Hacked! And on Valentine's Day!

Chicken Mama here.  Mama Pea's one and only offspring.  You'll notice that it's after 1:00 AM on Valentine's Day when I post this.  Because I've been fighting my printer for hours trying to get Mama & Papa Pea's valentine to print.  To no avail.  But it finally dawned on me that I could give it to them this way.  (Insert slightly devious, overly-tired mwah-ha-ha-ha chuckling.)

So, here it is:

On the inside, I would write - which seems to be so repetitive but also so true:

Mom & Dad (aka Perc & Drip),

Thank you for your unending support and encouragement through all things!  No matter that I'm 45 and you're 7? and 7?, respectively, your wise words and life lessons continue to help and teach me - even if I sometimes seem to (still!) rebel against them.  P.S.  I've really enjoyed working with you over this past year and SO appreciate the opportunity you've given me/us.*

Love, Sunshine

* They'll understand this - it's an inside thing.  😚

Thursday Thoughts

~  Woo-ee!  I think we are into some winter time weather.  Today the sun is shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky, there is no wind, it's 11 a.m. and our temperature is 6.8°

~  Although that lovely sun is streaming in all possible windows, we have both wood stoves corking away to make it cozy in here.

~  Just went down into the basement to get some onions and garlic.  Onions are holding out very well, but I see now I didn't plant enough garlic and we'll run out in a month or so.  Skippy-dippy good thing I increased this year's planting.

~  I have a huge pot of will-be broth simmering on the stove using yesterday's turkey carcass and leavings.  I'm finding I really prefer turkey broth over chicken broth as it seems richer and has more flavor.

~  I should zip into town today to pick up a special order at the Co-op, materials in at the Library, and make a stop at the hardware store.  When it's possible, I prefer going into town first thing in the morning and being able to check it off my day's list pronto.  Today I'm playing my Wimp's Card and waiting to see if the temp has warmed up a bit after lunch.

~  Retrieved some baking apples and potatoes from the root cellar this morning.  We're so pleased with the way things are keeping.  Maybe we could wish for the carrots to look better.  They're growing "hairs" . . . but are staying firm and crunchy.  I'm still perplexed about my carrot harvest this past season.  The two new-to-me varieties of "purple" carrots I tried grew big and fat and long.  A success.  My main crop of Scarlet Nantes which normally do the same came out of the ground nearly pencil thin.  Long but skinny.  And they were all planted in the same raised bed.  Very strange.

~  I can hardly believe how fast this winter is going by.  Oh, sadness and woe, I had plans for spending so much time in my quilt room, but day after day goes by filled to the brim with daily chores and a bit of move-ahead progress, and I don't seem to get in there much at all.  Never mind, my little sanctuary filled with beautiful fabric (and tons of ideas) will be there whenever I can sneak in.  Life is good.

A Gorgeous Winter's Day

After snow falling intermittently for the past two days, we have bright, lovely sunshine today.

We started the day with snow removal both with snowplow and shovel.  When I finished clearing an almost 2' high drift off this walkway this morning it was still covered with patches of ice here and there.  A couple of hours of sunshine (even in 14° weather) and it's as clear as in summer time.  (Almost.)

Other areas won't show bare ground for months.  But, hey, it's winter time in the north woods.  And all the new snow is really pretty.

The wind with the snow the last couple of days made for some very creative drifting that we spent some time rearranging.  All is well now and we can move around easily until the next snow.  Move around easily, that is, if we remember there is a solid layer of ice under most of the snow.

The Bread Fairy (aka Chicken Mama) came yesterday and spent about five concentrated hours industriously working my kitchen.  The result?  Two loaves each of rye bread, oatmeal bread, plain old white bread (I wanted those for French Toast, my most favorite breakfast) and an orange/raisin rye bread.  We are now wealthy in bread.

Our co-op grocery store recently had a special on organically raised turkeys and I picked up this 18-1/2 pounder.  He went into the oven this morning shortly after eight bells and just now came out looking and smelling wonderful.  I'll bone the meat as soon as it cools a little and then reheat some of it with all the fixings for dinner tonight.  We're hoping Chicken Mama and her fella can arrange their schedule to come and enjoy it with us.

A good day.  I feel so very appreciative of my life here on our little piece of ground.

Minnesota Kimchi Recipe Request

After my post last week talking of our daughter making up some more kimchi for us, I had a couple of requests for the recipe.  You can find a detailed post I wrote on making kimchi last summer by clicking here.

This summer I used our bountiful harvest of slicing cukes from the garden which I don't have currently available obviously, so I decided to have her give the recipe a try substituting the cukes with chopped cabbage that we still have in the root cellar.

The same recipe (which has since been dubbed Minnesota Kimchi) in the post of August 16, 2016, was used with the substitution of cabbage for cucumbers.  (We used less than the whole medium sized head of the cabbage for two quart jars of kimchi.)

A suggestion I would have if you are using sea salt (recommended) is that before you start the process of preparing the veggies, etc., you should start soaking the sea salt in the 1/4 cup of whey and stir it frequently while chopping the other ingredients because sea salt doesn't want to dissolve as readily as other salts.

This summer I used whey leftover after making cottage cheese, but since we don't eat nearly as much cottage cheese in the winter time, I obtained my whey last week by putting a quart container of organic plain yogurt into a cheesecloth bag and hanging it to drip into a bowl overnight.  That gives you a nice amount of good whey (what you don't use immediately can be frozen) and also a nice substitute for cream cheese left in the cheesecloth bag.

As the quart jar of ingredients is being filled, we keep tamping it down which releases some of the juices in the vegetables.  Something I didn't mention in the August post was that once the jar is filled with veggies, I dump the ingredients into a medium sized bowl and mix it all up, then refill the jar.

Would it work by just leaving the pretty layers in the jar without mixing?  I don't know, but probably.  It just seems to me everything has a better chance of "working" by being mixed up.

How was the kimchi made with the cabbage last week?  Zingy, tasty, and good!  No problem consuming our 1/4 cup a day to keep us healthy, wealthy and wise.  (Well, healthy anyway.)

I can't think of anything else to add, but if you find the time or have the inclination to give making kimchi a try and have questions, just ask.

He Was Such A Good Boy

We lost sweet Tucker, our granddog, yesterday.  All of us will miss him so much, but knowing he was in terrible pain was too much to bear.  He suffered from Lumbosacral Stenosis.

I can honestly say we never knew a dog with a better personality than Tucker.  He was so happy, easy-going, mild-mannered, friendly, kind and patient with toddlers, older kids and adults alike.

I think this, taken on January 10th, was the last picture I took of him.  It was snowing lightly that day, our daughter and her partner were here helping Papa Pea and me with some project or another.  We were all making trips going back and forth outside, from wood shed to storage building to poultry yard to garage, and back again.

Tucker, always wanting to know what was going on, couldn't decide who he should follow or where he should be so he stationed himself in the very middle of the traffic area so he could keep an eye on everyone coming and going.  I tried to put him inside a couple of times, but he didn't want to budge from his watch spot.

Even though Tucker was happy being a bit of a couch potato, or "floor potato," he was ever eager for an adventure.  He never said no to a walk with us, often out to the mailbox and back in snow deeper than his stubby, little legs.  This spot by our stove in the kitchen was a favorite of his as he could observe everyone as we moved around in the house.

When he was with us over the dinner hour, he would station himself by his dish and patiently wait while we ate.  Then when the table started being cleared, he would stand up and "talk" to us so we didn't forget it was his turn to be fed.

We always got a kick out of this splayed-out posture of his.  I would tell him he looked like a pelt someone would hang on a wall.

Happy pup.  He even smiled when he was sleeping.

If you're ever fortunate enough to have a dog like Tucker, you'll be very lucky.  He was such a good boy.

The Apple Jelly Report -- And More

Yesterday as our daughter was completing the apple jelly project, I put her "to work" multi-tasking making up a couple quarts of kimchi.

All summer I made kimchi using cucumbers as the bulk of the ingredients.  We loved the flavor, but obviously there are currently no cucumbers available from the garden.  However, we do still have heads of cabbage in the root cellar so I suggested she make the kimchi substituting chopped cabbage for the cukes.  Now we have only to wait a couple more days while it ferments on the counter before taste testing it.

In the last two days, we (mostly through Chicken Mama's efforts) have produced 11-1/2 quarts of applesauce, the 2 quarts of (hopefully yummy) kimchi, and 16 half-pint jars of apple jelly syrup.

Yep, sad to say, the jelly did not jell.  After thinking it over, I'm sure it happened because we used only 1/3 the amount of sugar the recipe called for.

I always cut the amount of sugar in any jams I make and, granted, they never come out very thick, and sometimes rather on the thin side.  But I rationalize saying less sugar ingested is healthier for us and if the jam stays on the slice of bread, I call it good.

In deciding how much sugar to add to the apple juice yesterday, she added the third of what was called for, we tasted it and declared it quite sweet so stopped there.  But, alas and alack, it just wasn't enough sugar in ratio to the juice to get the mixture to jell properly.  So we have a good quantity of . . . apple syrup.

Pancakes shall appear on our menu soon so we can start using the apple syrup.  And I have a feeling it's gonna be goooood!