New things...

I got one of these radios from Emergency Essentials.  I was very impressed.  It has AM, FM, 2 short wave stations and weather station.  It works on batteries, solar, electricity or crank.  It has an emergency flashlight, SOS light and reading light.  It can charge your cell phone as well.  And it's not too big and doesn't weigh very much either.

What I really wanted from Emergency Essentials though was a solar cooker.  Here's the one I got
It was on sale in June so I had to get it.  It is very easy to use and wonderful in the summer.  No heating up the house!  It came with the two little pots shown, a thermometer, cookbook and a water pasteurization indicator and reflector.  The body of the cooker is plastic which makes it pretty light weight to carry but not too light weight that is going to blow away in the wind.  So far I've made  roasts, chicken and potatoes in it and today I made chicken, potatoes and meatballs.  Figured it wouldn't take too long to do all of that so we have enough for a few meals.  It is like a slow cooker really.  The meat comes out moist and tender and oh so flavorful.  I'm going to try to make some bread and see how it turns out.  The only thing that is difficult about using it is deciding what you want to eat 6-8 hours before it's cooked.  The potatoes don't take as long only 1-2 hours and the meatballs only took about 2 hours.  You don't add any water to the pan when you do the potatoes either.  I think it will be a wonderful thing to have if the electric goes out, of course only if it goes out in the morning cause it does take a few hours to cook everything and it works best on sunny days with little or no wind.  I did set up the reflectors on the first try but found I didn't need them down here in Alabama.  They are sturdy too.  The clips that hold on the plastic cover on the cooker though are hard to get on there but if they were too easy they wouldn't keep the cover on and I really don't want to be running after a cover after it has been pulled off by the wind LOL.  Plus with the clips on I'm sure that the animals can't get into it.  The cats really liked smelling the meat smells coming from it ;)

I was really pleased on how fast the items were shipped and the shipping charge was only $6 on my order which I thought was very reasonable.  Now anyone out there have any solar cooker recipes?

Colorful Quinoa Salad

I made this yesterday and we LOOOOOOOVVVVVVVE it!  DH said we could have had just this and nothing else and it would have made a meal.  He's right.  Here is the recipe:

1 cup of quinoa cooked (see below on how to cook)
1/2 cup green pepper diced (you can use red pepper as well)
1 small sweet onion diced
2 carrots shredded
1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 can of corn drained

Dressing:
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
1 T garlic minced
3 drops Tabasco sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger

Mix together the sauce and add to the other ingredients.  Yum!

To cook quinoa - Add 1 cup of quinoa to 1 1/2 cups of water in saucepan.  Heat to boiling, turn down heat and cover simmering for 15 more minutes or until the water is mostly gone.  Take off burner and let sit for another 5 minutes.  Uncover and fluff with fork.

If you don't have quinoa, you can use couscous for the above recipe or even barley.  It has an Italian flavor with some Indian spice mixed in.  Let me know how you liked it.

I took a break...

for a couple of days but now I'm baaaaaak!  I didnt go on the computer for a whole 2 1/2 days!  I went on Friday and got some peaches and cream corn and canned that (see totals on side bar)...we even had a couple of ears for supper that night.  It was really good.  It was grown just down the road from me.  Nothing like local.  None of my popcorn came up this year :(  Oh well, there's always next year.  Sunflowers didnt come up either...but my squash and cukes are all over the place (have a couple of squash peeking out from under the leaves) and we have tomatoes!  They're still green but some of them are turning.  Still picking blueberries.  I ordered some more potatoes (fingerlings this time) and am waiting for DH to rototill up some rows for me.  Kinda hard for him to because of the rain we've been getting on and off.  Told him I had to plant them this weekend or they'll rot...got sweet potatoes growing on the windowsill and would like to plant them as well.  Dont know if we'll get too many, it is kinda late but worth a shot. 

It's been so hot and humid.  The air is thick....really thick.  Chickens have slowed down on the eggs which is a good thing really.  We had so many eggs and I have pickled all we will ever need that I had to throw a couple dozen in the compost.  At least it isnt wasting them but it still is upsetting.  I think for a couple of people 3-4 hens is all you need.  We have 8.  We ordered 15 but gave some of them away.  Cant imagine having all 15 laying can you? 

I go out in the morning to pick berries for a half an hour and come back in and that's when the sweat is just dripping off my face.  Never used to have that problem.  When I was young I didnt sweat too much, my face would get really red but not much sweat.  After I had my hysterectomy though something must have broke loose cause now I sweat A LOT.  It's good for my pores I guess LOL. 

After I canned the corn, I started sewing.  I almost have two quilt tops done.  Might get to work on them before the weekend and if I get the quilt tops put together I'll post some pics.  I'm on the last book (I think) of the Wheel of Time by R. Jordan.  He had died but made notes and another author worked on the last two books.  If you have never read his books, give it a try.  I really like the characters and it's getting really good in the last book.  Final battle coming up...

I'm really bored with food this week.  Do any of you have any good recipes?  Maybe I'm just tired of my cooking.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

I hate speghetti sauce...

well not really but maybe I shouldnt have been making sauce today cause the blender started to leak at the bottom.  I grabbed the blender container, saw that the bottom was leaking, ran to a bowl I had sitting on the counter and yes stupidly very stupidly unscrewed the bottom of it....sauce exploded into the bowl but didnt miss me.  It came to visit a while on the popover I was wearing...lovely just fantastic.  I threw it into the washer and am keeping my fingers crossed that the stains will not be there.  Hadnt worn that popover since the spring too.

But the sauce tastes good

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Wanted chicken escapee...reward

Just kidding about the reward although we did have one of the ladies make a run for it this morning.  Hubby woke me up and said one of them is loose and I need your help catching her.  So I whipped on some clothes and went outside.  He was talking to her trying to get her to come closer, no deal so I kind of herded her towards him and he caught her.  This is the second time one of the ladies decided to take a little take off ;)  The first time she went out the coop door and landed on the top of the run wire.  She was looking down at all the others "how did I get up here and how do I get back to you guys?"  Hubby was freaking out.  He was afraid that she would fly over the fence.  I dont think that any of them would.  They just want to be closer to us and dont have a problem going back in the run or anything.  Today the one that escaped (Matilda I believe but I was only half awake) flew out the egg box as hubby was trying to put in new bedding.  She was just doing her little chicken dance around the outside of the run like she belonged there. 

We have been getting one egg a day.  7 total so far.  The shells are pretty hard so I guess we are giving them enough calcium. 

Our blueberries are doing fine.  I am collecting them every other morning.  They are slowing down in production.  The pieces of garden hose are working really well to keep the birds away from the berries but dont seem to make a difference to the bugs which nibble on some of the berries.  I suppose they were thirsty since we hadnt gotten any rain for a while but they should stop because we did get rain yesterday and today.  I hung out clothes today thinking to get them dry before the rain started...WRONG...it poured on them but I just left them out in the rain since according to the radar the rain was supposed to stop before afternoon and it did.  Boy did the rain get them soft! 

I made some wheat bread today from the wheat that we ground yesterday.  I should say that hubby ground it and ground it and ground it.  It takes a while to get fine flour.  As I said I made bread but and here it comes...it didnt rise as much as it should have.  I was so discouraged.  Hubby said that he would eat it though anyway.  I cut it up a little while ago and tried a piece. It actually is pretty good even though it is really heavy.  I think I might have had my water a little too hot for the yeast.  I said that I would make more but didnt have enough flour to make another two loaves...hubby gave me this look, you know, the look.  I guess he didnt want to grind any more wheat...guess I'll wait another couple of days before I mention it again.  I would have ground some more today but my wrists are kind of sore from the kneading.  You had to knead for 15 minutes and then let it rest and then knead for another 10 minutes.  I'll toughen up though and be making bread out the yazoo in no time ;)

Hubby's co-worker brought him some more cukes along with some green bell peppers yesterday.  I went through my cookbooks and have found a cucumber relish that I am going to try.  Got some red bell peppers tonight at the farmer's market so maybe tomorrow I will make up the relish.  I had done relish a year ago but it was my grandma's recipe for green pepper relish.  Really good!  And very useful in other recipes.  You can make your own tarter sauce with it, use it in sandwich spread (Grandma used to use a can of deviled ham and add relish and mayo to it) and of course use it on hotdogs and hamburgers.  Yesterday I made up 5 pints of mild papaya salsa.  I had a can of papaya in my pantry that had been there for a while.  Dont know why I had it just did so used it up.   I have a couple of cans of crushed pineapple and found a canning recipe using that so will be making up some other "stuff"...

Hope everyone has a great week!

Talk to ya later,

Denise

Sugar Pie Farmhouse cookbook

http://www.sugarpiefarmhouse.com/blog

The above is a link to a new cookbook you can download.  So cute and she's having a special right now for 25% off.  Yes you have to pay for it but it has got great graphics!  I got mine and am going to be printing it out today!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

More new pics!

Ok first things first.

CLEANING TIP: The first pic shows my stainless steel sink. The bowl on the left I cleaned with Borax and the one on the right shows how stained it was. Pretty disgusting I know but its a good cleaning tip and I didn't have to scrub that hard. It looks like a brand new sink. I have tried Borax on the bathtub as well and it gets all the soap scum off.











The grapes in June.











These tigerlilies started to bloom. I thought they were dead. We planted them 2-3 years ago.









Here's my glads. I must have at least 8 of them blooming right now.













I planted some bulbs a year ago and thought they were not going to come up but they did. Don't ask me what this is though. Some type of lillies.











Here is Roxy and Penny playing in the kitchen. Ain't they cute?












First batch of blueberries. I put a nickel in the bucket so you could see how big they are.







and finally here is potato leek soup I made on 6/9. It was so good but I need to cut the recipe in half next time. We were eating this for three days straight and I even was eating it for lunch. Love the soup but not that much :)