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right now

Apr 10, 2012

Getting My Act Together!

After Friday's excitement, the relatively boring weekend was very welcome.  I'm sure you have heard, but not only was there no deaths from the jet crash, there were only about 6 MINOR injuries, and all but one of them were treated and released from the hospital the same day.  I spoke of the friends that live in the immediate area of the crash, I sat with them in church on Sunday and couldn't help but steal sideways glances at them and their little baby throughout the service and think of what a miracle we all witnessed on Friday.  As an almost humorous side note, one of the pilots told a lady at the crash scene as he was being tended to by the neighbors who found him "Sorry I ruined your home...".  I'm sure he was in shock, but the absolute horror of the scene around him was also such a contrast to the unbelievable lack of loss of life - that comment kind of sums up the whole strangeness of the day.  Feeling very thankful, for sure.

No Easter Baskets this year, I guess I'm a bad mom :)  We did however, have the annual Peep Shoot!

Purple Peeps die this year...


The weather has been so off lately, I know lots of you in the Northeast are having it too.  I couldn't really get started on any garden projects since we were supposed to have winds turn from the north today and bring some lows in the 30's and the wind was a constant 35 mph most of the day.  I had to do something though, to get "ready for spring"!  

As far as "Getting My Act Together" as the post title suggests, it involved getting my kitchen in order for the jam season to come and remembering forgotten things... like food in the bottom of the freezer and how to bake bread :)

Yes, I cleaned the freezers.  And the fridge.  Threw away some of last year's produce that had a lot of frost in it but luckily most of it was sealed with the FoodSaver and that stuff looks just like it did when I harvested it.  Guess the cost of those bags is worth it, grumble...

Just so you know I was not exaggerating about seeming to not get anything done over the winter, I present you with this:

Neglected Sourdough starter that hasn't been fed since October!


Never fear though, just pour off some of that "hooch" on top and smell...



If it smells alcohol"y", strong and yeasty - that's okay, you would know it if it's "off" because you would keel over as if you had smelled rotten milk.  Finn volunteered to give it the sniff test, he's my bread guy.

There's the "hooch", or alcohol type liquid on top - looks gross, but remember that the type of organisms that cause illness cannot live in this yeast/alcohol/beneficial bacteria environment!  If your starter was in the fridge and just forgotten it would most likely just be dead, or as is the case with most - just in a coma and needs a little love.

Don't be afraid!  Don't look away...just feed it!


After pouring off some hooch (but I know some people don't pour it off), I put it into a clean jar and fed it, will leave it out tonight and feed it again tomorrow and see what happens.  We will know if can be revived if we see the starter bubbling away tonight :)


Last summer and fall, when I wasn't being lazy, I had a constant supply of hummus and made it every few days.  After the winter months of laziness, I again have the chickpeas a soakin' tonight, and will be back in business tomorrow of having something healthy to snack on when we get hungry.


For the BIG news... the lettuces are getting big enough for a harvest...


2012's harvesting has officially begun!

Ignore the crummy out of season tomato on there, but the greens were put to immediate use this evening for a kinder, healthier junk food dinner :)


Black Bean Burgers and garlicky olive oil oven fries...  was good, but will be even better when those tomatoes start rolling in!

The winds are really starting blow out there and have changed directions... what the heck are you Northeasterners sending me?  You keep those flurries for yourselves!!!  Time for the waist high seedlings to come in for the night, I don't think they are ever going to be planted this year...

21 comments:

  1. Man, your suppers always look sooooo good. Can I bring my family over some night? Got room at the table for five more??

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    1. Jo, thanks and you would be welcome any time! Have to give me notice though because I'm not always that good about well rounded meals LOL!

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  2. I love the idea of a Peep Shoot! I may steal it for next year!

    I will harvest the first of my lettuce this week and I can not wait. It will be a small amount but, with my dear hubby TDY, that is all I need!

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    1. Christy, steal away! LOL It was my sick and twisted idea last year to do that so I guess this was the "2nd Annual"! All Peeps must die...

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  3. So, how'd everyone do at the purple peep shoot? So glad everyone is ok.

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    1. Cindy, do you know that not even bullets destroy Peeps? LOL...

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  4. I second the idea of stealing your Peep Shoot! What a fun idea :)
    And yes, I'm jealous of your salads. My spinach has already started to BOLT! In the beginning of APRIL!

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    1. CR, too bad we don't live closer we could have an annual gathering, "BYOP" LOL! Your spinach is bolting and mine is just missing... I only had 3 plants decide to stick around after the initial germination, ugh!

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  5. That WAS a miracle ,I thought about it again yesterday as we passed the air field at thew air base by the va.we got some very good news .Jerry's cancer is stable( what ever that means) his pancreatic tumor has NOT grown and the one in the liver has shrunk,gold to my ears!BLACK BEAN BURGERS-RECIPE IF YOU PLEASE JUST PUT IT ON ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS FACEBOOK AND I'LL STEAL. YOUR FRIENDS WITH 3 PEOPLE i AM-OR PUT IT IN YOUR POST OR TELL ME NONYA OR TELL ME "GOOGLE

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    1. Judy, what good news about Jerry! Those black bean burgers are frozen ones from the store, sorry to disappoint LOL, but search Jane's blog, she has a good recipe for them I intend to make again soon!

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  6. Oh man, I totally forgot about the peep shoot. :-( I really liked the idea when you posted it last year and thought it would be a fun thing to do with our girls. Maybe I can still score some peeps on sale and have a belated peep shoot...
    You're harvesting salad already?? Mine is still to little bitty, but hopefully it won't be long.
    Your "junk" food looks delicious! How did you do the fries?

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    1. Anke, I'm "very carefully" harvesting salad LOL, so I don't destroy my plants, they aren't very big yet either! For the fries I just slice the potatoes however you want, toss them in a bowl with olive oil, garlic, Kosher salt and whatever else I have for herbs - this time it was rosemary and spread out in a large pan in oven at 400º, then when they start feeling "cooked" I toss them around in the pan a bit and crank up the heat to 450º until they get that bit of golden brown on them.

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  7. I heard on the news that the pilot dropped most of the jet fuel before they crashed which may have saved many lives. But I wondered who was the person who got jet fuel all over their house and lawn. Then I though of your garden. I have to imagine jet fuel would be something that would wipe your garden out for a while?

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    1. Jane, hubby said they had most of the fuel onboard still as they didn't have time to dump it, most any loss would have been right near the crash. To give you an idea, they only had about 4-5 seconds from takeoff to where they crashed, so even if they tried to dump, it wouldn't all have emptied, which is probably what caused the 2 explosions on the ground. I'd have to defer to him on the technical stuff since he's the airframe mechanic and HazMat guy for his squadron, but I do know that fuel dumping is quite a common event unfortunately, even in commercial airlines, but is usually only done for emergency procedures to drop weight quickly. The stuff kind of vaporizes immediately, but if you are watching you will see kind of a strange vapor and the trees move if they are low... yikes, eh?

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    2. Another example of what our news here reports is incorrect. Now I remember why I hate to watch it ;)

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  8. Erin dear, would you please do us all a favor and stop posting pictures of the meals you put on the table. This one looked like something that would appear in a classy gourmet magazine and my stomach is growling even though we just finished dinner. Thanks.

    P.S. How did your boys react to no Easter baskets, you bad mother, you?

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  9. Mama Pea, LOL you should hear the kids when I say "Wait, you can't eat until I take a picture!" haha, every now and then when I put the plates together it just strikes me as a photo-worthy meal, remember the other 29 days of the month that you DON'T see a photo hahaha! The kids didn't complain too much about me not hiding the eggs this year, that's actually the "basket" they used to get, I've never once put a basket together for them so they don't miss that kind. In years past they got an empty beach/sand bucket and got to go find eggs in the yard. I did have a bag of chocolate in the house though :)

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  10. I hardly think you qualify as 'not having your act together'! You have got to be one of the most 'together' people on earth. I mean, really, organizing your canning stuff already!!??
    And, while I appreciate the peep shoot- I personally think toasted peeps are 'da bomb'. Toast em like marshmallows- They swell to huge proportions and the outside sugar caramelizes. Mmmm... high fructose corn sweetener......

    Judy

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    1. Judy, toasted Peeps, oh my!!! LOL... and the rest is all smoke screen, I never feel like I have it "together"!

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  11. We don't do egg hunts or decorate eggs anymore. The kids don't want to but I kinda miss it. That sourdough starter creeps me out. I'm not sure if I could actually use something that looked that bad even though I know it's okay to use.
    All I've got growing in my garden is crocuses, primroses, weeds and chives. I haven't checked the rhubarb but it's probably under the grass growing away.

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    1. Sparkless, LOL even non-neglected starter gets that "hooch" on top so you might want to steer away from doing that if it freaks you out hahaha! It's cold here again so I haven't been out to see if my chives are blooming yet, they looked like they will soon last time I checked

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