Isn't this a beautiful color? There are lots of them planted around where the old house used to be and they are all blooming now. I just love that there are already some flowers planted out here. One thing I don't have are flower seeds. I'd love to have some more color out here. But there are other things I would like to get planted first. Like fruit trees and a big asparagus bed. Of course it all takes money and I haven't got that dang money tree to produce anything yet! <sigh>
I'm as pleased as I can be about these past few days of prepping. With all the cucumbers from the garden I've been able to put up 3 quarts and 8 pints of Bread and Butter pickles.I have found a crispy dill pickle recipe that I'm going to get brave and try in a few days. I'm sure I'll have plenty of cucumbers to work with by then. We picked all the hot peppers that were on the plants the other day and I put up a pint of pickled peppers for Mars this winter. I'm hoping I can put some more of them up as well. I also made 6 jars of strawberry jam.
I just love homemade bread. I mean who doesn't? So toast with jam and a cup of coffee for breakfast makes me one happy lady! I'm gonna brag on myself here and say that this is by far the best jam that I have put up so far.
We brought home 3 New Zealand Rabbits. 2 Does and a Buck. (I'm so original- I named him Buck) I don't know what happened to the picture I wanted to show you of them. Oh well, I'm sure I will bore you with plenty more of them soon enough....
They are still to young to start breeding yet but that's ok. It's so hot right now that I really don't want to try just yet. It's just too hard on them. So by the time they are ready to go it will be cool enough. Then .... bring on the bunny stew! Here's a picture of Beaudreaux the Giant though! I'm starting to notice a trend in the names of the animals around here. Our dog's name is B.B.
Living in the country I knew that there would be "critter's" out here. I even knew that there would be spiders and snakes. That being said it doesn't mean I have to like them! Miss Kitty found a huge tarantula out here. That thing was bigger than my hand. And if that spider wasn't bad enough, Check out the critter we found her stalking. You know, I'm ok with spiders... they are creepy and all but I can deal with them. It's walking through a spider web that totally freaks me out because you never know if it is on you somewhere.
Snakes are a whole other story. They freak me out. A LOT. Like bad enough that I have been known to hurt myself trying to get away from them. I don't know what kind of snake this is. Just that it was about 2 1/2 foot long and really fat around the middle. Any idea what kind of snake this is?
Because while Mars was out mowing the other day he scared off one just like this one. The difference? It was at least couple of feet longer than this one.
It's still out there somewhere, so if you have any ideas on what it is, I sure would like to know.
~~~~~ Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~~~
A day late and a dollar short but as promised here is my recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles. This was also my first time using my Tattler lids. If you haven't heard about these boy oh boy are you missing out! These lids are reusable. As in you can use them year after year. They are a little pricey but you have to remember that you aren't having to keep buying lids over and over again. These are a great addition to your preps. There may come a day when canning lids are hard to come by. Check them out HERE
OK.... Let's talk pickles! I started with the cucumbers you see here. I didn't count them but I am pretty sure there are around 25 (more or less). I cut up the cucumbers into slices. Then I sliced my onions and put them in a big bowl. I added the salt and covered them with lots of ice. Then set them in the fridge for a few hours. This will give them the crispy crunch I like.
It's so hot here that I waited until after dark to start the canning process. I put my waterbath canning pot on the stove to get my water ready to boil. Then I rinsed off the pickles and onions. You want to make sure you rinse them really well or they will be pretty salty. You don't want that! I also got my lids and rings ready to go.
Next it was time to get my "mix" ready. I put the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, cloves and turmeric in a large pot and got it to boiling. Then I added my pickles and onions and let it get back to almost boiling. Oh, if you have never used turmeric before you might want to know that it will stain your cabinet top. So be careful with it. (Hmmm.... I bet you could use it as a dye if you like that weird yellow color)
I took it off the stove and started filling my jars. You want to be sure you get a good seal so be sure to wipe the tops of your jars. This mixture is sticky! Fill your jars up, leaving about a 1/2 inch head space. The Tattler lids are a little different than using regular canning lids. With them you put the rubber ring on and then center the lid. Tighten the ring on them and then back the lid up a 1/4 inch. Process for 10 minutes. Lift your jars out and put them on a towel. Tighten the rings back up on your jars and let them cool somewhere without a draft hitting them. Once the jars have cooled you can remove the rings. The only thing I don't like about the Tattler lids is that they don't "Ping" when they seal. You actually have to pull on the lid to make sure it sealed.
These pickles are best if you let them sit a couple of weeks. If you can wait that long!! I only had one jar that didn't seal. My guess is that I didn't clean the rim of the jar well enough. See the one with the ring still on it? That's the jar I put in the fridge for eating first.
Oh I didn't mention how yummy they are. I guess you will have to try them for yourself and see! Some folks add green peppers and garlic to their Bread and Butter Pickles but I don't. These are exactly like the ones my great grandmother used to make. Brings back good memories.
Bread and Butter Pickles
Ingredients
25 cucumbers, thinly sliced
6 onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup salt
3 cups cider vinegar (I used regular vinegar because I was out of the other)
4 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
Directions
In a large bowl, mix together cucumbers, onions, and salt. Allow to stand approximately 3 hours.
In a large saucepan, mix the cider vinegar, white sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, whole cloves and turmeric. Bring to a boil.
Drain liquid from the cucumber mixture. Rinse well. Stir the mixture into the boiling vinegar mixture. Remove from heat shortly before the combined mixtures return to boil.
Ladle into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace and waterbath process for 10 minutes.
And there you have it. Pretty simple really and it didn't take much time at all to do.
~~~~~ Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~~~
So many folks are scared to try canning foods. I think it is because of all the tales you hear about canners blowing up. I am here to say that the odds of your canner blowing up are pretty small. Your chances of hitting the lottery are better. Even if you are one of those folks, canning things like pickles, tomato's, jams and jellies isn't something you have to worry about. They are done by a different process called waterbath canning, which is basically boiling the sealed jars in a big pot of water. Tomorrow I'll show you how easy it is to make Bread and Butter Pickles even if you have never canned anything before! And I promise, they won't blow up!
We don't eat many dill pickles around here. I mainly use them while making tuna salad and things like that. I've never made dill pickles. For some reason I'm nervous about it. Have you ever seen the old Mayberry RFD show about Miss Bea and her dill pickles? That show scarred me. It got me worried about making good dill pickles. I'm going to have to get over that this year though. With as many cucumbers as we getting from 6 plants (Hey, I didn't think they would ALL come up) I'm going to have to learn this year. So here's where I am hoping some of you can help me out.
I need to find a really good crispy dill pickle recipe. I'd like to try one that you have had good luck with rather than to just try one off the internet and hope for the best. So it would be wonderful if you could share your "tried and true" recipes here. I'd be willing to trade you my yummy Bread and Butter pickle recipe for it!
Awww.... who am I kidding.... I've already said I'll share it with you, but I was hoping it just might motivate you to share. You show me yours and I'll show you mine! ^_^
I absolutely love bread and butter pickles. I've been known to sit down with a jar and a fork and polish off a half a jar few all by myself. I put up several jars two years ago and wouldn't you know it they are now all gone. I've been craving them lately. So yesterday I made a batch of them using the pile of cucumbers that just keeps growing in the fridge. NO, they aren't growing IN the fridge but you know what I mean! How do I know they came out good? Uhmmm..... I had one jar that didn't seal so I stuck it in the fridge. Once they got good and cold I just HAD to try them. They are supposed to sit for a couple of weeks to "cure" but there is still a half a jar are still some left for when they get ready to eat!
Anyway.... I actually started this post thinking I would share with you just how simple it is to make pickles. Who knew I has so much to say about them!
~~~~~ Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~~~
Today is the first day of summer. Around here it has been hot and dry for several weeks already, What with the wildfires and flooding around the country we have been luckier than a lot of folks.
The tomato's that have set fruit still haven't turned red and I'm not seeing any more fruit setting. They are still making blooms though so we'll see what happens. We've been getting a little rain off and on but not enough to be able to stop watering. A couple of weeks ago I started some cantaloupe, watermelon, and three kinds of squash. They sprang up in 3 days! It's pretty late to be starting them I know but I just wanted to try. Hey, if it works it works... If not I've wasted a small amount of seed. Anyway... Mars went out this morning and started tilling up another garden spot to put them in. I've got my finger's crossed that we will get some goodies from them.
Several months ago we had checked on satellite internet connections out here. It was (and is) available but they wanted $70 a month for the service. There are limits to the amount of bandwidth you can use as well. Needless to say that was out of our budget and so we ended up going with a wireless internet provider who charges $50 a month with unlimited bandwidth. The connection is slow and unstable at best. Watching videos and such is painfully slow but it is, as they say, better than nothing. I was truly surprised to get an email last week from the satellite company saying that our address had been chosen to participate in the Broadband Recovery Act. It was a part of some of the stimulus money spent in 09. They provide internet access to folks in rural areas who cannot get highspeed access through cable or a phone line. The cost? $40 a month for unlimited usage. Now I am sure that some folks are going to talk about how it's just another government program and that I should be ashamed to be using it. Say what you will, the money has already been spent and I qualify. I am going to take advantage of it. If that makes me a bad person- so be it.
I tried my hand at making Banana Pudding from scratch this weekend. I was pretty impressed with how easy it was. I also did something I've never done or even heard of anyone doing before. I'm not saying it hasn't been done, just that it was a first for us. I added strawberries to it! Oh so yummy! It turned out great too apparently because it didn't even last 24 hours! I sure should have taken a picture but I was just a tad late. By the time I thought of it all that was left was an empty pan.
Banana Pudding
Ingredients
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 bananas, peeled and sliced
1/2 (12 ounce) package vanilla wafer cookies
*** 1 cup sliced strawberries *** optional but OMGosh so good!
Directions
In medium saucepan combine sugar, flour and salt. Add eggs and stir well. Stir in milk, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly. This will take at least 15 minutes.When mixture begins to get pretty thick, remove from heat and continue to stir, cooling slightly. Stir in vanilla and butter until smooth.
In 9x9-inch dish, layer the pudding with bananas and vanilla wafers. Chill at least one hour in refrigerator before serving.
I would like to share a letter I received from a dear friend. She tells some of the best stories. All are told with an honesty that I personally admire. So I asked her if she would write something to share here. The following is the letter (and the story) she shared with me. I haven't changed any spelling, punctuation or content because I felt that doing so would "tarnish" this loving missive to her father.
Now mind you, me and my mama were never really close when I was growin' up. She ruled the roost and was the Boss- Nobody ever messes with my mama. Nobody. Grandaddy called her "The Judge".
When she said somethin' she meant bidness. She's a good fair honest woman, She just didn't know how to love. I think it was somethin' stemmin' from her childhood. She was raised like that in real hard times. You had to walk the line.
I always wondered if she really loved me cause so many times she'd say "I'd rather be at work than home with you darn kids." And she meant it. She was a professional woman, a nurse, and the best one in town. She loved what she did and they loved her. She just wasn't domesticated if ya know what I mean. Don't remember her ever washing dishes.
But life was good. Very simple and honest, But we made it. I know she loved me. She just didn't know how to show it.
As years went by my little Daddy did too. Now mind you , he was my heart. The very first man to ever hold me in his arms and tell me he loved me. I loved my Daddy. We could talk to each other without saying a word. It's true, when we looked at each other we knew what the other was thinking. So close we were.
When my Daddy got sick I worked during the day and stayed up with him at night taking care of him. My own family was put on hold for years so I could. They understood how I am and how much I loved him.
I'd crawl up in the bed with him and hold him, and sing to him and hold his hand. Watching Daddy suffer was the hardest thing I ever had to go through.I clung to him like white on rice. He was mine... that was my Daddy. Never in my life have I met a sweeter man. He was a war vet and that caused him much heartache in his life. When he first got sick he stayed with us and loved it here. He was so happy. Him and my husband would watch TV together. Daddy would pat my husband on the hand. You couldn't walk past him he didn't pat you somewhere.
Now mind you I was a normal kid .who I admit. needed a good whoopin' every now and then. I'll admit it, but Daddy only whooped me one time in my life. He said somethin' to me, and I was at that smarty pants age then. Honey, I put my hands on my hips in the yard and went ya ya ya ya ya...
Well....... in that instant I realized what I just did- And I took off runnin'. Bout halfway around the house he caught me. Don't you EVER run away from me. At that instant I was so sorry. Oh Daddy, I never wanted to run away from you, I always wanted to run TO YOU. You were my heart.
Oh, I didn't tell ya about mama coming up here stealing my Daddy from me cause she was mad did I? Yep, one day I had 2 Drs. appointments and she came and stole my daddy and took him back home. She didn't want my Daddy. She wanted to hurt me, and she did. Took me two weeks to get up the nerve to go see him cause I didn't want to deal with her- didn't speak to her for a long time after that. Daddy could not talk from the strokes, but when I got there and sat down in front of him he said just as plain as day - "What took you so long?" The whole house was in shock. I told him "Oh Daddy I didn't want this, she stole you from me. " And I had to leave him there cause she was the boss.
As Father's day approaches I think about all this and try to put feelings to paper. Maybe it will help me. I do appreciate her for quitting her job to care for Daddy. She didn't want to, and it really affected them, money-wise but she did it. She really DID.
I personally would have done alot different in his care, but she was his wife.
Now she is the one being cared for by me and I try hard everyday to show her what love is. And I know she misses him even thought she didn't show it, cause that's when mama started going down, after Daddy died.
When the sweetest man in the world leaves here and goes back to heaven things are never the same again. I've cried and cried and cried..
Been through alot cause I couldn't give him up - He was mine- How dare death snatch him away from me, I hate the devil.
I used to pack me a little picnic lunch and a blanket and go to the cemetery to talk to him. When I say I couldn't give him up I mean it, it was real hard that the death thief stole my daddy.
As time went on I became a little better and got stronger. But not being able to just bury my nose in Daddy and smell him is tough - Or not hearing his voice...
I wait on the phone to ring and hear him say "Hey Miss Burr". He named me Miss Burr and that's another story, I'll just give you a clue... I got bad hair and am real tender headed. When mama would snatch it and brush it and almost pull me bald headed, he calmed me just by looking at me through my tears and say "Hey Miss Burr".
Man I LOVE my Daddy.
So Daddy - I told you it was okay if you have to go cause you was hurtin' so bad. I told you I would find you where ever you are, and I will do that. Just as soon as I get there I'm lookin' for you . I can't wait to see you again and hug and smell you and hear your voice. I know just what you are gonna say....
"Hey Miss Burr!!" Oh Happy Day!
written by MissBurr
www.MissBurrsplace1.chatango.com
www.YouTube.com/MissBurr1
I just want to add a little something here. MissBurr now takes care of her mother in a hospice situation in her own home. She tries every day to show her mother the love that she feels for her. I just hope that each of us remembers just how special our own parent's are... Today and every day.
~~~~~ Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~~~
