Who knew?

Fall Gardening in North Texas.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Em's been helping me in the garden lately. I can't describe how much that means to me. Not only is he taking half the stress off my back physically, but it's just a lot more fun to have someone to talk to while working in the garden.

The goal is to spend one hour per day out there getting the summer weeds (grasses) dug out and the winter garden planted, but we don't always feel like it. Today was the first time out there in over a week. Em dug with the spade and I came along behind him fertilizing and planting.

When his back started to complain, Em noticed some peppers that were store-size. He didn't want to pick them, so I did when my back started to complain, breaking off a branch on a salsa pepper plant (accidently).

Lots of chiltepins out there, but I haven't yet found a hot sauce recipe, so I'm leaving them for now. Picked a bunch of kale today, though, which are soaking for tonight's dinner of salsa salmon and kale.

It's delightful afternoon gardening weather, AND fireants seem to only come out in hot weather. There were none when I did the Spring planting and there are none now. Three cheers for that!

Pregnancy of No. 1 ... as the body changes.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:27:00 +0000

I was of the opinion that ALL the "belly shots" should be taken next to a friend's giraffe, but I only got two. They don't get bigger if you click on them, so don't bother.

This one came between the two, but stripes always make us look bigger, don't they?

Jump to this week:

She's due first week of February.

There will be no Halloween here this year. [sigh]

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:07:00 +0000

Halloween has been canceled here this year for the first time. I hate that this happened, but I've grown tired of some things.

I've grown tired of buying commercially packaged (in plastic) candies, which cost more every year as they shrink in size, sold in an additional plastic bag to hold the 15-20. I've grown tired of 100 kids coming into my neighborhood on one night/year to get the shrunk-in-size, commercially packaged (in plastic) candy. Only five kids (max) live on my block.

So, I thought to make cookies this year and package them in paper sleeves for trick/treaters. Then, I read that most mothers would throw them away for fear of poisoning, razor blades, or unicorn spittle as a recipe ingredient (They're ALL urban legends!)

I don't want to be the "Get off my lawn!" grinch, but I also don't want to waste 10 eggs making cookies that will get thrown away or support the industries that shrink their candy while increasing plastic packaging each year, or support kids from other neighborhoods taking advantage.

So, that's where it is on Halloween Eve, 2009. Em will be at work tomorrow night, and I'll retire to a room at the rear of the house to watch a movie or two. I, now, feel, officially like an old lady ... in my new loveseat recliner.

Be safe, trick-or-treaters.

Homemade Crispy French Fries and Tortilla Chips.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:10:00 +0000

'twas Em's turn to cook yesterday, so I took out catfish because I love what he does with it. His typical MO, however, is to serve the catfish with mashed potatoes and creamed corn (from a can). We're getting majorly low on canned vegetables because we just haven't seen any sales on them for $.50 or less in like a year and we can get frozen veggies for less than current canned prices.

I was also thinking about how we used to buy catfish takeout when we lived in North Arlington and how that little hole-in-the-wall catfish place got deleted [maybe] due to the new mammoth Cowboy Stadium being built near there. Anyway, I was jonesing for some catfish with french fries and coleslaw like we used to get there. Our car is in the shop, but I noticed we still had some cabbage in the frig and a few russet potatoes in the pantry, so I asked Em if he'd mind me making a few different sides. He thought it a great idea, even asking if I wanted him to deep-fry the catfish. I love his pan-fried catfish and figured I'd use the fry-daddy for the french fries, so I told him to do what he's always done.

We absolutely LOVED the results. It was a meal slurped down in record time, giving me a real understanding of why people enjoy fast food so much. Deep-fried is NOT the healthiest, but, boy it packs a wallop of flavor.

I made the coleslaw early in the day so it could refrigerate for a long time. At that time, I also peeled the potatoes (three small-to-medium) and cut them into fry shapes. Then, so they wouldn't turn brown, I put them in a covered bowl of ice-water in the frig, where they sat until supper time (seven hours later). I also let a bag of frozen store-bought corn tortillas sit on the counter to defrost long enough to pry off maybe 8 tortillas for tortilla chip frying. Em's a major fan of tortilla chips.

Because Em's part of the meal took only 15 minutes and mine longer, I got going in the kitchen about an hour before we wanted to eat. I used this recipe as a base, and set out the cut fries to dry while I made the dipping sauce for them.

Used generic seasoned salt instead of paprika, onion and garlic powder instead of their salted versions, and needed quite a bit more water than the recipe stated for the recipe when cut down to 2 portions. Also, I added beer to the dip because I'd opened a beer to drink while making these things and because one of the reviewers suggested it.

Took the advise of some reviewers and did a double-fry. On my first fry, I put in plain potatoes with torn tortilla pieces for 2 minutes. That's all the time needed for tortilla chips. Laying out the potatoes and tortilla chips on yet more paper towels, I continued to do this until all potatoes had gotten the 2-minute first fry. I didn't notice the plain potatoes trying to stick together. Em was off playing Solitaire on the PC, so I brought him some warm tortilla chips to try as soon as I had some and he gave a thumbs up. I made a few more batches of tortilla chips while dipping the potatoes for their final fry. I also set the convection oven to 200 degrees to keep the french fries warm. Second dipped fry was four minutes and I stirred the fry-daddy a lot to keep the fries from sticking. There were two batches of dipped fries for the fries shown. There were a few more in the bowl in this picture, so we got 3 servings from the 3 smallish potatoes and *I* get to eat the leftovers today.

LUNCH UPDATE: These fries do NOT stay crispy through nuking. Still tasty, though.

Forgot to take a pic of the final meal, but did get one of the tortilla chips.

The fries came out as golden as the chips, were crunchy on the outside and almost liquid on the inside. At first bite I wanted to say, "They're not DONE!", but they started out HARD, NOT liquid, and tasted DIVINE".

I sprinkled salt on both the french fries and chips after cooking and before eating, so not only were these foods unhealthy due to being deep-fried, but unhealthy due to added salt. In addition, the process was pretty messy and used quite a bit of paper toweling to suck up excess oil. /just sayin'. Still, once or twice/year ...

THREE-FIFTY [350]. The time is NOW.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:07:00 +0000

All over the world, people have been making their voices heard fighting climate change.

Their photos are on Flicker.

I'm unable to attend or hold a 350 event today due to other commitments, but I've signed the pledge at 350.org. Check it out; get involved.

Piano Stairs and the lesson of "If it's FUN, people will do it."

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Make a Delicious Difference.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Hat tip to my longtime friend, Judy, in Chicago.

Freezing Sweet Potatoes.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:45:00 +0000

Today was the first day in a long time without rain or totally cloudy skies, so I started the day by washing clothes to hang outside.

The two gigantic sweet potatoes that I mentioned on September 3rd have been curing, and it was time to do something with them today. I chose to freeze them because we're going to have a gazillion of others soon. That was a multi-step procedure.

There are several ways, but I chose to boil, slice, freeze. To fit in my largest pot, I had to do some cutting to the elephant man's head. I was able to boil the other one, but chose to freeze it in two separate containers, as my intent was to freeze the equivalent of one sweet potato in each container. After boiling, the skin was removed (to the compost pile) and the sweet potato sliced into what one sweet potato might resemble sliced. THEN, the slices were tossed into a large bowl of water to which lemon juice had been added (think 1/4 c lemon juice to one quart water). This was to preserve color.

I used the same lemony water for every batch. The first time I noticed slices rising to the top, I assumed they were "woody" and tossed them on the compost pile.
Towards the end of the day, MOST rose to the top, so I no longer discarded floaters.

The lemony slices were set on paper towels to drain before freezing.

Made more crockpot granola today also. I took the recipe I'd used to make oven-baked granola (before I learned about the crockpot recipes) and just used the crockpot for it. Six cups of rolled oats plus all the other stuff I added at random just because I thought they'd taste good fit into a 9" high cannister.

The very last batch I put into three-thick paper lunch bags and labeled it "TWO sweet potatoes ... for pie." Em desperately wants me to make sweet potato pie, but I look at our middles and think, "We don't need pie." I'll make it sometime this winter whether we get our middles down or not.

I moan a lot about how the yard's out of control, but some areas are pretty perfect:

Tossing in a picture of Em simply because I can. It's part of a program to get him to smile for pictures.

Blog Action Day - Supporting the environment without spending a dime.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:23:00 +0000

Today is the day that bloggers concerned about climate change have been asked to write about climate change in some way. The Blog Action Day sponsors offered tips and more tips to break through any writer's block. They also gave us plenty of lead time, despite which I'm writing this at the last minute.

In my first mention of Blog Action Day, on October 1, I mentioned how we are saving money and the environment by getting our electricity from 100% wind. For us, because we live in North Texas, that's a possibility. It may not be where you live, but there might be other ways that you can save money and save the environment at the same time. Since the economy is in the crapper worldwide, I decided to include just a few ways to spend NOTHING and help the environment at the same time.

Use your library instead of spending money and wasting resources on something you might only use once. They’ve got books, CDs, DVDs, magazines and newspapers lined up for you to borrow for free. If there’s something you want that they haven’t got, ask a librarian - they can get it in for you from other libraries, or put it on a purchases list.

On your way to collect your library "purchases", do all the errands you can in that part of town. If you're driving, drive INTENTIONALLY; make each trip as petrol-effective as possible.

Find ways to support environmental causes that don't cost you anything. For instance, for every E-card you send through Care2, you preserve one square foot of rainforest.

If you know of other ways to spend NOTHING and help the environment at the same time or know more organizations that provide you a service for no charge while supporting the environment, please include the information in the comments.

President Obama Awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Not too many folks have listened to the representative of the Nobel Committee, apparently, because I see talk all over the internets of "but, he hasn't DONE anything", and "Hope isn't enough!". These folks didn't notice, like my cousin, Jim, who wrote me last year to say that "my guy is NUTZ with all his talk of nuclear nonproliferation." Jim, (just like the Nobel Committee) knew how to check out Obama's website.

Congratulations, Mr. President and good luck to you.

Accepting ...

The day after, inquiring minds want to know WHY Obama was selected. Nobel Representative explains:

Maybe I really HATE gardening.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:14:00 +0000

I really enjoyed starting the gardens this year (in March). The weather was cool, Ken had rototilled the plots for me, and I could spend just 15 minutes/day pulling out the grasses that really wanted to grow EVERYWHERE. I wasn't even bothered by fire ants. I don't know where they went, but I didn't see ONE.

By No. 1's wedding (end of May), my turnip patch was full of grasses AND fireants which prevented me from removing the grasses without consequence. The peach trees had fruited by then, but the peaches didn't smell like peaches this year, so I didn't even bother to protect them from the birds.

Heavy rain followed by mosquitoes and HOT, HOT weather seemed to team up to prevent me from making any progress in removing the grasses that insisted on growing everywhere in the gardens. The fire ants seemed to multiply until it seemed like any/every attempt to remove the grasses resulted in 25-30 fire ant bites. Then, I got chicken pox, lip fungus, and 25-30 more fire ant bites just trying to pull stuff back so Em could mow around the beds. I don't call that fun.

Squash borers destroyed the zucchini, summer squash, and spaghetti squash, mealybugs infested the heirloom tomato plants as well as watermelon, cantelope, and cucumber that survived the squash borers. Fungus attacked the green beans, opposums have been eating the melons, and now some kind of wasp is boring holes in the ground where I'd planned on planting fall turnips.

Yesterday afternoon, two tween girls came to our door asking if we needed any help with yard work. They had a lawn mower, they said. I told them that I didn't need mowing, but that I had considerable weeds (actually grasses) to be pulled in my gardens out back. They lasted 40 minutes on slow and sloppy, but gave me the impetus to do some of it myself now that cool weather is back. I lasted fifteen minutes on deep and thorough. Then, last night monsoon rains returned (to stay the week). By the time the gardens stop being slushy, the mosquitoes will be thick and the fire ants EVERYWHERE again.

Certainly can't say I saved any money gardening this year. Soil amendments alone WAY exceeded the cost of vegetables in season. Sense of satisfaction was negligible, as well. Early on I had the glow, but nature just had a way of putting me in my place.

At the beginning of the season, I watched the following video on Square Foot Gardening and thought, "That looks too sterile for me. Stuff isn't even grown in dirt!" Right about now: I can't find ONE fault with a garden that produced lots for the family, didn't require any weeding, and didn't involve insect bites.

I support the public option in health insurance reform.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:25:00 +0000

If you do, as well, take a few minutes to tell Congressman Boehner, who says he's never met an American who did.

http://www.dccc.org/page/s/BoehnerA

Just replace my info with yours and click send.

Blog Action Day - October 15, 2009.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:41:00 +0000

I've put this on the sidebar, but I'll put it here, as well.

Topic this year is Climate Change, and I'd forgotten (as is my way) to mention that we hit the end of our 6 month contract with Gexa on September 19. Remember back when I posted this?:

[begin quote of article]:

SaveOnGreenEnergy.com offers
100% renewable power
February 12, 2009

SaveOnEnergy.com launched SaveOnGreenEnergy.com to market 100% renewable power, it said yesterday. The new site will mimic the firm's established site where some green power plans were already available but CEO Brent Moore told us yesterday that it makes more sense to market such deals separately.

Consumers that want green power search for it and thus are likely to be drawn to a site with only those products.

"We strongly believe in renewable energy efficiency and feel SaveOnGreenEnergy.com will be extremely well received by customers looking for the best in green and environmentally-aware products," said Moore.

The new site launched yesterday with the firm starting an advertising blitz through the internet and more traditional mediums.

Moore isn't sure if it will achieve the same volume as SaveOnEnergy.com -- that now has commercial offers in 20 states -- but he believes the green site will be a success.

SaveOnGreenEnergy.com is starting in Texas where the parent firm has its roots and hopes to follow the original site on its path to other markets.

The eventual goal is to run in every state with deregulated power and natural gas markets, said Moore.

Firms with residential offers on the site include Green Mountain Energy, Gexa, TXU Energy, First Choice and Bounce Energy.

The commercial retailers are the same as those on the firm's original site: TXU, Reliant, Mid American, Cirro Energy, Glacial Energy, Liberty Power, Star Tex and Gateway.

Customers wanting 100% green power options usually pay a premium for them but Moore sees that changing. His firm hopes competition spurred by the website will help drive prices down as the firms offering green plans realize they can win more volume through the website if they do, he added. Moore saw that happen on the firm's main website.
[end quote of article]

Six months ago, we went with Gexa and got a rate of .125/kwh, lower than that offered by our (at the time) electricity provider, TXU, AND received 100% renewable power, as well. We recently signed with Gexa for 12 months at .105/kwh. Rates for wind keep going down as more folks get on board, and even Em (who had reservations six months ago) agrees that Gexa has served us well the past six months.

I just can't imagine excuses any more for NOT going with clean energy when offered clean alternatives that are LESS expensive than the polluting ones ... even in Texas.

So, mark your calendar for October 15th and start thinking about your contribution to a discussion on climate change.

Corn Tortilla Quiche and Carrot Cake Cookies.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:35:00 +0000

I'm subscribed to Allrecipes.com's Daily Dish Email newsletter. I'm also subscribed to their Healthy Bites and even their Slow Cooker Email newsletters (both of which are delivered weekly). I get a few other cooking-related newsletters, as well. Sometimes all it takes is an idea to jump-start a kitchen experience and these folks offer me two things I like: 1) the ability to reduce/increase number of portions with all ingredient amounts modified to fit, and 2) the ability to read reviews of people who've tried the recipe and/or modified it to fit either what they had on hand or what they thought they'd like better. Then, like everyone else, I modify to fit what I have on hand or what I think we'd like better.

Last week Em and I grocery shopped and one of the items on sale (with a coupon, as well) was flour tortillas. Em didn't think we needed to buy them because we have tortillas in the freezer, but I told him we have corn tortillas and I wanted easy access to flour tortillas, too. I haven't made corn tortillas from scratch yet, but I have made flour tortillas. As much as I like the homemade ones more than the cheap on sale with a coupon ones, I appreciate the convenience factor.

Today's daily recipe was Corn Tortilla Quiche. I thought about those corn tortillas in the freezer and took them out to defrost just long enough to pry 6 or 7 of them off the stack, returning the rest to the freezer.

As usual, I read a bunch of reviews and did my thing, which was to use about half a pound of hot (spicy) pork sausage, about 3/4 c frozen spinach (the last of a package), 3/4 c (the last of a package) frozen shoestring french fries (diced), half can of rotel (drained), cool whip instead of cream, only 1 cup cheese (all sharp cheddar), 1 T of cottage cheese (all I had) with the rest of the 1/2 cup sour cream. I'm not a fan of corn tortillas [That's Em's favorite], but I really enjoyed the taste of this quiche. We ate half of it for Em's before-work meal. Something to think about if you need a recipe that cleans out the frig.

Just because we were talking about it when No. 1 came over to go for a walk on Tuesday, I made two dozen cake-mix cookies this afternoon, as well(using expired cake mixes). I added a tsp of baking powder and a tsp of baking soda to the mix in case it needed more lift, but otherwise stuck to Mary Hunt's cake mix cookies recommends. My balls were more like 2" than one, so I baked them for 15 minutes, and used parchment paper because every time I read "on ungreased pan", I know they're gonna stick and you can see that they did.

Tasted pretty good. I chose a carrot cake mix, used vanilla for the extract, and put powdered sugar on them just like Mary suggested. Made 2 dozen large cookies which tasted much like my grandmother's gingerbread cookies. Next time I think I'll try frosting them.

Pocket Diapers.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:45:00 +0000

No. 1 is expecting a girl in February and I'm finding myself thinking about things I'd not previously thought about ... like diapers.

From an environmentalist point of view, and maybe even a cheapskating point of view, it seems to me that pocket diapers fit the bill.

Drybees offer pockets for purportedly cheaper than some others, but lots of options exist, ranging from fleece to hemp to bamboo.

BumGenius was the first brand I'd read about, and they seem to be the most popular amongst reviewers.

The principle of an attractive outer pant with a disposable inner "pad" was already commonplace in Norway when No. 1 was 14 months old. *I* was caught a little off-guard, though, as I didn't have an outer pant to accommodate the pads my family offered. Simple enough to buy one.

I'm really trying not to influence No. 1 in any of the decisions that come with motherhood, so whatever she decides to do/use will be fine with me. [gulp]

Great Online CookBook.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Em forwarded an Email from someone he'd worked with that had absolutely the best array of crockpot recipes one could imagine. I traced it back to a sublink of a group that's (for the most) broken up now, but agreed to keep the cookbook online indefinitely.

I've added the link to the sidebar and will add it here, as well.

Check out the Crock Pottery section. AWESOME! What CAN'T be made in a crockpot?

Home Baked Bread.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:05:00 +0000

We just got home yesterday from another trip to Nevada. This trip was to West Wendover. I blogged about our last West Wendover trip here, and this week's trip was pretty much a complete repeat of that one. We had lots of fun, it was really cheap, and had trouble in the Love Field parking lot. THIS time, we couldn't find our car.

Before we left, I'd been jonesing for some homemade bread, but Em didn't want me to make it until we got back. So, today we did the same thing we always do when I make bread starting with me asking him where he stored the grain mill. I've been baking bread for several years, but I've never been able to get high bread. I think one reason is that my bread pans are 5" wide instead of 4" wide. The bread spreads out sideways. Another reason is that I ALWAYS make wheat bread because we just don't like the gummy white stuff.

Diane made some really pretty loaves recently and sent me the recipe which I modified to use half freshly ground hard white wheat flour and half unbleached white store-bought stuff. I just tasted the end piece with butter. It was sturdy, but the next piece in really resembled Wonder Bread in consistency. I think you can get away with half hard white wheat flour without anyone noticing, Diane. I'll let ya know how the half hard red wheat turns out.

That was the last of my hard white wheat berries, so I ordered more today, along with a few new bread pans. I put tinfoil inside the one pan today because the surface finish is chipping off.

If you want to try the recipe for Wonderbread:

Diane's Beautiful Looking Bread

2 cups warm water 1/3 c sugar 2 T yeast 1.5 t salt 1/4 c oil 6 c flour

Dissolve sugar in water. Stir in yeast. Proof till foamy. *
Mix salt and oil into yeast.
Mix in flour 1 C at a time.
Knead 10 minutes. [Both Diane and I use our Kitchen Aid mixers to knead]
Cover and allow to rise until doubled (30-45 minutes)
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead out the air. Divide in half, roll into loaves with seam on bottom. Put in oiled or nonstick pans and squish the dough into the corners of the pans. Let rise 30 minutes or so, until over pan tops. Bake 30 minutes @ 350. Butter tops once done.

* On the chance that the bulk yeast I keep in the freezer (2 years old now) was responsible for my wheat loaves not getting very high, I bought a 3-pak at the local grocery. I had one pack of that left, but it expired last month. I tried it anyway (as is my way), but it didn't proof. My bulk yeast proofed beautifully.

I'm going to experiment more with the basic recipe, adding more wheat flour, using hard red wheat, using honey instead of sugar, adding gluten, dough enhancer, buttermilk, potato flakes, etc.

Angry Americans (a subculture of our society).

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:04:00 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Back in Black - Angry Outbursts

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Healthcare Protests

Lots of opinions being put forth this week regarding the angry demonstrative people attending the August townhalls and September 12th rallies. Why are they so angry with Obama?

Some, including Jimmy Carter and Em think it's about race.

“Barack Obama stripped millions of Americans of their right to not have a black President.” Balloon Juice

"I remember when they were hooded." Margaret and Helen

""The president does not think (the birther handjob movement) is based on the color of his skin", White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
Well sure, that explains why they hated Clinton, too, but did the anti-Clinton handjobs take to the streets? No, this is a special kind of hate: "Them niggers just stole America and we decent white folk gotta steal it back ...and if a price has to be paid, I know God is on the I-hate-them-niggers side."
This has civil war written all over it.
Who thinks I'm kidding?"
Bartcop

I'm more inclined to think that, while ALL of the groups represented have SOME racists, "it’s hard to measure racial motivation. And it’s hard to measure levels of vitriol, whatever motivations may drive them." .

Some see The Revenge of Ron Paul's Army.

Others see the influence of Fox News and talk radio with their lies and fantasies about health-care reform swirled together with lies and fantasies about the chief executive himself. If you didn't click on the link to Rachel's interview with Frank Schaeffer, go back to the dailyhowler article and check it out. He talks about subcultures of our society.

Lower fat, lower sugar crockpot granola or I wonder why we don't get sick from eating old food.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:50:00 +0000

My insanity kicked in again this week, so I made granola (still using the crockpot) using less oil & sugar. Here it is cooling.

The recipe was the very first recipe in Google's list. I stopped there because I had all the ingredients and because I probably tend to eat a bigger bowl of granola when I eat granola than some other people might and every time I dish it out I think, "Well, there's about 1000 calories."

While the granola was cooking, I decided to make something REALLY healthy for lunch. REALLY healthy means low-fat AND incorporating fruits/vegetables. As I said, my insanity kicked in again this week. I ended up cooking quinoa, adding cottage cheese, frozen peas (defrosted slightly via rinsing), chopped onion, orange bell pepper, watermelon, black grapes and several dashes of white pepper. I couldn't remember the ratio for water to quinoa, so did another google and learned here, "Quinoa should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer if storage beyond a month is desired. " Say WHAT? The quinoa we ate today was purchased in May of LAST year, frozen for several weeks just to kill any insect eggs that might have been in it, and then put into what looks like a repurposed glass salsa jar in the pantry. The sunflower seeds and flax seeds I used for the granola today are even older than the quinoa, and they may not even have been frozen before going into the pantry. My dried fruit doesn't get used often enough to be eaten anywhere remotely within the expiration dates (if they even have any - I usually pick them out of bulk bins).

No. 1 shared a watermelon with us on August 22 and we're still eating off of it long after she said that her portion went bad. Looks fine TO ME, and tastes delicious:

Sometimes I'm too ignorant to know when food is designated "bad". No. 2 cut the grey/brown parts out of avocados when she was here, but I just ate those parts along with the green parts and never noticed any taste difference between green and grey. Sometimes I simply don't care to know when food is designated "bad" like when the dried blueberries MIGHT be more black than blue. Sometimes, I think it's wasteful to throw away food stuffs that look and smell fine. Other times I think either there's not a lot of credence to these food storage guidelines or that my storage conditions are superior to those used to develop the guidelines. The watermelon has been at the rear of the top refrigerator shelf (where temps are inbetween those of a refrigerator and freezer), for instance, and the indoor temperature of our house never fluctuates much beyond 75-85 degrees with low humidity. No. 1 and her husband closely follow guidelines with NO exceptions, so I must be careful to serve them only the freshest food if they eat here. Do you follow guidelines or tend to use your eyes and nose to make your own decisions?

What are your opinions on public nursing (breastfeeding)?

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0000

I ran into a Facebook comment a week or so ago wherein a family member mentioned that she'd seen a woman at the mall walking around with a 2-year-old "hanging off her chest". She went on to say that she made a point of passing the woman again just to be sure that she'd seen what she thought she saw.

Seems that she and her friends believe that there's a point where women should stop nursing for no other reason than that she doesn't want to see it in public OR she and her friends felt that if you must breastfeed after the child is walking and asking for milk you do it in the privacy of your home.

I totally disagreed, and expressed my support for breastfeeding until mom and baby decide to stop. They said they supported breastfeeding, as well, but just not as long as some moms and babies did it.

I heard words like "discrete" thrown around. My experience with nursing my three was that people who approved of breastfeeding always thought I was discrete and those who didn't said things like, "She just whipped it out." Heh. I ALWAYS thought I was discrete, so it's pretty obvious that discrete has different meanings for different people.

Lots of pregnancy/childbirth talk in the blogosphere lately. My oldest daughter's expecting and a few bloggers are, as well. I'm really trying not to influence my daughter in the childbirth/breastfeeding departments BOTH because I understand that my opinions may not be currently mainstream AND because I think she should decide what she wants to do without my influence. I'll support her in whatever she decides to do, even if I have to grit my teeth while doing it.

What are your thoughts on childbirth/breastfeeding?

Experiment Updates: 1)Freezing Squash, 2) Dandruff, 3) Lip Fungus, 4) Sweet Potato - Experiments Update.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:38:00 +0000

It's been over a month since the Summer Squash Freezing Experiment, so I pulled a random paper bag out of the garage freezer and set it on the counter to defrost for the evening's supper. It turned out to be the 4-bag experiment, and maybe you can see that only the very inside 2 bags got any moisture AT ALL, but certainly not as much as I might have thought. Photo was taken after squash defrosted in bags on counter.

So, only the two inside bags absorbed miniscule amounts of water from even the defrosting squash. Unfortunately, I lost track of which bags were the inside bags [These things happen to people who don't live alone] for this batch, so recycled all four (Em's preference all along). Can't say how "juicy" frozen yellow squash is expected to be, as I've never bought frozen squash, but my meal plan for this first batch was to add with fresh veggies (shown here), chop, and dump in a stove-top chicken dish with a can of Rotel. The dish turned out tasty, but the squash was just a vegetable among many, so no taste test was possible.

The Dandruff Experiment started mid July, so it's probably been about six or seven weeks, but I don't have dandruff anymore.

I probably could have gotten rid of the dandruff earlier had I followed the instructions and washed my hair twice/week after doing the hair treatment, but after several weeks of scalp treatment, I forgot about washing my hair because my scalp didn't itch anymore, or if it slightly itched, I found that simply massaging my scalp with
eliminated the itch. My hair isn't oily, so washing maybe twice/month always made more sense than twice/week.

Em got the Studio 35 scalp stimulator shampoo brush at Walgreens for $2.00. Made a lot more sense for someone with long hair (like me) to use a massaging brush on my head during times I watched TV than it did to use a hairbrush leaning over at the waist (which tangled my long hair).

I did scalp treatments (when I did them) early in the morning because I'd gotten addicted to old reruns of Poltergeist, followed by reruns of Millenium. I'd massage my scalp with the Studio 35 brush while I watched and then squirt a solution of 50% hydrogen peroxide and 50% Apple Cider Vinegar. When I started, I even sprinkled Borax on my scalp before the massage with the Studio 35 brush. That was pretty messy (requiring vacuuming afterward no matter how careful I was to brush only over the recycling bin), so I discontinued that. I also went through a period early on when I thought that the brushing only pulled the scabs off my scalp just to have them grow back again. It took 40 years for me to get rid of my dandruff and I'm under no illusion that it won't come back again. I achieved my goal, though, of discontinuing use of dandruff shampoos, and I know now how to keep my scalp healthy and what to do if it does. Whoopee! Yay! Free at last from the grip of big business shampoos. Looks like dandruff just might be a fungus, afterall, which leads me to discuss what happened to my lips last week (also cured now).

There are a number of ways to "cure" a lip fungus, just like there are a number of ways to "cure" fungi anywhere on the body. None of them are pretty. No telling where my lips caught the fungus. I do things in the garden and without even thinking use my hands (in dirty gardening gloves that have been EVERYWHERE) to flick hair out of my eyes (or off my lips). Could have been the green beans, but might have been lots of places outside the garden, as well. We don't consider the consequences of these robotic actions until we find ourselves with some weird dermal condition that doesn't want to go away on its own. Probably the first thing to remember with any fungus is that fungi thrive in moist environments. As women, we like to keep our lips moist, simply because it feels (and looks) better, so we might exacerbate the problem before we cure it.

As usual, I took a shotgun approach to my lips. I used apple cider vinegar, coconut oil and even powdered ammonium alum with a petroleum jelly base as astringent styptics. By the time No. 1 stopped by on her way somewhere, my lips were scabbed and cracked. Later the same day, however, I rubbed my lips with coconut oil and the scabs fell away to reveal normal lips. Took a few days to get there, but happy to report that the fungus lips are as gone as the dandruff.

We still have the one already cured sweet potato on the kitchen counter waiting for me to get around to making a sweet potato pie, but I suggested one day to Em this past week that we ought to feel around and see what the other sweet potato mounds are offering because they need to cure for 7-10 days after sitting on the patio table for a day & night. I didn't really want to expose my already exposed lips to the adventure, so Em took a turn.

He didn't feel like he knew what to do, so I got in there and pulled up a few sweet potatoes that probably shouldn't even be labeled as such.

Four sweet potato beds and they seemed to all want to put their effort into one big potato. Once I plucked that huge sucker out that looked like elephant man's head, the sweet potato plant that delivered it pretty much laid back and died. Not lookin' quite as bad a few days later, but on the day it was pretty sad.

Lip fungus?

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Finally feeling good enough to go outside and do a little weeding in the gardens after the Chicken Pox (I STILL had scabbed-over pox, but felt pretty good), malady II struck the very same day.

I wouldn't think that a garden fungus (like the one on my green beans) could be transmitted to humans, but SOMETHING happened to my lips:

I'm treating the lips with cider vinegar (in case it's a yeast problem) and virgin coconut oil (in case it's a fungus problem), discontinuing all lip products (in case it's an allergy problem).

I could have looked like Angelina Jolie had the malady affected both sides of the lips equally, but it didn't.

R.I.P. Edward (Teddy) Kennedy - liberal lion of the Senate ... literally.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:45:00 +0000

Old-fashioned clothes lines. Drying for Freedom.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:40:00 +0000

The environmental blogosphere is fond of promoting line-drying over using a clothes dryer. I dry our clothes outside, but don't have a clothesline; I use the patio furniture after Em moves it to the middle of the yard. Our patio furniture resembles metal screening, enabling air to blow from below and above. That's where I set my sweet potatoes to "air" before curing.

So, some things I lay on the table, some things I lay on the chair seats, and long things get hung on the backs of the chairs. Shirts/blouses get hung on hangers and the hangers get hung around the table edges. The patio furniture even lends itself to using clothespins to hold the clothes in place if the day is particularly windy.

We don't have T poles, and the fences around the yard (which belong to our neighbors) lack the ability to stand on their own through a good wind without any strain. I had a never-used clothes line that I bought several years ago and when No. 1's hemp-string clothesline broke I gave it to her along with a bunch of clothespins. That clothesline also broke recently and she called asking where I'd bought the clothesline because she was having no luck finding a replacement. So, I did a little googling on clotheslines and learned that the rope clotheslines aren't so common anymore. At Clotheslinesource.com, I found clothesline poles, retractable clothes lines, umbrella clotheslines, and wall-mounted clotheslines. No. 1's backyard already has the T poles, so all she needs is the clothesline. They don't sell them. Urbanclotheslines doesn't, either.

I lived in an apartment building with a patio in a blue collar neighborhood south of Chicago in the late 1980s/early 1990s. and one of the tenants complained to the landlord when I hung a few items out on the patio to dry, but I had no idea entire states had banned line drying.

Project Laundry List has a store, which doesn't sell them, either, but I watched their video about places that ban/have banned outside clothes drying. Another story about banning clotheslines here and a great trailer video for a documentary on the subject at Drying for Freedom. Who knew? There are a few places online where one can still buy rope clotheslines. Clotheslineshop sells a few. We're going to check out Walgreens and even Ace Hardware to see if ANY brick/mortar stores still sell them. If you know of a place, let me know.

Back to Gardening.

old.novice@yahoo.com (Oldnovice) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:41:00 +0000

A week off for vacation and then another week off to nurse chicken pox led to insects trying to walk away with my garden. As if the heat of a Texas August isn't enough of a deterrent, I'm also still too tired to do much, but I'm going to start with a little each day and work myself up to the larger tasks. Weeds (mostly grasses) are a concern, but I'll worry about them after I get the insects in check. The plants are all large enough to compete with the grasses for nutrients, but insects can wipe out a mature plant in a matter of days.

Not enough squash left for squash borers to be a problem, but there are plenty more willing to wreak havoc in a North Texas garden. This week, I'm spraying stems and leaves with a home-made concoction which consists of a little bit of rubbing alcohol mixed with a squirt of dishwashing liquid, two pinches of sea salt and a pint of water. I'm doing this as the last phase of mealy bug control. While I was off doing other things, these bugs totally wiped out a Costaluto Genovese tomato plant and made inroads on surrounding plants. The first day, I pruned and used the Q-tip removal method on large infestations. Now, I'm down to the mild infestations coupled with prophylactic precautions. My largest spray bottle only holds a pint, so I've been making one bottle each morning and each evening, making my way from the infected area to other areas. I'll probably continue doing this even after I've sprayed every area, doubling back to spray again as the need arises.

I tend to greet Spring with high garden ambitions, make too many gardens for one person to tend, and then fall down in the summer heat. This year is no exception, but I intend to continue the gardens into the fall and maybe even year-round this time, so might use the heat of this summer like many people use the cold of the winter and plan methods of controlling grasses/insects before the fall planting. The trick will be matching the budget to Em's aesthetic requirements. I'm also rethinking a few other practices that relate more to my philosophies than anything else. I might address that in a future post.

We're finally getting some chili pepper fruit, so Em's licking his chops in anticipation of some firey dishes. Unfortunately, the tomatoes aren't fruiting right now, so salsa won't be an option. Here's a photo of the south end of the east fence garden. I don't have a zoom function on my camera, but maybe you can discern the Peter Peppers along with zinnias and a Black Krim tomato.

Ripe Peter Peppers look like red penises, it seems. I swear I didn't know that before I planted them. Heh. They're only about 5000-10000 on the Scoville Scale, so somewhat hotter than a jalapeno, but not as hot as the Chiltepin growing nearby:

The asparagus are still ferning (their first year), competing with grasses much like everything else. They tend to want to lay rather than stand up straight, so I MAY think about some kindof sling support to gather them closer to the fence and away from where there's SUPPOSED to be grass in the yard. As it is, they fall into the grass and unless I'm there to hold them up, Em either can't mow there or mows over them. Neither is desirable. I haven't seen any insects interested in the asparagus or sweet potatoes [knock on wood]. Maybe it's too early for them.

The sweet potato plants are all still doing well, if I ignore how the nearby gardens are encroaching on their beds. The culprits shown here are Fox Cherry Tomatoes.

The three I picked before vacation are now cured, so we'll be eating those shortly. I'm thinking about ways to store the ones yet unpicked. Basements are rare in North Texas because there's rock under us. I'm thinking I could put them in a large picnic-type cooler with maybe a few cold packs in a closet somewhere, swapping out the cold packs once/day or so to maintain a temperature higher than a refrigerator yet lower than the temperature inside the house. Suggestions are welcome. The four beds I have this year came from the smallest of last year's one bed (left on the bathroom windowsill like an elementary school science project most of the winter in water. Last year's one bed was started from a section of sweet potato purchased at Kroger that sprouted before we got around to eating it.

The fruit bushes planted this year had few successes. It looks like one raspberry plant is making an attempt to fruit, but it has a little damage which I MIGHT have attributed to being next to the Costaluto Genovese tomato I lost to mealy bugs or even the zuccini that I lost to squash borers, but I have a 2-year old raspberry plant on the west side of the house that looks the same way.

LOTS of the 25 bushes I planted in early spring ended up doing nothing. I don't blame the vendor for that, as they sat in my office for several days (maybe even a week) before we got them into the ground. Bottom line: The plants got here before I was ready for the plants. On a sadder fruit bush note, Em hired some guys to mow the lawn in the front and sides because the lawn mower Em was using lost the ability to propel itself. These guys didn't mow down the 2-year old raspberry bush on the west side of the house, but they totally (POOF!) eliminated the two 2-year old blueberry bushes on the east side of the house. Without a Trace is NOT just the name of a TV show. SO disheartening! They were JUST starting to look like they'd adjusted.

Overall, the state of the gardens right now is "waiting on tending" while "taking over the world". They're trying to run together and grow all over each other while grasses, weeds, and even trees take advantage of the chaos.

It's that time of year again.