Are These Peppers Hot?

What is it about days where there is a multitude of sunshine that just guarantees that I get a boat load done?

Today has been one of those days that is for sure. I was going to tell you the story about Me and Archibald Rogers but that will just have to wait for another day. Maybe tomorrow.

So far today I have
- baked 4 loaves of bread.
- done 5 loads of laundry
- roasted, picked and frozen 2 chickens.
- started a big pot of chicken stock.
- blanched and frozen green beans.
- blanched, peeled, chopped and frozen a bunch of tomatoes.
- vacuumed.
- pickled peppers.

That last one was what I actually wanted to show you before I go into the family room and die. Or have a glass of wine first and then die. I haven’t decided yet.

Last night at knitting KnitWit Rosie was talking about the large amount of Banana Peppers that her aunt had brought over for her.

Banana Peppers? I have had the hankering lately to pickle some banana peppers.

And so this morning KnitWit Rosie arrived at my doorstep with some lovely peppers, both of the Banana variety and of the OH MY GOSH THESE ARE HOT variety. We will get to those in a minute.

So I ran right over to the old computer and fired up the internet and found a recipe for Sweet Banana Peppers that looked like it might work. I knew that I didn’t want to process these, that I was just going to put them in a big jar, pour the brine over them and then stick them in the frig so it was not as big a deal as all the usual canning.

Ummmmmmmmm, don’t those look yummy. Loads of mustard seed and celery seed. When the brine was boiling it smell just like my Grandma Pringle’s kitchen in the summer. I momentarily went looking for the Cheez Its that she always had.

Sniff, no Cheez Its.

But there will be Sweet Pickled Banana Peppers once these sit in the frig for a couple of weeks. I am thinking they are going to be very good on hamburgers.

My mouth is watering. Aren’t you glad that you are there and not here? It isn’t a pretty sight.

And of course I had to use my favorite canning jar cap. I have officially cleaned Wally Mart out of their stock of these things. They are only stocked this time of year and I have more than once kicked myself for not buying more of them when they were available.

It hurts to kick myself for things as well as being rather difficult and not very graceful.

But I digress.

And since, after I had poured the brine over the sliced Banana peppers I had a boat load of extra brine I figured that I would just pour some over the other peppers that KnitWit Rosie brought over.

Cue music from Psycho

WeepWeepWeepWeepWeepWeepWeep

Now I was acquainted with one of the peppers that I dug out of the plastic bag. They are those little red chili peppers that pack some heat. But the other ones I wasn’t aware of. She thought they were called Black Pearl Peppers. Evidently they are USUALLY considered ornamental because they are 1. not that flavorful and 2. HOTHOTHOTHOT. KnitWit Rosie’s husband, DJ Dan, demonstrated that the other day when he decided to taste one. Nothing for the first 30 seconds and then agonized calls for milk.

Perfect. They should be really something after sitting in the pickling brine for a bit.

And I have just a bit of brine left. Now what should I use it one.

The mind boggles.

The Fondue Coma of Monday

I had other plans for the Monday post.

Big plans.

Erudite plans.

Ain’t gonna happen. Sorry.

You see, we went to a surprise birthday party last night for LookLeap.

It was the birthday that falls after 49 and before 51. You can do the math on that.

The Tech Guy made arrangements for 16 of us to surprise her at one of her favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot.

That would be a fondue restaurant.

And I am sorry to say that I am still suffering from a fondue coma. A serious thing to be sure. And if you could see all that we ate last night you would understand.

I have the pictures to prove it, having been the “official photographer”. And I am sure that later in the week I will tell you all about it, after I have edited the pictures.

But I just don’t have the energy to look at the pictures. I barely had the energy this morning to go to the grocery store and make a second pot of coffee.

My “elixir of life” FB/Twitter post for this morning might give you an idea of how I was feeling.

I ate my weight in fondue.
And bid my waistline adieu.
This morning food I'll eschew.
With coffee I will survive.

I am sure that I will be back tomorrow with something pithy and erudite.

But until then I am just going to go back to digesting the incredible amounts of food I ingested.

Who knew you could dip Rice Krispy treats in chocolate!!!

7 Quick Takes (Vol 132)

Another crazy week in the books. Another rambling Quick Takes on the way. You know the routine. When you are finished reading my ramblings remember to click on the pic above to be whisked, at the speed of the rapidly rising gold prices (I have been listening to too much Glen Beck) over to Conversion Diary to see what everyone else has been doing.

And now for the rambling.

1.
Let’s start with a Max the Wonder Dog update shall we.

I am afraid to say that we have finally turned the corner on the infection from h***. I have to say that he is better BUT….

He had to make another trip to the vet this week to see Dr. Jeremy. Max started on the gold plated (not literally but it just seems like it) pills last week and one would have thought that we would see immediate improvement.

One would be wrong.

So back Max went for Dr. J. to take another look. We have now added a combo steroid/antihistamine to the day and that seems to have made the difference.

We will see.

2.
It was canning central here at Chez Knit this week.

- 6 containers of tomato sauce (4 cups per container). I don’t have a pressure canner so those went in the freezer.
- Another batch of Tomato Peach salsa which equaled 5 pints.
- 4 pints of pickled beets.
- 3 pints of Lord Grey’s Peach Preserves using the recipe supplied by The Mom Chef. I am not sure how these are going to be in the long run cuz they just didn’t want to get at all thick. I had to boil for A. LONG. TIME.
- 2 pints of Peach Raspberry jam. I made freezer peach jam and peach/raspberry jam last year that was a pretty dismal failure. They didn’t gel correctly and when you defrosted them they were runny. So I defrosted all of them that were left, combined them in a pot and boiled the heck out of them. And then canned them. I had some on my toast this morning and it was GOOD.
- a big batch of homemade bread crumbs and a batch of homemade croutons. Those aren’t strictly canning but I just figured I would throw that in.

Funny, when I wrote this out I didn’t even realize that I wrote them all in descending order of # of pints produced.

3.
We have my favorite painting back. That makes it sound like we have a bunch of paintings which we don’t. We have a couple, Archie just happens to be my favorite.

This is Archibald Rogers in his pre-restoration state. Did I not mention that he has been gone from the house for a number of weeks? And my mantle piece has been empty. Devoid of painting.

Did I never tell you the story of Archie and how he came to us?

Tune in next week and I will tell you the WHOLE story with pictures.

I am doing my happy dance because he is back where he belongs.

4.
The last month or so has not been so good as far as bike riding is concerned.

Not good at all.

I really don’t love going out on my own, I can but I don’t love it. And HHBL has been VERY busy this past month with work and with prepping for the class he is teaching at one of the local universities.

But finally last Saturday we were able to get out on the bike for a morning ride. Of course, Saturday it was VERY warm by 8a and the humidity was hovering at about 75%. And for the first time ever…

I had a small biking crisis. We were about 3/4 of the way through the ride, past the biggest hills and coming up on the last short, small but steep hill. My nemesis really as I always have trouble with it when I really shouldn’t. And I hit a brick wall. HHBL was ahead of me and looked back to see me off the bike and bent over. What he couldn’t see was that I was retching and having difficulty breathing.

Not. Fun.

I had to stand there for a few minutes and just concentrate on not panicking. It was unnerving not to be able to breath. But after 5 minutes or so I was able to get back on the bike and go the last couple of miles (we did 15.2 that morning).

I learned a valuable lesson. I MUST make myself go out on the bike even without HHBL so that my conditioning doesn’t leave me. AND I really hate riding in very hot and humid weather.

5.
On Sunday our day will be filled with church and hopefully baseball (playoffs start Saturday, to play Sunday they must win on Saturday). As with most others here in the USA we will be remembering “where we were” on that day 10 years ago. Cartoon Girl and I had just returned from our daily swim, she was homeschooling that year, and I had placed a call to The Favored Cousin to say Happy Birthday. She told me to shut up, not unusual for her, and to turn on the TV. We worried all day about Pilot Man but he wasn’t flying that day. We also worried about bro-in-law, That Norwegian Guy, who was prepping to go to a meeting at the WTC where he had worked for many years. And little did we know that our friend, George Sleigh, was in the very heart of the storm.

The talk that George gave a few weeks ago, recounting what happened on that day, is worth watching. I have been unable to actually embed the video but if you go to the link below you can watch the video or listen to the audio it is worth the hour of your time.

George Sleigh 9/11 talk

6.
I continue to be obsessed with Pinterest.

Obsessed.

It is like my ultimate bulletin board, which is what it is meant to be I guess. And if I manage to make all the the foods I have “pinned” I am going to weigh a ton.

And there is no way that I will ever have enough time to make all the things that I would like to.

And why are so many people so much more creative than I am?

Sigh.

Now back to pinning endlessly.

7.
Do not try this at home. Or on the road for that matter.

But oh how I would like to just once.

Deb v Pantry

When Fall is just around the corner I seem to be infused with massive bursts of energy.

And also here at Chez Knit we are attempting to be more, how shall I say it…..

More deliberate about our eating. More intentional.

I intentionally ate potato chips today. They were taunting me and so I ate them.

Very intentionally.

But perhaps that isn’t exactly what I meant in that fist sentence up there that has now been swallowed up by thoughts of potato chips.

But I digress.

I have always been a cook. I grew up in a household where my mom cooked. And her mom cooked. And her sister cooked.

We cook. And we are good at it. Not as good as The Chef but then we didn’t go to school for it.

When the progeny were growing up I cooked dinner just about every night. Husband starting out as an entrepreneur means you don’t go out to diner a lot. And besides I liked to cook. And because the household was busy I cooked in a sort of “Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade” style. That meant that we had a lot of casseroles and things that had a can of something as part of the ingredient list.

And by no means am I saying that this is wrong. I am not Alice Waters thank goodness. But over the last several years I have gradually weaned myself away from using things from cans if I can make it from scratch. That doesn’t mean that I don’t it just means that if I can think a head a bit and have homemade chicken stock in the freezer then I can use that.

Where is this all leading Deb or are you just rambling down the path of blog posting because you really don’t have anything to say.

I have a point Your Honor!

Well then get to it.

What does my Fall burst of rearranging/reorganizing/getting ready for hibernation connect with our eating more simply and intentionally.

It means that today I reorganized the pantry. And since we all know that I am maybe just a tad competitive and anal retentive and uberorganized…….

Stop laughing!

The pantry needed reorganizing and I wasn’t going to let it get the better of me. It was me v the pantry and I was going to WIN!

That meant that I had to take everything out of the pantry. Clean all the shelves. Go through everything. Put some things in mason jars for easier storage. Get out the p-touch label maker and label more things (not that things aren’t already labeled). And then rearrange.

{{{{{{{{Shivers of joy}}}}}}}}}

Why did I have 4 packages of lemon jello? I am so confused about that. And then there was the small can of tiny shrimp that expired in 2004. Can you guess where that went?

But now everything is all finished and I feel so much better.

I moved all of the canned goods that I do keep in stock down to the lowest shelf and all the flours and sugars and beans and pasta and that sort of stuff to an upper shelf because I actually use them more.

All the home canned stuff is together. All the canning equipment is cleaned and put away. All the baking materials are together. Everyone is happy and living in harmony.

And I am beat.

It has to be wine o’clock somewhere.

A Labor of Cow Butts

Ah Labor Day weekend. You have come and gone for another year leaving only memories and extra pounds on my already ample hips because of all the “Fair food” that I ingested.

And the people! And the weather! And the cow butts!

Lets see how the day went.

I first have to tell you that the weather wasn’t all that good. The minute I stepped out of the car the rain started. And even though the thermometer had said to me that it was 68F outside it didn’t feel like that. The thermometer didn’t tell me anything about the wind. How rude. But we persevered onwards after parking our car in the high school parking lot and handing the cheerleaders our $3.

As usual we started with the buildings that have all the things like baked goods and veggies and bees. I am sure that the baked goods were very tasty last Wednesday when every entry had to be turned in. On Labor Day……I am not sure even the pigs in the swine barn would eat these.

There is one in every crowd. And usually it is the crowd that I am in.

Oh sir, why oh why did you dress this way. And the tattoo! Any closer of a picture and this would no longer be a family friendly blog.

And then it was on to the animal barns. And for some reason TMO and TSiL didn’t seem to want to hang with us. Was it something we said. Was it perhaps the pictures that I was taking?

Gnarly turkey butts.

The goat did not want to go quietly that is for sure.

I can’t help it if all the animals are pointing their posteriors at me! If they would turn around and look at me I would, probably, take a picture of the front end.

Look! It’s Sir Lambsalot.

Sorry, I just had to say it.

Of course we had to check out the Poultry barn where HHBL has to walk around and see if he can get as many roosters as possible to crow at him. It is his favorite part of the fair. Well almost favorite.

Someone seems to have laid an egg.

You know, watching this pig eat marshmallows got me to thinking. How does it sound to have S’mores with a slice of nice crispy bacon in them. I am thinking this is a definite possibility. The salty with the sweet?

Of course there are always a boat load of kids at the fair. And they all seemed to be in Crocs or boots. Of course it was cold and windy so I guess that makes sense.

And then, after we had gone through all the animal barns and looked at as many cows and pigs and horses and goats and rabbits and chickens and turkeys and llamas and alpacas as we could it was time for the annual fried food extravaganza.

Fatapalooza!

Onion Rings!

Gyros!

4H milkshakes!

Hey Pilot Man. I am thinking that these would be a very interesting idea for after you are done deep frying the turkey.

MMMM, Deep Fried Pickles.

Before we left I had to check out the fabulous Estonian wrap that my Knit Sib Larissa entered in the fair. The thing is a work of art and she was robbed. The woman who ALWAYS wins the blue ribbon won again this year. It’s a racket I tell ya.

And finally we had consumed fatty food and bought books at the Book Barn and it was time to go home. Where we collapsed in heaps and watched TV.

And didn’t eat another thing for the rest of the evening.

Maybe.

This Isn’t The Post You Are Looking For

I had something totally different in mind for today. This isn’t that post.

That post, telling you all about our annual visit to the fair, will come tomorrow I believe. I have to sit down and edit the pictures. That is really why I don’t have the “Fair and Cow Butts” post all done. It is because I have set myself the challenge of shooting only in RAW for the moment and that just adds some extra editing time.

Not that I am a perfectionist and overly competitive or anything.

Cuz I am not.

Really, I am not.

STOP that sniggering in the back there.

You see, when we have a holiday on a Monday it just messes up the entire rest of my week. I won’t know what day it is for a bit. Because Monday seemed like Sunday and Sunday seemed like Sunday too. So I end up doing my Monday errands now on Tuesday this week and everything is backwards.

And I just need a glass of wine and a good lie down.

Ummmm, where was I?

Oh yes.

So, I did my normal errands on Tuesday instead of Monday.

My day went something like this……..

Garden: to harvest the BEANSBEANSBEANS (we have so many) and tomatoes and beets (which I will be pickling and canning tomorrow). Thought about picking more basil, there is so much. But talked myself out of the thought.

Walgreens: to redeem a rain check for the Domino Sugar special they had last week but didn’t have any packages of sugar to sell cuz corporate didn’t send any. Aaaaaaaand the shelf was still empty.

Post Office: where I got there 5 minutes early (they open at 8:30a) so had to stand there and try not to make eye contact with anyone cuz that would then mean I might have to talk to them and all that.

Wally Mart: I needed to stock up on these things

These storage caps are the best thing ever and I never seem to have enough of them because I use a lot of mason jars for storing things like beans and oat bran and stuff. And the only time of the year that you can find them is right now. Oh and Max needed dog food.

Grocery store: where I did my weekly shopping. They were having a great sale on Hershey’s candy bar packs AND I had a fabulous coupon BUT someone had cleaned out the shelf of course. GRRRRRRRR. There was a very slow line at Customer service so I didn’t get a rain check there. Am nearly run down by an older gentleman using one of the electric carts that the store provides. He was going fast enough down the aisle that his thin and wispy hair was blowing in the breeze.

Local whole foods store: I needed coffee beans for the morning elixir. It is VERY BAD INDEED to run out. And I also needed a few more beets for the pickling and they had a sale. Plus I just love the smell in that store.

Second Walgreens: Where again they did not have any of the Domino’s Sugar. The clerk reminded me that the rain check lasts forever. I wanted to say, “Yes, I know but my coupons that go WITH the rain check don’t”. But I refrained. Walking out trying to remind myself that it is never a good idea to verbally abuse the clerk.

Another grocery store: where THAT shelf was also devoid of Hershey candy bars. It is most likely the Girl Scouts anticipating S’mores. But I did get a rain check this time.

Home around 11:30a.

Unpack all groceries and put stuff away.

Steam and peel all the beets in preparation for pickling and canning.

Go over to LookLeap’s house, 300 feet down the road, to show her how I make Tomato sauce. We had to open that bottle of red wine anyways to put some in the sauce so we had a glass to make sure that it was good enough to cook with. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

First Vet Interaction of the Week: Talk to the vet, Dr. Jeremy, as I am walking home. Explaining that those gold plated pills Max is taking don’t seem to be knocking out the nasal infection from H***. I am tired of the dog sneezing on the floor/walls/floor/carpet/my feet/anything in his path.

Take the dog to the vet for an impromptu visit with Dr. Jeremy and more medicine.

Finally home for the day at 4:30p.

I am just too tired to edit pictures. Or pickle the beets. Or make the Peach Preserves. Or blanch and freeze the green beans. Or finish the laundry.

Maybe tomorrow.

7 Quick Takes (Vol 131)

Whoopee! It is Friday. TMO and TSiL are coming for a visit. AND there are 7 Quick Takes to amuse the heck out of you. What could be better. So, after ingesting all of my blather make sure that you click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of fast approaching Fall, over to Conversion Diary to see what all the others have been doing.

1.
Max the Wonder Dog is now the most expensive pound dog in the world.

Last Friday he began his 6th week of antibiotic treatment for Chryseomonas Luteola. He had been doing very well. Back to his old self.

And then I heard it. A sneeze. And then I listened more closely. And I could hear that he was a bit on the snotty side in his mile long nose.

And sure enough, by Monday he was back to having nasal congestion and sneezing and GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

And so we have had to go to the “nuclear option”. Which costs about as much as a small nuclear warhead.

Here’s hoping this works. If it doesn’t then I am not sure what the next step is.

2.
I am making these things today.

Key Lime Yogurt Pies In A Jar.

You cannot see my face but I am already salivating. Thank you Pinterest for bringing these to my attention. I will take a picture or two to show next week. I actually went out and spent MONEY on these stinking cute little canning jars that I saw at Wally Mart.

3.
As we all know I walk with friends three days a week out at the local lake park. 2 miles around and we have lovely views, Great Blue Heron and stinky geese.

And there are others that walk as well. We generally see the same people at various times of the day or week. And when you see people, whether you know them or not you always say hello. You stop to pet the dogs occasionally. We are all neighborly.

It is the unwritten rule of Sunny Lake.

But it would seem that there are SOME that are unaware of that rule. This morning we encountered a fellow who was obviously there to take pictures. How do I know? The tripod and big ass camera were a dead give away. And he had on hiking boots and heavy socks. This isn’t the Himalyalas buddy. At any rate, he was walking towards us and as we drew even we all said hello, all friendly like.

He looked at us and walked on past. No hi howdy. No smile. Bupkiss.

If he had said hello I might have pointed out the Bald Eagle that had just glided overhead.

PFFFFFFT! Find your own dang Bald Eagle!

4.
The garden is really producing at the moment although some things are dying down. I have pictures but they haven’t been edited yet so that will be coming next week. I think that we have harvested all the cucumbers that we are going to. The vines are slowly dying. In fact LookLeap pulled up a good portion of them and planted spinach.

Ummmmmmm, Spinach.

And the Sunflowers. Oh they are gorgeous. I will show you later.

But we are picking a boat load of green beans every other day or so, there are loads of tomatoes, the beets are just about ready to be harvested, the basil continues to grow out of control, the broccoli is sending out side shoots and we have more new plants in the ground for Fall harvest, the carrots are sprouting, the acorn squash is squashing, the new zucchini plants are growing but we aren’t sure if they will produce anything yet. We are hoping.

If they don’t produce anything does anyone have some big overripe zucchini that I can have to grate up for Zucchini Bread?

And finally the parks department, which overseas the Community Garden, came in this week and mowed all the plots that had been leased but never planted. We think they got to the plots before all the weeds had time to send out seeds. However, that doesn’t help when one of the plots that is planted nest to you has almost spent corn stalks in it and is overgrown with weeds.

GRRRRRRRRRR.

Those people had better not be able to lease plots next year. The parks department SAYS that is what is going to happen but we will see.

5.
I am trying to set manageable photography learning goals on a weekly basis. This coming week I am confining myself to using my new 85mm lens.

Oh I love that thing. Love. Love. Love.

But it really makes me aware of what I am doing because I have to be the one to move and reframe shots. I can’t just stand there and zoom in and zoom out.

And I continue to shoot only in RAW at the moment to hone those skills when editing etc.

Man I love photography.

Oh and I finally am figuring out pre set actions for Elements. There are a boat load of them that you can download from the internet.

If only I didn’t have to stop doing photography stuff because I need to do those pesky things like laundry and cleaning.

6.
In the mail last Friday there was a package for me.

I knew it was coming. I had been haunting the mail box for days.

I grabbed the box, clutched to my ample and heaving bosom and ran inside.

I think I scared the neighbors.

I opened the box and there they were…….

It is so nice to have friends that are cooks/bakers/bloggers.

What are those luscious squares of gooey goodness you are asking yourself.

They are Raspberry Blondies made just for me by The Mom Chef.

The Mom Chef and I have known each other for a LONG time but I have to confess that we really hadn’t communicated for quite a while and then, I think, our mom’s said to each other, “Hey did you know my daughter has a blog!” They sent the links to their respective daughters and that was that.

We are bonded for life. BBFF (Best Blogging Friends Forever).

And I might have indicated that these bars looked particularly drool worthy (oh THEY ARE) and so she sent me some. I love this woman.

And in the interest of total honesty here.

I have to confess that we ate all of them in 36 hours.

And they were SO GOOD.

Go and get the recipe and make them right now. I am making them next week after I pick some raspberries.

7.
And just in case you missed it. This weekend is Labor Day weekend. And that means that Monday we will, along with TMO and TSiL, will be going to the Great Geauga County Fair.

And you know what that means…..

You do don’t you? We have talked about this before.

COW BUTTS!

And I seem to be getting a reputation because several friends who have already attended the fair have sent me pictures of said cow butts.

I am not sure how I should interpret that. And I know that there will be increased traffic on the blog afterwards because for some reason people seem to like doing Google searches with the words “cow butts” in them. I am not even going to contemplate why.

And we will also be ingesting our yearly dose of Elephant ears, gyros, onion rings and 4H milk shakes.

My arteries are hardening already.