I did another batch of sundried Roma tomatoes this week. These were halves and they seemed to talk a little longer to dry, I didn’t try to help them along with electric heat I just let the sun do all the work.
In the kitchen overn, I made Chili cheese Grits without green chiles—didn’t have any again-- but added some oregano, black pepper and put a green chiffonade from greens on the top of the cheese when it was done! It sure looked pretty with the green and yellow-orange together.
I also ordered some small cooking tools from amazon today: 2 cooling round racks that will fit inside the crockpot and pots for solar ovens, one square cooling rack that will fit all the pans as well and a chimney starter. I wasn’t going to spend money on much before the end of the year but if they are cooking tools I can use in many ways and I don’t have anything like them well, okay. And I decided on the chimney starter because if it works then I’ll learn how to better use the grill.
And you know, if our money is going to deflate or inflate or just go “poof!” in some banking blowup or meltdown then I might as well have physical tools that will be around for a few years. As soon as I got a good grater, I actually grated more things: for example, I love grated carrots in salads and on the side.
The safety deposit is almost completely empty, I got everything out to look it over.
Peace, Shamba
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
October 17th
1. Dried about 6 sliced up bell peppers in the dehydrator I got last winter at Linene’s N things when they went out of business. I ran it overnight and it seemed to work fine. I will try this with one of the solar ovens next time I dehydrate something just to see how it goes with the same kind of peppers. I don’t know how hot the electric dehydrator gets, I’ll have to check the instructions that came with it.
2. I’ve got the dehydrated bell peppers next to the solar sundried tomatoes.
Later in the day: I went to Safeway for a couple of things. The parking lot was packed a lot more than even a Saturday midday. So, what’s up there? A big promotion and lots and lots of prices marked down significantly.
They had some houseplants and flowers out I front for sale including several herb plants. I picked up a little sage plant, organic and locally grown, it said. I love the smell of sage. It makes me think of Thanksgiving and Christmas and sage stuffing in turkey! So, I brought it home.
I also got some more well priced Roma tomatoes to sun dry and got some kale to use this coming week. I've tried some kale before and it was okay. Better than the mustard greens were anyway.
Now, I've decided I want a catnip plant and I better find out if any particular herbs or plants are poisonous to cats. I hadn't thought of that before.
Peace, shamba
2. I’ve got the dehydrated bell peppers next to the solar sundried tomatoes.
Later in the day: I went to Safeway for a couple of things. The parking lot was packed a lot more than even a Saturday midday. So, what’s up there? A big promotion and lots and lots of prices marked down significantly.
They had some houseplants and flowers out I front for sale including several herb plants. I picked up a little sage plant, organic and locally grown, it said. I love the smell of sage. It makes me think of Thanksgiving and Christmas and sage stuffing in turkey! So, I brought it home.
I also got some more well priced Roma tomatoes to sun dry and got some kale to use this coming week. I've tried some kale before and it was okay. Better than the mustard greens were anyway.
Now, I've decided I want a catnip plant and I better find out if any particular herbs or plants are poisonous to cats. I hadn't thought of that before.
Peace, shamba
Thursday, October 15, 2009
October 15
My 20 day Challenge Report:
Challenge this week or the past 10 days or so:
1. Used bones, some meat, celery seed, salt, pepper in making chicken broth from leftover chicken. I haven’t done that for a long time. There wasn’t really much meat as the final leftovers were given to the cats.
2. Used up the last of the lentils/rice/diced tomato dish with some chicken broth from item 1 above for dinner that night.
3. Had some leftover strawberries with oatmeal the next morning.
4. Bell peppers are going into the dehydrator today or tomorrow.
5. I failed completely at using up the mustard greens I had got at the store! I thought it’d be interesting to try they but maybe another time.
6. Had lunch out with some friends and used the leftovers from that meal the next meal.
7. Broken down and ordered pizza DELIVERED twice in the past two weeks. How many points off is that?but they tasted good! :) and they are leftovers for at least one day probably two.
My sundried tomatoes came out quite well. I'll do more next time.
peace, shamba
Challenge this week or the past 10 days or so:
1. Used bones, some meat, celery seed, salt, pepper in making chicken broth from leftover chicken. I haven’t done that for a long time. There wasn’t really much meat as the final leftovers were given to the cats.
2. Used up the last of the lentils/rice/diced tomato dish with some chicken broth from item 1 above for dinner that night.
3. Had some leftover strawberries with oatmeal the next morning.
4. Bell peppers are going into the dehydrator today or tomorrow.
5. I failed completely at using up the mustard greens I had got at the store! I thought it’d be interesting to try they but maybe another time.
6. Had lunch out with some friends and used the leftovers from that meal the next meal.
7. Broken down and ordered pizza DELIVERED twice in the past two weeks. How many points off is that?but they tasted good! :) and they are leftovers for at least one day probably two.
My sundried tomatoes came out quite well. I'll do more next time.
peace, shamba
Monday, October 12, 2009
October 12
I’m putting the Roma tomatoes out to dry today.
A little later: Dehydrating tomatoes (Roma tomatoes, I wanted to start with smaller tomatoes): well, it seems that the October sun, which I do prefer to the July sun, has got a lot of clouds along with it today. I’m so used to having hot and constant sun! that I forget that the seasons I like the best might not cooperate with the same sun as in July! So, I put the tomatoes in the Tulsi with the electric back up on. We might have a front moving it, I don’t know. So far the weather says that we’ll have much warmer temps by the end of this week—around high 90s. We’ve had really good cooler weather the past 2 weeks.
Don't forget, we are now officially in the Oct 10 to 15 time period Clif has pointed to where signs may pop up for the event on the 25th. Keep your eyes open. I am referring to the webbot project trying to predict the future ….
http://www.halfpasthuman.com/ and http://www.peoplenomics.com/
I am a follower of George Ure's Urbansurvival. com site. The webbot project reading the future is something he's involved with and he writes about it often. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're not. This fall, the interpreters of the webbot data think that a great financial/economic turn for the worse is coming. It can also be interpreted a little differently depending on how you look at it--as all data predicting the future seems to be! :) You can LOL or not as you believe in the possibility of these things. I, obviously, believe in the possibilities.
We'll see this time how accurate it becomes. I still have some projects to do to the townhouse but I haven't made any plans to travel or do much after the past year of economic conditions happening that no one thought could happen anymore! But if really nothing happens to further the downslide of our world/economy/whatever I'm going to look into taking one of two trips I'd like to do in my lifetime. I'll be 59 in November (!) and have probably 15-20 good years left if my good DNA works for me that long. I feel like I'm waiting for the end of the world so I can get on with my life! Wierd feeling!
I would not abandon my present "prepping arrangements" or not do anymore but I'm getting tired of living for the complete apocalyse happening any day now. I'm sure things generally will get worse over the next few years due the economy, peak oil/energy and the climate changings. There's been plenty of "the worst" that could still happen to lots of people anyway so I shouldn't be looking forward to fulfillment of that! I won't like it much when it gets here, I know.
peace to all,
shamba
A little later: Dehydrating tomatoes (Roma tomatoes, I wanted to start with smaller tomatoes): well, it seems that the October sun, which I do prefer to the July sun, has got a lot of clouds along with it today. I’m so used to having hot and constant sun! that I forget that the seasons I like the best might not cooperate with the same sun as in July! So, I put the tomatoes in the Tulsi with the electric back up on. We might have a front moving it, I don’t know. So far the weather says that we’ll have much warmer temps by the end of this week—around high 90s. We’ve had really good cooler weather the past 2 weeks.
Don't forget, we are now officially in the Oct 10 to 15 time period Clif has pointed to where signs may pop up for the event on the 25th. Keep your eyes open. I am referring to the webbot project trying to predict the future ….
http://www.halfpasthuman.com/ and http://www.peoplenomics.com/
I am a follower of George Ure's Urbansurvival. com site. The webbot project reading the future is something he's involved with and he writes about it often. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're not. This fall, the interpreters of the webbot data think that a great financial/economic turn for the worse is coming. It can also be interpreted a little differently depending on how you look at it--as all data predicting the future seems to be! :) You can LOL or not as you believe in the possibility of these things. I, obviously, believe in the possibilities.
We'll see this time how accurate it becomes. I still have some projects to do to the townhouse but I haven't made any plans to travel or do much after the past year of economic conditions happening that no one thought could happen anymore! But if really nothing happens to further the downslide of our world/economy/whatever I'm going to look into taking one of two trips I'd like to do in my lifetime. I'll be 59 in November (!) and have probably 15-20 good years left if my good DNA works for me that long. I feel like I'm waiting for the end of the world so I can get on with my life! Wierd feeling!
I would not abandon my present "prepping arrangements" or not do anymore but I'm getting tired of living for the complete apocalyse happening any day now. I'm sure things generally will get worse over the next few years due the economy, peak oil/energy and the climate changings. There's been plenty of "the worst" that could still happen to lots of people anyway so I shouldn't be looking forward to fulfillment of that! I won't like it much when it gets here, I know.
peace to all,
shamba
October 9-10th posted on October 12th
Very iffy sun today, temps are in the high 80s but sky is slightly over cast and the light peeks in and out of the bigger puffs of clouds. I put rice, yellow splitpeas, a can of diced tomatoes and some seasoning in the Tulsi oven. I plugged it in to use the electric backup on low to see how that will do today. I soaked the split peas for a couple of hours. These are the tail end of a group of split peas and I suspect they are a little harder with age so I soaked them.
I also have chicken to cook up tonight but that’s going in the inside oven later this afternoon.
My herb plants are doing very well. They are all growing and growing.
Next week one day , I’m trying drying tomatoes in the global oven. I haven't done it before so maybe I should say i'll try! No, this will be a very easy thing to do, I'm sure.
I‘ve inherited some containers with plants from a neighbor. There are several aloes and some other things growing among the various aloe plants. One of them looks like the leaves of a golden pothos or something just like that. I think some Irises are growing between the aloes in one of the pots. Anyway, I’ll have to look those up, blooming Iris would be great or the upright stems/leave plant look pretty good the way they are.
All thei ttime I'm doing anything, I'm watching events in the world--financial and other--about the "big" event that's been p[redicted by the webbots and seems to be happening based on reports of overthrowing the dollar as reserve currency and the grwing debt in the US, the dollar falling in value the past few months rather severely.
anyway, I'm watching
Peace for now, shamba
I also have chicken to cook up tonight but that’s going in the inside oven later this afternoon.
My herb plants are doing very well. They are all growing and growing.
Next week one day , I’m trying drying tomatoes in the global oven. I haven't done it before so maybe I should say i'll try! No, this will be a very easy thing to do, I'm sure.
I‘ve inherited some containers with plants from a neighbor. There are several aloes and some other things growing among the various aloe plants. One of them looks like the leaves of a golden pothos or something just like that. I think some Irises are growing between the aloes in one of the pots. Anyway, I’ll have to look those up, blooming Iris would be great or the upright stems/leave plant look pretty good the way they are.
All thei ttime I'm doing anything, I'm watching events in the world--financial and other--about the "big" event that's been p[redicted by the webbots and seems to be happening based on reports of overthrowing the dollar as reserve currency and the grwing debt in the US, the dollar falling in value the past few months rather severely.
anyway, I'm watching
Peace for now, shamba
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Oct 7th
I ate out yesterday with leftovers for dinner. I had lunch with Donna and Mildred on Tuesday. M. wanted to take us both out for the help we'd given her on her genealogy. It was a beautiful day, 82 degrees. We just sat in the Paradise Café for three hours after we ate, talking and talking. They don't think we'll have any more downslide into depression--"the worst is over"-- but we'll not have much of an economic recovery for a while. I've been increasingly schizophrenic the past two months about the whole financial/economic thing. Sometimes I think "okay, maybe, it won't be so bad and we'll stabilize and have some weak recovery" but usually that lasts only a day or so! I see something like a business going out of busines, or hear some news, or talk to friends about their job situation and then I think, buy some more oatmeal or practice making bread, rolls, etc.
Mildred will be 89 in November! She drove herself yesterday; she does have some kidney and some severe joint things. She's okay in the mind but she's definitely getting a little frailer every year. She seemed a little more stooped in the shoulders than I've seen her before. I need to make a point of talking and seeing her more often. She was a great friend and neighbor to my parents and family when I was growing up. She's my second mother, as my mom told me once. D. and I are both 59. Thirty years between Mildred and us.
As for the Blog thing here, my posting about anything here will be spotty over the next 4-5 days as I have some appts and other things scheduled. this includes going through the food storage and seeing what is needed to use up soon and if I need more of anything. I ran out of canned tomato products in the kitchen cupboards but I have another place I keep "more" of that kind of thing. I need to go through them. I seem to use all kinds of tomatoes: whole peeled tomatoes, diced tomatoes of Italian or Mexican seasoning, stewed tomatoes with seasoning or none, tomato sauce, etc etc etc. I don't have any pureed tomatoes right now. I use these with all kinds of dishes, meat dishes, pasta, veggie anything.
For today, I have some leftovers of a soup I made the other day: Beef broth, some pearled barley soaked overnight, leek, scallions, carrots, 1 small potato, celery for a soup. I'll wash, slice and eat the two medium pears that need to be used up. I just like them as plain fruit, maybe with a little cinammon and brown sugar. They'd be good with a chocolate sauce but I'm not going to do that today.
All for now,
later,
Shamba
Mildred will be 89 in November! She drove herself yesterday; she does have some kidney and some severe joint things. She's okay in the mind but she's definitely getting a little frailer every year. She seemed a little more stooped in the shoulders than I've seen her before. I need to make a point of talking and seeing her more often. She was a great friend and neighbor to my parents and family when I was growing up. She's my second mother, as my mom told me once. D. and I are both 59. Thirty years between Mildred and us.
As for the Blog thing here, my posting about anything here will be spotty over the next 4-5 days as I have some appts and other things scheduled. this includes going through the food storage and seeing what is needed to use up soon and if I need more of anything. I ran out of canned tomato products in the kitchen cupboards but I have another place I keep "more" of that kind of thing. I need to go through them. I seem to use all kinds of tomatoes: whole peeled tomatoes, diced tomatoes of Italian or Mexican seasoning, stewed tomatoes with seasoning or none, tomato sauce, etc etc etc. I don't have any pureed tomatoes right now. I use these with all kinds of dishes, meat dishes, pasta, veggie anything.
For today, I have some leftovers of a soup I made the other day: Beef broth, some pearled barley soaked overnight, leek, scallions, carrots, 1 small potato, celery for a soup. I'll wash, slice and eat the two medium pears that need to be used up. I just like them as plain fruit, maybe with a little cinammon and brown sugar. They'd be good with a chocolate sauce but I'm not going to do that today.
All for now,
later,
Shamba
Saturday, October 3, 2009
October 3 Saturday
Suffice it to saw that the economic news this past week has helped to dim the “bright lights” of recovery hopes. I’ll not get into that at all today. I’m enjoying the weather too much.
Not much in food news today. Eating the last of beef stew and veggies and have to make a big store run for all kinds of food and related supplies sometime today. I'll get to Sprouts for bulk purchases later this week after i checked out all those supplies in my pantry. At least, what I think of as my longer term storage pantry.
Thinking of emailing the local CSA and seeing what’s involved in getting on their supplies list.
My containers of basil, parsley and oregano are dong just fine.
Happy News from the Desert!
Our temps are now below 100 degrees, at least for the next 10 days!
On October 1st in the morning in my house it was 70 degrees from the weather alone. Ac didn't run all night and it was very quiet the previous night because my neighbors' ACs weren't running either.
It was cool inside! Not just an absence of warmth but actual coolth! :) :) :) :) :)
Peace to all,
shamba
Not much in food news today. Eating the last of beef stew and veggies and have to make a big store run for all kinds of food and related supplies sometime today. I'll get to Sprouts for bulk purchases later this week after i checked out all those supplies in my pantry. At least, what I think of as my longer term storage pantry.
Thinking of emailing the local CSA and seeing what’s involved in getting on their supplies list.
My containers of basil, parsley and oregano are dong just fine.
Happy News from the Desert!
Our temps are now below 100 degrees, at least for the next 10 days!
On October 1st in the morning in my house it was 70 degrees from the weather alone. Ac didn't run all night and it was very quiet the previous night because my neighbors' ACs weren't running either.
It was cool inside! Not just an absence of warmth but actual coolth! :) :) :) :) :)
Peace to all,
shamba
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