No gardening work

Monday's are typically the worst days of the week for Hubby and Youngest.  I try to get something sweet baked, but early morning started with a kitchen full of dirty dishes.  We were lazy for sure.  We were stressed over the car accident, and it was cold out and raining the entire time, so we all (after getting the car home) pulled on comfy clothes and watched movies. 

Hubby and I watched Smokey and the Bandit, and our daughter watched her favorite movies in another room.  I crocheted, and for once, started and finished an entire scarf.  It's a Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf. The young crowd goes goo-goo over these.  Who knew?  

The dishes sat though, so first thing Monday morning, I had a messy kitchen to clean up before I did any baking, other cleaning or laundry.  Boy were we lazy.  I had a ton to wash.  Sunday morning, I made homemade biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and fried potatoes.  Yeah, lots of dishes, plus I had made more poultices.

The rain continued (sigh) Monday as well.  I scrambled around to find places to dry laundry.  

Dishes were done and some blueberry muffins were baked.  More dirty dishes were made.

Nothing really exciting in the homesteading department.  It was a make it/refill it sort of day.  I had to refill my jars of homemade vanilla, mullein tincture and organic ground cinnamon.  I made homemade shampoo too.

Good news.  We are not required to replace the airbags in the car, we'll get reimbursed for the towing, and we just have to replace the windshield. Whew!

The rain continued to fall, clouds covered, and it was a high of 62°F.  It sure felt strange to be wearing heavier clothing, and getting my winter robe out at night.  Today, it'll be a it warmer and we are to get some sunshine.

Cool Down and Tidbits

The weather finally gave us some relief with the recent heat, but the rain came with it.  Too wet now to weed.  Not that I'm complaining, ha ha!  The rain forced us to cancel a motorcycle poker run Saturday.  Actually, the event was canceled along with other area events.  The rain wasn't supposed to arrive until late Saturday, but we woke up to rain at 7am.

I'm so organized that it took me a half hour to find the large tote of cotton yarn, ha ha!  Literally.  Had me laughing too.  

I'm busy crocheting more mug/coaster sets.  I have set a confirmed date this month for a Farmer's Market event.  I already have a scarf order for a Christmas present too.  I still need more mugs, but our weekend was a bit of a shock.  I'll try later this week to locate some.

Not much going on here but rain. Lots of rain. We didn't get the 30mph winds they said we would, nor the torrential rainfall, but we did get lots of rain.  To be honest, it felt like winter to us after this last 100°F heat wave.

Friday night I found out at the last minute we were dog sitting.  Yep.  Dog sitting.  For our nephew and his wife.  I wasn't too keen on it, but I wasn't asked either.  But, family helps out family.  It also gave me the chance to see how soon we want to get another dog.  Other than her chasing Tiger, she did pretty well as far as behavior.

There is a reason for things to happen.  We were in town, just pulling into the grocery store, when we got the call.  We should have been on the motorcycle poker run, but like I said....things happen for a reason.

It was our 19 year-old.  She had just been in a car accident and was sobbing.  We zipped right over to the other side of town (a huge event was going on so downtown was shut down and we had to go around, taking side streets).

She is okay, the other driver is okay (barely a scratch), but her car may be getting junked.  The hood has a few dents and the air bags cracked her windshield.  It runs, drives etc but since the air bags deployed she may be buying a new car.  The cost to replace the airbags is very high, and insurance may require they be replaced.  Her hands were pinched under the airbags, and it bruised her wrists.  The Mom that I am, went straight home and whipped up several comfrey poultices for her.  We await the insurance now.  Her car is completely drive-able, but the future of it all depends on the laws regarding airbags.  If we have to spend $800 or more for the airbags, I'm pretty sure we'll sell the engine and parts and spend that money on a newer car.  

The other driver actually got out and pulled her from her car, because he thought her car was on fire.  There was so much dust from the airbags deploying, that both of them thought her car was on fire. 

We are just glad she is okay, but she is very shook up about the whole thing.  It was her first car accident. 

So, all in all, the weekend was us sitting around literally.  We had plans to build a new ramp for the chicken run, but we spent Sunday trying to find a trailer to get Daughter's car from the towing service (they towed it due to the airbags being deployed, so that was $100 plus $15 for every day it sat there.)  We literally drove it home (no towing required), but prayed Hubby didn't get a ticket for a busted windshield.

We were pretty shook up ourselves, although we did very well to contain our emotions around our Daughter.  An adult beverage awaited us Saturday night.

So, how was your weekend? How is the weather at your homestead?  Our 62°F felt like 32°F, but I'm told we'll heat back up again in a week or so.

Turkey Zucchini Meatballs

I like to freeze these uncooked, because they cook up pretty quickly.  It's a great way to use zucchini too.  I double this and use my large pampered chef cookie scoop, getting about 34 to 35 meatballs.

Turkey Zucchini Meatballs
1 lb. ground turkey, organic
1 cup shredded zucchini*
1 tsp. homemade Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. homemade garlic powder
1/2 tsp. homemade onion powder
1/4 tsp. organic (or homemade) crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

*if using thawed, frozen shredded zucchini, squeeze out liquid before adding.

Shape into balls and freeze or cook.  To freeze, I put them on a try and freeze, then remove and freeze in an airtight freezer container or freezer bag.

To Bake (thawed):
Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a pampered chef stoneware bar pan.  Bake 16-18 minutes, or until done.

To Bake Frozen:
Bake 20-25 minutes or until done.

I like to bake the meatballs about an hour to an hour and a half, prior to dinner.  Place them in a crock pot on low and top with a sauce.

Sauces we love:
Homemade marinara sauce
Hot pepper mustard sauce
Home canned BBQ sauce
Mixing home canned ketchup with home canned grape jelly

We've also considered using our habanero/apricot jelly in place of grape, as well as our hot pepper jelly.  It all depends on what you like.  It make a super easy meal.

These sauces are terrific with beef/pork meatballs as well.

Gifted ~ Homemade Crushed Red Pepper Flakes ~ Hot Banana Pepper Relish ~ Dehydrated Tabasco Peppers

It was a day to label all those jars and find a place to store them for winter.  In doing so, I found a pint of last years green tomato salsa.  I cooked a small amount of corn off the cob, and black beans, mixed those in with a bit of our hot salsa and the green tomato salsa and boom - a cold meal was made.  If you call it a meal.  It was a back up for the two coming home from a very hot day.

Latest berry picking.  Looks like a snack vs. freezing it.  Or into a smoothie.

Hubby brought home a loot of peppers, given to him from a co-worker.

I was tickled pink to get them too.  I was so, so happy to receive the generous gifts - hot banana, chili, jalapeno, and tabasco peppers.  And one single habanero.

Here's what I made:

Fire powder.

Fire powder is a mix of hot peppers that we simply use to flavor just about anything.  The habanero went into the fire powder, along with a few of every hot pepper.

To make them, simply slice hot peppers, place them with seeds on parchment paper lined dehydrator trays.  Dehydrate per your unit's instructions.

Allow to cool.  I like to grind the peppers first, then toss in the loose seeds (or grind up everything) to have whole seeds in the mix.  Store in an air tight container.  Your dehydrator instruction book may also instructions for this, as well as many dehydrator books available today.

I use the same process of dehydrating and grinding, to make crushed red pepper flakes with the chili peppers.


Dehydrated the tabasco peppers, and ground them into a powder.  I can add water to make tabasco "sauce" or simply use it as is.  No canning or freezing required.

I canned hot banana pepper relish, using the hot banana peppers, some of the jalapenos, and our home grown green bell peppers.

Heat Wave

The heat wave continued through the first of the week, bringing us more uncomfortable weather, but I needed it for more ripe tomatoes so I tried not to complain.  Today, it's supposed to be the last of hot day.  I guess we'll see.  It was so hot some schools without AC let out again early and will again today. 

Hubby has to work in rooms with hot machines, and yesterday, he almost got sick twice.  I told him to request an ice jacket (vest filled with ice) today.  Some machines can be from 130° up to 700-800°F.  He is requesting those jobs be delayed by a day today.  He was so sick when he got home, all he could eat was the blueberry bread I made.  So glad I made it.

Our daughter's school has AC, but the school buses do not.  We are not used to having heat waves in fall, and she has a black school uniform (pants).  No time to change to shorts on the way home either.  She came home miserable too and went straight to the couch.

Update on our Moroccan Creole garlic - horrible harvest.  The cloves are the smallest of all small.  Too small to plant, so it won't be continued here unless I purchase some for fall planting.

On a "happy" note, the heirloom green bell peppers are starting to produce a few.  We got more rain with the heat, so I am anticipating some going in the freezer.

This weeks breakfast was created with garden bell peppers, garden potatoes, a few hot peppers, onion, sausage and eggs.

I pickled some hot banana peppers.  Per Hubby's request, they were cut in larger pieces and with seeds.

I was low on certain baking ingredients, so I went fishing online for a blueberry cake/bread that didn't have butter.  I made AllRecipes blueberry bread I recipe, adding a bit more blueberries and added cinnamon and nutmeg. 

Your probably wondering how all this cooking and baking can be done when the heat index is 101°F?  I would have felt horrible if I didn't have a treat for my husband and daughter to come home to, or a meal.

I finished another Harley Davidson inspired lapghan.  It's up for sale.   

Tiger stole my chair.  

Dinner last night - baked lemon pepper/garlic flounder (homemade lemon pepper), with pearl couscous (zucchini, onion, basil and tomatoes from the garden).  It was very good, but not something for Hubby. It's packed in his lunch today, but he may not be able to eat it with the heat.  These were perfect to cook together.  Other than cooking the veggies before, the fish and couscous only took 10 minutes to make.

Random Tidbits ~ Struggles

I hope your labor day weekend was fantastic.  Ours was hot, productive, and yet fun.  We didn't go camping, but Hubby and I stole off on a one day motorcycle ride.  Our first motorcycle show/stampede about an hour away. But oh,it was hot. Too hot.  We were so ready to be home sweet home.

I made a batch of black bean hummus to go with those homemade einkorn chips.  Yum!  No tahini either.  I even added a garden jalapeno to it.  Oh, and I seeded it and got about 100 seeds saved from one.  I plan on saving more.  I also saved hot banana pepper seeds and green bell pepper seeds.

...made an einkorn pumpkin spice bundt cake since I had more pumpkin puree thawed.  Very good too!  Recipe is online.

Almost had ground hog for dinner.  Almost.  It was headed straight towards the garden (not that it would have gotten much), but still.  It ran off in the opposite direction just as my hand went on the door knob.

I got some good news regarding the soap saver bags that I took to a historical museum gift shop - 4 sold!  A check is coming my way.  So happy about it, so I plan on making more soon.

Also, I found out about an upcoming farmer's market event in the "Big City" and guess what?  There is no set-up fee.  I have registered and I'm just awaiting their email to confirm it.  It's in September so people may be thinking "fall" and my scarves and lapghans will sell.  I hope to make a trip to the "Big City" and look for more white mugs for mug/coaster sets to make too.  I need to look through my yarn stash as well.

Just when I was ready to start yanking those tomato plants the weather turned on us.  It was back up in the high 90's over the weekend (with more thunderstorms), so I let them sit to see if we'll get more tomatoes.  The beets are not getting big either, so I sure hope the rain helps.

It's been one heck of a year this year.  Not only did one plum tree die, but the other one did too.  Cherry tree has been dead for a year, and not been replaced.  Deer have practically ruined one of my elderberry trees, and now my green apple tree is practically dead (fungus).  The peach tree now has a bit of fungus, so those were sprayed and hopefully regain full health.  We also noticed an infestation of tent caterpillars, so we headed to town for a same spray that will take care of that.

Oh, and all those apples are gone.  Poof!  Either deer, raccoons or squirrels got them, so baffles will need put up before next season.

We got the go kart (aka dune buggy) out and worked on her, but she's not running just yet.  She'll need a few new parts, 
then it's Ba ha time.  We actually got it to start, but it won't idle, so yeah, new parts and she'll be zooming around the homestead.

I found the best deal I could on hot banana peppers.  It was a 30 minute drive, but we got a peck of peppers for $8.00.  

16 1/2 glorious pints of hot pepper mustard were canned, even though it was another hot weekend.  How hot?  Heat index of 99°F.  It'll stay hot for the next few days, so I'm praying we have lots of tomatoes.

Puttin' Up Purslane

One bonus from all this rain and recent heat wave, is that the weeds are galore.  Edible weeds - purslane.

Although this is wonderful fresh, I'm stocking up as much as I can for winter soups and frittatas.

I steam it for a few minutes, and followed the directions found at Mother Earth News online page (regarding harvesting purslane).

I cooled it per their instructions as well, to not wash off the vitamins and minerals - filling a metal bowl with ice water, putting an empty one in the ice water, and cooling the steamed purslane.