Tag Archives: Life is good.

Apple Butter Time!

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I looked through all of my apple butter options and decided this was the best. It’s a combination  of two different recipes, with the lemon juice adjusted to keep the acidity in the right range.

part I:

Ingredients

  • Apples, 12-14 medium or 10-12 large (fill crockpot about 3/4 full)
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla

Directions

Core and quarter apples. Let sit in a big bowl with a little citric acid to prevent browning Since apple butter turns out a lovely deep shade of brown, you might skip the citric acid. I keep it in for its acidity. In the past I’ve had a hard time taking out the peels because the finished product was so thick. This time around, I’m going to use my food mill. I anticipate good results.

Place apples and vanilla in crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until apples are very soft.

After cooking, mash apples with fork or potato masher.

Part II:

Ingredients

  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 Tablespoon molasses (optional)
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions

Add second ingredient list. Cover apple mix (now sauce-like) again and cook on low for 4-6 hours. If you like your apple butter smooth (I do), blend with an immersion blender.

This is very thick and flavorful and ideal for gift-giving. Serve on bread, graham crackers, or in place of the jelly on a PBJ. More ideas? Add comments, please! I’d love to hear them.

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Art in the Park and the Garden

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We are fortunate to live near a sizable park in the center of our fair city. This park plays host to a number of events, public and private. Family picnics, outdoor church services, 5K run-walks, and more take place here, about half a mile from our home.

One such event is Art in the Park. Participating artists show and sell their pieces all day. Food trucks set themselves up nearby and prepare for hungry crowds. Every year we go, and every year we see something wonderful. This year was no different.

This year's theme: ceramics

This year’s theme: ceramics

Art has value as art, and art can be practical and useful, too. I treated myself to a spoon rest for the stove – blue like my kitchen, and decorated with daisies, of course. Of course! The other pieces are ceramic stakes to label my herbs. “Chuck” has been asking me to label them for years because he gets rosemary and thyme mixed up (parsley and sage he can handle). These little stakes are beautiful, practical, and add a little art to the herb pots on the deck.

Oregano!

Oregano!

Rosemary!

Rosemary!

Thyme in a bottle!

Thyme!

The final purchase was, typical of my shopping prowess, a purse with Hmong needlework. It sort of matches my wallet. Well, maybe I should just say it coordinates with my wallet, another needlework piece.  Hmong work is detailed and colorful with repeated shapes and patterns. I wanted this one on sight.

So folks, here it is: Daisy’s visit to Art in the Park. Not shown: lunch, snacks, and gift(s) for family members who may read the blog. Giggle. 

Art in the Park goodies

Art in the Park goodies

The kettle corn in the back was fabulous. Nothing from the microwave can even come close. Even the foodstuffs were works of art.

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Neighbors

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The Living Room

The Living Room

They called it their temporary living room.

Chairs, table, phone

Chairs, table, phone

Really, what more did they need?

Ye Olde Rotary Phone

Ye Olde Rotary Phone

Someone discovered that a rotary phone worked while the up to date touch tones didn’t. Without Internet access, the old fashioned phone book came in handy.

Camp stove and tea kettle

Camp stove and tea kettle

Camp stove plus tea kettle for boiling water equals coffee and social time!

It wasn’t the most beautiful day in the neighborhood, though. At the other end of the driveway, the next door neighbors’ house looked like this. They were still gracious and friendly shared their hot water with me every morning. Thank heavens for good neighbors.

'Nuff said.

‘Nuff said.

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A Woman’s Car

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Was it Erma Bombeck? I think she was the one who proclaimed that a woman’s car is an extension of her purse. I was driving La Petite’s car for a few days, and it was definitely Her Car, not mine.

Sunglasses in the Saturn!

Sunglasses in the Saturn!

It seems a photographer in her twenties must have available at all times a suitable selection of sunglasses. So – will it work for me?

One!

One!

Two!

Two!

Three!

Three!

And one more —

Last pair, maybe

Last pair, maybe

I asked if she needed any of these. Her response was classic. “No, it’s okay, I have spares.”

Saturn sunglasses mine

Ah, yes. My very own sunglasses are still the best for me.

But I do kind of like the bobblehead bunny in the back.

Bunny!

Bunny!

Maybe my minivan needs a bunny. What do you think?

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Gratitude – or – A Port in the Post-Storm Mayhem

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In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, lightning flashed and thunder boomed and winds blew and blew and blew – for about twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes. Mother Nature is a powerful force when she so chooses.

With electricity out and trees and wires down all over, we coped. We did what Wisconsinites do when bad weather hits. We don’t go it alone, either.

During this power outage I am grateful for:

  • Neighbors.
  • Friends.
  • Family.
  • A charcoal grill & a husband who is a Master Chef.
  • Garden lettuce & spinach for a makeshift salad
  • A borrowed generator.
  • Cell phone charger in the minivan.
  • A mini reading light.
  • A farmers’ market that went on as scheduled.
  • A breeze.
  • Ice in big bags
  • Running water.
  • Hot running water.

As power returned to some areas in our fair city, there were examples of generosity.

The corner gas station gave away free coffee all day.

The Red Cross set up shelters in schools, and set up their own building (near my neighborhood) as a way station with sandwiches, bags of ice, bottles of water, cell phone chargers, and moral support.

What have I forgotten? Please add to the list. What do you value most in a crisis?

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Being a Princess – what does it mean?

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When a three year old girl announces she wants to be a princess when she grows up, what is the family to think?

Princesses wear pretty dresses and shoes. Maybe she could be an actress or musician with an endless wardrobe.

A princess might become fashion icons. Wherever she goes, the world watches to see what she wears. Then the tabloid journalism world decides whether the real people in the world should like what the princess is wearing. At that point, the marketers step in. Could this little girl become a fashion designer or marketer some day?

A princess’ life has very little privacy. While Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, labored to give birth to her first child (the royal heir, no less), media gathered outside the hospital to report the progress. At three, a young princess wannabe certainly won’t be thinking of her own progeny – we hope.

Princesses in fairy tales have servants, human or animal, to clean up and cook and sew their clothing. Princesses in real life? Let’s just say this preschool princess should learn to take care of herself, just in case.

In some stories, the princess saves the world by using her courage and intellect. Her Royal Highness has a High IQ and High Creative Talents rather than just a royal family tree.

Upon close examination, the popular Disney Princesses turn out to be more than fictional characters…. more and also less. Technically, Disney Princess is a marketing term, a media ploy on the part of a corporate consumer products department head. Since each Disney Princess was a star or costar of a Disney movie, the franchise calls them heroines, but let’s be honest. Some are strong women worthy of the heroine label, and some are more victims waiting for a dramatic (and hunky) rescuer.

So now we’re back at the top of the page: what’s a princess? What does she do? Wear? Say? Think? Where does a young woman go to college to earn a Royal Degree?

If you’re a three year old, what does the role of Princess entail?

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What to do On a Cool Saturday

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On a cool Saturday, when the heat wave finally broke, Chuck had a weather headache. He toughed it out and accompanied me to the Farmers’ Market anyway. What did we buy, you ask? Readers, you’re way ahead of me. Of course I took a picture of the goods!

To Market, To Market

To Market, To Market

The most important pieces in the picture are the peas falling all over the center and the cucumbers on the right. It’s time to freeze more peas and make pickles!

Peas! Peas!

Peas! Peas!

As long as I was prepping peas and pickles, I pulled a few bulbs. Remember the magnificent walking onions? They produced some decent bulbs, too. I yanked these from the ground, cleaned them up, diced them, and added them to a batch of sweet bread & butter pickles.

These onions were made for walking

These onions were made for walking.

To summarize, I spent much of Saturday sitting on the deck doing food preparation. The breeze was wonderful, I felt productive, and the pickles were (and still are) delicious.

 

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Garden Clue – Daisy’s version

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Sergeant Pepper, in the garden, with a purple stake.

Maybe.

The mystery started with Free Super Saver Shipping. I was short 81 cents – cents! I tell you. Less than one simple dollar!  I brought my order to the magic $25 by ordering a packet of seeds. The seeds, Rainbow Peppers, cost just enough to put me over the minimum.

Clue number one: the package

Clue number two: my pepper plot, including jalapeno, banana peppers, and the “wide array of color” rainbow peppers.

The Peppers

Many Little Peppers and how they grow! 

Clue number three: an honest to goodness jalapeno, maybe. Or it could be a yellow banana type. It’s a little too small to tell.

A single pepper - so far

A single pepper – so far

Clue numbers four and more: what in the world of gardening are these creatures?

The Fairly Odd Peppers

The Fairly Odd Peppers

A Closer Look at The Fairly Odd Peppers

A Closer Look at The Fairly Odd Peppers

Back to the beginning: I guessed Sgt. Pepper in the garden with a purple stake.

Well, readers? How about you?

 

 

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The To-Do List never goes away.

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Subtitled: One thing leads to another.

So far:

  • Labeled and put away jam from last night’s canning session
  • Discovered I’m nearly out of 1/2 pint jars
  • Started a shopping list for a trip to Fleet Farm
  • Had breakfast (cereal with blueberries) and made sure Amigo ate, too.
  • Put more blueberries in the refrigerator (from 10 lb. box we bought Sunday)
  • Reheated coffee from yesterday
  • Realized coffeemaker could use cleaning
  • Threw swim towels over shower curtain rod
  • Knocked down shower curtain rod
  • Replaced shower curtain rod AND swim towels
  • took Internet break and realized the rug in the den need vacuuming

Now the world was looking a little more complicated. It was time to multi-task.

  • Started the coffeemaker with water-vinegar mix, and then vacuumed the den.
  • Brought frozen blueberries downstairs to the freezer, and then laid out more blueberries for freezing.
  • Sampled a few blueberries; quality control is part of my job.
  • Used vinegar water from coffeemaker to attack a slow drain in the bathroom. Success!

And so on, and so on, and so on.

 

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To Market, To Market, and home from the Market

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Last time I reviewed a table full of Farm Market purchases, I told you what I didn’t buy. This time I’ll point out the unique, the not-quite-typical fun finds that made it into our bags.

Home from Downtown!

Home from Downtown!

We’ll start on the left. The large plastic bag contains ice and two fresh, cleaned trout, ready for cooking. Chuck cooked them on the grill.

Directly to the right of the trout you’ll see two, no, three packages of pasta made in town. We enjoy their unique flavors. Last year Chuck came home with a package of fettuccine with squid ink. The noodles were black, and the taste was, well, unusual but tasty. In this picture you see two kinds of fettuccine: roasted beet, spinach/garlic and finally, a mix suitable for soup or salad.

Peas, corn, carrots, and then wine. There’s an upscale deli in City Center Plaza, right next to the ramp where we like to park. Chuck picked out a Spanish wine to bring home and serve with the spinach-garlic pasta and grilled trout.

So there you have it, folks. And if you’re wondering just how fresh those trout were, see below. They were still flopping on the scale. For a small fee, the vendor prepped them and cleaned them.

Fresh trout for supper! And I didn't have to bait a hook.

Fresh trout for supper! And I didn’t have to bait a hook.

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