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I’m baking pumpkin pie today. I did cheat and use frozen pie shells though.

This is absolutely the best tasting pumpkin pie ever!  I’ve made it several time but I can’t take credit for the recipe. It is the Libby’s Pumpkin Pie recipe which uses plain canned pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin pie filling.

Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie
-= Ingredients =-
2 Unbaked 9″ deep dish pie shell ; deep dish
1 1/2 cups Granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon Ground cloves
4 Eggs
2 cans (12 oz) Evaporated milk ; (3 cups)

-= Instructions =-
Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in medium bowl.  Beat eggs lightly in large bowl.  Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture.  Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shells.

Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees; bake for 40 to 50  minutes more or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.  Serve immediately or chill (do not freeze).

Makes 2 deep dish pies.

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Old cashmere sweaters make cute and cuddly critters 

Those old cashmere sweaters may no longer be fit to wear in public, but don’t throw away that silky softness–it could be warming arms, necks or even hearts.

Treehugger.com discovered that Haute Goat Cashmere is giving luxury a second chance with their recycled cashmere stuffed animals, and scarves. They use only 100% cashmere that has had a previous life as a sweater.

But think what a fantastic gift it would be to recycle someone’s much-loved sweater into a cuddly friend, or warm scarf. And it doesn’t have to stop with sweaters—I can imagine some really cute critters made from recycled flannel pajamas or even old baby blankets. Let your creativity flow! 

(If you don’t want to make your own, critters and scarves can be purchased from Haute Goat’s Etsy Shop or many brick and mortar boutiques, like Cog & Pearl in Brooklyn, New York, and Stella on 21st in Portland, Oregon.)

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Today I unpacked my cow collection which has been boxed up for 10 years. I’d forgotten how cute they are!

The far left is a bell, behind is a milk bottle, in front is a measuring spoon holder with red spoons. In the middle are two creamers, then front are salt and pepper shakers with a stuffed cow behind. Then comes a tooth brush holder and farthest right is a piggy (cow) bank.

.

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Use Old CDs as Driveway Reflectors

from LifeHacker.Com

If you have a long, winding driveway, it can be pretty difficult (and dangerous) for you and others to drive through it at night. To make it safer, nail a few old CDs to posts or trees as light reflectors.

Whether you have CDs that are beyond saving or just no longer necessary, you can post a few of them up as light reflectors to help you and your guests navigate your driveway. Hit the link below to read up on 44 more great uses for old and broken CDs, and share your own favorite uses in the comments.

44 Fanciful Uses for Dud Discs [Instructables]

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I’m cooking today, literally!  I went shopping yesterday after dropping Jesse a school so I was at the store at 8:00 a.m.  Never having shopped that early I was surprised to find different kinds of meat on sale because they were almost at the expiration (use or freeze before …) date.  I found a beef rump roast, large package of cube steaks, and 5 lbs of ground beef all of them from $2 to $4 off the normal price. I am excited to have gotten such good deals, but now I’ve got to cook them all, ASAP.

I’ve never cooked a rump roast before so I searched out recipes online. I found a luscious recipe with the rather in-elegant name of “Roast Beef in Crockpot.”  (See below.) This morning the house smelled so good from the meat cooking all night. When I got up, I just poured it all into a large bowl, let it cool, and put it in the refrigerator for dinner tonight.

This morning I cut up half the cube steaks to use in “English Beef Pot Pie.” (Recipe below.) It’s cooking in the crock pot right now. This will be tomorrow’s dinner. I’ve still got half the cube steaks to do something with. I’m not sure what yet…

Finally, I have to deal with the 5 lbs of ground beef. I’ll use half for meatloaf (see “Seasoned Ground Beef” recipe below), and fry some up to freeze in Ziploc bags to be ready for any recipe calling for cooked ground beef, and make some into meatballs.

That’s enough cooking for a while!

                        Roast Beef in Crockpot

-= Ingredients =-
3 medium potatoes
2 large carrots
1 onion ; sliced (or chopped)             (I omitted this)
1 (2-3 lb.) boneless beef rump roast
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 can cream of mushroom soup

-= Instructions =-
Put vegetables in bottom of stoneware. 

Salt & pepper meat, then place in pot on top of vegetables. 

Add liquid. 

Cover and cook on LOW 10-12 hours. (HIGH: 5-6 hours.)

                         English Beef Pot Pie

-= Ingredients =-
2 pounds beef round steak ; cut into 1" cubes
3 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
2 medium carrots ; pared, sliced
3 medium potatoes ; peeled, sliced
1 large onion ; thinly sliced
1 can whole tomatoes - (16 oz)

 
~~ === BISCUIT TOPPING === ~~
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
3 cup milk

-= Instructions =-
Place steak cubes in crock pot.  Combine flour, salt, and pepper; toss with steak to coat thoroughly.  Stir in remaining ingredients except Biscuit Topping and mix thoroughly.  Cover and cook on LOW setting for 8 to 10 hours.

One hour before serving, remove meat and vegetables from crock pot and pour into shallow 2 1/2-quart baking dish.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cover meat mixture with Biscuit Topping.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Biscuit Topping:  Mix dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.  Add milk all at one time; stir well.  Pat out on floured board; roll out to cover baking dish.

                         Seasoned Ground Beef

Recipe By: Betty Crocker Cookbook c1986 (modified)

-= Ingredients =-
5 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
2 egg
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
3 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

-= Instructions =-
This will prepare enough for a few different meals. Mix all the ingredients in a very large bowl.

For meatloaf, spread 1/3  the meat mixture in a loaf pan. Spoon the ketchup over the top. Bake uncovered in 350 degree oven for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Remove from pan, wrap in foil, label, and freeze until needed.

For meatballs, add spaghetti sauce if desired; shape 1/3 of the mixture into meatballs; place on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Cook until done (It will depend on the size of the meatballs.). Let cool. Freeze for 2 hours on cookie sheet. Place the meatballs in Ziploc bags and freeze until needed.

For hamburgers, shape 1/3 of the mixture into patties. Place on cookie sheet, not touching each other and freeze for 2 hours.  Wrap patties individually in plastic wrap or foil and place in ziplock bag. Freeze until needed.

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Sorry for my absence, y’all. My life has caved in, literally!  How can you be living the good life and develop high blood pressure from stress??? From doing it wrong, I guess. When you are living voluntarily poor, it doesn’t take much to knock you down, and getting knocked down too much causes stress.

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I might be having a heart attack so I went to my doctor. $413 and lots of tests later, the doctor told me my heart seems fine but my blood pressure was 180/110! (I didn’t know that was bad until I looked it up online—see the info I’ve added below.) I’m still in shock really. I’ve always had low blood pressure, always. I’m mean, it is usually around 95/75. The chest pains, the doctor said, are from stress. He got very serious as he looked me in the eye and said I needed to exercise and lose weight. Did he think that was news to me, or something?  Did he think I’d only been waiting for someone to tell me that, and then I’d be able to go out and lose it all?  (Besides, I thought, my blood pressure was fine only a few months ago and I’m the same size and in the same shape as I’ve been for years.)

I left with some sample bottles of high blood pressure meds, and a prescription for an anxiety reliever (Xanax). I went home instead of to the pharmacy, though, to do some internet research first. Now, if you are like me, you don’t know the dangers from blood pressure that high. I read online that it can eventually cause damage to your organs if not treated. I also read in a couple of places that blood pressure varies a lot so you shouldn’t necessarily start medications until you checked it over a few days. Aha! There you go! I don’t need more medicines, and I don’t need to panic. My blood pressure just suddenly got high, so, I thought, once I ease the stress it would go back to normal. (Though, of course, the reason things cause stress is precisely because you can’t control them.)

Still, I know better than to put too much trust in sources on the Internet. So the next day, I asked the Walgreens pharmacist what she thought. She said one big danger of blood pressure that high is that it is “stroke level.”  She said once it is high, it doesn’t just drop back to normal. (WHY?? That makes no sense to me.) She said I needed to take the high blood pressure medicine immediately and continue until I saw the doctor again and he said I could stop. She also said I needed to exercise and lose weight. Ack! They must all be in league with each other. . .

What is High Blood Pressure?

Hypertension is the term used to describe high blood pressure.

Blood pressure readings are measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and usually given as two numbers. For example, 120 over 80 (written as 120/80 mmHg).

• The top number is your systolic pressure, the pressure created when your heart beats. It is considered high if it is consistently over 140.
• The bottom number is your diastolic pressure, the pressure inside blood vessels when the heart is at rest. It is considered high if it is consistently over 90.

Either or both of these numbers may be too high.

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I love cookie cutters. Over the years I’ve collected quite a few including a roller skate, a musical note, and an umbrella.

Today we’re making Halloween sugar cookies. I didn’t want to wait while the dough chilled, and I didn’t have any shortening either, so I tried a different recipe. I like this recipe because it is simple, but the cookies did come out dry. They definitely need frosting, but Jesse didn’t want to wait and is gobbling them down.

Sugar Cookies - Wilton Recipe

With no chilling time necessary, these cookies can be made quickly.

-= Ingredients =-
1 cup Butter ; room temperature
1 cup Sugar
—————————–
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 ea Egg
—————————–
3 cups Flour ; sifted
2 teaspoon Baking powder

-= Instructions =-
Preheat oven to 400.  In a large mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until well combined.  Beat in vanilla and egg.

Sift flour and baking soda together.  Add to creamed mixture, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.

Dough will be very stiff.

DO NOT CHILL DOUGH!

Divide dough in half.  On floured surface, roll dough about  to 1/8 thick.  Dip cutters in flour before each use.  Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet on top rack of oven for 6-7 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.

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Today I found 2 pints of blueberries that had apparently gotten lost in the refrigerator for more than 2 weeks. They looked a little shriveled but they tasted ok so I thought I’d try them in a new muffin recipe and see what happens.

The muffins are delicious! I love blueberry muffins and this is the first recipe I’ve found that I’d say is good. Yum!

                  Blueberry Muffins (Betty Crocker)

-= Ingredients =-

1 3/4 cups Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
2 tablespoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Egg; beaten
3/4 cup Milk
1/3 cup Cooking oil
3/4 cup Fresh or frozen blueberries

-= Instructions =-

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.   

In a large mixing bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and  salt. Make a well in the center.

Combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg  mixture all at once to flour mixture.

Add blueberries and stir just till  moistened; batter should be lumpy.

Grease muffin cups or line with paper  bake cups; fill 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or till golden. Remove  from pans; serve warm.

Makes 10-12 muffins

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We made goat milk ice cream once but we weren’t too happy with the results. I don’t remember the recipe I used (sorry), but knowing me it would have been something extremely simple with few ingredients.  We don’t have any goat milk right now so I can’t test this out for you, but mississippisnowdog, from the Off Grid Living and Homesteading Yahoo group, has developed her own recipe (below) and she told me it is very good. You can also find a more complicated goat milk ice cream recipe here: www.countrysidemag.com.

If you make these recipes, come back and leave a comment letting us know how it went and whether you liked it enough to do again.

(Don’t have an ice cream maker? No problem, check out the truly hand made ice cream recipes on our web site: http://www.chickensense.com/icecream.asp)

Goat Milk Ice Cream

“I make goat milk ice cream at least twice a week and we love it. I didn’t want to make it too fattening, so I had to figure out a way to do it without adding extra cream. Here’s what I came up with.”

5 1/2 cups goat milk
2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
flavor, about 1 teaspoon (vanilla extract, mint, etc.)

Heat 5 cups of the milk until it looks like it has a skin on top that is cracking. Stir the cornstarch into the remaining 1/2 cup milk until dissolved. Add to heated milk. Add sugar. Heat at a low to medium temperature until it coats the spoon. Keep stirring or it will scorch. (Might be better to do this in a double boiler.)  Add your flavoring (vanilla extract, mint, etc.) and pour into your ice cream maker.

Mix and freeze, following your ice cream machine’s instructions, until done. Transfer the ice cream into a chilled container. After putting in the freezer (your refrigerator’s freezer), be sure to stir it in about an hour or it will get hard and impossible to scoop. Depending on the type, you might need to stir it again at two hours.

Variations–

For mint chocolate chip, use mint extract and grate two regular size Hershey bars (or peel with a potato peeler). Put the grated chocolate in the freezer till hard, crunch into smaller pieces, and add to ice cream when almost done churning.

For chocolate– eliminate sugar. Add a king size Hershey bar to the mix after removing from heat. Stir until melted.

For fruit flavors (peach and strawberry) add 1 cup chopped fruit when the ice cream is almost done churning.

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Is it true? Home-baked bread every day with just 5 minutes effort, and all you need is an oven and a refrigerator? It sounds too good to be true so I tested it for myself.

On the left is the dough mixed and ready for the fridge. (See the recipe at Bread in 5 Minutes a Day - Master Recipe). I mixed it all in a plastic container, let it sit on the counter for a couple of hours, then refrigerated it for 2 days. (Each additional day you let it stay in the refrigerator the flavor is supposed to really improve.) This is not like a sour-dough starter, you don’t “feed” it each time you use it. You simply cut off a hunk, let it sit out for a couple of hours, then bake. Once you’ve used all the dough you just make another batch.

On the right side, here it is ready for the oven after sitting out a couple of hours to come to room temperature. Nothing seems to be going right for me, though. First I put the bread on the baking stone to sit out and rise, which was wrong since the stone needs to pre-heat before the bread is placed on it. So I moved the bread to a plate (since I didn’t have a pizza peel). That was messy. Then when I slashed the top of the dough it was so wet it just all went together again. Finally, it stuck to the plate despite the cornmeal, so it got on the pre-heated stone upside down. It’ll be a miracle if it is even edible.

I haven’t bought the book (Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day) yet, but the recipe and instructions are available in several places online, for example: Bread in 5 Minutes a Day - Master Recipe. On the author’s web site there are several other variations, one of which is a sweet dough they call a brioche. I’ll be testing that next.

I’m not sure this is any better than using a bread machine. The machine takes less than 5 minutes to pour in the ingredients, but then it bakes it without any user intervention. No pizza peels, cornmeal, preheating, etc. The downside to the bread machine is that it only makes one small loaf. With this recipe you can make 4 or 5 loaves, and more if you double the recipe.

Hmmmm… pretty pitiful looking. It is very flat and the crust is very hard. The inside looks good, with some nice big bubble/air pockets. The whole thing tastes faintly burnt, even though it isn’t. Strange. I think that may be because the baking stone had the residue from the dough (that I had to move to a plate) and the residue did burn. I guess it flavored the whole loaf.

The bottom line: the texture is great, the taste is ok (needs a bit less salt), the crust is too hard, and the whole process was a pain. I’ve got plenty of dough left so I’ll try again, doing things the proper way this time. If there is a big improvement, I’ll update this blog entry.

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I’m not too short: both my feet reach the ground.  :) 

Still, I do have trouble reaching top-shelf items in my cabinets. So I was pleased today when I discovered an unexpected benefit of using plastic ice cream tubs to store my flour, sugar, salt, dry milk, and cornmeal. My long spatula can hook the handles and pull the tub right off the top shelf for me. Cool tool!

These tubs are much easier to use than the Rubbermaid tubs I used to use. The tubs can be heavy when full, but the handle keeps them easily manageable. I keep a working supply handy in the tubs, and store the large bags in the chest freezer or pantry. Even things that don’t come in large bags are easier with the handles, such as dry milk and salt.

The tubs are not air-tight however, so keep a small bag of desiccant (silica gel) in with the salt and sugar to prevent lumps.

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Fantastic! These both came out so delicious!

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Recipe By: www.grouprecipes.com

-= Ingredients =-

• 2 Tilapia Fillets
• 1/2 cup Bread crumbs ; plain or seasoned
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1 Egg
• 2 pats Butter
• Cooking spray

-= Instructions =-

1. Make egg wash.
2. In shallow dish, combine crumbs and cheese.
3. Dip fillets into egg and then into crumbs.
4. Spray pan with cooking spray.
5. Place fillets in pan and top with butter.
6. Bake 425 degrees until fish is flakey.

Skillet Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are cooked in the skillet with brown sugar and butter.

Recipe By: By Diana Rattray, About.com
Serving Size: 4

-= Ingredients =-

• 1/2 cup Brown sugar
• 1/3 cup Water
• 1 tablespoon Butter
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 3 medium Sweet Potatoes (I used canned sweet potatoes)

-= Instructions =-

In a heavy skillet, combine brown sugar, water, butter, and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add sliced sweet potatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes, turning frequently.

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My husband tilled the future pumpkin patch Saturday!  Yay!!  I bought 5 bags of organic humus with composted manure which Jesse and I will be mixing into the soil if it ever stops raining.  The short-season pumpkin seeds have been ordered, so after the soil is mixed with the humus/manure all we can do is wait.

This garden area is pretty big, I’m wondering if I should divide it into 3 very long, 3-foot-wide beds, or just keep it one big area for a real-live pumpkin patch. I don’t let anyone walk on my gardens so the soil won’t get compacted because I never want to till again. If this becomes a large pumpkin patch, it’ll have to be all tromped on to plant and harvest the pumpkins. But if I do the narrow beds, who will tell the pumpkin vines to stay off the paths? 

It is a no-brainer really, I never again want to wait on someone to do tilling, so I’ll make long, raised beds. I’ll just share the paths with the pumpkins for a while. And early next spring the beds will already be ready for planting watermelons.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m planting pumpkins that are supposed to mature quickly. One variety, Neon, is a semi-bush type, with 8 to 10 lb fruit, that claims to mature in 60 to 80 days. The other, New Rocket, produces 14 – 22 lb fruit that matures in 86 days. What odd measurements 14 to 22 lbs, and 86 days. Why don’t they just say 15 to 20 lbs, and 85 days?

This is a photo of the garden as it was in spring, on March 30. The bed along the left now contains bush green beans, onions, and several squash & zucchini. The right side, farthest away are the blueberry bushes, then the right corner that you can’t see currently has the lima beans growing like crazy. It really hasn’t been used in a few years, except the outer raised beds which used to have tons of daisies. The drought of summer 2007 and the goats of 2008 killed them all though.

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How to Shop Online Without a Credit Card

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

A vast amount of people shop online for the seemingly endless selection of goods, and for the convenience of buying what you want from your own home. However, those without access to a credit card are often unable to enjoy these benefits. The set of instructions below outlines a very simple way to enjoy online shopping without having to use a credit card.

Steps

1. Get the amount of money you need to what you want in cash.
2. Now somehow get all of this cash in change. Some ways to do this are to use a quarter machine at a laundromat or arcade, go to the bank, or ask for ten dollar rolls at a supermarket.
3. Find a Coinstar machine. These machines usually take your change and exchange it for cash for a small fee, but they also have another function. You can give it your change and it will exchange it for a gift certificate to Amazon.com for no counting fee.
4. Go to Amazon.com and use the search function to find what you want. Once at the checkout screen, just enter the code from your certificate in the designated space and click "apply".
5. If Amazon doesn’t have exactly what you want, just purchase an e-certificate off of them and use it on the desired website. They will send your e-certificate code via email, so it is very convenient.
6. Or you could just buy a Visa Giftcard. They are available at just about any convenience store. When you buy it, it will come with a link to a website. Go there and register. Then shop online using your gift as you would a normal credit card.

Tips

• If you don’t know where to find a Coinstar machine, just go to their website and punch in your zip code and they will tell you where the closest one to you is.
• this should work for UK too.
  • Virtual credit card numbers offered by some major card issuers offer a similar level of protection without all the hassle.

Warnings

• Before you go to the Coinstar machine, make sure you have ALL the money you need, for both the item itself, shipping, and maybe sales tax.

Related wikiHows

• How to Save Money Shopping on the Internet
• How to Create an Account on Citisbest.Com
• How to View Your Phone Bill Online
• How to Get Companies to Send You Free Stuff

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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My cantaloupes are still doing so well. The vines are so thick and heavy, and the leaves so large I’m having trouble training them up on the string.

I am just so amazed at the difference from the weak, spindly plants that are all I’ve gotten in the past. As I said in past posts, I have to attribute the difference to the organic humus and manure mix that I used. There is one other difference, these are heirloom varieties, but I can’t imagine that is the reason for the huge improvement over past years. Whatever–I’m just happy about it.

I’ve spotted 3 baby cantaloupes so far.

My squash plants are definitely not doing so well though. It is usually the squash that grows gangbusters, but not this year. This year they are barely growing at all. I didn’t add fertilizer at planting time, but then I never have in the past. I added organic humus & manure a couple of weeks ago but that may take a while to show any difference. Another difference this year is that they are farther from the house so I haven’t watered them nearly as often as in the past. In past years I’m afraid I had a tendency to over-water everything I could reach. I guess the squash preferred it that way.

The tomatoes have really improved after I added the humus/manure mix. All except one that for some reason is just fading away. It is odd since they were all in the same six-pack, planted and watered the same.

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I’ve been asking for 2 months for my hubby to till my garden. He planted greens this spring, then just let them go to seed. I had planned that area for watermelon, then pumpkins, but it’s waaayyy too late for watermelon, and getting close to being too late for pumpkins–to have them by Halloween, that is. I did some research today, and found that I have plenty of time to plant short-season pumpkins. I found some that take only 80 days, and right now we have 107 days until Halloween. No problem even if the seeds take a week to get here.

We need the money these pumpkins might bring in–around here a soccer-ball-size pumpkin is $5, larger ones $10 or even $15. I don’t want to count my pumpkins before they are planted, however 25 x $5 = $125, and 15 x $10 = $150, total = $275. $15 for seeds, $10 for humus/manure, and a few dollars for watering–those are the only expenses. Forty pumpkins is a low estimate of the yield I might get, yet I’d be very happy with that for my first try at selling anything I produce.

Sooooo, I ordered 2 types of pumpkin seed from Vesey’s in Canada, and tomorrow I’m going to till the garden myself if hubby doesn’t. (That will be a very bad thing for me, I’ll be in bed in pain for 2 days afterwards, but time doesn’t wait for procrastinating husbands.) I’m anxious to do it tomorrow because the weather report says it will be 83 degrees and partly sunny for today and tomorrow–unbelievably cool for this time of year, it has been in the upper 90’s for weeks. I’ve got to take advantage of it.

I found the pumpkin seeds at Veseys, which is in Canada: 

Neon

The catalogue describes it as:

"Be the first gardener around with orange pumpkins! Beautiful shaped medium orange pumpkins have a strong dark green handle. This hybrid forms semi-bush plants which don’t take up as much space and allows for higher density plantings. Can weigh up to 8-10 lbs and have dark yellow to light orange interior. Maturity ranges from 60-80 days. Approx. 35 sds/pkg."

New Rocket 

The catalogue describes it as:

"All of the earliness and yield of Rocket but with better color, better shape and a stronger handle. These improvements make one of our strongest pumpkin varieties even better. New Rocket produces somewhat larger fruit weighing 14-22 lbs. Be one of the first to the competitive fall market. Early maturity in about 86 days. Approx. 15-20 sds/pkg."

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In the past I’ve written of my Easy Canned Beans method using a pressure canner, but I found a just-as-simple way to ‘can’ beans for your freezer without a pressure canner at www.Menus4Mom.com.

I signed up for Menu4Mom’s FREE weekly menu email: Basic Weekly Menu. I got so excited when I found the site, but I soon found that they try to charge you for practically everything. (I’ll save my ranting on that subject for another post.)

Below are the instructions. Enjoy! (free of charge, of course.)

Menus 4 Moms

Dried beans We regularly cook a bag of dried beans and freeze the beans in their own juice to use in place of canned beans. Dried beans are easy to cook and can be done in a slow cooker. They are far less expensive that canned beans. If you do not have any beans in your freezer and would like to stock up, use this recipe: * 1 bag dried beans (black, pinto, kidney, etc.) * water Rinse beans in a colander and check to be sure there are no stones or other debris. Place beans in a dutch oven and cover with water so that the water is twice as deep as the beans. Overnight soak: Leave beans in water overnight. Quick soak: Heat to boiling and boil for 2 minutes. Turn heat off and cover, let sit for 1 hour. Drain beans in colander and rinse pot. Place beans in slow cooker and cover with water, making sure the water is twice as deep as the beans. Cook on Hi for 5 hours or Low for 8-10 hours. Drain beans, reserving liquid (place colander on a lg. pan or bowl then pour beans in). Separate beans into 2 cup servings in freezer bags. Cover beans in each bag with some of reserved liquid.

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It’s been a very long time since I’ve made meatloaf. I’m not sure why, since we all love my recipe. I guess because it is so messy to make, and I usually freeze my hands while mashing it all together.

Tonight, though, I made meatloaf. I’ve learned some things to watch for: get the pan out and prepared, and all the ingredients out before you start, otherwise you’ll smear hamburger all over you cabinet handles.

I thought I’d get clever today and try to save washing a large bowl. I added all the ingredients right inside the plastic tray the hamburger comes in. It seemed like a good idea, but in reality it was a bit small so hamburger kept spilling out as I mixed. Still it was nice to be able to just dump the tray in the garbage when I was done.

(These meat trays are actually very handy. I run them through the dishwasher, then reuse them for all sorts of things. They are just the right size to hold 9 jiffy pellets for planting seeds. I also sometimes punch some holes in the bottom and use them as seed starting trays. I’ve even used them for storing messy leftovers. Once the food is gone there is no bowl to wash.)

                      -= Exported from BigOven =-

                              Meat Loaf

Based on Recipe from Betty Crocker Cookbook c1986
Serving Size: 6

-= Ingredients =-
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon sage
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup ketchup

-= Instructions =-
Mix all the ingredients except the ketchup. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Spread the meat mixture in the loaf pan. Spoon the ketchup over the top. Bake uncovered in 350 degree oven for 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

** This recipe can be pasted into BigOven without retyping.     **
** Easy recipe software.  Try it free at: http://www.bigoven.com    **

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I have had lots of trouble over the years getting loaves that aren’t “gummy” inside when using my bread-machine. I’ve written before of my joy when I found I had over-looked the “super rapid” setting on my machine while accidentally using recipes intended for “super rapid.”  Pressing that magic button at the right time helped immensely, but all loaves were still at least a little gummy in the middle (usually more than a little).

I finally found, from several sites online, that bread that is undercooked and gummy inside is bread that didn’t rise sufficiently. After some experimenting, I found a couple of things I had been doing wrong:

1. I use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, which doesn’t rise as well because it has less gluten and because of some chemicals they add to the bread flour (see note).
   

   fix: compensate by using 1 tablespoon vital gluten per cup of flour

2. I keep my whole wheat flour in the freezer so it is very cold when I add it to the ingredients, which I’ve realized hinders the action of the yeast.
   

   fix: set the timer to begin the bread in 1 hour to give the wheat time to get room temperature

3. For recipes that have any whole wheat flour at all, I wasn’t using the “whole wheat” setting, which allows extra rising time. (I thought they meant to use that only for 100% whole wheat bread. Oops.)
   

   fix: always use the whole wheat setting if there is any whole wheat flour in the recipe

I am now always careful to use vital gluten (available in the flour section of your super-market), especially with wheat flour; I always set the delay-timer to allow whole wheat flour to come to room temperature before mixing begins; and I am more careful to use the proper buttons on my machine: whole wheat if there is any whole wheat flour in the recipe, and super-rapid if I have used a super-rapid recipe.

(If you don’t have any vital gluten but want to use all-purpose flour in a recipe for white bread, you can compensate for the poor rising attributes of the flour by setting the machine to the whole wheat setting. This setting allows extra rising time, which is what all-purpose flour needs.)

Hopefully now my bread will continue to come out as nice as the last few loaves have. No more anticipating and salivating only to have to loaf come out as an inedible gummy mess.

(The photo is of the honey wheat bread I made tonight.)

My Honey Whole Wheat Bread (2 Lb Loaf)

(Based on a recipe from my Gold Medal flour bread machine recipe booklet)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 or 5 tablespoons vital gluten
• 2 tablespoons butter (or shortening), chopped
• 2 tablespoons dry milk
• 1 teaspoon yeast

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients in the order above into the bread machine pan. I put half the vital gluten after the all-purpose flour, and half after the whole wheat flour, which I hope helps it to incorporate better.

Use the 2 lb Whole Wheat setting on your bread machine. If your flour is frozen or refrigerated set the timer to start in an hour to allow the ingredients time to reach room temperature before they come in contact with the yeast.

When finished remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. To more easily slice bread, use a serrated knife and a gentle back and forth sawing motion.

NOTE: Bread flour is a high-gluten flour that has very small amounts of malted barley flour and vitamin C or potassium bromate added. The barley flour helps the yeast work, and the other additive increases the elasticity of the gluten and its ability to retain gas as the dough rises and bakes.

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Amazing Health Research

From www.wholefoods.com

Cantaloupe is an excellent source of vitamin A on account of its concentrated beta-carotene content. Once inside the body, beta-carotene can be converted into vitamin A, so when you eat cantaloupe it’s like getting both these beneficial nutrients at once. One cup of cantaloupe is just 56 calories, but provides 103.2% of the daily value for vitamin A. Both vitamin A and beta-carotene are important vision nutrients. In a study of over 50,000 women nurses aged 45 to 67, women who consumed the highest dietary amount of vitamin A had a 39% reduced risk of developing cataracts. In another study that looked at the incidence of cataract surgery and diet, researchers found that those people who ate diets that included cantaloupe had half the risk of cataract surgery, while those who ate the highest amounts of butter, salt and total fat had higher risks for cataract surgery. Beta-carotene has also been the subject of extensive research in relationship to cancer prevention and prevention of oxygen-based damage to cells.

More from www.wholefoods.com

While studying the relationship between vitamin A, lung inflammation, and emphysema, Richard Baybutt, associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State, made a surprising discovery: a common carcinogen in cigarette smoke, benzo(a)pyrene, induces vitamin A deficiency.

Baybutt’s earlier research had shown that animals fed a vitamin A-deficient diet developed emphysema. His latest animal studies indicate that not only does the benzo(a)pyrene in cigarette smoke cause vitamin A deficiency, but that a diet rich in vitamin A can help counter this effect, thus greatly reducing emphysema.

Growing Tips

The names “cantaloupe” and “muskmelon” are used somewhat interchangeably. What is generally called cantaloupe in the west is really a muskmelon, indicated by its webbed surface. Cantaloupes have a smooth and lumpy skin with deep ridges.

Cantaloupe transplants are delicate and roots are sensitive to disturbance. If you need to thin, use scissors. Keep soil intact around plant when transplanting. The plants need lots of water until pollination, however, too much water as the melons are ripening will dilute the sweet flavor. So, reduce watering by about 1/2 during the last month of growth, and stop altogether after you start picking. Most of the sugars in the muskmelon are produced in the last week or so, and too much water will inhibit the production.

To avoid over-ripening, harvest cantaloupes before they naturally separate from the vine. The best way to check maturity of cantaloupes is to place your thumb beside the stem and gently apply pressure to the side. If the stem separates easily, the cantaloupe is ripe.

Buying Ripe Cantaloupes

Choose a cantaloupe that seems heavy for its size, and one that does not have bruises or overly soft spots. Cantaloupes have a sweet fragrance when they are ripe and the blossom end (the end opposite the stem) of the fruit should be slightly soft. Avoid melons with a stem, which indicates the cantaloupe was harvested too early. The rind, underneath the netting, should have turned to yellow or cream from the green undertones that the unripe fruit has. Though available almost year-round, cantaloupe’s peak growing and harvesting season is June thru August.

Great Web Sites

• Cantaloupe Health Info from WholeFoods.com
• Plant Answers from Texas Cooperative Extension Service
• How to Grow Cantaloupe
• Chart showing vitamin/mineral content of many foods
• Free Online Book: Cantaloupe Culture (copyright 1910)

Chilled Cantaloupe Soup with Mint

Recipe from http://www.cantaloupe.org/

Serves:4
Prep Time:10 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 ripe cantaloupe
• 1 cup of water
• 4 tablespoons sugar (or 8 packets Splenda)
• 4 sprigs fresh mint
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• 1 tsp fresh lime zest
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream (for garnish)

How to Prepare:

Add water, sugar, mint leaves (save a few for garnish), lime juice and lime zest in a small saucepan. Boil for 10-minutes until mixture is reduced and syrupy.

While it is reducing, cut and seed the cantaloupe and scoop the flesh into a blender. (Since bacteria can grow on the surface of most melons, it is important to wash the outside of the cantaloupe before cutting into it.)

Pour the syrup over the cantaloupe through a sieve to remove the mint leaves and lime zest.

Pulse a few times to blend and then puree for a few seconds.

Skim the foam off the top and then place in the refrigerator until well chilled for 2-hours.

Serve in chilled bowls with mint leave garnish and a swirl of heavy cream for garnish.

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More on these daylilies at: My Daylilies from Seed

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These 2 tomato plants came from the same six-pack purchased at Wal-mart. They were planted at the same time (the end of May), right next to each other. Because I was too lazy to haul out and open another bag of organic humus with composted manure, half the plants did not get any in their soil. All the plants had soil with lots of organic material and all were mulched.

The plants that didn’t get the manure are definitely smaller, yellower, and much less lush than those with the manure. While we didn’t do this intentionally, it has definitely proven to us the benefits of adding fertilizer when transplanting.

It has been so dry the last 2 weeks that our plants are suffering, especially those in our big garden, apparently because they didn’t get any composted manure fertilizer. After seeing the difference in the tomato plants, and seeing how well the cantaloupes are doing, we purchased several bags of organic humus with composted manure and spent this afternoon spreading it all around the tomatoes, green beans, onions, lima beans, squash and zucchini. We also spread some around the zinnias seedlings in the round garden and gave everyone a good drink of water. We are looking forward to seeing if the veggies improve now.

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We’ve been seeing a different type of bee in our gardens this year. For the last 3 or 4 years there have been almost no bees at all, so it is nice to see any kind of bee again. In 2007 there was a drought, then when it finally rained the plants acted like it was spring. We had lots of flowers, squash, zucchini, and cantaloupe blossoms but not one single bee to pollinate anything. It looks like it will be much better this year, which is good because my cantaloupe plants already have flowers, as does one of the squash plants in the big garden. 

I don’t know what type of bees these are. Are they bumble bees? They are very large and fuzzy, about the length of my thumb from the knuckle to the end of the thumb nail. Their tail end is all black. They have a single black stripe on their back, amidst all the yellow fuzz.

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Every year we try growing cantaloupe but 2007 was the only time we successfully got a melon. The plants are always weak and spindly, and borers get them and they wither before the fruit ripens. We didn’t even bother to plant any last year at all. But the tiny melon we got that one year was so good that we had to try again.

We thought it might help to grow the plants up on a trellis rather than trailing all over the ground, so when we moved a pile of lumber that had been stacked near some fence posts, we thought it might be a good place to try cantaloupe again.

The weeds and grass underneath the lumber were mostly dead so we just sprayed some Round-Up on what was left. After a few days we chopped up the hard ground a bit, and mixed in some leftover organic humus with composted manure (part of my birthday gift) that we had used on the tomato seedlings in the small square garden.

We made a little hill between the 2 fence posts and planted a seed mix of heirloom cantaloupe varieties we had purchased last year from Bountiful Gardens. We planted the first week of June, right before it was supposed to rain for a few days. That worked beautifully and the seeds sprouted within 4 days, with no work on our part.

We mostly ignored the plants for a while, but when we went to check them 2 weeks later, we found them doing better than we had ever imagined!  They were so sturdy and thick and green. We didn’t water them at all yet they are thriving, whereas the veggies in the big garden, that didn’t get any manure, are dying off. The difference must be the organic humus with composted manure. We’ve never used manure for fertilizer before. I grow mostly flowers, and have always just used compost and the cheapest powder fertilizer that comes in a cardboard box at Wal-Mart for around $3. Even the tomato seedlings we planted with the manure are doing sooooo much better than those without it.

I’m going to purchase a few more bags of the organic humus with composted manure to use in the big garden. The squash and zucchini plants there are doing absolutely horrible though they were planted before the cantaloupe. We’ll see if some manure fertilizer will help them out. 

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It may be a surprise to some, but fortified non-fat dry milk, also called powdered milk, has a relatively short shelf-life, only about 18 months. If you can find the un-fortified version, shelf life increases to 4 years.** The difference is caused by the vitamins added to fortify the milk. Vitamins A and D are not shelf-stable, meaning that they break down quickly.

Purchase dried milk in containers of a size that makes sense for the size of your household. If you buy large packages and do not use much at one time, consider repackaging into smaller containers at the time of purchase. After opening a package of dry milk, transfer the powder to a tightly covered glass or metal container (dry milk can pick up odors from plastic containers) and keep it in the refrigerator.

If you wonder which milk powder to buy, the instant milk powder is called “high temperature” and refers to the manufacturing process that the milk is put through to make the milk powder “Instant”. The regular milk powder is referred to as “low temperature” as it usually takes longer to reconstitute and is frequently the milk powder of choice for cooking and baking. (I’ve never been able to find anything but instant, non-fat, fortified powdered milk in my area.)

Storage
Vitamins A & D break-down quickly in the presence of heat and light. The area where your powdered milk is stored should be kept as cool as possible. If the storage container is transparent or translucent then it should be put into a second dark container, or stored in a cool, dark room.

Oxygen will also speed the vitamin break-down. If powdered milk can be canned with nitrogen or carbon dioxide to replace air, it will keep longer. Vacuum canning also decreases the available oxygen, and so it increases dry milk shelf-life. Dry milk will absorb moisture and odors from the air so storage containers should be air-tight and water-proof. The drier it is kept, the better it will keep.

If the dry milk purchased was not packaged for long term storage when you purchased it, then it should be repackaged right away.

Cost
Stephanie at the MakeItFromScratch blog has, literally, done the math for us. She has “busted” the myth that powdered milk is less expensive than fresh. These days dry milk is more expensive than fresh milk. So we will stick with fresh milk for everyday use, and dry milk for emergency food storage.

Making Your Own
In case you were wondering, it is not feasible to make your own powdered milk at home. For more details, visit HowStuffWorks.com.

Using Powdered Milk
1 cup whole milk = 1 cup nonfat dry milk + 2 teaspoons melted butter
1 cup whipping cream = 3/4 cup whole milk+1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup light cream = 3/4 cup whole milk+3 tablespoons melted butter

Curds, Cottage Cheese, and Ricotta*
First you make curds. Bring 1 part powdered milk and 2 parts water to a boil. Remove from heat and drizzle about a tablespoon of vinegar for every cup of water. Stir lightly and let stand. You will see the milk separate, and you should have a clear liquid and white curds. If the liquid is still milky, add more vinegar, stir, and let sit again. Pour the mixture through a cloth to retain the curds and rinse them in cool water.

For ricotta, simply blend the curds until smooth.

For cottage cheese, add some yogurt or evaporated milk and stir.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Recipes from www.wisebread.com
** According to the USAid government web site.

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I finished weeding both long sides of the big garden today. Yay! This garden (photo is from early May) is a rectangle with cross-ties around the edges forming long raised beds. I used to have daisies all along the outside beds but they all died during the summer drought in 2007. So this year I’m planting veggies instead of flowers.

I used to have 4 foot square beds all in the center. but hubby wanted to plant greens so he removed them and tilled it all up. Then he never picked a single green! I think I’ll put in long beds instead of the 4 foot squares though.

The bed at the top left of the photos is where I planted the onions, 6 zucchini and 3 yellow squash that I planted last week. The onions are doing well, and the squash and zucchini have all sprouted.  Yesterday I planted over 100 seeds of mixed green beans (though some aren’t green) in the bed at the bottom left of the photo, after weeding and mulching, that is. They are all bush type bean varieties.

The top right corner of the garden has my 2 blueberry bushes. Last year our goats ate all the berries, and this year I don’t see any buds at all. I put a fence post on each side of the bushes today, so I am ready to drape the bird netting, if we get any buds.

The long bed running across the top of the photo is where I have planted wild flowers. I’ve never done that before so we’ll see how it goes. I’m not too sure about it because I can’t tell what’s a weed and what is not. There are lots of little sprouts there already.

Though they really should be in the herb garden, I have 2 tansy plants next to the blueberries. Tansy is generally extremely invasive, however this variety, Goldsticks, is not. They’ve been there 3 or 4 years and aren’t spreading at all, though they do get huge by the end of summer. I planted tansy as an experiment because it is said to have pest repelling properties. I want to try it in the dog bedding to see if it helps.

Today I also planted 2 acorn squash seeds next to the tansy. These are going to be huge plants because they say to space them 3 feet apart. I’ve never eaten acorn squash but I want to try it baked with brown sugar. (Recipe below.)

Whew! lots of fun gardening today. My shoulders are sunburned though. Bummer.

-= Exported from BigOven =-

Acorn Squash With Brown Sugar

Recipe By: MaggieMae on diet.com

-= Ingredients =-
each acorn squash
brown sugar
margarine
salt

-= Instructions =-
Cut your whole squash in half (lengthwise if its long like a butternut).Scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp stuff in the center of each half.Salt the cut sides and place them face down in a baking dish. Add a small amount of water to the pan, enough so the squash is sitting in 1/4 inch of water. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Serve it in the shell-topped with brown sugar, margarine, and salt. Cinnamon is good on top too. Oh and pecans too!

Microwave Directions: Cut squash in half and remove seeds & strings. Cover with plastic cling-wrap. Microwave on high 8-9 min. Let stand 5-10 min. Remove plastic. Cover with topping of choice, and enjoy!

** This recipe can be pasted into BigOven without retyping.     **
** Easy recipe software.  Try it free at: http://www.bigoven.com **

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You won’t believe this but my husband is riding our John Deere mower down the road.

Both our cars are broken, he walked to the nearest neighbors last night and this morning, and no one was home so he’s riding off to the little store down the street to get some buddies to help.

Here’s the photo I just snapped. He is not a happy camper.

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Presto is a toy. All American is real, i.e. professional.
Anything with rubber gaskets is not what you want

The comment above was made recently at an online homesteader/organic gardening group.

I am always amazed when I encounter this type of reaction. Some people may be able to afford $300 canners, but many more of us simply cannot.

My canner cost me more than I could afford. My choice was a Presto canner versus NO canner. My canner is 20 years old, true, but it is in excellent condition, sturdy, with gasket, dial, and weights all functioning properly. I fully expect it will last 50 more years with no problem except occasionally replacing the gasket, which costs less than $10, and is simple to do.

Here are some tips regarding pressure canner use and safety. These tips have been gathered from personal experience, manuals, the internet, and books, not to mention the advice from fine online groups.

Before Use

Check the rim of both pan and lid to make sure there are no nicks or damage to the interlocking tabs.

Make sure the safety pressure release (usually a rivet-like rubber plug) is still present and soft and moving freely in its slightly oversized hole. Make sure the pressure vent is clean and open, and that the seat for the pressure release weight is smooth and fits well.

Check the gasket that goes between pan and lid for cracks or hardening. If pressure from a thumbnail leaves a permanent dent in the rubber it may be too brittle for use. The gasket will really let you know when it needs to be replaced–it will spit steam and you will not be able to build up pressure. This is not dangerous, except that you don’t want to be burned by escaping steam or liquid. If your cooker is old and the gasket seems to be leaking, give it a few minutes as it may expand and work fine as it warms up.

Replacing a gasket:

You can find replacement gaskets at most hardware stores. Just write down the model # from the bottom of the canner and match it to the label on the gasket at the store.

Before you heat it up the first time, wash the gasket with warm soapy water, dry it, then lightly coat with mineral oil or Vaseline to condition the gasket. Insert gasket into its groove in lid. If it is either too shrunken to fit to the edge, or too stretched to lie smoothly in the lid, it should be replaced.

You should always have extra gaskets on hand. You can vacuum seal spares for long term storage. Put them in something first to preserve their shape… don’t compress them, as otherwise them might deform over time.

For emergency or disaster preparations, you can make your own gaskets from readily available materials such as neoprene, gum, hard rubber, or gasket rubber purchased in sheets. Use your old gasket as a template to cut the new one.

Risks of Exploding

The difference between our grandmothers’ canners and the ones today, is the pressure relief plug.  Modern canners, whether Presto, Mirro, or All America, have very little chance of building enough pressure to explode mainly due to improvements in the pressure relief valve system.

Cultivate the habit of checking the plug before every use.

(information from www.stason.org)
- If it is a metal alloy or composition metal plug that screws into the lid, do not try to remove it.
- If it is a rubber plug, use the thumbnail test to see if the rubber is still pliable enough. If pressure with thumbnail leaves a permanent dent in the rubber it is too brittle for safe use and should be replaced.
- If either type of plug has been blown out by overpressure in the canner, it must be replaced by a new plug. Do not try to reuse the plug that blew out.

Canner Storage:

(information from www.stason.org)
- Turn the lid upside down and rest it on the canner. The weight of the lid should not be resting on the gasket during storage as it could deform it.
- For long-term storage at the end of the season, wash and dry the canner well. Be sure all the parts (safety weight, rack, etc.)
are in the canner. A few crumpled newspapers in the canner will absorb moisture and odors.
- If you unscrew the gauge or vents, coat the threads lightly with petroleum jelly to prevent rust and make them easier to replace.
- Coat the gasket very lightly with petroleum jelly or oil.

Helpful Web sites:

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Storing eggs for 6 to 12 months or more is actually very simple.

In The Freezer

To freeze whole eggs, beat them just until blended. Pour them into a freezer container, seal tightly, label with the number of eggs and the date, and freeze. To use, substitute 3 tablespoons thawed whole eggs for 1 large fresh egg. Or, beat one egg at a time and pour each into a cup in an ice tray. Freeze, then pop out the egg cubes and store in freezer Ziploc bags. One cube=1 egg.

Egg whites can be frozen “as is.” Pour them into a freezer container, seal tightly, label with the number of egg whites and the date, and freeze. To use, substitute 2 tablespoons (30 mL) thawed egg whites for 1 large egg.

Egg yolks will thicken or gel when frozen and therefore cannot be used in a recipe unless they receive special treatment. To prevent thickening, beat in either 1/8 teaspoon (0.5 mL) salt, or 1-1/2 teaspoons (7 mL) sugar or corn syrup per 1/4 cup (50 mL) egg yolks (about 4 yolks). Label freezer container with the number of yolks, the date and whether you added salt (for main dishes) or sugar (for desserts and baking) and freeze. Substitute 1 tablespoon (15 mL) thawed yolks for 1 large fresh yolk.

It is best to thaw eggs in the refrigerator and use them as soon as they are thawed. Use them only in dishes that will be thoroughly cooked. Eggs should not be frozen in the shell.

Without Electricity

There are a couple of ways to store eggs without refrigeration. They require cool temperatures, however. A cellar, cool basement, or cool room in the house will suffice. The cooler the better the chance that your eggs will last longer.

One method is to coat the eggs with a non-toxic substance, sealing the pores in the shell and thereby sealing out oxygen and moisture. When no oxygen is present, bacteria can’t grow, thus eggs don’t spoil.

To use lard or shortening to coat the eggs, first melt the grease and cool it til it begins to solidify again. Dip each egg in the melted grease individually and set them on a paper towel to dry. When the shortening or lard is dry on the eggs, rub the eggs with a clean towel, removing excess solid grease. Rub gently and buff each egg. Now repeat the process, before the shortening solidifies. Work fast, allowing the shortening to get almost solid before re-heating it.

Line the bottom of a flat box with a clean soft towel. Place the eggs in the box in a single layer. Cover the box with either a lid or another towel. Place the box of eggs in a cool, dry environment. Eggs prepared this way will last up to 6 months, although I have heard people say that they have kept eggs this way for 1 year if they are kept very cool.

A product that can be used to coat eggs in the same way, but that is supposed to keep the eggs fresh longer, is K-Peg. The eggs are coated with this product much the same way they would be coated with the shortening, and prepared for storage the same way.

A second method to store eggs works on the same principle: cover the pores and keep the eggs cool. However, in this method the eggs are kept immersed in a solution of Liquid Sodium Silicate, also known as liquid glass.

This non-toxic substance will cover the pores of the egg shell so well that you will probably be able to keep fresh eggs for up to 2 years! You can buy it as Sodium Silicate Solution at any pharmacy, however they may not have it on hand and have to order it for you.

Sodium Silicate, is a pale yellow, odorless, syrupy liquid. It is diluted in the proportion of one part of silicate to nine parts of distilled water or sterile water. In any case, the water should be first boiled, and then allowed to cool.

Place clean, fresh eggs in a ceramic crock. Pour liquid sodium silicate over the eggs until the eggs are covered and completely immersed in the solution. Have at least 2 inches of the solution over the top of the eggs. Do not add too many eggs as the ones on the bottom may get crushed and crack, which will spoil all the eggs.

Place a towel over the crock and tie it into place. Place the crock of eggs in a cool, dry place and don’t disturb them until you are ready to use them. To use, just take out as many eggs as you need, wash them off in plain water and use as you normally would.

Liquid Sodium Silicate Storage Tips

Only store eggs with clean shells. Washing an egg with a soiled shell lessens it keeping quality. The protective, gelatinous covering over the shell is removed by water, and when this is gone the egg spoils more rapidly.

The shells also must be free from even the tiniest crack. One cracked egg will spoil a large number of sound eggs when packed in liquid sodium silicate.

Earthenware crocks are good containers. The crocks must be clean and sound. Scald them and let them cool completely before use. A crock holding six gallons will accommodate eighteen dozens of eggs and about twenty-two pints of liquid sodium silicate.

Eggs preserved in this manner can safely be used for soft boiling or poaching for several weeks. Before boiling such eggs prick a tiny hole in the large end of the shell with a needle to keep them from cracking. After the first couple of months, stored eggs should be used only in dishes where they will be thoroughly cooked, for example, omelets, scrambled eggs, custards, cakes and general cookery.

As the eggs age, the white becomes thinner and is harder to beat. The yolk membrane becomes more delicate and it is correspondingly difficult to separate the whites from the yolks. Sometimes the white of the egg becomes tinged pink after very long keeping in liquid sodium silicate. This is due, probably, to a little iron which is in the sodium silicate, but which apparently does not injure the egg for food purposes.

In Cooked Foods

Another way to store eggs is to use them in recipes that can be frozen. These two recipes below use the whites and the yolks from about a dozen eggs. They both freeze wonderfully so you can make plenty during the egg laying season, and save extras for when eggs are less plentiful.

Angel Food Cake

Preheat oven to 375°

1 1/2 cups of egg whites brought to room temperature
1 1/2 cups sifted powered sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tarter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. almond extract

-Sift powdered sugar and flour seperately once. Measure correct amounts as stated in ingredients and sift together 4 times.
-Place egg whites in large bowl. add salt, cream of tarter, vanilla and almond extracts.
-Beat on medium speed till soft peaks form
-Continue beating and gradually add sugar 2 tablespoons at a time.
-Beat at #8 till stiff peaks form but not dry peaks
-On lowest speed. Add powdered sugar/flour mix, a small amount at a time.
-Remove from mixer and finish mixing by hand with a spatula by folding over carefully.
-Pour(spoon) into ungreased 10″ tube pan.
-With a knife or spatula, carefully cut through batter in circular motion six times to release large bubbles.
-Bake on lowest rack of oven, for 3-5 to 40 min. or till golden brown.
-Invert pan until cool. Loosen with knife or spatula to remove.

Golden Sponge Cake

(Uses up the yolks left from the Angel Food Cake)
Preheat oven to 350°

Egg yolks of the dozen or so eggs
3 cups cake flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon extract or orange extract
1 cup cold water

-Sift flour and sugar seperately one time before measuring.
-Measure flour and sugar. Sift 3 times together, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
-In mixing bowl, beat egg yolks on #8 till fluffy and thick.
-Gradually beat add and beat in sugar.
-Turn to #2 speed(low) and add flavorings, and cold water.
-Gradually but quickly add the flour mixture while beating on low speed. Scrape bowl. Beat only enough to blend, about 2 min.
-Pour batter into an ungreased tube pan.
-Bake 1 hour or till golden brown.
-Invert cake to cool.
-Loosen sides with spatula or knife to remove.

(Recipes from Organic Homesteading Gardening Group at Yahoo.com)

Tips for using stored eggs

When you use eggs that have been in storage without electricity, crack them in a cup, not directly into your food. Otherwise you might get an awful surprise and ruin a dish.

Practice these storage techniques before you think you might really need to store eggs. Practice makes perfect!

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We spent a few hours yesterday outside planting. This year I may finally have the big gardens I’ve been wanting.

First we planted 2 six-packs of begonias, along side the impatiens, in the flower bed next to Rosy’s grave. We planted foxglove seed at one end of that garden bed too. We also planted some coleus seed in a huge planter nearby. In the fall we will add some shade-loving perennials as well. It will soon be a beautiful, colorful spot for our beloved puppy’s grave.

At the herb garden, we planted some old lemon basil seed, and seed for a short clumping type of basil. We are suspecting that what we thought was a volunteer strawberry plant in the middle of the herb bed (click the photo for a larger image) may be just a viney weed with similar leaves, because it is growing way faster than normal strawberry does. Perhaps it is wild strawberry? We have those a lot around here.

Then came the really hard work. We had a 3-foot space between two fence posts where the grass had been killed from lumber that had been stacked there. Jesse and I tackled the extremely hard ground with some hoes to break up the clay. Then we added a bag of organic humus with compost and mixed it all in. We topped that off with a partial bag of left-over top soil. We made a ridge and planted a few varieties of cantaloupe along the top. (I’ll post a photo when they sprout.) As the seeds sprout and the vines grow, I’ll run string between the two fence posts and train the vines on them. Hopefully we’ll have better success with cantaloupe if we keep the melons off the ground. It should increase the airflow around the plants to help them tolerate summer humidity a bit better. (Then come fall I’ll plant it all with my very favorite flower, sweet peas. It’ll be so pretty! I can’t wait.)

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Did You Know?

• Baking powder does not have a long shelf life.
• Baking soda cannot be substituted for baking powder.
• Most commercially-produced baking powder contains aluminum.

Due to its short shelf life, baking powder is not good for storing with emergency food supplies.  However, the main ingredients of home-made baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar, will remain good almost indefinitely if they are stored separately.

Many people avoid baking powder with aluminum because they believe it gives food a vaguely metallic taste, and because it has been suggested that there may be a link between aluminum consumption and Alzheimer’s disease. Studies have not proven this, however. Home-made baking powder does not contain aluminum.

Home-Made Baking Powder

Ingredients:

• Two parts baking soda
• One part cream of tartar
• One part cornstarch (If you will not be using the baking powder immediately)

Preparation:

Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar together until well combined. Use immediately, or add cornstarch and store in an air-tight container.

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Catmint

The brutally hot and humid summers in the South make it difficult to grow many of our favorite herbs. Ladies Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) and Lavender (Lavandula), for example, both just fade away in the summer humidity. Other herbs, such as Monarda (also know as Bee Balm, Horsemint, Oswego Tea, or Bergamot), suffer from severe mildew due to the heat and moisture.

Lemon Balm

Some perennial herbs that are very easy to grow in this region (borderline between zones 7 and 8 ) are Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), Comfrey (Symphytum officinale), Catmint (Nepeta xfaassinii), Greek Oregano (Origanum vulgare), Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea purpurea), Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and of course all types of Mint. Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium),  Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and Sweet Violet (Viola Odorato) like it so well here that they grow wild all around. (Violets, Tansy, and Comfrey can be particularly invasive.)

Herbs that do well if given a little extra care are Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), Sage (Salvia officinalis), Parsley (Petroselinum crispum), and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris). Rosemary needs to be covered if the temperature falls below 30 degrees, and due to its shallow roots, it needs frequent, light watering. Parsley will do best planted in the fall to be used throughout the winter because it thrives in cooler weather. Sage does not like “wet feet” (it develops fungal root problems) so it doesn’t survive the spring and fall rains unless grown in very well-draining soil. Thyme needs rich soil and regular watering.

As for annual herbs such as Basil, Borage, Chamomile, Calendula (Pot Marigold), Coriander, Savory, and Dill, we have been successful only with Borage. Our Basil plantings, especially, seem to always turn crispy brown and die. (I’ve read that this may be due to tainted seed.) Calendula and Dill, like Parsley, prefer cooler weather and should be planted in late summer or fall, which we often forget to do.

Tansy

Northern Mississippi has mostly hard, clay soil. Most plants, including herbs, have a hard time in clay soils, but some actually seem to do best in clay, and many others tolerate this soil type quite well. German Chamomile, Cilantro and Caraway do especially well in clay soils. Lemon Balm, most varieties of Mint, Chives and Fennel all tolerate clay soils. In general, herbs that like a lot of moisture are most likely to take well to clay, because clay soils tend to become waterlogged after heavy rains.

HERBAL TEA RECIPES
Created by Straight from the Farm

Iced Lemon Balm & Pomegranate White Tea

1 c. boiling water
4 tea bags (Pomegranate White Tea or other)
½ c. packed fresh lemon balm leaves, washed
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh lemon balm
Honey or other sweetener to taste
Ice cubes

Place tea bags in a medium size bowl. Crush lemon balm leaves lightly with your hands to bring out the oils (and give your hands a lovely smell) and place in bowl with tea bags. Pour boiling water over bags and leaves. Let steep for several minutes. Depending on the variety of tea you are using, I would recommend leaving it steep for up to 15 minutes to really pull out all of the flavor. Remove leaves and bags, squeezing to get out the concentrated tea. Stir in sweetener to taste. Fill pitcher with a tray of ice cubes and place lemon balm sprigs inside. Pour tea from bowl into pitcher. Fill remainder of pitcher with cold water.

Floral Fantasy Tea

3 parts Lavender
3 parts Yarrow
1 part Chamomile
1 part Stevia

Combine herbs and pour hot water over. Let steep several minutes. Strain out herbs and enjoy.

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See many more of our garden pictures on Flickr

Mary Rose & Rosemary

Catmint, Lemon Balm, Daylilies

La Reina Rose

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A hummingbird flew bang into the trowel I was carrying in the garden yesterday. I felt the thud and looked down and there was the bird at my feet. We hoped he was just knocked out so we put him in a basket of grass. Soon, however, it was obvious that he was dead. I’m so sorry little bird.

Later that afternoon I hung my birthday hummingbird feeder. I’ll be sure to watch carefully for hummingbird traffic from now on.

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Yesterday we began wondering if our 3 month old puppy was poisoned, or perhaps has Parvovirus. I started researching online today. The Internet articles said if it was Parvovirus the smell of the diarrhea would be so horrible and distinctive that we’d have no doubt. They were right! Wheeewwwiiieee!

Most of the Internet advice said that a pup has almost no chance if you don’t go to a vet, or at the very least get a vet to show you how to do under-the-skin injections of liquids to combat the dehydration, plus giving Pedialyte, Pepto-Bismal, and antibiotics for any secondary infections. Since my friend wiped out my bank account 3 days ago, however, a purchasing anything or going to a vet is out of the question. (If this puppy dies it will be partly the fault my thieving ex-friend! We have to take our share of the blame, though, for not getting her shots.)

She has been vomiting for 2 days, so we’ve been trying to keep her drinking, but today she seems so very much worse. She isn’t vomiting anymore, but just lying there weak and listless. She seems disoriented too.  We found a recipe for home-made Gatorade, for which we thankfully have all the ingredients on hand, to try to restore her electrolytes and fight her obvious dehydration that we know is so deadly. We’ve been giving her that with a turkey baster (squirting it between her lips and teeth on the sides of her mouth) every couple of hours since this afternoon. We hope and pray that she is no longer getting worse, but she has been so still and non-responsive this evening that a couple of times we thought she had died.

We are so scared. We have all fallen in love with Rosy more than any other pet we’ve had. Every one of us thinks she is the cutest dog in the world. She is so sweet and loving, and funny and so smart too.

update: 2:45am Rosy died. We were all with her at the end.

Update 5/27/09 8:00pm  We just buried Rosy under a shade tree near the house, with a small flower bed right next to her. Hubby told her that she’d always be with us.

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Green beans, also called snap beans, used to be called string beans. These days they are usually stringless, and come in a variety of colors.

Growing Beans

Green beans’ peak season is May to  October. Pods are picked young and tender, before the seeds inside have fully developed. Most popular varieties have been bred to have stringless pods, but some gardeners prefer the flavor of the old-fashioned ‘string’ types.

Beans are generally planted directly in the garden. Seeds will rot in cool, damp soil, so it is critical not to plant them too early. To get an earlier start, you can put down black plastic before-hand, to warm the soil.

There are 2 types of bean plants, bush and pole. Bush beans begin producing before pole beans and usually come in all at once, making them ideal for canning and freezing. You can plant every couple of weeks to stretch out the harvest, if desired. Pole beans need time to grow their vines before they start setting beans, but they will continue producing for a couple of months.

Cooking Beans

For cooking, choose slender beans that are crisp, bright-colored, and free of blemishes. Store green beans in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped in a plastic bag, for up to 5 days. Before cooking, wash beans and break off the stem ends.

TIP: The fewer beans in the pan, the quicker they cook and the better they taste. If cooking more than one pound at a time, use separate pans.

Recipes

There are few vegetables I’ve hated worse than green beans—until a friend introduced me to her Southern Fried Green Beans. Now green beans can go from “yuck” to “yum” in a snap.

Southern Fried Green Beans
Recipe by Lindsay Gaut

Fresh or canned green beans
Bacon (uncooked)
Bouillon cubes (chicken or beef)
Salt

Trim and discard tips of beans; set aside. Fry a few pieces of bacon in a sauce pan over medium heat for 2 or 3 minutes. Add green beans and cook on low, but do not stir. Instead shake the pan gently to mix the beans. Add 1 or 2 bouillon cubes, which will slowly dissolve, and salt to taste.

Cook on low about 40 minutes, shaking often, until the beans have shriveled, and look a bit crispy and brown.

What could destroy a healthy vegetable quicker than frying? Frying it with beer, of course.

Beer-Battered Green Beans
Taken from clipping out of the Philadelphia Inquirer

1 lb. fresh green beans
1 cup beer (lager works well)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil for deep frying (about 2 cups)
Tomato sauce for dipping (optional)

Trim and discard tips of beans.  In a bowl, whisk the beer, salt and lemon juice into the flour until smooth but still foamy.  Dredge the beans in the batter.

In a large deep skillet, heat oil until it sizzles when a bit of batter is dropped into it.  Fish out the beans from the batter, shaking off excess, and fry about 10 at a time.  Cook until golden brown, flipping the beans over with tongs.  Repeat to cook all of the beans.

Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with additional salt if desired.  If using, heat the tomato sauce and serve on the side with the beans.

(serves 4-6)

(recipe and photo from straightfromthefarm.net)

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A few years ago I bought some daylily seeds from Park Seed. Less then $5 for a packet of 10 seeds–it was the best way to afford to get as many daylilies I wanted. Following the directions on the packet, I planted them in Jiffy pots and keep them in the refrigerator for 6 months. Then I put them under a grow light and held my breath.

I was so excited when the little sprouts appeared! I grew them indoors until the following year. Then I planted most of them in my Round Garden.

It was another whole year before I finally got my first few flowers. They were supposed to be a mixture of colors, but I saw mostly yellows and oranges. (We have tons of wild daylilies around here that are orange so I was a bit disappointed.) I really want some light pink blooms, but haven’t seen any yet. Perhaps finally this season I’ll see more colors.

Last year the goats decimated the daylilies—it seems they consider them a delicacy. They kept breaking in to my fenced garden to eat the daylilies and the roses there.

This year the daylilies are looking so lush and beautiful. I had my first bloom today. A gorgeous magenta flower. And there are many more buds just waiting to open. The show is about to begin!

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The perfect gift for the guy who has everything

Instructables.com Crocheted Hand Grenades

“How cute can a grenade possibly be? About this cute. These crocheted versions of deadly explosives let you re-enact WWII scenarios with something that’s fun to squeeze.”

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Antique-Style Hummingbird Feeder

My wonderful brother gave me a Wal-Mart gift card for my birthday. I had fun today choosing my gifts. (It is rather amazing, the variety of things you can get at Wal-Mart.)

My favorite is a gorgeous humming bird feeder made from an antique-looking, real-glass bottle. The base and flowers are made of metal.

I also got a six pack of tomato plants, some pink wax begonias for my new shady garden, and a 72-plant, mini-greenhouse for starting the seeds that I received for Mother’s Day.

Then picked up a green metal bird feeder, a 50-lb sack of sunflower bird seed, and a small bag of thistle seed for the finches. We get the most gorgeous yellow and orange finches around here. (I can’t believe how much the cost of thistle seed has gone up in the last 2 years!)

I got a few more odds and ends such as a desperately needed 5-shelf book case, 2 bags of organic humus/manure, a bag of potting soil, some plant labels, and a large citronella candle to place on my new green, iron, patio table and chair set which was my gift from my husband. It is a gorgeous set, with iron flowers on the chairs and a large umbrella too. (Jesse’s gift was a tiki-torch to put next to the new set.)

I think I will hang my new bird feeders at my Stump Garden (on the green pole), where they will be visible from the kitchen windows, the porch, and my new patio table outside. I can’t wait to sit there with a cup of tea to watch the birds.

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Friday was my 50th birthday. It was the worst birthday I’ve ever had, and one of the worst days of my life. I was betrayed by my best friend. She stole my car, emptied my bank account, and broke my heart. The money actually means far less to me than the betrayal. I really believed she was my friend–my best friend—I feel devastated.

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Hubby took Jesse fishing yesterday for the first time. Jesse was so excited! He caught 2 fish all by himself. He was so proud.

David showed him how to clean them, then it was up to me to figure out how to cook them. (I love fish, but I’ve never cooked it myself before.)

I ended up cooking them using a recipe I found for Trout. I don’t think I cooked them enough in the oven so we put them in the microwave for a couple of minutes, but I still think they were a bit underdone. Oh, well. As I told Jesse, I’m just learning how to cook fish.

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I popped out and snipped the rosemary fresh from my herb garden, and I used organic butter, garlic and lemon. Delicious!

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Grilled Montana Trout

“Trout is stuffed with lemon, garlic and herbs before being wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked over the coals of the campfire.”

Ingredients:
2 trout, cleaned and head removed
3 tablespoons cold butter, thinly sliced
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemon, halved and thinly sliced

Directions:
1. Place each trout onto a square of aluminum foil. Open them up so that the flesh is facing upwards. On one side of each fish, season with salt and pepper, half of the garlic, half of the chopped rosemary and half of the parsley. Top each fish with thin slices of butter, 3 rosemary sprigs and a few slices of lemon. Squeeze one of the remaining lemon slices over each fish. Enclose the seasoning inside each fish and wrap securely with the sheet of aluminum foil. Wrap each fish in an additional piece of aluminum foil.

2. Place fish in the coals of a campfire or on a grill over a flame and cook for about 7 minutes on each side. If you can easily stick a fork into the fish, it is done. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your fish and the fire. Allow to cool for a few minutes before opening to serve.

Printed from Allrecipes.com 5/18/2009

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It is another Beautiful Day! Breezy, cool, sunny, no mosquitoes yet… heavenly!

2009 Herb Garden before weeding

My poor 8 year old herb garden is back down to nearly nothing due the drought in the summer of 2007, the goats in 2008. It didn’t help that I didn’t mulch or weed it last fall. Only the catmint, wormwood, and oregano survived. I was surprised to also find a lone strawberry plant. I haven’t had strawberries there since 2004. Amazing.

2002 Herb Garden

Because of my failure to weed and mulch all the gardens last fall, I’ve had a zillion times the weeds I would normally have in the spring. I know I’ll also be battling crab-grass for years. So

I’ve been taking advantage of this cool streak to get the weeds out, and get everything mulched. Funds are tight, but I managed to get 2 pick-up loads of mulch and a gallon of round-up, which I’ve sprayed on the grass trying to come up in the gardens, and I’ve sprayed

2004 Herb Garden

around the outside of the gardens too since hubby doesn’t like to mow too close to my plants. (There’s a story there but never mind.)

2007 Herb Garden

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Today was much cooler than it has been here in NW Mississippi, highs in the upper 60’s instead of the 80’s, and finally not raining. It is also breezy and sunny– a Beautiful Day!

Rose and Mealy Cup Sage

Roses
First my much neglected roses needed dead-heading (removing the faded blooms). I tried to prune out some of the tangled branches on the floribundas too. It has rained so much the last month, as it always does here in May, that I haven’t gone outside much to enjoy the garden.

You can see in the photo that some mealy-cup sage (salvia) is growing right next to the rose. I planted those seeds 5 years ago and they keep coming back, even though they are supposed to be annuals. Guess they are self-seeding. They’re so pretty.

Queen Elizabeth Hybrid Tea Rose

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My Queen Elizabeth rose (a hybrid tea) is recovering from the very late pruning I did in April. (Hybrid teas need a hard pruning in late winter to look their best.)  She is even blooming already. On the left are Daylilies that I grew from seed (from Park Seed), and some Lemon Balm that is getting almost out of control.

I Hate Onions
I planted onion bulbs I bought a couple of weeks ago. Some have sprouted a bit, some are shriveled and dry. I am curious to see which ones actually grow. I’ve never grown onions before, since I dislike them except as onion rings (go figure). I am trying to eat slow, organic, local, healthy foods now, so I found I actually bought onions to try in some recipes. If I’m going to eat them, I’d rather they be my own pesticide-free, chemical-free onions.

Onions Planted

Zucchini and Squash
I also planted zucchini and yellow squash from some old seeds I had. I hope to get a lot of zucchini to use in zucchini bread, etc. I’ve never had yellow squash, though I have grown it lots, but I’ve got some recipes now so I want to try it. I may even try frying some of the blossoms–they are supposed to be good to eat. I have spaghetti squash and acorn squash seeds to plant also later on. I just have to find a spot. (Hmm. Zucchini is a squash. Why is it called zucchini?)

Fried Bacon, Squash & Potatoes

6 bacon strips, sliced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 small onion, diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 medium yellow summer squash, diced
1 tablespoon fresh minced dill or 1 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to paper towels; drain, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings.

Add potato to drippings, cook and stir until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the onion, zucchini and yellow squash. Cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Return bacon to skillet; sprinkle with dill, salt and pepper. Cook and stir for about 1 minutes.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

From Taste of Home: The Market Fresh Cookbook

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To Hell with Housework - Retro Eclectro

I love aprons! I have a whole page on my website devoted to apron tutorials and links. I also have a post on how to make my favorite empire-waist patchwork apron.

Using Google’s Image Search I found these funky aprons designed by Retro Eclectro. I just love the skulls apron named “To Hell with Housework.”  That’s my motto!

Visit my apron page at www.chickensense.com for a ton of apron photos, tutorials, and links.

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Every fall and spring for 15 years, I’ve been telling myself I’ll plant fruit trees. If I had done it back then I’d have such a wonderful orchard now.  I did once plant an apple tree in the front meadow, but it died after a few years. I learned from the demise of that apple tree, to keep my gardens, livestock, and orchards within sight and easy to reach.

This year I really am going to get some fruit trees, to keep my dwarf peach company, even though it is a little late to be planting.  I’ve been researching the best type of trees for northwest Mississippi.  I’ve read that it is best to grow trees, vines, and shrubs that thrive in your area, and trade for everything else.  It sounded like very good advice.

Best Fruits and Nuts for North Mississippi
Fruits and nuts that are the most care-free to grow in north MS are figs, oriental persimmons, blackberries, and blueberries.  Others that will do well if you give them a little attention are pecans, pears, muscadine grapes, and strawberries. Peaches, apples, and plums need the most “gardener intervention” to get decent yields.

There are many other fruits and nuts to grow, of course.  Some may just need the weather to cooperate to get decent yields. For example, raspberries prefer cold winters and moderate summers, though some varieties have been developed for the high summer heat of southern gardens. They need slightly acid soil, and a sunny site with good drainage and air circulation to do well.

Muscadine grapes are native to the Southeast and will thrive where temperatures do not go below 10 degrees; but with the proper variety, and some TLC, we can also grow bunch grapes.  Neither type of grape likes our clay soil, though.

Commercial plums have always been very susceptible to disease, and native varieties don’t have very good fruit.  Breeders have recently developed new Japanese-type varieties made from crossing native plums with commercial varieties.  Resistance to disease comes from the native plums, while the commercial varieties in the crosses provide better fruit quality.

Only the tart cherries are adapted to Mississippi, and then only in the north part of the state.

Peanuts require at least five months of warm weather.  The best soil for peanuts is well-drained, sandy loam with a deep, friable loam subsoil. Definitely hard to find in Mississippi!

Helpful Links

Fun article on nut trees

Fruit and nut recommendations for Mississippi

North Mississippi Home Gardening Tips

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I have 2 blocks of my Vintage Valentine Applique Quilt done.  I’m plugging away at the 3rd. I love the pattern, but am not so happy with the fabric that was in this kit.

Vintage Valentine Block 1

Vintage Valentine Block 4

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soaking beans

We finally found quart-size canning jars at the store. The first thing we are canning is beans. Today, we’re doing pinto beans, and red beans.

We’ll fill the pantry with canned items rather than relying on frozen things because we  lose power whenever there are storms. These will be the first jars in our pantry this year.

We used the Easy Soak Beans method we found a while ago. The jars are cooling on the counter, and we can hear the pings as the lids seal on.

Easy Soak Beans

1. Add 1 cup dry beans to each quart jar, and add enough tap water to fill to the neck of the jars. (The beans will expand as they soak to almost fill the jar after a few hours.)
2. Let the beans soak overnight. In the morning, drain the water, and refill with fresh tap water. Add one teaspoon salt to each jar.
3. Screw on the lids and place the jars in about 2 inches of water in the pressure canner.
4. Process at 10 to 15 pounds pressure for the times listed below. (Start timing when the canner reaches the correct pressure.)

Cooking Times:

* small beans 45 minutes
* brown beans 1 hour
* chick peas or soy beans 1 1/2 hours

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Baltimore Bliss, an absolutely gorgeous quilt available as block of the month patterns from Sindy Rodenmayer of Fat Cat Patterns.

Be sure to visit the Fat Cat Patterns each month to get the next quilt block for free.

UPDATE July 2009: I have my very own blog now: chickenlady quilts on Blogger.

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It was a little embarrassing at Whole Foods Market the other day because it seemed that everyone there spoke a different language. I decided to bone up before I went shopping again. Perhaps you’d like to follow along…

Balsamic Vinegar

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, balsamic means “of, relating to, yielding, or containing balsam.”  Containing balsam?

Again, according to Merriam Webster, balsam means “an aromatic and usually oily and resinous substance flowing from various plants; especially: any of several resinous substances containing benzoic or cinnamic acid and used especially in medicine. Also a preparation containing resinous substances and having a balsamic odor.”  That does not sound too tasty.

Finally, Balsamic vinegar is “an aged Italian vinegar made from the must of white grapes.” Ah ha! Simple–as long as you know that must is “the expressed juice of fruit and especially grapes before and during fermentation; also: the pulp and skins of the crushed grapes.”

Vinegar with oily, aromatic, and resinous grape juice.  If you say so.

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