Cooking Days

75°f/24°C, mostly sunny, high of 90 today. Storms all around us but so far the rain b has missed us, sadly, so unless we get rsin tonight we will begin watering on earnest tomorrow.

I stayed home all this past week, finally venturing out yesterday evening and today. It has been blistering hot all week, with highs in the 90s and heat index over 100 every day. Miserable weather.

So I went out early to stringtrim, weed, water the potted plants and a few new things i planted last week, and just muck about a bit in my gardens. 

In this, the biggest flower bed, I have been pulling out the Mexican primroses by the handful, so that the other plants have more space, and can be seen. I still have a lot to do,  plus cutting back the iris leaves.

Veggies are coming along well. The cucumbers are climbing and blooming like crazy, but I can't see where any fruit is setting, because bees are not out much to pollinate in this heat.

The green beans are blooming and I think are benefiting from the shade of the asparagus. 

I am one of those nuts that talk to my plants, yes I am. I praise them, apologize if I break one, ask them what the problem is if they aren't doing well. They never, ever answer me, thank goodness, or I would know I had gone off the deep end for sure.

It took a day to get used to having to be inside 

so much, but I soon developed a routine--clean and cook in the early part of the day, paint or do furniture work in the afternoon, followed by listing on ebay. 

I have done a lot of cooking too. Staying home is good for that. I accidentally opened a quart of kidney beans one day, thinking they were the cranberry juice that I use to make mimosas. Yeah I know, how could I have mistaken them? Well, the cranberry juice is made by putting a cup of berries in a jar, adding sugar and water, and then water-bath canning for about 40 minutes. So in the darkest corner of the cellar, the kidney beans are right beside the cranberry juice. I just saw dark red, grabbed a jar and without looking at it popped the top in the kitchen.

Now, a quart is a lot of kidney beans. I had canned them to use in chili, but sure wasn't going to make chili in this weather. So I made a big batch of Spanish rice, and froze all but what we ate for dinner, along with a salad.

 The next day I made liver and onions, which we love, with baked potatoes and a salad.  I also made raspberry banana bread, 

Afternoon break with the bread, iced tea and my current book.

and one day made raspberry jam, 

the next day strawberry jam with berries from the freezer. 

Then Thursday evening neighbors Jeff and Tamara showed up with a bucket full of Chicken of the Woods wild mushrooms. 

What a gift! I pickled most of them Friday, 

and used some in an Alfredo penne pasta along with Swiss chard and broccoli from the garden 

and sliced tomatoes from the farmer's market. I saved some nice pieces to fry tomorrow for dipping in ranch dressing as Tamara recommended. I put two containers of the pasta in the freezer. It will be nice to have these ready-made meals on nights when I don't want to cook.

I also made a large batch of granola, because with this heat and moulting the hens have slowed way down on their laying. Can't blame the poor girls!

So even though it been "cooking hot" outside, the actual cooking has been going on in my kitchen.

I have finished the desk I was working on, 

along with this mirror (waiting in my storage room with other stuff I cleaned up this week for the booths),

and started on this mirror and this  "architectural piece", which actually was once on the back of a dresser, I think. It will make an interesting wall piece, I think.

Yesterday evening we went to the farmer's market for tomatoes and cucumbers, and to pick up butter from Maddie.  Just look at the difference between her butter and store butter! It costs twice as much but in my book it is well worth it. Like the milk we buy from her, the taste is just excellent. We are spoiled, no lie.

After the market we stopped at a Mexican restaurant because I was craving a Margarita,  and we ran into a friend there. We had a nice visit, then afterwards ran out to the "Yacht Club" and met up with granddaughter Jordan and her new husband. Even though Jordan lives locally we rarely see her because of her busy schedule with her work and her 3 children, so this was a rare pleasure. When we got home I realized I had left my phone behind, but Jordan and her guy brought it out and stayed til midnight. She also brought me the remainder of some limoncello she had made! I am looking forward to trying it.

Today we were out and about again, but this post is long enough so that can wait for another day.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.