Observation Medication 7/15/11

WHEW!  It is HOT! 

I'm going to be honest today and tell you I haven't been outside much. 

Maybe it is aging, maybe it is global warming...

I don't know what it is, but it is just hot and I am not enjoying it.

What I am enjoying is the bounty that is coming from the garden.

Jason made pickles on Sunday from our cucumbers.

I have started freezing the green beans as they come in from the garden.

Jason's grandfather has assured me when his lima beans start coming in I can come over there and pick all we want.  (Kalib will be thrilled)

I'm hoping to can some tomatoes this weekend.  (There is nothing like opening a jar of homegrown diced tomatoes for soup when it is wet and cold outside or making fresh salsa from tomatoes that have flavor rather than from out of season tomatoes.)

We have a watermelon on the vine. (YUMMMMYYYY!!!!) Hopefully more to come.  We made Watermelon and cantelope juice last year and it was delicious.  You just puree it and then strain it if you don't like pulp.  You can add sparkling water to it if you want a little fizz too.  Talk about refreshing a sweet.  MMMMM makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

I've got the ingredients for fresh pesto on my grocery list, so I'll be making some pesto to freeze sometime during the week.  (You know, in all the spare time I have.)

We've (well, Kalib) has started taking clippings from the herbs we use in teas and cooking and they are starting to dry for us to save for the year.

My kitchen is in a constant state of MESS, but its a good mess and one I can definitely live with and enjoy.

Fresh vegetables?

OH! YES!!!! 

And best of all, we've been able to share our abundance with friends!

I grew up eating fresh vegetables or canned vegetables from the garden, so to have them flowing through my home to feed my children brings me immense pleasure and satisfaction. I hope it makes my parents feel good to know their love of growing food when I was a kid has filtered down through me. 

I appreciate the work that goes into growing good food and my taste buds appreciate it even more. 

There are few things in this world as good as a ripe tomato straight off the vine.

We've got to make some plans to go pick blueberries!  Blue berry pie in winter?  PLEASE!!!!

One day, all these blue berries Jason has around here are going to really begin bearing fruit and we are going to be covered up in blue berries.  I say, bring it on!

Have a great weekend.

Try to stay cool and hydrated! 

See you  on Monday!

yummmmmm....

On Wednesday morning, Kalib and I made chocolate chip crepes from this recipe and had them for breakfast.  Can you say YUMMMMMM??????  They were made with whole wheat all purpose flour and eggs from our lovely chickens, then when they came off the skillet we sprinkled some chocolate chips down the center, rolled them up like a burrito, poured some syrup over them and conquered them.  Holy wow is all I can say.

We can't eat them too often or my belt line will definitely need some attention, but wowzers they are certainly a yummy treat!

india's thanksgiving cake

Most of you know India loves to bake. It's a good thing I don't have a super sweet tooth (I seem to have a salty tooth) as she's always up to something in the kitchen either here or at my mom's. She wanted to bake a cake for Thanksgiving, but with my mom unable to stand for long periods of time in the kitchen she couldn't plan on making the cake with my mom. She's always done most of her cake making a decorating at my parents for no reason other than all the cake decorating stuff is over there. They have a ton of different tips and colors and mostly everything one needs to decorate a cake and they both took the cake decorating classes together, so it is just this thing they do together. This time, India was on her own. Thankfully, my dad was willing to bring us all the cake decorating items and I took India to the store to buy what she needed to make her own icing and cake. Let me just say right now, I think this is the best cake she has made so far. I don't know if it is because she did everything on her own. I didn't help at all (she didn't want my help) and Jason wanted to help, but he almost messed it up, so she scooted him out of the kitchen also. The only person allowed in the kitchen was Kalib and she wasn't all that patient with him either. She set to work early Wednesday morning by baking the cake. Wednesday night after she got home from the library we had pizza because we wanted to give her as much time in the kitchen as she needed. I was worried about her mixing up the icing because my mom told me it could cause my mixer to overheat (it almost did when she had to mix up a second batch - I need a standing kitchen aid mixer - or India needs one). I kept going back in the kitchen to check on it, but India, of course, had it all under control... She did a great job and my waist has grown because she made my favorite icing, butter/cream icing. Thank goodness the cake is almost gone now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins or maybe some oatmeal cookies next... (I think I may be developing a sweet tooth)

Be sure to check out the awesome aprons the kids are sporting - my Christmas and birthday presents from my mom last year... (HANDMADE)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a strange holiday to me, I'm grateful for it for reminding people we should be thankful, but something I don't really get is why we have to set time aside each year to be reminded to be thankful. Shouldn't we be thankful everyday? I've been watching posts on Facebook all month long and people writing the things they are thankful for and I have noticed that a lot of people who are usually complainers have found plenty of things this month to be thankful for, so why not challenge yourself to find something to be thankful for 365 days a year and let's celebrate how great life is on Thanksgiving. Few of us have less than we need and most of us have more than we need yet we still manage to spend a lot of energy complaining rather than celebrating what life offers us. No one has ever said life was easy. It's not supposed to be, but when we put our energies toward being grateful for all that we have - even if it isn't much, we bring so much more into our lives. I try each day to find something to be grateful for. I'm not saying it's easy, but try it and see if life doesn't seem so much better? Now, onto my post...

For Thanksgiving this year we went to my parents house. My mom recently had her knee replaced and wasn't able to stand long enough to make a Thanksgiving meal and my grandmother is no longer able to cook giant meals like Thanksgiving. They have always had a traditional meal and this year they were going to go to Cracker Barrel. We usually stay home on Thanksgiving and the whole cooking thing is usually a huge family affair and we don't usually have turkey we usually have something less traditional. We don't typically gather with family so that we can carve out our own family tradition with just the four of us, but this year, I went all out wanting to give back to my folks. I've never made a turkey of any size before. I think one year I bought a boneless turkey that was already stuffed and seasoned and I don't remember it being all that good. This year, I did my research and settled on this recipe. Kalib helped me with the brine, but he wasn't too into touching the turkey (can't say I blame him on that one) and that 12 pound turkey submersed in water barely fit in my refrigerator. Jason got up with me at 6am the next morning (EARLY for me) to help me get all the veggies cut up and the turkey washed and stuffed and into the oven. We were trying to give it plenty of cooking time to have it ready for lunch. The goal was to have all the food done and on the way to my parents in time to eat by 2. My turkey was done at 9:30 am - I was of the impression turkey's usually take 5 or 6 hours to cook a turkey - evidently not - at least not mine... We got up early for no reason, but it turned out all right because we were able to get the potatoes in the oven earlier and we were able to eat at 1pm. I also made roasted sweet potatoes along with yukon gold potatoes - this was my favorite thing I fixed. I made collards fresh picked from the garden, asparagus, green beans with almond slices, mac n cheese, a loaf of fresh bread and India made a cake. My mom wanted to contribute, so she made stuffing. The food was so yummy and my turkey turned out to be delicious. It was a good day and my parents were super happy they didn't end up at the Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but they just prefer the tradition). I'm glad we ended up doing what we did. My parents bend over backwards to help us out and they are such an important part of our lives. I'm glad we were able to give something back to them... not to mention we have so many left overs that I haven't had to really cook since Thursday.

sherbert anyone?

Kalib wanted French Toast for breakfast, so before going to bed I put the ingredients of bread into the bread maker and let it do the work for us. French Toast is one of Kalib's favorite breakfast treats, but we rarely eat it because everyone else doesn't LOVE it. Before I could even make breakfast, I had to jump up out of bed and head to the grocery store for cake fixings. Kalib wanted chocolate cake, with strawberries and homemade whipped cream. While there, India picked up the fixings to make strawberry sherbet. Can you say YUM?!!! We got home, I got breakfast made and cut strawberries while cooking. India worked on the cake. We got that into the oven and ate and India went to work on the sherbet. She's been looking at the recipe for weeks now and planning when she was going to make it. For those of you who read my blog and don't know - India loves to make deserts. She loves baking cakes, cookies, she's been making fudge regularly... she is a desert chef in the making. She collects desert recipes in her cookbook notebook and picks one every few days to try out. Thank goodness for my waistline I don't have a super sweet tooth, so I usually try whatever she has made, but seldom eat very much of it - even though it is usually awesome. She got it mixed up and into it's first stage of cooling and we headed off to Jason's grandparents for an afternoon visit. When we got home, she was all set to put the sherbet in our ice cream maker and it wouldn't come on. Wouldn't you know it? She was fretting. The sherbet had already been in the freezer longer than it was supposed to be (couldn't be helped - it was Kalib's birthday after all) and now no ice cream maker. It never occurred to me that it might not come on seeing as we haven't used it in YEARS... She called my mom in hopes she would bring it out, she called Jennifer Bray in hopes of us running over there to pick one up, but she ended up calling my grandmother who happened to also have one, so she took off across the yard to get it! For almost an hour the ice cream maker churned - it was really loud, really really loud - and we all had a taste of sherbet before bed. We had all had so much sweet food between Saturday and Sunday, we just couldn't eat it, but it is delicious and we're looking forward to snacking on it and there's enough for a few more days. So, what is so exciting about this sherbet? Well, it's made from scratch with no preservatives and you can taste the goodness - it has very little sugar AND we got to use these lovely bowls I found recently that Jason and I got as a wedding present- nice crystal pudding bowls. Way to go India! Another desert we all love made with love. We can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

french toast

I love french toast and Kalib loves french toast, so sometimes when it is just the two of us, we make it from scratch, starting with the bread. J and India aren't big fans so it is a rare treat for Kalib and I to have it - not to mention it takes forever because I make a loaf of yummy bread in the bread maker - no store bought bread for french toast in this house - if we can help it of course.

We planned on having french toast while India was sleeping over at her friend Casey's house, so just before bed, I put all the stuff into the bread maker and let it do the work for me (have I mentioned that was one of the best kitchen appliances I have ever bought for us?)

Then we mix up the batter and get out the skillet and soak our fresh bread in it and throw it on the skillet.

and then, we eat it! MMMM so good! Best French Toast EVER!