12 Hours in the kitchen

Yesterday I spent 12 hours in the kitchen. I made and canned tomato sauce, shelled and froze purple hull peas, froze green beans and lima beans, and baked a ham. Husband picked  plenty of banana peppers and I was going to try to pickle them, but I just couldn't muster the strenght and it was already 8:00 p.m. I brought them to work today for my coworkers to enjoy.
The garden has pretty much gone to weeds, we are having a really hot summer, heat indices in the 100s. It rained abundantly from the end of last month through the 1st part of this month. That got the weeds off to a good start, since we couldn't get into the garden and pull them without sinking into the mud. The squash bugs are decimating the tomatoes with their greedy little sucking activities.
We have picked about 10 canatloupe so far and 2 watermelons. I don't think the lima beans are doing very well, but the squash is still producing.
I guess it's time to start \planning our fall and winter garden.

Give Away

I found a neat giveaway on the Vintage Worksite web page. The prize is a wonderful garden seed packet apron, seed packet tote bag, seed packet pillow. All you have to do is leave a comment on their webpage here, about what you are growing in your garden or would grow if you had a garden. I enetered and the deadline is May 16th. Check it out!

Vera's gone

No more Vera....I gave up on the the sourdough bread with no added yeast. The 3rd week I cooked it and it was better, but I still didn't like the taste, so I threw Vera out. No sense wasting time and ingredients on something I don't like anyway. I will concentrate on making some bread in my bread machine and try to perfect that. So here I goooooooooo!

Homemade Bread

I read about starting a sourdough mother for homemade bread on a blog called MaryJanes Farm here. I made my mother 2 weeks ago and named her Vera after my grandmother. The first week I made the bread it didn't rise much, probably too new. This week I tried again...I'll let my video show you how it turned out.


As you can see, I don't know what I am doing!. At least I have a sense of humor and gave yall a good laugh. I'll try again next week.

Rain Finally!

It hasn't rained here in almost a month. Watering the garden is no fun. Dust and pollen are everywhere. My car is normally white, but lately has been yellow from all the pollen and I refuse to wash it....it needs to be rained on. We finally got a thunderstorm last night, but alas, my car was under the carport. Just my luck.

Anyway the garden was lookin good this afternoon. It seems to perk up after a little water from the heavens. The strawberries were happy.

The canatlope are flowering.

There are little green tomatoes on the bushes
The corn got a little windswept, but surely it will straighten back up.

Very glad for the nice rain.

Spring Fever

I've got a bad case of spring fever. I want to preserve and put up anything I can get my hands on. I want to bake bread and I just ordered a pressure canner. The garden is growing well and I just can't wait to try my hand at canning some of our produce.
I received a starter for some Amish Friendship bread a few weeks ago and made my 1st 2 loaves Sunday. They are really good. I think I will keep that going for a while and when I tire of making it I will freeze it for later use.

It's strawberry season here in Louisiana and I just couldn't help buying a flat. I have enough jelly left over from last year, so this year I made some syrup for pancakes and ice cream and maybe even I'll use it on shaved ice for a snowball. The recipe I used was in my ball blue canning book. I only used 5 pints and it made 7 cups.
I had lots of berries left so I decided to freeze them for using during the year. They can be frozen individually on cookie sheets and then transferred to freezer bags. That way you can remove just what you need without having to thaw the whole bag.

What you see on the top left side is what's left of my Amish Friendship bread...it's going fast..

We planted spinach and mustard greens kinda late this year and the mustards are alreay going to seed. So I am picking as much as possible before the really hot weather gets here. Here is some  fresh spinach we just picked.....yummy!!

I think I'll make a spinach and strawberry salad while the gettin is good.

Lake Bruin State Park

We had a wonderful weekend  at Lake Bruin State Park in St. Joseph, LA. With six of our grandchildren and my son and daughter- in- law, and 2 dogs, we had quite a crew. Our camper sleeps 7 pretty comfortably and we had a tent set up too. It was pretty cold at night and very nice during the day, except Sunday was kinda cold and dreary all day.

The kids brought their bikes and had a great time riding them to the playground. They brought the dogs with them and even had June climbing on the equipment and going down slides. She was soooo tired  at the end of the day she wouldn't even eat.

 

 

There were boats there you could rent (without motors), but my husband and son brought their canoe and kyack. A few of the kids wanted to go in the canoe, but most just wanted to hang around and relax. The lake is really pretty with cypress trees and several nice fishing piers.

Feeding the crowd was an ongoing chore, or um... adventure. We had jambalya one night, hamburgers and dogs one night, monkey bread and of course pancakes and sausage and hasbrowns for breakfast too. I even tried making a dump cobbler that wasn't half bad.

I even ran in to a dear friend from high school. Who woulda thunk!
All in all it was a very nice trip and I think we will try to make it an annual affair.

Signs of Spring

As I was working  in the flower beds yesterday , I came across definite signs of spring....finally.

A fine brown lizzard looking for some supper.

A sleepy green tree frog taking a siesta

A lazy yellow dog sunning her belly and snoozing.

Some fresh eggs in the nest box

And a curious hen...

 All wonderful signs of the spring and summer to come.

Race for the Cure 2010

Yesterday was the Susan B Komen Race for the Cure in Baton Rouge. My sister and I are both breast cancer survivors. We had a small group of family and friends join us in the 5K run/walk.

My husband and son cooked some good jambalaya. We raised $330 in donations from friends and family for research.

The weather was perfect and we finished the walk in about and hour and 15 minutes. What's that, about a 23 minute mile?  Not bad for an out of shape oldtimer like me!

I want to thank everyone for their participation, hopefully this awful disease will be a thing of the past and our children and grandchildren will not have to experience it.

My Son....the Marathon runner!!!

My youngest son ran his 1st Marathon yesterday in New Orleans. We got to see him at the 16 mile, 25 mile and finish line. He finished in 5 hours and 3 minutes...we are very proud of him.

After the race we went out to eat in the French Quarter at a place called the Oyster House.The food was O.K. but very expensive, as usual in that area.We were seated in the upper area and had to climb some long steep stairs.

 

The weather was gorgeous in the low 60's. The kids had a good time walking down Royal St.

Steve and his family stayed in the elegent old Hotel Monteleon on Royal Street.

Here are few pictures of the beautiful cystal chandeliers that hang in the lobby.

Garden Goings On

We finally dried out just enough to plow up the garden and get some seeds planted for our spring/summer garden. Dan plowed the damp earth (probably not dry enough) and rowed up some hills. We planted corn, potatoes, spinach, beets, onions, green onions, pole beans, cantaloupe, carrots, 4 early tomatoes (celebrity), 2 merliton vines, turnips, and mustard greens. We barely got it all planted when the rain came again. Gardening is hard work...I was really tired and sore even though I didn't do that much, only bending and hoeing a little bit. We fudged a little on the timing of planting the tomatoes, hoping it won't freeze too hard and kill them.

The young hens have started laying eggs!! Yipee!! We got four yesterday. Sunday, as we were planting the garden, Dan saw a chicken hawk diving at the chicken pen. We have it covered with chicken wire and he was trying to get in. The rooster was going crazy, running all around. We don't know if he was scared to death or trying to protect his hens, hopefully the latter. When the hawk saw Dan he he lit in a tree and then took off. Thank goodness for the chicken wire cover that Dan put up last year. We were losing chickens as soon as they were old enough to lay. We haven't lost any, since the wire has been up.

Snow in Louisiana!

It has snowed twice this winter. Unbelieveable in Louisiana. We got about 2 inches this morning. It is BIG Heavy snow, almost like ice, but it makes everything look so beautiful.

June found something hiding in under the snow and pounced on it...I don't think she got it.

More winter wonderland.

The ducks were flying out of this pond when they heard us crunching through the snow this morning.

No garden this winter!!!

Mardi Gras Pet Parade

Some of my grandchildren and my husband and I went to the Crewe of Paws Mardi Gras parade last weekend. Everybody brings their dogs, lots of them are dressed in costume. Some of them walk in the parade, but most just stand on the side and watch the sights. There was lots of barking and tail wagging. Here are few pictures of some of the sight.

Next year the kids want to dress up our dogs and walk in the parade. They threw beads and dog biscuits. We had a nice time.

I'm Back!

Been gone a few months....busy with Holidays and Vacations. We took a great camping trip to Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas for Thanksgiving. It was COLD and we couldn't stay outside very long. Hiked down to the waterfall, that was very physical for me, but I made it. So what if I couldn't walk the next week.

Christmas time was busy, but wonderful. I sang in the Midnight Mass choir and then Christmas Day all my children and grandchildren came for dinner and we had a lovely day. My birthday is in December too and I received a very special present from my grandchildren. They decorated an apron with their handprints and names. It's priceless to me.

January brought a cruise to the Carribean with my sister. We just returned and had a delightful break. We cruised on the Carnival Triumph to Belize, Isle de Roatan and Cozumel. The temperature was perfect, just a tad warm for me, the water temp was fine. We snorkeled in Belize and had beach time on Roatan and shopped in Cozumel. What more could you ask for?