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Back earlier this summer, we asked Chicken Mama what she would like for her birthday this year. Her reply came quickly and succinctly. She knew exactly what she wanted. Okay, sounds good to us, we said. She provided the needed info and we sent in the order.
Although we thought the order was placed in time for arrival for her special day of July 5th, it didn't arrive until this week. She's been home at Swamp River Ridge for her days off this week since the arrival of the package so it's still here waiting for her.
Now for the fun part. She suggested I do a blog post asking if any of you would care to hazard a guess as to what her birthday present is.
To give you an idea of the size of the box, here I am standing next to it on our porch. (Bad mommy that I am, I'm not going to wrap it before she gets here. What you see is what she'll get to open!)
Here are a few hints as to what might be in the package:
1) It's bigger than a bread box.
2) There are no air holes in the box so it's nothing alive.
3) Chicken Mama has one of these in her house but she says she needs many more.
4) It was handmade after the order was placed.
5) It is something you might possibly see in Europe more than in the U.S.
Chicken Mama is offering a set of her beautiful photographic note cards to the answer we deem the "best." And I'll throw in two of my quilted pot holders for the second best. Your entry can be funny or serious. Of course, if somebody hits it on the head, you are the weiner!!
Leave your guess in my comments section by this coming Saturday at 6 p.m. We'll look through all entries then and post the winner by Sunday, the 14th. Good luck and have fun! (Hee-hee!)
As I took some raspberries out of the freezer to package them up today, I was struck by the beauty of the berries themselves.
As you can see, this tray full happened to be a mix of red and yellow raspberries which I think made it especially attractive. Just look at what beauty nature provides for us with only a bit of work on our part.
The berries sure are a nice, large size. Can you see the quarter I put in there for size comparison?
Here's something I'd like your input on. I'm planning on canning a bunch of frozen raspberries later on when I have the time. Can I do that? I've canned a lot of raspberries in my day, but I've always done it with fresh berries. Papa Pea loves canned ones . . . mostly because he thinks the juice tastes like wine! Plus, the canned raspberries (I do them in a light syrup) are wonderful over ice cream, pudding or yogurt so I really would like to use some frozen ones for canning. I'd appreciate you sharing any experience you've had canning raspberries that have been frozen first.
Now . . . I'm out to pick blueberries!
Here it is in all its glory. Finished right down to the last shelf mounted on the wall. Finished but not yet stocked with all the goodies I want to stock in my pantry.
This is the door leading into my 8' x 16' pantry room. Well, those are the outside measurements so you know it's only 7'-something by 15'-something on the inside. Still a wonderfully roomy pantry by any standards. It's been a long time coming, but now I have it. (Hee-hee-hee!)
Open the door and you see the one window (facing north) directly across the room. My big freezer will be centered under the window.
Looking down to the right along that same wall will be a small chest freezer snuggled up next to the big one. A short length of shelves above the small freezer will hold back-up paper products, freezer bags, aluminum foil, freezer paper and such.
Across the room (on the same wall as the door) and to the right as you enter is the set of extra sturdy shelves hubby constructed.
More of a full-on view of the same shelving unit.
Standing inside the doorway and looking to the left, you see the U-shaped unit of closed cabinets below with shelves above.
Just a little different angle of the same storage area.
I am so eager to start filling shelves and cabinets. Papa Pea is trying to hold me back thinking we will need the space to temporarily store the contents of the present kitchen cabinets when we start tearing into them.
The frames of my current kitchen cabinets will stay the same, but I will paint the frames. New pine doors are being made to replace the old, worn and bonged-up doors on the cabinets.
However . . . (shhh, don't tell Papa Pea), I'm thinking only the lower cabinets in the kitchen will have to be emptied. We're keeping some of them, but also adding newly constructed ones for a different cabinet configuration. I will have to empty the lowers in order for them to be rearranged and then screwed back together but that should take no more than a day's time. I could empty them and stack everything on the kitchen table for a few hours. So I may employ a little guerrilla warfare today when Papa Pea is engaged elsewhere and start pulling things I have stashed in various (inconvenient) spots all over the house (yep, places like under the bed and in closets) to start making the pantry look like a pantry is supposed to look.
I will concede that we should wait to move the freezers into the pantry since the open floor space will be a handy spot to put furniture when we get the kitchen done and start on the living room. That would be a lot easier than trying to cover the furniture and work around it while doing the stairway, ceiling, walls and floor in there.
It set us back a day or so in the move-ahead scheme of things, but both of us are so, so glad I took the time to repaint the pantry walls. Yes, it's bright, no doubt about it. But I love it!
I harvested somewhere around two quarts each of raspberries and blueberries yesterday.
Thank you, dear husband, for taking pity on me and helping with the blueberries.
Lying in bed at 3:30 this morning (thinking), I realized I had harvested only two of the three rows of raspberries. Where was my head? (Obviously, NOT thinking at that time. At least about raspberries.) Must get back out there today to finish the job.
I kept out some of each of the berries for fresh eating and froze the rest. Well, I kept out enough blueberries to make Blueberry Buckle also.
I've had this cake recipe since we were first married, I'm guessing. It probably came from a Betty Crocker cookbook as Betty was the one who taught me how to cook. (I truly did not know how when first married.)
A "buckle" (as in Blueberry Buckle) is supposedly a sweet dessert made from yellow cake batter. A filling or fruit is mixed into the batter and after being placed in a baking pan, it is topped with a crusty sugar coating. That pretty well describes this recipe.
BLUEBERRY BUCKLE
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups fresh blueberries (frozen work well, too)
Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
Thoroughly cream sugar and butter. Stir in egg and then add milk and mix. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Combine well. Batter will be stiff.
Fold in blueberries.
Spread in a greased and floured 9" square pan. Stiff batter will have to be spread out with a spatula.
Make the topping mix by combining the first four ingredients and then cutting in the butter.
Sprinkle topping over batter in pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
Guess what we had for breakfast this morning?
This first piece was so absolutely deliciously bursting with a wine-y blueberry flavor . . .
. . . that I had a second piece in a bowl with milk here at my desk.
Ha-ha, those would be polyurethane fumes! I got the very last of the painting and polying done in the pantry today. Tomorrow the door can go back on, we'll have a way of closing it off and we can see how cool it stays in there in this hot summer time.
The good news is I don't think the temp hit 80 today. (I know, some of you would do desperate things for a day down in the 80s.) The bad news is we had such humidity that my underwear has been stuck tight to me all day long. I went out to pick blueberries before noon time and really felt yucky by the time I came in. And it was even a gray day without any sunshine. But that heavy air laden with about 96.5% water was a killer.
Did you know that the Sweet Pea flower actually forms a pod that looks a lot like . . . well, a pea pod?
Yup, it surely does. The pods seem to be developing early this year (because of all the heat?) so I'm going to try saving the seeds for planting next year. If they don't seem dry enough by the time our wet, cold weather hits in the fall, I'll hang the pods inside to dry thoroughly.
When we made the decision I shouldn't try to do the full-blown garden this year because I'd be so busy with the remodeling, we both agreed that we should also nix any new plantings or garden additions/expansions of any kind. Guess who came to me very sheepishly this spring with some Jerusalem Artichoke tubers that had just arrived in the mail, ones that he had "forgotten" he'd ordered?
I planted them in one of our raised beds because they will spread and take over the acreage if not contained in some way. Haven't they done well so far this season? Tall, sturdy and very healthy looking. We're looking forward to seeing what kind of a crop we get this fall when the tubers can be dug.
Remember I made mention of the bed I had our cherry tomatoes in last year? And the 4,000 volunteer plants that sprouted there? I finally got around to doing a quick pruning in that bed today and was pleased to find we actually had some little green tomatoes forming. With luck, we'll have tomatoes for our salads one of these days.
A couple/few years ago, I planted a clematis waaay over at the side of the yard against our 7' high deer fence. It really was a poor choice of location because the yard boy (aka Papa Pea) has mowed it completely down two times (or is it three?) and I tend to forget to give it any TLC at all. Despite this concentrated neglect, it's blooming its little heart out this year . . . but only at the very top of the fence. There are two spindly bare nekkid vines climbing up, up, up to the top of the fence where it spreads out and gives us this lovely show of huge, purple flowers. Ya gotta love a plant with a will like that!
The new island will go in the same place as this makeshift island I've been working with for the past couple/few weeks. Guess who has already leaned on the left hand end of the counter (more than once, I must confess) and barely avoided a calamity as she righted the counter and caught multiple items sliding her way?
Ta-dah! Here is the new unit in the garage where I got the first coat of poly on it. (I had other projects set up outside but with the threatening rain, we knew the island would be too cumbersome and heavy to move inside quickly if the need arose. It's seven feet long and heavier than it looks. Just ask my arms and shoulders this morning!)
Knotty pine on the back and sides. (What else??) Looks like a big ol' box from this angle, doesn't it?
