93 Things Grandma Loved - #8 Egg Custard

Grandma used to make her own custard. I didn't really like it very much, because it was made from eggs, which I wasn't too fond of as a child. Well, actually I loved egg yolks, but egg whites made me gag. I could barely tolerate them in scrambled eggs, if the eggs were blended to remove any trace of white, and were softly scrambled - completely done, but not tough and browned.

I still don't care too much for egg whites, but I'm less phobic if a morsel of cooked egg white should happen to wind up in mouth - you know like I can actually eat potato salad with egg whites in it and not get grossed out.

Sorry, this was supposed to be a post about Grandma's egg custard! When we started having chickens and goats, the occasional abundance of eggs and milk prompted me to test out egg custard. Just to see if I could stand it at all. As it turns out, I actually like it quite a bit.

Thanks for introducing custard to me, Grandma, I finally love it!

Until next time.

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This is TOO creepy

I wish I'd made the blog post I intended to make last week, but you'll just have to believe me when I say I was looking on the Internet for Taco Flavored Doritos.

They were my favorite when I was growing up. My clearest memories of Taco Flavored Doritos were from 1970 when I was in the 2nd grade. Two boys had a crush on me. One boy was Hispanic and his name was Buddy. The other boy was Caucasian - I don't remember his name. The Caucasian boy would frequently buy me Doritos from the school cafeteria and give them to me. I remember one occasion he slid them across the floor to my desk. He gave me other gifts, like one time he gave me a man's wedding band, and another was a piece of woman's jewelry.

Anyway, Taco Flavored Doritos were my favorite, but I haven't seen them in stores for years. During my search on the Internet I found there was a petition to bring them back, they are available for sale by the case on eBay and many, many people lament that they are no longer available; still others say they are available in limited areas.

I found a "recipe" from someone named raindog on this page for Taco Flavored Doritos.

Anyway, you can make something that sort of tastes like taco flavored Doritos by taking a bagful of Tostitos (or other oily unflavored tortilla chip), putting them in a baking dish, sticking them in the oven at 350 for a couple minutes, then dumping them into a bag in which you've placed some Old El Paso (or maybe Ortega, but not Taco Bell, it's all wrong - I mention Old El Paso because they sell theirs in a shaker now as if they know what we're doing with it) taco seasoning powder - add a little cheddar cheese powder or even the orange stuff from "EZ Mac" if you preferred the "Taco Bell" branded chips, shake vigorously, and then dump back into the Tostitos bag for eventual consumption.

Imagine my surprise when today I found these at Walmart:


I concur with others who have complained that this is not the original recipe for Taco Flavored Doritos. Others have said the collision packages that contain Zesty Taco tastes more like the original. I bought a bag of those last night, and I think they do taste more like the original flavor than the new bag I got today.

Notice the bag says at the bottom, "They're back by popular demand" which I think is code for "we're testing this area to see if Taco Flavored Doritos will sell here."

Until next time.

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Nine Eleven Two Thousand Eight

I was at work when it happened. We still lived in the city.

What I remember most of all is in the days following, the airport was shut down and it was so quiet. It was very obvious since we lived near the airport and could hear the planes warming up and taking off throughout the day and night.

I went to the zoo and took four photos with my company's camera (that is all the high resolution photos it could hold). I took them specifically so I could turn them into vision loss simulation photos to illustrate to others what different types of vision loss might look like.

I also remember in the days following that everyone put flags up everywhere.

I pray for the families that lost loved ones.

Until next time.

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Garden News!

There was a dust storm on the way home today, and to the west of us it was pouring rain. No rain for us though.

I went out to check the garden after I got home and discovered one bird flying around in there. I believe it was a Curve-Billed Thrasher.

Dh helped me rescue the poor thing. Bad news though, that means there is a way into the garden for birds. Also, one of our cats was in there, hunting the bird.

I also discovered some seeds have germinated! An edible weed, and radishes. I posted a similar post in October 2006! Check out this link on Little Mallow, with a few recipes for using it!

I'm anxious for the other seeds to begin germinating and poking their seed leaves above the ground. We need to carefully examine the garden and find out where the weak spots are to keep the birds out. It is a bit of a vicious cycle, since birds are attracted into the garden because of the baby plants, then the dogs get wind of the birds in the garden and begin racing around and around trying to catch the bird (or birds) which are flying back and forth inside. If the dogs get in, it can be bad, they have no respect for my garden beds and will trample everything. I hope it will be okay until I can get to it on the weekend.

Until next time.

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September Gardening!

First off, the list of vegetables we can plant right now:

September 1st to September 14th

• Beans, Snap
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts TS
• Cabbage
• Cabbage, Chinese
• Carrots
• Cauliflower TS
• Celery
• Collard Greens
• Cucumbers
• Endive
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce, Head
• Lettuce, Leaf
• Leek
• Mustard
• Onions, Green
• Radishes
• Turnips

I am so proud of myself! I had planned to get my seeds planted yesterday, and as I was milking I started thinking about what needed to be done in order to succeed. I have a lot of seeds to plant but I didn't want to get myself overwhelmed with too much. I know I have a tendency to try to do too much and end up quitting because I get discouraged. So I told myself I could pick four types of seeds to plant. I decided on leaf lettuce, radishes, kale and Swiss Chard.

Then I realized I have to plant beets, too. Especially since they take a long time to mature into nice sized beets. Okay, even though they aren't on the list to plant NOW, they will be starting September 15th. So I'm just a few days early (I'm early on the spinach and chard, too). After I sat down and looked at my seeds, I realized I want to also plant bunching onions, and spinach.

My favorite place to buy seeds is from Pinetree Seeds. I just went to visit their site today and they have a brand new shopping cart, which is awesome and actually shows pictures of the vegetables! It used to be text only. I have been ordering from them for over a dozen years. They have good prices and the shipping is reasonable. Of course when I first started ordering from them, their seeds were fifty cents or sixty cents. They've gone up, like everything else.

You should go right now to Pinetree's site and request a catalog. I love when mine arrive and I can just spend hours looking at all the different vegetables and flowers they offer. Oh, and about ordering with them - they put the planting seasons on the packets for their area, which is Maine. So we have to plant our seeds when it's time for us. For example, we start planting things like lettuce now, but in Maine their gardens could be under snow by the time their lettuce was ready to harvest.

Here are the seeds I'm planting. Click on the link to see the information at Pinetree.

#332 Space Spinach
# W468 Bunching Forest Onion
#203 Pinetree Lettuce Mix (A collection of sweet leaf lettuces for continuous harvest)
#94 Bright Lights Swiss Chard
#W239 Chioggia Beets (Bright red exterior w/rings of pink & white inside)
#301 Cherry Belle Radish
#19101 Konserva Kale

After I made breakfast for myself, Kev and dh, I set out to get my garden ready. I showed you what it looked like a few days ago, so unfortunately it wasn't just a matter of going out and planting seeds.

I headed out just after 9am. I took the wheelbarrow over to the goat's pen and began shoveling from the outside of the fence. Hay and berries get kicked out of the yard onto the outside, and then that outside debris matures over time. It bakes in the sun, gets rained on and turns it into great composted material perfect for gardening. The goats of course had to have a look and see what I was doing, and make sure I didn't bring any yummy treats for them.

Here's the area where I was shoveling from.

And here's my beautiful compost.



I dumped it into the garden bed. Dh dug the ground up in the garden in one section about 6 feet square last weekend so I could at least get one bed started this weekend.

In a perfect world, I'd plant new seeds every two weeks. Some of the vegetables I'm planting will grow until next summer when it is too hot and they will die off, but other things have to be planted again and again to have a constant supply throughout the season.

For example, with Swiss Chard and leaf lettuce, you never harvest the entire plant. Instead you pick the outer leaves. You can pick all the leaves right down to leaving only the very center of the plant, and one or two small outer leaves. I've never planted kale before, but it's Kev's favorite green leafy vegetable, and I'm assuming it will be the same. Spinach can be harvested the same way.

In spite of the seed packet directions for planting the Swiss Chard, lettuce, kale and spinach, we planted each seed 2 to 4 inches apart (usually they tell you to plant 6 inches or a foot apart). This will be great for mature plants, but in the meantime we can be using that space to grow more plants. In a few weeks, we will "space" the seedlings to the correct distance. We can then have an awesome salad made of baby greens. Have you ever checked to see how much "baby greens" cost in the store? Upwards of six dollars a pound the times I've checked!

Radishes, being a root crop, need to be planted frequently in order to keep your supply constant. Radishes grow fast, so we'll probably be able to harvest our first crop within 30 days. Pinetree says they have harvested seeds by 21 days.

The beets, although the packages says 55 days, will probably not be ready for harvesting for at least three months.

BTW, in case you ever wondered, the number of days on the package means from the time the seed germinates. We planted the seeds on the 6th, and it will take 3-5 days for the beet cotyledons to emerge. So let's say the cotyledon emerges by the 11th. The 30th of October will be 56 days, and according to Pinetree they harvested beets starting on the 55th day. Well, I've never been able to get my beets to produce that early. I wonder if I'm missing something in my soil.

But my goodness, I digress! On with preparing the bed!

Here you might be able to see the color difference between the fresher compost, which is close to the goat pen, and compost from the "north forty" which has been aging out there for a few years. A nice hill of it, and it smells just like compost you buy from the store. Only it's free, all mine for the taking! I could never use all of it if I tried! :-)

After I got three wheelbarrow's full of compost mixed into the soil and got the bed somewhat level, I had to go inside for a while. I was burning up, I had to lay on the bed and let the fan blow on me. My feet were steaming hot inside my shoes, and they were killing me.

I think I was close to having heat exhaustion. Whew.

I stayed inside for about an hour, getting cooled off. Then Kev came out of his room and said he was able to come help me in the garden, so we went back out around 11:30.

Kev helped by repairing the garden in areas where the dogs had torn their way in a couple of years ago. It is hopefully safe now, since Hannah, the one that went the most psycho over birds in the garden passed away a couple of months ago.

I also hope the gophers have forgotten about my garden for a little while. They invaded two years ago, I hope they have moved on to greener pastures.

While Kev did the repairs to the outer fencing, I started getting the watering system in place. I had to check each soaker hose to make sure water was actually coming through the pinholes. I had to replace one. It is a tedious process, and sure I could have just popped them all off, thrown them away and used the new roll of soaker hose I have inside the house, (which I actually know where it's located!) but that's not how I roll. If the old Dig Laser Drilled Soaker Hose is still in working condition, then I'll use it.

The tedious process consisted of connecting each section of hose to the water source and examine carefully to see if water was dripping from each pinhole.

Kev helped me by putting the pieces together and taking them apart. You have to press the hose onto the connectors and it is sometimes hard to do.

Then it was time to plant! If you click on the photo you can see a larger image and you can see where we planted the different seeds.

Here's Kev for a garden photo after we were all finished.



So the first thing we can expect to harvest, barring any catastrophes (birds finding a way in and eating all the cotyledons as soon as they emerge, gophers digging under the fence and eating all the new baby plants, the dogs breaking in because a bird got in and is flying around) will be baby leaf lettuce, baby beets, baby Swiss Chard and radishes.

I have a lot more seeds to plant, and I hope I can get another bed prepared by the 20th. I would like to get my crucifers planted within the month. Falstaff Brussels Sprouts, Bubbles Brussels Sprouts, Cheddar Cauliflower, Gonzales Mini Cabbage, Silver Cup 40 Cauliflower, Graffiti Cauliflower, Cabbage Krautman.

I like to try to plant some heirlooms along with the hybrids. If I were ambitious enough, and could find the time and energy, I would save my own seeds for the next year's crop. I still find it a very good price to pay $0.80 for a packet of 300 seeds. Imagine that. A small bunch of radishes in the store sell for $0.89 a bunch. But with a packet of seeds that cost than a dollar, I could grow 30 bunches. That is some kind of savings! I sure hope I can stay up with my garden this time, and keep it growing throughout the season.

Until next time.

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DS1 Wears Size 14 Shoes

Yesterday I mentioned DS1 wearing his daddy's big shoes... I haven't gotten my scanner hooked up, so I took some pictures of pictures:



I added a label cloud to my blog. Check it out.

Until next time.

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I Don't Really Wear Size 14's

I was just kidding the other day when I said I wear size 14 shoes.

When I was a child, I would find the biggest clodhoppers I could and wear them around the house and laugh so hard I almost peed my pants. I don't know why it was so funny to me, but just imagining my feet being THAT big would put me into a giggling fit that could continue for hours. My sisters would do the same thing.

My mom tells me that we used to parade in front of the window outside where she had her sewing machine, doing things to make her laugh.

Ds1 used to wear his daddy's shoes when he was a baby, which would totally crack me up.

Until next time.

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My Poor Garden

I am hoping to plant my garden soon.

I am feeling better physically! I have been taking the adrenal support supplements for almost one month, and the thyroid supplements for almost three weeks.

I am feeling like I have more energy, and want to get my garden going again. I am so hungry for fresh picked Swiss Chard. We have been eating more vegetables and they are so expensive, not to mention they are not organic and probably covered with pesticides. It would be so wonderful to grow nearly everything we need for a salad, and spinach, and kale, Swiss chard. Mmmm. I have also done pretty good at growing cauliflower and broccoli.

But my garden is in very desperate need of attention. I haven't gardened since 2006. I also bought $40 worth of seeds from my favorite seed supplier and never planted even one seed! Horrible!

As a result of not gardening for two years, desert weeds and shrubbery has taken over.




What's this? Let's have a closer look:


Bullhead stickers!!!

I first blogged about bullhead stickers here. And then I bragged here, and said we don't have them on our property because I watch carefully for them. Well, apparently I wasn't watching too carefully, because the day after I bragged about how we don't have them, we found a BUNCH of them. Dozens, if not hundreds, and they had already produced and dropped HUNDREDS of thorns. Luckily I devised a method for harvesting a good deal of them. Just use a pair of flip-flops. Dh and Kev and I got out there and worked for a couple of hours to get them picked up. I wore my slip on tennies, and would put one foot into a flip-flop, then walk over the area. Dozens of stickers would attach to the bottom of the flip-flop, then I'd take it off and put on another one, while Kev scraped the stickers into a garbage can. Dh was using the flip-flops on his hands, doing the same thing. It is amazing how many stickers one plant can produce. And horrifying!

Last Saturday, when I took a look at what it is going to take to get the garden whipped into shape, I found that two MATURE bullhead sticker plants had taken over one of the beds.

I don't need to fix the whole garden at the same time. I really just need one bed to start with. I have plenty of fertilizer and mulch, thanks to the goats!! And I need help from my guys to get the fencing repaired. The dogs have broken through in a few places. The entire garden is fenced top and sides, to keep the birds out. But sometimes a tiny bird will find it can squeeze in between the 1" chicken wire and then it will be fluttering around inside trying to find its way out. The dogs go nuts, running around and around, attacking the fencing, trying to get to it. I have had to rescue several little birds. They get worn out and hot, and out of breath. One time one was so worn out it was just hanging by its feet and I was able to catch it to release it.

I am really hoping Dh and Kev can find some time in the next week to help me get the garden started. I am also hoping and praying that I'll find my watering timer!! I looked around a little for it today, and I've seen it SOMEWHERE recently, but only God knows where!

I also had planned to put up a list of what can be planted for each month and haven't done that since May. Yikes!

Here is a picture of my seeds.

They are two years old. I hope, hope, hope that most of the seeds are still viable. You can see the list of seeds at this post.

Wish me luck. At the VERY least I'm planting Swiss Chard, kale and lettuce. And radishes.

Until next time.

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Did You Know I Wear Size 14 Shoes?

Ever since I was a young girl. Clown feet are so attractive on a woman. Last Sunday I got ready for church and came out of the bedroom wearing these beauties.

Kev just said, "Good golly, Momma. Gosh."

Until next time.

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For Labor Day - Fresh Meat

If you are squeamish about normal homesteading activities, like butchering, you might want to close your browser now and avoid today's post. I understand it can be a difficult topic to read about, especially when you aren't expecting it, hence my disclaimer.

People are so disconnected from their food in today's society. If we couldn't buy our meat in neat little packages from the store, I dare say a huge majority of us would become vegetarians. Not to mention many people wouldn't know the first thing about growing their own vegetables!

A long time ago, I decided if I am going to eat meat, then it's hypocritical of me to not learn to process our own homegrown meat. I'm not fond of butchering, but I am glad that we learned this important self-sufficiency task. It's not fun, but once the kill is done, it's not much different from cutting up a fresh chicken from the store.

There are no pictures in this post, and the content is not really very graphic, I just know that most folks don't want to read or know about butchering, so here's your warning.

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You've been warned. Proceed at your own risk.

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You lost your chance. Continue on, you brave soul.

We decided to butcher one of our goats to barbecue on Labor Day. We decided to get the processing done on Saturday as it's kind of stressful.

I was amazed at how much fat this young goat contained. We have never processed one this young. He was three months old, and was still living with his dam (and trying to breed her as they become sexually active as young as 8 weeks of age)! We have heard that milk fed animals taste different (think veal). Except I've heard that veal is produced under inhumane conditions (small cages where they can barely move around and kept in the dark).

The amount of fat contained in this buckling intrigued me, and I decided to try rendering fat.

Kev did the kill this time. I don't like that part. We learned that the goats "choke out" easily, just by accident. The first time scared me really badly. I was doing hoof trims, this was before we got our nice metal milking stand. I had the doe tied up to the fence and was working on her back feet and she started leaning against me very heavily. I looked over at her, annoyed, and saw that she was leaning against me, because she had fainted. The reason why is because she'd been leaning really hard against her collar and she cut off the flow of blood to her brain which caused her to pass out. I was so scared that she was dead and freaked out pretty good. But once I unhooked her collar from the fence and she fell to the ground and blood began flowing into her brain, she was okay, just a little disoriented.

A few times I've had the goats pulling on their collars so hard when I'm trying to put them back into the pen after milking that they have almost choked themselves out. They almost fall down but then they shudder like they are having a seizure. It's scary, because I'm afraid to hang onto them, and then they figure that out, and won't go where I want them to go.

Anyway, Kev got the idea to try putting a goat down in this way, as it seems to be humane since the animal faints due the loss of blood to the brain. He says it was much easier than trying to use the gun.

I'm usually present at the kill, but this time I told dh and Kev that I wanted them to call me when they had the kid hung. They got the young goat bled and hung; and I skinned, gutted and quartered it. Once the kill is done, I'm okay.

I harvested the liver, the heart, the kidneys, and by special request from one of our church brethren, the Rocky Mountain Oysters. Usually we castrate our young males, but we had a special request, so I was asked to not band this youngster.

I attempted to render the fat. I will link to the before photo so it won't be right there IN YOUR FACE. It's not really that bad, think liposuction. Oooooohhhh, no better? Sorry, sorry.

Here's the after photo:
Until next time.

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Baked Spinach with Eggs

Our hens are beginning to lay with fervor! Back in March we ordered some pullets and they are now mature enough to begin laying. Along with our older hens, we are getting ten to sixteen eggs again. Time to start using more eggs in our meals.

Last night I tried this recipe, Baked Spinach and Eggs. I love spinach and this recipe turned out to be a winner.

The original recipe is linked above, but I altered it slightly.


1/4 cup butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound frozen spinach
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided use
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 large eggs
1/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish, I used a 9" x 9" square glass dish.

2. In a cast iron skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes to soften. Add spinach and salt. Reduce heat to low. Cover and steam for 10 minutes; remove from heat.

3. Sprinkle half of the mozzarella cheese in the bottom of prepared baking dish. Spoon in spinach mixture and sprinkle with paprika, pepper and nutmeg.

4. In a medium bowl, beat together egg and milk; pour over spinach mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake until the cheese bubbles, about 20-30 minutes. Let stand at least 5 minutes before cutting.

I heated up the leftover pieces this morning in the toaster oven.

Until next time.

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Down Syndrome

As most of you know, my eldest son has Down Syndrome.

I find it ironic that both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have a child with Down Syndrome in the mix.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced earlier today that Alaska governor Sarah Palin will be his running mate. Mrs. Palin recently gave birth to a baby boy with Down Syndrome, and she knew the child she was carrying had an extra chromosome in every cell of his body.

She knew in December. But she chose to carry her baby to term, birth him and love him like the awesome human being he already is.

Contrast that with Barak Obama, who doesn't know when life begins, who embraces abortion of his own grandchildren, and who listened to the testimony of a hospital nurse who cradled a dying baby boy aborted because he had Down Syndrome and had been thrown away to die alone, and still chose to block the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

The older I get, the less tolerant I find myself becoming. How can any human being think it's okay to kill an innocent baby? There shouldn't be a right to choose, to play God. I want to know when we draw the line? People with Down Syndrome are innocent humans. Yet it's considered acceptable to protect yourself from hardship to kill your baby. I guess we actually don't draw the line. Any woman can abort her child at any point in the pregnancy, even at full term. What's wrong with people?

I guess it's because they've been educated to believe that a baby isn't a baby, until he or she is actually out of his or her mother's body, breathing air through his or her lungs. Prior to that, he or she is simply a fetus. A blob of nothing. Well, newborn babies are pretty blobby if you ask me. Why do we prosecute women who let their babies die after they are born? What's the difference?

Today, as I watched John McCain announced his running mate, tears were streaming down my face. I don't quite know why, but I know much of my emotion had to do with the fact that Mrs. Palin chose to keep and love her baby when many other men and women are taking the cowardly way out and choosing to kill their baby for equally cowardly reasons. Because they don't want a child, or don't want another child, or some other superficial reason. I guess about the worst one I ever heard was the child won't be able to live up to his or her full potential. Wow. Talk about expectations. I sure hope people with that outlook are able to withstand it when their "perfect" children make some mistakes, or don't become a doctor or lawyer, or whatever that full potential would be.

Years ago I had a friend whose parents forced her to have an abortion that she didn't want. Let me share with you a poem that she wrote - watch out, it's pretty heart wrenching:

She was just sixteen when she learned why
She had that little twinkle in her eye

The man did not want any part of it
and ended contact ... every last bit

She was frightened and felt all alone
So she sought help from within her own home

Alcohol played havoc on the addicted ones mind
Her parents made decisions that were shrewd and unkind

Without regard to her plight
Her feelings or her own right

Decisions were made based on her well being
Never stopping to ask her what she was feeling

They found a loophole in an old law
That allowed killing, the solution, they saw

So statutory rape they sought out to prove
To eliminate the shame, so she would not have to move

She was put through rigorous testing
Interminable questions, never resting

The child within her still safe and sound
Physical changes began, a heartbeat was found

She planned for this child to be loved like no other
She prepared for its future and the love of its mother

Then the court made the decision within the right time frame
To allow the procedure with the least danger or fame

To the hospital she was transported
To have the child within her aborted

To be with child in one moment
Suddenly without child and no comment

The next day she was told
By her parents so bold

How much they had helped her out
And would not allow her to cry or shout

But all along from her own perspective
She always had willed for her child to live

So silently she grieved, for her child she did mourn
Desperately longing for her child to have been born

New laws came into effect including Roe vs Wade
Then the right to lifers spoke out with comments they made

They detailed the procedures ... how the child would be shred
And opened the wounds of her loss and the child that was dead

She finally cried out to her God, her Lord
With all the emotion her heart could afford

Asking forgiveness for her part in the destruction
That detestable deed long ago, the abortion

God in His loving kindness and His ever gentle way
Reached down and comforted her and He proceeded to say

You didn't destroy the life, all involved have been forgiven
Your first beloved baby was born straight into heaven

Of your child, your first born
Take comfort young mother, don't mourn

Let precious visions of him be all you see
'Till you see him again ... with Me

Until next time.

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93 Things Grandma Loved - #7 Black Olives

It is coming up on the one year anniversary of my Grandma passing from this world into her heavenly home above. My mom is still having a very hard time dealing with the loss of her mother.

Grandma always had cans of Early Californian Black Olives on the shelf. She would break open a can and all of us children would mill around waiting for her to put olives on each of our fingers. It was a giant treat; I don't remember my mother ever having black olives on hand just for eating! I mean, she bought them for cheese enchiladas, but never as a snack or treat.

Whenever I eat black olives, I always remember Grandma.

I love you, Grandma.

Until next time.

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93 Things Grandma Loved - #6 Cantaloupe

I don't know how she did it, but Grandma ALWAYS had a ripe cantaloupe on hand whenever we came over to visit. It must be my imagination, because 30-40 years ago if cantaloupe wasn't in season, it wasn't available for eating. Nowadays of course we can get just about anything we want anytime of the year just by going to the local grocery store. Sadly, cantaloupe doesn't taste as delicious as it did when I was a youngster. Is it my aging tastebuds? It used to be so succulent, juicy and sweet. Now they don't seem to have that same sweet taste. I do know how to pick them - press the end and it should have just a bit of give. That indicates if the melon is ripe.

On the day we had my Grandma's memorial, my sister Dee Elle brought several ripe cantaloupes. After the memorial, several family members stuck around and we had a little picnic together right in the parking lot. That was a nice remembrance of Grandma.

Love ya, Grandma.

Until next time.

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93 Things Grandma Loved - #5 Red Rope Licorice

Grandma always had Red Rope licorice on hand when we visited. I hated black licorice, and I don't remember her having that. The popular red licorice now seems to be Twizzlers. It's okay, but doesn't bring back the memories of the Red Rope licorice. Kev and I were in town the other night and I spotted it. He persuaded me to buy three ropes in memory of my Grandma.

Grandma, I look forward to seeing you when we all get to heaven. I love you.

Until next time.

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Look at this Goofy Cat

The other night Tiger jumped onto my chest and wanted to be petted. Normally he doesn't fancy my affections, preferring the men of the house over me. Hmph. Sometimes he'll allow me to pet him, but he won't purr. Tonight he was purring and he stretched out his paws to touch each side of my face as he fell to sleep. Goofy cat.

Kev also got an awesome sky photo. The sun was setting and you could see the rain pouring from the storm clouds not too far away.
Until next time.

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Carrot Spice Muffins

I cannot believe I haven't blogged about this long time favorite: Carrot Spice Muffins. I had a better photo, taken when they were fresh out of the oven, but between my camera cards and Kev's, we can't seem to locate the photo, so this is the one I took while we were at camp.

When we went to camp a couple of weeks ago, I got up early so I could make a batch of these goodies to share.

I've been making them since my sister Dee Elle discovered them many years ago when our children were very young. She went on a muffin making spree and I think she tried every muffin recipe in the cookbook. The recipe comes from the La Leche League International Cookbook Whole Foods for the Whole Family. My version was published in 1981 with ISBN 0-912500-09-3.

Carrot Spice Muffins

• 1-1/2 c. whole wheat flour (I ground the summer wheat berries that morning, which dh recently acquired, so the flour would be full of nutrition)
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t. ground nutmeg (freshly ground with microplane)
• 1/8 t. ground ginger (I actually couldn't find ground ginger, so I omitted this item)
• 1/8 t. allspice
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1/2 c. yogurt (luckily I had fresh-made yogurt from our goat's milk on hand)
• 1/3 c. butter
• 1/2 t. vanilla (I make my own vanilla)
• 1-1/2 c. grated carrots
• 1/2 c. raisins (I bought golden raisins because I like those in these muffins over the dark raisins)
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
  

Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl with carrots, raisins and nuts. Add to dry mix, stirring only until flour is moistened. Place in greased muffin tins and bake for 15 minutes at 400°F. Makes 1 dozen muffins.

Until next time.

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Doing a Workout

Just a quick update today.

I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I am beginning to feel better. I have been faithful to my new vitamin protocol since the 4th. Last night I actually felt enough ambition to dig out our Total Gym (it was piled up with stuff, courtesy of my dear husband) and did a few minutes worth of a workout for the first time in months.

I also ordered some thyroid herbs and supplements today, that should be on the way soon.

Ds1 needs to have blood drawn so we're planning an overnight stay in town, going out to dinner and to the movies. He wants to see The Dark Knight.

I hurt my heel doing a Taebo kickboxing workout with ds1 and finally broke down and ordered a night splint to wear, well, at night. That should be arriving soon.

I think I'll take my hank of yarn and try to cocoon it while at the hotel.

Until next time.

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Chicken Salad

I was on for kitchen duty last Saturday. Ever since Ree over at The Pioneer Woman posted her Chicken Salad recipe I've been wanting to make some type of chicken salad for dinner.

She puts grapes in her chicken salad. I've never done that before, but since my tastebuds seem to be changing, it actually sounded good.

I didn't use Ree's chicken salad recipe though. Here's what I did...

First I prepared some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They were on sale at Safeway for $1.69 a pound, so $5.07 for the bag.

I trimmed the fat and other weird stuff from the chicken breast. I sprinkled salt and pepper on each piece as I laid them into a bowl and then let them set for a while.

I grilled the chicken breasts. I love grilling. Especially when it means I don't have to heat up the house cooking. It rained for a few minutes on Saturday, the sun was shining and it was pouring rain. So it was not too terribly hot out when I grilled. Kev received it as a gift for Christmas in 2006 from his granny and grandpa (dh's parents).

Next I made a salad.

5 leaves of red leaf lettuce, washed and torn into bits
1/2 a head of iceberg lettuce, washed and torn into bits
1 cucumber, halved and sliced
2 avocados, diced

We had red grapes on hand, so I cut a bunch of those in half.

Then I made homemade Ranch dressing.

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup homemade plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon granulated onion powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
salt and pepper to taste

I tossed the lettuce, avocado and cucumber.

I put some salad in individuals bowls, then cut some chicken breast into strips and added that into the bowl, then tossed in some red grapes.

Lastly I spooned some Ranch dressing over the salad.

Very delicious. Everyone was impressed and there was even a bowl leftover for my lunch Sunday after church.

Until next time.

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Gorgeous Yarn Find

Kev and I had a great time at church camp last week. Exhausting, but definitely worth it.

Before we left, I stopped at Savers to pick up some suitcases. I found three nice ones for $7.99, $6.99 and $4.99. They nest into each other, this will be great for storage purposes.

I am also so excited about this delectable yarn that I found:

The original tag shows that the two hanks of Country Silk retailed for $24.99. I can't believe someone didn't snatch this up before me - Savers had it marked for only $2.99!! The Savers tag says it came into their store on the 17th, and I found it on the 29th.


While at camp, I tried twice to wind it into a Jacqueline Fee Japanese Yarn Cocoon as demonstrated at Elka Knits. The first attempt Kev was helping me by holding the yarn around his forearms as we sat in our room with the door open. Kev defended his manliness at least twice, explaining that he doesn't knit to fellow brethren who dropped by to see what we were doing. Kev, dear, just in case you don't know, manly men do knit.

I decided against making a ordinary ball since they roll around and I like trying something brand new. Besides, it just sounded so neat. Making a cocoon. Neat!

I only got about a third cocooned before it was time for the evening worship, so I left it for later. Which I then realized I had been wrapping the yarn the wrong way, so I started all over. I wasn't able to make much headway, but I did figure out the correct way to wrap it.

I'd really hoped to have it cocooned in time for the trip home, but never found any more time to work on it.

In addition to the Elka Knits tutorial, I found mention of Jacqueline Fee's Japanese Yarn Cocoon method over at Knit the Knits and she actually found a site - Yarnerinas - which had a video of the procedure! After watching the video I know I now have the process down correctly. Now to find the time to cocoon the lovely yarn.

I am thinking about making a coverlet to wear in the fall, using this pattern Gothic Leaf Lace. I did actually experiment with the pattern on the drive to camp, but I used a two-colored yarn and it is difficult to see the pattern.

I love this Gothic Leaf Stole by Sivia Harding, but I think my yarn is too thick. Here is another link to the Gothic Leaf Stole by Sivia Harding, this is an absolutely stunning stole. Wow. I need to buy some thinner yarn, lol.

Here is another Gothic Leaf Pattern which looks nothing like my attempt with the lace pattern mentioned above. This is another pattern I love, Lace Wrap but again, my yarn is too thick.

Until next time.

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