The instructions are online,

and you can see that we're going to draw the winner on December 12th. I'll ship it out as quickly as the winner responds because I'd like you to have it for Christmas. And then my latest book, Preserving for Your Pets, it's an e-book. It'll also be available on print on demand on Amazon. I'm going to give away. We'll spread the word.

That's a cool one. Yeah, yeah, because I'm going to. giveaway five to five lucky winners. And I'll be drawing that on December 15th. And that's, you see my dog? Look at Thursday. Oh, there's your dog. Oh, look at it cute. He's on the cover. He's famous. So I'm going to be doing all of these throughout the month of November and picking some of the winners in both November and December. So I did five different giveaways. But I think in total you have um 10 ways 10 winners because some of them are well worth entering we just did a big one we only did one enter one winner rather but no that's great that's a little overboard this year but

you know what there's um like jeff leasing over at harvest guard the new owner he's also the owner of burkey water filtration systems you know um he's been wonderful to work with i was introduced to him through Lisa, the survival mom. Oh, yeah. Bedford. Yeah. And we've just been having a lot of fun and I'm enjoying the lids. And they're similar to Tatler.

He has good things to say about Tatler as well. Tatler was made in Michigan where I was from. But, you know, it's just it's a lot of fun because he's willing to do a lot of cool things. And he wants the lids in people's hands. So this giveaway is in, it's a collaboration with Jack. over at Harvest Guard. Hey, that's awesome. There's nothing wrong with that.

So why don't we have you back in December then? You got all kinds of stuff going on? Yeah, I would love that. Yes, and I would love to share with your listeners. If you can either drop in the comments or reach out to myself or to James, I would love to know what you think about the whole preserving for your pets ideas. Because if you've got questions or even, you know, when I write a book, I research, right? So I've learned a lot.

There's some really good, you know, veterinarians out there who have, you know, a holistic side to them. And they do believe just as in human health, pet health starts, you know, in the gut, what we feed them. So I have to answer those questions and talk a bit of a bit about that. And then the only thing that I couldn't really do a giveaway for is. Oh, there it is. From seed to table. Yeah. My book will be out in.

March. What I am doing, though, is if you wanted to purchase this as a gift, knowing they won't have it physically in their hands until March, my publisher created this beautiful certificate that you can print and you can wrap, right, so that you're still giving something tangible to wrap or put under the Christmas tree. So this is a really good one. And I'll make sure you get a copy, James, because that's available up on the website. Yes, yes. The pre-order. Remember that canningdiva.com, yes. Okay. There you go, folks.

Yeah. So it's from gardening, preserving, and cooking. It's everything, soup to nuts. It's a big book. Yeah, I can't wait to see it because it looks awesome. It looks like it's definitely going to be back behind me on the old reference shelf back there for sure. Yes, you will have a copy. Well, Diane, I appreciate it.

If you feel good about this, I feel good about this, we can wrap it up and get your schedule to come on in December and do the same thing. and sit here and drool all about Christmas dishes in favor. I'm headed to the kitchen because I'm hungry now. All right, folks. Thank you for having, oh, definitely, my pleasure. Canningdiva.com is the website, get to know her, and we'll have her back on soon.

All right, folks. Talk to you soon. Check out that Black Friday catalog, too. It's linked down below. The giveaways are in there, right? Yes. Done. Done.