Back on my regular schedule - whew!

Well I logged 8 hours of OT in just 3 days last week. If you know me, you know I much prefer not to work OT but if I have to, certainly I will. It just exhausts my old brain when I have to do it. I am happy to report that I am back on my regular schedule today and quite happy to be here!

I was able to get most of my laundry out on the line this weekend. It wasn't that we had rain or anything like that, although we hoped to, it was just that we had lots of running around to do. Saturday was a work day for the guys and a cooking/laundry/cleaning day for me. I know, mine sounds like work too but for the most part I was inside and they were out in that sweltering 102 degrees heat (98 with a heat index of 102) so I consider their day more work than mine.

I know I always write about food but it can't be helped when you spend a few noteworthy hours in the kitchen putting stuff up for the winter or trying new recipes when you have a bunch of guys out in the yard willing to eat anything you bring them.

Well, I didn't get to can the tomatoes. Turns out 10 pounds isn't really enough to do anything with other than make sauce so that's what I did. I barely boiled them so the skins would slip off easily and then let them cool in a big bowl until I could cut them up for simmering. I took pictures but so far they haven't downloaded from my phone to my computer. I'll post them when they do. I added some of the fresh basil from the CSA basket, some fresh parsley, onions, green peppers, salt & black pepper and just a little bit of oregano. A little goes a long way as I well know from having made the mistake of adding too much :) I let that simmer for, oh, say about 2 hours - maybe more. Once the tomatoes had done their thing and were cooked to sauce consistency, I let it cool and bagged it up for the freezer.

So now come winter, I'll have the taste of homegrown summer tomatoes just waiting to be thawed out!

I made some vegetable broth too. It's not a big favorite of mine because I prefer meat broth with a more concentrated flavor but sometimes vegetable broth comes in handy. Not only that but since I had the water from boiling the tomatoes, I figured I may as well use it for something else - don't like to waste :) I added all that stuff that I save and freeze when I'm chopping up veggies for other meals; onion tops, bottoms, skins, garlic skins, pepper tops and bottoms, celery leaves, cilantro stems, etc. I added a little bit of salt and pepper and let that big red pot do its thing. The broth simmered for quite a while as vegetable broth can be bland if it doesn't cook long enough. It tasted just so so but I know when I take it out for later uses, I'll be adding more to it so it will be enjoyable. Most likely some sort of meat! I could never be a vegetarian - bleck!

In between making home-made spaghetti sauce and vegetable broth, I was hanging clothes on the line. I'm telling you, it was so hot out there I do believe the first clothes to go on the line were probably dry by the time I hung up the last piece! LOL I don't know how those guys work out there when it's like that. I'm used to being in the office, in the a/c, all day. I don't mind being out in it for a couple hours but that's about all I can take.

The garden is looking wonderful!!! I have so many tomatoes now that I can't keep up with how many there are. On one plant I counted 16. They are not of the big round variety, rather they are kind of pear shaped and about as big as a grape at this point.  They keep getting bigger and eventually will turn yellow, orange or red depending on the plant. The German Queen plant still has the original 3 tomatoes on it but is bushing out very nicely. I hope to see some new flowers on it soon. Now those tomatoes are getting nice and big. They aren't quite as big as the palm of my hand but that will happen soon enough! I picked my two cucumbers and we ate them in a tomato, basil, cucumber, mozzarella cheese salad with some Italian dressing to top them off.

Still no yellow squash but the plants sure are pretty to look at :) They have such big orange flowers on them that you forget there is supposed to be a vegetable coming out. The chives and cilantro haven't broken ground yet but the radishes are growing like weeds. Too bad they got washed all together. I had to do some serious thinning out which didn't leave me with too many for harvesting. All in all though I'm happy to be picking or clipping something almost every day.

So I was reading my Justin Wilson cookbook (one of them) and found a recipe for "Squash Squares." I thought, well, what the heck? I had never heard of them before but they sounded tasty and goodness knows I have enough squash to float a barge :) The recipe calls for eggs, squash, a couple kinds of cheeses, bread crumbs, onions, salt, pepper and a little cayenne pepper. Well, I didn't have bread crumbs so I crunched up a bunch of whole wheat ritz crackers and used those instead.  After it baked in the oven for 30 minutes or so, I took it out, let it cool and cut into it. Holy squashamoly!! It was sooooooo good! Between all of us, we ate the whole pan. I had to make another one on Sunday just so we would have some for the week. :) This recipe is a definite keeper so you'll find it typed out at the bottom of the blog just in case you want to give it a try. It is rich so a little square goes a long way. Enjoy!

Today is CSA basket day so I'll have to leave a little early to get to the meeting place on time. I'll update you on the contents sometime this week :) I got you sitting on the edge of your seat just waiting to see what comes in, don't I?  LOL

Jimbo is really starting to show some progress now. His ribs aren't quite as pronounced as they used to be. You can still see them but only from about mid-way up. He has a belly now that covers the bottom of his ribs and he's got some meat on his leg bones and his neck. He's getting better about staying in the same area as Rebel and Smokey but still not real close to them. I'll look out over the front yard and Jimbo will be on one side and the Rebel and Smokey will be on the other side. None of them even give a passing glance to the turkeys in the yard. Surely they must know they are there but they aren't about to give chase. What would be the point?

Wally bull-dozed a new path for us to take on the 4 wheelers and the horses. It's so cool! If you're coming down the driveway, it goes off to the left and is completely shaded by big trees that even Wally hadn't seen in years. They were just little things last time he was in that area. We rode the path twice and I can't wait to get back through there again. It's just awesome to see. It leads around corners and down the hillside and then back around so that you come out on the driveway down by the gate. He did a great job picking the pathway. I was all dusty and dirty when we got done riding through there a couple times over! Goggles are a must and really a bandanna for my nose and mouth would have been nice too but I didn't think about that until it was too late. Fun, fun, fun!

The pickles turned out pretty good if I do say so myself :) They are a little bit spicy - I have no idea why because there wasn't anything spicy in the recipe but that's how things go. I like them well enough to make them again and I gave Daryl a whole jar. He loved them.

I'll keep cooking, canning and gardening and I'll keep writing about it as long as you want to keep reading about it. Just wait until winter when I'm freaking out about how cold it is - LOL!  I'll be learning all sorts of new things then, not to mention having to buy new clothes to keep me warm. I'm pretty sure one pair of wool socks is NOT going to be enough :)

"I'm not young enough to know everything." - Sir James Matthew Barrie