56°f/13°C, clear. Chilly! No rain in the forecast yet. The eastern side of West Virginia had frost in some of the mountain valleys last night!
Today's bouquet. The zinnias are so pretty right now.
This has been one of those weeks---appointments every single day. Monday was the VA in Huntington, Tuesday I had my hair and pedicure appointment, today was my "well baby" checkup with my nurse practitioner, tomorrow Larry has a followup with his doctor in Charleston, and Friday is auction pickup!
So we have to make the afternoons and evening count, getting our laundry done, cleaning, and the like. Larry is having mower problems again, so he has been working on that. I came home yesterday and tilled some space in the garden so I will finally get some carrots and onion in this weekend.
Today I had produce to deal with. I know i said I wasn't canning anymore, but there were these nice cucumbers that would go to waste, and I had a quart of pickling brine left from the other day, so I made more bread & butter pickles.
We also had a lot of yellow squash, so I cooked it up and pureed it with the immersion blender, adding salt, pepper, and butter. It makes a delicious substitute for mashed potatoes! I had a couple zucchini which I ground up with the food processor, and then bagged it up and the yellow squash and sealed them up with the vacuum sealer and put in the freezer.
Then there was a half bucket of green beans, which I snapped, washed, blanched and also bagged up and froze. Now I am caught up until the tomatoes we picked last night ripen.
Those three tools--the immersion blender, the food processor, and the vacuum sealer--are pretty indispensable in my kitchen, as is the KitchenAid mixer. I don't like most electrical gadgets, but these are in regular use here.
I wonder, do you have small appliances you consider necessary? Many people swear by their InstaPots, or their rice cooker or Keurig.
I have none of those so I dont miss them, but perhaps if I had them I would be as attached as I am to my things.
We had a nice lunch after my appointment. We went to Shari's, our usual place, and it was filled with friends and people we knew. There was my friend Suzy, our neighbor and local handyman Ernie, retired coal miner Bill, lawn care guy Jim, and retired accountant Glenn. Bill and Glenn are both recent widowers, so Shari's is a good thing for them. Then there was Sally who is head of the local Main Street office, my son's friend and very sweet lady named Mickey, and several others. The chatter was lively!
As for my doctor appointment, all is well. She was very pleased with my "vitals" as she calls them. She said I am doing amazingly well for my age, which was nice to hear. But we all know that anything can change at any moment as we get older, For the moment at least, I can rest easy.
One more flower to wrap up this rambling post, my favorite rose.
I use my food processor a lot more than my immersion blender. I gave my big heavy mixer away and now use just a hand mixer. I confess I use DH's Keurig more than he does.
ReplyDeleteNice that your appointment with your doctor went well and you were declared okay :)
I think i would miss my stand mixer. I used gand mixers for years before I got this one. It does take counter space though.
DeleteCongrats on the medical report. As for appliances, we have an air fryer that Sue uses on occasion. She also has a vacuum sealer device. For coffee, I have a single cup or mug maker in my upstairs room, but it’s not a pod-type; we add the amount of coffee and water that we want. I usually make two cups in the first hour or two that I am up. Sue usually makes one larger mug. It sits on the little fridge in my den. That way, we don’t have to go down and up stairs very first thing.
ReplyDeleteWell you know how iffy good health is as we get older AC!
DeleteI like your morning setup. Very handy, and sensible.
...time flies when we are busy!
ReplyDeleteTruth!
DeleteI heard the Canaan Valley had the lowest temperature in the lower 48 states the other day. We are having pleasant, cooler temperatures, but nothing near freezing. As my husband has been saying, this is the best August ever.
ReplyDeleteIt was too hot for me until this week. I honestly wish I lived further north. It used to not be so hot here.
DeleteI definitely NEED my instant pot, slow cooker and airfryer! The bouquet is very beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI do like my slow cooker, and use it in the winter, but not too often otherwise. My son is single and he uses his instant pot a lot
DeleteI grew some zinnias this year too, the colours are stunning! I'm going to collect the seeds and grow even more next year. The bees love them.
ReplyDeleteI used to have terrible luck with zinnias, but have found that I can grow them very well in my veggie garden. And this year I have had success with a few in the flower beds. I am so pleased, because as you said, the colors are so bright and happy!
DeleteGreat to have a good health check up! Congrats and may you have many more! My counter has 3 devices I can't live without, coffee maker (supposedly 12 cups but it makes about 4 of my mug fulls) a toaster/oven/air frier (which I've never learned how to air fry worth a hoot), and a microwave which is my standby for cooking.
ReplyDeleteMy hot water pot. Works so much faster than a tea kettle on the stove. I think Dan would say his coffee apparatus - it grinds the beans and makes a single cup at a time. He loves it.
ReplyDeleteI don't have many appliances, but I do use my kitchen aid mixer and I own a very small, very cheap rice cooker that I love. No instapot, air fryer, etc....
ReplyDeleteGolly! An immersion blender and a food processor and a vacuum sealer and a KitchenAid mixer - sounds like maybe Martha Stewart's kitchen! We have a food processor (which Judy used yesterday to make a new recipe - details to come on my blog) and a big high-powered blender and a slow cooker but still . . . I have lusted for a KitchenAid mixer for years but Judy says we can't afford it so I have a less expensive one. I guess at my age it'll do for whenever I use it, even if I do have to haul it in from the garage cupboard.
ReplyDeleteI have a setup comparable to yours but no vacuum sealer. I love the KitchenAid mixer and now have an attachment for grinding which turns blackberries into puree without the seeds and another churning homemade ice cream. The immersion blender is new and I honestly don't know how I lived without one for so long. I don't can anywhere as much as you do, but canning tools are another story. Steam juicer, Foley food mill, cherry pitter, hand crank meat grinder that used to belong to my mother-in-law and probably her mother's before her. And a 6 tray circular electric dehydrator, which is heavily used in the summer. You should look around your canning supplies and write a column about how no matter what the food is, I bet your have a tool to process it.
ReplyDeleteBatsy in Idaho