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Monday, August 17, 2015

O, Fall, Come Quickly on Little Wing-ed Feet!



My view - the whole of my weekend.


My beloved Bread & Butter
Pickles

 
I really do believe the gods have a sick sense of humor.  Imagine all the tittering and sniggering as it was decided to make everything ripen and need to be canned during the dog-days of August.  I had a lot of time to ruminate about this and many other things, as I slaved over a hot stove for most of the weekend.  Whining aside, it was very satisfactory to see all the jars lined up on the counter (and the kitchen island and the dining room table and on top of Pepper's crate) by Sunday night.  I am most thrilled at my new cache of Sylvie's mom's bread and butter pickles.  I have been out since February.  It's not been easy.
 
I did manage to talk myself out of buying an entire bag of corn (55+ ears!) as it is finally dawning on me that I am a family of one (person).  I am going to can a couple of dozen ears' worth and that will have to do.  On Sunday, I made zucchini lasagna - nice thin, flat ribbons of zucchini taking the place of pasta.  I also used a package of frozen mushrooms, a jar of diced tomatoes and a jar of roasted tomato sauce, both from the pantry, a package of grass-fed ground beef, a handful of reconstituted diced onion from last year's bumper crop (thank goodness for my dehydrator!), homemade ricotta cheese, and topped of with dollops of last year's garlic scape pesto.  Delish!  Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending on your frame of mind) I also made fresh peach ice cream and peanut butter / banana chunk ice cream.  I had leftover cream that HAD to be used.  HAD to.  I may need an intervention.
 
Last week, some fairly violent winds made origami out of the shade canopy I used on the back deck.  It was the only thing that allowed me to actually use the deck.  I came home Thursday night and it was twisted like a pretzel.  After scouring the limited options in my rural neighborhood, I found a deck umbrella at a deep discount.  Noodling it around for a while, I finally bungeed it to one of the Adirondack chairs on the deck - a rather elaborate bungeeing job, if I do say so myself.  So far, it's remained upright.  A friend dropped by last night and we had a glass of wine bowls of ice cream under the umbrella.  It was very nice.  It is difficult, however, to remain cool when covered in furry beasts. 
 
Speaking of furry beasts, the flies have been gawd-awful the past few days.  The sheep and llama are especially bothered by them.  I found my jar of SWAT and trotted out to smear the Pepto-Bismol pink goo on their faces.  I thought Juno looked like a particularly fetching woolly Good 'n Plenty.  They were so miserable, they didn't mind.  Apria took some convincing - and six smooshed apples.  Flies have been sneaking into the house which causes the dogs to leap and snap.  It's been pretty exciting.


15 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

i feel your pain...my windows are being replaced and the workers are in no hurry to put them in after they take them out and my house is fly heaven. i don't think i am canning this year. there is just too much going on for me to tackle it right now.

Sue said...

I hate summer---every blasted part of it and the bugs are the worst.

I would just LOVE to see your animals plastered in pink goo. I imagine it's hilarious.
Hope it cools for you soon. We're seeing our last hot day in this streak today. Tomorrow---a fabulous 80 degrees. Relief!

Mama Pea said...

How come you didn't take pictures of your critters with the Pepto-Bismal faces? That would have been somethin' to see!

As usual, seems you got gargantuan amounts of tasks done over the weekend. That peach ice cream sounds especially desirable. I wouldn't even need a glass of wine if I had a bowl of that!

I may regret saying this (tempting fate, ya know) but our biting insects haven't been bad lately. Our hot, humid weather is supposed to break on Wednesday when 100% rain is forecast. And it's much needed so I hope it actually happens.

Erika keller said...

Mmmmm, I love my MIL's bread and butter pickle recipe. And I agree, it's not fair to have all the processing to do while it's so beastly hot!

Sandy Livesay said...

Susan,

PICKLES!!!!!! You've been very busy sweetie, I'm so jealous!!!! I haven't been able to make pickles yet.......plenty of cucumbers growing but no pickles yet. I may have to make a batch before heading back down to TX. Bread and butter pickles are my favorite, I make plenty of them, and no one in the house will eat them but me. Which means, I will have a nice stash just for me :-) (evil grin).

I don't care for this time of year when it's so darn hot, and the flies go after our critters. I'm sure your Pepto Bismal is doing the trick on getting rid of the flies. Yesterday while outside we had these large horse flies hanging around the garden. I believe I was able to kill them with the high pressure hose before they started biting. Package up your energy, and send me some :-)

Susan said...

Jaz - I don't blame you. I imagine calming Teddy's frayed nerves is a full time job!

Susan said...

Sue - You and me, kid. Next time I have a free pair of hands (as in other than my own) I will get a pic of the pinkies. We are in the midst of a heat wave. Boo.

Susan said...

Mama Pea - I was thinking that I ought to cut out the canning next year. However, I doubt if I could - it seems to be hardwired in! I hope you get rain. We need it, too.

Susan said...

Erika - My favorite pickles are dills, but - except for the refrigerator types - they are all soggy and unattractive. B&Bs are the best - sweet and tart!

Susan said...

Sandy, puss! :) You've had quite a challenging year, my dear. I am in awe of your upbeat mood after so many disasters. My energy tends to peak at about 2 PM and go rapidly downhill....

Fiona said...

I HAD to use up the blueberry preserves from last year....they were way to heavy to pack....Ralph sacrificed and stopped to get ice cream to go with them. We are debating getting an ice cream maker since we have little self control in the ice cream department! I am with you on the satisfaction of preserving our own food but it is hard to can civilized amounts for just two!

Susan said...

Fiona - Oh, poor things! I'll say preserves are heavy. If I had to pack and move now, I'd be living on mystery jams... :) I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker and I really like it.

Florida Farm Girl said...

Peach ice cream??? Where's my bowl? You've got me drooling.

Unknown said...

That's funny, pink sheep. I've got more apples ripening on the tree, happy. No canning for another week...

thecrazysheeplady said...

Yay summer (she says weakly and sarcastically ;-)...