We gave up the challenge.
Last night we had a long discussion before dinner and decided to lose, or withdraw. The main reason is that with the plumbing the way it is at present (deplorable) there is no room to make things from scratch (bread, etc) nor time since I am working a full time job and I am not starting at 5.30 PM to make 2 loaves of bread that will be done near midnight. The breadmaker is acting up so I don't trust it. We've also kinda been living on our food storage and I think we would have been ok if I didn't run out of butter on the first day and we were already out of milk. I have very few clean dishes (which should be rectified tomorrow when I get out on the porch and clean the wash basins) and have been washing things piecemeal as we need them- the sinks still drain but very slowly.
Things we have learned: I need to stock butter powder and/or butter. Powdered milk will not work with instant pudding. We need to have a heavy supply of applesauce and possibly spaghetti sauce. Canned chili would be a good idea to stock (for Derek). We do not like Brunswick or Van Camp's tuna. I can live without cheese and milk but I am not happy about it. Pancakes for dinner are a bad idea, especially when your favorite toppings are butter and powdered sugar. I need that freezer. Derek gets REAL cranky if there is no meat. Or Pepsi.
I have no doubt I could survive on my food storage if I had to. We've done it before. I can cook decent meals from practically nothing. However, clean utensils and counter spaces would be an ideal thing to have.
However, I am still disappointed with myself for caving. Last night we took out from Sushi Yumi and I pigged out on sushi (my new comfort food). Went to bed not exactly sick but uncomfortable. Because there was nothing in the fridge (condiments not included!) but 2 packs of tortillas, a block each of mozzarella and organic white cheddar (both bought on markdown), some grits, eggs and a whole lot of soy sauce packets from days of sushi past, I WAY overspent grocery shopping today. And on a full stomach, I may add.
Well, goodnight all.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
10.13.10 Day 3
I have come to the conclusion that A) powdered milk will only work for me in dry form for baking, b) I can live without fresh milk but I don't have to like it and c) it is EXTREMELY difficult for me to live without butter. I am almost foaming at the mouth. Margarine is NOT an option if I can help it.
Todays menu: Lunch for Derek- two chicken sandwiches. His breakfast was a bowl of applesauce and granola with a banana- mine was a banana. My sugar level was too low so I was forced to purchase a $.50 oatmeal breakfast bar once I got to work. I had planned on oatmeal but it never set up and then it burned- I think I got the ratios wrong. I was running around like a headless chicken, as always for a Wednesday (it's trash day). My lunch was the remainder of the chicken on saltines. We are running low on bread and I have no time to bake- also the bread maker is acting as weird as the last one so I'm not sure what's going on. Dinner for me was half a cup of cream of mushroom soup- Derek had the rest. He had a bowl of chili when I came home. I do not eat chili. He also had the remainder of last night's sausage. We were going to have stroganoff but it was 9.30 PM by the time we finished "discussing" our electric bill and the fact we got locked out of our po box because I forgot to pay it so we are going to have that tomorrow night.
So the only food purchased this week are some Pepsis and this morning's breakfast bar. I am gritting my teeth. I HAVE to have some butter. I have no idea what I am going to do for lunch tomorrow- likely soup for me again. Fortunately I have Friday off so we'll see what happens.
So far I think we are good with the food storage and can manage off it- however, if I can get my parents to get the freezer to me (hint hint) I'll definitely stock up on butter. We'll see where we are on Friday.
Ciao folks!
Todays menu: Lunch for Derek- two chicken sandwiches. His breakfast was a bowl of applesauce and granola with a banana- mine was a banana. My sugar level was too low so I was forced to purchase a $.50 oatmeal breakfast bar once I got to work. I had planned on oatmeal but it never set up and then it burned- I think I got the ratios wrong. I was running around like a headless chicken, as always for a Wednesday (it's trash day). My lunch was the remainder of the chicken on saltines. We are running low on bread and I have no time to bake- also the bread maker is acting as weird as the last one so I'm not sure what's going on. Dinner for me was half a cup of cream of mushroom soup- Derek had the rest. He had a bowl of chili when I came home. I do not eat chili. He also had the remainder of last night's sausage. We were going to have stroganoff but it was 9.30 PM by the time we finished "discussing" our electric bill and the fact we got locked out of our po box because I forgot to pay it so we are going to have that tomorrow night.
So the only food purchased this week are some Pepsis and this morning's breakfast bar. I am gritting my teeth. I HAVE to have some butter. I have no idea what I am going to do for lunch tomorrow- likely soup for me again. Fortunately I have Friday off so we'll see what happens.
So far I think we are good with the food storage and can manage off it- however, if I can get my parents to get the freezer to me (hint hint) I'll definitely stock up on butter. We'll see where we are on Friday.
Ciao folks!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
10.12.10 Day 2?
I am losing track of the days and am making this real short as I really need to go to bed.
Day 2 arrived- breakfast was scrambled eggs and the last of the Holland Rusk- still not desperate enough to drink the reconstituted powdered milk. Made Derek 2 turkey sandwiches for lunch. I had chicken noodle soup, carrots left over from some achievement meeting for the regular staff the night before, dry roasted peanuts, wheat thins, hummus (LOVE hummus, strange because until recently you couldn't get me to acknowledge a chick-pea) and a couple of tolerable sugar cookies. Not big on sugar cookies, especially the soft, frosted ones. Not a fan of cookies much, anyway.
Dinner was pancakes, sausage and eggs (Derek only. Not sure I could have done eggs for myself tonight). Did I mention Derek can eat eggs 24/7/365? Drives me nuts. I'm the only one in my immediate biological family that likes eggs. I wasn't a big fan of pancakes until I got married- LOVE French toast but am conserving the remaining bread. Maybe I'll make a batch when I'm off Friday.
Maybe I should find the dog's claw clippers, the camera cord and the software to my printer Friday instead. Gotta mow the lawn, too. Homecoming IS this weekend...
Well, gotta run. Sleep awaits!
Day 2 arrived- breakfast was scrambled eggs and the last of the Holland Rusk- still not desperate enough to drink the reconstituted powdered milk. Made Derek 2 turkey sandwiches for lunch. I had chicken noodle soup, carrots left over from some achievement meeting for the regular staff the night before, dry roasted peanuts, wheat thins, hummus (LOVE hummus, strange because until recently you couldn't get me to acknowledge a chick-pea) and a couple of tolerable sugar cookies. Not big on sugar cookies, especially the soft, frosted ones. Not a fan of cookies much, anyway.
Dinner was pancakes, sausage and eggs (Derek only. Not sure I could have done eggs for myself tonight). Did I mention Derek can eat eggs 24/7/365? Drives me nuts. I'm the only one in my immediate biological family that likes eggs. I wasn't a big fan of pancakes until I got married- LOVE French toast but am conserving the remaining bread. Maybe I'll make a batch when I'm off Friday.
Maybe I should find the dog's claw clippers, the camera cord and the software to my printer Friday instead. Gotta mow the lawn, too. Homecoming IS this weekend...
Well, gotta run. Sleep awaits!
Monday, October 11, 2010
10.11.10 Day one
I caved.
Well, not really caved but I bought Derek some Pepsi. I did not buy milk, butter or orange juice (which we are now out of) and I bought only Pepsi. I was talked into it and for someone who has a rather large daily habit (it's embarrassing how large) it is really really hard for him to quit cold turkey. It's an addiction and when he withdraws, well, it's not pretty or healthy for that matter. So this is my one exception to the challenge and I did not buy anything else this afternoon.
That said, here is the food diary for today:
Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in olive oil each, topped with grits with the last of the butter, parmesan cheese and salt/pepper. Water for me, V8 for him as well as Pepsi.
Lunch: For Derek, 2 turkey and cheese sandwiches. For me, peanut butter and jam sandwiches. I snacked on honey roasted peanuts provided by my job.
Afternoon snack: Derek had the remainder of the celery, cheese, and a bowl of applesauce and granola.
Dinner: Derek had pork steaks, I had cream of chicken soup.
I do not eat pork steaks.
Often Derek and I wind up having two separate dinners as we can't agree on what to have for dinner. I really really think that when you are engaged or dating, one needs to explore the food issues before you consider marrying because that is ALL we fight about. Derek grew up on a farm- he is really big on meat and veggies. He got a lot of meat and veggies and when he was playing football he was encouraged to eat lots of meat. He also ate out a lot once he was on his own (although he is a REALLY REALLY good cook). I grew up with a mother who was constantly dieting and hated to cook and a father who loved to cook but was rarely home. I am addicted to milk products and marachino cherries. I was forced to eat veggies which is probably why I really don't eat them today. You can't get me to eat celery, cucumbers or okra (which was Grandpa's favorite). It took me this long to be able to eat peppers, as well as red and green onions (can't get me to eat white ones at all). So our common ground is this- milk products, beef, spinach, bread (common ground is 2g dietary fiber wheat- I like the heavier stuff and he is Mr. Wonderbread), peanut butter, jam, potatoes, broccoli and Chinese food. We like Sushi Yumi because a) you can take out the buffet and b) they serve Chinese and Sushi. So I wind up with a mixed container of sushi (from which I faithfully pick out the celery) and he winds up with General Tsao's Chicken, Mongolian Beef and green beans in some sort of Oriental sauce. And we're both happy.
Tonight I was supposed to make either instant mashed potatoes with gravy or cream of mushroom noodles. We wound up snacking on Holland Rusk with sweetened condensed milk, a nasty habit I picked up from my days as a nanny. I am a little hungry but I plan on oatmeal tomorrow- if I can find the butter powder (if I didn't throw it out) I'll use it- otherwise it's raisins and brown sugar. I like eggs but not EVERY day of the week. I am planning on possibly making tuna for lunch and I've taken out beef stew meat for dinner. We'll see how that goes.
Oh, BTW, powdered milk is not a taste explosion. So I will relegate it to cooking only...
Well, not really caved but I bought Derek some Pepsi. I did not buy milk, butter or orange juice (which we are now out of) and I bought only Pepsi. I was talked into it and for someone who has a rather large daily habit (it's embarrassing how large) it is really really hard for him to quit cold turkey. It's an addiction and when he withdraws, well, it's not pretty or healthy for that matter. So this is my one exception to the challenge and I did not buy anything else this afternoon.
That said, here is the food diary for today:
Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in olive oil each, topped with grits with the last of the butter, parmesan cheese and salt/pepper. Water for me, V8 for him as well as Pepsi.
Lunch: For Derek, 2 turkey and cheese sandwiches. For me, peanut butter and jam sandwiches. I snacked on honey roasted peanuts provided by my job.
Afternoon snack: Derek had the remainder of the celery, cheese, and a bowl of applesauce and granola.
Dinner: Derek had pork steaks, I had cream of chicken soup.
I do not eat pork steaks.
Often Derek and I wind up having two separate dinners as we can't agree on what to have for dinner. I really really think that when you are engaged or dating, one needs to explore the food issues before you consider marrying because that is ALL we fight about. Derek grew up on a farm- he is really big on meat and veggies. He got a lot of meat and veggies and when he was playing football he was encouraged to eat lots of meat. He also ate out a lot once he was on his own (although he is a REALLY REALLY good cook). I grew up with a mother who was constantly dieting and hated to cook and a father who loved to cook but was rarely home. I am addicted to milk products and marachino cherries. I was forced to eat veggies which is probably why I really don't eat them today. You can't get me to eat celery, cucumbers or okra (which was Grandpa's favorite). It took me this long to be able to eat peppers, as well as red and green onions (can't get me to eat white ones at all). So our common ground is this- milk products, beef, spinach, bread (common ground is 2g dietary fiber wheat- I like the heavier stuff and he is Mr. Wonderbread), peanut butter, jam, potatoes, broccoli and Chinese food. We like Sushi Yumi because a) you can take out the buffet and b) they serve Chinese and Sushi. So I wind up with a mixed container of sushi (from which I faithfully pick out the celery) and he winds up with General Tsao's Chicken, Mongolian Beef and green beans in some sort of Oriental sauce. And we're both happy.
Tonight I was supposed to make either instant mashed potatoes with gravy or cream of mushroom noodles. We wound up snacking on Holland Rusk with sweetened condensed milk, a nasty habit I picked up from my days as a nanny. I am a little hungry but I plan on oatmeal tomorrow- if I can find the butter powder (if I didn't throw it out) I'll use it- otherwise it's raisins and brown sugar. I like eggs but not EVERY day of the week. I am planning on possibly making tuna for lunch and I've taken out beef stew meat for dinner. We'll see how that goes.
Oh, BTW, powdered milk is not a taste explosion. So I will relegate it to cooking only...
Sunday, October 10, 2010
10.10.10 The Food Storage challenge
Yes, I've been bad. At least about posting. There really hasn't been a lot going on since the last post except to say I had a great visit with my brother and his family and my dad has a volunteer crop of citron melons. I came home with 5- they are still sitting in the kitchen going, "are ya gonna do sumfing wid us?" They're still good- I just have to get the kitchen back under control- this plumbing problem has taken a turn for the worse and even regular cooking has been a bit of an issue. I hesitate to take anything back to the tub to wash as I might create a plumbing problem there as well. So I guess I'm going to have to open tote the dishes on the stove and in the sinks and get the basins from the garage and wash them in the back yard and use the basin method, which I really should have done a while back. In the meantime we've been eating a lot of take-out and tv dinners which is probably why I am really feeling dragged out right now (although I can't say meals at Sushi Yumi aren't the best!).
OK to the point and the title of this blog- the food storage challenge.
As most of you are aware (and you will be aware once this is posted) I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So I am LDS, aka Mormon. One of our peculiarities (for lack of a better word- and this was one of mine even before I joined the church) is the church advises us to keep a year's supply of food on hand in case of unemployment, under employment, natural disaster, etc. So we hold classes, have written books, have booklets and handouts with all sorts of shelf life, ratio of item per adult, etc. Yes I am using etc. a lot as to list it all... well etc. works really well. Otherwise this blog post would be a novel.
Today in church, it was announced that the Stake Presidency (the church divides us as first branches, which are the smallest units, then wards, then stkes which is a group of wards, areas which is a group of stakes, regions which is a group of areas- well you get the picture) would like us to live on our food storage for a week. Starting today. Use up what perishables we have and live off the remainder- no grocery shopping, etc. This would end Saturday the 16th after dinner.
Lucky for us we bought meat yesterday but unfortunately ran out of milk and orange juice today.
I came home and told Derek (he's currently not attending due to health issues). Stone face.
"That does not include my Pepsi, right?"
I advised him it most certainly did and the 2 liter in the fridge was all he was getting until Saturday night.
You would have thought I'd told him his entire family was hit by a train.
Two hours of discussion later, he conceded he could do it but I'd have to buy Pepsi after dinner Saturday night. Lots of it. Forget the milk, forget cheese, forget O.J. but Heaven forbid I don't get Pepsi Saturday night.
As far as food goes, we are in a bit of luck. Last week my mom gave us the last of her Y2K food storage in #10 cans- 2 of whole wheat flour, 2 of lentils, 2 of long grain brown rice and 1 of cheese powder. Yesterday my friend Beth came over and gave us a large jar of Hellman's mayo and some celery (Derek has eaten most of it, thank goodness. I can't stand the stuff). I have quite a bit of powdered milk (bought it for the now not quite working bread maker) and a vintage quart jar from the '60's apparently from Carnation that is specifically for making instant milk- so I made some. We'll see how that turns out. I have 7 dozen eggs in the fridge (we go through A LOT) and tons of oatmeal, yeast, some lunch meat, tuna, lots of pasta and soup.
Sooooo, this is our challenge this week, and I am hoping to be on recording progress on it all week. I think we'll be ok. It will give us some time to rotate stock as well and use stuff we don't ordinarily use. And maybe try our hands at new and exciting recipes. Also, I have Friday off (UF Homecoming, I am avoiding downtown like the plague and really looking forward to next Sunday when it's all over) so I plan on, if it's not under control by then, getting the kitchen under control so I can experiment with crackers. I have a recipe for wheat thins I want to try...
OK to the point and the title of this blog- the food storage challenge.
As most of you are aware (and you will be aware once this is posted) I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So I am LDS, aka Mormon. One of our peculiarities (for lack of a better word- and this was one of mine even before I joined the church) is the church advises us to keep a year's supply of food on hand in case of unemployment, under employment, natural disaster, etc. So we hold classes, have written books, have booklets and handouts with all sorts of shelf life, ratio of item per adult, etc. Yes I am using etc. a lot as to list it all... well etc. works really well. Otherwise this blog post would be a novel.
Today in church, it was announced that the Stake Presidency (the church divides us as first branches, which are the smallest units, then wards, then stkes which is a group of wards, areas which is a group of stakes, regions which is a group of areas- well you get the picture) would like us to live on our food storage for a week. Starting today. Use up what perishables we have and live off the remainder- no grocery shopping, etc. This would end Saturday the 16th after dinner.
Lucky for us we bought meat yesterday but unfortunately ran out of milk and orange juice today.
I came home and told Derek (he's currently not attending due to health issues). Stone face.
"That does not include my Pepsi, right?"
I advised him it most certainly did and the 2 liter in the fridge was all he was getting until Saturday night.
You would have thought I'd told him his entire family was hit by a train.
Two hours of discussion later, he conceded he could do it but I'd have to buy Pepsi after dinner Saturday night. Lots of it. Forget the milk, forget cheese, forget O.J. but Heaven forbid I don't get Pepsi Saturday night.
As far as food goes, we are in a bit of luck. Last week my mom gave us the last of her Y2K food storage in #10 cans- 2 of whole wheat flour, 2 of lentils, 2 of long grain brown rice and 1 of cheese powder. Yesterday my friend Beth came over and gave us a large jar of Hellman's mayo and some celery (Derek has eaten most of it, thank goodness. I can't stand the stuff). I have quite a bit of powdered milk (bought it for the now not quite working bread maker) and a vintage quart jar from the '60's apparently from Carnation that is specifically for making instant milk- so I made some. We'll see how that turns out. I have 7 dozen eggs in the fridge (we go through A LOT) and tons of oatmeal, yeast, some lunch meat, tuna, lots of pasta and soup.
Sooooo, this is our challenge this week, and I am hoping to be on recording progress on it all week. I think we'll be ok. It will give us some time to rotate stock as well and use stuff we don't ordinarily use. And maybe try our hands at new and exciting recipes. Also, I have Friday off (UF Homecoming, I am avoiding downtown like the plague and really looking forward to next Sunday when it's all over) so I plan on, if it's not under control by then, getting the kitchen under control so I can experiment with crackers. I have a recipe for wheat thins I want to try...
Sunday, September 26, 2010
9.26.10 Miscellaneous stuff
Well, again, sorry I have missed a whole swath of time. Two weeks ago one of my tires went flat- this was not unexpected as I kept getting warning lights and the last time I had my oil changed they warned me that my tire was not fixable as the nail was against the tube wall, or something similar. So was walking to work (not a bad jaunt, not quite a mile) and got a good workout for several days- coupled with a physical inventory at work, it's no wonder I crashed and burned today. Yesterday I was up at six, went and got 3 used tires and did some miscellaneous shopping that I couldn't do while this whole tire thing was going on.
On top of that, to make a really long story inceredibly short- for 3 days the neighbors on our west side put uo a 6' wooden privacy fence- we knew this was coming but there was a misunderstanding on whether our chain link fence was going back up. Come to find out the 40+ year old fence was not straight and meandered 1-3" over the property line. After looking at the fencing materials, they were not viable and we decided it was stupid to argue about it, especially since they allowed for the 3" in th back yard. During that time I walked the dogs (between Derek and I being sick, Traveler having some issues as well, the incredible 100+ degrees this summer they haven't been walked- but they really runn around our rather large yard so it's not like they're not getting exercise) so my legs are really feeling it.
Today we are going out to my dad's to see my brother, who is down briefly with his family from Illinois. I am sending them back withtheir Christmas present- 15 jars of jam. Almost 1 jar each flavor. I can't wait to see them- they had a little girl last year and we haven't got to see her yet.
On the jam front- I have been in discussions with one of the long-time clerks at Ward's- 3 weeks ago she convinced me to try jamming with organic cane sugar so I bought some, about 8 cups worth. I was there yesterday and asked her to pick a fruit- so I am going to do a batch of blue banana and give her one of the jars. She told me she would share it with one of the owners and there might be a sideline for me to sell there. Who knows, Jammin' J's might actually take off!
At any rate, I got to go- exhausted and have to drive out to the farm in about an hour. Until next time!
On top of that, to make a really long story inceredibly short- for 3 days the neighbors on our west side put uo a 6' wooden privacy fence- we knew this was coming but there was a misunderstanding on whether our chain link fence was going back up. Come to find out the 40+ year old fence was not straight and meandered 1-3" over the property line. After looking at the fencing materials, they were not viable and we decided it was stupid to argue about it, especially since they allowed for the 3" in th back yard. During that time I walked the dogs (between Derek and I being sick, Traveler having some issues as well, the incredible 100+ degrees this summer they haven't been walked- but they really runn around our rather large yard so it's not like they're not getting exercise) so my legs are really feeling it.
Today we are going out to my dad's to see my brother, who is down briefly with his family from Illinois. I am sending them back withtheir Christmas present- 15 jars of jam. Almost 1 jar each flavor. I can't wait to see them- they had a little girl last year and we haven't got to see her yet.
On the jam front- I have been in discussions with one of the long-time clerks at Ward's- 3 weeks ago she convinced me to try jamming with organic cane sugar so I bought some, about 8 cups worth. I was there yesterday and asked her to pick a fruit- so I am going to do a batch of blue banana and give her one of the jars. She told me she would share it with one of the owners and there might be a sideline for me to sell there. Who knows, Jammin' J's might actually take off!
At any rate, I got to go- exhausted and have to drive out to the farm in about an hour. Until next time!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9.11.10 No Shows
Not too terribly disappointed today that the Koran burning was a bust (although I was really looking forward to seriously hurting an invader with tomato jam). Read a posting from the Huffington Post my friend Jason placed on Facebook about it- basically that the mainstream media blew this way out of porportion and created an international event. I agree with this wholeheartedly and, being a naturally suspicious person at heart, have this much to say for mainstream media- you no longer have any credibility with me. And that is all I will say on the matter. I don't follow the news much anyway and now will really grain of salt any issues.
So, I am safe at home, was unwell the first half of the day, am exhausted this next half of the day, didn't get much accomplished and am tetchy about it. I really need to do something with these raspberries and am planning on it tomorrow. The peaches still look good and can wait. Need to research sugars...
Well, Derek is not well, it's late and need to get to bed so that I can actually do church tomorrow. I've missed way too much since I started working...
Later folks!
So, I am safe at home, was unwell the first half of the day, am exhausted this next half of the day, didn't get much accomplished and am tetchy about it. I really need to do something with these raspberries and am planning on it tomorrow. The peaches still look good and can wait. Need to research sugars...
Well, Derek is not well, it's late and need to get to bed so that I can actually do church tomorrow. I've missed way too much since I started working...
Later folks!
Friday, September 10, 2010
9.10.10 Live! From Gainesville, Florida!
Well, I had to get our city somewhere in a header for all the world to see. All things considered... Well, we've been in the international spotlight for a wee bit (about 10 days roughly) due to some hot head pastor with an absolutely insane idea to burn the Koran on 9.11. That's tomorrow, folks. And despite to some not inconsiderable intervention in the form of high ranking officials (including our esteemed {insert sarcasm here} President Obama, General What's His Name in Afghanistan and several visits from the FBI) as well as the local imam, this pastor guy is not sure if he is still going to go through with this since he is now calling the imam a liar and vice versa- I just hope that they are still going to go to New York tomorrow morning to see the planner for the NYC mosque and get the heck out of Dodge. They would HAVE to do this on game day. Granted it's not an SEC game, but it's game day none the less and if someone is going to commit a terrorist act in Gainesville, they could have waited until next weekend when I can get out of my driveway with relative ease and not have to run over Gator fans. Who will likely be running away from campus, but you can never tell with some of them, they may think it's (whatever committed terrorist act) part of the festivities. And maybe join in, if they are too inebriated to pay attention.
At any rate the city is on edge- I can't tell if the yelling outside is from the party house down the street or the action is starting. Some of my friends in outlying areas have been told to make sure they have food, water and their cars are fueled up in case of emergency. I guess us poor city dwellers are out of luck. Lucky me, I have about 2 years supply of jam- if worse comes to worse I can stick a wick in it, light a fire and see what happens. Maybe I should make some really sticky jam tarts and throw them. Not exactly dwarf bread but you get the picture. I doubt seriously anything is going to happen but hey- I can be the infidel with the tomato jam missiles. If Gainesville does become the next Civil War Atlanta tomorrow and you don't hear from me in the next few days, ya know what happened.
Speaking of jam- I bought more peaches as well as raspberries and bananas tonight. And organic cane sugar. One of the clerks at Ward's was telling me she can't digest regular granulated sugar so I bought their organic cane sugar to try it out on a batch. It's a little more expensive but better for you so I thought I'd give it a go tomorrow. If I'm not hurling things at invasive people tomorrow.
Speaking of fruit, I did some interesting research online this week about fruits. Did you know squash and cucumbers are actually fruit? Apples, pears and cherries are part of the rose family? OLIVES are fruit? This is opening up some interesting possibilities, mainly along the lines of orangey squash- heck if you can make pumpkin butter can you make acorn squash butter? And would anyone eat it? I know you can make rose petal jelly but I would like to know where you can buy actual rose hips. And are they perservable? I would be more than happy to experiment, thank you very much.
I have also spent the last week reviewing the Annoying Orange Lady Pasta episode and having the pasta song running through my head. I actually started craving lasagne and HAD to have it last night. Go team!
Well, gotta go. One last defensive item to locate and off to bed. Go America! 'Night all!
At any rate the city is on edge- I can't tell if the yelling outside is from the party house down the street or the action is starting. Some of my friends in outlying areas have been told to make sure they have food, water and their cars are fueled up in case of emergency. I guess us poor city dwellers are out of luck. Lucky me, I have about 2 years supply of jam- if worse comes to worse I can stick a wick in it, light a fire and see what happens. Maybe I should make some really sticky jam tarts and throw them. Not exactly dwarf bread but you get the picture. I doubt seriously anything is going to happen but hey- I can be the infidel with the tomato jam missiles. If Gainesville does become the next Civil War Atlanta tomorrow and you don't hear from me in the next few days, ya know what happened.
Speaking of jam- I bought more peaches as well as raspberries and bananas tonight. And organic cane sugar. One of the clerks at Ward's was telling me she can't digest regular granulated sugar so I bought their organic cane sugar to try it out on a batch. It's a little more expensive but better for you so I thought I'd give it a go tomorrow. If I'm not hurling things at invasive people tomorrow.
Speaking of fruit, I did some interesting research online this week about fruits. Did you know squash and cucumbers are actually fruit? Apples, pears and cherries are part of the rose family? OLIVES are fruit? This is opening up some interesting possibilities, mainly along the lines of orangey squash- heck if you can make pumpkin butter can you make acorn squash butter? And would anyone eat it? I know you can make rose petal jelly but I would like to know where you can buy actual rose hips. And are they perservable? I would be more than happy to experiment, thank you very much.
I have also spent the last week reviewing the Annoying Orange Lady Pasta episode and having the pasta song running through my head. I actually started craving lasagne and HAD to have it last night. Go team!
Well, gotta go. One last defensive item to locate and off to bed. Go America! 'Night all!
Monday, September 6, 2010
9.5.10 Labor Day!
Three day weekend- went TOO fast. My great intention of canning accomplishments did not happen- I managed to sort all my good intentions fruit I bought Friday today and put up a batch each of peach and peachy red pear today. The latter happened because I did not have enough pear (or so I thought) for a whole batch so since the directions are the same for peach and pear I threw 2 peached in the batch. It was delicious.
Then I made potato salad. I had put the scallions on the top shelf for easier access then decided (AMAZING!) to put the rest away in the vegetable drawer. When I opened it I laughed- there were the rest of the pears. Oh well- this will be an experiment for tomorrow... I need to figure out what to mix with the red bananas as I don't have enough for their own batch... Hmm, pear maybe?
Well this is short as I REALLY need to go to bed. Night all!
Then I made potato salad. I had put the scallions on the top shelf for easier access then decided (AMAZING!) to put the rest away in the vegetable drawer. When I opened it I laughed- there were the rest of the pears. Oh well- this will be an experiment for tomorrow... I need to figure out what to mix with the red bananas as I don't have enough for their own batch... Hmm, pear maybe?
Well this is short as I REALLY need to go to bed. Night all!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
9.2.10 (hello...)
Yeah, my original intent to post every night got tossed to the winds...
I had to throw out most of the plums. I managed to put up a batch of black plum jam (had just enough) on Sunday, but I procrastinated on the rest (red plum) until Tuesday- and since I did not refrigerate them (fridge was FULL) they went bad. I have been dragging all week- partially due to lack of decent sleep and partially because on Tuesday a lot of my former co-workers still working at the Deseret News in Salt Lake City were laid off.
I haven't worked there since Dec. 19, 2003. However, I remained in touch with several people and I still think of my job there as the highlight of whatever career path I may or may not have chosen. It really saddens me that this happened- and can't really understand why I am so upset about it. It didn't happen to me personally. If this happened to people at the job before or several jobs after, I doubt I would care- but this job, for some reason, was special. And to have these caring, highly professional folk unemployed with me- well, it's just unthinkable. I feel like I am standing in the outskirts of an earthquake zone looking at the massive destruction of the 7.0 earthquake. I don't know how to describe it. I hope everyone is all right and can land on their feet.
So, tired and weepy today- people have been very nice and polite. Then, DUMMY ME, had to go grocery shopping. BIG mistake. The newly cleaned fridge is full of fruit again. So, it looks like I will be spending my Labor Day weekend canning again. Not that I am really complaining- I scored red pears and red bananas (not enough for it's own batch though). So be on the lookout for more jams. I hope I don't have to go back to Winn Dixie and get more sugar...
Well, gotta run!
I had to throw out most of the plums. I managed to put up a batch of black plum jam (had just enough) on Sunday, but I procrastinated on the rest (red plum) until Tuesday- and since I did not refrigerate them (fridge was FULL) they went bad. I have been dragging all week- partially due to lack of decent sleep and partially because on Tuesday a lot of my former co-workers still working at the Deseret News in Salt Lake City were laid off.
I haven't worked there since Dec. 19, 2003. However, I remained in touch with several people and I still think of my job there as the highlight of whatever career path I may or may not have chosen. It really saddens me that this happened- and can't really understand why I am so upset about it. It didn't happen to me personally. If this happened to people at the job before or several jobs after, I doubt I would care- but this job, for some reason, was special. And to have these caring, highly professional folk unemployed with me- well, it's just unthinkable. I feel like I am standing in the outskirts of an earthquake zone looking at the massive destruction of the 7.0 earthquake. I don't know how to describe it. I hope everyone is all right and can land on their feet.
So, tired and weepy today- people have been very nice and polite. Then, DUMMY ME, had to go grocery shopping. BIG mistake. The newly cleaned fridge is full of fruit again. So, it looks like I will be spending my Labor Day weekend canning again. Not that I am really complaining- I scored red pears and red bananas (not enough for it's own batch though). So be on the lookout for more jams. I hope I don't have to go back to Winn Dixie and get more sugar...
Well, gotta run!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
8.28.10 PLUMS!
Yesterday I bought the equivalent of a case of mixed plums from Albertson's for appx $5. We ate some of them (including the lone golden plum, which I wished I had more of)- they are good- and it was my every intention to put up plum jam today (not that I don't already have 26 jars already but I do love it!) but apparently that was not going to happen. Farmville happened, then falling asleep at the computer and snoring so loudly my husband could hear me without his hearing aids happened. Then a shower, then I ran off to drop off my timecard, drop off Ninja Assassin to Blockbusters (great martial arts, decent plotline, but the special effects were... nah.), then to WalMart to get canning supplies, to Lowe's where I spent almost an hour trying to locate stump killer, MiraclGro and small planter boxes for my new herbs (and was there any helpful sales person in sight? Hello!), then to Albertson's. They had eggs for $.99 and a today's markdown of beef ribs. Then on to Ward's.
Ward's is our local market and they have the BEST stuff. This is usually where I get my fruits and veggies. I shop the bargain basket- usually I find great deals on overstock or non-commercially viable produce (one cherry is bad in the batch, grapes are too small, mangoes slightly overripe and other fruit bruised) and buy them out. Winn Dixie and Albertson's both have the same type of thing going (I got the plums at Winn Dixie with bonus limes!) but Ward's has a larger variety. This is where I got the Ranier cherries- they were overstock- and they made far superior jam than the regular cherry (which is very good, too).
Today, being Saturday, the cart (there are usually 2-3 but there was only one today) was well picked over. There was only cilantro, cauliflower (which I never eat), and okra (which will never come into this house as long as I'm alive, thank you very much). So on to the meats. In the meat section there were 4 small racks of beef ribs on markdown- you don't have to tell me twice, so I snapped them up. They looked good. I got them home, threw all of them in the crockpot and covered with 4 jars of the last batch of tomato jam (which was running to syrup). Absolutely fantastic. Meat dripping off bone. Next time, though, I think I'll mix it in a bowl first with about 1/2 cup of vinegar, just to spice it up.
Also today, a friend of ours, Bruce Davis (hi if you're reading this!) came by with a load of canning jars- pint and 1/2 pint. For this I am very grateful- jars aren't expensive per se but when you need a lot of them at once it can cost you. I am also concerned that since I can through the winter (off season for jars, etc) I will run out. I will need jars for cranberries and when my friend Tammy's quasi mother in law sends crabapples. OOH yum. Apple Crabapple jelly. I am also very grateful that Ball put $.50 off coupons in their pectin packets- I am going to need to stock up. I used all I had today including two that I picked up from work. I am so glad they are available!
At any rate I am going to sign off now- my INTENT is to start jam first thing in the morning and get most of it done before noon when I have to get ready for church. Wish me luck!
Ward's is our local market and they have the BEST stuff. This is usually where I get my fruits and veggies. I shop the bargain basket- usually I find great deals on overstock or non-commercially viable produce (one cherry is bad in the batch, grapes are too small, mangoes slightly overripe and other fruit bruised) and buy them out. Winn Dixie and Albertson's both have the same type of thing going (I got the plums at Winn Dixie with bonus limes!) but Ward's has a larger variety. This is where I got the Ranier cherries- they were overstock- and they made far superior jam than the regular cherry (which is very good, too).
Today, being Saturday, the cart (there are usually 2-3 but there was only one today) was well picked over. There was only cilantro, cauliflower (which I never eat), and okra (which will never come into this house as long as I'm alive, thank you very much). So on to the meats. In the meat section there were 4 small racks of beef ribs on markdown- you don't have to tell me twice, so I snapped them up. They looked good. I got them home, threw all of them in the crockpot and covered with 4 jars of the last batch of tomato jam (which was running to syrup). Absolutely fantastic. Meat dripping off bone. Next time, though, I think I'll mix it in a bowl first with about 1/2 cup of vinegar, just to spice it up.
Also today, a friend of ours, Bruce Davis (hi if you're reading this!) came by with a load of canning jars- pint and 1/2 pint. For this I am very grateful- jars aren't expensive per se but when you need a lot of them at once it can cost you. I am also concerned that since I can through the winter (off season for jars, etc) I will run out. I will need jars for cranberries and when my friend Tammy's quasi mother in law sends crabapples. OOH yum. Apple Crabapple jelly. I am also very grateful that Ball put $.50 off coupons in their pectin packets- I am going to need to stock up. I used all I had today including two that I picked up from work. I am so glad they are available!
At any rate I am going to sign off now- my INTENT is to start jam first thing in the morning and get most of it done before noon when I have to get ready for church. Wish me luck!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
8.26.10 JAM!
Busy night, so short note. Made a batch of peach cinnamon (Spiced Peach) jam tonight- a little thin but tastes good. I also did inventory and the list can be found below. I will add and subtract from it as it comes and goes.
GOT to go to bed, so will catch you later!
GOT to go to bed, so will catch you later!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
8.23.10 Further Adventures in Plumbing.
GRRRRR.
I missed church again Sunday as I was still upset about the plumbing and sore from mowing the lawn- I definitely overdid it. Later that day, I had to go out to turn in my timecard and I ran into my neighbors, Mark Goldstein and Mary Mehr.
I love to talk to Mary- she is a great gal- and Mark has a heart of gold but a rough exterior. I've known them for years- well, Gran knew them for years and my sister and I occasionally played with their kids- and I tend to run into Mary a lot while she walks the cat. (Seriously, she walks her cat.) Well, I told Mary about the plumbing, she had me talk to Mark and long story short I got a recommendation to use their plumber.
Called said plumber yesterday and we made arrangements to meet up today for a second estimate. I really liked him and what he said made a lot of sense- and in retrospect I wasn't too sure I wanted to go with the original plumber as he stated he couldn't warranty the work. This guy took a look and gave me three options, none that were pretty.
The reason for three options is the line will have to go across the yard, around the house and hook to the existing sewer line at the bathrooms. Said line is pretty much surface deep and the back yard is flat. If they hook up a line just running flat across the yard there is a danger of it not draining or will stop draining and create backwash a la today. Not solving problem.
Option 1: Run line from kitchen and washer to electric pump in back yard which will super grind waste and pump to existing sewer line. Upside? Cheapest option. Downside? Is electric and will drain energy on bill. Not married to this option and neither is Derek.
Option 2: Run line from kitchen and washer to sewer line and connect at a point further down the existing pipe. This is kind of a weird option as it's a splice.
Option 3: Replace the entire line. Upside? Can't complain about any drainage problems anymore. Downside? Appx. $5000. This is where I am leaning but where the heck am I going to come up with $5000? I'm going to have to sell a hell of a lot of jam to come up with that kind of money.
However, the immediate problem now is taking up the patio, which is going to have to get done anyway for said future plumbing project. So, right now we are concentrating on that and we will deal with the plumbing later. In the meantime, I guess I will take out the old wash tubs I used a couple of years ago for this and wash dishes the old fashioned way- lucky me.
Well, it's late so good night all...
I missed church again Sunday as I was still upset about the plumbing and sore from mowing the lawn- I definitely overdid it. Later that day, I had to go out to turn in my timecard and I ran into my neighbors, Mark Goldstein and Mary Mehr.
I love to talk to Mary- she is a great gal- and Mark has a heart of gold but a rough exterior. I've known them for years- well, Gran knew them for years and my sister and I occasionally played with their kids- and I tend to run into Mary a lot while she walks the cat. (Seriously, she walks her cat.) Well, I told Mary about the plumbing, she had me talk to Mark and long story short I got a recommendation to use their plumber.
Called said plumber yesterday and we made arrangements to meet up today for a second estimate. I really liked him and what he said made a lot of sense- and in retrospect I wasn't too sure I wanted to go with the original plumber as he stated he couldn't warranty the work. This guy took a look and gave me three options, none that were pretty.
The reason for three options is the line will have to go across the yard, around the house and hook to the existing sewer line at the bathrooms. Said line is pretty much surface deep and the back yard is flat. If they hook up a line just running flat across the yard there is a danger of it not draining or will stop draining and create backwash a la today. Not solving problem.
Option 1: Run line from kitchen and washer to electric pump in back yard which will super grind waste and pump to existing sewer line. Upside? Cheapest option. Downside? Is electric and will drain energy on bill. Not married to this option and neither is Derek.
Option 2: Run line from kitchen and washer to sewer line and connect at a point further down the existing pipe. This is kind of a weird option as it's a splice.
Option 3: Replace the entire line. Upside? Can't complain about any drainage problems anymore. Downside? Appx. $5000. This is where I am leaning but where the heck am I going to come up with $5000? I'm going to have to sell a hell of a lot of jam to come up with that kind of money.
However, the immediate problem now is taking up the patio, which is going to have to get done anyway for said future plumbing project. So, right now we are concentrating on that and we will deal with the plumbing later. In the meantime, I guess I will take out the old wash tubs I used a couple of years ago for this and wash dishes the old fashioned way- lucky me.
Well, it's late so good night all...
Saturday, August 21, 2010
8.21.10 The Joys of Home Ownership
Ah, the joys of home ownership!
Got up early this morning because I borrowed my friend's lawnmower Tuesday and they wanted it back today. So, in my infinite wisdom, I cleared what I could of the back yard of debris and cranked that baby up and headed west, like a new pioneer.
I'd forgotten about the sewer outlet cover.
You can see where this is going. Since the back yard hasn't been mowed since the dawn of time (I think my indigent people who normally show up to do it mowed it back in March?) it was a little overgrown. I'd forgotten the sewer outlet was not flush with the outside wall and the grass had grown over it. Needless to say I heard this terrible sound and pulled it back- but too late.
It looks like a neatly exploded mining disaster. Nice "little" hole in sewer pipe. I won't tell you what I said but I kept mowing, making note that I need to cut down the new Mimosa forest, discovered trees I thought were dead are very much alive... Once the gas ran out and I stumbled light headed into the house to find a seat for a moment I vowed that I was going to call a landscaping service to bulldoze the rest of it down, as soon I called the plumber.
I'd planned on calling the plumber anyway, since the kitchen sinks were clogging again and actually draining out through the old washer outtake pipe and flooding the garage. I discovered this early in July when I poured the water contents of the canning pot down the sink and stepped into the garage to do a load of wash. (The old outtake pipe had the top pipe broken off at the U joint and my father in law had rigged a new system to have this drain out the old propane dryer outlet when he was here. Since I use environmentally friendly wash soap, this has not been a problem.) The garage was FLOODED. Not a huge problem for the contents of the garage since everything is off the floor on pallets or overturned milk crates but it's still disconcerting to step into Lake Erie after washing some dishes. Also, we were having some issues with the tank on the master bath toilet as well so I figured, well, let's call and just get all four of these things done at one.
Plumber came, pretty quickly (about 3 hours later).
Project 1: toilet tank. Well, the plumbing in the bathrooms is a little mysterious and boils down to the fact that they are fed by water hoses connected to the sink. It's a bizarre hose set-up. He tried to turn it off underneath the sink- but it was jammed tight (and has been since we had to replace the toilet ourselves due to the faucet replacement fiasco which is a story for another time). So we trot out to the meter. Meter is buried in dirt. Dug out dirt to turn off valve- well let's just say it was steadfast and immoveable. Great for people of moral rectitude, not great for water mains. So using one of the numerous basins that just multiply around the house, the hose to the tank was removed. Not sure how he got the water to stop but he did. The problem? When the tank was placed the seal slipped and it wasn't seated properly. Good news? Easy fix. Bad news? This is not a standard sized seal. So toilet is not working and he is coming back to fix it.
Project 2: Washer outtake valve. Opened garage door to the Great Flood and plumber went WTF? (Literally. I don't use that word with any real frequency but apparently this is a standard plumbing phrase). I explained to him the situation, he found a cap and this was done in 5 minutes. I hope after a few days the garage rbecomes the Sahara and I can spend more quality time ignoring it.
Project 3: Crater in sewer pipe. He is coming back Monday to cap this.
Project 4: Kitchen sinks.
This one is a doozy so I am going to have to start with a brief history of the house as we know it.
In 1956, the house was built. No one in the family knows who, what, where, when or why but it remains that it appeared on this plot of land in that year for whatever reason. I personally think it was spawned. If I lived on Discworld, I would suspect the architect was B.S. "Bloody Stupid" Johnson (likely a relative). At any rate, somewhere in the early '60's it appears the garage was added, the original patio became part of the house and the current cement patio was laid. Over the existing grey water system. For those of you who aren't familiar with that type of system, it has been explained to me that the pipes from the kitchen and the washer (garage) lead into a barrel which then is some type of primitive irrigation system for the lawn. The second owners (or possibly the first, we never really pinned it down) were the Episcopal Diocese of Gainesville. I am not certain how much entertaining they did so I'm not sure what the kitchen was like for them. But I do know what it was like for Gran.
Gran bought the house in 1968, probably with some inheritance money, and she did to my grandfather what she did later to me- bought the house and said, "We're moving" about the time she closed on it. She was a very shrewd woman as their old house is in now in a less respectable area and this area still commands pretty hefty prices, even with the downturn. At any rate, my gran- being a very social creature- loved to entertain. Loved to have us kids here, loved to have people come over, loved to hold court. But she was The Queen. I know that she could cook (she WAS raised on a farm) but it wasn't anything elaborate and, frankly I think when we were gone, cooking didn't happen very often. So I don't think the sinks were used a lot. Gran complained and called Roto-Rooter when necessary and when I moved in December 2003 she wouldn't let me use the dishwasher, complained that her washer was leaking and stated something about other people putting rice and such down the sinks.
After we moved in and Gran was in the hospital previous to being placed in the nursing home, the plumbing stopped. We discovered that it would not take any toilet paper but Scott tissue. We called a plumber after 2 days, discovered that the sewer outtake for the bathrooms was basically a big hole (not unlike today's) cut into the original iron pipe. This was fixed. Same plumber was called 6 months later to unclog the kitchen sinks. After playing the snake out the entire length and discovering that the kitchen was not connected to the sewer line, we investigated the sound and could not tell where the sinks were draining. This went on several times with various plumbers (5 times with the last as the same company I called today) and no answers. Today was different.
Today, I'd washed dishes before the plumber came (thus the Great Flood in the garage) and the sinks drained, leaving the same old stinky sludge it usually does. First thing in looking at the sink was the age old question- " Do you have a septic tank?" to which the answer is the ever present "I don't know but probably not." He looked at me and said "You have a grey water system and the lines and barrel have probably disentegrated." He gave me an estimate of how much it would cost- it's attainable but not cheap. And involves jackhammers. We will have to rip up one part or possibly the entire patio for this.
So much for the landscapers. I'm going to have to borrow the lawnmower again.
As for jam, I need to get the kitchen under control first. I might be able to get a batch out tomorrow, but we'll see.
By the way, the apple dessert the other night was a real hit! I will have to make it again soon.
Well, goodnight all!
Got up early this morning because I borrowed my friend's lawnmower Tuesday and they wanted it back today. So, in my infinite wisdom, I cleared what I could of the back yard of debris and cranked that baby up and headed west, like a new pioneer.
I'd forgotten about the sewer outlet cover.
You can see where this is going. Since the back yard hasn't been mowed since the dawn of time (I think my indigent people who normally show up to do it mowed it back in March?) it was a little overgrown. I'd forgotten the sewer outlet was not flush with the outside wall and the grass had grown over it. Needless to say I heard this terrible sound and pulled it back- but too late.
It looks like a neatly exploded mining disaster. Nice "little" hole in sewer pipe. I won't tell you what I said but I kept mowing, making note that I need to cut down the new Mimosa forest, discovered trees I thought were dead are very much alive... Once the gas ran out and I stumbled light headed into the house to find a seat for a moment I vowed that I was going to call a landscaping service to bulldoze the rest of it down, as soon I called the plumber.
I'd planned on calling the plumber anyway, since the kitchen sinks were clogging again and actually draining out through the old washer outtake pipe and flooding the garage. I discovered this early in July when I poured the water contents of the canning pot down the sink and stepped into the garage to do a load of wash. (The old outtake pipe had the top pipe broken off at the U joint and my father in law had rigged a new system to have this drain out the old propane dryer outlet when he was here. Since I use environmentally friendly wash soap, this has not been a problem.) The garage was FLOODED. Not a huge problem for the contents of the garage since everything is off the floor on pallets or overturned milk crates but it's still disconcerting to step into Lake Erie after washing some dishes. Also, we were having some issues with the tank on the master bath toilet as well so I figured, well, let's call and just get all four of these things done at one.
Plumber came, pretty quickly (about 3 hours later).
Project 1: toilet tank. Well, the plumbing in the bathrooms is a little mysterious and boils down to the fact that they are fed by water hoses connected to the sink. It's a bizarre hose set-up. He tried to turn it off underneath the sink- but it was jammed tight (and has been since we had to replace the toilet ourselves due to the faucet replacement fiasco which is a story for another time). So we trot out to the meter. Meter is buried in dirt. Dug out dirt to turn off valve- well let's just say it was steadfast and immoveable. Great for people of moral rectitude, not great for water mains. So using one of the numerous basins that just multiply around the house, the hose to the tank was removed. Not sure how he got the water to stop but he did. The problem? When the tank was placed the seal slipped and it wasn't seated properly. Good news? Easy fix. Bad news? This is not a standard sized seal. So toilet is not working and he is coming back to fix it.
Project 2: Washer outtake valve. Opened garage door to the Great Flood and plumber went WTF? (Literally. I don't use that word with any real frequency but apparently this is a standard plumbing phrase). I explained to him the situation, he found a cap and this was done in 5 minutes. I hope after a few days the garage rbecomes the Sahara and I can spend more quality time ignoring it.
Project 3: Crater in sewer pipe. He is coming back Monday to cap this.
Project 4: Kitchen sinks.
This one is a doozy so I am going to have to start with a brief history of the house as we know it.
In 1956, the house was built. No one in the family knows who, what, where, when or why but it remains that it appeared on this plot of land in that year for whatever reason. I personally think it was spawned. If I lived on Discworld, I would suspect the architect was B.S. "Bloody Stupid" Johnson (likely a relative). At any rate, somewhere in the early '60's it appears the garage was added, the original patio became part of the house and the current cement patio was laid. Over the existing grey water system. For those of you who aren't familiar with that type of system, it has been explained to me that the pipes from the kitchen and the washer (garage) lead into a barrel which then is some type of primitive irrigation system for the lawn. The second owners (or possibly the first, we never really pinned it down) were the Episcopal Diocese of Gainesville. I am not certain how much entertaining they did so I'm not sure what the kitchen was like for them. But I do know what it was like for Gran.
Gran bought the house in 1968, probably with some inheritance money, and she did to my grandfather what she did later to me- bought the house and said, "We're moving" about the time she closed on it. She was a very shrewd woman as their old house is in now in a less respectable area and this area still commands pretty hefty prices, even with the downturn. At any rate, my gran- being a very social creature- loved to entertain. Loved to have us kids here, loved to have people come over, loved to hold court. But she was The Queen. I know that she could cook (she WAS raised on a farm) but it wasn't anything elaborate and, frankly I think when we were gone, cooking didn't happen very often. So I don't think the sinks were used a lot. Gran complained and called Roto-Rooter when necessary and when I moved in December 2003 she wouldn't let me use the dishwasher, complained that her washer was leaking and stated something about other people putting rice and such down the sinks.
After we moved in and Gran was in the hospital previous to being placed in the nursing home, the plumbing stopped. We discovered that it would not take any toilet paper but Scott tissue. We called a plumber after 2 days, discovered that the sewer outtake for the bathrooms was basically a big hole (not unlike today's) cut into the original iron pipe. This was fixed. Same plumber was called 6 months later to unclog the kitchen sinks. After playing the snake out the entire length and discovering that the kitchen was not connected to the sewer line, we investigated the sound and could not tell where the sinks were draining. This went on several times with various plumbers (5 times with the last as the same company I called today) and no answers. Today was different.
Today, I'd washed dishes before the plumber came (thus the Great Flood in the garage) and the sinks drained, leaving the same old stinky sludge it usually does. First thing in looking at the sink was the age old question- " Do you have a septic tank?" to which the answer is the ever present "I don't know but probably not." He looked at me and said "You have a grey water system and the lines and barrel have probably disentegrated." He gave me an estimate of how much it would cost- it's attainable but not cheap. And involves jackhammers. We will have to rip up one part or possibly the entire patio for this.
So much for the landscapers. I'm going to have to borrow the lawnmower again.
As for jam, I need to get the kitchen under control first. I might be able to get a batch out tomorrow, but we'll see.
By the way, the apple dessert the other night was a real hit! I will have to make it again soon.
Well, goodnight all!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
8.18.10 WORKING.
Well, I haven't been on in the last few days as I was a) nervous about the new job and b) working at the new job. Needed to get the timing organized and since it's now 10PM and almost "bedtime" this is going to be short.
Sunday was our anniversary- 12 years come and gone and I still can't imagine life without Derek. It's amazing. Nothing special done as Derek was sick and having some episodes so I missed church again- but I did manage to get a huge batch of plum jelly done. Probably more like syrup, don't have any spoils jars nor have I opened/refrigerated one so I don't know how well it set. 11 and 1/2 half pints, largest yield in one batch yet. Go team!
Peach is next. The Ranier cherries still look good but are probably bad and I haven't looked at the other cherries either. Need to make bread as I'm out and payday is a week away, unless my 401K payout comes Monday. I will be so glad to see that as it will be the last vestige of my old job and I will be DONE with them. It's not so much about the money, it's about CLOSURE.
As for the new job, well, I think I will leave that off of this forum. This is not meant to vent about employment, only to let one know I am gainfully (yet temporarily) employed and this is partially responsible for the delay.
Tonight I made a lazy man's dinner (scalloped potatoes with beef chunks and corn using 2 cans of cream of mushroom) and dessert with was 3 cored apples sliced in chunks, skins on with butter, sugar, cinnamon and a bit of cornstarch, topped with granola and then topped with plum banana jam. Haven't eaten it yet but will let you know how it turned out tomorrow. Promise.
Sunday was our anniversary- 12 years come and gone and I still can't imagine life without Derek. It's amazing. Nothing special done as Derek was sick and having some episodes so I missed church again- but I did manage to get a huge batch of plum jelly done. Probably more like syrup, don't have any spoils jars nor have I opened/refrigerated one so I don't know how well it set. 11 and 1/2 half pints, largest yield in one batch yet. Go team!
Peach is next. The Ranier cherries still look good but are probably bad and I haven't looked at the other cherries either. Need to make bread as I'm out and payday is a week away, unless my 401K payout comes Monday. I will be so glad to see that as it will be the last vestige of my old job and I will be DONE with them. It's not so much about the money, it's about CLOSURE.
As for the new job, well, I think I will leave that off of this forum. This is not meant to vent about employment, only to let one know I am gainfully (yet temporarily) employed and this is partially responsible for the delay.
Tonight I made a lazy man's dinner (scalloped potatoes with beef chunks and corn using 2 cans of cream of mushroom) and dessert with was 3 cored apples sliced in chunks, skins on with butter, sugar, cinnamon and a bit of cornstarch, topped with granola and then topped with plum banana jam. Haven't eaten it yet but will let you know how it turned out tomorrow. Promise.
Friday, August 13, 2010
8.13.10 Part 2
Wow, 2 posts in one day. Amazing.
Well, I am annoyed. I took a late nap today, was awakened suddenly, then after a half hour realized that I didn't sleep long enough and went back to bed. Got up and made dinner (shepherd's pie) and tried to play Frontierville only to be extremely annoyed by "We done lost the internet" several times then slow load times for visiting the neighbors. Finally said, "Bag it" and left. Am a little annoyed about the Land Office goal- I mean, if I'm having problems getting my neighbors to send me building materials for the sawmill are they really going to send them for the Land Office? I mean, come on!
I did get the cast iron pans seasoned today. Not sure where I am going to ultimately store all six of them as I can't leave them in the oven, I use it too much. I might clean out the bottom drawer under the stove and store the baking pans somewhere else, which is probably a better idea. I decided that the black plastic rack that formerly held my stereo (and is now lurking in the living room in an odd spot and loaded with paper stuff as said stereo is on the couch where it's been since I moved the desk out here to the living room) would be ideal to store both excess food storage and the plastic containers so I now have to rearrange the dining room AGAIN to make room for it. Found some stuff I need to get rid of as well, so this is now back in the living room, waiting to Freecycle. I'm not keeping any packing materials I can't ship jam in. I am just too annoyed by everything, which I hope is not an omen for my new job. I want to go back but I am really dreading it. I'm really not all that excited about it.
SOOO, I am only a couple of steps away from canning again and very little time to do it. Tomorrow, I need to go to my friend's house to do at least one load of laundry, cut Derek's hair, finish the dining room, and get the dishes finished. And I am SOOOO tired, which is why this is early and I am heading to bed. So goodnight everyone...
Well, I am annoyed. I took a late nap today, was awakened suddenly, then after a half hour realized that I didn't sleep long enough and went back to bed. Got up and made dinner (shepherd's pie) and tried to play Frontierville only to be extremely annoyed by "We done lost the internet" several times then slow load times for visiting the neighbors. Finally said, "Bag it" and left. Am a little annoyed about the Land Office goal- I mean, if I'm having problems getting my neighbors to send me building materials for the sawmill are they really going to send them for the Land Office? I mean, come on!
I did get the cast iron pans seasoned today. Not sure where I am going to ultimately store all six of them as I can't leave them in the oven, I use it too much. I might clean out the bottom drawer under the stove and store the baking pans somewhere else, which is probably a better idea. I decided that the black plastic rack that formerly held my stereo (and is now lurking in the living room in an odd spot and loaded with paper stuff as said stereo is on the couch where it's been since I moved the desk out here to the living room) would be ideal to store both excess food storage and the plastic containers so I now have to rearrange the dining room AGAIN to make room for it. Found some stuff I need to get rid of as well, so this is now back in the living room, waiting to Freecycle. I'm not keeping any packing materials I can't ship jam in. I am just too annoyed by everything, which I hope is not an omen for my new job. I want to go back but I am really dreading it. I'm really not all that excited about it.
SOOO, I am only a couple of steps away from canning again and very little time to do it. Tomorrow, I need to go to my friend's house to do at least one load of laundry, cut Derek's hair, finish the dining room, and get the dishes finished. And I am SOOOO tired, which is why this is early and I am heading to bed. So goodnight everyone...
8.13.10 Randomness
I am not afraid of Friday the 13th. Never have been. In fact, some of them have been really, really good days although not one of them in particular comes to mind.
So... why am I sitting here at 3.30 AM typing in my blog? Well, I woke up from a series of strange, fantasical dreams from which I could not get back to sleep. Considering I went to bed feeling sick last night at (SHOCKER!) 9.30 PM, I think I may have gotten my requisite 6 hours of sleep and might actually be up, but all the yawning suggests otherwise and I may actually go back to bed once I'm done with this blog entry (which may turn out to be rather long, so if patience is not your virtue you might want to quit while you're ahead). Whew! Talk about a run-on sentence!
At any rate I woke up first after a strange dream involving the aftermath of a hurricane, 2 kids swimming in the ocean and rummaging through the wreckage of beachfront houses which were all neatly pegged by cut and trimmed lumber and discovering Fanny Wildcat from Frontierville (a Facebook game) was a distant ancestor.
Yeah, that's what I said. HUNH?
At any rate the second dream, for being as benign as it was, was more disturbing to me. Apparently I was working a job I loved and the company collapsed, ended or downsized, and I, along with this other girl (Cynthia, who never actually made an appearance), was let go. It was in this old, tall building and it had this apartment on the 11th floor where the boss lived (he looked like Joe DuBois from Medium and was built like a kid I had a crush on in middle school). I liked this guy and visited him there to get some info on the job aftermath- we flirted a little and teased each other (nothing ontoward happened) and I hit him playfully with a huge wooden spoon and left. At any rate apparently the building was haunted- I got in the elevator and it went haywire (this is actually a recurring theme in some of my dreams- the annoying haunted elevator)- when it actually got me back to the 11th floor it took me right back to the boss' apartment instead of the office and I found it dark and empty with a 401K letter addressed to me and this Cynthia. It stated he (the boss) had enjoyed working with us but any further assistance from him would cost $155.50 and hour. There was some more to it (avoiding the elevator to get back to the office) but at that time I woke up in a sad mood, legs hurting like heck and unable to get back to sleep. So I am thinking this is actually going to be a reflective day, so I am going to reflect on this dream a bit more.
For those of you who were not aware, I was fired from my last job. Ostensibly because I could not make productivity rates, but I am not going to go into any further details. When I first got written up for the productivity matter, I was frantic, super stressed, almost at the point of tearing my hair out. Then the Lord stepped in and sent me 3 commercial flats of blueberries via a member of my church and I spent several days just making blueberry and blueberry hybrid jams. And during the whole time I became this calm, rational person and realized there is more to life than that job and I was just let what was happening happen, whether it was stay at this job (which I rapidly discovered I HATED) or lose it. I did not do this on purpose as I busted my butt to make it until the minute I was fired but it was a great relief to finally see the end of it. So much so that my now former boss was following me around asking if I was sure I was ok.
Now I realize that I was probably not as ok as I thought as I woke up from this dream, not actually crying, but teary and sad. It's hard losing a job. I have spent the last 6 weeks actually enjoying myself canning about 18 cases of jam (and still more to come), getting my kitchen and dining room under control (nearly there!) and just decompressing. But underlying that I was subtly kicking myself for mistakes I've made jobwise and vowing not to do it again. I came to the conclusion last week after reading the aforementioned Terry Pratchett book "Unseen Academicals" that what I really want is a job, not a career. Yeah, I am Glenda Sugarbean, who runs the Night Kitchen at Unseen Unversity, except I am a jam girl, not a pie girl. If I could stay home and make a living making jam, I'd do it, but it's not going to happen anytime soon. All I really wanted in life was to be a stay at home mom, but that is never going to happen due to choices I don't regret making and uncooperative health, so I am just taking the side road journey through life and enjoying what I can. And this next job I am going to do to the best of my ability, not get real involved in the social aspects, and not bring any of it home. We'll see how that plays out. And I vow I am going to make at least one batch of jam a week, as it relaxes me and keeps me balanced.
This last week, due to various reasons, (getting the kitchen ready for the chest freezer being one of them) I have not put anything up. It is almost finished- the last bit is to decide if the breadmaker stays or goes, finish the dish washing and wipe down the counters. Oh, and figure out where all the copious amounts of plastic containers are going as there is no room for them now in the kitchen. However, I went out grocery shopping today and bought more stuff to put up (peaches! cherries! plums! kiwis!) so the push is on. And considering this is our anniversary weekend (amazingly I was the one who forgot about it, Derek had to remind me) I don't have a huge lot of time to do it. So wish me luck.
So... why am I sitting here at 3.30 AM typing in my blog? Well, I woke up from a series of strange, fantasical dreams from which I could not get back to sleep. Considering I went to bed feeling sick last night at (SHOCKER!) 9.30 PM, I think I may have gotten my requisite 6 hours of sleep and might actually be up, but all the yawning suggests otherwise and I may actually go back to bed once I'm done with this blog entry (which may turn out to be rather long, so if patience is not your virtue you might want to quit while you're ahead). Whew! Talk about a run-on sentence!
At any rate I woke up first after a strange dream involving the aftermath of a hurricane, 2 kids swimming in the ocean and rummaging through the wreckage of beachfront houses which were all neatly pegged by cut and trimmed lumber and discovering Fanny Wildcat from Frontierville (a Facebook game) was a distant ancestor.
Yeah, that's what I said. HUNH?
At any rate the second dream, for being as benign as it was, was more disturbing to me. Apparently I was working a job I loved and the company collapsed, ended or downsized, and I, along with this other girl (Cynthia, who never actually made an appearance), was let go. It was in this old, tall building and it had this apartment on the 11th floor where the boss lived (he looked like Joe DuBois from Medium and was built like a kid I had a crush on in middle school). I liked this guy and visited him there to get some info on the job aftermath- we flirted a little and teased each other (nothing ontoward happened) and I hit him playfully with a huge wooden spoon and left. At any rate apparently the building was haunted- I got in the elevator and it went haywire (this is actually a recurring theme in some of my dreams- the annoying haunted elevator)- when it actually got me back to the 11th floor it took me right back to the boss' apartment instead of the office and I found it dark and empty with a 401K letter addressed to me and this Cynthia. It stated he (the boss) had enjoyed working with us but any further assistance from him would cost $155.50 and hour. There was some more to it (avoiding the elevator to get back to the office) but at that time I woke up in a sad mood, legs hurting like heck and unable to get back to sleep. So I am thinking this is actually going to be a reflective day, so I am going to reflect on this dream a bit more.
For those of you who were not aware, I was fired from my last job. Ostensibly because I could not make productivity rates, but I am not going to go into any further details. When I first got written up for the productivity matter, I was frantic, super stressed, almost at the point of tearing my hair out. Then the Lord stepped in and sent me 3 commercial flats of blueberries via a member of my church and I spent several days just making blueberry and blueberry hybrid jams. And during the whole time I became this calm, rational person and realized there is more to life than that job and I was just let what was happening happen, whether it was stay at this job (which I rapidly discovered I HATED) or lose it. I did not do this on purpose as I busted my butt to make it until the minute I was fired but it was a great relief to finally see the end of it. So much so that my now former boss was following me around asking if I was sure I was ok.
Now I realize that I was probably not as ok as I thought as I woke up from this dream, not actually crying, but teary and sad. It's hard losing a job. I have spent the last 6 weeks actually enjoying myself canning about 18 cases of jam (and still more to come), getting my kitchen and dining room under control (nearly there!) and just decompressing. But underlying that I was subtly kicking myself for mistakes I've made jobwise and vowing not to do it again. I came to the conclusion last week after reading the aforementioned Terry Pratchett book "Unseen Academicals" that what I really want is a job, not a career. Yeah, I am Glenda Sugarbean, who runs the Night Kitchen at Unseen Unversity, except I am a jam girl, not a pie girl. If I could stay home and make a living making jam, I'd do it, but it's not going to happen anytime soon. All I really wanted in life was to be a stay at home mom, but that is never going to happen due to choices I don't regret making and uncooperative health, so I am just taking the side road journey through life and enjoying what I can. And this next job I am going to do to the best of my ability, not get real involved in the social aspects, and not bring any of it home. We'll see how that plays out. And I vow I am going to make at least one batch of jam a week, as it relaxes me and keeps me balanced.
This last week, due to various reasons, (getting the kitchen ready for the chest freezer being one of them) I have not put anything up. It is almost finished- the last bit is to decide if the breadmaker stays or goes, finish the dish washing and wipe down the counters. Oh, and figure out where all the copious amounts of plastic containers are going as there is no room for them now in the kitchen. However, I went out grocery shopping today and bought more stuff to put up (peaches! cherries! plums! kiwis!) so the push is on. And considering this is our anniversary weekend (amazingly I was the one who forgot about it, Derek had to remind me) I don't have a huge lot of time to do it. So wish me luck.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
8.10.10 GOLD!
Found the cast iron pans! They were lurking on the kitchen floor under a ton of grocery bags! Since they haven't been used since... well, not since before the move in 2003... they need to be cleaned and re-seasoned. Which will be done tomorrow. Hopefully. I can actually see the rug in the kitchen now. It will be vacuumed tomorrow if I can find the vacuum. I rarely use it as most of the floors in this house are wood. If it needs it, I'll borrow the carpet cleaner from my friend Penny and clean it.
Plans for tomorrow include: finishing kitchen, cleaning and seasoning iron pans, continuing the de-boxing project in the dining room, at some point making ranier cherry jam before all of them are BAD BAD BAD, and getting back on my old 8-5 work schedule (NO NAPPING). Which is making me wonder, why the heck am I still up?
On that note, making this real short and sweet and saying good night, all!
Plans for tomorrow include: finishing kitchen, cleaning and seasoning iron pans, continuing the de-boxing project in the dining room, at some point making ranier cherry jam before all of them are BAD BAD BAD, and getting back on my old 8-5 work schedule (NO NAPPING). Which is making me wonder, why the heck am I still up?
On that note, making this real short and sweet and saying good night, all!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
8.8.10 The Universal Conspiracy
I woke up at 4 AM this morning. Now for those of you who know me REALLY well, this is NOT NORMAL. That is usually my bedtime. So I wandered around the house, washed some dishes, played on Facebook, and took care of the dogs who apparently thought the world was coming to an end and they needed to go outside and pee on it. At some point between the time I got up and the time Derek got up, I managed to put a huge dent in the kitchen project (a la moving the dresser for the impending chest freezer)- I actually emptied the thing and found out it is not attached to the floor like I thought. The original plan was to move it to the dining room, which, depending on the state of its back, I might still do. But I am leaning towards making it an island- at some point attaching wheels to the bottom to make it mobile.
Anyone who's seen this kitchen knows it's on the small side. When Gran "remodeled" it in the 90's she placed cabinets everywhere, did not remove the original grey tile back splash with green trim (actually cut out the back part of one cabinet to allow for it), sink is not centered, the wallpaper is beige with light beige palm fronds which does not quite match the beige of the cabinets, and the countertops are that 90's bright golden brown laminate that matches nothing. (Admittedly, the cabinets are an inprovement on the old ones.) Top this off (originally) with all black and white appliances and 2 small drawers... (Ok, there are two drawers in the tall cabinet- which is not flush with the second set of cabinets and the dishwasher- but considering that everytime you open one it falls out, I am not counting them.) Well, the island, once moved will become more necessary. The dresser has 3 drawers, each larger than the other, and a nice formica top where, if all goes according to plan, I can move my finished canning to cool off before storage. I can also start making my own bread from scratch, which is hard to do given the current state of the existing counters.
The food storage is nicely organized in the dining room now- it might move back to the kitchen eventually. It was all previously (and precariously) stored on top of said dresser. Needless to say at the moment the kitchen looks a lot bigger and not like Igor's storage dungeon. I might actually find all my cast iron pans in this mess. That would be GOLDEN.
Had a nice long conversation with my sister this morning, which doesn't happen very often, as she is in Texas and we are on limited funds. I really enjoyed it.
Well, as I was planning on leaving for church (it starts in the afternoon this year), my husband had some health issues which forced me to stay home. Let's just say there are times he suffers from temporary altered mental status due to his diabetes. Sometimes it resolves itself with a meal, sometimes with a nap, but he was complaining of other issues and I decided it would be better to stay and keep an eye on him. Good thing too, as a half an hour later (in retrospect probably from moving all that stuff into the dining room, etc), I almost collapsed due to some kind of muscle/nerve thing. It's almost like shingles but all over, and no rash. So basically, stayed home, went to bed and slept for a long time. Still tired. Feel better now but need to get to bed.
Yeah, like that's going to happen anytime soon.
At any rate, I will return full speed ahead to canning once the rest of the stuff in the kitchen is resolved (moving the plastic cart, various other things, vacuuming the rug, actually moving the dresser and cleaning the outside of it, etc). The habaneros are still good, need to get the other peppers to go with it, need to put up ranier cherry jam and see if I can put up a couple more batches of blueberry and make more room in the freezer. All needs done this week before I start my new job on the 16th. Go team!
(YAWN) So good night all!
Anyone who's seen this kitchen knows it's on the small side. When Gran "remodeled" it in the 90's she placed cabinets everywhere, did not remove the original grey tile back splash with green trim (actually cut out the back part of one cabinet to allow for it), sink is not centered, the wallpaper is beige with light beige palm fronds which does not quite match the beige of the cabinets, and the countertops are that 90's bright golden brown laminate that matches nothing. (Admittedly, the cabinets are an inprovement on the old ones.) Top this off (originally) with all black and white appliances and 2 small drawers... (Ok, there are two drawers in the tall cabinet- which is not flush with the second set of cabinets and the dishwasher- but considering that everytime you open one it falls out, I am not counting them.) Well, the island, once moved will become more necessary. The dresser has 3 drawers, each larger than the other, and a nice formica top where, if all goes according to plan, I can move my finished canning to cool off before storage. I can also start making my own bread from scratch, which is hard to do given the current state of the existing counters.
The food storage is nicely organized in the dining room now- it might move back to the kitchen eventually. It was all previously (and precariously) stored on top of said dresser. Needless to say at the moment the kitchen looks a lot bigger and not like Igor's storage dungeon. I might actually find all my cast iron pans in this mess. That would be GOLDEN.
Had a nice long conversation with my sister this morning, which doesn't happen very often, as she is in Texas and we are on limited funds. I really enjoyed it.
Well, as I was planning on leaving for church (it starts in the afternoon this year), my husband had some health issues which forced me to stay home. Let's just say there are times he suffers from temporary altered mental status due to his diabetes. Sometimes it resolves itself with a meal, sometimes with a nap, but he was complaining of other issues and I decided it would be better to stay and keep an eye on him. Good thing too, as a half an hour later (in retrospect probably from moving all that stuff into the dining room, etc), I almost collapsed due to some kind of muscle/nerve thing. It's almost like shingles but all over, and no rash. So basically, stayed home, went to bed and slept for a long time. Still tired. Feel better now but need to get to bed.
Yeah, like that's going to happen anytime soon.
At any rate, I will return full speed ahead to canning once the rest of the stuff in the kitchen is resolved (moving the plastic cart, various other things, vacuuming the rug, actually moving the dresser and cleaning the outside of it, etc). The habaneros are still good, need to get the other peppers to go with it, need to put up ranier cherry jam and see if I can put up a couple more batches of blueberry and make more room in the freezer. All needs done this week before I start my new job on the 16th. Go team!
(YAWN) So good night all!
Friday, August 6, 2010
8.6.10 Jammy Devils!
So, I missed a day, which I promised myself I never would but apparently broke that resolution fairly quickly. In my defense, I was pretty much out of it, sleeping most of the day yesterday. I spent most of the night before fighting with my dog.
Yeah, he sleeps with us. He's spoiled. He's a little 25 lb Puggle with Egyptian eyes and he sleeps with Mama every night. And he thinks he owns the bed. I also think he thinks he's a 10 lb cat, or a 5 lb toad because, other than barking feriociously at anything that flies by any window, he likes to LOUNGE. He doesn't lick anybody but he sure sniffs everyones breath, in a very cat-like manner. He also hunts flies. (The frogs in the Red Queen's hall in the new Alice in Wonderland remind me of him, especially the accused- they got Sammie to a T!) At any rate, he sleeps curled up next to my back and then tries surrepticiously to nudge me off the bed. The night in question he stole all the covers, laid on them and we fought when I woke up freezing at 3 AM. We played tug of war until about 5 AM until I finally said, "Bag it" and got up. I was awake but not really...
At any rate that night I had been up until 2 AM trying hopelessly to find a recipe for Jammy Devils. I had just finished reading Terry Pratchett's "Unseen Academicals" (probably for the 5th time- I LOVE Terry Pratchett!) and one of the characters is the Night Kitchen's boss, Glenda Sugarbean. She bribed some of the palace guards to get an appointment with the ruler of the city and she did this with Jammy Devils. So I thought- "How appropriate! I have all this jam and all this flour and sugar- maybe there's a recipe for it!" I was thinking that maybe this was a real recipe like Spotted Dick and was something typically English (I LOVE English food!). However, the only recipe for this appears to be in Nanny Ogg's Cookbook and is not published on the net. It apparently is also the only cookbook in the known Universe that I do not own.
So THAT being said, and Derek (my husband) screaming for some kind of dessert and me being the loving, doting wife, decided to take matters into her own hands and make some kind of jam tart. At 11 PM. Needless to say, they were done at midnight. They are good but not quite what I had hoped for. What I did was take a shortcake recipe, split it in half, formed it like pie crust in a muffin tin, added a spoonful of jam, topped with remaining shortcake and baked in 350 oven for about 30 minutes. It's a nice start but I'm thinking this needs to be more of a pastie than a tin tart. Ummm. Until I get an actually recipe, I'm going to play with this for a while. My fantasy is a pastie filled with jam and clotted cream...
Well, I am going to cut this short, need to put away the remaining tarts and GO TO BED.
Yeah, he sleeps with us. He's spoiled. He's a little 25 lb Puggle with Egyptian eyes and he sleeps with Mama every night. And he thinks he owns the bed. I also think he thinks he's a 10 lb cat, or a 5 lb toad because, other than barking feriociously at anything that flies by any window, he likes to LOUNGE. He doesn't lick anybody but he sure sniffs everyones breath, in a very cat-like manner. He also hunts flies. (The frogs in the Red Queen's hall in the new Alice in Wonderland remind me of him, especially the accused- they got Sammie to a T!) At any rate, he sleeps curled up next to my back and then tries surrepticiously to nudge me off the bed. The night in question he stole all the covers, laid on them and we fought when I woke up freezing at 3 AM. We played tug of war until about 5 AM until I finally said, "Bag it" and got up. I was awake but not really...
At any rate that night I had been up until 2 AM trying hopelessly to find a recipe for Jammy Devils. I had just finished reading Terry Pratchett's "Unseen Academicals" (probably for the 5th time- I LOVE Terry Pratchett!) and one of the characters is the Night Kitchen's boss, Glenda Sugarbean. She bribed some of the palace guards to get an appointment with the ruler of the city and she did this with Jammy Devils. So I thought- "How appropriate! I have all this jam and all this flour and sugar- maybe there's a recipe for it!" I was thinking that maybe this was a real recipe like Spotted Dick and was something typically English (I LOVE English food!). However, the only recipe for this appears to be in Nanny Ogg's Cookbook and is not published on the net. It apparently is also the only cookbook in the known Universe that I do not own.
So THAT being said, and Derek (my husband) screaming for some kind of dessert and me being the loving, doting wife, decided to take matters into her own hands and make some kind of jam tart. At 11 PM. Needless to say, they were done at midnight. They are good but not quite what I had hoped for. What I did was take a shortcake recipe, split it in half, formed it like pie crust in a muffin tin, added a spoonful of jam, topped with remaining shortcake and baked in 350 oven for about 30 minutes. It's a nice start but I'm thinking this needs to be more of a pastie than a tin tart. Ummm. Until I get an actually recipe, I'm going to play with this for a while. My fantasy is a pastie filled with jam and clotted cream...
Well, I am going to cut this short, need to put away the remaining tarts and GO TO BED.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Can Date 8.4.10
Yeah, the title is corny but it's in kudos to all the silly sci fi people out there (that includes me).
I noticed last night that I had a follower! I am psyched! And it is appropriate that that follower is Chris Norris, who was the person who taught me how to can. Chris and I met in high school and I kept in touch with her when she moved to Brigham City, Utah during senior year. When I needed a place to flee to from Florida in 1988 (another long story in its entirety) she and her new husband opened their tiny apartment to me until I could get on my feet. Armed with nothing but some clothes, $20, some kitchen equipment that was shipped previously and my parent's old 1958 Remington Easy Writer typewriter, I arrived at the Salt Lake City Airport on November 19, 1988. Chris picked me up from the airport and off we went, driving through the first snow of winter and the first snow I had seen since I was a child.
At any rate, we drove back to the apartment in Riverdale (where I met her now late ex-husband Jeff for the first time) and after catching up and shown my room, we unpacked the few boxes I had shipped. In one of these boxes was a large pot I primarily used for cooking soup- an old, huge aluminum pot that had this weird rack in it. I had purchased it at Al's Other Market in Vero Beach, Florida in 1987 specifically because it could cook soup for an army and I asked the woman behind the counter what the rack was for.
"I don't know," was her answer.
We looked at it together. I toyed with the idea of leaving the rack behind but decided not to- it came with the pot and at some point, I figured, I'd figure out what it was for. I paid the $3.99 for it and went home. Before it was shipped to Utah, it was used for the aforementioned soup (I was a nanny at the time and thought the kids should have homemade soup, as well as bread and other items) and on one notable occasion it was used by my roommate's Arab boyfriend to make Kepsah (a really delicious chicken and rice dish). He burned the bottom, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.
So, we opened the box and out came the pot, rack and all. I really don't remember Chris' reaction but I believe she was stunned. I would like to think she was stunned at any rate as here was this doohickey naive suburban girl from resort city Florida sitting in her apartment in Utah with a canning pot and she had no clue WHAT she had in her hands. During the ensuing conversation she advised me that this was a canning pot. And explained what canning was. I think my reaction was, "oh, okay then" and that was that.
I don't know how all the canning stuff started, really. I do know that Chris was involved, I was interested, and when they moved back to Brigham City (after Jeff's stint in the military) I spent a LOT of time up there canning, freezing, and drying (which is the title of my favorite canning book by the way). One notorious summer when Chris and I were on furlough from IRS we spent almost the entire summer canning. Bushels of tomatoes, peaches, salsa... We also found a great deal on broccoli at a mark down market ($1 a case) and spent almost 48 hours straight freezing it! I miss Utah and its abundance of available food and great deals, neighbors who say "Hey, come get this or it's going to waste!" and the one empty lot next door to my tiny rented house in Ogden that had an apricot tree to die for. When the apricots were on I was in my (very distant) cousin Linda Henrie's kitchen, helping her put all of these up. Yum!
At any rate, when my soujourn to Utah was done, I had collected another canning pot and a ton of jars and everyone of them came with me to Florida. I probably didn't need to as I had forgotten that my grandfather used to make pickles. When I finally got around to cleaning out the garage with my mother after my grandmother died, we discovered CASES. And some of his old pickles. Needless to say, those were emptied rather quickly as he'd died in 1983.
Due to one thing or another I didn't really start canning again until 2008. I was rather amazed- I had found a recipe for banana butter online and went to town. I have been making it and banana hybrid jams ever since. And loving it.
I noticed last night that I had a follower! I am psyched! And it is appropriate that that follower is Chris Norris, who was the person who taught me how to can. Chris and I met in high school and I kept in touch with her when she moved to Brigham City, Utah during senior year. When I needed a place to flee to from Florida in 1988 (another long story in its entirety) she and her new husband opened their tiny apartment to me until I could get on my feet. Armed with nothing but some clothes, $20, some kitchen equipment that was shipped previously and my parent's old 1958 Remington Easy Writer typewriter, I arrived at the Salt Lake City Airport on November 19, 1988. Chris picked me up from the airport and off we went, driving through the first snow of winter and the first snow I had seen since I was a child.
At any rate, we drove back to the apartment in Riverdale (where I met her now late ex-husband Jeff for the first time) and after catching up and shown my room, we unpacked the few boxes I had shipped. In one of these boxes was a large pot I primarily used for cooking soup- an old, huge aluminum pot that had this weird rack in it. I had purchased it at Al's Other Market in Vero Beach, Florida in 1987 specifically because it could cook soup for an army and I asked the woman behind the counter what the rack was for.
"I don't know," was her answer.
We looked at it together. I toyed with the idea of leaving the rack behind but decided not to- it came with the pot and at some point, I figured, I'd figure out what it was for. I paid the $3.99 for it and went home. Before it was shipped to Utah, it was used for the aforementioned soup (I was a nanny at the time and thought the kids should have homemade soup, as well as bread and other items) and on one notable occasion it was used by my roommate's Arab boyfriend to make Kepsah (a really delicious chicken and rice dish). He burned the bottom, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.
So, we opened the box and out came the pot, rack and all. I really don't remember Chris' reaction but I believe she was stunned. I would like to think she was stunned at any rate as here was this doohickey naive suburban girl from resort city Florida sitting in her apartment in Utah with a canning pot and she had no clue WHAT she had in her hands. During the ensuing conversation she advised me that this was a canning pot. And explained what canning was. I think my reaction was, "oh, okay then" and that was that.
I don't know how all the canning stuff started, really. I do know that Chris was involved, I was interested, and when they moved back to Brigham City (after Jeff's stint in the military) I spent a LOT of time up there canning, freezing, and drying (which is the title of my favorite canning book by the way). One notorious summer when Chris and I were on furlough from IRS we spent almost the entire summer canning. Bushels of tomatoes, peaches, salsa... We also found a great deal on broccoli at a mark down market ($1 a case) and spent almost 48 hours straight freezing it! I miss Utah and its abundance of available food and great deals, neighbors who say "Hey, come get this or it's going to waste!" and the one empty lot next door to my tiny rented house in Ogden that had an apricot tree to die for. When the apricots were on I was in my (very distant) cousin Linda Henrie's kitchen, helping her put all of these up. Yum!
At any rate, when my soujourn to Utah was done, I had collected another canning pot and a ton of jars and everyone of them came with me to Florida. I probably didn't need to as I had forgotten that my grandfather used to make pickles. When I finally got around to cleaning out the garage with my mother after my grandmother died, we discovered CASES. And some of his old pickles. Needless to say, those were emptied rather quickly as he'd died in 1983.
Due to one thing or another I didn't really start canning again until 2008. I was rather amazed- I had found a recipe for banana butter online and went to town. I have been making it and banana hybrid jams ever since. And loving it.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Diary of A Mad Canner 8.3.10
First off, I never thought I'd join the ranks of bloggers. Ever. But it looks like I am going to be another of those techno junkies that is going to clog up the internet with thoughts, views, possibly photos and recipes. My main point for this blog is to document my journey of home food preservation and scratch cooking, something I am somewhat obsessed with, move it off of Facebook (where I'm sure I annoy a great deal of people) and write it in a more appropriate forum. I am certain my relatives out there are sick of hearing about it (it's somewhat foreign to them- my parents are probably wondering who is this strange person and where their daughter went) so here is a newly created blog that they can ignore at will.
So, a brief explanation to those who have no clue what canning is. Canning is the act of food preservation. You know all those Smuckers and Classico spaghetti sauce jars in the grocery store? Those were created by commercial canners. Jams, jellies, spaghetti sauce, jarred fruit and vegetables- any food that is packed in a jar or a can is created by a canner.
My main and still original intent for canning is to eliminate waste. I hate waste. I am a hoarder by nature and genetics and possibly have OCD as well- I hate to see good food go bad. I hate to see anything useful go to waste, which is why living in Gainesville, Florida is rather dangerous for me (more on that at a later date). I kid around a lot, stating if I could afford a personalized license plate it would read SLVG QWN (fill in blanks with appropriate vowels).
At any rate, I have hemmed and hawed about creating this blog for weeks, ever since my former roommate Deanna started her exercise blog on this site. So after consulting briefly with her I finally decided to get off my duff and do it. This is the first entry. And now I have to figure out where to go next. Suggestions are welcome.
Excuse me, but I have some jam (and dinner) to make now.
So, a brief explanation to those who have no clue what canning is. Canning is the act of food preservation. You know all those Smuckers and Classico spaghetti sauce jars in the grocery store? Those were created by commercial canners. Jams, jellies, spaghetti sauce, jarred fruit and vegetables- any food that is packed in a jar or a can is created by a canner.
My main and still original intent for canning is to eliminate waste. I hate waste. I am a hoarder by nature and genetics and possibly have OCD as well- I hate to see good food go bad. I hate to see anything useful go to waste, which is why living in Gainesville, Florida is rather dangerous for me (more on that at a later date). I kid around a lot, stating if I could afford a personalized license plate it would read SLVG QWN (fill in blanks with appropriate vowels).
At any rate, I have hemmed and hawed about creating this blog for weeks, ever since my former roommate Deanna started her exercise blog on this site. So after consulting briefly with her I finally decided to get off my duff and do it. This is the first entry. And now I have to figure out where to go next. Suggestions are welcome.
Excuse me, but I have some jam (and dinner) to make now.
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