[chocomouse]

I made English muffins today.

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Leftovers here, too! My husband had seafood and cauliflower salads, and I had a chicken thigh and steam pea pods. Then he had a huge bowl of raspberry ice cream, it looked just like the huge bowl he had after lunch earlier today. So the ice cream I made yesterday is almost gone!! I licked out the freezer bowl right after I made it; that's probably all I will get.

[chocomouse]

I made a quart of raspberry ice cream today. I made the custard yesterday, as I use eggs which need to be cooked, and then I chill the custard overnight. So today I got the ice cream maker going and when I guessed that the ice cream was about 10 minutes from being finished, I added a cup plus of berries that I had individually frozen on a cookie tray. I also added about 2 tablespoons of rum to the custard, to keep it from freezing too hard.

[chocomouse]

Happy Birthday, Mike!!

[chocomouse]

Dinner tonight was grilled chicken thighs with a Greek marinade, roasted potato chunks, and Cowboy corn and bean salad.

I'm so glad to hear you are OK, Joan. Valdosta was hit pretty bad.

[chocomouse]

I made 2 loaves of the KAF recipe for Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread, which I have made many times and we really like it. I skip the cinnamon and use oil instead of the butter. But it rises soooo high, like 6 inches above the sides of two 8 x 4 pans, and makes huge slices. Now I've made a note on my recipe to make it into 3 pans or 2 pans and a dozen buns.

[chocomouse]

I made dried fruit muffins, with the addition of lime flavoring. I used apricots, mangos, pineapple, cherries, and coconut. And topped them with lime streusel.

[chocomouse]

I use dill zucchini relish on my turkey burgers, hot dogs, all kinds of sausage links, etc.

I have found my Ball blue book, 1995 edition, but can't find my newest one; I guess I gave it away when I was downsizing my cookbook collection. I will make the basic zucchini relish recipe, and add dill seed to it; that seems to be my best option now. But first I need to use up my Amish tomatoes to make salsa. I can manage only one preserving project a day!

[chocomouse]

I used to grow Big Boys, and really liked them, but since I no longer plant 24-36 tomato plants, I stopped growing any beefsteaks and grow only Celebrity and Amish/Roma. We are finally harvesting some tomatoes! The Amish are huge, perfectly formed, and getting very red. The Celebrities are all cracked and splitting before they are ripe. Folks in my gardening groups are picking their tomatoes at first blush and letting them ripen inside. This is not my idea of a home-grown tomato, BUT this morning I picked a basket of large, perfectly formed, not-quite-red Celebrities.

In my 38 years of gardening here, this one has been absolutely awful. Too much rain and hardly any sun, interspersed with a few days of 90+ temperatures. Some seeds didn't germinate; some grew, all green, no fruit; some produced fruit, small, never ripened; most didn't produce anything until last week. I can't wait for next June and a fresh start.

[chocomouse]

On Thursday, I made 4 salads for our dinner: seafood, cole slaw, Cowboy, and cauliflower. The cole slaw was a new recipe, with a dressing made of orange juice, honey, and lime. I thought it might be a nice change from my usual tart-sweet dressing; it was OK, a little disappointing, and I probably won't make it again.

[chocomouse]

Thanks, BakerAunt. I got the recipe for Zucchini Dill Relish through Google, and I will look there again. The relish I made is good, tastes like a dill pickle, and was really good on my turkey burger the other day.

[chocomouse]

That's too bad, Skeptic. I cannot imagine being without an over for more than a day!

[chocomouse]

Now that the anti-biotic is working on my infection, I'm able to use my hand again so I'm back in the kitchen, cooking and baking! I made zucchini brownies and Grilled Asiago Bread Rounds today. This time I used a three-cheese blend of asiago, romano, and parmesan with lots of roasted garlic. I also used bread flour again, which makes them chewy but also easier to handle. We'll eat some tomorrow.

[chocomouse]

We had burgers -- beef for my husband and turkey for me, with corn on the cob.

I also made a batch of zucchini dill relish. I was trying to make something similar to what I buy in a jar at the grocery store - a sweet relish with dill flavor. But this turned out to be "dill pickle" flavor -- good, for dill pickles, but not what I am looking for. I'm thinking something more like a bread and butter pickle flavor, with lots of dill added. Does anyone have a recipe that might work?

[chocomouse]

Dinner tonight was quesadillas; I love this meal to use up leftovers, and it's quick and easy to make and to eat. We had a small pork chop left from a meal last weekend which I thin-sliced, along with sliced onions, peppers, salsa and shredded cheddar, on tortilla shells.

I've had what the physicians think must have been a spider bite, although they don't see a bite hole or any external marks/indications. It's probably from when I was pulling weeds in the flower beds last Wednesday. It led to an infection in my left hand, which is my dominant hand. My hand was swollen, very painful, and I couldn't use any of my fingers or my hand. I've not been able to do anything for 4 days! Now, an antibiotic is working, the swelling and pain are decreased, and I can actually hold a knife/fork again - gently. I am so grateful to the medical staff who diagnosed and treated this. If you get an unexplained, sudden swelling, get medical help immediately - it's likely a serious internal infection.

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