The Fourth and the Fifth

No, this doesn’t have whiskey in it.

Yesterday was the 4th of July, also known in the USA as Independence Day. I’m tempted to watch the Will Smith movie, not because of Will Smith but because of Jeff Goldblum. *sigh* Also tempted to watch 1776, the best-ever musical featuring singing and dancing Founding Fathers. HOWEVER, Mom taped Castle and Eli Stone last night, so that’s what we’ll be watching.

The refrigerator pickles I posted about the other day were a big hit. The tender little green beans were a two-thumbs-up addition. The freshly dug new red Pontiac and yellow Yukon Gold potatoes went over well, too. I cooked them the way my late and beloved mother-in-law said to do:

“BOILED” POTATOES

Put the potatoes in a pot more than big enough to hold them, so the water can circulate. Cover them with cold salted water and then some. Bring the water up to simmer and cook below boiling for as long as it takes–the more potatoes you cook, the longer it takes. They’re done when a fork goes through one easily. Don’t be sticking them all the time, though, or they’ll break up.

Cooking them this way keeps them nice and firm, even though they’re cooked through.

——

We went to Charlie’s sister’s house (one of his sisters) for the get-together. Lots of family there, though not as many as usual, for one reason or another. Loads of food, as usual. The kids were disappointed in that it was drizzly, but they still played, wet grass or no wet grass. I believe they were dinosaurs.

It’s rainy and cool again today. I love it, personally. Everything is sort of misty, and it feels very snuggly to be inside and dry and warm, especially after getting chilled and damp going from church to my car. The rain, it raineth on the just and on the unjust.

MA

writing prompt: Put a character who loves cool, misty weather and one who hates it into a vestibule waiting for a cab. They can be strangers or they can know each other to any degree.

Refrigerator Pickles

Today, which is really tomorrow, since I’m writing this post yesterday–that is, today–Charlie and I are spending part of the day at a family pitch-in gathering. I’m making my refrigerator pickles. This recipe was given to me over thirty years ago by my then-housemate, who had it from her mother, who had it from her…aunt, I think. Annie Boots, I think it was.

Anyway, Charlie’s family LOVES these pickles, which are very quick and easy to make.

Here is the recipe book in which I keep this recipe. I bought this book from one of Charlie’s nephews when he (the nephew, not Charlie) was in elementary school, maybe 25 years ago. I use it to keep all my VMFRs–my Very Most Favorite Recipes, like Vegetarian Spoonburgers, Hot Chicken Salad, Dutch Babies and these pickles. This is the recipe I was given, then I’ll tell how I fudge it.

REFRIGERATOR PICKLES

• 8-12 cucumbers
• 2 stalks celery
• 3-4 green or sweet red peppers, seeded
• 4-6 large onions
• 1/4 cup salt
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 cups vinegar

Combine sugar and vinegar and bring to a boil. Cool and chill.

Cut up vegetables into a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let sit at room temperature for a while. Put the vegetables into jars and pour the chilled liquid over them. Refrigerator for 12 hours or more before serving. Keeps in refrigerator for at least 6 months.

——–

Now, I usually make less than this, and I usually use more celery and less onion and pepper–usually green onion including the green part rather than bulb onion. Today, all I had was one tiny green pepper, and also had some lovely small and tender green beans, so I used the bit of pepper cut quite small and also broke up some green beans in the mix. We’ll see how that goes over. If you don’t have 8-12 cucumbers, just use what you have, and remember that the ratio of sugar to vinegar is 3 parts sugar to 2 parts vinegar. Today, I used 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 cup vinegar.

I turn the jar upside down for a few hours to make sure the vegetables on the top get good and pickled, because the jar will spend the greater part of its life right-way up, with the juice permeating the stuff on the bottom.

Oh–and if you get impatient, you can serve this after only an hour or two as a cucumber salad. It’s still good.

MA

writing prompt: If your country celebrates an Independence Day, what would you have a character do on that day?

A Husband Who Cooks

How lucky can I get? My husband is a retired English teacher and self-taught repairman and builder. He can put siding on the house, till up the garden, then come in and discuss Thomas Hardy until it’s time for him to post political knock-downs on the web. Some people would feel shamed into doing something, but I consider it a good excuse for my laziness. I mean, there IS a matter of balance, isn’t there?

AND he can cook.

The other day, I came in from some damn place or another and he was making lunch for us. He had gone out to the garden and pulled up some little red Pontiac potatoes and some little Yukon Gold potatoes and plucked some young and tender green beans and was frying them in olive oil. We just hit them with a little salt and nommed them down. OH! this was a good dish!

And here’s another goodie I came across posted by Anna Welender in the vanilla-recipes Yahoo Group.

MICROWAVE DUMP CAKE

• 1 box cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 16-28 oz of stuff

Mix together in a microwave safe bowl MORE than big enough to hold it all. Cover with microwave safe plate. Microwave on high for 15 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto plate. Top with whatever.

–

I used spice cake and added two small cans of peaches in raspberry syrup, then topped it with brown sugar and chopped pecans. Or you can use chocolate cake and cherry pie filling and top it with whipped cream. Or lemon cake and lemon pie filling and top it with powdered sugar. Or….

MA

writing prompt: This weekend is the Indiana Territory Festival in Corydon. Look up the history of where you (or one of your characters) lives.

Lunch in Louisville

Jane and I met at the Irish Rover. She had lamb-stuffed cabbage roles (ick! but she loved them) and I had fish and chips (yum!). We each ordered a different beer, gave each other tastes, decided we liked our own better and, when the checks came, discovered we had been served each other’s beer by mistake. Shows what we know. The Rover had its outdoor tables set up, but we KNEW if we went out there would be glaring sunlight or rain or buzz-bomb bugs or something so, out of consideration for our fellow diners, we ate inside.

Then, as usual, we went to the Java Brewing Company for coffee. We did sit outside there, under the canopy in front of the fireplace (which wasn’t lit, of course). This fireplace is so cool–it’s a double-sided one, warming the inside and a little bit of the outside, when it’s lit. We snagged the rocking chairs in front of the fireplace and got wonderful breezes. This is Jane. If you look closely, you can see my reflection in the fireplace screen, snapping the picture. If you look closely at Jane’s wrist, you can see one of the fantastic woven bracelets she designs and makes.

And here is a picture of Cody, a barristo supremo at Java. I mean, here’s how good he is:

ME: I’d like a small Mocha Java, please. For here, in a real cup.

CODY: Would you like me to leave room for cream?

ME: No, thank you. Oh–would you leave room for some cold water?

CODY: Sure!

The boy didn’t blink, didn’t hesitate, didn’t roll his eyes. Didn’t say, “You old fool–What’s the difference between leaving room for cream and leaving room for water?!?” No, instead, he told me very sweetly that his Grandma also put cold water in… her…. His Grandma…. Hmm…. Maybe I don’t like Cody quite as much as I thought I did….

Anyway, here is a snappy of a very weird, crazy-go-nuts vine that’s growing all the bejeezus over the place, turning a framework next to the awning into a living awning. I know it isn’t a grapevine, and suspect it may be wisteria.

So we had a perfectly lovely day.

MA

writing prompt: Write something about this plant, or a scene with this plant in it. Coffee is optional.

The Proper Way To Eat A Banana

I just got a recipe/etiquette book written by the former butler to Princess Di. It includes tips on how to eat “difficult foods”. I was amazed at how many foods it’s proper to eat with the fingers (have to do a Chronicle on that).

Even more amazing are foods NOT to be eaten with the fingers: apples and bananas. (Oh, go ahead, sing along with me–”I love to eat-eat-eat/eeples and beeneenees….”) Now, if ever a fruit was made to be eaten with the hands, the banana is that fruit. I often quarter and core apples for the grandkids–because it’s easy to eat their leftovers in the form of  slices rather than a half-chawed core–so using a knife on apples seems marginally reasonable. But bananas?

Yet, so it is. One should cut the ends off the banana, slit the skin lengthways and part it, exposing the fruit. Cut the fruit into bite-sized rounds and eat them with a fork.

That’s something I’d pay a dollar to watch. Some time this summer, I’d love to have a party out on the deck and challenge everybody to try it. It’s probably one of those food-related tests of nobility like the Princess and the Pea: If you can eat a banana with a knife and fork, you’re a true aristocrat. Dear Lord, we’d have to hose down the porch, if we tried it. It would look like a Marx Brothers routine. Bananas would be shooting in all directions, landing in laps and down necklines; slices–if there were any–would achieve orbital velocity and be shot down by land-to-air missiles…. Fun for all, but no bananas, unless a bit accidentally hit somebody at another table in the mouth.

I think we’d better stick with the peasant way of banananation and keep things firmly in hand.

MA

writing prompt: Give four characters any piece of fruit and describe the four different ways they eat it.

Best. Green. Ever.

That would be kale. Mom and I hit the Tuesday farmers’ market today and each got a mess of kale. I was channeling my inner Samurai when I got home, so I just CHOPPED IT ALL UP instead of pulling the leaf part off the stem part. Charlie likes the stems, too, so he’s a-gonna get ‘em. I put it all in a pressure cooker with an onion, some salt and some garlic olive oil.

Didn’t put in enough water, alas, so it didn’t steam. I caught it before it scorched, added water, and put it on the heat again. Brought it up to where the pressure is jiggling the stopcock, then turned off the electric burner and let it cool down and depressurize by itself. Tasted some. It doesn’t taste SCORCHED, exactly, but it definitely has a little extra je-ne-sais-quoi to it. The guy who sold it to me said he fries it in a pan, and that’s what it tastes like–like it’s been pan-fried a little bit. So I’m going to pretend that’s what I MEANT for it to taste like.

Now here’s a little song for kale:

Kale! Kale! How I love kale!
Nothing is better except a big sale.
All other greens are too strong or too pale–
It’s perfect, most perfect, pluperfect! It’s KALE!

Okay, that’s enough of that.

I posted this morning on Fatal Foodies on the subject of Who Killed Flapjack? It’s a mystery with no solution.

MA

writing prompt: Oh, by the way, do you like my new blahg design? Okay, writing prompt: Write a romantic meeting at a farmer’s market stall.

In a Twist

First, to get your knickers in a twist, for those who don’t know, means to get bent out of shape–to become irritated and a bit resentful of someone or something.

Second, if the worst thing I ever have to face is twisted knickers, I’ll consider myself lucky.

Third, having one’s knickers in a twist is not a pleasant sensation, but metaphorical twisted knickers are a lot less unpleasant than actual ones.

Fourth, being AWARE of one’s state of twisted-knickerness–or knickers-twistedness, as you prefer–takes some of the chafing out of it.

Here, then, are some of the things that twist my knickers:

When my DH (dear husband–I don’t have a “hubby”) goes out without telling me he’s going out and then the phone rings and it’s for him and I look all over for him and can’t find him.

When I forget something I really really wanted to remember, like a tv show I meant to watch or a birthday I wanted to send a card ON TIME for, or I go to the library to work on the high-speed connection and find I’ve not brought the flash drive containing the material I wanted to work on.

When somebody says something that might be a joke or might be rude, and I think it’s a joke and then I realize it isn’t. Then I get twice as irritated, because I thought he/she was displaying friendship and I was wrong.

Any time I have to do something unfamiliar on the computer.

When I’m looking forward to some uninterrupted time to work on my writing…and get interrupted.

These are a few of my least favorite things.

MA

writing prompt: What gets your knickers in a twist? Use that–or at least the feeling–in your writing.

Free Day–LaLaLa

Church this morning, but I like church, so that’s a freebie. It’s a small congregation, and Disciples of Christ are next door to anarchists, so it hangs pretty loose there. I love the hymns, I love the socializing, and God’s there as much as anywhere else. And if I don’t agree with something in the sermon… well… I’m DofC–I don’t HAVE to agree with it. We do Christ, we do conscience. Cool.

I say the day is free, but I hope to use it to work on my Culinary Chronicles for World Wide Recipes. If I can get them all done today, the whole week is free. THAT would be something to lalala about.

Mom and I went to an open house for supper last night, so I didn’t get to cook. The other night, I boiled some our-garden potatoes and farmers’ market cabbage and had plenty left over. Tonight, I think I’ll reheat that and put some smoked sausage (store-bought, alas!) with it. Maybe make some more cornbread.

I would love to bake some more bread, but it’s been so ungodly HOT! It’s supposed to cool down this week, so maybe I can get up and bake in the morning.

There was a piece in the paper this morning about bloggers pulling down $800/week by touting products. I wish. Sometimes I SOUND like a commercial, but here is official notice that I’m not: I WISH. I just stand on the ground and watch my money sprout wings and fly away and shout, “Hey! Where you goin’? Hey!! Come back here and answer me when I’m talkin’ to you! HEY!” So if you ever see some crazy lady standing around shouting at nothing you can see, it’s probably me calling after my long-lost cash.

MA

writing prompt: How do your main characters spend Sunday? If you have no main characters, invent one and follow him/her through a Sunday, typical or not typical for him/her.

Another busy day

I’m running sideways to keep from flying today. Mom and I worked at the Friends of the Library Book Box (book sale room) this morning. We went to the farmers’ market first–still only three vendors. We hope it’ll pick up as the season goes on. I was disappointed not to find any lettuce or spinach or other greens. A friend showed up and got some turnip greens as a byproduct of turnips, but that was about it.

We got some green tomatoes and green beans and I got a little head of broccoli. Hope there’ll be more at the Tuesday market.

Then we came home and programmed our route into the GPS for the open house we’re going to tonight for a couple of friends’ renewal of marriage vows.

Now we’re going to our #1 daughter’s to visit with some friends from Louisville.

Yesterday evening, we went to Colokial, where they had music, food and lots of company. The food wasn’t free, but it smelled divine. We had expected snackies, so we had already eaten, but we visit with our friends who were there and, of course, shopped. Mom bought me a gorgeous embroidered thingy–like a shawl, only a long rectangle. I told them I didn’t need it in a bag, but they insisted. So here is a picture of the bag as well as a picture of the shawl.

They’re working on a website, but don’t have one yet.

Now I have to go and do some doin’s.

MA

writing prompt: What’s embroidered on your main female character’s shawl? If she doesn’t wear shawls, give her one from somewhere or other.

My Fav-Rave Store

Everybody who knows me, knows that my favorite store ever in the whole wide world is Ozzie’s. They have the coolest stuff–scarves, purses, jewelry, house decorations, cards, garden stuff…. And now they have a web site, so here’s a link to it: Ozzie’s.

Tonight, Mom and I are going to Colokial, another shop in Corydon. On the last Friday of the summer months, the owner is having an open house, with free refreshments and music. I’m hoping to score some horchata. In case you don’t know, horchata is a milky, sweet drink with coconut milk and ground rice and vanilla and this and that and it is purely DELICIOUS, although my mother does not like it one bit. That leaves more for me. ha!

Meanwhile, I’m wrestling with the wordpress.org software, which I can’t get to do what I want. WordPress.com is a dream, but the “pro” gear assumes a lot more savvy than I posess. Oh, sweet Jesus, not another learning curve….

MA

writing prompt: Send a character to an open house and have him/her overhear something intriguing.