Oh my word. Oh my word. I just found out that all the original Star Trek series can be watched online. As I write this post, I'm watching Turnabout Intruder Episode 79.
A couple of weeks ago, dh took me out on a date as thanks for the hard work I've been doing for him and the business. It's kind of stressful going out since we don't really like eating out that much. I'm often disappointed with the meal, especially if I eat too much.
But it seems to be the socially acceptable thing to do, so we decided to go out and try again, and dh asked if I wanted to go see a movie. He doesn't really like to go see movies, he considers them a waste of time. Precious time that could be spent doing other things. Well, anyway, since he was offering I looked in the paper he'd handed me and found that Star Trek was showing.
He never really cared much for Star Trek either. You know, waste of time. ;-)
I remember when I was 15 years old watching Star Trek. My siblings and I loved it. We'd play Star Trek, I'd play Spock and display no emotions. Dee Elle would play Dr. McCoy. I think. Or would she play Captain Kirk. ;-)
I think my most favorite, after the original series was The Next Generation, I watched every episode. Deep Space Nine was good. Voyager was gret. I never got to see all the Enterprise series, although Scott Bakula is one of my favorite actors. I really loved him in Quantum Leap.
I really liked the Star Trek movie. Okay, if you're going to see the movie and don't want it spoiled, turn back now.
Spoiler space...
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Okay, so I really liked the movie. I did however, think it was bordering on sacriledge to have Mr. Spock and Lt. Uhura involved romantically. That would NEVER have happened on the starship Enterprise.
It was great to see each cast member arrive in the movie. Dr. McCoy/Bones... Chekov, Scotty... it was fun remembering who was who. I feel that the new movie would mean the most if you had watched the original series. Which by the way, came out in the 60s! I was watching reruns in 1979.
I wasn't impressed with Mr. Spock in the movie, he was too baby faced, and way too emotional. But then again, the movie was operating on the aspect of "alternate reality".
Oh boy, Mr. Spock is under arrest for mutiny in Episode 79. Ah, that sure was great. I wish I had more time to watch all the original shows. Somehow I've got to make more time to have fun.
Until next time.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Star Trek : The Newest Movie
Labels: Memory Lane, movies
Monday, July 06, 2009
Making Soured Milk
Labels: Nourishing Traditions, recipes, The Flies
I was late getting out to milk on Saturday morning. Kev and I didn't get home until 1:20am and then dh woke with a start at 6am asking, "How did THAT happen?" He always panics a bit when he wakes up so late and the sun is shining so brightly. He's normally out of bed by 2:30am. Most people's eyes widen at the thought of getting up so early.
But you know, it's not that hard to get up at 2:30am when you go to bed at 6 or 7pm. And when you repeatedly get up at 2:30am, it's easy to go to bed at 6 or 7pm. You are ready for bed by that time, trust me.
Even though we "slept in" we were dragging from lack of sleep, I got less than five hours and it's pretty hard for me to cope on so few hours. We lolly-gagged around and finally made our way out to milk. Since it had rained very hard on Friday night, I figured there would be millions upon millions of flies, especially since it is The Time of the Flies.
Amazingly, there were only two or three flies hanging around and they didn't even harrass me or the girls while I milked. The previous day I'd forgotten some milk in a plastic bucket and it smelled delicious. No really. Raw milk doesn't go rotten or putrid like pasteurized or homogenized milk. I remember the first time I soured milk on purpose. I was afraid I was going to get food poisoning and be sick for days. But if you think about it, what's yogurt? Simply soured milk, the only difference is specific bacteria is added to turn the milk into yogurt.
So I decided to try a new experiment. Usually when the urge strikes to make yogurt and/or soured milk, I get out my yogurt maker. A time or two I've put a gallon of milk on the dryer which sits outside on the back porch, to let it sour. After it curdles, I strain it and it makes the most fantastic cream cheese.
My new experiment was to try making yogurt without using the yogurt maker. I strained the milk, mixed in some Fage (the MOST delicious yogurt and given to us free) for starter and set it on the dryer which is outside on the porch.
Twelve hours later, the yogurt was not yet yogurt. I think it wasn't hot enough out. Although my yogurt maker stays at a constant 125°F, yogurt can be made at a lower temperature. In fact, making it at a lower temperature creates a more nutritious product, especially when you start out with raw milk.
In the picture above, the jar on the right holds the yogurt, the jar on the left is plain milk.
Fermented foods are an important component to our diets as they provide friendly bacteria which helps our digestive systems to work effectively.
The big rage seems to be fiber, fiber, fiber. While fiber is important, it can wreak havoc on your digestive system and cause major problems if you get too much of it. Sometimes the problem is not a need for fiber, but for fermented foods, especially if you take antibiotics. Foods which will add friendly bacteria to your digestive system, and help your body get all the nutrients it can from the foods you eat. Of course, that depends on if the food you eat has nutritional content. If you're living off Pop Tarts, McDoubles and slushees, you are probably starving in a nutritional sense. Sometimes I think it's pretty fantastic how our bodies can survive on the foods we ingest.
The next morning, Sunday, I checked my concoctions. The yogurt was indeed yogurt, and the sour milk had separated into curds and whey.
I strained out the whey and gave it to the chickens, and was left with what looked to be sour cream. A little bit lumpy, but it had a delicious and rich salty taste, nonetheless. I used some of it to make homemade ranch dressing along with some of my homemade yogurt and it just made the taste. 
I'm glad my experiment worked out!
DISCLAIMER: Now remember, do NOT try this with store bought milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized. It will not sour naturally, because all of the natural bacteria that causes it to sour and taste delicious has been killed. Homogenized and pasteurized store bought milk WILL turn putrid and nasty, and if you could get past the stink and slime to ingest it you would undoubtedly become very sick.
Until next time.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
God Bless America
Labels: Holiday Banter
I was able to get some great fireworks photos last night in Anthem while visiting with some of our church brethren. You can see the best shots here on my Flickr site. I used my tripod and my sweet little Nikon Coolpix S550 and took around 150 photos. I'm getting pretty good at timing taking the shot, I ended up with about 3 dozen black sky photos with tiny flicks of light. But around 60 photos came out quite impressive, even with my little point and shoot camera.
Pray for the future of our country. Some feel that the fireworks should be viewed as a distress signal. There's not really a whole lot we can do but pray and hope for the best.
Until next time.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
My Monkey Bowls
Labels: recipes
They aren't exactly like the ones that Pioneer Woman has, but they are close enough. And they only cost $0.25 each (on clearance) from a restaurant supplier. I bought four of them and also a few others that are clear glass. But I really like these ones and think I might go back and buy another dollar or two's worth.
They are perfect for a little side serving.
The salad in the bowls is one homegrown cucumber sliced into half moons, one homegrown tomato, 1 slice of onion, diced finely, one small clove of garlic crushed, 1 dollop of plain yogurt, pepper and salt. Very tasty and relatively low calorie.
Until next time.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Pork Stuffed Eggplant
Labels: recipes
For dinner last night I made something we've never tried before. Stuffed eggplant. The original recipe is here, but as is normal for me I could not follow the recipe entirely.
Here is the original recipe, I'll follow with my version.
Pork-Stuffed Eggplant
1 medium eggplant
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 small green pepper, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
1. Wash eggplant and cut in half lengthwise. Remove pulp, leaving the eggplant shell about 1/4-inch thick. Cut pulp into 1/2-inch cubes. Set shells and pulp aside.
2. In a large skillet cook ground pork, green pepper, onion and garlic till pork is browned; drain excess drippings.
3. Add eggplant pulp, water, oregano and pepper; cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and stir in tomato. Spoon mixture into eggplant shells. Place in a 12x8x2-inch baking dish.
5. Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until heated through.
Serves 2.
Nutrition Facts
Calories 290 calories
Protein 28 grams
Fat 9 grams
Sodium 55 milligrams
Cholesterol 70 milligrams
Saturated Fat 3 grams
Carbohydrates 26 grams
Fiber 8 grams
Okay, here's my version:
4 small Lavender Touch eggplants
1 Tablespoon butter
1 pound lean ground pork
1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon mild chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1. Wash eggplants and cut in half lengthwise. Remove pulp, leaving the eggplant shell about 1/4-inch thick. Cut pulp into 1/2-inch cubes. Set shells and pulp aside.
2. In a large skillet melt butter, add ground pork, red pepper, onion and garlic and cook till pork is browned.
3. Add eggplant pulp, water, oregano, onion powder, chili powder, garlic powder and pepper; cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat. Spoon mixture into eggplant shells. Place in a 12x8x2-inch baking dish.
5. Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Shells should be cooked and soft.
Serves 4.
I really liked this recipe. Dh had purchased the pork from the discount section and it was only ninety-nine cents and while cooking didn't smell so wonderful. But after seasoning and baking, it didn't have the smell and tasted great.
Kev wasn't home to try them. Ds1 took three of them and put mustard on top of them. They weren't too bad with the mustard on top.
Until next time.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Garden Gleanings II
Labels: Gardening
My garden has been producing like gangbusters. I have been very pleased with my harvests this summer.
June 7, 2009This was my first watermelon harvested. Not so sweet, but juicy and crispy, just how I like watermelon. Dh was disappointed when he first saw the insides because he thought it wasn't ripe. But then I told him it is supposed to be yellow, it's Yellow Pony!
Monday June 8, 2009I picked the huge tomato today. I thought it was Pruden's Purple when I showed it on my blog first, and it was so colorful I thought it to be Big Rainbow, but now that I read the descriptions of the two again, I think it might be Pruden's Purple.
Friday June 12, 2009My biggest tomato yield this year. Lots of tomatoes! I got ds1 out into the garden with me to help pick them all! The tiny scalloped squash were not pollinated, but can still be eaten as baby squash.
Friday June 12, 2009One of my tall and beautiful Black Russian sunflowers.
Saturday June 13, 2009Probably my last harvest of Swiss Chard. I've rigged up a shaded area for the remaining Swiss Chard plants that did not go to seed. I am hoping to keep them alive over the summer. In this bunch you can see one of my Manyel tomatoes. Here is the description from Pinetree Seeds: "HEIRLOOM Indeterminate. Possibly Native American. This is a true, bright yellow tomato, there are no reddish tones at all. The flavor is great, zingy, citrus-like. A very heavy yielder, Manyel produces slightly oblate, blemish free fruit throughout the summer. Fruit grow in clusters of 3 to 5 and run from 10 ounces to a pound. You begin to get fruit in the early-midseason."
Friday June 19, 2009
I'm trying to work up my energy to plant seeds again as it is almost time to plant something, I just can't remember off the top of my head exactly what. My tomato plants are doing really well, and I hope they thrive until fall when they should begin flowering and producing again. Some of the tomato plants haven't produced even one tomato, so I hope to see them produce in the fall.
Until next time.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Saturday Surprises
Labels: Gardening
I threatened to tell one of Kev's bosses on him if he didn't come out and help me in the garden yesterday morning. Thanks, Mrs. Merry.
While out there, he asked me why I like gardening. I was explaining that one of the reasons I like it is because I like being surprised. At this time of the year there are lots of surprises, like the watermelon I found on Friday. Here are some of the fun surprises I found.
First of all, this HUGE tomato!! I was tucking the stems into the tomato cages when I noticed the little tomatoes that can be seen in the upper left part of the photo. I hadn't noticed them before, and THEN I noticed this really giant one. Probably the largest tomato I've ever grown. I am pretty sure it is a Pruden's Purple. But I'm not sure, since I lost the schematic for where I planted which types of tomatoes in my garden. Anyway, you can see by the photo that the tomato fits into the palm of my hand - it is huge!
Then I was looking around the eggplants and found this one that is about one inch long. I planted some light colored eggplant, this one looks like Ravena, which should be a light green colored eggplant.
I told Kev I was just sure a cucumber should have developed by now. So I was looking and looking and found this:
Kev pulled out all of the corn stalks and took them over to the goats. They loved them.
Here's the corn. We also picked all the carrots that were left in the bed. Kev's making me a carrot cake for my birthday.
Here is some of the corn that was inside the husks.
Unfortunately, the ones pictured above were the "cream of the crop", and they weren't too amazing. You can see in the photo below that many of the ears didn't get pollinated properly so didn't fill out.
After Kev pulled out all the corn, he spied this tiny little guy. That's my fingernail! He was tiny! Kev's camera did great getting some good pictures of the tiny little thing.
While we were out working in the garden... Tiger strolled up. He isn't allowed to go outside, but every once in a while he sneaks out. I love this photo that Kevin took of him.
Poor Tiger. It was a little too hot and humid out there for him. He was begging to come inside after about twenty minutes.
Until next time.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Monkey Dishes
Labels: Just Stuff
I have been up since around midnight, unable to sleep. I managed to figure out why I've been even more exhausted than usual this weekend. On Friday I was up around my normal time of 5am, but after milking I just couldn't seem to get myself moving at all and went back to bed for a nap at 8am. I slept right through a conference call I was supposed to attend at work!! I got up around 11am, but still felt exhausted.
Saturday morning was the same. Up at 4:30 but back in bed by 7:30, too tired to stay up. I was in and out of bed all day long.
Around midnight when I woke up, I remembered for some unknown reason, reading ds1's asthma medication paperwork a while back which had some warning about stopping your medication abruptly and something to do with adrenal fatigue. I already have adrenal fatigue, but the exhaustion was even worse on Friday and Saturday. I was thinking it was extra bad due due to the extra stressful week at work. But then I started doing some research online about stopping asthma medication causing exhaustion.
See, every once in a while my breathing gets real good to the point where if I forget to take my medication I can breathe okay, then I just keep forgetting to take my medication. So I guess it's been two or three or four days since I used my Asmanex. What happens is when you have low adrenal function this means you are low in cortisol. Cortisol is what gives your body energy and also is an anti-inflammatory hormone. This is why people with asthma respond so well to corticosteroids. Corticosteroids mimic cortisol. So I think this has been why I've been so exhausted. I stopped taking my medication.
I hate having to be on medication regularly. I would love to be able to stop taking it forever. I guess if I could figure out how to heal my adrenals and get my body to produce its own cortisol I might be able to go off the medication once and for all.
I did a google search for healing adrenals naturally and arizona and found a doctor that I hope I can work up my nerve and energy to call for an appointment. She is a naturopath.
I have now been up for four hours in the middle of the night, and accomplished exactly nothing.
I did catch up on my Pioneer Woman reading and was reading an old post of hers about Jadite.
In the comments people kept referring to this one small bowl as a "monkey dish". The discount place I went to in Mesa had lots of restaurant ware and I found my awesome star bowl there, which is my favorite dish to eat from now. I also saw some of what I now believe to be monkey dishes. I want some. I made some asparagus soup on Saturday from the asparagus stock I made on Friday. I took all the asparagus stems I've been saving for months and boiled them for several hours on Friday. Then on Saturday I put them into the blender and blended them, them put them through a food mill. (And I thought I've done nothing all weekend). Then on Saturday I cooked chopped onions in butter, then added flour to thicken and finally the asparagus stock. Only we don't have any little bowls to put small portions of soup.
Next time I go there I will pick up some monkey dishes.
I also discovered you can make paper from asparagus stems so I saved the fiber. It's frozen right now because I'm not sure what to do with it.
I'm not asleep, and I'm not tired, this is just a very jumbled post. I think I am going to inhale some of my medication, take a shower and see about going back to bed for a few hours. After all I do have to be up at 6am to milk before the flies get too thick.
Until next time.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Oooooh, what I found in my garden yesterday morning!
Labels: Gardening
Okay, here's picture A. See if you can find what I saw. :-) You can click on the photo to enlarge it.
Picture B. A little bit closer. Click on this one to enlarge. Or just scroll down to the next photo to see what I found.
Isn't that cute?! 
Now here are Picture A and Picture B again, with the baby watermelon circled. I've seen many female flowers on these watermelon vines, but they have never started into actual watermelons. I have never pollinated watermelon. Never really thought about it.
Eggplant flowers are all-in-one. I am pretty sure this one is pollinated and one day soon an eggplant will protrude from the green stem.
These are butternut squash babies!! Of course there were two females one morning, and no male flowers to pollinate! I did cheat and use a male flower from a different variety, just to see if it would work. I am not sure if it will, because butternut is a winter squash and everything else in my garden is summer squash. I do know if the butternut continue to grow, the seeds will be considered a hybrid. I could plant the seeds, but they won't grow up to produce butternut squash. This would be an interesting experiment indeed. 
Most tomatoes that you get from the store are hybrids, so you shouldn't plant the seeds as the resulting fruit won't come "true" to what you had originally. Sometimes the parent tomatoes are so good, but the resulting hybrids are delicious.
Here is a Benning's Green Tint scallop squash hiding under a leave.
Here is my harvest for the day.
It was raining in Friday morning. I couldn't stay out in the garden long, because it really started to pour.
This morning it was cloudy, and very humid. The temperature was nice. I found at least two dozen male squash flowers and not even one female flower.
It has been a stressful week. My employer finally agreed to have someone come in (Mrs. Wonder) and instruct me in the use of the electronic accounting system which I've been trying to put together for the past three years. I have been so disgusted that it has taken so long, but it has been like pulling teeth trying to get the data that I need. It has been an uphill battle all the way, because my boss really doesn't want to stop doing the books manually.
Mrs. Wonder was here on Tuesday and Wednesday and there was more than the usual amount of drama. Our IT guy quit (thank goodness) and people set up camp on both sides. Most people didn't like him, but a couple of people had been pulled into his "world" and bought into all his hard luck stories. After the first dozen or so I pulled back real far, afraid it would rub off into my life.
Mrs. Wonder had promised we would have everything pulled together, as I had many of the parts completed. I knew better than to believe that, for how could she know everything that had to be done. We were not able to get everything completed, but for the last two hours she was there I grilled her on all the questions I've had but could never get answers for, and she gave instructions for getting all the current numbers into the system. Because I have some but not all, so I have been very stressed about how to get the numbers in there correctly. It is actually not that difficult, but I just didn't know how to go about doing it.
Mrs. Wonder specifically promised we'd complete our first payroll run, but that didn't happen until the next day, after she'd left. I had to enter quarterly year to date numbers, then April payroll numbers and finally the May payroll that had already been done. Finally I was able to actually print out a real payroll. We now have YEAR TO DATE totals on our check stubs!! I am so happy about that.
One day we'll also know how much vacation and sick time we have available at any given time, but my boss couldn't agree to that until our fiscal year is over.
I'm just trying to take it easy this weekend. I feel very tired and drained, and I have no energy. I am sure it is because of the stress of the last week.
This year the entire United States celebrates with me on my birthday. Monday the 25th. I am not yet sure what I want to do for my birthday. Part of me wants to go to Savers for their 50% off sale, but I don't know if I will have enough energy to want to leave the house at all.
Until next time.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Meatballs
Labels: recipes
I made meatballs for dinner on Friday night.
No pictures of the meatballs because they actually fell apart while cooking in the sauce. Well, most of them did, and I didn't think it was photo worthy.
I used this recipe found on About.com: Chili Meatballs.
Only I was unable to follow the recipe (as is customary for me - either I'm missing one ingredient or I have too much meat to use, it's always something).
Here is the original recipe. I'll list the recipe again with my modifications.
Ingredients:
* Meatballs:
* 1 pound lean ground beef
* 1/2 pound ground pork, or more ground beef
* 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
* 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
* 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper, red or green
* 1/4 cup ketchup
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 large egg, slightly beaten
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 3/4 to 1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
* .
* Sauce:
* 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) zesty chili style diced tomatoes
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
Preparation:
Line a shallow baking pan with foil. Heat oven to 425°.
Combine the meatball ingredients, adding enough bread crumbs to make a firm mixture. Shape into 1- to 1 1/2-inch meatballs and arrange in one layer in the prepared pan. Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove and turn the meatballs; return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes longer.
Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients in a large saucepan. With a slotted spoon or tongs, add the meatballs to the sauce. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with hot cooked rice, with freshly baked cornbread and cooked beans on the side, if desired.
Serves 6.
Modified version:
Ingredients:
* Meatballs:
* 2 pounds 9 ounces lean ground beef
* 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
* 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
* 1 medium sized finely chopped red bell pepper
* 1/4 cup tomato sauce
* 1 tablespoon brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 large egg, slightly beaten
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups fine bread crumbs (week old break, whole wheat 9 grain style, kind of dried out, freshly ground in food processor)
* lemon zest from two lemons (Kev's addition to the recipe)
* Sauce:
* 1 large can 28 ounce petite diced tomatoes
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1 tablespoon brown sugar
* 4 cans (8 ounces) tomato sauce
* 1 teaspoon oregano, basil and thyme
* 1 onion chopped
* 5 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
Preparation:
Combine the meatball ingredients, adding enough bread crumbs to make a firm mixture.
Shape into 1- to 1 1/2-inch meatballs.
Fry meatballs in fat of your choice. I used a couple of tablespoons of butter.
Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients in a large saucepan, heat until boiling and simmer for 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon or tongs, add the meatballs to the sauce. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
We decided to serve our meatballs and sauce over whole wheat spaghetti. Dh didn't like the sweet taste to the meatballs, which was obviously brought on by the addition of brown sugar which I added to tomato sauce, since I didn't have any ketchup on hand. I used mild chili powder, which to my tastebuds added no "spicy" taste whatsoever. We are refraining from using our hot chili powder since it causes dh to have heartburn during the night.
I also made some delicious garlic butter, and thanks again to Mrs. Datadyne for the fresh garden addition, Italian parsley. Kev brought it home from church at least two weeks ago, and I had not used it yet. But look how fresh and lovely it still looked! I'm sure much due to Mrs. Datadyne having wrapped the parsley in a moist paper towel and then inside a baggie.
Butter topped by seven cloves of garlic put through the garlic press, topped by one tablespoon of finely chopped garden fresh parsley.
The end result. It was delicious.
Until next time.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Artichokes. I Love Them.
Labels: recipes
Last week dh came home with three magnificent artichokes. Ninety-nine cents each, which is a great deal.
I have loved artichokes since I was a young girl and my mom and I used to share them. Sometimes I would come home for lunch, since we lived right next door, and we'd have something special, like artichokes. I don't think any of my other six siblings got to come home for lunch.
A couple of months ago, while at the grocery store, a lady passed by with eight artichokes in her basket. They looked like the one in the photo below.
Kind of fat and rounded looking. She said these were the best kind to get and she doesn't see them often, so that's why she was buying so many.
The other thing you want to look for it a thick stem. When the stem is thicker, you end up with more heart, which is the best part of all.
It's very easy to make artichokes. Rinse them in cool water, I like to open the leaves at the outer edges a little bit and rinse inside, to remove any sand. Trim the end of the stem, leaving one inch.
Place a steamer into a pan and add about one inch of water. Bring to a boil and simmer until done. This takes 30 to 40 minutes. You can tell when the artichokes are done by sticking a fork into the bottom of the artichoke. Right above the stem, but below the leaves. Also, when you push against a leaf with a fork and it separates from the artichoke easily, it is done. If it doesn't pull away easily, it's not done yet.
Allow the artichokes to cool for about 10 minutes before eating. Pull off a leaf and dip it into butter, or dip of your choice (I have heard of other people using mayonnaise). Rake the tender bottom of the leaf across your bottom teeth. Continue pulling off leaves until you get down to the very thin and pointy leaves which cover the heart. Pull those little leaves off and discard. Remove the choke by scraping with a spoon carefully until the heart is revealed. The most delicious part of the artichoke. After the choke is removed, slather with butter and salt.
Mmmmmmm....
Until next time.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Squash Harvest
Labels: Gardening
My first squash harvest. One of our church sistren also gave me a zucchini squash from her garden (not shown). Thanks, Lisa Datadyne!
Here are two of my favorite squash recipes:
Zucchini Custard Casserole
Zucchini Soup
Until next time.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Growing Watermelon Upright Using Hay Twine
FINALLY, I have FINALLY found a use for hay twine!!! Lo, all these seven years of owning goats and wishing there was a use for the hay twine which builds up in piles around the goat yard... I looked through dh's pile of "stuff" and found some rails which were just the right size to put into the garden, insert up into the chicken wire at the top to keep the rails in position, and then push into the ground just a few inches.
Next I tied the hay twine horizontally from one rail to the next. There were six holes in the rails, so I fed the hay twine into the holes and pulled taut at the rail on the other side and tied a knot.
Then I tied twine just around the rail itself, in between those ones actually within a hole.
After I finished all the horizontal pieces, I started at the bottom and going vertically tied a knot into each horizontal piece of twine. All the way up, I tied a knot onto each horizontal piece. I am so excited about this! My great idea to put the watermelon right next to the garden "wall" so it could grow up the chicken wire wasn't working out too good because the watermelon's growing tips kept insisting on feeding itself right out of the garden. If it hadn't been for the sunflower bed in front that is still protected with chicken wire, the growing tips would surely have been eaten by birds or other critters.
After I finished tying everything, I fed the watermelon vines up through the hay twine.
The tallest one was about 2 feet long!
I am so excited about this idea. It took 22 pieces of hay twine to build this one, and that's 7 bales of hay worth of hay twine. Now if I just put together about 10,000 more of these I'll have used up all the hay twine that's lying all over the yard. ;-)
Until next time.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Zenni Optical - Complete Prescription Glasses for $8.00
Labels: Just Stuff
Last summer in August, 2008, I scratched my last pair of glasses really bad when I fell in a pothole at a local mall. I always imagined the blacktop would hurt and be really, really hot if you landed on it in the summer and I was right. I landed hard on my knees and palms of my hands and my right cheek hit the road. My glasses hit too and had a big scratch right in my line of vision on the right lens. Two men were close by and helped me to my feet. I'm really glad they came to help me, for the blacktop was scalding hot and I was having a hard time getting back onto my feet.
I went to security and they took pictures of the soles of my shoes and wrote a report. I called back the next day and asked them if they could help me replace my glasses and was told they could. But I could never get anyone to return my calls. I finally gave up. Then in February I got a call from a risk management company that works for the mall and the woman asked how I was doing. I said I was fine, the deep bruises in my knees had finally healed, but I hadn't been able to replace my glasses. She agreed to replace my glasses if I signed a waiver and eventually I got a check for $215.
I went to Costco and got a new pair which cost $188. Costco's glasses are great and they have a nice guarantee, but the only problem is you have to hand over your glasses to them for two weeks while they are being replaced. That's where Zenni Optical comes in. I decided to give them a try. You can get single vision glasses (frames and lenses!) for as low as $8.00! The pairs I bought were $9.95 and $12.95. $4.95 shipping and handling for no matter how many glasses you get. Kev and I ordered glasses at Costco at the same time, and I ordered him a pair from Zenni as well.
It took me almost four weeks to the day to get the Zenni glasses. It isn't supposed to take longer than two weeks. But they made a mistake and sent me someone else's order! I called them and they were very apologetic and asked me to send the order back. I did, and about a week later the right order arrived.
So other than that little glitch I'm very excited about my new glasses. I have never had more than one pair of glasses in my life, and now if my Costco ones have any problems I can turn them over and use the Zenni glasses.
I am definitely going to order another pair from Zenni, this time with sunglasses tint. $4.95 extra! I am also thinking about trying a pair with progressive lenses, to see how they do. Progressives are just $39.00!! Amazing!
Until next time.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Happy Mother's Day 2009
Labels: Holiday Banter
It's been a beautiful Mother's Day. I woke up at 4:30 and went back to bed for a little while. I couldn't go back to sleep so I finally got up and headed out into the living room around 5:10. The sun was rising and it was dim in the house. I sat on the couch for a while and then I got the milk bucket to head out to milk. I stopped by my garden first where there were lots of squash blossoms, both male and female. I pollinated three or four female flowers. Usually I peel petal from the stamen and drop the petals into the garden, but today I decided to bring them in and try them cooked. I was so excited when I saw this little girl squash baby. Scallop squash!
Here's what the female blossom looks like on the inside:
Here you can see both the male and female squash blossoms. Notice the male flower is just a thin stem, no baby girl squash behind the blossom.
Here is what the male squash blossom looks like on the inside:
I brought the male flowers in to try them cooked. I left them in a bowl of water while I went back out and milked.
Here's my breakfast: two of our homegrown eggs, scrambled, with squash blossoms sauteed in butter. Oh, and fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice. The squash blossoms were different, but pretty good.
After breakfast I got ready for church. Kev and I went and I got to show-and-tell my new Zenni Optical glasses, seen in the photo below. Look for a post tomorrow about my Zenni glasses.Kev and I got home from church around 1:30. While we were gone, dh went shopping for the ingredients for Kev to make cheese enchiladas for dinner, at my request. He's also making rice and beans and is going to serve them on a hot plate, just like at authentic Mexican restaurants.
Kev is also going to get a second hard drive and "ghost" my main computer so I'll have a backup and he's also agreed to help me clean out my Pathfinder during the next week. Thanks, Kev!
When I got home I went into the bedroom to change out of my church clothes, I found an envelope and this little box on my pillow.
Here's the beautiful card. There was a little handwritten note inside.
And here's what was in the little box. If you look back up at the picture of me wearing my glasses, you'll see I'm sporting my new ruby red earrings as well.
Here is my gift from ds1, a drawing with balloons and a heart with glitter:
Kev just announced the only things he wants for his birthday this year:
- Chef Hat
- Sony Double Battery for his new laptop
- He wants his Granny to take him out and buy him a new wallet because she bought him his very first wallet and he needs a new one.
I should create a label for "cheese enchiladas" I've only gone on and on about them on my blog something like five times already.
Until next time.
