Life and University Updates

The holidays are over and it’s time to get back in the swing of things.  I certainly don’t want to mislead you into believing I’ve been very productive recently… I haven’t.  The little tree is still sitting here on the dining room table waiting for me to go find the box it belongs in… everything else is put away – but not the tree.

I spent one recent Saturday in the kitchen cooking up a storm… a crock pot full of beef short ribs – 3 meals put away and one eaten that night.  A large pot of Spaghetti Sauce made up – several containers frozen and we enjoyed a couple meals that week.  I don’t know about your family – but my husband could eat spaghetti every day.  I cooked a big pot of vegetable beef soup up to put in the freezer for The Engineer to take for lunches.  I was seriously out of lunch stuff for him.  I also cooked up a big pan of pork chops and sliced potatoes… that divided up nicely into 5 meals – 4 went directly into the freezer.  Hmmmm lets see – what else… I cooked a nice pot of red beans and rice but we ate it all before the week was out – so no lunches set aside… but it was sooo good!  I saved out some of the hamburger meat (from spaghetti) and made up a Sheppard's pie for the freezer.  Needless to say I was tired of cooking that day!

Before the holidays I did have a couple things that I finished but didn’t report on at the time.  My grandson got his Swimmies Quilt for Christmas – somehow I managed to not get pictures – but my daughter will be bringing it back this spring when they come to visit… we need to decide what to do with their little fishy eyes!  And I need to get a label on it too.

I finished the Buggy Barn quilt…

The colors don’t show as nicely in the picture - it’s a sample for a class in a couple weeks for this coming weekend (how’d that happen so quickly?).  It’s done in creams, pinks, and chocolates!

I’ve also gotten the tops done (not quilted yet) for the March and April Calendar Quilts… they are cute – I’m going to just do an all over stipple to quilt them – I’ll post more pics when they are quilted.  Click on Calendar Quilts to go over to that page… it’s also listed on my side bar --->>> over there… on the side.

I have two thumbs to knit and I’ll have 2 pairs of fingerless gloves done for a couple of friends.  Now I’m working on some mittens for my husband.  He has problems with carpal tunnel so is quite fussy about things on his wrists.  I got about 2 inches past the cuff and had him try it on… too tight so I unraveled it and made it bigger.  I should finish up the first mitten tonight and be able to start on the second one.  I’ve had the yarn for about a year… I think he’d also like me to finish the socks I told him I’d give him.  It’s the first pair I started… got one sock done but it was a bit too big for me.  Rather than undo it I told him I’d finish them for him.  LOL That was 2 years ago now. Oh well…

I’ve put the last load of laundry in – so my loafing time is about over.  Time to get out of my jammies… and make lunch… LOL

Souper Weekend in Color...

A couple weeks ago I used orange cauliflower to make soup... this past Friday I picked up some of the purple cauliflower at The Green Dragon Farmers Market.

I love going there for the produce - I always visit an Amish farmer that has wonderful stuff.  This week I got 3 large heads of cauliflower (2 white and 1 purple) for $3.00.  I blanched most of the white and froze it... some I cooked longer to mash and froze 2 pint containers of mashed cauliflower.

The purple I cut up and put into a pot of chicken stock... the stock turned purple!!  So we had Purple Cauliflower Chicken soup last night...

I did add light cream to it before serving... made a soft purple broth... sure was yummy!

I'd like to get some more orange and purple to freeze... I think my granddaugher Miss K will enjoy that when she comes to visit in December.  Just a few short weeks and they'll be here!

So is the soup on at your house?

Who Took August?

I'm pretty sure I didn't use all the days yet... so somebody must be hiding a few here and there!

OK - I won't complain... especially since my youngest favorite daughter and her fella are coming to visit the first weekend in September - so I guess we have to get August out the door first.

The past couple weeks have been busy... The Engineer and I have been getting all kinds of projects done around the house since we returned from our trip earlier in the month.

While doing some electrical work in the basement ceiling he found a skeleton... a mouse...

looks funny without it's arms but The Engineer wasn't interested in hunting those down... LOL

We've enjoyed the produce from the garden thus far - I've cooked up a variety of tomatoes several times into sauce that I used right away.  This past weekend I finally managed to freeze some sauce for future use.

I had two good size cantaloupes grow and they were tasty!  I'm in love with cucumbers... who knew they could be so good!  I pulled onions the other day and braided the tops together.  The few I've used so far have been very tasty.  I was hoping my beets would get a little bit bigger as they seem to be kinda scrawny.  But I'll pull those up soon as the leaves are dying off.  I've got two fairy tale pumpkins putting some color on too - I'm excited about them.  Oh and corn... yummy... I've pulled ears several times now for dinner that were decent size and nicely filled in - I pulled all the rest today and was actually surprised at how well they were filled out - pictures below show the biggest and the smallest ones.

I decided to cut the corn off all the cobs and make corn chowder!  Just threw it into some chicken broth, a bit of fresh rosemary - a little flour to thicken and then I added cream... this pic is before the cream.  The Engineer was hungry so there was no more time for pictures!

My herbs are doing nicely... basil, parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme... I've dried some and made pesto with the basil last week.  I'm also drying some stevia to grind up and use as a sweetener... it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

And I have been sewing too... check out this cute purse from Maple Island Quilts... the pattern is called "Wallet and Grommet".  This was Quick to make... I especially like that the handle can be short - or you can use just one side and sling it over your shoulder. 

I'll make the wallet tomorrow if I can find my fusible stuff... I know it's somewhere up there in one of those boxes.

Souper Saturday My Little Dumplin'

I know - you're saying "What? She's cooking a poultry soup again?"

Yes I am... but hey I'm still sick... well OK I am feeling a little better but not enough to spend a lot of time cooking... and chicken soup still sounds good.

But I'm going to change it up by making Chicken & Dumplings!

So to get started... I threw all this in the pot... a whole chicken breast, large hunks of celery and carrots, dehydrated onion and garlic - yep still no fresh onions - what can I say... I'm not going to the store just for onions.  After the chicken breast has cooked I'll debone  it and throw out those carrots and celery and put fresh chopped ones in.  I've found that if I'm going to cook for a long time the veggies get tasteless - so these will help flavor the soup and the new ones will be tasty too.

Now tell me... what is the point of looking through the leaves in the Bay Leaf container for a whole one?  I laughed when I realized I was trying to only find whole ones... a broken one would be just fine for flavor. 

I'll add to this post later when I finish but wanted to get this started... now to go sew.

Later Saturday afternoon:  After cooking for awhile I pulled the meat off the bones and added seasonings and let it simmer for awhile whilst I cleaned the kitchen.  I also put in some smoked sausage... because I like smoked sausage with chicken - you could leave it out.

Then I mixed up the dumplings according to the Bisquick recipe.

2 cups mix, 2/3 cup milk, mix and drop by spoonfuls into the boiling soup...

Simmer 10 minutes with the lid off - then 10 more minutes with the lid on.

Enjoy one or two bowls.... Mmmm mmmm mm!

Homemade Sauerkraut... Yum!

Back in early September while poking around on the Internet I followed a link from Gizmo Quilts Blog to The Milk Man's Wife Blog. 

There I found a post about canning Sauerkraut... and I have to tell you - I had never ever thought about how they make Sauerkraut.  She didn't go into how she made it - she only showed that she canned the leftovers from her last batch. 

My sauerkraut experience has been limited to eating it on hotdogs (think Costco) and on Reuben sandwiches (hold the cheese) - I don't think I've ever bought any to cook at home.  But I do like it... so I was intrigued... and did some research.

What I learned was interesting... Sauerkraut is very good for ya and fairly easy to make if you have the right equipment.  Homemade is suppose to be far superior in taste than the commercial stuff.  All that made me want to try it out... except that I didn't own a crock. 

One day in talking with my neighbor Mrs. B I found out that she use to make Sauerkraut each year and had her Mom's mandolin, crock, and stomper - items she said had belonged to her grandmother.  She suggested we make some together!

I wish I had a picture of the Crock and stomper she had... I guess I never paid any attention to Crocks - I didn't know they came that BIG!  And the stomper was impressive... kinda like a tapered cylinder wooden head on a long heavy pole. She didn't think we should make too much so she only got 9 heads of cabbage... yeah - 9 heads of cabbage is apparently not a lot. LOL  Who knew?  And these were giant heads - they all had to be at least 12-14 inches diameter.

I was very impressed with the mandolin - here is a picture of a new one.  We quartered the cabbage and put a couple quarters in the 'box'.  It's amazing how quickly you can shred 9 huge heads of cabbage with that thing.  Between the 3 of us cutting cabbage heads up, shredding cabbage, sprinkling salt, and stomping cabbage in the crock we were done in less than an hour.  We only filled the crock about 3/4 of the way... so yeah - 9 heads aren't a lot.  Then it sits for 6 weeks to ferment...

Last night Mrs. B made pork roast & sauerkraut for us for dinner with homemade applesauce and mashed potatoes.  YUM! 

I went over this morning with my 10 quart 'Red Pot' to fetch my portion.  She filled it up!  I had to transfer it to a 12 quart pot so that I could heat it up for canning.

But first I ran to the store for some hot dogs and buns...

 

Because this looked and smelled too good... I had to have some for lunch.

I almost forgot to take a picture... I splurged and had two dogs on my roll... with some stone ground mustard... Yuuummmmm!

I didn't even want to wait for the dogs to cook so I split them so they'd cook faster....

Did I say this was Yummy?

And look... I've got 19 pints!

So do you make Sauerkraut?

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Tyme...

These herbs worked nicely together with my turkey carcass to make a yummy pot of soup.  I really have not worked with fresh herbs much... so I'm pretty happy I didn't screw it up.

I'd be happy to post a picture of 'My Red Pot' of soup... however... I can't find the cable to transfer pictures out of my old camera.  Our new (since June) camera seems to be missing... not sure what happened to it as we've looked everywhere.  I'm almost afraid to think that one of the workers who were here to install a water heater may have lifted it... not sure what good it will do him because I've still got all the cables to recharge it and upload pics.  And all my pics of cooking up a couple pumpkins and making puree, or canning apple sauce, butter and jelly... I hope he enjoys them.

Anyhoo... I'm all about not cooking anymore this weekend.  Yesterday (Happy Thanksgiving!) after The Engineer cut up the turkey I threw the carcass into my new Red Pot - added water, carrots, onions and walked away.  It sat and simmered all afternoon.  After cooling it for awhile outside I poked it into the fridge. 

This morning I pulled the meat off and discarded the bones.  Then I tied a bunch of fresh herbs together, threw in some garlic, and cut up half a package of smoked sausage.  By the time the rice was finished cooking I was some kinda hungry - Yummy!  You just can't beat a hot bowl of soup.

I've got pumpkin bread in the oven and with those and the turkey leftovers... I should not have to cook the rest of the weekend.

As much as I'd love to go take a nap... I think I'll end up going and hunting around the attic to dig out the holiday stuff... ok maybe after my nap I'll do that.

And yes I'm still waiting for more pics of that cute little grandson... it's hard living in this digital age.