November 2019, Week 4
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years ago
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slowpoke_gardener
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Recipes for All Kinds of Sidedishes - Week 4 November 2012
Comments (14)Crock-pot salsa cornbread INGREDIENTS: * 2 boxes corn muffin mix, (8 oz each) * 1 can creamed corn, (15 ounce) * 2 eggs * 1/2 cup sour cream * 1 can chopped green chiles, (4 ounces) undrained * 2 tablespoons soft butter * 3 to 4 tablespoons chunky salsa PREPARATION: In a medium bowl, combine creamed corn, eggs, sour cream, chiles, and margarine. Whisk together until well combined. Add corn muffin mix, stirring well to combine. Generously grease a 3 1/2-quart slow cooker/Crock Pot with margarine or butter. Pour batter into the slow cooker/Crock Pot. Spoon salsa over the top and cut into the batter. Cover and cook on high for about 2 1/2 hours. Turn heat off and let cool with lid ajar, for about 15 minutes. Loosen sides with a knife and invert onto a large plate. If a little of the top sticks to the bottom of the pot, dollop a little salsa on the top, or decorate with sour cream and chopped green onion. Delicious side dish! Serves 6 to 8....See MoreOctober 2019, Week 4
Comments (40)Being stuck inside with a big puppy who cannot run around outside is driving me almost as crazy as it is driving him. He is smart, he is learning all the standard commands like No, Come, Sit, Stay, etc. but he seems determined to engage the cat, Lucky, in a battle of the wills every single day. The lesson he has not yet learned is that her claws are going to win every single time. I am on the verge of losing my sanity here. I need a vacation from the big puppy. He is a bundle of love, but a very energetic bundle. Jennifer, It always is challenging the first time a person processes something new from the garden---new to them---and sometimes the sheer quantity of whatever needs to be processed is quite daunting. I'm glad you're making progress on the Seminoles. You do need a root cellar! I've always wanted one but never have been able to convince Tim that building one would be worthwhile. If our clay wasn't so impossible to dig, maybe we would have one by now. We started digging out a spot for one once and simply gave up---digging that dense red clay is like trying to dig concrete. After decades of trying to raise as much of our food as possible and spending far too much time canning, freezing and dehydrating it, I'm sort of over it and really, really wanting to cut back more and more. I no longer can 600-800 jars a year and I don't miss all those long hours in the kitchen. I don't think my body can physically tolerate being on my feet all day every day in the summer any more either. I'll always can some stuff, but more and more I focus on food that can be root-cellared (or maybe I should just say kept in dry storage since I don't have a root cellar) or frozen. Nothing makes a person appreciate things like onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and winter squash like the fact that you can harvest them, cure them, and put them in dry storage as needed until you use them. This summer I processed and froze all the excess tomatoes in 8-cup batches for salsa back when we were harvesting tomatoes, telling myself that when the weather cooled down, I'd spend October-November turning them into salsa. So far, I haven't done that. If everyone is going to get salsa for Christmas as planned, I need to get busy canning salsa. After all, October is almost over. I think I'll do a few batches of salsa next week, and I haven't yet decided whether to make apple pie jam, candied jalapenos or Habanero Gold to go in the gift bags as well. I need to decide on that and get it done because it seems like once Halloween arrives, Christmas is here in the blink of an eye. I dread doing all this canning for the holiday gifts. I know I'll enjoy it once I start doing it, but I'm so burned out from doing so much for so many years that I don't absolutely love doing it the way that I once did. I wish I did absolutely adore doing it as I did 10, 15 or 20 (or longer) years ago, but I just don't. There's probably a lesson in here somewhere about pacing one's self better over the years so you don't burn out, but I didn't learn that lesson in time. I wish I had a nickel for every night I stayed up canning and cleaning up until midnight, and then got up at 6 am to go out to the garden, harvest tomatoes, and do it all over again....until midnight again.....and again, and again. I used to feel shocked when my older friends here gave up canning in their 60s or 70s after a lifetime of doing it, but now what I'm thinking is that I'm surprised they didn't retire from canning sooner than they did. I may can a lot more after Tim retires---he'd be here to help lift that heavy canner filled with water and filled jars, for example. On the other hand, I may decide that I completely retire from food processing when he retires from his job, though I really don't think I will. I am not sure he wants to help with the canning, because every time he walks into the kitchen now and I'm canning away like a mad woman, he sort of gets that deer-in-headlights look in his eyes and cannot get out of the kitchen, and the house, quickly enough, like he's afraid I might put him to work in the kitchen. lol I'd like to point out that I never once have asked him to help me can, dehydrate or freeze anything, so I don't know why he gets so twitchy when he thinks it might happen. Nancy, I hope the new faucet works out. I hate plumbing work. Tim can do it, and he does do it, but it always requires at least 3 trips to the store to get all the right parts, as if it is impossible to buy all the right parts the first time. I realize that when you start taking apart old plumbing, sometimes you find a part in there that you didn't expect and have to go get one, but it drives me nuts...partly because it is such a long drive to get to a store that has what we need. I hate having to go out in the rain anywhere for any thing at all. Nobody here can drive in the rain and we have a lot of motor vehicle accidents everywhere when it rains, particularly on I-35. We joke that people here cannot drive in the rain because rain is so rare they lack experience in driving in it. Yesterday, within 5 minutes of the rain starting to fall, we were paged out to an auto accident in town. It boggles my mind how common this is. Jen, I love dogs but couldn't have that many of them underfoot all the time. It would drive me crazy. There is a really nice pet boarding facility north of Marietta and some friends of mine who love animals worked there for quite for a while (several years, I think), and it was a tremendous amount of work. We needed the rain and I'm grateful we received it, and now I'm ready for it to end and be over already. We've got about 2.5" in the rain gauge, with light rain expected to continue falling today and tonight. I'd be happy if no more rain fell, but it still would be very wet, chilly and miserable out there even without any more rain. At least we aren't getting snow like those folks in western OK and northwestern OK. I am not getting one single thing done with this dog in the house. He just has too much energy, and I am too kind-hearted to send him out to play in the rain. I'm going plant shopping tomorrow, come hell or high water, because being stuck indoors is driving me almost as crazy as it is driving the dog. Next week's cold looks discouraging. It looks like summer held on forever, and winter is coming early. I miss the long, pleasant autumns we used to have. Dawn...See MoreNovember 2019, Week 2
Comments (61)I'm desperately trying to catch up quickly while also cleaning house before the grandkids arrive for the weekend. I'm taking a break from cleaning for a few minutes. Jennifer, Those old jars you got from that couple probably are thicker and more well-made than the newer ones and likely would work better in the freezer. Nancy, Sometimes cats are just slow to warm up to someone for no apparent reason I've ever found. Pumpkin was cuddly when younger, but is more fidgety now and would rather be moving around. I guess he outgrew sitting on our laps. If he is that close to us, he wants to play/fight/bite or scratch (playfully in his mind, but not that much fun for us), so I usually put him in the sunroom to bask in the sunshine and warmth which he does adore. We have a ton of leaves down, and a ton still on the trees, but then at least 10 of our 14+ acres are heavy woodland, so we never have a shortage of leaves (or squirrels). We've always had either black or white appliances and I was fine with that, but when we remodeled the kitchen a few years back we chose the stainless steel appliances to go with the gray cabinets and I'm not sorry we did. They complement one another nicely. You might remember we had no plan to replace our existing appliances at all when we were doing the kitchen, but they quickly committed suicide in unison and gave up the ghost, so since we had to replace them all, we went with stainless. I like gardening but I'm 60 years old, have been gardening since I was old enough to toddle around behind my dad in the garden, and have gardened very long and very hard all my life. The last few years I've been cutting back, and I'm okay with that. I'll never give up gardening completely, but it is not all-consuming like it once was. I wanted to have a more balanced life that didn't totally revolve around the garden and, after almost a decade of trying to slowly cut back, I feel like I've achieved the more balanced life, though I still have a ways to go. I know Tim and the rest of the family still think I work too long and too hard out there, but I'm a lot better about closing the gate and walking away than I used to be. Okmulgeeboy, lol. We all are at different stages in our lives and in our gardening. There was a time I tried to keep everything alive all winter, but that was quite some time back. I'm more content to have the winter off from outdoor gardening these days. Actually, that's when our VFD gets really busy with the winter fire season, so a lot of my cutting back on winter garden really came about because I couldn't/wouldn't be at home to cover things up on cold nights because I was out at a fire. Your life evolves over time----I know mine sure has. Between the winter fire season and weekends with the grandkids, winter gardening has fallen to the bottom of my priority list. I didn't watch the football game last night, but thought that it was a disgusting mess there at the end when I heard about what happened. Personally, I am not content with the NFL's suspension of Myles Garrett for "at least" the rest of this season without pay. I think they should have suspended him for at least a full calendar year without pay. What he did is unconscionable and he could have caused a head injury that would have forever altered people's lives as it could have resulted in a traumatic brain injury or even death. (It really hacked me off that he started talking out what a great thing it was they won the game, and that his "8 seconds of behavior" or however he worded it shouldn't detract from that. When I read that, I had steam coming out of my ears. Apparently he doesn't understand there's real consequences to his actions, and of course he detracted from his team's win. I never thought I'd see someone take a helmet and hit someone in the head with it, although there was a guy that took a swing with a helmet a few years back, but he missed his target so didn't get in the same kind of trouble. Football always has had a certain level of violence in it, and we are seeing players paying the price now with CTE and other issues, including often the early onset of Alzheimer's Disease, so I'm glad the league is trying to protect players better now than they did decades ago. Anyone who watched football in the 1960s, 70s or 80s certainly saw a lot more intentional violence than we see now....yet we never had a player try to use a helmet like it was used last night. That was appalling. If you or I hit someone walking down the street in the head with a helmet, we'd be arrested for either aggravated assault or assault with a deadly weapon, I can guarantee that, and the criminal court system would deal with us. I kinda think he ought to be arrested and charged with assault for what he did because he crossed an NFL line that never should be crossed. I have been busy with kittens. Today is their first day to eat some solid food and 3 out of 4 were impressed. The 4th just looked at me and walked away like I was trying to give them something horrible. I mixed canned kitten food with formula and tried to teach them to eat it off my fingers, and then eventually they stuck their heads down into the dish to nibble at it. Because they are starting solid food, they got their first litter box today, and an expanded living area. I set up a puppy/kitten corral that has plenty of space for eating, playing, sleeping, using a litter box, etc. and they now have tons of space to roam. There's a kitty cave they can go inside if they want darkness to sleep, and lots of toys. I'm hoping this will make them happy and more independent so they won't cry for me every time they see me---it isn't just because they are hungry---often it is because they are bored and want me to pick them up and play with them. See there, I don't need plants to nurture this winter because I'm nurturing tiny kittens. I do have plants though---a Christmas cactus I'm working to bring back into bloom and six potted amaryllis bulbs, three of which are getting ready to bloom....while the other 3 just sit there like maybe they'll grow and bloom or maybe they won't. Well, I need to get back to cleaning the house. I like to have it all nice and clean before the whirling tornado known as the grandkids enters the house. That way, I'm ahead of the game for a little while. I don't obsessively clean while they are here though, which is why it is nice to start off with it clean....then I can ignore it and focus on spending time with them. It was so cold and frosty this morning, but is almost shirt sleeve weather outside this afternoon. I'm looking forward to those highs in the 70s next week even though they won't last long. Dawn...See MoreNovember 2020 Week 4
Comments (74)Haha, Larry! That sounds like me. . . not sure what I'm growing, but looks like plenty. The red mustard cracks me up. Just popped up here and there--in the original bed and out of the bed. I've been brining some pork lately. We're having a hard time finding loin and even tenderloin that's not tough. I've about decided to stick with pork shoulder roasts. Frankly, I think the taste is superior to the others. Happy second Thanksgiving. I was a bit worried about counter space, Amy. I measured carefully. But then I thought, "What can I get off these counters that doesn't need to be on them. Actually was room where the toaster and coffee pot are. The toaster will be gone anyway because of the toaster oven, . . And that's a corner of the counter space that had plenty of room where the toaster was. PLUS I moved some other stuff off the other counter space next to the fridge and then on either side of the stove. I'm excited about the electricity we'll save--really, used the stove almost every day. And for two people--awfully big stove for just two people. I guess you know now I'll NEVER make it to a Vitamix. Or to a nice Kitchenaid mixer. Besides, those things would take up serious counter space, too. Do you like the piricicaba? How does the taste compare to heading types? I think I might like to try it, depending on your opinion. I'm a little jealous about all your greens, Larry and Amy, which I think is nuts, considering I'm not that crazy about greens. But with the new scare with romaine, I can definitely see the appeal of growing one's own greens. And since I don't have any big plans for the garden, I guess I'll plant a bunch of greens. HJ. . . I would think Dispelling Wetiko would be perfect for Oregon! My kids in Mpls have talked about how much they love that area--and how beautiful much of Oregon is. I've only been on the coast, not inland. I got a chuckle about kolaches/klobasnek/sausage rolls this morning. I was all excited about trying them out, Danny, so was looking at recipes specifically with the crescent roll dough. It seemed to me they might be a little crispier fixed that way? Are they? One of the bakeries in town sells sausage rolls. We get the jalapeno sausage ones. BUT. I have kind of a love/hate relationship with them. I can't love the soft roll-like quality. I start out liking them (with mustard), and by the time I finish one, I decide I don't like them. I tried crisping one up in the skillet, and liked it much better. But found a really good-looking recipe--they used ground sausage and mixed it with cream cheese. I might experiment a bit. Why I chuckled was that when I got up this morning (slept in until 8:30), Garry had left me a note that he was on a trip to town for sausage rolls. He must have felt the vibe. Okay. . . to work!...See Morehazelinok
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoHU-422368488
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agoRebecca (7a)
4 years agoHU-939938193
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
4 years ago
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