Good grief. Is it pumpkin spice season already? Is there no product that is not marketed at this time of year without pumpkin spice? Coffee creamer. Pancake mix. Syrup. Oreos. Cookie dough. Chocolates. Candles. And of course the ubiquitous muffins, lattes and breads. Even if I liked pumpkin, this is just an onslaught. Every year!
Tell me what you like about autumn. (Or don’t like.)
I decided many years ago that I was tired of wasting garden space on pickling cucumbers, and I was tired of making pickles. This year, Husband had some cucumber plants leftover from the Church veggie garden and planted one in our garden at home. All the resulting cucumbers went along to the food pantry with the rest of the Church produce.
That wily cucumber vine grew about ten, well concealed cukes under a bushy tomato plant, and Husband thought they were the perfect size for bread and butter pickles. He found a nice refrigerator pickle recipe, so at least I didn’t need to process them in the canner. We had all the necessary ingredients except for Pickle Crisp, calcium chloride granules that, well, keep pickles crisp. This turned into quite a search.
We searched in Cashwise, Family Fare, Walmart, Tractor Supply, Runnings, and Menards before we found some at Ace Hardware, the very last possibility.
Once Husband starts searching for something, he never gives up until he has exhausted all options. He was apologetic but determined, since he really wanted to make pickles. They now sit in jars in the downstairs fridge, pickling and crisping up, for two weeks before we can try them.
What lengths have you gone to find something you needed? What are your favorite pickles?
I’ve decided I’m not cooking for two any longer.
When YA was younger, it was easy. She wasn’t picky and she ate whatever I put before her. In fact, telling her that she liked something the last time I made it (even if I hadn’t ever made it before) would convince her to try it.
As she’s gotten older, she’s gotten much fussier. It seems like a combination of things: now she can whip up anything she wants at the moment and she has to “be in the mood” for certain foods. This means that things she would have eaten happily as a child, she now might or might not eat. Even something she says sounds good on Sunday might go uneaten on Monday or Tuesday.
Cooking is not a chore for me, but cleaning out the fridge is. And as I’ve wanted to cook more during pandemic and she has wanted to eat less of things I cook, I’m spending way too much time dumping stuff that hasn’t survived its imprisonment in Tupperware.
So I made the decision last week that I’m going to really focus on cooking for one and if I mess with a recipe and it turns out nicely, I’ll write it down. And if I make too much, I’m going to gift some of it to friends and neighbors right up front. I will probably still do the occasional dish that I can pretty much guarantee she will eat (raclette, chili, lasagna, baked potato soup) but for the most part I’m cutting her loose. I’ll doubt she’ll notice.
On Saturday I made some Tuscan Olive Bread – intent on giving one of the two loaves away. Unfortunately even as I was slavishly following the directions, I completely missed putting in salt. It’s not bad dipped in olive oil, but not good enough to give away. Then I found a fun Deep Fried Cauliflower recipe. No breading and very nice. I put half on my plate for lunch and while I was in the living room, YA gobbled up all the rest, right out of the Tupperware on the counter! Hopefully I’ll have better luck this week.
Do you eat food that’s past its expiration date if it still smells and looks fine?
I’ve started reading Snopes.com again because some of the stories flying around are just begging to be fact-checked. Yesterday I discovered the Lionel Richie and Tyra Banks have teamed up to create a new ice cream flavor.
Points awarded since I KNOW who Lionel Richie and Tyra Banks are – lots of news stories I see online these days are peopled with folks I’ve never heard of (and frankly, don’t WANT to ever hear of). The ice cream is called All Night Long and is vanilla with crumbled cookies, caramel and little chocolate fudge hearts. Apparently Tyra Banks has an ice cream line called Smize Cream. Who knew? I had to look up Smize – something to do with her signature smile when she was on that model show. I won’t be trying it any time soon as they only way you can get it is to have it shipped to you or to live in Los Angeles. I am not paying shipping for ice cream. Not moving to Los Angeles either.
Reading about this reminds me of when our own Beth-Ann won the Kemp’s Flavor of the Year contest with her Mini-Donuts Ice Cream (back in 2013) and when we all got together to celebrate and to try it out. I know that they only do the flavors of the year for 12 months, but I’d love to see Mini Donuts come back. I’m not even sure that Kemps did a flavor of the year this year or last?
Do you have a favorite ice cream? If you had an ice cream named after you – what would it be?
Clyde sent me a reading recommendation – 52 Loaves: One Man’s Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust by Wiliam Alexander. It’s the year-long journey of a man trying to make the perfect loaf of bread.
I was a bit leery. I’ve read quite a few of these “set yourself a journey” books in the last few years. Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Julie & Julia by Julie Powell, Tolstoy & the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch – to name a few. While mostly enjoyable, it started to feel like a fad to set yourself a year-long challenge and then write a book about it. And I was a little worried that after about 8 weeks of bread baking, I’d be ready to toss the book in a 550-degree oven. But I’ve never gotten an unsatisfactory reading recommendation from Clyde (well, except for that Death by Rhubarb), so I picked up Loaves and read it through.
It was quite nice. Just about the time you never wanted to hear about air holes and crumb texture again, the author would veer off on a related (or not so related) topic such as the history of pellagra, the maker of the Quik Lock – that little plastic bit that hold a bread bag closed, building an oven in his backyard, a trip through the streets of Morocco. He does eventually make what he considers a perfect loaf; interestingly enough it’s when he ends up teaching some monks in France how to bake. And then at the end of the year he realizes that his single-minded pursuit of that loaf of bread had really kept him from enjoying his kitchen and lets it go.
I used to make more bread. I have several bread cookbooks and even two bread machines (long story) but these days, bread just doesn’t get eaten fast enough around here. One of my favorites is a thick, moist oatmeal bread but YA doesn’t like it much and I can’t eat it fast enough before it spoils. Maybe I should just find a neighbor that I can foist a half loaf on every time I bake!
Any bread stories out there? Make your own or have a favorite bread bakery? Knead by hand or with a dough hook?
My stomach is just now starting to feel “normal” after four days at the Fair. I don’t go to the fair just to eat but I will say that a lot of eating gets done anyway.
YA and I always purchase two of the fair coupon books and we go through them carefully. This year YA put post-it stickers on the things she didn’t want to miss. And we both spent time on the fair website on the “New Fair Foods” page. YA takes this much more seriously than I do; on the last day we went together we had a map with all the places she wanted to make sure we got to marked in red!
Here are some of the things we consumed:
I know this seems excessive, but remember it was over four days. And two of us. But while I love the fair, I don’t think my digestive system could handle too many more visits!
Any guilty favorites when you’re out and about?
Both YA and I love to spend time at the Pet Pavilion and Dog Meet/Greet booths at the Fair. The other place we always hit is the Stunt Dog Show that features dog dock diving as well as some trick dog demonstrations. It’s amazing to me what they have taught these dogs to do.
I’ve had dogs my entire life but for most of that time, I didn’t think much about tricks. All my dogs went to basic obedience but the basics for me have always been sit, down, come and off. Growing up my folks never even did basic obedience. YA’s dog, Guinevere (who has issues) has been to a LOT of obedience, mostly just to have her around other dogs and people. Because of this we’ve managed to teach her some tricks (roll over, double dance, shake, high five, bark) along with the basics.
Growing up my folks never even did basic obedience with any of our dogs so “tricks” is outside of my experience, although one of my dogs as a kid was really smart. Princess (named by me when I was 5) was a shepherd collie mix who came to us as a small puppy. My mom and sisters and I started to call her Princess the Wonder Dog after she was gone because my father’s stories about her just got wilder and more inventive. He used to tell folks that she was so intelligent that when he told her to go get his slippers, she would run upstairs and come down with them. Of course the only problem with that story was that my dad never wore slippers in his life!
Princess did actually know one trick. If you had her sit and stay, you could put a treat on her nose; she would sit patiently until you said “OK” and then she would deftly toss the treat up a bit and then catch it. We didn’t ask her to do this much, but she could do it – no exaggeration from my dad needed. So when the elementary school that my middle sister and I were attending had a family fair with a pet contest, Sally (said sister) really wanted to enter Princess and have her do her one trick.
Sally, who was in the 3rd grade, practiced with Princess for several days before the fair. She packed up bologna, a really high value treat; she was convinced that Princess would win hands down. When the time came for Princess to strut her stuff, there were a lot of people, a lot of other dogs and she was nervous. Sally dutifully had her sit, stay and then put the bologna on her nose. Sally stepped back and it didn’t take long for Princess to jump back, drop the bologna on the ground and then promptly scoop it up and chow it down. Sally was absolutely mortified. I can still hear her say in her trembling angry voice “bad dog, bad dog”. Princess hung her head in shame. Sally never volunteered her to do that trick every again.
Have you ever had a pet with a good trick?
This weekend’s farm report comes to us from Ben.
Fall is in the air this week. It’s good weather for sleeping; I love it. The soybeans are starting to turn yellow, and they’ll be losing their leaves soon. And with the recent rains the pastures have greened up again. Another inch of nice, slow, steady rain here recently.
Remember a few months ago I left the top lid open on the feed bin and had to spend an afternoon clearing out the rotten corn and gunk. And it was almost empty, thankfully, and there was still a bit of rotten corn stuck to the sides at the bottom. Since I needed to order more feed, now was the time to clean it all out. I wanted to knock loose a little more good corn so I’d have enough to feed the chickens and ducks for a couple days.
First thing I did was drop my long stick into the auger and jam it up. Belt squealing and I’m 15’ feet up the bin so I carefully, hurriedly, scramble down and turn off the breaker. Then I turn the auger backwards, back up the bin to remove the stick, back down to turn on the breaker again, and back up to finish knocking some corn down.
The bin has an 18” opening at the bottom and then a transition angle attached to that which turns it vertical, and then the auger attaches to that. I removed a clamp and the auger attachment, and the auger slid down and out of place. That’s going to be a problem when I get to putting it all back together. The auger is 4” diameter and about 10’ long and goes up through the wall of the feed room with the electric motor attached to the end of the auger in there. I removed the clamp and transition attachment, and then I put a tarp under the opening and climb back up the bin with my stick and start knocking corn off the walls. I’d knock some loose, pull the tarp out and dump it in the loader bucket, then put the tarp back down and knock more corn off. Took 4 cycles. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. But getting it all put back together took two people, a strap, some C-clamps, a stick, some muscle, and some time. It might be the first time I’ve cleaned the bin out in 20 or 30 years. Good for another 30 years.
Kelly helped me get the seed cup put back on the grain drill and the 44 bolts reinstalled, so that part is ready to go. I still have some other work to do on the drill, but I can manage that on my own. The 44 bolts took two people with one inside holding the wrench on the head, and me outside tightening the nut. Replacing the seed cup means I don’t have an excuse for leaving gaps in the field anymore. Next year if there’s a gap between the rows it’s my fault for not driving straight.
The next thing to repair is the ‘big spinny thing’ under the brush mower. I got the blades and broken shaft off the spinny part. Now I need Kelly’s help again to get the 8 bolts off the gearbox and take that off the mower itself. Maybe this weekend.
The former oat fields are getting a lot of weeds growing in them now. Bailey and I got them dug up. It needs to be done before they get too big (and before they go to seed) or they will plug up the digger. I try not to go the same way across the field every time I work it up. My fields are not square, and while I’m still trying to follow the contours, it helps to start on the opposite end of the field sometimes and just break up those ridges underneath the soil.
I had the co-op come and take soil samples off the oat fields. Normally you need to do that either in the spring or the fall after the crop is off. Can’t test during the growing season of course but since the oats is done, it was a good time to do those fields. I haven’t seen the results yet.
The remodeling work at one of the local theaters continues and there’s been a good crew in helping with that. If we ever get the flooring done (Thanks to Wes for advice), the bathroom stalls will be the next major job. They came in two dozen pieces and multiple bags of bolts.
In class this week the lab was on topographical maps and reading the contours and an online test on seafloor spreading and continental plates. I learned about Earthquakes, Volcanos, and the Earth’s magnetic field being generated in the core of the earth and that the magnetic field has changed polarity multiple times over the years. The last change was about 1 million years ago.
The only thing we are managing to produce out of our garden is cucumbers. I make a lot of refrigerator pickles. Neither Kelly or I learned how to can things or preserve things and it’s probably not hard, but it is hard to find the time. At least I can grow cucumbers. Something has gotten in the garden and ate all the potatoes and kohlrabi. All summer something has been in there and I can’t find a hole in the fence, but they leave the cucumbers alone.
And the ducks. They’re getting real nice ‘poofs’ on their heads and some are off to the side like a jaunty little chapeau. I spend a lot of time just watching the ducks play in the water. They are good jumpers being able to hop into one of the water containers. I spend a lot of time watching the ducks.
Got any stories about magnets? Our son stuck one on the TV and messed up the picture and we had to buy a new TV.
Have you been in an Earthquake or seen an active Volcano?
I made my annual pilgrimage out to the farm for raspberries last week. Beautiful day for picking – sunny and not too warm. A little muggy from the big rain the two days before but after our dry summer, I am NOT complaining about rain.
Since I was the first one out in the field, they stationed me at the far southeast corner of the biggest patch of canes. Pretty shortly after, they started to put someone opposite me (on the other side of the line of cane I was working on) and she protested that she didn’t want “to be near anybody else”. I told her I didn’t take it personally and that I had a mask in pocket if needed. She moved on to another line.
An older couple were then placed opposite of me. They didn’t even look toward me and so I knew there wasn’t going to be any chatting. (This turned out to be OK because pretty soon a VERY chatty woman started picking two lines away and even thought she was speaking to the folks near her, I could hear her clearly!)
I expected that the couple across from me would move ahead of me fairly quickly. Two people picking together are always faster than just one. Except this time! The gentleman stayed pretty even with me and the woman lagged behind. This was so different from what I usually experience that I started to pay a little more attention to them. The woman was digging thoroughly through the canes, clearly searching for every single viable berry she could find. The gentleman was not as thorough. I soon realized that another reason they were slow was the amount of time spent moving their hands from the canes to their mouths. The farm does encourage folks to taste while they pick, but this couple was taking it to new heights. They quit picking before I did with less than a flat of picked berries and I’m sure it’s because they were full!
So far I’ve made my freezer jam, added raspberries to pancake batter and, of course, enjoyed fresh raspberry shortcake!
How do you like your raspberries?
Our friends at the Twin Buttes Powwow last weekend were very excited to serve us fresh fry bread made by a relative named Rhonda. She seems to be well known as one of the best fry bread makers around the MHA Nation on the Fort Berthold Reservation.
Fry bread, for those who don’t know, is a dough made with flour and lard or fat and then fried in oil. It was developed by Native Americans as a substitute for their traditional foods after they were relocated to areas that wouldn’t support the growing of their traditional crops of corn and beans. It is a bread of poverty and hunger, and was first made from US Government commodities doled out to the tribes. Despite its painful history, it is a favorite of many Native Americans, and considered a real treat. I have eaten my fill of fry bread over the years, and Rhonda’s was excellent, light and puffy and chewy, with a hint of sweetness and not too oily.
For years, Rhonda has jealously guarded her recipe and refused to let anyone know her fry bread secret. Last month at a Sundance at Pine Ridge she was there with other family members preparing food for the Sundance participants, got a migraine and, for some reason, started sharing her recipe with all sorts of people, except not with family and tribal members who have always wanted it! My, were they miffed!
What food is essential to your family gatherings? What food do you have trouble understanding why people bother to eat? Have you or someone you knew tried to keep a recipe a secret?
Trail Baboon 