I'm backkkkk ... :)

This is just a short note.  I've been gone for about 2 1/2 weeks.  I told you all earlier that my tried and true PC died (it's been a month ago at least), and I started using my son's old PC, which is actually faster than my PC.  After I had used it for about 2 weeks, Jordan, my rottie/shepherd, knocked over my PC tower and (I thought) damaged the hard drive as it wouldn't boot up and asked for a bootable disk.  (EEK!!!)  It took me a week to get it to the computer expert that works on my PCs and it turns out, Jordan only knocked a plug loose.  Whew! :)  Now that I have a working PC again, I'll be blogging again.

Sisters

Hope you all had a wonderful summer and that fall has started out beautifully for you.  It's been rainy in Chicago all week, but we're supposed to have a beautiful weekend and sunny weather this coming week with temperatures in the 70's.  I can handle that! :)

A Tribute to Skittles

Skits, posing pretty after grooming.

This is a sad post for me.  My 12 year old Yorkie, Skittles, passed away yesterday.  I took her to the groomer three weeks ago.  I remember when I was dropping her off that one of the dogs was coughing.  About a week or so ago, Skits started coughing a bit, so I thought she caught something at the groomer's.  But, she seemed to be OK and actually seemed to be getting better (eating and drinking), so I was just watching her.  Then yesterday morning, she had what looked to be a huge seizure and became unresponsive.  We wrapped her in a big towel and ran out of the house.  She died on the way to the vet's office in my son's arms.  The vet said he thought she had a heart attack and had a weak heart, which is strange to me.

Skits enduring my son dressing her up, November 2010.

Two years ago when I brought Jordan home from the Animal Welfare League, I discovered she had Kennel Cough the day after I brought her home (that's when she started coughing).  She gave it to Skittles.  It hit Skits very hard and I took her to the vet probably 4 times in a 3-week period.  She wasn't eating and I thought it was going to kill her.  But, the vet told me that Skittles had a strong heart and was in great shape and that he thought she would pull through, which she did.

"Scruffy" is what we called her when she needed to be groomed.

Maybe the Kennel Cough weakened her heart or maybe her age just caught up with her.  I have no clue, but I can say I wasn't ready for her to go, not like this.  She had a wonderful life with our family.  She was an excellent dog with a lot of spunk and personality.  We will miss her deeply.

And this is how Skits looked ... inquisitive, ready to do anything.

Skits, knocked out in the "big" dog bed.  She looked like a little toy in it.

Skits on Christmas Day 2009, sitting by my Mom.

Skits, peeking out from behind my son's Snuggie, Christmas Day 2009.

 

Skits sitting with Jordan in the chair.

Skits never really liked Kobe, even though we got Kobe when she was 11 weeks old and was about the same size as Skittles.  Skits would bark at Kobe so hard and so fast, she would end up sneezing at Kobe.  They didn't fight, but it was a unique and interesting relationship.  We got Jordan when she was 10 months old and 50 pounds.  You'd think Skittles would hate her too, but she didn't.  Skits actually liked Jordan.

Skits' last picture, September 4, 2011.

We love you, Skits Bits.

Catching Up Here

Soooo ... about a week ago, my older son told me that the PC wasn't working.  He was right; it wasn't.  When booting up the PC, we get a black screen with a blinking cursor.  This is NOT good.  Luckily, I have another PC tower.  My younger son blew the motherboard in his PC, so I had it replaced and something else replaced (goodness, I can't remember what, only that it cost me $150).  BUT, in the mean time, my younger son begged me to buy him a new "gaming" PC that would be better for gaming, so I did.  He used his old PC for about a week before he received his new one.  Then, it sat in my dining room until a week ago when my PC died. 

Did I back up my PCs?  Well, yes, I did.  Did I do it recently?  Ummm ... no, I didn't.  It's been a year.  I'm afraid my hard drive is corrupt, but I'll still take it somewhere to try and get the pictures and documents off of the hard drive.  :::sigh:::  In the meantime, I'm trying to get my son's old PC up to speed with the programs I need.  It's actually a faster PC, with 4 gig of RAM.  My old PC only had 1 gig. I finally installed the picture software I need so I can blog again. :)

This holiday weekend, I was determined to be productive, and I have been.  Today, I did some laundry and cleaned out my pantry.  I dug deep to the back of the shelves and threw out all of the old canned goods, sauce mixes, etc. that were in the pantry.  It's amazing how much space there is when I threw out the old/expired stuff.  After that was done, I made a vegan apple crisp.  It's quite tasty, too!  I converted a recipe that I got from my ex-mother-in-law.  Here it is.

Apple Crisp

4 to 5 apples, pared and sliced thin (I used Fuji)
3/4 cup oatmeal (quick or old fashioned)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup Earth Balance (I used 1 stick cut in 1/2" squares)

Preheat oven to 350º.  Put apple slices in ceramic baking dish.  (I didn't grease, but you can.)  Combine oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, and Earth Balance in a food processor.  Pulse until crumbled.  Spread over apples.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Enjoy warm plain or with vegan vanilla ice cream.

 After the Apple Crisp was done baking, I got really serious about dinner.  I peeled some potatoes for mashed potatoes made with unsweetened Almond Breeze.  I served those with some Tofurky gravy. It's my first time having Tofurky gravy and it was pretty good.  I also threw 6 ears of corn into the oven to roast at 350º for about 30 minutes.  I used the instructions that I found on Susan Voisin's blog for Oven-Roasted Corn-on-the-Cob, but really, it's just literally throwing the corn in the oven.  I pan fried some vegan Chicken Scallopini to go with it.  Finally, I threw some rolls into the oven to warm.  The entire meal was very tasty!

Earlier this week, I made a vegan veggie pizza.  First, I cleaned and sliced some baby bella mushrooms and sauteed them.  Next, I cut a yellow bell pepper into strips and some black olives in halves.  I used half of a container of whole grain pizza dough I had bought at Whole Foods.  I rolled it out very thin.  I drained a jar of the Bruschetta in a Jar that I canned a couple of weeks ago and put it on the pizza.  I followed that with some fresh spinach leaves, the mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, black olives, and the Zuma Grape Tomatoes that I had roasted and frozen a month ago.  I let it bake at 400º for about 20 minutes.  It was mighty tasty!

Tomorrow, I think I will cut the seedless watermelon into cubes and made Watermelon Sorbet with half of it.  I really enjoyed that.  It is quite the refreshing frozen dessert.

Since I may have lost all of my pictures from last September until now (yes, it's been a year since I backed up my PC ... I've learned my lesson!), I thought I'd take some more pictures of the girls, but from their level.

Jordan, trying to ignore me

First I took Jordan, and she wasn't really happy about it.  She really HATES getting her picture taken. :)  But she posed pretty and looks so regal, that the picture is a winner!

Kobe, trying to ignore me because she was licking her paws.

Kobe usually doesn't mind getting her picture taken, but she was upset with me, so she wouldn't look at me.  After Kobe's anterior crucial ligament surgery, she was still limping a bit and the vet put her on DuraMaxx to control the pain.  DuraMaxx has some less desirable side effects.  One is depression or restlessness.  I believe Kobe has that and licks her paws to relieve some of it.  I think she's been licking them until they are raw.  I had been fussing at her to stop licking her paws right before I snapped the photo. 

I've taken her off of the medication for now and will keep her off of it for a few days (she only takes 1/4 pill, so she's on the minimum dosage).  She didn't have this problem until she was on this medication for such a long period.  If it stops the problem, I will ask the vet to change her medication to something else.

Jordan trying to back up on Kobe, while Kobe pays no attention and licks her paw.

Here's a classic picture.  One, Kobe is licking her paw ... ugh!  But the reason this is a classic is that Jordan is always backing up on Kobe and putting her behind in Kobe's face.  I swear it's an act to try to establish dominance.  Jordan is a nut!

I hope I can recover all my pictures from the last year.  bah!  PC problems!  They drive me nuts! :)

A Truckload of Roasted Veggies

I've had a weird diet today.  I've been using up veggies from my CSA boxes.  For lunch, I had a spinach salad with diced zucchini, cucumber, kohlrabi, purple bell pepper, and a tomato.  It was a huge salad, so I saved half of it for tomorrow.  Tonight, I decided it was time to roast some veggies.

I cut up probably a dozen small gold beets, a head of cauliflower, a big sweet potato, and 2 medium sized white potatoes.  I tossed them in a mixture of 3 tbsp.extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. hot curry powder, 1/2 tsp. Spike seasoning, and 1 tbsp. lemon juice.  I roasted them for 30 minutes at 400º.  They weren't done, which didn't surprise me because I had so many veggies in the pan.  I stirred them and put them in to roast for 20 more minutes.  They still weren't done to my liking, but they were drying out and sticking to the pan.  ACK!  I drizzled a little bit more olive oil on them and sprinkled them with red cayenne pepper and smoked paprika.  I gave them a good stir, turned the oven temp down to 350º and cooked them for 20 more minutes. 

Finally, the veggies were done to my satisfaction.  They have just a hint of a "kick."  These are very tasty.  I'm glad I got a significant portion of my veggies on hand either eaten, ready to eat, or roasted.  I will be eating these roasted veggies over the next day or two.  I think I'll have some of them in a wrap for my supper tomorrow for a little variety.

BBQ Tofu, Bruschetta in a Jar, and a Stupid Move

Hot Lemon Peppers in the lower left corner and Tabasco Peppers in the right half of the picture

My pepper plants are still producing.  Actually, I haven't picked any of the Tabasco peppers yet.  I have harvested some of the hot lemon peppers and two habanero peppers.  I've been waiting for the rest of the habanero peppers to turn a deep orange, but it's slow going. :)

Habanero Peppers

This week, I made a great dish.  I made BBQ Tofu Cubes from VegWeb.com.  The tofu was absolutely fantastic!  I ate part of it the night I made it.  I put it on a high fiber (12 gr.) tomato basil tortilla with some romaine lettuce.  Wow!  I took the rest of it to work to have on another tortilla for lunch.  I definitely recommend this recipe if you like BBQ.

Later in the week, I had a meatloaf burger from The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Marie Newman. I made the burgers earlier this summer and threw a couple in my freezer.  I put some of my Bread and Butter Jalapenos on the burger and MAN OH MAN!  It was one good burger.  I think my Bread and Butter Jalapenos are a complete success.  Thank you, Darlene!!!  (My canning mentor!)  They are a bit spicy, but not too hot and oh so yummy!  I'll be making these every year.

I finally ventured over to the Homewood Farmer's Market yesterday in the POURING rain.  I'm so glad I did, too, as I found many delightful veggies.  I bought 4 pounds of tomatoes, 3 heads of garlic, a red onion, cauliflower, and some mushrooms.  I already had 2½ pounds of Roma tomatoes from my CSA box, but I needed a bit more to make some Bruschetta in a Jar. The link is to the basic recipe, but the directions I followed (via Darlene, of course) are a bit different.  Just before I made this, another poster in our Yahoo! canning group said that one of her jars broke in the hot water bath.  Darlene thought it was because she didn't use hot tomatoes, but packed the jars with room temperature tomatoes.  Needless to say, I followed Darlene's recipe.

Bruschetta in a Jar 

Makes about 7 half pint jars (8 ounces)

5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup white wine vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp dried basil  (I used about 1/4 cup of fresh basil, chopped)
2 tbsp dried oregano (I used 2 tbsp fresh oregano chopped, and 1 tbsp dried oregano)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
9 cups chopped cored plum tomatoes 

Combine all ingredients, except tomatoes, in a non reactive pan.  Bring to a boil.  Add tomatoes.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, pack tomatoes into hot jars leaving a generous 3/4 inch headspace. Ladle hot vinegar mixture into jar to cover tomatoes, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot liquid. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down tightly until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight.  Process 20 minutes in a BWB. 

I got exactly 7 half pint jars from my batch. 

So are you wondering what my stupid move was this week?  I inadvertently deleted my blog.  :::gasp:::  I was trying to consolidate a Google account, since I had to make one for my android phone.  I deleted an old account not realizing that it controlled my blog.  So, when I deleted my Google account, I deleted my blog.  I think I did that on Thursday, maybe Wednesday.  I discovered it yesterday.  Yes, it did send me into a panic, but luckily, I was able to restore both my account and my blog.  :::whew!!!:::  Needless to say, I'll be a bit more careful in the future.  :::shakin' mah head:::

Kobe, looking disgusted but tolerant

My oldest son loves to torment the big girls.  He picks up their 70 pound behinds, twirls them around, and then sets them back down.  I got pictures of their faces as proof that they do NOT enjoy this exercise.  HA!

Jordan, equally distressed, but also tolerant

Finally, I don't think I've posted many pictures of Skittles.  So, I'm posting one of her, too.  She was just groomed yesterday and thinks she is quite pretty.  Skits will be 13 on Halloween this year.  She's the matriarch of the brood. :)

Sunday Cooking

I thought I'd show you the finished product for my Peach Butter.  It is excellent.  The blend of spices was perfect for the white peaches and made a lovely butter.  I've had it on bread and an English muffin so far.  It definitely is a repeat recipe.

My deck container garden is coming along nicely.  A ripe Hot Lemon Pepper is above, and below are a few of the Habanero Peppers, not quite ripe yet, but some are starting to turn a nice orange.

Below are my Big Boy tomatoes.  I wouldn't say I got the biggest crop off of the plant, but it is rewarding to eat something I've actually grown.

I've since harvested those tomatoes and have a few more growing.  It's not enough to even make 1 pint of tomatoes, but it's enough to add to a meal or salad.

I used the last of my garbanzo beans a couple of weeks ago.  Last week, I resorted to buying one can of garbanzo beans so I could have some in my salad.  Today, I cooked 3 cups of dry beans, making 6 to 7 cups of cooked beans.  As you can see, I spread them out in a single layer on a jelly roll pan and freeze them for 45 minutes before transferring them to a ziplock bag.  I love the flavor of freshly cooked garbanzo beans.  I use no seasonings in the pressure cooker when cooking them.  That gives me a lot of room for using them in different dishes.

Here is the last of Thursday's CSA box.  I still have to cook the gold beets, but that will be later in the week. I will fix the corn for tonight's supper. I found a recipe for Kohlrabi and Carrots fixed in a similar fashion to mashed potatoes.  I'm going to try that tonight as well.  And, I'll be making BBQ Tofu.  I found both recipes on VegWeb.com and they look very good.

I roasted a (huge) bag of cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots (it took 2 pans to roast it all).  I added a red onion and half dozen or so of garlic cloves.  I'm making a creamy roasted soup.  I've made the soup before with cauliflower and sweet potatoes.

I cut 4 or 5 sprigs of fresh thyme from the plant on my deck, added a bay leaf, a quart of organic mushroom broth, 1 no-chicken bouillon cube, 2 1/4 cup water, and 3/4 cup of sauvignon blanc wine.  I let it simmer for 20 minutes or so, then I used an immersion blender on it to make it smooth and added 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk (at a mere 40 calories per cup).

I did a taste test.  Nope, the soup wasn't doing it for me.  It was missing something.  It was savory, but not quite the right flavor. Sooooo ... I added about a teaspoon of mild curry powder, maybe a tad more.  VOILA!  That was the flavor I was looking for.  I'm a curry lover and this soup will now become one of my favorites.  The only thing missing is some big toasted croutons or a slice of crusty bread to dunk in it.

It's been a heavy cooking day.  I started the day by making my son pancakes for breakfast. :)  But, Sunday is a good day to cook and make a few things that I can eat during the week.

Jordan on the stairs looking for trouble out of the front door.

The weather is beautiful today.  The sun is out and it's a very comfortable 73º outside.  The windows are open and the entire family is enjoying the day.  Kobe begged me to stay outside in the backyard with her for a bit today.  So, I weeded around my flowers and hosta plants while Kobe chilled.

Kobe chilling in the back yard.

This is what Summer is all about.

Cooking and Canning

It's been a month since I blogged.  WOW!  And that month has gone by quickly.  I took a vacation in Wisconsin for a week and have been tending to my deck garden.  OK, that's not exactly true.  My oldest son has been tending to my deck garden.  And he has done an excellent job!  My hot lemon peppers are turning yellow, my habanero peppers are turning orange, my Big Boy tomatoes are ripening, and I harvested a bunch of jalapeno peppers and the lone yellow bell pepper that my plant produced.

While on vacation, I made stuffed peppers.  I'm not a stuffed pepper fan.  I don't ever make them at home.  But, I did on vacation.  They turned out quite tasty, too.  Although, I'm not going to start making them all of the time.  Here's what I did.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

4 good sized green (or whatever color you prefer) bell peppers that will stand up
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 8oz. package of  baby bella mushrooms, chopped (can use sliced)
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipolte flavor
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb flavor
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 of a package of vegan crumbles
2 cups of your favorite marinara or other pasta sauce

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Slice tops (approximately 1/2") off of the bell peppers.  Chop up the tops of the bell peppers.  Put olive oil in a large skillet.  Warm and then add chopped bell pepper tops, onion, and mushrooms.  Saute until onions and peppers have softened and the mushrooms have released their water.  Add seasonings and vegan crumbles.  Saute until vegan crumbles are warm and have dried a bit.  Add marinara sauce; stir to blend.  Can top with shredded vegan cheese or Parmesan cheese.

Stuff each bell pepper and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet or cake pan.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Besides making peppers, I had a serious craving for soup.  I had a package of Yves Veggie Chorizo  that I either needed to use or toss, so of course, I went looking to use.  I stumbled across Vegan Sausage and Kale Soup on Stacy Eats.  I actually had kale in the house as I've been getting it in my CSA boxes.  I didn't take the big stem out, which is one thing I would do if I use it for soup again.  Plus, I'd saute it longer so it was more tender.

The recipe is very simple and has a relatively short list of ingredients.  I used No-Chicken broth versus veggie broth and butter beans instead of Great Northern.  It was quite tasty and I ate it for a few days until the very last of it was gone.  I do confess to adding some fresh picante sauce to it and a couple of good shakes of my favorite taco sauce to kick up the spiciness.  It's a soup I'll make again, but next time, I'll probably use spinach.  I don't usually keep kale in the house.

The absolute BIGGEST pot I've ever owned.  It's HUGE!

Last weekend, I made Bread and Butter Jalapeno Pepper Slices and Patty Pan Squash pickles.  I've not made either of these before, so I'm be anxious to see how they turned out.  I say I'm anxious as the Bread and Butter Jalapeno Pepper Slices have to sit for a month before I can open them.  I'm not sure how long the Patty Pan Squash are supposed to sit, so I'm letting them sit for at least a couple of weeks.

I got the recipe for the Bread and Butter Jalapeno Pepper Slices from Darlene, the ULTIMATE canning person, in my humble opinion. Darlene is AH-MAZE-ZING!  :::smile:::  She can answer virtually any question about canning or dehydrating.  Here is Darlene's recipe for Bread and Butter Jalapenos.  If you like canning and dehydrating or want to start canning or dehydrating food, please join the Yahoo! Group, Food Preservation, Drying, Canning, and More.  Hands down, this is the friendliest group that I belong to.  The people there are completely supportive and helpful.

Bread and Butter Jalapenos

Yield: about 7 Pints
  
This makes a very tasty and spicy addition to almost any meal. For those that 
are daring substitute the jalapenos for habanera peppers but BEWARE these are 
HOT. Use gloves handling any peppers!!!

4 lbs jalapeno peppers
2 lbs onions
3 cups vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp mustard seed
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp ginger powder

Wash and cut jalapenos and onions into thin slices and cold pack into jars.

Place remaining ingredients in large saucepot and bring to a boil.

Pour hot mixture into jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. 
Adjust headspace if needed by adding more hot mixture. Wipe rims. Adjust caps.

Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

NOTE: Best after letting sit for 1 month but can be used after 2 weeks.

While I have only made the jalapeno variety, I have a TON of habanero, tabasco, and hot lemon peppers starting to ripen on my deck.  I may try this with a combination of the three peppers.  That same Sunday, I threw some Roma tomatoes in the oven to slow roast at 200º overnight.  The recipe for Slow Oven-Roasted Roma Tomatoes stated they should cook 10 to 12 hours.  I left mine in about 11 hours and they were WAY overcooked.  :::sigh:::  I'll try it again, but I'll do it during the day so I can check on them.  I've also thought about just throwing them into the dehydrator instead of the oven.  That may work as well.

On Wednesday, I decided to make Blueberry Butter.  The recipe states it should take 6 hours or so to cook.  Well, MINE took a whopping 23 hours to cook.  I can't believe it took that long, but my crock pot is 40 years old and cooks at a very low temperature on the Low setting.  I only used about 3 1/4 cups of sugar and I doubled the spices.  I used an immersion blender to smooth out the butter just before I ladled it into half pint jars.

The Blueberry Butter turned out great.  It's thick and smooth and spreads like a dream.  It's a tad on the tart side, so it's not over-the-top sweet.  I'll make it again, only next time, I'll use the High setting on the crock pot to cut the cook time in half.

I discovered I like a vegetable I have hated since I was a kid.  That vegetable is beets.  OK, I can't say I like the red variety, as those are the ones I have hated since childhood, but I can say I have tried gold beets and I like those.  I got some in my CSA box on Thursday.  I scrubbed them, cut them in 1" chunks, and then tossed them with 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  I roasted them at 350º for about an hour.  They taste a little like sweet corn to me.  It's an odd flavor and one I don't quite trust, but they are really quite good.  I'll be ordering them again this week.  My CSA also offers red beets, but I'm just not ready to try those yet ... maybe one day.

Soooo ... that brings us to today.  Today, I am making Peach Butter.  I am loosely following a recipe from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving and a recipe for preserves posted by Darlene in the Yahoo! Group.  I took the skin off of about 3 1/2 pounds of peaches (submerge them in boiling water for 30 seconds, then in ice water for 2 minutes and the skins slip off).  Then, I chopped the peaches and threw them in my crock pot.  I added 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 cups of sugar, 1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon (or a bit more) of freshly grated nutmeg, and 2 teaspoons of homemade vanilla.  It's cooking on HIGH heat :::chuckle::: and I'm hoping it will be done sometime TODAY!  :)  I'll let you know on that.

Finally, I am roasting some Zuma Grape Tomatoes.  These grape tomatoes are orange in color and very tasty.  They are sweet, a touch sweeter than red, and I love eating them like cherries.  However, there were way too many for me to eat before they spoiled.  So, I decided to roast them at 275º for 2 hours.  I washed them, cut them in half, and tossed them with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and a sprinkle of both fine sea salt and pepper.  Once done, I'll throw them into a ziplock baggie and put them in the freezer.  I'm going to use them for pasta dishes, pizza, garlic bread, etc.  Nothing better than having slow roasted tomatoes ready for consumption.

I bought the girls a new bed last weekend.  I'm leaving you with a picture of Kobe thoroughly enjoying the new bed.  All three of my dogs sleep in it on a regular basis.  Nice to see that they all like it so much.  Hope you are having a great summer!