Back to Some Regular Business ....

I've been eating rather much and not the best stuff the past month, burgers, burritos, picked up pizzas eating out with friends to try new stuff and new beer! and not enough green stuff. There were often vegetable that went with all these heavy meals but not much green. This really adds up on the scales and to the system generally within just a month or so!

So, a few vegetarian days and/or lentil/rice dishes will set some of this over indulgence right.

I just didn't want to eat the CSA veggies like I usually do so I lost some eggplant, basil, arugala. Fuzzy grey just doesn't look good on the pretty purple egg plants! Mea culpa!

However, the squashes, melon, great melons! peppers and chiles were eaten or frozen/dried for future use.

Seasons are changing even here in the desert. Lack of sun in the north patio is increasing every day very quickly, plenty left for solar cooking but it really moves every couple of days.

And because the seasons are changing there are herb plants available again at the neighborhood nursery so I picked up some: Italian parsley, thyme, Greek oregano, basil and one more oregano plant. I didn't even have any dried oregano, all gone!, and couldn't find the bottle of thyme I'd bought a couple of weeks ago. It will be nice to have some fresh stuff again. :)

Last year, I just kind of used the fresh stuff and watched how much they grew. This coming fall,winter when the plants really produce I will pick them and get them dried.

I just put leaves and greens put in the dehydrator and leave them sitting for a couple of days without the heater and they dry quite well.

Feeling much better than a couple of weeks ago. 90s instead of 103 is good and the evenings and mornings are almost cool, more like an absenth of warmth than cool yet.

cheers,
Shamba

one more storm

March 7th, Another Sunday of rain, moderate to heavy rain at times all day long. It was lovely, really. And we’re not going to have the clear sunny weather until Wednesday morning because something else is passing through Arizona tonight and tomorrow. Honest to god I could have used a rain barrel this winter!

The desert parks in town are all green, green, green. March is here and I haven’t made it out to the desert to drive around and see the green growth plus some flowers that are out there. I just need to get up some morning, take the camera and take off in the car.

We’re only 6-8 weeks from May, too. The temps will go from just around 70 to 80 and then suddenly to 100 in those weeks since we usually break 100 sometime in early May.

That’s all for now, Shamba

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

September 30th, Wednesday

At the last minute, like 15 minutes ago, at 12:55 p.m., I decided to cook in the Global sun oven. I have a pot of beef stew meat, canned stewed tomatoes, some minced onions, and some other seasonings and it’s out there cooking. It wasn’t quite unfrozen so it’ll need all the 3 ½ hours of sunlight it’s got left today to cook.

I don’t know what else I’ll eat with it but I’ll deal with that later.

Okay, it’s 30 minutes later and I’m using up the last ½ of brown rice in a glass jar. I’ll need to open a new package of rice after this. I will use water to cook it in, not broth this time. And it will go in the solar oven under the meat dish when I’m ready to cook it. It only takes an hour or so to cook.

Update Wednesday: Success with the beef stew meat by 4 p.m! I put it in a little after 1:p.m. still pretty frozen. The condensation on the glass door started about 3:30 and I could begin to smell the food cooking a little before that. I got the idea of putting the meat in even if still frozen from the Solar Chef who put some frozen meat of her own in her oven and it was done after 3-4 hours. Also had adjust the oven frequently, including moving the table it was on. If it's on the table it's higher to catch more sun after 2:p.m. Middle of the day is still fine for cooking.

I’m not sure about green stuff tonight I’m fresh out of most fresh stuff.

shamba

Aug 22, 28, 31.

August 31st:

1. Okay, the estate has 1 stock left to sell that has to have a medaillion signature guarantee and a letter to order the sale.

2 & 3. Two unclaimed property form to fill out for the State of Arizona. One earlier claim has been settled. How they came up with these two I ‘ll never know but I have the forms to fill out and accompanying documents to prove I got the right to these things! Sheesh, I HATE THESE FORMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And old comadre from yoga teacher training has a small studio of her own very close to where I live. I ‘ve stopped by a couple of times to check it out but once she was closed for a week and then today she had a class going with the doors closed and blinds and a sign not to disturb. Glad to see she’s teaching again and hasn’t had to close down because of economics.


August 28th:

Cooked a meatloaf the other day, had meat that had thawed but I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it so I made meatloaf. We’ve had a few over 110 days again and I wasn’t cooking anything inside! That was Thursday, Friday and tomorrow…

Anyway, meatloaf was great. Made some rice, split peas, some salt, pepper, turmeric and curry powder this morning. I was surprised I didn’t have quite enough sun at 11:00 a.m. this morning in the usual cooking spot when I went out to put in the rice! Sun is moving quickly to change angles these late August days. I put the rice in the oven anyway and it will cook well it’s just starting with only half sun.

The winter laundry is done. This is all the blankets, throws etc. have all been freshly washed and ready to sue in a month or two at night. I didn’t get these done earlier as I had my injured arm to deal with. And I actually found places to put all this winter laundry! So, it doesn’t have to sit out stacked up on the extra laundry hamper after all.

I have to do cat laundry-for winter cat beds—and clean up the front porch, where the cats actually live. Next week, I hope to get to that. I’m not tackling that this weekend though.


August 22:

Nonfood supplies for medicine chest.

Alka Seltzer like stuff (I should never be without these!); paper towels; Gold Bond body and hand cream marked down (I love this stuff for any feeling of irritation or itchiness on skin); Imodium (when you need something like this you need it); some shoe cleaner/polish/scuff mark remover to spiff up shoes and sandals after this summer of sweat, splashed with water from hose watering, cats lying on them, various other small calamities that happen to shoes. I got some standard band aids.

Then I decided I wanted to try leeks in something this week and got some bananas, too. And some wet canned cat food as a treat for the herd this week.

all for now