Hippy Trick: Vinegar Bath

Alright, so it's not a great picture, it's from my crummy cell phone, but bear with me here.  If you've found this post, you have internet and that means you have to have heard of using white vinegar for cleaning.

But did you know how easy it can be?

I hate very few things in this word, but one of the is mineral build up, on everything, because I have city water.  The tub faucet, the shower head, the kitchen sink sprayer, even my big stock pots I use for waterbath canning.

Easy fix?  White vinegar!

The picture above is my sink sprayer soaking in a glass of white vinegar.  I don't have a pic, but upstairs, the shower head is wrapped in a plastic baggie full of vinegar.

Let it soak a couple hours, good as new!

As for the stockpot?  2 Tablespoons of white vinegar every time I waterbath.  No more build up!

Just as Easy as the Box Mac and Cheese

So, I had been doing really well posting recipes on a pretty regular basis, but as some of you may know, I've been dealing with some health problems - fighting with anemia and recovering from a related surgery.  I'm still a lot more tired than I should be most days, but I"m starting to get my feet back under me and the fact that the weather is starting to turn warm is a huge help.

Tonight I decided to make Dave mac and cheese, which I haven't made except out of a box since before my battle with anemia started.  And I think it's about time I shared the recipe.

I've often thought that a great mac and cheese doesn't need to be super complicated to be delicious.  So many of the recipes I've found online call for eggs and breadcrumbs and flour and so on and so on.  Now, I'm all for a crunchy crust on top or the addition of some bacon, but mac and cheese doesn't need to have 20 ingredients.  Without further delay, here's the recipe, which as I told Julie years ago, works just like the box stuff!

1 lb. of pasta (I like gemelli instead of plain elbows)
1 stick of butter
1 12 oz can of evaporated milk
4 cups of shredded cheese (I like mozzarella or a mix of mozzarella mild cheddar)

Prepare pasta according to directions on package,  Drain thoroughly.

Stir in evaporated milk and butter until noodles are well coated.

Add cheese gradually, stirring well after each cup or so until add cheese is added and mixed throughout.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

* Recipe can be easily halved, or doubled (I've done both.)

* Consider using Extra Sharp Cheddar for some bite with a little Monterrey Jack mixed to help it stay creamy.


If you find any other good combinations, please let me know!

We have KRAUT!

So a couple months ago, we went to the farmer's market and brought home more cabbages than I could carry for about $10.  (Seriously, Dave had to carry them to and from the car.)  We feed them through the shredding blade of the food processor, along with a half a red cabbage from my Mom, by way of my Gramma, with more determination than you can possibly imagine.

This was set to be Sauerkraut, Round 2.

The first batch didn't have enough salt, as best as we can figure and when it got a little mold on top, which in and of itself isn't really a problem - you just skim it off, the mold quickly got below the brine level, below the weighted plate in the crock and into the cabbage before we realized what was happening.

Now if you're not a fan of sauerkraut because you think it's gross, you can't imagine how disgusting it is when it gets rotten like that.  If you are a fan of sauerkraut, let me say, the blue mold was a sight to behold.  And did it ever smell bad.

So this time around, we added way more salt.  I mean, like a pound of it.  We checked on it more often, We skimmed the beginnings of mold off and checked it some more.  We skimmed more mold and checked again and I'm happy to say, that today when we took the weighted plate off, what was underneath was in fact, actually sauerkraut!  It's a delightful shade of pink from the red cabbage and very salty, but it's sauerkraut!

I'm really excited, and actually need to finish this because the waterbath is finally hot enough to can it up!

Final Totals:  14 quarts in jars and 3 more in the freezer.

It's Not Me, It's You. Really.

Dear Facebook-

It's taken me a long time to make this decision, but I think we need to break up.  I'm just not happy with you anymore.  I'm not getting a fair deal in this relationship, it's all give give give and nothing in return.  You've become that shitty friend, the one that no one likes, but you have to keep him around because there's a few specific people we really do love, that we can get in touch with, except through you.

You don't keep your promises.  I've told you time and time again, please show me my "Most Recent Stories".  I don't give a shit if 87 people like the picture my cousins posted of their kids last week, I want to see the picture they posted earlier today.  And you do let me switch, I get a notice and link asking me to switch back.

You're wasting my time.  I've been fighting to build up likes for my blog page, but you keep changing the algorithm so that fewer and fewer people see what I have to say.  I started that page so that I could post about my needlework with people who are interested without bothering the people who don't care.

And then there's the forcing me to befriend strangers just so I can pass time with a few silly games.  What if I just want to play a silly game?

Oh, and the wanting to use my stuff without asking.  I get that you make your money from advertising, but GET YOUR OWN DAMN PICTURES!  I don't want to you use my pictures for your purposes, but I can't keep in touch with out of state relatives without giving you permission to use my photos and artwork for whatever the hell you want.  Talk about being unfair.

Not to mention, the intentionally screwing with everyone's feelings all summer.  Or am I the only one who remembers the outrageous "social experiment" this summer.  Did you end getting sued over that?  Did your research partners get in trouble for violating federal standards?  Wouldn't know if you get your news from what people are sharing through you.  Scrubbed it from existence didn't you.

That being said, I can't just delete my account.  I have friends a zillion miles away that it's impossible to keep in touch with any other way.  I have a few people who like to read my blog (which doesn't get nearly enough attention since you came into my life) who don't remember to check, so I want to let them know when I update.  There's Skye Taylor's Art Forum, which is an amazing supportive place, and I'm not willing to part with that.

But I don't think you'll be seeing me post much.  I'd rather give my time to my art.  To some writing with a little more substance.  No more games.  I'll spend that time on writing some substance for my blog, painting and fixing things around my house and cooking fancy dinners for my sweetie.

I'll be checking in from time to time.  Not to see how you're doing ,but to catch up with the friends I can only talk with you around.  I'm sure you won't even notice I'm gone.  You're pretty self-centered.  Actually, you remind me a lot of my ex, and I don't need that in my life.

...and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

or more like a big guy with a ponytail.  lol.

Years ago, my Grampa planted a couple of pear trees.  One of them is a dwarf pear of some kind and the other is, I think, a variety of seckel pear.  But Dave loves pears, and apparently we're the only ones who want to see the pears actually get eaten.

So, we went up 2 separate afternoons, and with some help from my dad and my sister, we picked all the pears (although there were only about 6 on the dwarf tree) and brought them home.  We ended up with 5 grocery bags of pears.  Not produce bags, grocery bags.

We made 4 jars of brandied pears.  We made 4 1/2 pints of pear butter with orange and ginger.  We made 6 jars of spiced pears.  We made 5 more jars of brandied pears.  We made 7 jars of cinnamon pear jam.  We canned pears in heavy syrup and I made a pear betty.  Unfortunately, we didn't get through all the pears before they started going bad, but we got all but the last 2 dozen or so preserved.

We're pretty proud of ourselves.  It was a huge project and took most of our free time for almost 2 weeks.  We ran out of canning jars.  We ran out of lids.  We ran out of space in the pantry.

Recipes:

Most of the recipes came from this site - Oregon State Extension Office.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/fch/sites/default/files/documents/sp_50_678_preservingpears.pdf

Spiced Pears from Fresh Preserving 

Pear Jam from SUREJELL (we just added about a 1/2 Tablespoon of Cinnamon.)

Not that I expect you all to run out and get a whole tree worth of pears, but we are really enjoying these recipes, and in fact we just drank the leftover syrup from the brandied pears, and I thought I'd share them with everyone.

So, it's kind of an exciting week here.

I'm making plans to have a bunch of people over to make applesauce and learn canning basics late in October.

I'm working on plans to get a weekly Stitch N Bitch going.  I finally finished both of the baby afghans.

We're little by little getting some pretty major household projects done, and the sauerkraut seems to be working out much better this time around.

We've been out and about a lot and my work schedule has been pretty unpredictable, so there hasn't been much cooking happening, but at least we using things we've canned.

We need to decide what we're doing with our pears, too, so if anyone has any ideas, let us know.  We're thinking pear sauce and brandied pears, but I need to find out if I can preserve either of those because we'll have enough pears, until all is said and done, that we'll need to do something to save some of them for later.

Any ideas?  Let me know!

Bok Choy Fridge Pickles

We've been making loads of pickles this year.  Mostly cucumber fridge pickles.   Some processed ones.  A couple jars of pickled onions.  Then I saw on the Fresh Preserving Website...

BOK CHOY!

Bok Choy?  Really?  I like bok choy.  Let's try it.

So, I made it up as I went and this is what I got.

3 clean Pint Jars
1 head Bok Choy
1/3 tsp Chinese 5 Spice Powder (per jar)
1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper (per jar)

2 cups White Vinegar
1 cup Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Pickling or Non-Iodized Salt
1/2 piece Fresh Ginger Grated
2 cloves Garlic

Chop the Bok Choy stalks into roughly bite-sized pieces (save the leafy parts for stir fry!), and pack into pint jars, leaving about 1/2" headspace.  Add 5 Spice Powder and Crushed Red Pepper

Combine remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until boiling.  Pour hot liquid over Bok Choy in jars, leaving about 1/2" headspace.  Make sure to distribute garlic between jars.  Add lids and refrigerate for a few days.

Enjoy!