June, 2016 | Maria Zannini

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Totally Bad, but oh so Good! Caramel Nirvana

By Maria Zannini • June 29, 2016 Food

If you’re on a diet, can’t eat sugar, or hate any kind of happiness, turn away now.

Fair warning. I’m serious. This is evil stuff.

I mean it! This is so delicious, it’s sinful.

Okay. That should’ve scared off all the weenies.

Years ago, before the age of microwaves, my mother used to boil a can of sweetened condensed milk in a big pot of water. You had to let it boil for a couple of hours. (To little children, it felt like DAYS!) Afterward, you couldn’t open the can for many more hours until it had cooled off.

Once cooled, she’d punch a hole in the can with one of those old fashioned can openers that looked like it could take out an eye. With the first tiny hole, a mini lava of caramel spewed from the opening. Our mouths would water and we’d gather like urchins around the most decadent candy the world of man had ever created.

We called it leche quemada. Greg calls it Cow. Don’t ask me why. (It’s an in-family joke.)

Since the Stone Age of my childhood, I’d seen many other ways of cooking it either on a stove top or a slow cooker. But the easiest and quickest way of cooking this is in the microwave.

All hail the MICROWAVE.

Cook time: 2 minutes 30 seconds

Take a can of sweetened condensed milk. Any brand will do.

Open the can.

Pour the contents into a tall, preferably glass bowl.

You are allowed to lick off the leftover milk inside the can. When you finish, toss the used spoon in the sink and get a new one.

Okay, now to work.

• Center the bowl of sweetened condensed milk in the microwave. Hopefully you have one with a turntable. Microwave for 1 minute, 10 seconds. Keep watching it to make sure it doesn’t breach the top of the bowl.

The milk will be hot but still liquid. Stir once.

• Microwave for another 1 minute, 20 seconds.

Notice the froth on the side of the bowl. It falls quickly back to normal.

• This time you must watch it CAREFULLY. The milk will froth and rise. (This is why it’s better to have a clear bowl.)

• Every time the milk rises to the top, stop the microwave. Stir the bowl once. Let it sit for two seconds then restart the machine.

• As the milk gets hotter you will have to stop the microwave every 8-10 seconds, stir once, then restart again.

• After cooking for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the milk will feel firmer and saucy.

• Let it cool in the fridge. As it cools, it will firm up into a spreadable caramel.

If you didn’t wait until it cooled, the tip of your tongue is burnt right now. (If this is you, remind me not to leave you alone with matches or scissors.)

You can spread the leche quemada on bread or lace it over ice cream, but I eat a couple of naked spoonfuls and fall into a happy sugar coma.

Yes. It’s terribly bad for you. It’s nothing but sugar and milk.

You’re welcome.

Yes, it’s that good!

Note: If you like a firmer texture like my mom did, you can cook it another minute longer. It’ll have the consistency of soft fudge.

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Garage Sale Update

By Maria Zannini • June 27, 2016 Homesteading

Note to self: No matter how much I want to get rid of stuff, wait until it’s cooler. Holy moley was it hot!

Despite the lack of traffic, we made a good chunk of change. Like last time, we’re still getting calls for some of the big items we were selling.

The only big thing that didn’t sell was the gas stove, but I put it on Craigslist so hopefully we can get it out of the way soon. The most popular items were tools and farm stuff. I sold all my antique canning jars. Somewhere in the future I’ll probably see them at an antique stall at 1000% markup but I was never going to use them so let someone else make a profit on them.

The big sellers were afterthoughts. Greg had a lot of chain he no longer needed. Men hovered around them like ants to a picnic. I thought Greg priced them too high, but obviously not.

I hauled out an extra egg incubator that had been gathering dust. We had two cabinet models plus a chick hatcher I used when we raised emu and rhea. I put a price tag of $100 firm and people were fighting over it. New, they cost nearly $600 but I didn’t anticipate that much interest. Again, I was happily wrong.

All in all, successful, but way more work than last time because of the heat. The heat was definitely keeping people indoors.

My friends think we should try again in the fall to get rid of the rest, but I think I’d rather get a charity to come and pick up the leftovers. There’s still some good stuff left.

I did meet a neighbor who was Chinese. She teaches Mandarin at a nearby school. She bought every bit of Chinese artwork I had and even taught me what some of the symbols meant.

Someone else bought all the Maran chickens plus the chicken tractor. I think I have one of my antique sideboards sold too. We’re trying to work out a time for her to come out here.

We earned a little spending money for a lot of sweat equity, but at least my house and yard are neater now.

We are babysitting Ozzy (my dog godchild) until after the holidays. We also have friends spending a few days with us next weekend. I’m going to have to mind my culinary Ps and Qs while they’re here. Beth is a phenomenal cook and baker, and I pale by comparison.

July 6 is Greg’s birthday so I plan a special feast for him.

For now, I’m going to rest and stay indoors. Lots of sandwiches this week, a marathon of Netflix movies, and air conditioning day and night. We’ve earned it!

Is anyone (in the US) planning anything special for the Fourth? I heard Independence Day: Resurgence was a flop. Has anyone seen it yet? What can you tell me?

We asked our vet to prescribe anti-anxiety medication for Iko for the upcoming fireworks. My poor big guy is terrified of loud noises. It breaks our hearts to see him quivering like jelly. I’ll let you know if it works. Our vet said it doesn’t work on all dogs, but she wants to try this drug first.

***

To my British friends: Hang in there. Sure, things will be messy at first. Disruption is a natural consequence of big moves, but it always balances out–always. I remember when Britain joined the EU. I was surprised they stuck it out as long as they did.

I’d read the line was clearly split between age demographics. At this, I’m not surprised. All I can say is Britain did just fine before the EU. They know how to handle hard times and can do it better (and with more grace) than most other countries.

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This Week’s Menu, June 26, 2016

By Maria Zannini • June 26, 2016 Food

Menu for the week of June 26, 2016

Sunday
Breakfast: Corned beef hash and eggs
Lunch: Roast beef sandwiches on croissants
Dinner: Cheeseburgers with all the trimmings

Monday
Breakfast: Cheese quesadilla
Lunch: Roast beef sandwiches
Dinner: Taco night

Tuesday
Breakfast: Bacon and eggs
Lunch: Soup and salad
Dinner: Pasta with pesto

Wednesday
Breakfast: Steak and eggs (I have a little leftover steak in the freezer.)
Lunch: Grilled vegetable pita pockets
Dinner: Sausage and peppers casserole (premade freezer meal)

Thursday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Soup and salad
Dinner: Chicken with okra and tomatoes

Friday
Breakfast: Egg sandwich
Lunch: Corndogs
Dinner: Salmon with asparagus

Saturday
Breakfast: Breakfast out (We almost always have breakfast out if we’re hunting garage sales.)
Lunch: Pastrami sandwiches
Dinner: Pizza

Still scorching hot, though Arizona still has us beat. This week it’s mostly salads and sandwiches. I’m also including a night of pasta with pesto.

I have a confession to make about pesto. Up until recently, I used to make pasta with jarred pesto. A few weeks ago I made it fresh with my own basil. Oh. My. Goodness. What was I thinking using the stuff in the jar?

Pesto made with fresh basil and garlic is above and beyond the jar. I’m sorry now I didn’t plant more basil pots, but I will now.

I didn’t have pine nuts. Greg griped about it, but I couldn’t see spending that much money on nuts. Costco has them cheaper but you have to buy the humongo-sized bag.

Do you make fresh pesto? Must you use pine nuts for authentic flavor? I thought it was delicious without it.

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Hide Things In Plain Sight

By Maria Zannini • June 24, 2016 DIY

Some interesting hiding places for your stash. I especially like the last one.

I once put my spare keys under some brick in the dog run, thinking no one would be crazy enough to enter a dog run with rottweilers in it. It was safe…until a certain border collie came to live with us. She must’ve caught my scent under the brick because she went for that brick only and pulled out the keys. And she was only a puppy!

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Countdown to Our Garage Sale, T minus 2 Days

By Maria Zannini • June 22, 2016 Homesteading

It’s going to be hot as a pistol but we’re going to go ahead and have our garage sale this Friday and Saturday. I donated a bunch of stuff to Goodwill after our last garage sale, but this time it’ll be all new stuff from our old house. Lots of furniture and appliances. I even got Greg to get rid of some of the tools he doesn’t use anymore.

That’s the hard part about letting stuff go–especially for Greg. He really gets attached to stuff. With me, once something stops being useful, I give it the heave-ho. I am not sentimental about stuff. Dogs and husbands, yes, but not stuff.

I wanted to sell my Artograph art projector a dozen years ago back when I knew plenty of artists who would want one, but Greg insisted on keeping it. I’ll be hard pressed to find anyone today who knows what that is, let alone need one. It’s in immaculate shape though, so maybe I’ll get lucky.

We’ve got nearly everything priced. The crazy part will be Friday when we have to rush to get everything out on tables or on the lawn. If anyone wants to stop by and help, let me know. I will feed you well.

The other thing on my mind has been plugins for WordPress. What a pain in the tuckus! Currently, I have a subscriber widget to get people to sign up for blog updates, but what I really want is a fancier subscriber tool that lets me customize it. That means another plugin that has to be able to communicate with Mailchimp (it handles sending out emails).

If I were better at coding I’d try to modify the signup widget myself, but for now there’s too much on my plate.

Be that as it may, I am giving away a freebie. It’s a pdf called 101 Ways to Save on Groceries. It’ll should go out automatically to new subscribers, but I’ll have to go in and manually send it to old subscribers–if they want one, of course.

I got my blog’s business cards in time for the garage sale so I hope to hand them out to my neighbors this weekend. Last year, we were frequently asked for our name and phone number and there was a lot of little pieces of paper floating around. Hopefully, the business card will streamline that better.

My area has become very social lately. There’s a community group that we’ve joined that’s been great about sharing community news and events. It’s mostly stuff like lost dogs or stray cows, but hey, at least we’re involved.

I am glad for that. I’ve been worried that since we both stopped working for ‘the man’, Greg and I don’t socialize like we used to. It makes it harder because we live relatively far from neighbors. None of us can see the other because our homes are set in the back, not front and center like most suburban homes.

If I seem slow to respond for the next few days, I’m probably neck-deep with garage sale issues. Hopefully, come Monday, I’ll be back to my old self.

Have you ever had a garage sale? How did it go? Do you know your neighbors? Or is that not important to you?

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How to Make Homemade Salsa

By Maria Zannini • June 20, 2016 Uncategorized

Tomatoes are a staple at our house. I dehydrate some tomatoes for use in pizzas and tomato sauce, but I use them au naturale for salsa.

It’s very easy to make salsa and I’ll show you the way my mom and dad taught me.

You’ll need fresh tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, garlic, onion and salt. Gather your ingredients and have them ready for processing so you can dive into your salsa while it’s still nice and warm.

Step 1: Coarsely chop up a medium onion, a handful of cilantro and 3 bulbs of garlic. I like mine garlicky, but you can skip this if you don’t like garlic.

Step 2: Boil your water

Step 3: make an X on each tomato

Step 4: Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water until the skin starts to come off. It won’t take long. You can roast the tomatoes too if you prefer.

.Step 5: Roast your peppers by blistering the skin of the pepper on an open flame. This is very fast and easy.

Step 6: Get your tomatoes out of hot water and carefully pull off the skin.

Step 7: Do the same with the peppers. I like to scrape the blistered skin off with a sharp knife.

Step 7.5: ALWAYS wear rubber gloves. There’s nothing worse than accidentally touching your eye after you’ve been seeding peppers.

Step 8: Add as many (or as few) pepper seeds as you can handle. Jalapeno is traditional in American recipes, but I think serrano peppers are tastier. It’s also a bit hotter.

Step 9: Toss a handful of each ingredient into your blender or food processor. I like mine kind of chunky, but blend it to the consistency you prefer. Salt to taste.

Step 10: Keep repeating until you’ve finished using up all your ingredients.

Ta Da! Salsa.

Have some chips nearby. Salsa is best while it’s still warm.

Some people like lime juice in their salsa, but that reminds me too much of store-bought salsa. You can always add the lime if you prefer it that way, but try it naked first. (the salsa, not you.)

Have you ever made your own salsa? Do you like it spicy or mild?

Note: Long time readers might remember this post from many years ago on my old blog. You’re not going crazy. I’m just recycling. 🙂

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This Week’s Menu, June 19, 2016

By Maria Zannini • June 19, 2016 Food

Menu for the week of June 19, 2016

Sunday: Happy Father’s Day!
Breakfast: Pancakes from scratch (recipe) We’ll have blueberry pancakes today since I’ve been picking blueberries all week.
Lunch: Pastrami sandwiches
Dinner: Steak fajitas. This was actually Saturday’s planned meal, but we weren’t hungry enough for dinner, so I saved the marinated fajita meat for Sunday night.

Monday
Breakfast: Steak and eggs
Lunch: Soup and sandwich
Dinner: Burgers

Tuesday
Breakfast: Leftover pancakes
Lunch: BLT
Dinner: Beef stir fry

Wednesday
Breakfast: Orange danish
Lunch: Pasta salad
Dinner: Baked chicken with eggplant side dish

Thursday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftover pasta salad
Dinner: Steak salad

Friday
Breakfast: Breakfast burritos
Lunch: Eggrolls
Dinner: Meatloaf

Saturday
Breakfast: Breakfast out (We almost always have breakfast out if we’re hunting garage sales.)
Lunch: Potluck. Whatever is still in the fridge will be for lunch.
Dinner: Meatloaf leftovers

Yellow squash, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are ready for harvest. I’ve been adding them to the menu wherever I can.

Saturday, I made a big batch of fresh salsa. We snacked on chips and salsa and weren’t hungry enough for dinner, which was fine by us. It was a treat to savor homemade salsa.

If you have a reason to celebrate, I hope you have a nice Father’s Day. As my gift to Greg, I won’t make him work too hard. 🙂 Of course, working hard is a matter of perspective.

Are you planning any special meals today?

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The Mule Diary: Ornery and Wicked

By Maria Zannini • June 17, 2016 Homesteading

I’ve been inspired by Lynn Viehl‘s posts on journaling so I thought I’d start a new series about a few of my day to day activities. These posts will be random and sporadic, much like my lucidity. I’m calling it the Mule Diary. Greg calls me a mule because I work so hard. He said I was stubborn too, but he exaggerates. Heh.

Garage sale: I’ve decided. The long range forecast says it will be dry June 24 & 25. If that remains true, I’m going to go for it and have my garage sale then.

But first the shop has to be tidied. If this were my house, it would take a few hours at most to get it shiny enough for guests, but the shop is Greg’s domain, my mortal enemy when it comes to cleaning.

I would show you a picture of his workshop, but I’m too embarrassed. It’s enormous, and it is full from one end to the other. Many times I’ve thought about sorting his stuff for him, but only he knows where he likes to put his precious-es. The man is going to drive me to an early grave!

Critters: I think the chickens are gunning for me too. Yesterday one of them made a break for it, but it didn’t get far. Nana, (the border collie who wants to rule the world) cut her off at the pass and herded her back to the pen.

Nana is useless with the goats. All she does is run them in a circle. But that’s my fault. I don’t know how to train her to go left or right. And she can’t dance either. On Facebook, I see all these border collies that dance with their owners, but not mine. She’s obviously my dog. I can’t dance either.

She has been good at warning me about deer, rabbits, coyotes and foxes, which is usually several times a day.

What is happening out there? Suddenly my little patch of earth has been ground zero for woodland creatures. Everybody uses a trail right in front of my office’s picture window. The foxes are relatively new but I see them regularly now.

The deer have gotten bold. One of them munched down all my Swiss chard and strawberries. :shakes fist:

I love deer which is why we’ve left a lot of the woods untouched. It gives them a place to hide and rest during the day, but if they keep eating my garden we’re going to have words.

Company: We’ve got company coming for the holidays, interspersed with dog sitting for a friend. The house is ready but the yard and animal pens need sprucing up. The rains have finally relented so I can start working outside again.

That means I can go back to my job as chief muckraker. Who am I kidding? I’m the only one who mucks the pens.

And why is it the neighbors show up right when I’m in the middle of cleaning a stinky pen with a wheelbarrow full of manure? They always look at me like I’m an unfit mother.

That’s why I can’t sympathize with young parents with babies. Until you’ve mucked out a stall or coop, you don’t know nuthin’ about real crap.

Well, that’s it from the Mule. Y’all come back now.

No animals were harmed during the writing of this post. The border collie let them off with a warning.

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Debt Dancing

By Maria Zannini • June 15, 2016 Saving Money

I feel like I’m trying to dance into the next room, back and forth, never reaching my destination. We’ve had all sorts of things break down on us within a two week period. We’d no sooner get one working again when something else would go out.

When you live on a fixed income it becomes a source of creeping stress. Can I afford to replace my fridge or can I wait a couple more months? How much will it cost to fix the car? We’ve both got teeth cleaning scheduled and one cavity to refill–things no longer covered by insurance so we have to pay cash. Do I reschedule the appointments, or bite the bullet so to speak?

Much like freelancers, who can’t always rely on a given income with certainty, you learn to pace yourself. We don’t use credit cards unless we absolutely know we can pay it off at the end of the month. It doesn’t matter if it’s $5 or $5,000. If we can’t pay it off, we don’t take that road.

So here I am dancing. Get one thing fixed, two more pop up needing attention.

I did decide to put off the fridge replacement. With any luck, there should be another appliance sale around July 4th. (There are always sales around the holidays.) The fridge part of my refrigerator still works great. I keep all my frozen food in our big freezers, but it’s a pain to traipse through a hot garage and try to find stuff. I really need to clean and inventory my freezers but I’ll wait until winter when it’s cooler. This way I don’t have to worry about stuff defrosting while I’m inventorying and sorting out where everything should go.

So far my laundry list includes:

• my car stranded us (twice!) Greg deduced that it was something the dealer fixed two years ago because of a recall. We didn’t know if they’d still honor that recall since they’d supposedly fixed it. Thankfully they did. They replaced a lot of stuff all for free. Yay!

• my push mower kept stalling. Despite the fact that Greg took the engine apart and cleaned every part, it refused to run longer than a few seconds. Out of frustration, we took it to a repair shop. He kept it for a week, testing it intermittently, and it worked every time. We think the car ride there must’ve dislodged something that had plugged it. It only cost us $20. Inconvenient and frustrating, but at least it wasn’t expensive.

• our riding mower stopped working. Oy! This is one machine we can’t do without. Fortunately, all it needed was a new battery.

• power inverter for the solar panels. This one hurt big time and it’s still not settled. This power inverter is a very expensive piece of equipment that converts solar energy into electricity. It overloaded and died. We sent it back to the manufacturer ($150 for shipping!). When we got it back, it worked–sort of. The fan that keeps it from overheating doesn’t run. Greg’s contacted them again, but still no response.

• teeth. My teeth. His teeth. Nana’s teeth. All three of us are due for teeth cleaning and some minor dental work. Estimated cost:$600-$700

• fridge. We did our research and finally settled on one. Estimated cost: $3000, but that’s not all. Since it’s significantly smaller than our old Sub-Zero, Greg will have to build a narrow side cabinet that matches the rest of my cabinetry. The refrigerator has already cost us nearly $400 just getting an assessment. All it did was confirm it’s cheaper to buy a new fridge than fix the old one.

There are some cosmetic things I want to do with the house, but none of them have high priority. I really want to refinish the wood floors. I know we can do them ourselves for a fraction of the cost of a professional. (I consider myself semi-pro when it comes to refinishing.) But deep in my heart, I know it’s an exercise in futility.

The reason the floors need refinishing is because of the dogs. Their pads sand the floor to bare wood. Our other option is tearing out the wood floor and replacing it with ceramic tile. A professional will probably charge us about $15k. We can possibly do it ourselves for half that. I can handle the cost (begrudgingly) but the job itself will be labor intensive and long. This is not your everyday wood planks. It’s solid wood. The builders built that floor to last.

When it comes to the floor, I think it’s a no-win scenario. All I know is that I want a nice house. I’m sick and tired of fixing a house to like new condition because I’m selling it. This time I want that ‘new look’ for myself. I’ve earned it.

All these expenses are for the most part nonnegotiable. I don’t have to do them all at once, but I would like them off my to do list within the year. As long as nothing else drops out of the sky, I can handle stretching out the purchases.

Just once I’d like money to fall from the sky instead of bills.

Does it happen that way for you too?

About the only thing I wish would die is my washing machine. I have a Whirlpool Cabrio. Worst. Washer. Ever.

Never buy the Cabrio. I deliberately chose a machine without a lot of “extras” but no use. It’s the electronics that are glitchy. It washes clothes great. No complaints. But I never know if it’s going to decide not to wash a load that day. It usually involves me turning it on and off, pleading with it, cursing it, sacrificing a goat, and then calling Greg.

We discovered it usually requires ten minutes to reset itself. Pain in the keester! When it dies, I swear I will dance around its corpse.

What appliance ever gave you grief? Did you replace it or is it still in your life tormenting you?

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Father’s Day Gifts for All Kinds of Dads

By Maria Zannini • June 13, 2016 DIY, Saving Money

I don’t believe you have to have regular, old children to be a dad. Greg’s a dog dad. Best dog dad ever as his kids will attest with a woof. If you know a dad like this, get him this shirt. It’s perfect!

If your guy is like my guy, he wants big boy TOYS. (Cue my groan here.) I can’t begin to list all the toys Greg has either bought for himself or been given but I’m sure it was more than some countries’ gross national income.

One of his favorite toys of late has been a drone (with camera). They’re quite cool actually, and the video feed has great resolution, but the techy lovers probably get a bigger kick out of them than I do. If you’re at a loss for a different kind of toy for your best dad, a drone is a good choice.

I felt bad for my dad. We used to give him terrible gifts. Poor guy. We gave him the gifts kids back then gave their dads. For us, it was handkerchiefs and bow ties. (He wore bow ties!)

I’m sure he’d rather have had books. He read a lot. To teach himself English, he read comic books because he could follow along with the pictures, but in his native language, he liked to read novels and historical accounts of famous people.

Even when I got older, he was hard to shop for gifts. He was content with whatever he had. He had lived through the Depression, so anything he had was like a gift to him. I think I learned my frugal ways from him.

My dad died of pancreatic cancer in 2001. In the weeks leading up to his death he regaled us with stories (he was a great storyteller) and memories. Looking back, I think he was trying to recall every good moment in his life and pass them on to us. His body might die, but his memories and stories will live on. I know I’ll never forget.

While dads (and dog dads) generally get the low end of the stick compared to moms on Mother’s Day, remember that they could use some fussing too. I try to pick things around their hobbies…or is that vices?

Here are some other ideas for dads.

• Sporting event tickets or paraphernalia: You’ll know if he has a favorite sports team. Guys never keep that a secret.

• Life experience gift: I once gave Greg some flight time in a helicopter. We couldn’t afford the lessons, but at least I could give him a taste of it.

• Electronics: If he doesn’t yet have a tablet, there’s a perfect gift. Greg doesn’t go anywhere without his.

• Liquor: I never saw a man turn down alcohol. Find out what his favorite is then buy the good stuff.

• Clean his car. Get the kids to do this for him as a gift.

• Professional massage. There are lots of places to try. Some might have Father’s Day specials too.

• Gardening supplies: Man or woman, father, mother, aunt, or uncle, if your favorite person is a gardener, he’ll always appreciate quality tools–or plants for his garden.

• Food: What man doesn’t like to eat good food? Whether you make it yourself, use a specialty service, or take him to an extra special restaurant, he’ll know he’s being treated like a king.

Are you doing anything special for your favorite guy?

****

On another note, I noticed that Amazon has DROPPED the price for the Roomba 880. This is definitely the lowest price I’ve seen, and I’ve been keeping track. This offer ends in a few days, so if you’ve been on the fence about this machine, get it now.

Update on my Roomba review. I still love this thing. It has a couple of quirks but I think it has more to do with my house than it. For example, it stopped once in the middle of cleaning. We don’t know why, but we clicked the button again and it finished its job. We suspect it got confused between the different levels of floor. It only happened that one time though.

The biggest reason I’m still happy with it is that Iko has been shedding like crazy but my floors are still clean. His undercoat is very fine fur, the kind that likes to float in the air. I run that machine twice a day sometimes and it’s been great at picking up all that hair. It’s been a lot of fur too. Iko has been the real test on the Roomba’s ability.

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This Week’s Menu, June 12, 2016

By Maria Zannini • June 12, 2016 Food

Menu for the week of June 12, 2016

Sunday
Breakfast: Pancakes from scratch (recipe)
Lunch: Tabbouleh I just follow the recipe from the back of the box of bulgur wheat. It’s very refreshing on hot days.
Dinner: Steak with roasted potatoes

Monday
Breakfast: Eggs with leftover steak
Lunch: Nibble plate made of homemade beef jerky and cheese
Dinner: Hot wings and potato salad

Tuesday
Breakfast: Leftover pancakes
Lunch: Olive tapenade sandwiches (I’m using this recipe.)
Dinner: Roast rabbit with potatoes

Wednesday
Breakfast: Bacon quesadilla. Warm a flour or corn tortilla in a pan, melting a piece of Edam cheese inside. Add one bacon strip to each tortilla, then get out of the way because Greg devours these.
Lunch: Soup and salad
Dinner: Sausage and pepper hero sandwiches

Thursday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Muffuleta Since I know I’m going to have leftover olive salad from Tuesday, I’ll make muffuletas and be a hero to Greg.
Dinner: Shrimp with orzo and tomatoes

Friday
Breakfast: Cheese omelette
Lunch: Cold deli sandwiches
Dinner: Pasta salad

Saturday
Breakfast: Breakfast out (We almost always have breakfast out if we’re hunting garage sales.)
Lunch: Hot dogs
Dinner: Beef fajitas with fresh salsa

We cannot catch a break with this weather. At this rate I might not have my garage sale until October. There’s a slim chance we might be dry next weekend. If that happens, I’ll open the doors and have my sale. I just want to make sure both Friday and Saturday are dry. I would’ve liked cooler weather, but that ship has sailed.

We’re getting more squash now and the okra is beginning to bloom. I did something different with the green bean crop. I didn’t plant much and now I wish I had. This year, I put the green beans in the dehydrator. They were delicious! I’ve got a dehydrating post coming up so I’ll show you the steps I took. It’s been one of my favorite ways to preserve food.

It’s hot by us, but remarkably we’re still getting rain, which is good for the garden. All the cooler vegetables are spent. Only hot weather veggies will thrive now.

How is it by you?

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How to Pick a Good Watermelon

By Maria Zannini • June 10, 2016 Uncategorized

We thump the watermelon first, but looking for the buttery yellow underside is a better indicator for ripeness.

There’s a prevailing old wives’ tale that finding ‘bee stings’ will insure a sweet melon. Bee stings are the long thin rows of brown spots. It look like something stung the watermelon in a long straight row.

While bees/wasps do look for sweet things, they’re not going to use their stingers to extract the sugar–not that it could penetrate the rind anyway.

That aside, I can anecdotally attest that melons with a row of ‘bee stings’ have in fact been sweeter for us. Is the old wives’ tale true? Who knows? But I’m going to keep picking melons with the telltale brown sting marks.

Have you heard of picking watermelons via the bee sting test? What do you do to see if a melon is ripe?

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t like watermelon? If so, what planet are you from? 🙂

12 Comments

British Farms Through the Ages: A Documentary Series

By Maria Zannini • June 8, 2016 Homesteading

We’ve been binge watching a fascinating series about English farms throughout history. They’re historical reenactments where Ruth Goodman (historian), Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn (archeologists) live a year in as close an era based farm as possible. Tom Pinfold appears in Tudor Farm.

I tried looking for these videos on Netflix and Amazon, but the dvds aren’t available for the US region, so we started streaming them from YouTube. There is a book on Victorian Farm though.

I found the videos accidentally when I was looking up something on homesteading. From the moment I met Ruth, Alex, and Peter (and sometimes Tom) I was hooked. It was like meeting up with the quirky members of your family. FYI: We’re the quirky members in our families.

We went backwards in time, starting with Wartime Farm and ending up with Tudor Farm. We haven’t yet watched Secrets of the Castle.

First our favorites: Greg loved Wartime Farm because of Henry, the border collie. He was my favorite too, but I found Wartime Farm a grim venture. I have to hand it to the Brits of that generation. They were a tough lot. I’m not sure we’d be quite so stiff upper lipped if the US had been bombed as much as Britain was.

Henry, the dog, was a hoot. At one point we were worried they were going to get rid of him because the English had culled nearly all their livestock so they could produce wheat. They used to import it from the America but shipments were often sunk to the bottom of the sea by the Germans. Now the English had to fend for themselves. With no livestock, they didn’t really need Henry. Luckily this was a reenactment. Henry kept his job as chief cute dog.

Greg is a WWII expert so we were constantly pausing the video so he could tell me what else was going on during that time period. But living in England at that time was grim, truly a hard-scrabble life. One of my dearest friends grew up during WWII in England. She would tell me stories about how they had to climb rubble and occasionally a dead body on her way to school.

Every year the war lasted, the more they were asked to sacrifice. The government asked more than they should have in my opinion, going so far as throwing people off their farms if they had a bad year.

My personal favorite was Victorian Farm. Daily life was hard, but it was also rewarding. Unlike Edwardian Farm, Victorian Farm relied solely on horsepower and occasionally steam power. Smelly, loud petrol engines didn’t come into use until the Edwardian era. For the most part they hadn’t quite worked the kinks out of the equipment so it seemed more trouble than it was worth.

What I liked about Victorian Farm was that people had real skills. I learned all about straw plaiting, how to make a wood barrel, and how a wheel was made–all things I never knew. People were quite clever in solving everyday problems. I guess it could be said that each generation solves its problems for their time, but I was doubly impressed by the Victorians. Resourceful, elegant, and clever. Below is the first episode of Victorian Farm.

In all the series are as follows:

Wartime Farm: Farming in Britain during WWII

Edwardian Farm: Farming during the reign of King Edward VII

Victorian Farm: Farming in England during the 1880s

Tudor Manor Farm: Farming in England during the reign of Henry VII

Secrets of the Castle: Building a castle using medieval techniques at Guédelon Castle in France

The three presenters were charming. Ruth is always laughing and Peter is the clown of the group. I was touched with how much he loved his pigs in Victorian Farm.

If you’re into history, homesteading, or an Anglophile (or an author writing about any of these periods) you will love this series. I thought I had a good grasp on how to do things without the basic comforts of modern life, but I was wrong. The series was truly eye-opening.

Give it a try.

Have you heard of this series or these presenters? Can you recommend any other historical documentaries?

10 Comments

7 Layer Dip, aka Cold Nacho Plate

By Maria Zannini • June 6, 2016 Uncategorized

Summer means less cooking and more sandwiches, salads, and finger foods. Once a month I might do a session of batch cooking which I then partition into meal-size containers. I’ll usually do 12-15 meals like this, freeze them and then take them out whenever I’m too tired to cook. It’s saved me numerous times.

Yesterday (despite our power outage) we had 7 Layer Dip. (We like to call it ‘cold nacho plate’.) My college friend, Debbie gave me this recipe many years ago. (Thanks, Debbie!) It’s so easy I try to keep the ingredients on hand so I can make this any time.

It’s great for parties, but we love it as a meal. After the initial feasting, I save the leftovers for the next day. The flavors only improve overnight. We can have it again with chips and veggies, or you can melt it in the microwave, then scoop a little into a warm corn tortilla. Heaven!

Here’s the recipe. It’s almost entirely from cans or packages.

16 ounce can of refried beans

9 ounce can of hot bean dip

8 ounce container of guacamole dip

8 ounce package of cream cheese

6 ounce can of black olives (I recommend low sodium olives so they won’t overpower the rest of the flavors.)

8 ounce block of pepper jack cheese, grated

16 ounces of Cheddar, finely grated

A few green onions

• Take the refried beans and the bean dip and combine thoroughly. I sometimes add a little more salsa or mild chilis to spice it up even more. We ain’t afraid of no heat at my house!

• Layer the bean mixture smoothly over a large plate.

• Take the cream cheese and leave it out to soften it. Debbie told me she adds a little mayonnaise to make it spread more smoothly, but I beat mine into submission by hand or with a mixer. Debbie is obviously much nicer than I am, but I’m sure you already knew that.

• Smooth the cream cheese over the bean layer.

• Smooth the guacamole dip over the cream cheese. I’ve been asked if fresh guacamole is just as good and I honestly don’t know. Since I sometimes reheat this mixture I’m not sure I’d like to have fresh guacamole nuked, plus you run the risk of it darkening if it’s exposed to oxygen.

• Layer a generous amount of grated cheddar cheese over the guacamole layer. Don’t be stingy. Presentation is everything.

• Layer a thin layer of pepper Jack cheese over the cheddar.

• Decorate with olive halves over the entire plate.

• Sprinkle with green onions rings to finish the dip.

I put mine back in the fridge and let the flavors marry for a couple of hours. It scoops better when it’s nice and chilled.

Serve with corn chips, pita chips, crackers, or any other sturdy chips. I also use mini carrots or celery sticks as dippers too.

You can freeze this. I wouldn’t freeze the green onions and olives but everything else seems to freeze well. It’s not as pretty as when it’s fresh but it’s great as a hot dip or taco filling.

I sometimes bring this to parties and I’ve yet to return home with anything but an empty plate.

Have you ever tried 7 Layer Dip? Do you do anything differently?

***

It’s been a rough few days. Everything has been breaking down! Some we were able to fix but others had to be serviced. My Hyundai SUV stranded us twice. Greg suspected it was something that we’d already had replaced because of a recall. Sure enough, the same part was killing the electrical systems. Thankfully, the dealer didn’t give us any trouble and it’s being fixed on their dollar.

I’ve been trying to put together a nice blog signup incentive, but again life intervened. We lost power for part of Sunday, and then my internet went out. Hopefully, I can get that freebie finished this week.

We are finally drying out. Huzzah! I’m so glad the main garden is set in raised beds. I’m sure it saved my plants from drowning many times. If the weather continues to dry out maybe I can do my garage sale in mid June. Fingers crossed.

4 Comments

This Week’s Menu, June 5, 2016

By Maria Zannini • June 5, 2016 Food

Menu for the week of June 5, 2016

Sunday
Breakfast: Pigs in a blanket
Lunch: Vegetarian pita pockets. Greg will complain, but they’re really good, and I have lots of veggies to use up.
Dinner: 7-Layer Dip (I’ll post the recipe on Monday.)

Monday
Breakfast: Pancakes from scratch (recipe)
Lunch: Leftover 7-Layer Dip. It works great as quesadilla filling!
Dinner: Mongolian Beef (Greg asked for this so I’m obliging him.) I’m freezing the leftovers for next time so all I’ll have to do is pull out a pre-made dish.

Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Chicken salad sandwiches
Dinner: Burgers

Wednesday
Breakfast: Leftover pancakes
Lunch: Grilled cheese
Dinner: Pesto and pasta

Thursday
Breakfast: Breakfast burritos
Lunch: Soup with tomato salad
Dinner: Enchiladas

Friday
Breakfast: Breakfast burritos
Lunch: Salad
Dinner: Salmon with orzo

Saturday
Breakfast: Breakfast out (We almost always have breakfast out if we’re hunting garage sales.)
Lunch: Taco salad
Dinner: Pizza night

This week the weather will be dry (finally), but hot and muggy, so I’ll be relying more on sandwiches and meals that won’t keep me chained to a stove. Tomatoes are ripening, as are the peppers, so I suspect there’ll be quite a few marinated tomato salads and some fresh salsa.

A good friend let me dig into her wild coriander and I brought back a bunch to grow wild in a raised bed that gets a little shade. So far it’s looking great, though mostly hidden by the huge squash plants overwhelming the bed. I’m hoping it’ll continue to reseed itself and grow wild throughout the year. In the past, my coriander has failed terribly due to the heat. Fingers crossed!

I’ve got a lot of basil to harvest so it’s also time to make some pesto. Nothing beats fresh pesto. The jarred stuff pales by comparison.

Tomorrow I’ll post my recipe for 7 Layer Dip. It’s not really my recipe, but it’s a favorite here when the weather gets hot.

What do you like to eat when the weather is warm and muggy?

10 Comments

Cheap Trick: Track Your Paper Usage, Plus a Transplant Tutorial

By Maria Zannini • June 3, 2016 DIY

A quick tutorial on recycling empty cardboard rolls.

• Take your empty and cut 1 inch slits across one side.

• Fold the slits down until it forms a flat surface.

• Pack a little potting soil inside each tube.

• Plant your seed.

• Stand them up in a tray and water regularly.

• Once sprouted, plant tube and all directly in the ground.

Not only does it provide a collar against cutworms, but you never disturb the root system. The tube will disintegrate within the season and provide additional mulch to the soil.

18 Comments

Try an Ethnic Grocery Store

By Maria Zannini • June 1, 2016 Food, Saving Money

My friend, Mel has been bugging me to check out a giant Korean grocery store that she frequents. It’s an hour’s drive from me but one day we decided to make a day of it and see what all the fuss was about.

I am no great chef, but I love Asian-inspired food. Occasionally, I get adventurous and try a few recipes. The thing about Asian food though is you really need the special ingredients like fish and oyster sauces, Jasmine and sushi rices, and the wonderful exotic veggies to get the flavor right.

We were totally hooked once we entered the store. It’s called H Mart (who knows why), but it’s got everything you need and all the stuff you didn’t know you needed. They had fresh and dried fish, squid, octopi, and all manner of seafood I never knew existed. There were also some unappetizing items like pork blood and giant live clams that looked like something Godzilla coughed up.

The exotic fruits and vegetables were my favorites. Luckily, they were giving away samples. I tried a small melon with flesh as sweet as an apple but soft as a peach. I forgot the name but I took one home along with the biggest grapes I’ve ever seen.

We bought some hot mustard powder for the next time we have egg rolls, a chili garlic paste that looked promising, and adzuki and mung beans which I hope I can sprout.

It’s a shame H Mart is so far, but at least now I know where to go when I’m hunting for exotic spices, mushrooms, or fish.

A lot of people don’t realize this, but ethnic grocery stores tend to have cheaper prices than the same items bought in a non-ethnic store. The only bad thing about H Mart is that nearly everything was in Korean, though sometimes it had a few words of English so you knew what you were buying.

It was great fun just to stroll the aisles. I know we’ll be going back.

We got hungry while we were there so we tried out their restaurant. Wow! Aside from the fact that it was complicated to actually get your food–everything was delicious. You ordered from one location but to get your food you had to find it from among several kitchens. (Sorry I didn’t snap a picture, but all thoughts of photography fled when we saw our food.)

Do you like Asian food? What’s your favorite dish? Mongolian beef is the current reigning favorite.

Have you ever tried an ethnic grocery store?