Search Results for '("C'

[BakerAunt]

We have a nice green bean crop coming in, for which I am thankful since the farmers' market charges $5 per pound. Snow peas are not as prolific. Blackberries are ripening on our terrace, and today, I went to one of our woodlands with my husband and picked two scant quarts of blackberries. I am hoping to be able to make jam this weekend. I need a lot of blackberries, since I seed them.

Yesterday we went to our favorite blueberry U-Pick, along with my older stepson. We picked around 20 pounds. However, it turns out that inflation has hit there as well, and the total came to $72. (Gasp.) I have ten 4-cup bags of washed, dried, and ready to freeze blueberries. I have washed some more, which are now drying, with plans for a blueberry pie. In spite of the cost, my husband and I will go back and pick some more, so that we are set for the year.

We have two blueberry plants, but only one flowered. It had a bunch of 4-5 berries, and that was it. I did not bother trying to protect them, and the birds have eaten them. My husband thinks they did not get enough sun, but we got half a cup of blueberries last year, so I'm not sure that is the problem.

[Mike Nolan]

I have ONE tomato (a First Lady) that is starting to show some color, but the vines are still a lot shorter than I would expect for mid-July and while I see that some fruit that has set, mostly on the 4th of July plants, I don't really expect to see many ripe tomatoes until mid-August, at best, and that assumes that the weather gets cool enough at some point for fruit to set.

The two-week weather forecast shows just one day in the next two weeks (this Saturday) with a high below 90, followed by 11 consecutive days with highs above 95.

[BakerAunt]

I baked two loaves of Rye/Semolina/Whole Wheat Bread (adapting Len's recipe) on Tuesday. It is a favorite bread and in regular rotation.

I also baked Olive Oil Greek Yogurt Brownies.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--one of the venders at our farmers' market had a limited supply of black raspberries: $5 for a half pint, and they did not have many, since they face the same weather issue as we do. Your son must be getting a much better deal. I do not recall if it were four or five years ago when I had so many black raspberries that I even made 2-cup jars of jam. At the time, I thought that was the norm and had plans to can pie filling. If these recent weather patterns hold, those days may be over.

Dinner on Monday night was a lentil-barley-turkey-vegetable soup that I threw together using some of the broth I made yesterday, the potato water from the potato salad I made last week, carrots, celery, red bell pepper (from our garden), ground turkey, mushrooms, garlic, rehydrated dried onion, 2 cups mostly brown lentils although I mixed in some red as well, 1/3 cup barley, 1 Tbs Penzey's Bouquet Garni, a zucchini and turnip greens (both from farmers' market), and 2 tsp. cider vinegar to balance out the greens. We have enough for several meals.

[Mike Nolan]

My son in Pittsburgh has been buying flats of black raspberries, either at a farmer's market or from the company that does his farm share. I think he's bought 3 flats (of 8 cartons) so far. My guess is they're coming from nearby West Virginia.

He's made jam, jelly, syrup, and probably a few other things. He was infusing vinegar with left over pulp. The vinegar should be good for vinagrettes and sauces. I think he said he was doing some kind of black raspberry liqueur too. We're SOOOO jealous!

We got about 2 cups of black raspberries from the east side of the house this year, but that's more than we got the last several years, though some years we never got around to checking for them until the season was over.

We originally planted a few vines (2 or 3 at most) at the back of the lot along the fence, the ones there got crowded out, but the birds helped us out by spreading seed to both the east side and west side of the lot. The vines on the west side used to do very well but have also been crowded out these days.

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I made jam using black raspberries from our terrace and a few my husband gathered in the woods. It was a disappointing season for the berries, after a promising start, because we had too much very hot and dry weather. Some failed to develop and others dried up.

After crushing the ones that I have been picking, I realized that I only had 2 cups, and the low-sugar recipe requires 3 1/4 cups (usually I use at least 3 1/2 cups). I did not even have enough for the high-sugar version. I stopped work and went to the grocery and picked up a small package of blackberries and a small package of raspberries, which gave me enough for the low-sugar version.

I canned three (8 oz.) jars and one 4 oz. jar. I have a scant 4 oz. jar that I stuck in the refrigerator without canning. I think that the raspberries may overwhelm the black raspberry flavor.

On the terrace, the blackberries are turning red, so they should be ripening soon. We had two significant rains this past week, which helped the blackberries, but I am not counting my jam jars until the berries ripen.

[Mike Nolan]

I generally do sweet potatoes in the oven (my wife likes them, I do not), but regular potatoes using the 'potato' setting on my microwave. I put a little butter and salt on them and put them in a ceramic bowl with a plate for a lid. I'm told you can do the same thing with a sweet potato, but probably using oil instead of butter and salt.

Be sure to poke lots of holes in your sweet potato.

[Mike Nolan]

Too often bakery carrot cake has coconut in it, which my wife cannot stand. (If I buy Almond Joy bars, I don't have to hide them.)

[Mike Nolan]

When I make Irish Apple Cake, I work the butter into the flour by hand. (Darina Allen calls it 'rubbing the butter into the flour', a pretty accurate description.)

[Mike Nolan]

It's not true that it takes 30 carrots to make 2/3 cup of grated carrots, but it FEELS true. Actually it takes 2 carrots and 2 bandaids if you use a box grater.

These days I put carrots in the juicer (for making carrot vinegar) and use the pulp for carrot cake, freezing most of it. It's quite fine so the cake is smoother, though you still get most of the carrot crunch, just not as many carrot pieces stuck between your teeth.

I like raisins in carrot cake but not nuts.

[BakerAunt]

What recipe were you using, Chocomouse? Some work better than others. After I bake my crackers, I make sure that none are connected (cut apart with knife if needed), then slide them off the parchment and let them cool on the hot baking sheet. Make sure that none of them are touching each other, since a King Arthur tip once said that prevents their staying crisp.

I roll my sourdough crackers to 1/16th inch thickness.

[BakerAunt]

A few weeks ago, we found a 10 lb. turkey at the local grocery store for $1.34 a pound, bought it, and stuck it in the freezer. [Remember how none of us could find a small turkey last Thanksgiving?] I put it in the refrigerator to thaw when we went away on our trip, and it was ready to roast for Friday night’s dinner. I made the All-American Potato Salad to go with it (using green onion tops from the pot my husband is growing), as well as gravy from the turkey drippings, and we had microwaved fresh broccoli. Today was rainy and cooler, so it was a good day to roast a turkey

[Mike Nolan]

I think we're having tuna salad on a tomato tonight. We've got a big (12.85 ounce) tomato from the local veg stand that needs to get used soon.

[Mike Nolan]

They used a reamer fitted with a TV camera to see what the inside of the pipe is like.

The plumbers are going to do something to clean out the cast iron pipes under the house on Monday, that might help. The PVC pipes outside looked OK, except that they aren't totally level anymore (after 25 years) so there are some hills and valleys, though that doesn't appear to be where things are clogging up. Digging the outside line up to redo it would be a major job.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't know what we're doing for supper, probably picking something up. I'm dealing with some sewer backup issues in the basement--again, I just don't think I'm going to have energy or interest in cooking. (This is probably the 4th time in the last few years I've had to deal with sewer water in the basement, the expensive part isn't the plumber, it's the clean up service to do the floors and get under the hot tub with steam and sanitizers.)