semi-done

I got the tomatoes canned up today. I decided that I would can into the 1 pint jars instead of the 1 quart jars that I used last year. I usually mix my homemade sauce with storebought sauce so using the pint size makes it a little easier to do. Silly me forgot to sample the sauce before I canned it but judging by the smell, I think that I am pretty close. I may be short on salt but that can be added when I actually use the sauce - I've found that it's better to be under on a seasoning rather than over. I cooked the sauce down pretty far so the half case of tomatoes (plus a gallon bag of whole heirloom tomatoes that I had frozen up last year) only yeilded 9 pints of sauce. I'm hoping to get more seconds at the market next week so that I can can some more. I'd love to give a recipe but I didn't use one. Here's what I used though:

1/2 case of hybrid tomatoes skinned and seeded
aprox 5 lbs of heriloom tomatoes skinned and seeded
several tablespoons of minced garlic
6 bay leaves
aprox 2 tablespoons of mixed oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil and marjoram
about 1 tablespoon of sea salt
and I cooked it down for 3, maybe 4, hours.

I haven't taken the pesto out of the freezer yet but since I covered the ice cube trays with Glad Wrap there is no pesto smell permeating the refrigerator (hooray!)

I'm planning on carving the pumpkins in the am and doing the caramel apples in the early afternoon.

Oh, I didn't use a recipe for the pesto either. Again, here's a list of what I put into it:

6 large bunches of sweet italian basil
1/4 cup arugula
12 medium to large cloves of garlic
at least 8 oz of Parmesan cheese, probably more
1/2 to 3/4 cup of EVOO
1/2 to 1 cup of cold water
2 teaspoons of sea salt
1/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of some other seed that wasn't pine nuts
1/2 cup of fresh oregano
all wizzed together in the food processor until it was smooth and almost pourable.

not done yet

I got all the pesto made - it's now freezing in ice cube trays in the kitchen freezer - 42 cubes in all.
I got the tomatoes all cored and halved but didn't have enough time to cook and can them - I'll do that tomorrow morning/afternoon.
We still have to do the caramel apples tomorrow.
We won't carve the pumpkins until Wednesday morning but I did get the outdoor decorations up this evening while Giselle was at a friend's house. I put out the spooky ghost candy dish that Joe can't stand. It's got a light sensor in it that makes it make an electronic sound whenever you walk by and it drives Joe nuts! He'll be happier with it when it's filled with candy corn and m&m's on Wednesday.

I wonder if he ever found the mini boxes of Dots and Junior Mints that I put in his pocket a few hours ago?

Sunday event

We went to the Zilker Halloween festival this afternoon where the kids got some candy, we all got some Jim-Jim's (large pina colada for me, medium sour apple for Giselle and a small mango for Paul) and we all got to see Joe McDermott and The Biscuit Brothers perform. It was the second time in 3 days that we got to see Joe McDermott - we really like him and we missed not seeing him more often this past summer.

Farmers Market Booty II

6 quarts of raw milk for us to drink this week.





1/2 case of tomatoes for canning on Monday or Tuesday.








35 paletas for us to eat over the next several months - kept in the LOCKED freezer.





The decorated pumpkin made by Giselle.







The decorated then un-decorated pumpkin made by Paul.







We were disappointed this week as far as cucumbers were concerned - at 9 am the first customer of the day bought EVERY SINGLE cucumber that Edgar & Gayla had brought to The Market! I forgot to get eggplants even though this week might have been the end of them due to the unseasonably cold nighttime temps that we've been having. It's definitely the end of basil due to the cold but the greens are soon to come in.

Farmers Market Booty

Here are some fresh green beans, orange and red bell peppers, and okra to be used for meals this week.




Two packages of beef short ribs that I got for the lucky dog to eat this week.








6 bunches of basil and 1/4 lb of arugula for making pesto on Monday or Tuesday to freeze up for the next year and a HUGE bunch of baby bok choi for Green Juice this week.




2 ayote squash in summer form and 2 pipian squash to be chopped and frozen for winter/spring use.

A xl bag of cameo apples to make caramel apples with on Monday or Tuesday.

this time I mean it

I'm going to bed now! Really!
I'll be getting basil and arugula at the market tomorrow so that I can replenish my stash of frozen pesto. With nighttime lows like they've been lately I better get the basil while it's still alive. But with the approaching end of basil season, this means that it will soon be cilantro season.

Who?

With the windows open at night I can hear our neighborhood owl whoo whoo whooing all evening. I really like that!

followup

Donna from Quiet Life asked in reference to my post on October 11 about the dinner party menu:
What an amazing menu! It sounds wonderful. Do you always prepare that much food for a party? How is the soda with Splenda? I know nutrasweet is not good for me.

and my response is:
I am a believer in "you can't really have too much food at a gathering" so I like to keep lots of stuff on hand to quickly fill out an otherwise adequate spread. And when we go to friends' houses for food I'm always sure to bring extra food along to round things out there too - some chips & dip or some hot dogs or some vegetable side dish or dessert. Like the meal that I brought to my friend with the new baby - a bit overkill but better that than not enough food!

I don't drink any of the sodas - DH started on them back when he did Adkins - and he prefers the Splenda over any of the other sweeteners.

The bull that got Edgar

I don't remember how much detail I gave here but 2 months ago my friend Edgar got attacked by his Jersey bull. He survived with a cracked pelvis, a broken collar bone, a shoulder blade broken into 4 pieces, 2 broken ribs and a punctured lung (from the broken ribs). The bull had no horns otherwise he would have been dead. A rooster saved Edgar's life - Edgar had collapsed on the ground from the attack and just as the bull was going in for the kill a Phoenix rooster jumped on the bull's back and started attacking HIM! This distracted the bull enough for Edgar to crawl to safety. The bull has since been turned into ground meat - the meat I used for the tortellini the other night - but this is a picture of him from back in January. He was so mean even then that we dared not get any closer than 20 feet to the fence.

Edgar is almost completely healed now with the exception of his collar bone - that's healing slowly.

Just a picture

This is a shot from inside of the Texas State Capitol. It's pointing straight up from almost the center of the building. Click on it and zoom in - this is a clear shot and you can even see the shadow that the letters cast in the word TEXAS. I'm rather pleased with this shot. I took it on a cloudy day, I wonder how the light would have been different if it had been a sunny day.

ditching more emails

I WAS going to go to bed shortly after putting Giselle down at 8. OBVIOUSLY that didn't happen! I'm going soon I promise! But I did get a lot more emails read and deleted so at least I was productive.

no time

Sorry, busy getting rid of the back-log of emails while watching "Transformers", which by the way is a really good movie! No blood, no sex but lots of action!

blog, blog, blog

I thought that I had nothing to say but I just saw a commercial for the new HEB Chase Visa Rewards card. We'll have to think seriously about getting one of those - you get double rewards when you use it at HEB.
School went well today - we started the 3rd grade spelling words and instead of writing 10 words 2 or 3 times daily each week she is now writing a sentence a day for each of 5 words weekly.
Well, that's it for me. Go click on all my favorites for better reading.

sunday but no seven ... yet

We slept until 8. I showered and got dressed right away so that as soon as one of the men woke up I could leave BOTH KIDS in their care (previously an unheard of event) while I went to the thing at B&N. Unfortunately both men slept in until 9 so by the time I got to B&N at 9:10 the event was over. I still shopped SOLO for an hour and got plenty of books with the discount - I saved over 25 dollars! Then I came home to find that the menfolk had gotten the kids fed, washed and dressed. The kids were ready a half hour before we needed to leave for church - it's amazing what they will do for the opportunity to watch TV before lunchtime.
After church we went to HEB to pick up the meat and a few of the veggies that I was missing for my friend's dinner. Then I cooked and prepped all afternoon. The roast was done at 5, we were pulling out of the driveway by 5:11 and pulled up at their house at 5:34. We hung out for a half hour and I got to hold the baby for a tiny bit - she had just woken up and was hungry so she didn't like me for long. When we got home I made cheese tortellini with ground beef sauce. The ground beef had been thawing in the fridge waiting for inspiration on my part. It's from the Jersey Bull that had attacked Edgar 2 months ago - they turned him into ground meat and are selling him for $10 for 3 1 lb packages. He tasted good! The meat is some of the reddest ground meat that I have ever seen - it truly is a deep blood-red color - and not a bit of fat in it at all!

We finished dinner early enough for me to finish reading White Fang to the kids tonight. Tomorrow we will pick back up with the Little House series, I think that our next one is The Long Winter. After that we'll read Charlotte's Web and then go back to Little House. Have any of y'all read the Boxcar Kids books? I saw them today at B&N and they looked interesting in a Bobbsy Twins kind of way.

I love to cook!

A friend of mine gave birth to child number 6 at the beginning of the month and tomorrow is my day to bring the family food. By the way, if you know of anyone about to need some food tending then check out this neat site http://www.CareCalendar.org . It's an online calendar that you can use to meal plan for someone.
But back to tomorrow. My friend loves collards but this baby, while still inside her, refused to let collards pass her momma's lips. So I'm doing a big batch of collards (fresh frozen from back in the early summer) with a smoked turkey leg for seasoning (they don't do pork so no bacon ends or ham will be used for seasoning). The rest of the meal entails rolls of some kind (I'm not sure if I'll buy some King Hawaiian rolls or make some biscuits), Pot Roast with carrots, potatoes, onions & garlic (I was going to do chicken but they are a bit 'done' on chicken), some fruit - either grapes or apples, and some raw veggies with dip (red bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower & celery). I'm going to bring a whole young ayote squash, uncooked, for them to have with some lasagna later in the week. Is that enough? Should I make extra pot roast so that they have leftovers? Yea, I'd rather they have too much food than not enough.

I love cooking for other people! And I love cooking at other people's houses, but I have to bring my own seasonings since I can't depend on other folks keeping on hand my seasoning staples. Spike Seasoning, cumin, oregano, ginger, garlic, onions, Old Bay Seasoning, fresh ground pepper, pesto.

Now to plan tomorrow so that the roast is done at the right time. I think that I'll use one of those Reynolds Brown-in-Bags. Tomorrow is the Homeschool Educator Reception at Barnes & Noble at 8 AM - 25% discount for those with a educator discount card - and then there's church - Giselle wants to go to both Sunday School classes - and grocery shopping and cooking and the 30 min drive to my friend's house.

All moms HAVE to listen to this song!

Oh my! I just listened to this video/song written and sung by Rechelle at Country Doctor's Wife and it made me cry. Go listen and tell her how much you love it!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LLejY_fak8

thanks

Thanks Marie for sharing your cake with me - I ate most of it for dinner. The kids enjoyed the brownies. They each ate one before dinner, then ate a bowl of mac & cheese, then they ate the rest of the cake that I couldn't finish and Giselle ate her 2nd brownie. Paul couldn't even finish his piece of cake because he was as grossed out by all the chocolate and sugar as I was. Good boy! Our thanks to you for giving them to us and our thanks to Fran for making them. Our thanks to Costco for making the cake that grossed us all out for the rest of the night. Joe can have Paul's second brownie if he didn't already gross out on desserts when going out to lunch and dinner with his friends today.

Dogs

Is there anything that just totally freaks out your dog? Tell me about it please!!!!!

Our dog is afraid of fireworks which is a fairly common fear. She is also afraid of guns being discharged which is similar in sound to fireworks. She is also afraid of the sound of those bubble wrap bubbles being popped since they sound like fireworks. She is made a bit uneasy by thunder because it sounds like fireworks (notice a pattern here?) but that fear is 'cured' by giving her some Rescue Remedy. In the last year she has become afraid of people chewing gum because they blow bubbles that pop and that (say it with me) sounds like fireworks.
So the latest is that she runs and hides in the other room whenever I eat carrots. "Carrots?" you say "Why would a dog be afraid of carrots?". Think about it, if you don't have your lips closed when you bite a baby carrot in half it makes a loud popping noise that (yes, you know the routine now) SOUNDS LIKE FIREWORKS! I can't believe it!
She was never this bad before and I've been eating baby carrots for the entire 12 years that we've owned her. I've ALWAYS popped my gum and she didn't freak out before. I blame it entirely on Joe and his habit of letting her into his room when it storms - he's feeding her fears by telling her it's OK. He needs to stop mocking Cesar Milan and start watching The Dog Whisperer more!
Chicken Dog!

Happy Birthday Joe

My gift to you for your birthday is to change the blog song from Juanes "Camisa Negra" to DeeLite "Groove Is In The Heart" because I remember how much you liked this song when it came out. Sorry, but you know that I will never play some of your other favorites here so your'e going to have to take what you can get. Maybe next month I'll put on FatBoy Slim or Beck or SugarRay for you.
Love you!

Marie

Happy Birthday Marie!
Be sure to bring the leftover cake to the park!

Paul and I went to Nordstrom to look for shoes this evening. They don't have any wides in store, just mediums, so the search continues. Next I'll try Dillards.