Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Holy hell. How did it get to be Tuesday already???? And where was I ???

  I've been in a canning warp, I think.  Let's see..the last time I posted was Saturday. Sunday I canned more tomatoes and salsa.On Monday I took a trip to Broom Orchard to see about peaches. They were outrageous...due to the price of gas, I'm guessing. 42.00/bushel this year for the freestone peaches. I bit the bullet and got them because they were gorgeous and I wanted to can some peach halves. Aren't they pretty?  I wound up with 10 quarts and 15 pints of peaches canned today. Our trees don't have much on them this year due to the bad storms during blossom time. The next batch that I get will be seconds from Calhoun County (a serious apple and peach growing area here along the Illinois River delta)...those are the ones I will freeze/can for pies and make jam from. They will be a lot cheaper (I hope). That will be sometime next week, I think. Tomorrow I will make Peach Pit Jelly. It's really good and uses up the peach peelings and pits to the very end of their usefulness. I love that.  lol  I've already got the pot of them cooking away..



  I have been freezing bell peppers, and a little okra. Getting ready to plant the second planting of green beans if the ground will ever get wet enough to get the seeds in. The Irishman has been cleaning up the beds of burned and battered dead plants. We are in our third week of record breaking heat. We have had more days over a hundred degrees than we have had since 1988...the heat index today was 116.  You can't do anything outside for more than about 10 minutes, the chooks are heat stressed, the dogs are heat stressed and the cats seem to be loving it. My front porch looks like a pet cemetery...all the cats laying around looking dead (and loving it), under the rockers, hanging off the rails...it's crazy.


I made a tamale pie today for supper in my electric skillet. Still haven't had the oven repaired, but I can manage for a while longer...property taxes are coming due and and had to replace my dryer and blah, blah, blah. It's okay. It makes me  do what I do best...IMPROVISE, BABY!!  lol  I wasn't real sure about the cornbread topping, but it cooked perfectly and all I did was add a little extra buttermilk to make it more easily pourable across the top of the ground beef ingredients. My husband loved it and ate more than half of it. He sheepishly said "It was really good--and I was really hungry!"  I think I'll put the recipe on my other blog...


 My 8 year old niece is coming next week to stay for 4 whole days. I am excited!!  I'm thinking up fun stuff to do...you know, the stuff old ladies need a kid to go do??  lol  I'm looking into The Magic House and the Butterfly House and any number of things going on across the river. I may see if she's interested in going to see the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield...she just might. It's way cool, and I'd love to go there again.They have a part where there's a holographic President Lincoln and some Civil War soldiers and it blew my mind when I saw it the first time.

 I am working an extra day this week to make up for the 2 extra days I am taking off next week. I am tired already, lol  It's been a long day and my feet hurt and my pantries are filling up, so it's all worth it. I worked on my canning workshop booklet today and decided to put in a section of finding the place for a pantry in your house. It's coming along...I need to get more disciplined and make myself work on it for a prescribed amount of time EVERY SINGLE DAY.   sigh...it's hard to learn discipline at my age. lol

  Looks like we are going to put in some more kale and some turnips and green beans and maybe one more thing. Husbandman is talking a big talk and I just sit by and nod.  We'll see what happens....stay tuned.



Namaste.


 

6 comments:

Petit fleur said...

I wish we were neighbors so you'd ask me over for supper, and I could actually go! :-)

Your food sounds so damn delish. And I cannot believe how hard your work canning and gardening and all the rest. Are you a teacher? Is that the work you do? I never really knew that part.

Oh yea, it is my belief that learning discipline is hard at any age! You CAN DO it!
xo

DJan said...

You accomplish more in one time warp than anybody I've ever known. And then I saw you wrote, "on my other blog." Other blog? My Gawd, woman, when do you find the time to do all that canning? Which also means preparing, peeling, cleaning up...

And you have a JOB? Hopefully it's not a full time one, or I am going to have a stroke, just thinking about your activity level. Sheesh!

Rita said...

Wow! You have really been on a roll. Knowing you have company coming probably pushes you, too. I know it does me--hehe! Altho--your niece might love a little canning and freezing stuff. ;)

I am better at improvising than discipline, too. Well, we've survived this long, right? LOL!

Sounds like hubby loved that tamale pie! Yup! Make that gardening worthwhile for him! ROFL!

I can just picture the porch draped with all the lolling cats. Why do most of them love the heat? Who can figure a cat.

I hope it cools down for you guys soon! Have a great day! :):)

the wild magnolia said...

Great looking peaches! Peach cobbler coming right up! I love peaches, who doesn't, right?

A full pantry, and you filled it. Great feeling I'm sure.

The heat is front and center in much of our country this year.

I'll be looking at your other blog for the recipe. Thank you.

Happy day.

Akannie said...

Little Flower~~I wish you did too! We could have us some fun, I suspect (not to mention lunches and teas and dessert extravaganzas!! How's Matt??

DJan-Take a breath, sweet girl...lol. With all that exercise and hiking, I'm sure a stroke is the last thing that will happen to you! I do have a sadly neglected food blog called Dragon Woman's Kitchen. And I do have a part-time (down to 25 hours a week) "job" sitting with an Altzheimers patient that the family is trying to keep home as long as possible. Not a lot of actual "work" but does take a chunk out of my day.

Rita!~~I'm looking forward to playing in the kitchen with Sky...she's kind of the granddaughter I never had. And the Irishman did like the tamale pie....it did cool down. Only 94 today!! lol

W.M.~~ It is a great feeling, knowing I am doing good honest work that will feed my family. Wholesome, real food that nourishes our bodies when we eat it and my soul when I grow and preserve it. And there is NOTHING on God's earth like the taste of those peaches on a bleak frozen February day...

Anonymous said...

Oh, Honey, that line about the pet cemetary just had me bust out laughing. Too funny!