book review - Dragon's Fire

As promised, as I read the books that are on my list I will give a short review. The latest read was Dragon's Fire, another collabortion between Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd. Todd obviously has lots of ideas for where he wants the series to go and we are being introduced to different elements of Pern.

In their previous book, Dragon's Kin, it was the watch whers. In this one it's a discourse on stone with some delving into murder, thievery, and other unsavory aspects of human character.

I also wonder if there are any other handicaps coming up but won't say more because I don't want to give anything away. I will say that the first time was okay, the second time was trite and if there is a third time where someone with a particular handicap overcomes that handicap to become something that would otherwise be impossible (due to their handicap) I will be disappointed. Anne herself wrote about it in her short story "The Girl Who Heard Dragons" but it got carried a bit further in these last two books.

I confess that overall I liked the story but mostly I think it was because I like the whole world of Pern. I was disappointed that some of the events in the book seemed contrived and, as with the last one, the ending winds up feeling very rushed. One thing I did like a lot about the book was how parts of it parrallelled the previous book. Unfortunately I found lots of odd shifts in the story line and suspect that they are there simply to provide openings into future books rather than because they really add to the story line.

One more in the "new" series to go.

blog overhaul

Bluebird Blogs is having a fall contest. She's offering two (2) lucky winners a free blog design.

I've been thinking I would like to freshen things up but am not sure where to go. And, let's be honest, it's not too high on my priority list.

But hopefully I'll win .

You can enter too, just visit her blog.

pizza pizza

Today I had some running around chores to do, I won't bore you with the list or the details but I did stop at Costco to pick up a few things and bought a cheese pizza while I was there. We love the veggie but they don't always have it.

I was so exhausted by the time I got home (cumulative effects of yesterday and today) that I lay down for a short nap at 4 pm. Woke up at 8 pm (because the cat was yowling at the door wanting out of my room) to delicious smells. While I was sleeping my wonderful husband sauteed peppers and onions, cut up artichokes and mushrooms, assembled and cooked the pizza for dinner. It was delicious (the nap and the pizza).

book meme

This was an open tag from Owlhaven. Looked interesting so I decided to play.

Here are the instructions:
-Grab the book closest to you
-Open to page 123
-Scroll down to the 5th sentence
-Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog
-Name of the book and the author
-Tag 3 people

The book right in front of me is English Words from Latin and Greek Elements by Donald M. Ayers.

Sentances 5-7:

9. Syracuse...had not only become inexpugnable but had assumed the aggressive. - Grote

10. The 1-9 season was powerful: it dispirited the team as well as the entire school, provoked twenty-eight fights, initiated nine lawsuits, and cost the coach his job. - William Mark

11. ...doors which were intended for (a) ingress and (b) egress, windows which were meant to give light. - John Addington Symonds

Three people I am tagging:

K - whatcha readin'?
Shannon because I'm curious about what she's reading too
Nina same reason and I wonder what language she's reading in

If you want to play you can pretend I tagged you, just say it's 3a.

pickle party

Whew! As if the baking wasn't enough I found myself innundated with produce from the farm just begging to be pickled. It's actually not hard to do but a lot of standing on your feet, washing, sterilizing, boiling, etc. The results in the middle of winter make it all worthwhile.

I made several things out of my Oded Schwartz book Preserving. I really like this book, of course I like all of my books, but so far his recipes have never disappointed me.

I made eggplant garlic chutney. Something I've never made before. It's supposed to be good on sandwiches, with cheese, or meats. I had eggplant and garlic from the farm so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. It needs to mellow for a couple of weeks before we can try it.

Also on the list were pickled green tomatoes. I gleaned as many green cherry tomatoes as I could to make this. Some years, believe it or not, I don't have enough green tomatoes. This was never a problem when we lived in VT but here it is, especially since I now only plant 1 or 2 tomato plants.

In addition to picking the green ones I gleaned as many sungolds and grape cherry tomatoes as I could for sweet cherry tomato pickles. Mmmmmm. Sounds really good. I've never made it before. They need to sit for a couple of months but hopefully they will be worth the wait.

Tomato sauce, that's a given every year. We love using thing throughout the year, so much tastier than what you can buy in the grocery store.

Dilly beans. I think I'm the only one who really likes green beans but I make them anyway.

Luckily it was all small batch stuff 3-4 jars per batch. Otherwise I'd probably still be canning right now.

thursday thirteen

Ooh, a new meme, lessee I've got Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and now Thursday. Kind of fun really.

Here's mine for this week. 13 things I have preserved/canned/pickled so far this year (in no particular order):

1. pickled green tomatoes
2. tomato sauce
3. red currant jelly
4. zucchini bread and butter pickles
5. eggplant garlic chutney
6. sour cherry walnut conserve
7. rhubarb lemon jam
8. rhubarb blackberry jam
9. rhubarb strawberry jam (can you tell I had a lot of rhubarb?)
10. rhubarb apricot jam
11. peach liqueur (in process but it's a canned item)
12. cherry tomato pickles
13. dilly beans

You too can play along at Thursday 13

baking bonanza

What a day...

Half asleep the night before (that would be last night) and wanting to make a sponge I go to grind my flour and accidentally grind hard red and soft white. What did I want? Hard red and hard white. Did I realize this? Not until my loaf was proofing. At which point I said some rather unladylike things, grabbed some lecithin and vital wheat gluten and worked it into the dough. It took longer than it should have for the first rise but rise it did. And the second rise, and the third rise. The loaves baked up light and fluffy, just the way my family likes it.* Wowie! This is bread baking with a sponge is kinda fun. The only bummer is that I only made two loaves. Next time I'll have to see if I can successfully double the recipe.


Having some bananas that were getting rather soft (and a freezer full of bananas for smoothies) I decided to make banana almond raisin bread. Having lots of plums that no one was eating and a half a jar of jam that was starting to crystalize I decided to make plum tarte. I ground up soft white flour, invented two recipes that used similar flour + other ingredient proportions and set them to bake. Note to self: it is NOT a good idea to try to invent two recipes at the same time -- especially when the temperatures for the different recipes may be different.

The banana bread came out fabulous! A little darker and heavier than I would have liked but smelling wonderful and tasting great. The plum tarte got too dark around the edges, bubbled over and spilled all over the tiles on the bottom of my oven. The look too rich and crumbly (yes there is such a thing) but I hope they taste good. I'm thinking of pairing it with ice cream for dessert tonight, that way if it's not great (and I suspect it's not -- although it is edible) at least the ice cream will mask some of the defaults.

An interesting baking day to say the least. I did learn stuff and nothing was suitable only for wildlife fodder or doorstops, so I consider it all a success.


* When I baked with store bought flour it was easy to get fluffy bread. Working with fresh ground it has been much more difficult. They haven't complained much but prefer a lighter bread. I think I'm on my way to figuring it out.

wfmw - shower caps

h/t to my mother-in-law for this one.

I hate using lots of saran wrap to cover bowls and such in the fridge. Instead I use shower caps. They're elasticized, re-usable, and inexpensive.

If you want to see other WFMW tips, head on over to visit Shannon.

knit time

Tuesday, my Stitch Sister night. It was a small meeting tonight, just four of us.

I collected another hat for the homeless. I think we're all getting a bit burned out by hats. I have two in process, everyone else seems to have one on the needles and I think this is going to be the last hats before we decide to drop them off. I'll count once we are done collecting.

It's really been an amazing effort. Even though we didn't reach our goal of 100 we still made a significant contribution to making hats that will help keep others warm during the cold winters we have here.

We all admire and enjoy each other's hats, sharing tips for creating and color matching and stash-using-up. Some of the hats are not so pretty, some are incredible creations, some are just, well, hats. But each of them is a investment of time and thought. It's hard when you are making a hat for someone you don't know not to think about who might be wearing that hat. To hope that it will keep them warm and possibly to give them hope that someone cares even if it is someone that they will never meet. I find myself wondering about all the sizes and colors that we have and the reactions of people when they have the opportunity to choose a hat for themselves from this collection we've made. Once they find a size that fits well will they like the colors? Will the ability to choose help make them feel warmer inside? Perhaps I'm overly optimistic about how much these hats will be appreciated, but I know that as a community of women this project has really helped us bond even more and given us a good outlet for our talents in a way that allows us to give back for all we have.

It's a good feeling.

farm bounty

Oh my goodness, what a bounty at the farm today. This is the time of year when I really begin to feel that I am getting far more than my $23.80 per week.

In addition to the goodies that I came home with I also came home with a sense of peace. I haven't been able to do the pyo (pick your own) for several weeks due to the weather and/or not feeling well. Today was a gorgeous, sunny day, perfect for hanging out on the farm. I really enjoyed my time spent in the rows. I even had a lovely conversation with someone I had never met before, Martha, over the plum tomatoes. It was just great.

What did I come home with?

Gleanings on cherry tomatoes, yellows, reds, and a full bag of greens to make pickled green tomatoes.
2 quarts of green beans - dill bean pickles coming up
a LOT of plum tomatoes - sauce making starts tomorrow
8 sunflowers - so pretty and a perfect reminder of a wonderful afternoon
herbs - basil, parsley and thyme. The basil is to cook with now, the parsley and thyme are being
dried for use throughout the year. I'll continue to collect them over the next few weeks

And then the pickup stuff: tomatoes, cucumbers, swiss chard, scallions, broccoli, spaghetti squash, eggplant, garlic, onions. There was more stuff, beets, turnips, peppers (hot and sweet) but I couldn't fit anymore in my share bag.

I really am so fortunate to have access to delicious, healthy food like this. I am grateful that my family can participate in something like this and keep a farmer gainfully employed as well. It is a circle of benefit. I think it means a lot in these days of overstimulated, overspent, mechanized society to be able to have this.

tackle-it-tuesday

Finally, my Tackle-It-Tuesday contribution. . .
With
tah dah!
pictures!

This was a project that was more than one day and I didn't do it by myself, but I'm still thrilled that it's done. [Blogger's not cooperating so you get the before and after together instead of distanced from each other]

It's our pantry! It's just great to have decent shelves instead of warped pine boards. My amazing hubby even trimmed them to match the kitchen counters (is he wonderful or what?). The entire pantry is painted, the shelves neatly painted and covered with clear contact paper. The contents organized and contained neatly. notice the word neatly in the last two sentances?.

It's so fabulous that I sometimes open the door as I walk by just to look at it (isn't that silly?).

If you want to play along you too can tackle-it

Robert William McPadden

On September 11, 2001 over 343 firefighters gave their lives in service to this country. One of them was Robert William McPadden; he was 30 years old.

I don't know him, I never did. But I am touched and saddened by his loss and the violence that it represented. His courage and willingness to enter the World Trade Center is something that many of us will never have to face. But because he did I am sure that others survived.

I wanted to put a tribute up so that he could be remembered. Since the day I volunteered (through the 2,996 project) to post his remembrance I've been thinking a lot about him. And I've been trying to learn a little bit about him so that his life can be remembered and celebrated.

I know so little about him but here's what I learned:

His father, Michael McPadden was a firefighter for almost 40 years. Robert wanted to do the same. He went to college, earning a degree in history and then a graduate degree in criminal justice. Then he waited for an opening to become a firefighter, passing up the opportunity to become a police officer. He became a firefighter and was assigned to Engine Company 23.

He played drums with Pearl River's Ancient Order of Hibernians bagpipe band. Through the Hibernians he met Kate, fell in love and married her.

He was good at Jeopardy!.

He wasn't supposed to be at The Towers that day, but he was called to service and he went.

He is loved by many,

He is deeply missed,

He is one of the heros of this generation.

Sources:
--Bill Kaufman (Newsday)
—-Tom Coombe (The Morning Call)
http://cf.newsday.com/911/victimsearch.cfm?id=512

five ingredient friday - kale and potatoes

I believe this is a Portugese dish. I made it because everything came fresh from the farm on Tuesday. It was delicious.

1 bunch Kale chopped small (not fine)
10 new red potatoes, cooked and cut in half
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 C. broth (I used veggie)

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil (okay that six but really do we have to count that?
When onions and garlic are softened add potatoes and sautee until slightly browned
Add broth and bring to a boil
Add kale and bring to a low boil until kale is cooked (about 10 minutes)

Serve and enjoy.

This made a great side dish with sausage, tomato salad and fresh corn on the cob.

You to can play along with Overwhelmed With Joy

deer poop!

What is it with dogs and deer poop? Tobi just rolled in it. Again!

Steve and I went for a walk on Monday evening. Tobi managed to find and roll in a particularly noxious pile. The car ride home in our little Scion was, needless to say, rather fragrant.

Steve helped me hoist Tobi into the girls shower (Tobi has definitely put on weight and length in the last three months, I can't pick him up anymore). He's a chicken and hates to be bathed. But he suffered through it.

Today while I was taking trash to the dump and my Flylady fling boogies to Goodwill I left Tobi outside. When I came home he came running over to greet me. A rather distinct aroma rose up. Bleah! Urgh! Yuck!!! Luckily D came home just as I was contemplating wrestling the dog into the tub. I paid her $5 bucks and she washed him.

Sam used to do the same thing. I don't understand what is so attracting about smearing the stuff all over you. They always seem to come home with this goofy grin. And here I thought having a dog would help keep the deer away. Not if he smells like one.

wfmw - celery

When I buy celery I always buy two stalks. One for the ribs for peanut butter and celery or celery gratin or any number of other dishes involving a whole rib. The other is for dicing. I cut off the top and then just dice what I need, putting the rest of the rib away until the next time I need more chopped celery.

Check out Shannon's website for other Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

whoosh

That's the sound of the last few days going by. Honestly it feels like a hurricane around here right now. Not the calm back-to-school, back-to-routine that I was expecting.

Highlights for me? The kids are back in school and happy with their schedules. A big plus in my book. How long it will last? Who knows, but we're off to a good start.

Yesterday I picked a bunch of peaches from our tree. They're very delicious. The first processing batch got set aside for liqueur and two bags in the freezer for peach pie. The second batch is ripening just a bit more. I'm thinking maybe peach butter, we'll see.

Yesterday I also managed to get into the garden for a while (between vacation and rain that's been a rare occurance). Got a bit done, need to do more...that's a neverending task. I was thrilled to see that the deer did not manage to get the sunflowers this year. Last year I had lots of tall lovely stalks. This year there are actually blooms on top. Tomatoes are ripening, herbs are coming along, berry bushes are growning nicely. I'm also stunned to discover about 10 or so baby asparagus plants in a completely different bed than the one I planted them in! I really don't know how that happened but I think I shouldn't move them as I've heard that asparagus is very tender and does not take well to being moved. Now what?

My tackle-it-tuesday didn't get done so I won't talk about it here, but wait for next week (it's a big suprise, I promise). It's going to wind up being a multi-week project I guess.

Today was a zoo of a day. Running running running all day. Lots of chores got done but some fun stuff too. I went to the farm and as always loaded up on great produce. Small red potatoes are in. Along with kale, zucchini, eggplant, garlic, onions, corn, watermelon (the yummy yellow kind), tomatoes, carrots, beets, lettuce, and peppers. It was raining (it seems to always be raining on Tuesdays lately) so I skipped the pyo which was mostly gleanings anyway. I'm thinking there may be some ratatouille in our future.

After that I went to my friend Christina's house to make eggplant rolatini (sp?). On my way to the farm I had dropped off an eggplant, sauce and cheese. She went ahead and made it without me! What a wonderful surprise. We were supposed to cook together which would have been fun but this was a most welcome gift after such a busy day. We had it for dinner and even V, my meatatarian loved it. We ate in the dining room (mostly because the kitchen was full due to the tackle-it-tuesday project. Quite a nice change, I think we should eat in there more often. Of course I often wonder WHY I have a dining room as I only seem to use it a handful of times each year. It just doesn't seem to be part of our family culture to eat in this formal-ish, fancy room. We gather in the kitchen, all cozy and domestic.

This evening was Stitch Sisters. I hadn't been in three weeks so it was nice to catch up with everyone. Turns out that our group did very well at the local county fair, bringing home several ribbons all for knit or crochet items. Very fun. I also collected a few more hats. We're beginning to think that 50 hats is a more reasonable number. After all it's September and we are planning on delivering in November. We currently have 32. I have one on the needles and one more planned. I know at least three other hats are in process. Plus we're getting into holiday crunch time. However 50 hats is 50 more than the shelter had before so it's a good number. A great effort by all.

Now off to bed to collapse before tomorrow begins.

pickle party

I spent the morning with my friend Barb. She had a lot of zucchini and onions from her garden and wanted to learn how to make pickles. I brought over my canning pot, mandolin, spices and taught her how it's done. It really is so easy. She was amazed, impressed and delighted. She was thrilled with how the pickles tasted and can't wait to make more. Another convert (mwahahaha).

The recipe that we used was pretty much as follows:

4 lbs zucchini, sliced in the mandolin
3 large onions, sliced in the mandolin
put in non-reactive bowl and sprinkle generously with pickling salt
let sit 1 hour
rinse well

In a separate pot mix together

3 C. apple cider vinegar
2 C. sucanat
1 T. mustard seed
2 t. celery seed
2 t. turmeric
2 t. ginger powder
1 T. black peppercorns

Bring mixture to a boil
add rinsed squash and onions
bring back to a boil
jar, seal, hot water bath 10 minutes

This recipe is best when you let it sit for a few weeks before eating

filed under preserving, recipes

way kewl

I have always wanted categories on my blog. I didn't know how to get them and truthfully was to tired at the end of a day to look and see if there was a way to do it. Major h/t to Shannon for hosting WFMW and to Overwhelmed! for posting how to do this.

I can see that I may have to tweak/refine my categories and I'm definitely going to have to think about how I post so that everything gets properly filed.

The great thing is that this will make it easier for me to find my own stuff. Nothing worse than posting a recipe and not being able to find it after wading through all the bits and bytes. I'm happy.

wfmw - keys

h/t to Dad for this one. I should explain first that I used to carry all of my keys with me. It was bulky and heavy. When going through a security check somehow my entire keyring disappeared. What a hassle. Now Steve and I each have a carabiner key ring. We keep all our keys on rings and only slide on the ones that we need at any given time. Changing cars? Change keys. I do have a khamsa on mine that D bought me in Israel. But that's it. So much lighter and easier. Plus if I lose a key I don't have to replace everything.

If you want to play along visit Shannon.

farming in the rain

It was pouring down rain today. When I got to the farm to pick up my share I decided that I did not need the pick-your-own crops quite that badly thankyouverymuch. I still came home with quite a haul.

One lovely watermelon, corn, swiss chard, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, carrots, onions, kale. And a bag full of "seconds" on tomatoes from the "take all you can use" box. They will get turned into sauce, hopefully tomorrow if not the next day.

family fun

Yesterday Steve, D and I got together with my brother and his family. We all went to Six Flags together. We got there when the park opened and stayed until it closed. A really full fun day. The kids had a great time going on lots of rides in the morning. Steve thinks the parks should have a "chicken pass." A special price break for those who won't ride roller coasters.

After lunch we went to IllusionQuest, the magic show. Both my nephew M and I got to be in the show, it was kind of fun. M got to be the magician's apprentice, wearing the coat and hat (too big), with assistants in glimmery short dresses (yech - he's only 8 he wasn't impressed) and to help with the cutting-a-lady-in-half trick. Very fun and we all cheered like mad.

Next he picked me (I didn't volunteer) to lend him a ring which he made disappear. He had a vending machine full of stuff in it and eventually made my ring come out in one of those little plastic caps. It was fun and an interesting trick.

A few more rollercoasters and then on to Hurricane Harbor where the kids and my sister-in-law splashed about. I took a nap in the shade, very relaxing. The race for one last rollercoaster and then the park was closed.

We went to the Red Robin burger restaurant - home of the unlimited-bottomless-fries-basket. We had never been there. The burgers were really good. A fun meal together and then we each headed our respective way home.

Altogether is was a fabulous way to spend the day, one of the last few before summer is over. Wednesday starts the school year.

ten things

Ooh, I saw this over at Amy's and tagged myself because it was so funny. Unfortunately it was a long time ago and this got lost in bloggydraftland but it has resurfaced and so here it is:

Ten things you'll probably never hear me say:

1. Why of course, help yourself to all of my clothes. (to my teenage daughters - who abscond with my stuff regularly)

2. No, it's fine. Dirty all the pots you want; I don't mind washing up after you. (same kids)

3. No chocolate for me thanks.

4. A pet ferret? No problem.

5. More horseradish please.

6. You want to cancel bedtime, why not?

7. I don't mind buying you $90 sneakers.

8. Let's watch Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo together, it's my favorite show too.

9. You want to go to Chinatown by yourself? I don't see why not. (to 12 year old who thinks she'll just "take the train.")

10. Starting right now I'm going to double your allowance...just because.

quiet joy

I frequently find myself amazed by my children. They are so (insert any wonderful adjective here). Really, they are. I know I'm a little biased but I believe in them wholeheartedly and find myself feeling priviledged (most of the time) to be their mother (that's when I'm not feeling like selling them to the nearest passing gypsy).

One adjective that they are is creative. All three of them. I'm not sure how it happened but creativity just oozes out of their pores. Today I found myself "seeing" a moment that was so precious and wonderful.

It was a rainy, grey day. The kind where you want to curl up in bed for a long time only to emerge to grab a cup of tea, a book and a blanket and curl up somewhere else.

I was busy unpacking, cleaning, organizing, trying to do household stuff. At one point I walked into the kitchen to realize that the counters were all clean, there was gentle music playing, a beautiful just-created sweet bouquet of flowers from our garden and D was busy lighting a lot of candles. She said, "This is warming the spirit on a rainy day. And it did. So sweet and sensitive of her to recognize that we need a slow, calmer pace in the house and to try to create it on her own.

She arranged candles beautifully together and the bouquet that she made was truly a work of art. I don't know how she does it because I'm not that talented. She wanders into the garden, snips a few flowers and poof, a beautiful, coordinated, just-right arrangement. I don't know how she does it but I am grateful that she does.

k.o.v.

No pictures from vacation yet. Mostly because I can't find the box with the disk to load the software. Hopefully soon. Bear with me as we struggle with the technical difficulties.

But I thought I would at least talk about Knitting On Vacation.

I managed to get quite a bit done, I was rather proud of myself. This was, of course helped by the fact that the ride was a long one and I wasn't driving. Hard to drive and purl at the same time.

My first project was a cute scarf with a glitzy yarn. Nothing fancy, just knit, knit, knit. No picture because a) see above, and b) it's a gift for someone who reads this so I don't want them to see it in advance.

Second project was a cute little purse with an i-cord handle out of the other skein of the same yarn. I really like this yarn so much, it's from Joanne's, called Radiance (their store brand). Good for cute little projects. When I set out on vacation although I invested serious time in planning for knitting projects I failed to consider all options and did not bring any dpns. So I had to make one with regular needles. For some reason this really bothered my hands. Instructions are: cast on 3/4/whatever. Knit. Transfer to other needle. Knit. Repeat. Bleah.

Third project started out as a fibonacci blue hat. It didn't last long for two reasons. One, duh! I was working with scraps of blue. Hard to plan for longer stretches with that. Two, I forgot part way in what I was doing. Three (okay I can't count), I made an error (I so forgot what I was doing -- I blame it on the vacation air) and doubled back on myself. Did I discover this error? Not until a good 5 or 6 rows later. Did I frog it? NO WAY! This is vacation man, no knit cursing allowed to despoil the idyllic environs. I simply made the same mistake in the opposite direction. Still working on this hat though because I got tired of it after a while.

Project number four was a hat (okay this was crochet but I was still fiberworking here) with white yarn and stripes of leftover purples, ranging from dark down to light. I realized after I did this that I probably should have made the stripes in the other direction but that's okay, it's done now. This is another hat for the Stitch Sisters 100 Hats for the Homeless Project. It will still function to keep somebody warm.

Lessons learned on vacation?

1) Pointing out every knitting/yarn/possible fiber shop to the driver does NOT endear you to them. Nor does it make them willing to stop and investigate if there really is a yarn shop 1/2 mile before where you currently are. Pity that GPS systems don't have a LYS button.

2) Never open the door to let the oven repair man in without putting away your knitting. Otherwise the dog will grab your project, playfully throw in in the air a few times, dropping half the stitches in the process, and then drag/unwind it while bringing it to you for praise and affection.

3) If you are packing at the crack of dawn and put your stitch markers in the way back of the mini-van, when you need one for project #4 a bobby pin will suffice since the aforesaid driver doesn't seem to want to stop the minivan and unpack the whole thing just to find your stitch markers. Neither does he want to stop at a passing yarn shop (see #1 above) to allow you to buy more.

All in all it was a good and relaxing vacation and I did get a lot of knitting in.

five ingredient friday - cuban bread

This is a recipe that I got a long time ago from the Tightwad Gazette that I adapted to my own measures. My family loves it and it's quick and easy.

Cuban Bread

1 T + 1 t yeast
2 T honey (can use less if desired)
1 T salt
2 C hot water
5-6 C flour

mix yeast, honey, salt, and hot water
add 1-2 C of flour and stir well
add remaining flour 1/2 C at a time until dough is formed
knead for 8 minutes until dough is satiny and soft
oil bowl, roll dough in oil and cover
let rise in draft free place for 1 hour or until double
punch down dough, form into ball and place on baking sheet, slash top
let rest 10 minutes
bake 400 degrees for 10 minutes
reduce heat to 350 and bake another 25 minutes or until bread is done (sounds hollow when tapped on bottom)

Notes:
* I sometimes will substitute different flours in this recipe
* bread can be spiced up by adding ingredients such as dill, sunflower seeds, etc

Feel free to play along at Overwhelmed With Joy

sweet knits

Okay, sitting here getting sucked into catching up on emails and blogreads when I really should be at least sleeping if not cleaning.

BUT!!! I found This!



Isn't it amazing? Goes along with the knitted cupcakes that everyone seems to be making from the One Skein book.

Can pies be far behind?

book review

I brought two books on vacation with me and so I am sharing my thoughts about these books.

The first one was Dragon's Kin by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey. It's a cute book, very easy to read just like all the others. The story line is fairly predictable but enjoyable nonetheless. Truthfully I couldn't tell any difference in the writing style with Todd adding in. I've been out of touch with this series for a long time, apparently Todd is taking over for his Mum. Neat twist in that this story was about the watch whers instead of the dragons so we learned more about them. I was disappointed that there were some unfinished elements in the book such as how the uncle was dealt with and why he was allowed to behave the way he did. Other than that I found it to be a good overall addition to the series.

The second book was the Book of Joe. I did not like this book and did not finish it. The book starts with a graphic description of an act of oral sex and seems to go downhill from there. I valiantly tried to read it figuring that perhaps the author was just looking for shock value but after 20 or so pages had to put it down. Not for me.

This left me reading magazines but luckily there were a number of them at the house we rented.

Back to the library next week to request my next book or two, I'll keep you posted as I work my way through my list (which is getting very long btw, especially due to Kevin's post.)

home again home again jiggity jig

Or so goes the nursery rhyme.

We've been away on vacation with two tiny stops at an internet source...long enough for me to make two tiny posts. But I didn't post about my vacation because

dah dah dah dah!

I got a digital camera! Well, actually Steve bought it for me. And it's very first official outing was to go on vacation (isn't it so lucky). We went to Maine and had a lovely lovely time. If I finish all the laundry and unpacking tomorrow I'll try to figure out how to get the pictures onto the computer so that I can load them up here for all to see.

wfmw - mom calendar

Getting to be close to that time of year when I need to look for a new calendar. My favorite is the Mom Calendar.

I love this calendar (I've been using this style for three years now) because it has a column for each member of the family. Makes it easy to see who has what without trying to cram everything into one little box. This definitely works for me!

Check out Shannon's website for other Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

tags: wfmw, meme, bread

tobi update

We're still trying to figure out what breed Tobi is. Now we've found a picture that looks a lot like him. He's obviously still part pig and part termite (as evidenced by his appetite for compost and trees. However we now suspect there's a lot of Viszla in him.

I'll try to get a picture of him up here one of these days.

some gave all

Inspired by this post over at Shannon's blog I am compelled to offer my gratitude for all those who serve this country. Those meagre words are not enough especially for the families of those who have given their lives so that the rest of us can continue to enjoy the freedoms we have.

11/21/2005 Dearing, John Wilson "J.W." 21, Army National Guard Private 1st Class

Army Pfc. John Wilson Dearing died Nov. 21, 2005. He was a gunner riding in a Humvee with five other soldiers in Habbaniyah when it ran over a land mine killing him instantly.

Dearing was an honor student and athlete, participating in his school's track, swimming and baseball teams. He had dreams of becoming a professional baseball player, and his hero was Atlanta Braves' slugger Chipper Jones.

He signed up for the Guard as a junior in high school, his unit was based in Saginaw. He volunteered for deployment in Iraq after his unit returned from Egypt. On June 11 he was married and the unit left for Iraq at the end of June.

According to his father Dearing wanted to be a police officer upon his return.

It is hard to contemplate all the dreams and hopes that were so abruptly cut short. I cannot imagine the loss to his family. Please join me in remembering and honoring this man, John Wilson Dearing.

Sources: Detroit Free Press, The Oakland Press, The Daily Tribune.

If you would like you can also join Some Gave All, and pay tribute to a fallen soldier on your blog.

perseids

Thanks to my Dad we knew about tonight's perseid shower.

D, her friend N, Tobi and I all sat outside watching the sky. The girls saw one good one and we all saw a number of faint ones. Unfortunately because of the almost full moon the display wasn't that great but it was still fun.

knitting graffiti

???

Well here's something new and different. I hadn't heard of this before. Interesting concept.

My observation? Why are they doing this in Houston where the trees don't need trunk cozys to keep them warm in the winter?

more books

It never rains but it pours. I've gone from having "nothing" to read to having an enormous amount to read. I got a call from the library, they have a book for me. Run down to get it. It's the One Skein that I had requested I don't know how long ago. I've heard a lot of good things about the projects in this book so I'm looking forward to reading it.

While I'm there I see that I once again missed the book discussion. I seem to read all of the books and never make it to the discussions. The next book discussion is in four weeks. The book? Bel Canto. I've already read this one but loved it. It was so well written and really kept me engaged. The characters were wonderful. So I'm going to read it again. Who knows maybe I'll actually make it to this book discussion.

blogher

Another place to find blogs of interest. Now I need a compression reader for my reader feeds.

books, books, books

Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer has joined a book meme and issued an open tag. I find this funny since I was just looking for good books, I have a feeling that as I go through the Linky List I'm gonna have a whole lotta readin' goin' on.

So here's my responses to the meme:

1. Book that changed your life: The Little House on the Prairie series. I've read them several times and I always love reading about the lifestyle, the joy that existed in their family and as a kid I was fascinated at this glimpse into a life that was so totally different from my own.

2. Book that you've read more than once: The Little House on the Prairie series and The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, and Kate Elliott, and the entire Harry Potter series (I re-read it from the beginning when a new one comes out) and The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher.

3. Book you'd want on a desert island: Hard to pick just one, I don't really know.

4. Book that made you laugh: Anything by Erma Bombeck.

5. Book that made you cry: A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

6. Book that you wish had been written: Weed While You Read

7. Book you don't enjoy: I'm really not big on thrillers, intrigue, that sort of thing.

8. Book you are currently reading: I'm about to start The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper and Dragon's Kin by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey.

9. Book you've been meaning to read: War and Peace. I'm determined to read it one day..

10. Book you remember as a real page-turner: Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, Forest and London and Sarum all by Edward Rutherford, the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. There's more but I'll stop here.

11. Non-fiction books that you have enjoyed: Cookbooks (I read them just like regular books, cover to cover -- especially the ones with pretty pictures), Knitting Books, Gardening books (especially if they're written by my Mom.

12. Children's books your family has loved: Anything by Shel Silverstein, especially Lafcadio the Lion Who Shot Back, Mrs. Pigglewiggle, Goodnight Moon, and Guess How Much I Love You. There are others but this is a good start.

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. If you really want to you can join up with the linky list at Shannon's blog.

puppy treats

Oh...My...Goodness!!! Girls are just too funny. D and E decided that they needed something to do. So far this sleep-over week we've done pizza on the beach, gone shopping for supplies to decorate a photo box, eaten at Wendy's (urg), chased Tobi, sparkler dancing, hanging out in the tree house and a picnic lunch.

While I was on the phone the came up with a really fun idea! Making a cake for Tobi! The next thing I know they're asking where ingredients are, I hear my KitchenAid whirring away and I'm not sure what I'm going to find. Next question...how long do you preheat an oven? What temperature do you bake a dog cake at?

Near as I can tell the ingredients are dog food, water, egg, bacos, and oatmeal. They're making a two layer cake with peanut butter in the middle. Oooh, yum. LOL. I hope that the dog likes it.

update: He loved it! The girls took it outside on a plate with a "candle" in it (a rawhide twist stick dipped in peanut butter). He wolfed the treat down in less than thirty seconds and then spent 10 minutes licking the grass looking for crumbs. I guess that means it was a success.

books

I have been so busy reading non-fiction books on a wide variety of subjects and was looking for a good summer read. Somehow I couldn't find what I needed at the library. I don't know why but nothing jumped out at me.

What did I do? I called on my best book reading sources, my sister-in-law and my Aunt. I also asked a friend. Did I get a recommendation? Wow! Look at this list! I can see that I'm going to have a lot of good looking books to read.

1000 White Women
When Crickets Cry
The Historian
Every Mother is a Daughter
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
Dragon's Kin
Dragon's Fire
Dragonsblood
Water for Elephants
Book of Joe
Bone Weaver

I went to the library and got two that were checked in...Book of Joe and Dragon's Kin. I'll let you know how they were.

five ingredient friday

Baked Mock French Toast

My family loves this because it's tasty, I love it because it's easy to make. It's not the same as pan-toasted french toast but it's still delicious.

bread
eggs
milk (we use vanilla soy)
fruit
sugar (we use sucanat)

In a greased cooking pan (let's not count that as an ingredient, okay?) lay out bread
How many slices? However many fit in the pan. An 8 x 8 square will hold 4 if you squish 'em.
Mix together eggs and milk enough to cover bread.
How much? For the 8 x 8 pan I use 2 eggs and about 3/4 C. milk
Cover with plastic and set in fridge overnight
In the morning preheat the oven to 350
Unwrap the pan and sprinkle sliced/diced/whatever fruit and sugar on top of bread mixture
Bake approximately 20 minutes until done
Serve and enjoy

For more Five Ingredient Friday lists check out Overwhelmed With Joy.

wfmw (bread tip)

Sometimes I like to buy specialty breads as a treat. We don't go through them very quickly, especially if it's a hearty dense bread that the kids don't like it. So I put two slices at a time in sandwich baggies, rebag the whole loaf and put it in the freezer. Then we can take out just a few slices at a time. Works for me!

Check out Shannon's website for other Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

momblogs

I've recently found a new place to hang out in the blogosphere. Lots of mom blogs here. The hard part is I see my blogroll increasing, again. The good part is I like what I'm finding.

When I started reading blogs they were mostly knitting and craft related. Then I began to find food blogs, then fun blogs, then educational blogs, the list just kept going. As I've continued to read and explore I find that I have mercilessly dropped some of my older reads in favor of new ones. Some of it is time but some of it is also because I've realized I can only read so many craft blogs at one time. And I can only read so many vegetarian blogs at one time too. I do wish I had kept a list of what I used to read though, I think it would have been interesting to track the evolution of my blogreads.

But I like what I'm reading now and that's what is important. Check out the link above, maybe you'll find some new blog reads of your own.

fireflies

Of the girly persuasion. D and E decided to take some sparklers outside for a bit of summer entertainment (with permission of course). After getting a cup of water for the used stems they began to light up the sparklers, twirling, writing, dancing around with them. I sat on the front stoop and watched them. It was so sweet to hear their girly giggles as they played outside in the still air with the crickets chirping in the background. What a sweet summer memory.

stitch sisters

Lots of fun tonight. We had dessert to go with our knitting (which of course meant we had to put our knitting down for a while but no one seemed to complain). Raspberry sherbert with peaches and also including blackberries from my garden. Quite a tasty treat to go along with our usual goodness of community gathering.

We also collected 7 more hats! I'm so impressed by how many hats we have managed to make. It's really wonderful to see the collection growing. So many different styles, colors, sizes. It's going to be great when we take them to the shelter.

Speaking of hats one of our members brought a fabulous book to the meeting. So many cute designs (and babies). We all passed it around and admired it. The sister who brought it threatened to beat any of us with a purse if the book went missing :-D

All in all it was the usual wonderful get-together that it always is.

farm day

Today was farm day. D's friend E is visiting from out of state for a few days and so she went with us. She was much more excited about picking things and cutting the flowers than D is. I guess the novelty has worn off for D after doing this so often. Not for me but then again I'm not a teenager.

In today's lovely collection: sun gold cherry tomatoes, sun flowers, green beans, wax beans, a bouquet of mixed flowers, swiss chard, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, beets, kohlrabi, mmmmmmmmm. Lots of lovely fresh food. Even E noticed the difference as we all happily munched the green beans on the way home. I know I'm getting back on my soap box here but I am still amazed at how wonderful it is to buy local, fresh, organic food. So much tastier, to much better for you. Plus we're helping to support a farmer, show the kids where our food really comes from, and get a back-to-nature break at least once a week. All good stuff.

ps

A ps to Tackle It Tuesday...I did this exact same thing (tackling, decluttering, flying, whatever you want to call it) for my Aunt the last time I visited her. We got rid of lots of stuff, reorganized stuff and came up with a decluttering plan for other stuff.

I guess it's easier to throw out other people junk because their junk is junk and our junk is stuff. Here's George Carlin on this very subject.

tackle it tuesday

I have resisted joining in because...well I don't know why. But yesterday I tackled such a huge job that I knew I had to join here. We are in the process (don't ask me why because again...I don't know why) of rearranging several (five to be exact) spaces in our home. Some of them had to be done at the same time because we were flipping one room for another. Example: S's room became the guest room and the guest room became S's room. Never mind that two floors separate them and all the lugging and heaving up and down stairs of furniture. This necessitated the play room (next to S's new room) becoming an overflow room.

Then D wanted S's old room, the new guest room. Luckily (or not depending on your point of view) she decided that if we rearranged her room, swapped out some furniture and reorganized things she liked her room just fine, thank you very much. Then V got into the act and decided to reorganize her room. The office became the overflow area for their rooms. As you can see I'm going to have LOTS of Tackle It posts coming up.

A very long explanation to get to what I did. With the help of my dear friend Holly I now have a cleared out and reorganized one-half of the playroom. We purged while we were at it and the back of my minivan is full of junk to go to the dump today. I feel so good about getting rid of old papers, little bits and pieces of stuff I don't need and making the space more usable and organized. Holly was amazing, encouraging me to get rid of stuff, helping me sort and organize it's great. I still have a long way to go in there but now you can walk into the room, sit down on the sofa and get to the stuff on the shelves. WOW.

If you want to play along go visit 5 minutes for mom.

simplicity

I'm learning that simplicity is a relative term. I'm speaking of simplicity as it relates to life and life-issues.

For many people that term conjures up images of voluntary simplicity also known as simple living. It means living with less stuff and spending less.

For some it conjures up ideas of living off the land like Helen and Scott Nearing or even Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond experience.

But I have recently come across another explanation which startled me. Why did it startle me so? Because I have always assumed that in order to live more simply one must follow the above examples. We, meaning my husband and I, try to live a lower impact lifestyle, recycling heavily, composting, doing things for ourselves, trying not to buy excessively, all of that; and so do many of our friends.

But now I have a friend who has shown me another example of simplifying her life. She is moving not to a more rural area where she would have to do more for herself, but to a more urban area. Her husband is being transferred but she sees the simplification of her life in not having to drive so far to get the kids to all of their activities. The simplification of having a grocery store close by instead of 30 minutes away. The simplicity of having public services, parks, amenities available. I had truly never looked at it that way before and I am stunned by the realization that if indeed the purpose is to simplify your life, the end result is the same no matter how you get there; less stress, more time, more of whatever you are looking for, less of whatever you don't like.

So now instead of trying to do more I am back to my Aunt's philosophy (which I had lost sight of for a while), do less. Do more of the things that matter but less of the things that cause stress. I'm also still following my Mom's good example and trying to re-examine what I own to see if I can part with more stuff. Less stuff means less dusting, less clutter and for me that means a lot less stress.

Sometimes that different perspective is so healthy and really opens up new pathways in the brain, we just need to be open to the circumstances around us to see those opportunities.

learning

My children go to public school. At one point I thought I might homeschool but then, for various reasons, we decided to leave them in public school. Overall it has worked out well for them. However, we do have continuing learning going on at our house because I believe that learning does not and should not stop when you walk outside the four walls that define a public school. Learning is a lifelong endeavor, there is always something new and interesting to learn. If you are in the habit of continuing to exercise your mind all your life it is better for you.

In the summer we try to do some sort of homeschool. Although the public school sends home a math packet and a reading assignment we would do more than that. When the kids got into high school they could choose an independent study project that thaty had to research, write a paper about and work with me on. When they were younger (and still my youngest) we picked a subject of the summer (one summer it was the solar system, one summer it was insects, etc) to study as our primary subject and then we would also touch on some basic history, math, science, nature, english/literature.

For the last few years I put up a Word of the Week on the pantry door. It was a word, with its definition, its part of language, and synonyms. I figured this would be a good thing for SAT practice and word acquisition. Then I started adding a quote of the week, something that I found inspirational that I thought would be good for my children to learn. In the last six months I added a place of the week. Someplace in the world that they might not know where it is, a little history about it and a graphic of a map of the area.

It's all good stuff. But here's where it gets interesting. I wasn't always as motivated as I should be to change the page every week. Then my kids started noticing and pointing out to me that I had forgotten to change the page. This summer life got very busy for a number of reasons and we (read I) chose to forgo home summer school. The youngest missed it!

In my browsings and wanderings in the blogoshpere I found This! post. I realized that I am most of the way there. I can expand this idea to help my youngest with the Spanish that she will be learning this year (and which Steve and I would like to learn) and cover other subjects that may need help. It's a fun way to share information and learning. But I am going to make it more visually interesting and colorful than it has been in the past. Hopefully this will help me regain my motivation and recharge our learning efforts for the upcoming school year.

saft sirop syrup

I have finally found a recipe for making saft which is a fruit syrup concentrate that you add water/seltzer to to make a nice refreshing drink. I have been wanting to make it for a long time and lost my recipe.

Basically you take some fruit (I'm using raspberries and blackberries), mush them up with a little yeast, let it ferment a while, strain, add water and sugar, boil and process.

The recipe I have calls for 5 pints of fruit, 1 t. yeast, 2 C. sugar and then the water is added proportionally to how much juice you have. It smells VERY yeasty at the moment but hopefully that will calm down over the next day or two. I'm really thrilled to try this and see how it turns out.

I'm hoping it turns out well and that the kids like it. I'm also thinking of trying a second batch using something other than white sugar (perhaps sucanat or honey). We'll see how the first one turns out before I make that decision.

the best laid plans....

I'm always trying to organize better. Truthfully I'm not sure why. I guess I somehow feel that if I could be better organized life would run more smoothly. That may not necessarily be true, but I still try.

I have found lots of help and inspiration at The Flylady and Organized Home.

In my continuing quest for order I decided that I was going to tackle D's room while she was away at camp. Being the procrastinator that I am I didn't manage to get to it the first week. No problem, week two was there. Steve helped me and we made significant progress in the first two days clearing out her room, cleaning, re-arranging.

It all came to a screetching halt right there. I took a day off to go visit my newest niece, K. I had a really lovely visit with my sister-in-law and got in lots of baby cuddles. While I was down there the camp nurse called home. D had a very high fever and with no air conditioning at camp they felt it was prudent to bring her home. Steve went and fetched her and all of her stuff from camp (which ends tomorrow - whether she makes it to the banquet depends on how she feels). She was happy that her room was clean and rearranged but all the stuff it out of it. I had been hoping to get rid of more than I suspect I will be able to now. But we're organizing and sorting and the end result will still be better than what she had before.

Lessons learned? I still procrastinate more than I should. I try to tell myself it's because I have too much to do (which is true) but I have also learned that part of the problem is that I never seem to find the time to do just one thing at a time. There are always too many tasks demanding my attention (laundry and cooking are two biggies that come to mind).

Other lesson learned? I have improved. As I was working in her room I realized that although I may not be as organized as I would like to be, in the last few years I have made significant progress. So there's hope.

Last lesson? Kids are pigs. Goodness knows I love 'em to pieces, but they are just the messiest creatures ever put on the face of this earth. The good news? One day they move out, you get your house back and whether they keep their own place neat becomes totally their responsibility. Now if I can just hold on to that thought for the next however-many-years.

tag issue

In case anyone is wondering (and I suspect no one is) the tag issue has turned into a non-issue. I got two offline responses telling me that they never checked the tag links I put in. So I suppose I have a 100% response in favor of dropping tags. Actually it's easier for me so that's a good thing.

Just in case you were wondering.

However, if you wanted to learn more about tagging here is the Technorati site that explains it.

farm day

Yesterday was farm day. It was so hot and humid (up in the triple digits) that I chose to forgo the flowers but still managed to pick a quart of wax beans and my share of cherry tomatoes.

Inside the barn the mix and match selection included 8 ears of fabulous corn. Mmmmmm, so good when it's fresh. We also got eggplant (the small purple and white ones), kohlrabi, sweet carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, red onions, sweet onions, lettuce, beets, and swiss chard.

Dinner was a medley of veggies from the farm including grilled corn-on-the-cob. Boy was it good.

We're getting into the part of the season where the share equals more than we can eat in a week. Soon it will be time to begin pickle production. I have two friends who also belong to the farm who want to learn how to make pickles so perhaps we can do this together, should be fun.

wfmw - puppy treats

Our puppy, Tobi, loves peanut butter. Stuffing it into his doggie toy is a bit messy and he manages to clean the thing out in under 10 seconds. D, came up with a fabulous idea. She makes globs of peanut butter on a plate and puts it in the freezer. When we want to give him one it stuffs into the toy very easily and he really has to work at it for a while to get all the peanut butter.

It works for me.

Check out Shannon's website for other Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

parent picnic

tags

Curiousity prompts me to ask.

I have been, more or less, tagging my posts to Technorati. I figured that if someone liked what I was writing about they might be interested in reading what others had to say about the same subject.

But I confess it's a bit of a pain to tag each post (especially since I tend to break up my day into mini-subjects) and decide what the appropriate posts are. Does anyone reading this have an opinion? If so please share. Do you like tagging? Do you not like it? Do you not care?

Waiting to hear.

berry good

Today I managed to pick two quarts of raspberries. It looks like some jam making will soon be in my future. The bushes we so loaded and the berries so ripe that just moving the canes caused some of the berries to make a headlong dive into the thicket. Despite this sad and mournful loss I collected a goodly amount.

I also picked about a pint of blackberries. These things are as big as the first going on my thumb. And tasty? Oh my. MMMMMMMMMM, I think there's going to be some of my favorite blackberry pie soon too. Of course if the peaches hurry up I might even be able to make my Mom's blackberry peach cobbler.

The elderberries, which are planted in the same enclosure, look very happy. I'm hoping the amount of growth that they are putting on means that they will be producing their first crop of fruit as early as next year.

I really feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful abundance of fruits right here in my back yard.

camp days

We dropped D off for camp yesterday (with thanks to my cousin T who helped us narrowly avert a bathing suit castrophe). I think she's going to have a great time. She's going with a friend and it's two whole weeks of fun and sun and kids...what more could she want. The campground is really lovely, 167 acres with it's own lake. Swimming, hiking, canoeing, arts and crafts, etc. All good stuff.

When dropping her off in her cabin, my friend Rita (mother of D's friend A) and I noticed two other girls talking about the arts and crafts. "Wait till you see what I did" squealed the first one dragging out a pair of jeans. "I embroidered the pockets." And, might I add, they were very cute, well done, colorful, just the fun sort of camp activity you might expect. Then she flipped the jeans over. "And I shredded them myself! With a seam ripper and sissors!"

Rita and I looked at each other horrified. My first thought was 'I just bought those jeans." We're hoping that our daughters are not similarly stricken by talent. But at the end of the day as long as she has a good time I guess that's all that really matters.

tag: summer, camp

family fun

We had a great family fun night tonight. After dinner we half-played a rousing game of scrabble. I say half played because suddenly in the middle of the game it was decided that we needed to go down to the town park instead to play basketball. The others assured me that it had nothing to do with the fact that I was whompin the heck outta them but that they felt a need for more energetic activities. Uh huh. I think they're planning to sell me a bridge tomorrow.

So off to the town park with the dog in tow. S brought the big exercise ball and great, hilarious fun ensued with some sort of kickball/soccer game with the rules being made up as the game went along. After everyone was really tired from running around we went over to the basketball court and played an awesomely bad game of horse. We really are pathetic basketball people, but we have fun doing it and that's what matters most. Tobi had a great time running around with us. When it got too dark and too many mosquitos were out we finally decided to head home.

The giggles and laughter and fun made it a perfect summer evening.

tags: scrabble, basketball

stitch sisters

Was last night but I seem to be running late these days with my posts. It's a busy summer.

One of the sisters agreed to have it at her house because she has AC and the church where we meet does't. It made a nice change. We had a really good turnout, collected some more hats and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I taught one of the sisters how to make the hat pattern that I am making and she did an awesome job using handspun wool (she didn't spin it though); it turned out to be an amazing hat.

It was fun to visit and we got to see the sister-in-questions' new pet. A bunny named Nutmeg. It's rather amusing, they keep Nutmeg on a leash and he really doesn't seem to mind. Sort of like a dog run thing. The chickens are afraid of him apparently. He's very pretty and very soft.

tags: knitting, hat, rabbit,

works for me wednesday

WFMW is the brainchild of Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer. Every Wednesday you post something that works for you.

When we bought cordless phones for the house we go three and they all look alike. To remember which one belongs in which cradle we put a clear piece of tape on the back, wrote the room on it and covered it with another piece of tape. This way we always know where the phones belong for a recharge.

tags: meme, wfmw

cookbookwiki

Wow! A new cookbook resource. I love it!!! I actually found this thanks to Chili und Ciabatta which I am laughably trying to stumble my way though (having forgotten LOTS of German in the intervening years). But the pictures are nice and every now and then I find a gem. Like this link. What fun to start trolling through this one.

tags: cookbook, recipes

puerto rico

My Mom just got back. Here's the link to her adventures complete with gorgeous photographs (she's so talented). Truthfully Puerto Rico has never been high on my list of places to go but having seen these pictures now I want to go too and experience it for myself.

tag: vacation

knitty love

The new issue of Knitty is up. I love this magazine and always eagerly look forward to it's new issues. I also love trolling through past issues. Too many things to knit! The articles are fun too, I like the end tag on the home page this issue, you'll have to check it out for yourself.

Patterns that caught my fancy this time? Perdita and Fetching. I really really want to make Perdita. Of course that just adds one more to the list. But it looks like a good, light, hopefully quick project for the summer. We'll see what happens. Of course I need to finish the hat I'm currently working on and Perdita would require a purchase (shhhhh....) but it would be so cute.

tag: knit

travel dreams

While visiting with Meg and Sam today we started talking about vacations, past and planned for the future. With vacation time being so precious it is sometimes difficult to know where to go. In our case it's getting harder because the kids have different ideas than we do. Plus I seem to be getting more adventurous in my advancing years and want to try all sorts of new things like eco-vacations, vocation-vacations, girlfriend getaways, yoga retreats, language immersion vacations; the possibilities are endless...unfortunately I'm not retired and independently wealthy so I have to plan a little more.

I found a new site to play with. When you're dreaming and planning http://www.infohub.com/ seems to be a pretty good place to go. I like their format because you can choose what kind of vacation and where. Time to start dreaming some more.....

lovely day in the garden

Today I met up with friends Sam and Meg for a really lovely afternoon. We went to the Glebe House and Gertrude Jekyll Gardens.

We started our afternoon with a lovely picnic under a shady tree, chatting and eating leisurely while we caught up with each others news. Then we started our tour, receiving a docented tour of the house which was fascinating. Among other things I learned that a Glebe House was a house that was owned by the church. All this time I thought that it was named for a family named Glebe. Now I know different.

After the home tour we toured the garden (twice) and then headed back to my house for further conversations. I really enjoyed the day, it was great to spend it with my friends. We're already planning a couple more garden-themed trips in the future.

tags: garden, glebe, jekyll

quotes

I was talking with my brother yesterday and he told me a number of his favorite quotes. He collects them. Some of them were very good. Actually my Dad started our fascination with quotes creating a random quote generator that he would fill with quotes and every morning when he fired up his computer he would get a new quote.

Unfortunately I can't seem to remember any, I love quotes but not many remain in my brain. However I do have a some favorite quote sites including this one which includes a very applicable quote for this time of year (it's listed under the gardening section in case you want to find it on your own):

“Gardening requires lots of water, most of it in the form of perspiration.” Lou Erickson

Too true!

home harvest

Just a few currants clinging to the bushes. I'll try to harvest them and just put them in the freezer for later use of some kind.

The raspberries have really started to ripen with a vengeance. I'm picking over a pint a day which is really fabulous. They're so tasty that at this point we're just eating them raw or in smoothies.

The smaller of the two peach trees ripened. D actually was the one who tried the fruit, thereby beating the squirrels this year. I've picked what I could reach, there are a few out of reach but I'm hoping to shake them loose in a day or two. The larger tree is just chock full of peaches. It's going to be time to make peach jam one of these days soon. Mmmmmm.

tags: garden, currants, raspberries, peaches

garden helpers

This was my first week with my hired garden helpers. I managed to get a total of 5 hours of help and it's amazing how much got done in that time. Well worth the price, especially with the weather encouraging the weeds so much these days. All the rain followed by hot, sunny weather.
Turns out Tobi will eat weeds indiscriminately from plants. I don't think he's trainable to eat only weeds, nor do I think he can eat enough to make a difference. So it's hired help for now. If we can just make some inroads into the gardens around the house I'll be happy. The hill will have to wait. Part of it is going away in the future but it would be nice if it didn't look quite so overgrown. We'll have to wait and see how far we get.

The woods have successfully been returned to their natural woodlands state without much help from yours truly. I think I have managed to rescue the vast majority of plants that were in the woods, the rest will just add "woodland interest" as they bloom. We're in the process of hopefully widening another path this year, it's slow work with all that has to be done but eventually it will get there.

tags: garden, weeds, woods, tobi

friday farm day

Today is blisteringly hot. 95 degrees F and I'm not sure what the humidity is but it's enough to melt you into nothing. It was hot work at the farm. Gleanings on the peas were available and I picked a salad bag full, some to eat fresh some to dry for soup. Also one quart of beans and a bouquet of snapdragons. The hot picking work took me over an hour.

Miss D decided she was so hot waiting for me that she poured water all over herself in an effort to cool down. Unfortunately that was the water that I was going to use to keep the flowers from dehydrating and wilting on the way home. I wrung her out (just kidding) -- there was another bottle of water that I was able to use to protect them.

Inside the barn the pickings included lettuces, cabbage, bok choy, garlic scapes, tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli rabe, swiss chard, and broccoli. All very delicious looking and some great dishes will be gracing our table this week courtesy of our lovely farm.

tags: farm

works for me wednesday

WFMW is the brainchild of Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer. Every Wednesday you post something that works for you. Today's post is showing up on Thursday because I didn't get to it on Wednesday, but it still works for me.

When I get invited to a wedding I always give the same gift. It's usually never on anyone's registry list and yet it is always appreciated. A cake plate. It's so simple, so useful and works for me.

tags: meme, wfmw

day late dollar short

This is the Tuesday post. Of course this is Wednesday Thursday but we won't pay any attention to that. Wednesday Steve bottled up the wine. He's been letting it sit or steep or whatever it does in that bottle with the funny thing-y on top. It smells delicious. Now it just needs to sit in the bottle for two to three months and then we can taste it. He got 28 bottles, a bad investment. S and V have elected themselves in charge of the labeling and are busy designing the label for a Privee Reserve.

Garden. uh. Still weedy. I actually went so far as to hire a high school kid to come help me. He showed up. One-half hour later it rained absolute buckets with a horrendous thunder and lightening storm to go with it. Not much weeding going on there. I've also hired a couple of neighbor boys to come and help me get some of the lighter stuff done. My kids won't work for me but I guess other kids will.

Stitch Sisters was great. We are up to 21 hats whoo-hoo!. We've got till November so at this rate we should generate quite a few. I did more de-stashing and donated the remnants to the group for people to use for making hats. Serves a great purpose twice, what an awesome idea.

tags: garden, weeding, wine, knitting, hats

d-mail

There are two donkeys that live down at the bottom of our neighborhood. My grey and white spotted friend, Spooky, and Teddy, the miniature donkey who lives a few doors away from Spooky.

Tonight while sitting on our beautiful screened-in porch, listening to the crickets, enjoying the bug-free breeze Steve and I heard a braying coming up the hill. I shared with Steve that Teddy's owner told me how when one starts braying the other answers back. She calls it d-mail, we thought that was a pretty clever description.

jammin' two

While visiting my in-laws this weekend my Mom generously gave me some sour cherries from a farm near her house. They look absolutely luscious.

I've decided to make Sour Cherry Walnut Conserve with them. It's meant to be used as a filling for cookies or cake.

3 pounds fresh sour cherries (about 2 quarts after pitting)
2 medium oranges
2 lemons
1/2 C. water
1 C. walnut halves
5 C. sugar

Stem, rinse and pit cherries, saving all the juice, place in a pan
Grate zest of the oranges and one of the lemons, add to cherries
Pare off membrane from oranges and lemons, cut out pulp. Chop and add to cherries with all the juice
Add water to the fruit
Set pan over medium heat and simmer uncovered until cherries are soft 15-20 minutes
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread walnuts on a baking sheet and toast them until they are fragrant, about 10 minutes
Cool nuts then rub with a cloth to remove loose skin, chop coarsely
When cherries are soft add sugar, raise the heat to medium hight and cook until the syrup has thickened
Add the walnuts, return to boiling and cook 5 minutes longer
Ladle into jars, seal and hot water bath

Mmmmmm, sounds yummy, can't wait to lick the pot (purely for testing purposes) after making this.

tags: recipe, canning, cherries, preserves

jammin'

Steve helped me pick even more currants today. Then we finally stemmed, cleaned and rinsed them to prepare them for jellying. It was really nice to have the help and certainly made things go faster.

The recipe I use is from Preserving by Oded Schwartz:

For every 2 C. currants add 2 1/2 C. water
Bring to a boil
Simmer 30 minutes
Hang in a jelly bag 30 minutes
For every 2 C. juice add 2 C. sugar and 3 T. lemon juice
Bring to jelly point
Jar, seal, hot water bath

Today was so busy that I only had time to make the juice. I'll process it tomorrow. We have quite a bit and there are more berries ripening so I should get a nice amount of jars this year. Definitely more than the six that I got last year.

There is something ultimately satisfying about preserving fruit that you grew yourself. Somehow any preserving effort is good, but having grown it yourself makes it even more special.

tags: jelly, currants, recipe, canning

fabulous fourth

We had a really great Fourth of July celebration at my in-laws. As usual they did a bang-up job creating a great party with good food, good company, and a good time was had by all. Lots of friends and family, including my folks, were there.

This year we made family history by remembering to eat the watermelon. In past years we have had so much dessert that we have forgotten to carve and serve the watermelon, leaving my poor mother-in-law to eat it all by herself the day after. Although we remembered the watermelon...we forgot the rolls! Maybe the tradition is that we're supposed to forget to serve something, I don't know.

The fireworks were great, we all crammed onto the boat and the dock to watch them. Tobi was a little afraid at first but then calmed down and watched them with us. That was great because it meant we all got to enjoy the show instead of one of us having to hide in the house with a nervous dog.

After the holiday we drove our niece and nephew home so that we could admire our newest niece, Miss K. She is so precious and beautiful. I managed to get in a good baby fix, it's so miraculous to me how perfect they are, how tiny, and how sweet they smell. There's also something really amazing about that cuddle they have; melts me everytime.

walk.jog.run

h/t to Misty for this.

This web site for walk.jog.run is awesome, or, as my kids might say, way kewl. It allows you to plot out your distances and keep routes. I'm definitely adding this to my keepers list.

weekend update

It's been a busy time here in our little town. Lots going on, so much that I've been far to busy to blog and it all seems a blur at the moment.

Stitch Sisters this week was wonderful, as always. Funny enough three of us were working on hats for our charity project. I had decided that I had quite enough of the blanket at the moment and turned my attention to something smaller and, more importantly, lighter...a hat. One sister realized that she had yet to make a hat so she started one. Another sister needed a mindless project for a bit so she's making a hat. We're up to 12 completed hats at the moment. I imagine that there won't be too much activity over the summer but expect a flurry (hah!) of activity once we get to September.

Farm day was fabulous. Gleanings of strawberries, we managed to get two quarts. One quart of amazingly delicious peas. Bok choy, broccoli, salad, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, salad turnips, radishes, mmmmmm, happy tummies in our house. We had steamed peas and broccoli with our dinner on pickup night, it's amazing how much better this fresh, local, organic stuff tastes.

Garden activity...hah! you need to ask? It's been awful! The weeds are everywhere. In good garden news however the currants have been producing like gangbusters. We're harvesting a little at a time and hope to make jelly next week. The raspberries are starting also. Just enough to eat and savor, not enough for a pie...yet.

In other good news it was someone special's birthday this past week. I don't think they want to be mentioned by name to the blogiverse at large but I wanted to wish them a

happy birthday!

Last but not least we have been cleaning out. Taking a cue from my Mom who has been decluttering and, obviously, paying much more attention than I to her surroundings. Our local library has a barn sale every year. We loaded up the van and drove it down, making a rather substantial "stuff" donation. I hope someone else finds a good home for it. Next we went back home, loaded up the trailer with JUNK (and that's with all caps no cutsie que on the end) and hied off to the recycle center. $50 and well worth the price to be rid of the various doorstops (aka old non-functioning computers) and odds and ends that are of no use to anyone. Next on the list is freecycle for the stuff that's not quite good enough for the library but too good to throw away. It feels good to be paring down. So much so that it has encouraged me to delve *ack* once again into my books. I've purged twice in the last few years but I think I need to be more ruthless, possibly even viscious! Argh! LOL But seriously I need to work harder at denying my inner packrat non-accumulation.

tags:knitting, hat, gardening, currants, raspberries, garden, birthday , freecycle, declutter