Pea Pictures and A Trip To Tunica, MS...

Yes, the pictures of the peas have been posted on the flickr account. I was only able to get two of them before my camera told me that my memory was full. HUH? I didn't even know it had one...and I must say it's a darn site better memory than my own. LOL! It knows when it's full hahahahaha  I think sometimes that's the reason I can't remember anything...my memory is full. Now I just need to train my brain to let me know when that happens so I don't have such high expectations when it comes to remembering things... right? But where was I? Oh yeah - the peas! hahahahaha

While taking the pictures of the peas, I had to check out the other vegetables and I think, I'm not positive but I think, I might just have some beets coming up too. Along one of the rows there appears to be a few very small sprouts that don't look like anything else out there. The carrots still prove to be elusive but the onions are going crazy...not the scallion seeds but the actual sets that Darryl gave me. They've been in the ground just one short week and yet they have green tops reaching up about 3 inches. I'd have gotten a picture of them too but there was that memory problem I mentioned earlier. lol

As days go by my garden will continue to flourish and before long I hope to be busy harvesting the bounty therein. There will be the picking, of course, but also the shelling of the peas. This, I'm told, is best done sitting in a comfortable chair on one's porch. There should be only the sounds of nature (and your honey if he's available) and maybe a cooler of your favorite beverage beside you. There should be a bowl, ample in size, to accommodate the harvested peas and there should be a compost bag where the empty pods are held. If there happens to be a horse anywhere near, he should and will be fed those empty pea pods.

From there it's off to the canner. The canner will have been unboxed and cleaned so it stands ready for this spring's work. With luck there will be much to keep the canner busy. The jars will have been sanitized in the dish washer and will be sitting on the counter awaiting their fulfillment - peas are fulfilling in many ways you see...the rings and lids readily available to top off the jars.

The hot packing directions say to bring the peas to boil in a big pot of water. After just a few minutes, they are to be poured into a colander through which the water flows into another bowl. I'll scoop the peas into the jars and fill them with that same water as it has already been boiled. It's by your own choice whether or not you add some canning salt. I usually do. It's not so much for flavor as it is to protect the color of the peas and keep the water from becoming foggy looking. Regular salt will make the water foggy looking. It doesn't hurt anything - just looks somewhat unappealing.

The jarred peas will process according to the directions for the canner. Once they have processed for the appropriate amount of time, the canner will be left to cool down and another set of jars will be prepared. When the canner's pressure valve resets itself, I'll know it's time to grab up the tongs (specially made for canning they have a wide opening and rubber grips to protect your hands from the heat) and set the super hot jars on a towel on the counter top. Literally within minutes, we'll hear the tell-tale signs of completion. Yep, "pop, pop, pop, etc." as the jars begin to force the air out and the healthy vegetables in. There are few so satisfying sounds...

The same process is repeated throughout the day until all of the peas have been put up. The same will happen again and again as the beets, carrots and beans begin to mature and are plucked from their underground homes or their above ground vines. I look forward to filling my days in this way and already I have thoughts about what will go in next year...a different variety, more rows, maybe lettuce???? There are so many possibilities. It's all a matter of me being able to find the time to devote to this, my favorite hobby. And you probably thought cooking was my favorite hobby...? LOL Well, they both kind of go hand in hand though don't you think? I'll plant it, nurture it, grow it, pick it, cook it, eat it and be nourished by it :)  That's a great concept - wish I had come up with it.

If at anytime you would like to come see how it all unfolds, you're certainly welcome to head on up and watch and/or participate if you so desire :) :) Don't worry, if you don't feel like helping and wish only to see how the process works, I'm perfectly fine with that. Not everyone can be as inspired or excited about these things as I can sometimes (almost always) be. It just does my eyes very well indeed to see a counter overflowing with canned vegetables of my own doing.

Well now, as today's heading indicates, we did take a trip to Tunica, MS. It's about a 3 hour drive for us but not a bad one at all. We got up, had breakfast, fed and watered all the animals and were on the road by 8ish. We stopped at the tag office in Centerville but they were closed. We picked up the interstate off Hwy. 50 (just a few miles this side of Pee Wee's Place) and enjoyed a nice, leisurely drive down to Mississippi where my aunt and uncle were eagerly awaiting our arrival.

Tunica is where the casinos are located and there are several hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. It's like an extremely scaled down Vegas. I think I liked it better than Vegas. For one thing, it's much closer so less expensive to get there. We can do it in a weekend - no problem. The slots were fairly loose so not much money was lost, all things considered.

We met up with Aunt Karen & Uncle Dee around 1:00 pm. We played a few slots and then went to lunch at Paula Dean's Buffet. Don't get all excited...it was just okay. I thought it was really going to WOW me but, eh, not so much. Maybe if it was her actual restaurant in Savannah it would have been better. I have half a mind to write and tell her about it too. She probably has no idea that those folks really weren't doing her signature recipes justice by any stretch of the word.

I had fried chicken. It was very crunchy so I was very hopeful but it was sort of dry and it didn't seem like there was any house seasoning on it at all. I had country fried steak (just a small piece) - it was horrible! It was so dry I couldn't even cut it with a knife. I don't know if it was seasoned because it never got to my mouth. I was afraid I'd break a tooth! lol I had a bbq pork chop - again, very dry. The bbq sauce was good but the chop tasted like there was no seasoning on it either. Oh, by the way, I didn't have all this in one meal. We ate there twice... :)

I had some boiled shrimp. It tasted just like boiled shrimp - no big deal. I had a salad - it was really good but it wasn't a signature dish, it was just a salad. Wally had the country ham and said it was just okay. We both had some oysters that were baked in the oven and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, parsley and garlic. They were good but they had sat too long and were cold. I think I would have really enjoyed these if they were fresh and hot from the oven.

I did have some fried green tomatoes that were superbly cooked and seasoned! Then, on the breakfast buffet they served the fried green tomatoes with a poached egg and hollandaise (sp?) sauce on top. Now that looked really good but they took too long bringing out fresh ones so I was already full by the time they were ready. Wally and Aunt Karen both had them and said they were really, really good. I wished I had saved room!

I would eat there again because it was convenient and I know now what to select. I guess I just had my hopes too high with the Paula Dean name and all that. Maybe I will write to her...she probably has no idea.

We play slots rather than cards or any of the other stuff. For me, it's just easier and I'm not all that concerned with a big win. I like the little wins you get from the slot machines and I like the sounds they make when you hit something good. They throw enough money back at you to keep you playing like they know just when you're about to get up and leave...lol!

A new slot machine feature that we all enjoyed was a beverage menu on the machine. You press a button on the touch screen and you can get a slot machine attendant, a cocktail waitress, emergency aid, etc. It was pretty cool. It used to be that you sat there forever waiting on a drink but not at Tunica. Those girls are fast on their feet and since it's computerized, they know right where to deliver the drinks. It was so much more organized than the old way - VEGAS could take a lesson from them on that note. It even remembers what you order throughout your trip so you can go to the "my menu" feature and select the same thing over again. It's fast and efficient - I liked that.

Well you win some, you lose some, as they say. We did okay. After we counted what we had left, we figured out that we both played on about twenty bucks each the whole time. Sometimes we were down and sometimes we were up. That's just the way it is, right? You can't go there hoping to bring all your money back or you'll be sorely disappointed LOL  In all it was a fun trip. We enjoyed seeing Aunt Karen & Uncle Dee and of course, we're making plans to meet up again soon. If all else fails, I hope to get them here during hunting season. I can hunt with a pro and when the hunting is done, I can cook with a pro lol the best of both worlds for me!

On the way home, Wally wanted to take me to the Rendezvous for ribs. It's a famous place in Memphis and I was looking forward to it. We drove into downtown and I was quickly reminded of New Orleans. It was very similar in the look and feel of things though no where near as big. Just a few streets of activity and those few were very busy with tourists and people headed to the baseball field. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed on Sunday. Darn!

Since BBQ was no longer an option, we found a place called Huey's and as it turned out, it was voted #1 hamburger in Memphis for years and years gone by. You know me! I'm always up for a good hamburger so in we went. It was packed with people, it was not air conditioned very well, it smelled of frying food and blues music was blaring from the speakers. It was perfect :) We ordered cheeseburgers and beer and sat there enjoying the music, people watching and checking out the memorabilia on the walls. Our burgers were cooked perfectly, they were big and juicy and loaded with pickles, lettuce and tomatoes....mmmm mmmmm GOOD! They served fresh, hot steak fries on the side that we didn't know we were going to get and they didn't disappoint either. We were full but not stuffed and ready to go home.

We hit the interstate and never looked back. The farm it seems has way of calling us home. Perhaps it was the cabin or the animals or a combination of all of it and even though it was only one night, we were missing it badly. I thought about the old Jon Denver song, "Hey it's good, to be back home again....sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend yes, and hey it's good to be back home again."

We pulled up to the cabin and the puppies were jumping up and down and turning circles in their excitement. They've never been a night without us except for when they ran off. The big dogs came out from under the back porch and slowly made their way round to see us. The roosters started in making their garble sounds (I don't know how else to describe it if you've never heard it) and followed us wherever we went. We even saw that the horses had come up to the top of the hill to see us.

We let the puppies go free, gave the old dogs their aspirin and then everyone, roosters included, headed over to the horse pen. The old dogs stayed on the porch - it's just too much for them to make the trip and they've made it for so many years that they only go now on occasion. Wally petted Rebel while I tried to get Smokey to come over to me. He wasn't having anything to do with it.

We got their buckets filled and that's when Smokey came over. He leaned his head in and I scratched up under his halter. That's about all he was interested in but it's the one thing he and I see eye to eye on. He likes it, he knows I'm no threat and I feel like he has at least a smidge of trust to let me get close to his face like that. They ate their sweet feed while we walked back to the garden and checked out the peas. Oh they grew alright! lol

We made our trip over to Dizzy's apt. and I got the roosters some scratch feed. I threw it up on a pile of leaves where the new walkway is. We're hoping they'll do their scratching thing and clear a nice little path for us. So far, so good! They really are good at clearing a path - you have to see it from start to finish to believe it. Well, unless you've seen roosters in action before lol! So as I was throwing out the scratch, here come the puppies, running full speed ahead and bound for the roosters! They got those roosters cock-a-doodle-doing over and over and running around like chickens with their heads cut off....LOL!! oh sorry - I just couldn't resist! hahahahahaha

When the herding was over, the roosters had been scattered all about. One was over by the horses, two were behind Dizzy's apt. and the other one was on the hitching post. They were not the least bit happy with Colt and Ruger! I always worry that one of the roosters will get caught at some point but they don't really try to catch them, they just run them around like they're really herding them. The puppies love it and it's in their nature so they think they're doing a good thing. On the other hand, the roosters seem to be thoroughly annoyed with it.

We weren't starving but we were a little bit hungry so we skewered up some bacon wrapped shrimp and seasoned it with bbq rub. We loaded the skewers on the grill and in no time, they were hot and ready to eat. We watched the race from Saturday night that we had recorded but were too tired to make it to the end. It was barely dark when we went to bed.

As I lay there thinking about the weekend I realized that sometimes you have to leave your home just long enough to get the urge to get back to it as soon as you possibly can. Like Dorothy always says, "there's no place like home..." That such a great line!

How was your weekend? Did you plant anything? Did you harvest anything? Did you water your flowers and pull out the weeds? I hope no matter what you did, you had as great a time as I did.

Tonight - if all goes well, my beans will go into the ground! It's all tilled and waiting for them :) :) :) waiting for me actually! lol

"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling." ~Mirabel Osler