Bad Air Quality Warnings ~ More Strawberries ~ Cottage cheese and Chilis for Breakfast? Yes Please!

 I lost count on how many days it's been with zero rain.  Watering everything continues for us.  We've been waking up in the 50's, so it makes my daily chores more difficult.  I have to wait for it to be warmer to do the watering.  The forecast is saying possible rain this coming Sunday, with warmer temperatures.

I also have to rotate watering with laundry/dishwasher, so the water pump is not working in over drive.

It's hard to be outside too long with the Canadian wildfire haze contaminating the air outside.  We sat out on the porch the other night, and totally forgot about the air issue, and a nasty sore throat woke me up in the night.

I am finishing up with strawberries.  The chickens love their cool, sweet treats (they get the tops).

Froze several quarts, and will make a cold strawberry pie as well.  Canned 8 - half pints of reduced sugar jam.

There is a cottage cheese craze going on in recipes lately, but for years, we've enjoyed cottage cheese in our breakfast.  It's a Rachel Ray recipe (adapted with organic ingredients), and one we really like.  I used to double this when the kids were all living here.  Recipe is HERE.  It does require a 1/4 cup of flour, and I may try swapping that out with Einkorn next time.  

It's Strawberry Season!!

 

Just when I said there was "nothing" going on here....BAM!  Strawberries!  I'll be busy over the next few days.  I am cutting back on how many jars of jam I can for us this year.  I canned too many last year.  I do can our jam reduced sugar, so it's more fruit to the jar.  I freeze some for smoothies, crumbles, crisps, and pancakes.  Of course we eat some fresh too.  

It'll keep me entertained indoors, as the Canadian wildfire smoke is choking us out in our state.  I noticed it two days ago.  The smoke is moving south, and we are in it's path, and it is very visible in the air (hazy).

On the extreme clean front, I am now pulling boxes out of my tiny office.  Keep in mind we boxed up the kitchen a year and two months ago, and some boxes from that job were still in there.  It's the last room with carpet too.

I found dishes from Mom's place, a lot of paperwork to shred or toss, 4 cones of black cotton yarn (gulp!), stuff that needs re-homed, some possibly donated, books to donate, and even toys the grandkids out grew already.  Sheesh.  Yeah, I will not be bored this week.

Oh, we finally delivered 5 boxes and one full bag of craft donations.  They were greatly appreciated, and my home has less "stuff" in it.

Preserving Eggs ~ Ramblings

 Let's talk about preserving eggs.  I know how to do water-glassing, but have never dehydrated.  I found a great article online by Backwoods Home Magazine.  What is your preference for preserving eggs?

Suggestions on using dehydrated eggs?  I'm plan to look thru my books to see what I have on this, but asking here too.

A few more dollar tree finds from earlier this week - dressing to-go bottles, and a vegetable scrubber for the camper.

The dressing bottles will be great for my husband's work lunch, but I bought two of them for picnic packing too.  It doesn't look like we'll likely take any long vacations this year due to gas prices, and prices of everything else.

I have 1 more quart to freeze, but I got the strawberries taken care of.  Jam is done as well, so I don't have to use freezer space and do it in winter.

I made us some homemade teriyaki sauce for chicken teriyaki.  It will last a few days (the dinner), so I won't have to cook thankfully.

My husband and I talked last night about raising a pig and cows.  Goats are not in the picture yet, but I am prepared (since we raised dairy goats before).  

Freezing Strawberries and other Tidbits

 

I finished freezing the strawberries. I may have more to freeze, but the chickens got the sweet tops I took off.

The oregano that was dehydrating is all in a jar for cooking. I cleaned out one freezer, took notes on what needs rotated out and got my grocery list written down.  I have one container of cottage cheese and one of sour cream, so those were taken out and thawed to make Salmon Romanoff.

We eat way less pasta than we used to eat. It's mostly been a meat and vegetable lately.

I have a large cast iron pot that I badly need to re-season, but it's too hot to do that right now.  I'll wait for a cooler day for that job.  The black layer is peeling off, and according to instructions from the company who makes them, states to re-season a couple of times and the pot will be restored.

We are seeing more deer and rabbits this year.

New blooms in the flower bed.

My snapdragons are about to snap open.  I sure hope I have some pretty colors. It's been years since I have had snapdragons.  

The ladies were treated with ice chips in the heat.  Again, awful photo.  On my phone it looks great, not transferred to computer for some reason.  I guess I will start using my camera.

My husband put gas in the truck and it was $3.15/gallon, but with our grocery store points he was able to save $.70/gallon thankfully.  Prices are up on just about anything right now.  I'm trying to limit trips to town to avoid expensive fill-ups.  It's not like I'm lacking in a to-do list.