December 2020, Week 4
dbarron
3 years ago
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OklaMoni
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Recipes for Beverages With/Without Spirits -Week 4 December 2013
Comments (14)I was sick yesterday and forgot to post a beverage recipe; well, I thought I had done so actually. But here are two today. Hot Cocoa Mix 1/4 cup of powdered milk 1 tablespoon Droste cocoa powder 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon good quality instant coffee 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder (I use Cook's Vanilla Powder. I haven't tried other brands.) Dissolve mix in 1/4 cup of cold water in a large mug (powered milk clumps in really hot water), add hot water to fill. It also works nicely in a blender with a few ice cubes and some cold water. The Drost cocoa is what makes it tasty. barnmom@gardenweb Eileen Book Club Sangria SERVES 6 - 8 This sweet-tart wine punch was invented by members of the Junior League of Houston book club in the 1970s. 3âÂÂ4 cup sugar 1 750-ml bottle fruity red wine, such as pinot noir 1âÂÂ4 cup brandy 1âÂÂ4 cup fresh orange juice 1âÂÂ4 cup fresh lemon juice 1âÂÂ4 cup fresh lime juice 1 cup ginger ale 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks 4 thin slices each of orange, lemon, and lime 1 fresh peach, pitted and sliced Bring sugar and 1 cup water to a boil in a 1-qt. saucepan. Let cool and transfer to a pitcher; add wine, brandy, and citrus juices. Chill. Before serving, add ginger ale, pineapple, citrus slices, and peaches. Stir and serve over ice....See MoreDecember 2018, Week 4, Happy Holidays
Comments (30)Megan, I don't really know of any bird feeders that can prevent the issue of dropped seed---it isn't a problem here because our free-ranging chickens scour the ground beneath the feeders searching for dropped seed. I don't suppose you can have free-range chickens there? Actually, there are some seed trays that you can attach beneath feeders that supposedly will catch dropped seed, but I've always wondered what stops birds from kicking seeds out of the dropped seed trays? One year, I put a piece of plywood on the ground all winter beneath the feeders so I could sweep up seed that fell to the ground and landed on the plywood. That works, but it gets tedious.....although I noticed the chickens policed the plywood for me most days. When you live in an area as rural as ours, for the most part, the existing wildlife takes care of the other wildlife. I'm mostly referring to rodents....everything eats them....snakes, owls, coyotes, bobcats, ring-tailed cats, etc., so they are not as big of a problem here as one might imagine. During the day, our own cats will hunt them, especially Pumpkin who is the youngest and considers himself to be the Great Hunter, but our pet cats are locked up indoors at night, because pet cats that stay outdoors at night usually don't last long around here. Jen, I'm laughing about the Indian princess comment. It is so true. dbarron, Your connection to John Ross is fascinating. I've read quite a bit about him. He lived a very interesting life to say the least. Jennifer, You can get bogged down in that genealogy stuff, and I just do not even want to go there and get started on that so I stay away from it. I know if I ever started it, I would be obsessed with it and would drive myself crazy. It is exciting to think about plans for the 2019 garden. Rebecca, I do have some Burpee exclusives that I like to grow , like Brandy Boy tomatoes and Biker Billy peppers, so I have to order from them occasionally, but I try to only order once every 3-5 years and to just be sure I order enough seeds to last a few years. Their seed prices have gotten so ridiculous and before I order anything from them, I make sure they are the sole source for it. (I have found that sometimes a seed company will claim to be the exclusive source for a specific variety and they are not, so I always search for another source to see if they really are the sole source.) I think Jambalaya could be a good one for you, but I haven't grown it myself. It is supposed to bear early and often, so at least on paper it sounds good. Cajun Jewel is fairly dwarf as well but bigger than Baby Bubba, and Jade and Lee are two other varieties suitable for containers. Shumway's has Pink French Quarter and Red French Quarter this year and they both are dwarf, and look good in the photos online, but I haven't grown either of them yet since they are new. Last year my Stewart's Zeebest plants produced so much okra I couldn't keep up with the harvesting, so I want to grow smaller, less productive plants this year. I know that sounds crazy, but not being able to stay caught up on harvesting and using all the okra drove me nuts. Jennifer, It was cold. It felt worse, I think, because it mostly stayed cloudy. We got a little sunshine late in the day. This coming week's weather doesn't look too great. Oh well, it is winter time and I guess we just have to deal with it. To clean chicken (or any sort of bird) poop off anything, you need Poop-Off. You generally can find it in farm supply stores, feed stores, and in most pet stores in the bird section. Or, you can order it online. I'm sure Amazon.com has it. Here is what it looks like: Poop-Off It really does work, but if the poop has been there a while and has dried out long-term, you may have to go through several rounds of spraying and scrubbing to get all of it removed. Wear gloves and a respirator type mask---not because of the Poop Off spray but because of the possible pathogens that can be found in bird poop. I hate buying veggies too. That's why I try to fill up 2 or 3 deep freezes every summer, but still, they are things we don't grow or that cannot be preserved long-term (like lettuce, for example), so I just try to buy organic and still must remind myself that purchased produce never will have the freshness or quality of home-grown. Going to Central Market for produce helps---their produce is superb in quality and quantity and going through the produce section for me is like a trip to Disney. I have a good time. However, being a gardener, I'm always tell Tim when we are there that it still kills me to buy produce, even when it is theirs. We still have fresh onions from the 2018 harvest, but some of them are starting to sprout now so I don't know how much longer they'll last. I do have a ton of them already chopped and frozen. It isn't the same, I agree, but I'd rather take my own frozen produce out of the freezer and cook it in winter than buy it at a store. I have enough frozen tomatoes to last us another year, and they smell garden fresh when I thaw them out and have them cooking away in a pot on the stove so I can make soup or chili or whatever. It is about to be chili type weather again, I believe, based on our forecast. It is time to go start next week's thread for all of us to post on. I cannot decide whether to make it December week 5, or January week 1. lol lol lol. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Dawn...See MoreDecember 2020 Week 1
Comments (86)I appreciated your new-born calf story, Larry. I ranched with my ex-husband for several years on a 3000 acre ranch in WY. It was heaven on earth. The marriage was not. I was broken-hearted that I felt I had to leave. I adored being out riding, rounding up the cattle for branding time and vaccinations; riding every week to check on eveything (fences, water tanks, cows doing okay, etc.). We ran Charolais or Charolais mixed with Hereford or Hereford/black Angus. I loved riding every day watching for cows that were about to go into labor. When we spotted them (although I was a former city girl, I was especially adept at spotting the cows that were ready to go into labor), we'd gently herd them into the corral, and they could go into the straw-laden stable for birthing. We missed a few, of course, and occasionally would find a dead cow and/or calf. But not often. Except for my alcoholic husband, it was the best time of my life until I moved down here with Garry. It truly was heartbreaking to leave the ranch. It wasn't a job, it was sheer joy, being on a horse and riding the country. Many of the "women folk" back there didn't engage in the outside herding work. A few of us like-minded souls did and loved it. And though it was very, how should I put this. . . . "patriarchal" back there in Wyoming, those of us like-minded women also had spouses who thought it was great, It was FUN to be out riding with husbands, hired hands, kids. SO many amazingly wonderful or memorable (but I survived), memories. Wow. I digressed mightily. What I was GOING to say was that we could only support about 2 .2 cows per acre . (That sounds like too many. Pasture land back there was sketchy and sparse.). Point is we could only run 120 cows/calves on those 3000 acres. We had our home and pasture land, then the "upper pasture," which was 5 miles away, and whose western border was the "Hole in the Wall cliffs. . . " the red wall, overlooking the valley. (Think Butch Cassidy--yes, that was our western border.) That was a whole lotta land to cover for 120 cows and calves. We had about 20 acres of meadow land near the house, along the Powder River. We grew alfalfa hay there, and next to the river, where it was rather sandy forest land, we had an enormous patch of wild asparagus. Here's a funny one. . . so many funny ones. In the middle of a hot summer, Bill and I (husband then), packed up the horses in the trailer, and headed to the upper place to ride around those 1500 acres, making sure everything was okay, and checking the water tanks. He went one direction, I went the other. As I covered my assigned area, I came down to one of the 3 strategically placed water tanks, on my horse Banjo. As we neared the water tank, he began snorting and backing up and downright balking. So I dismounted and led him the last, oh, football field away, to the water tank. He wasn't happy, but didn't race off. I tied him securely maybe 50 feet away. The stench was unbearable. So I was doing the "mouth breathing thing," and walked right up to it. There in that 8' diameter stock tank was a dead sheep (we ran sheep that year) floating in many moldy green/white/gray pieces. I did NOT wretch just then because I was mouth breathing. I quick backed up many feet. I stripped off my clothes--ALL my clothes, and headed back to it. (After all, these cows HAD to have water). I found a kind of flat rock, and then got into the water thank and began scooping moldy decaying sheep pieces out, over and over. Well THEN I began wretching, so I'd get out, walk away and wretch. Then go back. I kept doing it over and over. Had to prove I was a real cowboy. I finally got that stock tank running clear. . . I was so proud of myself, thinking Bill would be so proud of me, too. Well when we met back up, (and he had come looking for me because I was late/missing) I told him what had happened. He almost died laughing, saying, "I cannot believe you did that! I'd have NEVER done that." That was a lucky man. So sad he had the alcoholic thing. That wasn't the only time he said that--more good stories of my heroism! LOLOLOL Well, friends. . . scroll right on past if warranted. Did I ever get carried away this evening. XOXO to you all. Got some bad typos but too lazy to fix. I hope you can read past them! LOL...See MoreDecember 2020, Week 3
Comments (62)Must be your mini-Aussie, too. Wait--do you have two of them? HJ--my son Wade--his birthday is Dec. 29, so when you mentioned Ethan's upcoming, I had to know! You understand. Wade was also 3 weeks early! Larry and Danny, no exactly a fool for paying too early here, but Amy can attest to my wild freakout session the other day about when I totally accidentally ordered the wrong $100-item from Kitchenaid. Showed the picture of a bright shiny red mixer (with an attachment) I had already been looking at and priced, for app. $95.00. I almost fainted! The sale was for a very limited time so I signed in and bought it on the spot, without looking at the TEXT that the sale was for the attachment only, about 5 minutes later. I quick tried to contact them--they gave only two options for contact, either live chat or phone number. I tried live chat first--when it said my wait time was an hour, then called. I was on hold for 4 hours and on live chat hold for those same 4 hours. I was NEARLY ballistic then. I got the nicest customer service gent ever, a fella from Kentucky. He was GREAT. I quickly told him the problem, he laughed, said he'd fix it. Well of course, he came back on the line and said he was so sorry but the item was already in the shipping dock. Nothing he could do. So he'd send me a Fed Ex label and when the item arrived, I could send it back with the label, and then they'd process the refund. It should "only" take about six weeks. I absolutely lost it. Cussed a couple times loudly. Cussed out the company. He stuck with me, let my tantrum play out. In the end I apologized profusely to HIM, but told him if he cared to pass it on, if Kitchenaid valued stockholders' profits and CEO's salaries more than customer service (he had told me with Covid 19 they had let a tremendous number of customer service reps go--how stupid was THAT--they could have made a killing with online sales, yet weren't farsighted enough to realize that, so just cut the bottom line work force), then they could count on me to never ever ever order a Kitchenaid item. Well, the next day I explored alternate mixers. . . there really isn't a great alternate. Further, I was SO ashamed of myself for losing my temper. I failed on so many levels that day. And there's this. When so many people are hit SO hard financially because of Covid 19, here I am thinking I "need" a $300 stand mixer. So multiple lessons learned that day. I can wait the ornery 6 weeks or so for my refund (by the way, I don't know who my nice customer service person sent the Fed Ex label to but it wasn't to me. . . . . . LOL all I could do at this point was laugh.) And in fact, I decided to use whatever excess money I might have to cook up meals for folks. Not trying to appear to be a good person; just trying to encourage all of you to do the same. My buddies/the directors of Lincoln--now have Covid 19. I'm not surprised--I'm only surprised they didn't get it earlier. But it's especially sad now, because they are such traveling emissaries to all the disadvantaged and poor families in town. (And those folks are suffering mightily $$$ and in terms of risks.) They know them all and know where they all live--no one else does. I asked them this evening when we talked, if I could get some addresses for a couple of those, and who else I should deliver to. . . they suggested 4-5 others. I agreed--they'll send me the addresses. Such a blow right at Christmas time. And of course, I'm so worried about my friends. Covid 19 is creeping in closer to all of us, I think. My kids up in Mpls, a family of 4. Their daughter doesn't live at home, but at age 21, with her boyfriend. Out of those 5 folks, 4 of them have had Covid since Thanksgiving. Granddaughter is the only one who didn't yet. DIL sounds worrisome. . . high BP, headaches still, lethargy (she's normally the most energetic person I know.) This Christmas season is especially important to me this year, with so many people hurting. Nothing could make me feel better than to ease the burden a tiny bit for them. God bless us all....See MoreLarry Peugh
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Larry Peugh