Pioneer Woman at Heart

(sorry for the blurry picture) I strained the two tinctures I made recently - mullein, and bilberry .    Now I'm ready to make one that I feel will be good for varicose veins.   It includes: Barberry Bark Bilberry leaf Bilberries However, after I got my herbs out, I started wondering if an infused oil (to make a rub) would be better?

We've had a very busy week and weekend.  First Hubby arranged a 1st birthday party for our grand-daughter (mid week of all days).  Then we had a ton of tomatoes to deal with, and then a family gathering on my side of the family, which required me to cook. Hence the tomatoes sat still, the garden was still worked, on, but I gotta share this ditty.  It only happens in my family. I was so busy I forgot to pay a few bills and poo, one is late.  I'm never late.  People just need to leave me be in August anymore.  I don't even have time to think right.  My brain is not functioning properly during this ever so, full speed ahead gardening season.

Easy Layered Dip 1 - 8 oz. cream cheese 2 cloves of garlic minced 1-2 Roma tomatoes (or your choice) chopped Green onions, snipped Mozzarella cheese, finely shredded Set cream cheese out to soften.  Once soft, cream it with the minced garlic.  Spread it onto a serving plate (I use a regular dinner plate).  Top it with chopped tomatoes, and green onions.  Add shredded cheese to cover, to your taste. Refrigerate for several hours for the garlic and cream cheese to infuse flavors.  Serve with crackers of your choice, and set the dip out for a few minutes to soften again (or it will be difficult to "dip" your crackers).

Every day the tomatoes are being brought in now.  I am canning daily, and exhausted (but have zero problems with falling asleep).  The sauce maker is in full swing. Ketchup takes 10 pounds of pa ste tomatoes.  One batch made so far.   Pizza sauce requires 25 pounds.  One batch made so far.  The table is covered with more tomatoes.  I am thrilled for such a good harvest, but my posts will be short this week, ha ha!  As of yes terday, we have brought in 120 pounds of tomatoes.  Some canned, some frozen, and some eaten.  There are more to can yet today, but dishes must be tackled first.  The "guts" from all the sauce making is being fed to my chickens .  The goats will eat a few bites, but they are still young.

Yesterday, I had to put my lavender heat pillow on my neck.  I'm spending many, many hours at the kitchen sink these days.  I picked another 21 lbs. of tomatoes, but left them sit on the table overnight.  I prayed that King would not be able to get to them, and tackled the other day's pickings. Swiss chard, rosemary, comfrey, calendula, a tiny bit of fresh thyme for a tea infusion, and some wild growing dandelions.  It was all put up, dried, or blanched. 

Beets are finally filling up my freezer this fall.   We have a good supply of shredded zucchini, so the next ones went in the freezer sliced.  I know these sometimes thaw watery and softer, but I just drain the water and cook.  We use these mainly in our teriyaki dish over winter, but have added them to other casserole dishes and mixed vegetable sides.  I'll be honest, I'm surprised my zucchini is still producing.  It looks terrible right now.  I doubt I'll get much more, but would be blessed to get a few more. I purchased some large head garlic (organic) at the Farmer's Market, which is much easier to slice and dehydrate than my homegrown this year.  It's much smaller (in fact there were farmer's selling the smaller size for $.25/each as well).

Well, I'm here to say, Hubby whisked me away again.  It was all spontaneous.  Very spontaneous. It all started with taking the Harley in for a tire change.  Pretty soon, we were picking it up and going out for a ride, only for him to tell me we were leaving the next day - our first overnight motorcycle ride. Panic set it since I had 36 hot banana peppers to deal with.  However, you can see I got that done before we picked up the newly tuned up Harley on Thursday. We literally went to bed Thursday night without reservations on our favorite island.  The next morning, he pulled his typical magic, and we had a room.   Off we went.