Italian Tasting ~ Taco Sauce Recipe ~ Family

Grab a cup of coffee or tea.  This blogpost is a bit long.

The morning here today is cool, and so pleasant.  Rain is in the forecast.  I planted this Morning Glory from seed and it is just now blooming.

The fall weather is bringing in blooms of all colors, including this purple.  I cannot tell you 

the name of this flower without looking it up.  It's been moved from two houses and still growing strong.  The hummingbirds, butterflies and bees love these flowers.

The kids wanted another party - Italian.  There is no way I can possibly whip up another successful party, with all that food in one night. 

Stocking Up Continues

Yesterday I finally got back out to the gardens.  I must have picked about 40 pounds of tomatoes, and this pot full of peppers, and one spaghetti squash.  I picked two types of green pepper, red pepper, cayenne, jalapeno and banana peppers.

I picked a handful of strawberries.  They are growing so much better in my new raised beds this year.

Yesterday I canned 3 1/2 more quarts of seasoned tomato sauce, using up about 23 pounds of those tomatoes I picked.  

Today I will make another batch of taco sauce.  My family devoured another 1/2 pint jar the other day.   Today, I also need to freeze all those peppers you see in the pot, and freeze more tomatoes.

I plan to set aside some banana peppers for an Italian treat that we have never tried. 

In the back garden, where we planted the watermelon and baking heirloom pumpkins (and the last of the tomatoes and sweet potatoes when we ran out of room),  I noticed something has been eating the produce.  They are eating the pumpkins and the larger tomatoes.  Must be the raccoons that were trying to get in our chicken coop.  I need to weed out there, but quickly pulled the few pumpkins that I could salvage for fall  decoration.  We won't be baking any of them this year. Between bugs and animals, they are a lost cause.   I can always buy some from a produce stand as well.

Tomorrow, rain is in the forecast, so that will making future weeding much easier.  Then I need to pull the collards and plant my garlic for fall.  The fall peas and beans should start to produce after this next rain.  It's our first fall planting, other than garlic.

The finished scarf - completely with scrap yarn from other projects.  It turned out pretty nice.

Spiders!  It's that time of year again.  When they decide that my home is their home.  Yuck!  We already found an ugly wolf spider in the kitchen sink this morning.  There is another very large one (not sure what kind it is) making a nest next to a window.  I'm saving that one for my son to remove.  I better learn to shake out my clothing from now on.  Some spiders like to climb.  I better get the rest of the webs sucked down with the sweeper this weekend.

Freezer Meals ~ Clean Sweep ~ More Garden Bounty

While cleaning around the house, I found this 1963 cookbook.  This sounded like a great way to have sandwiches on hand.  I may have to try this recipe yet.  Although I'd make my own dressing for this.  I love the fact I can use own, canned sweet pickle relish.

Clean Sweep Updates:

Taken Away

Last weekend, hubby whisked me away again for a night away.  It was completely by surprise and completely at the last minute Friday.  We really enjoyed ourselves, and had some short, but well worth it, relaxation.  We brought some flowers along this time.  As parents, we are spending more (serious) time giving ourselves time away.  This stress stuff is serious and we are taking it seriously now more than ever.

I think we relax so easily, due to the quiet surroundings, peaceful sounds of the waves, and the lack of clutter around us.  Not to mention lack of kids sniveling and arguing, and lack of electronics and noise pollution.

This little strip of shops is basically downtown.  The island is only about 4.6 square miles. 

Our favorite coffee on the island.  Mmmmm!  The owner bakes all the baked items herself.

Our secluded retreat.  No people, no traffic, no nothing.  Just a few birds, waves and a few boats in sight.

It was island-wide garage sale day, so we decided to drive around and see what people had.  We were delighted to find an antique, round butter dish for only $2.00!  What a deal.  This works perfectly for the hormone free butter we buy.

The garage sale day allowed us to drive down private lanes and drives that normally are off limits to tourists.  We saw some very nice homes by the water's edge (and very expensive also).

We also found this green melmac bowl for $.25 and a set of blue rose plates (also melmac) for only $.75.  These will go in our wall tent or trailer/camper in the near future.

Hubby, being a goofball. Ha ha ha!

Although we had the luxury of cooking in our room, we try one new food each visit.  This trip we tried Plantain Nachos.  We enjoy this restaurant, with it's outdoor seating.  The nachos are delicious.  The chef slices plantains length-wise, bakes them out, and does a quick fry in duck fat.  They are crispy and thin.  Then the chef tops it with black beans, corn, green peppers, red onion and mouth watering spices (spicy).   It's topped with a bit of sour cream.  Maybe on the next trip, I will get a photo to share. 

An islander shared with us, another special treat to try on our next visit.

This week?  Back to deep cleaning I'm afraid.  However, when it's all done, it will be so nice and refreshing.  We may even be wood splitting this week.

Fall Cleaning ~ Bringing the House to Life

The lighting was bad, but the second photo is much better on showing the true colors on this fabric.

I'm fall cleaning in a big way right now.  I went through my fabric pieces and found this one.  It's a find from Goodwill and was only a dollar.  It's about 2 yards maybe and will soon be an apron.  Sometimes a farmgirl needs help from another farmgirl, and she'll soon be getting my fabric to sew me an apron.  Goodwill doesn't sell too many good deals anymore, not in our area anyway.  This was one more clutter item put to good use.


I am completely out of laundry detergent, so I grated goat's milk soap is melting in a pot of water as I type.  I'll be starting the day with laundry and more fall cleaning.  

I organized my cotton thread by using an accordion style, vintage wooden rack.  I found it at a garage sale for $.25!  Can't beat that.

I thought I would need to add longer pegs, but the cones hang on these nicely.  I haven't had one fall one me yet, and this is mounted on the inside, and above my bedroom closet door.  Not sure if they will get dusty in the closet, but I plan to use these threads over winter.  Either way, these are off the floor and not in a container, so I can see what stock I have.

Our billy goat is already in the rut now.  P-U!  I can smell him from the door.  

I better start tackling an area to clean.  It's bringing new life to our home.



 

Quality Clothespins?

My clothespins seem to disappear often around here.  We take some camping too.  The kids use them for wall tents (and me too).

Friday's Ramble ~ Turning Zucchini into an Instrument

Conversation between me and hubby:

"Uh, honey? Did you know you can use a zucchini stalk like a recorder? You know like an instrument?" (Me)

"Honey, you are just not normal." (hubby sighs and lowers his head with a smile, shaking his head from side to side)

Crazy as it sounds, it's true.  If you still have zucchini in your garden give this a try.  According to this page in my book Log Cabin Cooking, Pioneer recipes and Food Lore" you can. 

It's a ramble kind of day today.  Grab a cup of tea or coffee for this one.

Yesterday I changed up my day.  I actually cooked dinner.  The family is so used to seeing me standing at the stove canning, or out in the garden.  I was not driving out for supplies, so I surfed the net for recipes.  Allrecipes is always a nice one.  I can search for recipes by the ingredients I have.

I made Cheesy Sausage Zucchini Casserole, but changed some of the ingredients - used cream cheese and cottage cheese vs. processed cheese food, and used jasmine rice in place of regular white rice.  Delicious!

I still have some pears, and didn't have enough ripe ones for jam.  I made Pear Bar Cookies.  Yum!  I doubled the recipe, and it was out of the oven just before the school bus pulled in.  We ate them warm, and they tasted like a pie.  So good!  And so naughty.  I made these with the organic pears from my hubby's family and organic, unsalted butter.  This family is so spoiled.

I started weeding my flower beds.  I spent over an hour out there and came in soaked in sweat.  Yuck.  It's been so humid here lately, but my flower beds look terrible. 

The kids are getting lazy.  Every day I have to go upstairs and turn off lights and fans.  Dishes are being left everywhere and floors covered with whatnot.  It's no wonder my youngest could not find her shoes this morning, almost missing the bus.  And they think that when I remind them to pick something up, that I am nagging.  

One of these days they will realize what responsibility is.  They have one job chart - dinner dishes. Yet, every night I have to remind them.   Pretty soon, I'm going to have to give each of them an assigned set of dishes.  I'll engrave names so they can't say, "I don't know who left that there" and "I didn't do it."  You know?  That just might work!  Ha ha!

Speaking of that, they not respecting each other.  Guess they need a dose of reading from the virtues and morals book.  

Our youngest daughter is running for student council this year (again).  Last year she was not voted in.  Hopefully she will this year.

Update on my hubby's kidney donation:
The hospital that they were to have this done at, and then rejected for no good explanation, was recently written up in the paper.  A nurse placed a kidney with waste when it was to go to a recipient.  Some 900 transplant patients are being sent to other hospitals.  I guess that's why they continued to avoid his sister's calls.  They literally did not return any calls to her and to her case worker.  

I started writing exercises to gear up for that novel the kids keep reminding me about.  With a large family, it's tough to concentrate here anymore.  Hubby and I see how much we need a place of our own, so we are working on that.

Technology.  I dislike it tremendously.  E-mails.  Texting.  If used correctly, it's great.  Not used correctly, it's all out negative.  

I've only had to use my dryer once this summer.  I had put out two large loads of towels etc. and it rained.  I could have left them out, but rained the next day too. I love my clothesline.

I may be donating scarves to the homeless again this year.  The granny square pattern I have been using, can be made with all of my scrap yarns.

I need to get my l laundry out, and will be back to sip coffee and read blogs.   Enjoy your day!

"No one lives on the top of the mountain. It’s fine to go there occasionally —for inspiration, for new perspectives. But you have to come down. Life is lived in the valleys. That’s where the farms and gardens and orchards are, and where the plowing and the work is done. That’s where you apply the visions you may have glimpsed from the peaks."

~ Arthur Gordon