The sore Old Lady, gardened blissfully unaware that more rain and thunder was on it's way. First with a little help pulling the rope on the roter tiller, she finished turning the new grown weeds ( the garden had been done almost a month ago, but the rains hadn't let her finish the planting. In fact only some of the tomatoes had found their new homes from the green house to the garden.) So on she went intent on getting the rest of the garden planted and without the ground turned the weeds would make looking after the garden next to impossible. Just as she reached the half way point in the garden she heard a noise and looked up, there was the neighbour from next door. Ed waved her away and took over to finish the garden. Poor Ed, was known around as the Friendly Giant.
Ed is about 6 foot 4 or so and pushing the mid 350's having lost about 50 lbs in the past few months. Ed hobbles as his knees give him much discomfort, but there was no way he would let a lady work like that, Why he didn't let Dot ( his wife) work like that and he wasn't about to let the Old Lady work like that either!
About that time the Old Lady's husband arrived home from his daily tour of the town. He was in worse shape than the Old Lady, and The friendly Giant. The friendly giant hobbled over and the two old gents sat under the car port sharing coffee that was brewing on the coffee pot that sat in the carport ( you know the one that's never off ...?). The Old Lady once they both were settled with their coffee went back to the garden and worked on and off for the next couple of hours. Satisfied that she had done what she could for that day she surveyed the garden, there were 21 tomatoe plants, Cobra's, Rudgers, Sub Arctic's . and some other unidentified that had been given to her, and she couldn't let a plant go to waste, why that would be sacrilegious! Then there was the short row of spinach, the three short rows of Spanish onions, the 10 gladiolas ( what lovely names they have, Chocolate truffles, and Can Can. Makes you drift off and see the girls dancing in the Yukon Follies, and eating lovely truffles later! )plus 3 zucchini > Finally the carrots, a lovely row of carrots ...... but that made the Old Lady realize that her memory wasn't as good as it used to be. You see her friend Gege stopped by and was heading to town and wanted to see if she needed anything or wanted to go. Well, this time she couldn't go, she needed to get this work done in the garden, but she didn't have any carrot seed or peas could Gege pick some up for her. and Gege obliged...... But it bothered the Old Lady and the put her thinking cap on, and went and checked a couple of spots and sure enough she found her carrots and planted them. Later Gege would come with more, and they could be planted tomorrow. Yes that's what she'd do she'd plant 2 rows and eat lots of baby carrots. Once that was done it was time to get a lunch on!
His Nibs had beaten her to the kitchen and was in the process of making corn pancakes, so she set the table, and they dined on lovely sour dough corn pancakes. Then the dishes went in the sink to soak, and the two Oldsters headed for
a well deserved rest break!
And that dear friends it the way my day went! Tomorrow is another day and there will be more gardening for sure. And this Old Lady will be up to her ankles in dirt!
Hope you all had a satisfying if tiring day too!

October and we've already had snow!

Here it is the 10 th of October and we had snow 2 days ago. Gardening is over for this year. I did manage to pot up some chives, a garlic ( for cut greens for my dishes over the winter) and a couple of walking onions. I also have a nice parsley plant that I brought in. They are all sitting on the window sill in the kitchen, the only good window in the house for growing plants.
We had a good harvest and many tomatoes, although it seemed they just did not want to ripen. I have lots in the back room just taking their time. Tina brought me several plants this year and they turned out to be yellow tomatoes. I only had 2 plants of red cobra tomatoes, and one heritage tomatoe that turned out red and green stripped! Most unsual looking.
Monday October 12 is our Canadian Thanksgiving. We will make our Turkey dinner on Sunday the 11th. I already have the Turkey out thawing, and I will cook potatoes ( mashed), and make dressing, gravy, cooked carrots ( from the garden as well as the potatoes),Cranberry sauce ( done with a little orange juice), and Coleslaw. We will not have desert. It will just be the two of us for supper, and I know us, we will both be stuffed with turkey and dressing! LOL.
There will be lots of trukey left for my favorite, Turkey sandwiches, then soup and casseroles. Should be just lovely.
Now summer is past, I should be back blogging a little more.
Come the 24th of October I am going to go to visit my friend Gloria, it has been years since we saw each other. We will get to visit from the 24th till the 28th. of the month. Then I will head home and she will head to her home in Victoria. I am looking forward to catching up with all her news and family.
Now I'm off to help bring in the wood to stack it up under the car port. It was all cut up and now needs stacking, we still have over 1/2 to split and that will be done next week, till then we will stack what's ready.
It is nice to have the wood heat in our colder than usual fall. We have had to have the fire going since September.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot to mention. Ron got an Elk, second day of hunting season. We have enjoyed some nice Elk meat he gave us. Ken is still looking. He hasn't gotten anything yet, but We are still hopeing he will.

Here is the garden as it is today. The Cosmos are all self seeded from last year, and transplanted into rows. The Rocky Mountain Spinach is quite easy to spot with it's burgundy leaves this is the first time I have planted it, but I will get seed from it this fall ( I hope) and plant it again next year. The leaf lettus is putting out really well. Just now I am using the lettus I'm thinning out for salads. There are lots of Tomatoes in the Green house, the 2 Cobra tomatoe plants are producing lots and we have had 5 ripe tomatoes so far, with another just about ripe. The tumbler tomatoes 2 plants, are just about finished. We have eaten tumbler tomatoes for quite a while now and are getting a soup bowl of tomatoes a day. Also in the green house are 3 Heritage Brandy Wine, and 2 sets of 3 tomatoes that I don't know what they are. They are tomatoes Tina brought over and she had mixed them up and couldn't remember what they were. The do look like the are indeterminate and are growing quite rapidly now. All 6 are in bloom. Also in the green house 4 tiny tims in baskets,and they are in bloom, 1 already has 2 tomatoes setting they sould be ready to take over when the tumblers are finnished. Then I have 4 green pepper plants blooming and 4 small hot pepper plants that have already set fruits.
The garden is producing enough that I am only buying my potatoes, large onions and mushrooms and fruit from the stores now. Otherwise it is the garden and what ever is ready. A couple of days ago we had the first picking of Chard.
A couple of disappointments so far this year in the garden. The radishes were wormy when I pulled them and so that was the end of the radishes. The regular spinach came up a couple of inches and went to seed! So that is a right off. But there is always next year.
If you have some ideas for the radishes please tell me, and I could put in a few more, otherwise I think I'm wasting my time.

July 11, 2009

What a nice surprise we had yesterday. Our good friend Glen from Rolla stopped by and stayed to visit till this morning! It was such a treat to see him and get all the news from our old home town. Glen helped us move down here 7 years ago. I have been back twice and Glen has been down twice, last time with his wife and 3 daughters, Ken got to see them, but I was away at the time to my Daughter's wedding. So missed their visit.

As luck would have it we had invited Jack to dinner and had bought some steaks ( a rare occurrence for us), I quickly went in the freezer and found a couple more small steaks and thawed them for supper Friday night. sliced potatoes and onions with salt, pepper and butter on foil made into packets and cooked with the steaks in the BBQ and a salad from the garden made our supper easy, and we enjoyed visiting on the deck as our supper cooked.
The salad was made with lettus from the garden, a few leaves of the Rocky mountain spinach, some green onions chopped up with the help of scissors, and tumbler tomatoes.
This past week we had some much needed rain, and now we are again having 30 degree C. weather in the daytime. However nights are still cool around 9C.
The garden has finally started to grow, and tomorrow I want to rototill between the rows, I hope it will be dry enough to do. The peas are flowering and I noticed a few pods forming. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, soon to be eating fresh green peas, put in new potatoes mashed. I love the peas added after the potatoes are mashed. Just raw peas, it's a treat we look forward to each year, sometimes made even nicer with some cheese mixed in with the mashed potatoes before the peas are added. Heaven in 1 simple dish.
Oh, and we have a new to us Jeep truck 4x4. Ken has been working on it for the past week, and has a little body work to do to it, and then it will be ready for painting. It will be white, with black on the bottom of the truck and the trim. Right now it is red. We have taken the canopy off the back for the summer, and Ken made side rails for it. This means we can haul more wood home in it, and also when we go in the bush Zoey can ride in the back and be safe. I must remember to take some pictures of the truck before it is painted, for before and after shots.

June 8th!

Where does the time go?
The garden is in and comming up, Tina and I waited till the 3rd of June to plant sensative things like the tomatoes, peppers and corn in the garden spot. Wouldn't you know it we got a touch of frost on the morning of the 6th! Some of the plants got a touch of frost, and the others are OK. I decided to just see what happens. If they make it fine if not those that don't can get a later planting of carrots, lettus and things like that.
This year I am trying Purple Mountain Spinach. My friend Erika , saved some seed for me from a plant she grew last year. I am looking forward to eating some, and seeing how it tastes and to also saving my own seed.
Makes for an interesting summer, when you try something new .
I will have to take pictures to follow the Purple Mountain Spinach's growth. More to follow ( and hopefully sooner rather than later!).

Crockpot Classic Rice Pudding

I was requested to post the recipe I use for Rice pudding on Pat Veretto's Frugal Living Blog. So i thought if I did that I should post it here too. We really like it. My new note to myself is that I use the shorter time for my new crock pot. It must be quite a bit hotter than my old crock pot. So that is the only thing I think other than what is written below that I should remark on. Just do it time wise for your own crock pot.

Crock Pot classic Rice pudding

Ingredients:
4 cups cooked white rice
3/4 cup raisins
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/4can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 can ( 12 Ounces) evaporated milk

1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground Cinnamon ( or to taste)

Directions:

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Mix all ingredients except sugar and cinnamon in cooker. Cover and cook on Low heat setting 3 to 4 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Stir pudding. Sprinkle pudding with sugar and cinnamon. Serve warm.

My personal notes.
Omit last amount of sugar ( for us diabetics)

Make own Easy Evaporated milk

11/3 cup water
1 cup of instant dry milk powder. Stir or shake to combine ( I shake it in a small jar with lid on tight)
This is the equivalent of a 12 ounce tin ( see above that's all that's needed!).
If you want to make Evaporated whole milk, you will need to add some fat to replace the milk fat in whole milk. Do this by preparing evaporated skim milk then adding 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the milk. Stir it up vigorously to emulsify The fat with the milk.

It will separate on standing, so mix it really well right before using it.
This is best used in cooking and baking. A spritz of nonstick spray will help the emulsification process.

Sweetened Condensed milk: ( from the Tightwad Gazette. the best one for taste and texture I've found)

1 cup instant nonfat dry milk solids
2/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
3 Tbsp melted margarine
combine all ingredients in the container of an electric blender . Process until smooth. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use Yield about 1 1/4 cups.

I just use this amount in the above recipe. Also I put water in a glass measuring cup, add margarine, and heat to boiling in the microwave. I have the other 2 items in the blender and then just add the water with margarine, and blend. Very easy.


Using these 2 recipes cuts the cost WAY down in making the rice pudding.

When I cook rice for supper I try and make extra, so I can make this up anytime.

March 1, st "Where's the Sun???"

It has started snowing this morning. After several days of warming weather and no snow. The back carport is free of snow on the roof, and here we get snow again. Fits with the past couple of weeks of happenings.

Starting with our good friend Jack. Jack retired early at 56. He decided to become a landlord to supplement his pension. Well, one of Jack's places is about a block from us. He rented it out right after he bought it last December, and the Tenants moved in mid January. They were buying the property next door to his and wanted to rent it out as it had more room and a full sized garage. This move meant they could pay less than the rent they were charging and use the difference to pay down their mortgage. Sounded good. The were well liked and had lived in the area many years ( well the lady had). Move to 2Nd week of January. The fellow renting the home with the garage was busted for selling and growing dope. marajana to be exact. The police took the lady renting Jacks place to Jail and interviewed her for 10 hours. and let her out to come home ( her Guy hasn't been seen for a while before this, but as he works in the oil patch that isn't uncommon). Fast forward to last Sunday.
The lady was away for the weekend. Someone phoned and complained to the police that her 2 dogs were barking all night, and that they didn't have food or water. They were tied up by the front door of each place. The police came out 5 of them and the dogs were taken to the vet to be check out ( they were OK, just hungry and thirsty). She came home Sunday night, In the mean time the Police got search
warrents and checked the house ( we had been phoned they were at the house, and Ken got Jack and drove him down so they didn't kick the door in). They also checked the 2 sheds as they were pad locked ( I can understand that I pad lock ours too!).
One shed had been rewired! to 220 ( I believe) they had both been wired 120.) All that in a month when the fellow hadn't been seen, plus in the other garage they found
a 4 wheeler and a couple of bikes- Motor- all stolen!). So now since she had given Jack notice when the other place was raided. Today he is getting ready for new tenants! Lets hope these ones prove to be just quiet living people who like country life.

Also last week Gege, Brenda and I went to Bonner's Ferry and Post Falls to do a grocery shopping, and Gege got her puppy his shots. ( I took our Zoey for shots Friday) so both dogs now have their booster shots.

Friday, Gege came to town with me and we did our local shopping flour being the main item at $5.88 for 20 Kg all purpose flour. About the best price we get now. Zoey of course came as she got shots. When we got home Ken had hurt his hand badly. He had been working on the Scout and the screw driver he was using slipped and went into his hand a 1/2 inch or more, right between the thumb and finger of his left hand. I wanted to take him for a Tetnis shot, but no he would be fine. Next morning, hand swollen he decided it was time to head to the Hospital. So 3 1/2 hours later he got his shot, and a perscription for strong antibiotics! Men, is there any real difference between a Man and a Kid? hmmmmmmmmm some times I wonder.

Most of the rest of the past couple of weeks has been quiet. I have been working at controlling our budget, and Dh suggested 2 meatless meals a week. I had to do a retake, this is the Meat and Potatoes King speaking. So my first this past week was breakfast for supper, pancakes, eggs over easy, and toast. with slices of tomatoe.
Grapes for the evening snack.

Tonight I am making stuffed chicken breasts ( bought on sale for 79 cents a pound), will stuff them with bread stuffing, and then a slice of cheese in the middle of the breast. coleslaw and a rice dish ( not sure just yet, but with chicken broth in it for sure.

This week I am looking for Men approved non meat meals. I think I will look for TVP and try using it in hamberger meals, I tried tofo a few years ago and Ken hated it ( I guess I just don't use it right as other people rave about it).

Oh, to be able to go out in the garden again and pick what we want for supper!