Creating Cool Vegetable Storage When We Don't Have a Cellar or Basement

So, our house is built over a very shallow crawl space. We have 2 stories above this, with no basement. I would love to have a root cellar to store those winter-keepers of garden and purchased produce like potatoes, onions, squash and pumpkins, cabbage, apples, turnips, and carrots. But that's just not going to happen.

Storing produce at room temperature shortens usability of fruits and vegetables considerably. For an example, I read that if you keep pumpkins at room temp of 68-72 degrees F, they'll last about 1 month to six weeks. That's been about my experience with keeping Jack o' lantern type pumpkins. If you refrigerate pumpkins at about 40-44 degrees F, they'll keep for 3 months. (But I also read that refrigeration is not recommended for pumpkins.) A cooler temp will double the usable life of my pumpkins. I have 7 bought and 3 homegrown pumpkins left to cook or process. If I kept these in my pantry, I'd have to rush to get them processed or used. To make my life easier this next month, I needed to find a cooler storage place than the kitchen. And this doesn't take into consideration the onions and potatoes I need to store.

I've found a solution that I think will work for my situation. I have enough space in my fridges to store the apples, cabbages, carrots, and turnips. That leaves the potatoes, onions, and pumpkins needing a cool storage space. We have a spare room (my office actually, but I can do without it for the next few months) that is at the far end of the ductwork from the furnace. It's always a cooler spot in the house under normal circumstances. I closed the vent (on the floor) and put a large book over it. I keep the door to this room closed at all times, now. I put a thermometer into the room so I could monitor the current conditions. It's been between 52 and 54 degrees F consistently.

Winter 2020-2021 and winter 2021-2022 I stored the potatoes and onions in this room, closing off the vent and keeping the door closed. The potatoes and onions kept through early February until signs of shriveling and rot began.  In years I stored these in the kitchen pantry, the onions began showing signs of rot in December and the potatoes began to shrivel in January. My cool storage extended the usefulness of both root veggies for an extra month. I'm hoping for a similar extension for the pumpkins, meaning I won't have to finish using or processing and freezing them until the end of December or beginning of January. That works for me.

Do you have a cellar or cold storage in a basement? Do you stock up on potatoes during fall sales? If so, how do you store them?

Using Up Leftover Cooked Rice With the Help of My Blender

We've had this cooked rice (mix of white and brown) lingering in the fridge for almost a week. We've used most of it. But I just couldn't get us to finish off that last 1/2 cup. Instead of freezing it for another time, I decided to use the cooked rice in pancakes. If cooked rice in a pancake sounds unappealing, let me share how I make the rice near undetectable.

Here's the key -- before mixing the dry with the liquid ingredients for a batch of pancakes, I puree the cooked rice with the other liquids, in this case the milk, egg, and oil. In my experience, a batch of pancakes or 12-ct muffins can handle up to 1/2 cup of leftover cooked rice. I used my smoothie blender this time, but I've also used our pitcher blender with success. 

I begin with the rice and about half the liquid in the blender and puree until the blender seems to need more liquid, then blend in the rest of the liquid. At this point, I mix the liquids into the dry ingredients and make pancakes or muffins as usual.

Here's a cut pancake. You can see inside the texture looks like a traditional recipe pancake. I came across 1 particle of rice in my pancake, but it wasn't anything that bothered me. And they taste exactly like regular pancakes.

This also works with leftover cooked oatmeal. Leftover oatmeal can be blended and pureed with the liquids for pancakes, waffles, muffins, snack cakes, and quick breads. Oatmeal tends to puree to smooth texture more quickly than cooked rice. But both can be pureed to smooth enough consistency that my family doesn't even notice this added ingredient.