Busy Kitchen

I hit it hard Monday morning with canning.  Well sort of.  I ran out of sugar so it continued into Tuesday too.  There has been no weeding, as the rain keeps coming, but just enough to keep me indoors.   Last night it poured and we are due for more today.

I brought in one 5 oz dinky serving of green beans, and two dinky hot banana peppers.  No yellow squash yet.   Our harvesting days are pretty pathetic lately.

Peach jam got canned., along with sweet pickle relish, cinnamon-blueberry jam and corn relish.  Whew!

A few zucchini's made it sliced, blanched and into the freezer, but the blackberries are still red.  Also, so far of what we've tasted, the blackberries are sour this year.  I'm not sure what I will do with them if they are all sour

More blueberries made it to the freezer.

We have run into a small sna-foo with the camper.  Once we hooked it up, only the turn signals work.  Brake lights and hazard lights are not working for some reason.  I'm sure my smart husband can figure it out before we do go camping.

I lied.  Our peach tree gave us one very nice looking peach this year.

I finally got around to making stuffed shells again, and some went into the freezer for an easy meal on a future busy day.

As you can see no more greens have made their way into the freezer. I am hoping this rain provides us some.

My back was pretty sore and my entire body pretty tired, so after washing a boat load of dishes and putting them away, I took my handiwork to the porch.  

Husking Corn

A few friends have been telling me to try husking the corn this way - boil with the husks on, then remove.  Of course this isn't a good way to do it for freezing it, but eating and otherwise.  I'll be honest, I'm sticking to the old fashioned way.  There was still hair on the corn, and I could not fit as many cobs in my largest pot with the husks on.

It's On!! The Hitch is On!

Sunday morning we were up at 5am, and couldn't sleep, so we backed the truck up in the driveway and put the new hitch on!  It's on finally, after not camping for a year and a half!!  I am so excited, but unfortunately school will be starting next month.  Here's hoping for some nice fall weekends.

We celebrated our hard work with an afternoon motorcycle ride, and live entertainment and lunch on the patio (at the restaurant).

Oh, I have a list of canning to get done, and we have already chalked off Friday from doing any work, so it'll be a busy week in the kitchen (and garden).

Hittin' the Road

Friday started with a much more relaxing day.  Less to do, although the list is long.  I just chose to ignore most of it.  I had a bad night Thursday night, which involved a coughing fit.  I tend to go into panic mode when I even get a sniffle.  Thankfully, with Hubby's support and my essential diffuser, I made it through the night with some sleep.  I haven't been drinking my nettle tea for allergies and it was wham-bam experience.  I got side tracked from regular, natural allergy maintenance.  A tea infusion was waiting for me Friday morning though.

Homemade hand foaming soap was refilled, along with a 5 gallon bucket of homemade laundry soap.  Thankfully we got some rain, so it was a non-gardening day.

I did a few essential oil steams just to make sure I was not going to have another night of uncomfortable coughing.    Good gravy, what was I thinking when I wasn't making it this the past few weeks?  I guess hitting the garden early every single day, I just plum forgot about it.  The cottonwood is flying everywhere right now.

Saturday Hubby and I hit the road.  We both needed it.  A long motorcycle ride with friends and family to get a well known bologna sandwich, where they sell (what I call) mile high pie.  You can't even get cell service in their tavern either.  And not much in the surrounding town.

As for a camping getaway, I've been bugging Hubby to get that new hitch on the truck.  We'll see if it happens any day soon.

Finding my Mojo

After waking up with a bit of a sore throat (allergies), I decided to take Thursday off from the garden (avoiding the grass), and get some inside work done.  I was up just before 5am and downed a cup of hot ginger tea before making good ol' organic coffee.

It started as a beautiful day, but I was praying for rain too.  We need it badly.  We got rain too.  Twice during the day, but not enough.  We could use more.

Even though I've been whooped by dinner time, dinner has still been getting made - homemade chicken alfredo and roasted rosemary asparagus.  The alfredo sauce has been posted before, but not the entire recipe.  We are just low on fruit.  The red raspberries need rain.  The blackberries are loaded, but not ripe to pick just yet.

Homemade Alfredo Sauce
1/2 cup organic butter (or homemade)
2 cups (1 pint) organic/non-gmo whipping cream
4 oz.  organic cream cheese (or homemade)
1/2 tsp. minced garlic*
1 tsp. homemade garlic powder
1 tsp. homemade Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup grated organic Parmesan cheese.

Melt butter, cream cheese and whisk in the whipping cream.  Continue to whisk until blended, then add the remaining ingredients.

Toss in diced and cooked organic chicken, and your favorite cooked pasta.

Note:  I've used freshly minced garlic before, and you can also make your own homemade minced garlic.  Simply dehydrate, but don't grind it into powder, just pulse in a coffee mill until it's "minced."  You can also mince it fresh onto parchment paper and dehydrate.  I linked on how I slice and dehydrate the garlic.  To make the powder I grind it up in a small coffee mill and store it in a glass jar in the cupboard.  

Roasted Rosemary Asparagus
Clean asparagus and lay on a baking tray with rim.  Drizzle with organic olive oil and sprinkle with chopped, dried rosemary.  Add salt and pepper.  Roast at 400° for about 15-18 minutes.  

As for finding my mojo, I took my handiwork to the porch to simply have some well deserved relaxation time.  Although that was after I made a big batch of blueberry pancakes for the rest of the week and weekend.

I also started back on the book shelf.  More remains on my kitchen table.  I was able to sort out some to save, and a few more to give away.  I have not purged my crafting books though.  Those stay.  And anything homesteading related.

100 days of weeding....coffee, coffee, coffee (grab a cup of our favorite bevarage too...it's a long one)

I'm up at 5am this morning.  The corn is all done for the this season.  Well, sort of done.  It's been shucked, removed, and frozen finally. 70 cups so far this year, and I am saving a dozen for another reason this weekend.

Tiger comes crying for an ear right when I starting slicing off the corn.  It shuts him up for just a while, until he begs for more.  Most of the cobs went to the chickens, but some went in the compost.

I'm still putting up blueberries (20 lbs).

Sliced a few cucumbers up for vinegar-cucumbers.  I typically use the recipe I posted years ago, but leave the oil out.  I was plum out of garlic (getting pulled soon), and had one dinky dill plant to use for it).

New Recipe Tried - cucumber juice.  Delicious.  I just peeled and blended, strained the pulp, and added some organic lime juice and sugar to taste.  The juice would be pretty good to make cucumber margaritas with too.  The pulp was given to the chickens for a nice afternoon treat.

The pumpkins have been resurrected now.  They look good, but man the weeds are out of control this year.  I used the hoe for these (getting a 3 hour upper body work out).  The idea is for the sun to dry up the weeds and create a mulch to prevent more.  The popcorn is next.  It's been a weed, water, weed, water year.  Once again....no rain, but it's in the forecast for today.

Speaking of rain...if we don't get any, I don't see us getting tomatoes, green peppers, turnips, chard, hot banana peppers, potatoes.....you get the picture.  Watering with well water is great, but not good enough. 

Yes...depressing year this year.  I now have to find a resource for stocking up organic, freshly grown green beans.  Almost makes me not want to plant a garden next year.

Even thought the squash all looked great, it's not producing anything now.  What was producing is now looking like it's dying off or not growing right.  Even the cucumbers.

I seriously need to focus on something else.  Something positive. Something constructive - target practice?  I had another driveway "creeper" the other day while I was sitting on the front porch.  It may help blow off some steam too.

We were also invited to a weekend bike week in WV.  We turned it down, and now I wish we didn't.  I soooo need a break from negativity, bad mojo, and set backs.  Every day starts with several cups of coffee, combined with heavy sighs.

I'll be honest, I'm not even sure a motorcycle ride would revive me.  I've been down right cranky, miserable, tired, and as "Youngest" called me, salty.

Even the chickens are causing havoc.  Four got out of the run fence the other day.  Guess I better check the fence.  Then again, maybe I should just let them have at it in the garden?

Hubby has lost his mojo for just about anything too.  The truck now needs work, two tires need replaced on the car, he's way behind in mowing, and the hitch has not made it's way to the truck.  Which means no camping, and we haven't gone camping for 1 1/2 years now, and that is definitely one of my "happy places.

Stand by, while I go find my "happy" place.....I'm sure ya'll getting tired of my weed posts.

Cleavers Facial Wash ~ Natural Wrinkle Remedy

When ever I read something new about a weed I harvest, I give it a try if I can.  The season for cleavers are over for us, but I wanted to share this.

I made a tea with cleavers. I just made sort of an infusion in a pint canning jar, strained it and put it in the fridge.  

Dip your washcloth into the tea and rinse your face with the tea solution at room temperature (or cold).  Cleavers at as a skin tightener, so in reality, reduces wrinkles and lifts up the skin naturally.

Some people may have a bad reaction to this facial wash, so try a small area at first.  If you use fresh cleavers in you tea (not recommended for this), you have greater chance a having a skin reaction.

I used this tea for 2 straight weeks and feel and see a difference.  I also used it cold on my face, and it felt great in the heat of summer.