Shelby

It's pickle time! Just started my first (and hopefully not last) crock of pickles. They will brine for 2-3 weeks.

I feel your pain.

The idea was to fry this chicken yesterday before it got too hot. Well, life got in the way. Plus I needed a nap. So, I fried the chicken at the hottest time of the day. Oh well lol. The best part was green beans and taters (from the garden--the taters, not the beans) with a Benson's ham hock done in the IP.

Oh man this looks so good! Thank you for sharing this. Do you recommend sticking with the 6-8 hour braise or do you think a pressure cooker would work?

There might be only one person eating them here too

Could it be sorrel?

I seem to be stalking you in the meat department.....first beef tongue and now pig ears..... Thinking of throwing them in with the beef tongue to brine? Good idea? Terrible idea?

I will for sure remember to do this next year. It's so hot here now that I felt like if I left them in the ground any longer, they would rot. So we got up at 5 this morning and dug 'em all up I had a lot of fun. Like an Easter egg hunt.

I'm going to try to do the same thing. It was 81 degrees in the kitchen at about 5 last night. I have chores to do this morning but hopefully I can get back in the kitchen early enough to fry up some chicken for tonight. Last night all I was hungry for was a salad--and a tater salad made from our first potatoes from the garden.

Thank you! I think we will be rising before dawn and digging some taters in the morning

Oh thank you! A very high compliment My mom had cut up, vacuum packed and frozen the rhubarb so I thawed it overnight in the fridge and then dumped it in a colander to get a lot of the moisture out. I later pressed it gently to get a little more liquid out. I used about 3 cups of rhubarb (it was 5 cups before it was frozen) and 2 cups of fresh strawberries. A third of a cup each of brown and white sugar and 1/4 cup of cornstarch. Also a TB of OJ and pinch of salt. Baked in the CSO using the convection setting--375 until bubbly and crust is browned--about 40 mins. I probably just got lucky because many times my pies are runny but this really did set up nicely.

I'm going with hollandaise gunk sauce.

What's the yellow next to the eggs?

I'm a big baby when it comes to my AC. I gotta have it. We have two units--one for the upstairs, thankfully that works still--so are fine in our bedroom. It's the downstairs that is blazing by about 3 pm. Have to have a new unit installed which includes a furnace. Ouch. And they are at least 2 weeks out. I will stop complaining now lol. The last time I went to the big city, I stopped at the sushi counter in the grocery store. The only kind they had made was with brown rice. YUCK. I passed. ( no offense to brown rice likers ).

My mom brought me some rhubarb from Colorado where it grows like a weed. I have tried to grow it here, it doesn't work for me. I love love love rhubarb. First up I had to make a pie.

@liamsaunt Walleye is a fresh water fish--very clean and white. Like bass only better. More "meaty" filets. Venison meatloaf sandwiches last night

Been picking a few cucumbers a day and maybe one zucchini a day and like 5 cherry tomatoes. Today is the first time this year I felt like I actually had a "haul". Finally have enough cucumbers to start a crock of pickles (if I can get my butt in the car in this horrid heat and get to the Asian market to buy some dill). One okra was ready to be plucked. AND our first potatoes!!!! I need help on the potato front-- everyone tells me, and I've read that you wait until the plants are dead to dig the potatoes. These potatoes that I am showing were literally popping out of the ground. Here's a picture of the potato patch. Should I go ahead and dig? Are they ready even though the plants aren't dead? You can't see in the above pic, but there were some marble sized taters, too.

This looks heavenly and cool and refreshing. I am craving sushi. Doesn't help that our air conditioner is broken again and it's 100 degrees but feels like 106 with humidity out.

DITTO

Fried walleye last night

Yes, me too. No matter how hard you scrub, after grease splatter it just won't be the same. Which is fine. But now that I have two..... You get what I'm saying

It is sooooo new. Sigh. It's hard to use it lol. My boy is not a vegetarian, but I think my girl might be--strictly for bread, toast, veggies, etc....but that might change. My new stove (also a girl named Venus) is a vegetarian ...... It's just so easy to keep clean with no grease spatter and having my first CSO (the boy) is great for meat with just two of us.

I'm wishing real hard for that to happen

Yep two CSO's on the counter. The one on the left is the new girl, the one on the right is my reliable boy I'm happier than a hog in slop.

After many days of sitting in her box on a table, I decided that my subconscious must be telling me to put her on my counter and use her instead of storing in the basement. Ronnie made room in his man-garage for the Breville (sorry Breville...you were good to me....just think of it as new scenery and a new adventure). Also got my new baking stone today.