Gosh I've been busy this week!

I finally have a minute or two to update the blog and then it's back to the reporting thing that they call my job. As jobs go, I certainly can't complain. If it wasn't for AT&T, I might not be where I am today so it's all good :)

I haven't been able to get in the garden much this week because I've been getting home so late. I did see that the tomatoes are multiplying like rabbits and that's a VERY GOOD thing! I'm hoping this weekend will allow me some time to get out in that garden and pull some weeds, do a re-count of the tomatoes and maybe even pick those cucumbers off the vine. I still need to thin out the radishes and trim the basil. the basil is trying to bloom and from what I hear, blooming basil makes for bitter basil so I pinch off all those blooms before they get too big.

I never got the spring peas in the ground so when the weather cools just a bit, I'll put those in. They may not be as prolific as they would have been if they had been planted earlier in the year but they'll do just fine from what everyone tells me.

Let's see, where did I leave off last time I entered a post... hmmm well, my memory fails me (naturally) so I'll just go with whatever comes to me and forget about trying to get it all in any kind of order.

We still don't have cows and I'm beginning to think we never will. Our last message from Curt was that we couldn't go on Tuesday and he would be getting back with us on when we could go. It's Friday and we haven't heard from him yet. What's that sound like to you?  LOL  We were aware that the guy had to get the cows hemmed up before we could come out but how long does that take anyway? Well, time will tell. I hope we get one soon though or it'll be too late to fatten him up before fall butchering starts.

My pickles will be ready for tasting in the morning. I wish I could have tasted them this morning so I could tell you how they turned out but alas, that update will have to wait until Monday. They sure look good when I shake the jars every morning - they make my mouth water! The cucumbers Daryl gave me last week will be bread and butter pickles by the end of the weekend! Everyone wants the bread and butter pickles more than the dill pickles except me. I like the dill pickles better. No problem since there will be more bread and butter pickles when all is said and done.

I put in an order for 10 lbs of tomatoes for canning. SO LET THE GAMES BEGIN!! Send me an email of how many jars (pints) you think I will fill and whoever comes closest, gets their very own jar of homegrown tomatoes, canned by none other than yours truly :) 

My total order was 10 lbs of tomatoes, 2 dozen ears of corn and about a 1/4 bushel of okra all for $15.00. Not a bad deal when you consider just the price of the tomatoes alone. The corn will only make about one batch and the okra I'm not really sure about. I've never canned it before but the recipe is in my canning book so I'll give it a shot. What the heck? LOL  For those of you who don't care for okra because of the sliminess of it - here's a tip - the longer you cook it, the less slimy it will be.

Don't forget I have that wonderfully tasty recipe from Joe Brack that's made with okra. When it's in season, buy however much you can store. Cut it into bite size pieces and freeze what you don't fry up in your trusty old cast iron (could someone please explain this to Kat? lol). That way, when it's no longer available fresh (like in the wintertime), you can just grab a bag from the freezer, add the ham bone and ham, speckled butter beans, black eyed peas and whatever else you like and you have a big, warm pot of nourishing, "good for you," okra and ham stew. Of course, this is assuming you save your ham bones or at least make broth of them before throwing them out.

Never throw the bones away my friends! They are powerhouses of nutrition if you'll just put them to boil with a few seasonings and a little bit of your time. Your overall health is worth your time :) On a given Saturday you could easily get the chicken bone broth going in the crock pot and ham or beef bones going on the stove-top. Just think, you would be home (saving money), cooking something healthy (instead of all that drinking and smoking) and putting up food for later (when you're too hung-over to cook anything). LOL

You think I'm crazy, don't cha? That's okay, think what you want. It's never bothered me before and besides, even if you don't do this for yourself and your loved ones, I'll do it for you when you come see me. So there.

Oh yeah - the CSA basket!! Oh it was beautiful alright - it was packed full of more rattlesnake beans, more summer squash and those tasty little climbing cucumbers! there was a little container just overflowing with Sungold and Cherry tomatoes mixed together and 4 or 5 heirloom tomatoes of a variety I'm not familiar. I also got a container of blueberries and a bunch of basil. The scent was much stronger on the basil from the basket than it is on the basil from my own garden. Those leaves are very, very dark green and really big like the size of a big spoon. The basil from my garden is light green, the leaves are smaller than a small spoon and unless you rub the leaves, you can't really smell it much.

All in all I was very pleased with the basket. The blueberries didn't last long. I think I brought some for work a couple days and I made a fruit salad for Wally with the rest of them. Man were they ever good too. I've never been a big fan of the blueberry (they're so darn expensive) but since they were there, I gave them another chance. All I can say is yum, yum, yum. That first burst of juicy blueberriness just makes you want more and more. I had to make myself stop or they would have been gone the day we got them. I'm just hoping we get more in the next basket :)

The squash was sliced up and simmered in water with some chicken bouillon and black pepper and the climbing cucumbers went into my lunches for the week. I have one squash left that I plan to just saute in some olive oil for a minute or two and then add it to a pasta salad. A few of the tomatoes, some of the chopped up basil, some black olives and drenched with Good Seasons Italian Salad dressing... oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about :)  See - I could make this for you toooooooooooooo :)

On my route to work each day, I travel this one very narrow, two-lane road that has some pretty fancy houses along it. As I rounded the corner onto this road the other morning, I came upon a 4 point buck, two young does and a larger doe I took to be the mother (who really knows? let me have my fantasy okay? lol). The buck was standing beside a mailbox on the right hand side of the road. He was literally that close to my car. He just stood there! He didn't run, didn't even act like he was going to run. I so wished I had a camera that morning. It was too dark to take it with the cell phone but a regular camera would have done it. Beautiful is all I can say. Well, I guess I could say delectable too but that won't be until hunting season... hahaha Don't be a hater.

We'll likely go to Pee Wee's tonight. I mean it is Friday after all and there is no Orioles here so what the heck? I'm doing better at getting to know people - ugh! Don't get me wrong, I'm not out there all friendly and such but I have been known to say hi on occasion. Sometimes I even say it before it's said to me first. Hey - that's a big step for me. Of the two of us, Neccy has always been the social butterfly. She makes friends like there's no tomorrow. Me, well I've been described as standoff-ish. As you well know, once I get to know you, that all changes. I'm just good with the friends I've got so I don't really try to make new ones. You know how it is.

I remember when we were kids our parents would take us camping over at Yogi Bear Park. Mom would have us loading that little pop-up camper like we were going to be gone for months. At the most we probably stayed 4 or 5 nights. She would give us stuff to take out to Dad and he would pack it all in there somehow. We even took the dog. We were allowed to drive around and find our own site and I remember what the conditions were. We always had to have a campsite near a bathhouse, for obvious reasons, and preferably on a corner. The trees had to be just right and we needed to be close enough to the pool. Of course the camper and car or truck had to fit and we needed room for Dave to have his pup-tent set up.

We wouldn't be there five minutes and Neccy would be gone. She would have friends within no time. While she did that, I would be setting up the camper. Her and I always shared one of the slide-out beds so I would busy myself with putting the sheet and blanket on the bed and getting our pillows lines up just the way we (ha ha) like them. She slept on the low side because I was older - you take your benefits where you can.

Meanwhile, here she would come with her friends and I would have my paper dolls out ready to get them dressed for the day. They always wanted to play with my stuff but Neccy didn't and she wouldn't let them either. She didn't like paper dolls at all so off they would go to do whatever kids like that like to do. Wander around I guess? I was perfectly content to dress those paper dolls and color in my coloring books all day. I couldn't tell you what Dave and Dougy did - I think they went to the pool with Mom most of the time.

Mostly I stayed at the campsite with my Dad. While I dressed my dolls and colored in my books, he drank his beer and smoked his cigarettes and showed me how to find lighter knot. He taught me how to make a palmetto frond into a marshmallow/hot dog roasting stick and most importantly, how to avoid stepping on those darn, itchy, white flowers. They were the worst until I discovered chiggers up here in TN.

Those were the days. Camp fires, sunburns, tangled hair, sleeping with the noise of the campground people all around us. I looked forward to it more than anything else and wouldn't trade it for the world.

Well, enough of my ramblings. Enjoy your weekend and think about the fun times you had as a child. It'll bring a smile for sure.

"Great cookin is nothin more than imagination and common sense in the proper proportion." Justin Wilson