Things are definitely winding down. During the slow, winter months I may change to posting every other week or so since there isn't as much to talk about.
1. Plant something- No, but I did package up and stash away all my saved seeds from the garden this year. We're still in the planning stage of herb garden and a few other raised beds for food production next year.
2. Harvest something- peppers, basil and the last, lone tomato- that is the last we'll be getting until spring. We had a hard freeze and then snow on Saturday so we are officially DONE for the season. We're expecting a visit from my parents this week bringing us apples and a few more winter squash.
3. Preserve something- dried a few hot peppers and made some pesto for the freezer.
4. Waste not- the usual, not much exciting here. Recycled, composted, reused and repurposed as much as possible.
5. Want not- lets see, picked up a few winter squash from the local pumpkin patch that will go into storage. Stocked up on coffee and a few pounds of cheese. We eat a lot of cheese and I'm trying to decide if I want to try freezing some or if we will eat it quickly enough. I'm leaning toward just leaving it in the fridge.
6. Community food systems- We visited a farm about 10 miles down the road. They have a pumpkin patch and the children picked out pumpkins and I picked up a few other winter squash. She had some "Cinderella" pumpkins that I would have loved to get but I refrained. I would have wanted to save the seeds and I'm sure she didn't keep them separate enough to prevent crossing with others that were there.
7. Eat the food- Lots of pesto and stuffed peppers. I had hoped to get a little chard for our lasagna last night but even it didn't make it through the freeze. J15 and I have been experimenting with a variety of vegetarian recipes. V declared that what the bean loaf needed was bacon. sigh. But it was tasty tonight as leftovers with egg noodles and mushroom sauce.
I12 is the latest at our home to succumb to illness. He came home late (his bus broke down and they had to wait for another) made some soup for himself before I even started dinner and was in bed by 630. Definitely NOT normal for him. K9 has begun to cough so he is probably next. Evidently, even though there was no testing and only a few kids showed respiratory symptoms, officials are calling the outbreak at J15's high school H1N1. Who knows.
NO,NO,NO,NO AND NO!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO US!! EVERY TWO WEEKS IS NOT GOOD! WE ENJOY HEARING ABOUT THE KIDS SCHOOL PROJECTS AND WHAT YOU COOK AND JUST EVERYTHING...YOU JUST CANT DO THAT...FOR PETE'S SAKE!!! JUST WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???!! YOU BETTER RE-THINK THAT.....DEBBIE
ReplyDeleteYou know, I was thinking the same thing, knowing that this is my day to post my IDC update... there has been a lot on the storage/preservation front, but planting is basically out, as is harvesting many things. I don't know, I guess I'll just go as it goes. Stuffed peppers sound good - what do you stuff them with?
ReplyDeleteFreezing cheese, I've never heard of that. Interesting - have you ever done that before? Different cheeses freeze differently, right?
I've frozen cheese and it hasn't turned out well. It gets dry, crumbly and has an odd texture. It may just be the type but I've not had success. I prefer to just store it in the fridge and cut off any mold it it eventually gets that far.
ReplyDeleteLOL!! Debbie- I'm not planning on not posting at all, just my IDC posts.
ReplyDeleteMangochild- I generally stuff hot chilis with a combination of cream cheese and cheddar- but I've got a bunch of bell peppers that I was thinking of stuffing with a rice/tomato mix. We'll have to see.
Ed- I've heard mixed messages about freezing cheese. The biggest complaint is that it gets crumbly- which makes sense since the ice crystals would fracture it. I've used frozen shredded cheese in the past and it worked well since it was generally used for pizza. Of course the stuff on really good sale is in the big 1.5 lb block. But I suppose I could shred it myself then freeze it. I'm just not sure I'm up for that much work.
Judy
Oh goodness I hope you will do more posting then every couple of weeks. College Community has some cases of the h1n1 flu...A friend of mine her daughter has it..I have heard that you can freeze cheese but it won't be the same...you can use it in cooking..We are big cheese eaters to. I would try small pieces of what ever cheese you may want to freeze and see how they turn out instead of a big chunk.. A cinderalla pumpkin what does it look like?? Does it have green stripes?? We picked up one at a pumpkin farm and like what it looked like and I also picked up winter squashes. I have been craving for different squashes this year...Yummy...
ReplyDeleteHope every stays well for you and the kids...
I've had very good success freezing cheese - mozzarella is the best probably followed by cheddar. Colby is the worst given that it ends up very crumbly - I wonder if that has to do with the processing/forming. I think hard cheeses like parmesan might work as well. We buy ours in bulk from the local co-op and then place several blocks in a freezer bag. That seems to cut down on freezer burn.
ReplyDeleteAs for H1N1 - get some elderberry syrup and a good homeopathic like gelsemium or oscillococcinum. The first being the least expensive of the two and was very instrumental in 1918. In addition to lots of rest - a good amount of sweating always helps. Sounds crazy, I know, but we've had fantastic success in the past. Oh...and a wet sock treatment (soak wet cotton socks in warm water - with lemon if there's a fever and then cover with wool socks...sleep overnight that way) which again sounds like one of those crazy things, but our ND swears by it. :0)