It is totally GIVEAWAY WEEK!!!

My friend Toiling Ant is doing two things: Living to the Hilt, and standing up to bad weather with the one thing we can do to brighten up ANYBODY'S day. That's right...she's having a giveaway! So if you stop by here and find out that maybe you didn't win my mustard, run right over here and enter to win the mystery prize! Get going....

Stop the crush of entries...

no, really. Stop. Maybe crush is too big a word... but tomorrow I will post the winner of the MASSIVE MUSTARD GIVEAWAY!!! In the meantime, here's something for your viewing pleasure.
(Saturday and Sunday were very busy days!)


Quick and easy banana bread... (2 loaves)


7 quarts of strawberry peaches...


Honey-spiced peaches...7 pints


8 quarts of old-fashioned brined pickles. (I only canned 6 quarts and we're eating the other ones from the fridge. Finally fixed the "too salty" problem)


Sunshine jam... 3 8oz jars. OK, this wasn't from Sat/Sun. I think I did these Thursday night, but didn't have a picture uploaded. And this way I look like I've been extra busy. :)


For some reason I didn't take a picture, but I also did 6 pints of Dilled green beans this afternoon.

You may already be a winner!

No. Really. There's a giveaway over at The Barber Bunch.

Added - oh yeah, if you click on the post label CONTEST, I'm also giving something away. Not nearly as big and nice as Carolyn's, but it's free to you! :)

Pizza on the grill

Made pizza on the grill the other day. It turned out pretty good, although there's work to be done to make it perfect! As you can see, the dough rose really well.



Then I flattened them out in the proper size.


These were capers, onions, maybe some arugula from the garden, leftover chicken and some sort of cheese. :)


Mr. Pizza, are you ready for your closeup?


Yum yum! Quick and easy too!

Just mumbling out loud (and giving stuff away)

Pictures at bottom!
Haven't had a chance to upload any pictures because I spent last night canning 4 quarts of raspberry peaches and 6 jars of Octoberfest mustard. But here's the exciting part...

Last night was the first night Husband has been home while I canned. (I started while he was gone for five weeks) He had promised to help me tonight, but as usual was tied up on something and didn't get home til I'd already finished the peaches. The amazing thing was the look on his face as he realized that I had actually CANNED peaches. And that they tasted FANTASTIC!!! He kept walking over to the jars and touching them (stopit!!!!!) and smiling at me. What an wonderful feeling to have somebody love you for something that you love to do. Meaning most of the things I love he thinks are a bit kooky. But this one he's totally impressed with!

Anyway, we then started the Octoberfest mustard and he was amazed with the entire process and the taste of the mustard.

I think we may be crossing some sort of barrier... I don't want to get my hopes up. But he certainly seems more agreeable about expanding the garden, and he definitely wants me to keep canning!!

That said, I know giveaways are supposed to be really cool and have lots of prizes and stuff. Mine doesn't. It's just one two sad jars of mustard. One Octoberfest beer mustard, and one sage wine mustard. If I were handy, I'd whip up something, but handy (especially in a hurry) is not my main skill. So mini-prize it is. And I figure I'll leave this open til... um, August 31st? It's not like I have more than about 6 readers, so there's a really good chance you can win!!! To enter, post a comment telling me... um, how about your favorite canning recipe. (which I'll end up asking you for anyway) Preferably no more fruit, we're talking main dish here!

Oh yeah, I'll post a picture of said mustards tonight.


Peace!

I am pathetic...

But mom loves me!

Where did I go?

The main squeeze got home late, late Friday night. Woot! Woot!

We'll see if I can dredge up pictures of the baby back ribs we put on the smoker, the 24 lbs of peaches I didn't process this weekend, or the way-too-many Mike's Hard Cranberrys I had to celebrate.

:)

Tonight's dinner

My lettuce. I rock.

 

Bacon. (not local, but delicious)

 

Corn. Local-ish. And fresh this morning.

 

Why? 'cause that's how I roll.

Harvest time!

Well. Go figure. I guess I harvested more than I thought! :)

Cucumber. I think it's a pickling type and that's why it's so small?

 

Zukes and the pathetic baby tomatoe.

 

I wonder why he looks so sickly? Who cares. He tasted great!

 

Lettuce! I got lettuce!!! Woot! Woot!

 

Wheat gum

Apparently, this is not a normal thing. I've found a couple of blogs that reference it, but it was surprisingly difficult. I guess I thought everybody knew what wheat gum was!

The Natives are Getting Restless
Mt. Hope Chronicles
Danelle's Diary which actually has the answer as well.


According to "The First Book of Farming" one can "chew whole grains of wheat and find a gummy mucilaginous substance called wheat gum".

I think it has to do with the gluten - Gluten is an insoluble protein obtained from wheat, rye, barley, oats, and other grains. So when you chew and chew and chew and (this sounds gross) recycle your saliva into the mass, you eventually end up with gum. It's important not to swallow while doing this or you'll just end up with wheatygrainy stuff. I think when you chew the gluten is released as a liquid and then by mixing it back in it eventually gums up.

Boring, but there it is!

Time marches on...

I'm homesick this week. Having Husband gone isn't helping. Don't know where YoungSon is, as he's out on a wildfire somewhere but we have no clue. BabyGirl at least spends some time with me (when she's actually home, which is rarely)

Oh yeah, why did I stop by today? I wanted to post this site - Recovered Recipes. Makes me choke up a bit. I miss my family. I miss the ranch. I miss the smell of the dry, dusty wheat fields and making wheat bubble gum.

Sigh. 4 more days.

Independence Days Challenge

Sigh. Who cares.
I want my husband to come home NOW.

And I'm tired of 100+ degree heat.

YUCK.

Aging, parents, sadness and joy.

Please take the 5 minutes to go here and read Phillip Toledano's photo essay: Days with my Father.

Family is precious. And they are gone too quickly.

L-I-Q-U-O-R

It's not the sheer QUANTITY that makes my liquor cabinet rock!!! It's the story behind it.

We had graduated from a cabinet, to a large pantry cupboard, to two closets in the pantry when Husband decided to go to the thrift shop to get rid of a bunch of clothes and stuff. An ever-hopeful junk collector, he wandered through the aisles while he was there and happened upon the following. Sure, it was affordable, but the story behind it is what made me cry.

An elderly couple had owned this. He had recently passed away and the kids were moving mom into a "home" and didn't have room for all her stuff, so they brought this to the thrift store. This piece was custom-made for them while they were at the US Embassy in Thailand in the late 60s, early 70s. He was with the foreign service and they entertained often. I can only imagine all the embassy-type folks clustered around this hand-carved, green granite? marble? topped bar, smoking cigarettes and telling state secrets.

The ice box itself is a HAND MADE ice box, built into the bar. It broke my heart to think of someone letting it leave the family. But I'm a sap like that. :)

Anyway... here's the sweetheart, and there is the collection. Luckily I never make a cocktail on my own. If Husband isn't here to make 'em, I won't drink them. Which has saved me much grief, I'm sure! :)

 

 

 

Input needed

OK brilliant people. YoungSon wants to know about long-term meat storage. Oh, I mean without refrigeration.

Are there any definitive books you can think of? His goal is probably to be able to
1) prepare something in some way
2) leave said something in garage and then go "slice off a hunk" (his words) when he needs meat

That's my boy!

Is THIS the sound?

What did tonight consist of?

For some of you, "husband's away" means little cooking and lots of weight loss. Um, I don't quite have it that way. For me "husband's away" means I'm bored to tears from the time I get home from work and need to find something to do until I can go to bed without feeling like I have no life. (I have no life)

Hence, the following thoughts on tonight. Some bloggers were discussing using recipes the other day. I'm not a recipe user. Here's an example of dinner.


...I really have to use that chicken. I'ts not really that old. It'll be fine. Let's see...some whole wheat pasta. Lemon - oooh, that's a bit hard - it'll work though. Capers - 'cause piquant should be my middle name. Wine (you can't see the fancy screw top. I bought that kind so I wouldn't drink it like I did the other night making BBQ Sauce, and then 'drunk dialed' all my friends and chatted on incessantly). And Mike's Hard Cranberry for me. (OK, it's not WINE)


Oh wait... there's half an onion. Walla Sweet, yummy! Better use those tomatoes... what's a few fruit flies among friends? Feta cheese! I forgot I had that. Everything's better with a cream sauce. OK, cool.

(PS... in the final version, half and half, the feta and lemon juice didn't make the cut)

I should hide this. Because I should be using olive oil. But what's a little bacon grease when he's gone? It's like a hug, isn't it?

Add some onions.


Some chopped chicken.


Capers. And then some more capers.


Several glugs of chicken brother. Ooops. About 6 glugs too many.


Cornstarch Man to the rescue!


Um, that's not good.


Sorry... had to take a tiny break. Where was I?

Oh, I know. And for the record, I'm sure you're thinking "The girl's drinking again, surely she's going to mess up". Well let me tell you, I'm a multi-tasking fool, and a couple of hard cranberry's don't get in my way!

Check this out!


Yeah, that's right. I'm pressure cooking. Not canning, but at the same time that I'm whipping up this show stopping glue dinner, I threw 4 chicken carcasses and a bunch of veggies in the ole cooker/canner and am making some (hopefully) kick ass stock.

Gluey stuff.


Overly "to the teeth" pasta.


Taste? 7
Ease? 9 (I had a Mike's. How hard could it be?)
Cleanup? Um, yeah. I'm getting right on it.

It doesn't get any sweeter than this!

THIS is how I'll travel after peak oil. ROCK ON!



Can it really get any more amazing? Visit Motorcar Operators West.

This land was made for you and me...

though everybody has probably seen it, I don't care! I love this video!!! Go to their site when it's done.

No Oil for Pacifists

No Oil for Pacifists

Why good ole boy T. Boone Pickens' plan probably won't work.

Week 5 ish. Independence Days Challenge

1. Plant something.
Nothing.

2. Harvest something.
OHMIGOSH!!! Another pint and a half of raspberries. Also, made a basket to take to some friends when they declined my offer to "bring something" to dinner. So I took some rosemary, thyme, dill, sage and a jar of both the peach BBQ sauce and the mustard. I felt TOTALLY COOL!!!!

3. Preserve something.
Mustard.

4. Prep something.
Is this the same as #7?

5. Cook something.
Peach Clafouti. It sucked.

6. Manage your reserves.
Bought more jars, lids, supplies, etc.

7. Work on local food systems.
Nothing really.

8. Talk to someone.
Sister-in-law got an earful. Except I was drinking quite a bit of wine, so I'm not exactly sure how lucid I sounded ;) But I think she's used to me sounding "not so lucid".

9. Reduce waste.
Remembered to put the recyclables in the right bin so they'd get recycled.

10. Learn a skill.
Go Mustard! Go Mustard!

Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce

Out of idle curiosity, what does "Zesty" mean to you? Wouldn't the average person think "mildy spicy... just a little bit to it". Especially in a mainstream recipe book? Let's just say this should be called "Fiery Hot Scorch Your Mouth Off Peach BBQ Sauce".

I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the peaches peeled, since I'd never done that before. And they smelled heavenly! (notice the ultra-cool jadeite bowl btw)


So they're in the pan doing their thing. A little of this, a little of that.


Heck...this is pretty easy. I could do this with one hand tied behind my back. Cue the white wine...


While I'm waiting, I've got to figure out what's wrong with my jar lifter. I had a terrible time getting the jars out last time. They kept slipping and sliding all over the place.


Note to self: Right side up is ALWAYS more effective.


Looking good! 30 minutes later -


I'm afraid the rest is a bit of a blur :(


But in the end, all 8 jars sealed just fine!