One thing I do, when I’m sitting down to write an entry, is open a recent entry and copy and paste the code for the divider line – oh, it LOOKS all simple, but if I don’t put line breaks in there, things get too close to each other and I get all annoyed – from an already-posted entry to the entry I’m working on.
I opened Friday’s entry to copy the divider line code, and I glanced at the part where I’d posted the recipe, and for a moment I thought it said “Sweet Pickled Jesus.”
I cannot wait to use that line in a conversation. “Sweet pickled Jesus is it hot out there!”
I had what felt like a very busy weekend. Friday I blanched ears of corn that Fred had picked Thursday evening. I got them blanched and cooled, then wrapped each ear in plastic, put them all in a larger freezer bag, and put them in the freezer. That took longer than you’d expect, between the blanching, the cooling, and the waiting for the ears to drain, and I used up every bit of ice we had in the house.
(There may have been an afternoon nap that I just couldn’t seem to wake up from, also.)
Saturday, Fred harvested the rest of the corn, and I spent the morning blanching, cooling, and draining the ears. We left the house around 10:00 to do errands (Dollar Store, dropping off mail, buying feed at the Co-Op, browsing at Lowe’s, stopping by Publix to pick up lunch), and when we got home, I started cutting the kernels of corn off the ears. Now, I’ve always just frozen whole ears of corn, because it’s easier and they taste just fine. But we ended up with something like 150 ears of corn, and though we have a lot of freezer space, I didn’t want to take up all that freezer space with corn.
I had read, at some point over the winter, the idea of using a mandoline to cut the kernels off your ears of corn. I have this one, and it’s come in super handy this summer, I’ve used it a lot to slice squash for dehydrating. So I gave it a try with the corn, and it worked out really well. I spent a couple of hours running the ears of corn over the mandoline, and then using a knife to scrape all the left-behind corn goop off each ear. It was a pain in the ass, but when I was done I had something like 15 packages of 1 1/2 cups of creamed corn, ready for the freezer. In addition, I’ve got three dozen ears of corn in the freezer for when we’re having a hankering for corn on the cob.
I love the hell out of corn. Fred will eat it if it’s there, but I LOVE it. Especially paired with mashed potatoes!
What else did I do on Saturday? Oh, I sliced up a cantaloupe to dehydrate (we’re about to get a ton of cantaloupe from the garden and are looking to preserve it so that Fred can eat it all. I’m no fan of cantaloupe, but he loves it.) and I also sliced and pitted cherries he’d gotten on sale last week. By the time I was done dealing with the cherries, my fingers were stained purple and two days later they’re still stained a bit.
I’d intended to vacuum on Saturday, but that just didn’t happen. Oh, don’t give me that look – I’d just vacuumed on Thursday!
(Side note: I miss the hell out of my Dyson. I probably didn’t tell y’all, but I finally took my poor broken Dyson to the repair shop, and the problem turned out to be… something (I don’t remember what) that would have been way too expensive to fix. I’m currently using a Kenmore canister vacuum (one that we’ve had for five years), and I have to tell you that it does a fine job, but I hate the fuck sweet pickled Jesus out of canister vacuums because you have to pull the damn thing around like a dog on a leash, and it’s always getting in the way and making me want to kick it. I am noting VERY CLOSELY that the Dysons currently have five year warranties, and even though Dyson haven’t lasted very long for me in the past and I know that non-bag vacuums are no good for a home with 73 cats, I MISS MY DYSON, because everything else is clunky and heavy and annoying to me.)
When I got up Sunday morning, I did all my boring usual morning stuff (one day I’m going to capture the magic of my mornings in excruciating detail WITH PICTURES and y’all will have to bookmark it for those nights when you cannot fall asleep) and then I went outside to work in the garden. I got a ton of Sungold cherry tomatoes (they’re coming in like gangbusters), and then I had to pull up several tomato plants that were all blighty or dying for some other reason. Then I picked the jalapenos (which are also coming in like crazy) and THEN I went into my raised bed garden and started pulling up carrots.
I think I’m going to just give up on carrots. I like them well enough, but the thing I find annoying about them is that each carrot plants gives you (drum roll) one carrot. Unlike a tomato plant which gives you on average 3,794 tomatoes, you only get one lonely carrot from each carrot plant, and these carrots took for-sweetpickledjesus-ever to grow (I did start them early enough, but then there was this tornado and I had to replant and even though the directions on the packet claimed that they’d be ready in 60 days, they ended up taking more like 90 days), and I was a dumbass and didn’t thin the carrots once they’d started growing, so I ended up with all these tiny carrots, and fuck you carrots. YOU ARE NOT ALL THAT.
Then I cut a bunch of catnip off the catnip plants (I hear that they’re hardy plants and will respond to being cut back by growing even more vigorously) and I brought everything inside and started dealing with it. At some point, some catnip fell onto the floor, and all the ‘nipheads in the house (Spanky, Miz Poo, Jake and Elwood, and Sugarbutt) came running and had themselves a bit of a ‘nipfest. I bundled up the catnip I’d brought inside, and hung it in the hall closet to dry.
Probably the Brown Recluses will have a field day with it. I’m imagining them rolling them into ‘nip doobies and toking up.
I vacuumed, did Fred’s laundry, let the Spice Girls and Ciara out of the foster room, and took a shower. Then I sliced about three billion cherry tomatoes in half and put them in the dehydrator.
It’s my goal to get a gallon jar full of dehydrated cherry tomatoes before the tomatoes stop growing. I’m about 1/3 of the way there!
Then I started slicing jalapenos and made another triple batch of sweet pickled Jesus jalapenos. While I was waiting for the liquid to boil, I seared a pork roast and then put it in the crock pot.
Dinner last night was pork roast, boiled carrots, and tomato mozzarella melts. All grown at Crooked Acres (well, except for the spices on the roast and the mozzarella on the tomatoes!) and it was really really good.
And that was my weekend. How was yours?
When I first got the Spice Girls, Cori was a bitey little thing. She’d bite and bite with her sharp little teeth, and OH was it annoying (and painful). But she has turned into the biggest lovebug in the last couple of weeks. All she wants to do is sit on your lap and be petted, and she never bites any more. She’s a lovah, not a biter.
::thlurrrp!::
Clove and Ciara, playing with one of the many packing straps floating around the house.
Cilantro, biting the ham-mick.
Cilantro and Cori, fighting. (Also, we have too many shoes in this house.)
She’s ALWAYS giving me this look. Fred says she looks smug. I think she looks like she wants to cut me.
Sweet Miss Clove.
All fosters in this house eventually love to hang out by the back door.
No longer a tiny thing, Alice is on her way to being portly. One good thing, though – remember when we first got her, and she was always making that wheezing sound? And then we took her to the special vet so they could knock her out and stick a tube down her throat to see what was what? And they found nothing but a little scar tissue? Well, she’s not making that wheezing sound any more at all! Fred thinks it might come back in the Fall. We’ll see. At least she’s not sounding like she’s at death’s door any more!
Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: (This site does not condone stealing.)
2007: Did the Zodiac Killer curse them with doughy bodies, was that the unspoken conspiracy?
2006: No entry.
2005: Debbie: “Oh, right. I used to boil Brian’s nipples when he was a baby.”
2004: Hawaii.
2003: No entry.
2002: Y’know, I have way too much fun making fun of that man.
2001: Excuse me, he’s known about this closing for well over a month and still can’t manage to be on time? How self-important can you be?
2000: Fucking every time I drive through Pennsylvania it fucking pours down rain.
It was hot and humid (for the Mojave Desert) here, so I mostly lazed around. Glad we did Vegas last weekend when it wasn’t 100 degrees and raining and I had a weensy bit of energy. I also had a nap Saturday I couldn’t wake up from…New Moon issues? For me the New Moon is worse than a Full Moon. (Are those caps right?)
I admire people who have the discipline to keep gardens and grow food. Here in California, it’s easy to take easy-to-find-all-year produce for granted. If I had to haul my carcass outside to maintain a vegetable garden in order to get veggies, I’d live on canned food. The homegrown stuff always looks so yummy, though.
Even with only one pet, I’ve been warned (repeatedly) that it’s fairly likely that my Dyson will die about four seconds after the warranty expires. That’s gonna be a fun day.
Can you take a picture of the food you are dehydrating and putting into gallon jars? I want to see what that looks like. I don’t own a dehydrator–apartment too small!–but surely wish I did own one. Also, could you include your recipe for Sweet Pickled Jesus and maybe do a tutorial? Thousands of loyal fans want to incorporate that into their daily lives!
+1 on wanting to see what dehydrated cherry tomatoes look like – they must be tiny!
If you are looking for a non-clunky bagged vac, try Miele uprights http://www.mieleusa.com/products/models.asp?cat=1&subcat=2&menu_id=6&oT=28&active=Our%20Products&subm=Vacuum%20Cleaners&thirdL=Uprights
I’m getting one once I finally get sick of my Royal (http://www.royalvacuums.com/Commercial/AllMetalUprights/M1028Z.aspx)
The Royal is horribly powerful and amazing for our wool carpets, but sucks on the hard floors. It’s hard to push because it suctions so well. Mine is a hand me down from my mom who now has all wood, and I kind of love it for being a workhorse even at 15 years old, but hate it for being not-so-sgile and not having attachments.
Robyn, did you know cats luuurrrvve cantalope?
“I’m currently using a Kenmore canister vacuum (one that we’ve had for five years), and … it’s always getting in the way and making me want to kick it.”
We had Kenmore canisters and they were so heavy and awkward I DID used to kick them. Neither that nor sweet pickled Jesus hatred would faze them a bit, but my back would hurt for a day after dragging the thing around.
Recently we got a Miele canister and even though it has the same canister issues (why can’t they make canister wheels that ROLL OVER the cord instead of getting STUCK in it? why do all canisters head for the nearest furniture they can get snagged on?) it’s lighter and more maneuverable, has two suction adjustments which is nice around throw rugs, and it doesn’t make my back hurt.
So far I haven’t been tempted to kick it. I might even say I enjoy vacuuming, but that would probably be going too far.
For what it’s worth (and I have a feeling I may have shared this with you before), we use a turkey fryer filled with water to cook the corn we’re freezing. We set it up outside, and it keeps the kitchen from getting miserably hot and humid. It also reheats very very fast, so you’re not standing around waiting for the water to boil again. It’s nice to actually use the turkey fryer more than once a year. Actually between the two of us, my brother and I have three turkey fryers and neither one of us has ever fried a turkery. Just not my thing. So I guess it’s nice to use the turkey fryer…ever.
We use electric knives to get the corn off the cob. They’re super fast and I have yet to cut a finger off. I’m sure it’ll happen eventually, but not yet!
Saw this trick on Rachael Ray to slice a large quantity of cherry tomatoes in half: http://www.grillachef.com/2010/08/cherry-tomato-trick.html
I’ve got this vacuum: http://www.amazon.com/Hoover-Commercial-Portapower-Vacuum-Cleaner/dp/B001DCYRH6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1312203965&sr=8-5
You can just throw the strap over your shoulder and vacuum away. It weighs about 8 pounds but wearing it sideways seems to distribute the weight and won’t hurt your back. Works well on cat hair and comes with a really long cord so you’re not always plugging and unplugging to get from room to room.
Then I read the next paragraph in your post and thought you said that you had “blanched Fred’s ears”!!!!!
A friend of mine has a Dyson under warranty and when it broke, she took it to them. And do you know what they said?
“Do you have cats?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry, the warranty is void if you own cats.”
Apparently if it sucks up litter, it will die and they will not fix it for you. So I would really avoid getting a new Dyson if I were you. We use a Bissel with a bag that works great on cat stuff and only cost us $40 – I’d try something like that first.
That’s got to be bullshit: They advertise, and I quote, “Dyson DC28 – full-size and powerful bagless upright vacuum for homes with pets” (from the Dyson website). If having cats would void the warranty, they’d say “homes with dogs” or something similar. Not to mention that their literature/website mentions in NUMEROUS places how effective the Dyson is on “cat, dog and other pet hair from your home,” and I’ve just spent longer than I care to admit reviewing the warranties on their website and in PDF format in other places, and didn’t find one single mention made ANYWHERE about owning cats voiding the warranty.
I don’t know what kind of Dyson your friend had, but I have one, and have five cats (did have six until February), and have never had a problem with cat litter or cat hair or anything else making the vacuum die. Two-thirds of the time, the specific REASON I am vacuuming is because of cat litter, and never had a single problem.
Sounds to me like your friend got unlucky with a dealer/servicer who made up his/her own rules.
I bought my Dyson about… hmm… six years ago? A reconditioned unit from Amazon. Never had a moment’s trouble with it, except when I am lazy about picking up before vacuuming and have to wind up rescuing things that I didn’t mean to vacuum up but got too close to.
I’m with you-the look is much more cut-a-bitch than smug. Still lover her gorgeouness though.
Alice’s “figure” is looking like our Elphaba’s, my portly shortie torite
TORTIE FTLOG!!!!
A friend of mine used to own an office-cleaning company, and years after he’d stopped doing that, he still said he’d never buy anything other than a commercial grade vacuum. The standard consumer vacuums are designed to be run for a few minutes, a few times a week, and to look pretty or snazzy. The commercial grade cleaners are designed to run at maximum power for several hours a day, five or more days a week, and to provide the best cleaning power with the least hardship to the operator.
I don’t remember what brand he used and he was not in the US anyway so whatever he used might well not be available here, but he’d had his for absolute ages and said it showed no signs whatsoever of even slowing down. He used it not only for his home, but his friends and family would borrow it and he’d loan it out for the occasional weekend office-cleaning job or what-have-you. It cost a pretty penny up front, but by the time you consider the fact that it worked better, lasted longer, and was easier/healthier (ergonomically) to use, it was well, WELL worth the expense.
It’s something to think about – most appliances (vacuums, washers/dryers, etc) are marketed to individual consumers based on “sex appeal” – pretty colors, nifty lights, space-station designs, status symbols. But the stuff that’s marketed to industry is designed to do a LOT more work, and to do it better/more efficiently, and to do it with the least amount of negative impact on the user (employee). Companies don’t want to be buying new appliances every year or six months, even if they DO put as much wear into in those six months as the average household would put in over 40 years. They don’t want a cycle of laundry to take 90 minutes, or have to vacuum the same spot 3 times to get it clean – they want it done well and quickly. And they don’t want to have to pay worker’s comp claims because an employee lugged a vacuum around all day and put his back out, or strained herself trying to get that last sock from the bottom of the washtub. It’s not going to be the envy of your friends and family, it won’t look nice if it shows up in the Christmas photos, and you might not be able to put the baby to sleep right in front of it while you chat on the phone about how quietly it runs, but it’ll get the job done.
Everything I have right now is all consumer-grade stuff, but when (for instance) my washer/dryer go out, I *will* be replacing them with commercial-grade units. Given that it’s just me and my son (for a year or so more, then just me) and the animals, with luck it ought to be the last time I need to replace it at all.
Re: residential grade appliances – We’ve had great experience with Maytag washer/dryer. First set (harvest gold) lasted 1973-1997, including moves from Tampa, Florida-Glendale, Arizona-Huntsville, Alabama-Gilbert, Arizona; one service call (Huntsville). Units still in great shape/working order when we got rid of. Purchased new Maytag units 12/97 for our newly constructed home in Chandler, Arizona. Still ticking – no service calls.
Non-commercial Sharp upright vacuum (w/bag) purchased mid 90s in Huntsville; sill in use. Husband has replaced belt; re-installs right front wheel when it occasionally falls off. Other than that, is a workhorse.
Earlier this year I contemplated Dyson purchase, but can’t justify cost. Still searching for a riding vacuum; Cost will be justifiable.
Okay to steal your “Sweet Pickled Jesus” comment, but revise to “HOLY Sweet Pickled MOSES!” Works well, universally.