Shelby

I've missed you guys! We have been internet-less since Wednesday late afternoon. The heat index was 110 F that day and a whopper of a storm built on top of us. It rained 5-7 inches in ONE hour here. 60 mph winds steady with super high gusts. A funnel was spotted just west of my house but we weren't able to see it. It hailed for a good HOUR or more. Pea to quarter size hail. Irrigation was blown over (not mine thank GOD). The storm blew so hard that it caused water to get into the eaves of the house and flood the front room which is where all of my internet equipment is kept. Yeah. Fried it. I got up at daylight the next morning to survey the damage. I took pictures of the "garden" but it's just too depressing to post. All of the tomato plants were stripped. Cukes ripped out of the ground. My beautiful Silver Queen corn flattened. On and on and on. So, I went out yesterday and spent hours gently lifting plants out of the mud, removing all damaged leaves etc. The internet says that if plants have even just one leaf left that they can sometimes recover. I've never ever had such terrible damage. The weeds, however, remained unscathed. As I peer out the window this morning the corn actually looks better. It's beginning to stand up again.....we will see. I still have 22 acres of wheat yet to cut. Remains to be seen whether the hail knocked the kernels out out or not. My field corn was stripped but not laying down like a lot of folks' are around. I usually get at least one tomato around the 4th of July. Not this year.

I was on my own last night so I made spicy tuna inari. I've been wanting to try it for quite some time and finally ordered the tofu skin to make it with. I didn't have any avocado and I subbed in cilantro for what ever herb she used. On their own, the tofu skins aren't my favorite thing to eat because they seem too sweet, but stuffed....delicious. Excuse my crappy picture.

The farmers harvested our wheat on Saturday so this morning we got up at 5:30 and went out to the field and gathered 4 trailer loads full of straw to put on the garden. The garden is all strawed up now. I am exhausted and it's only 9:30. I needed breakfast. I will soon need a nap.

I want to include my thanks to RRO for the ladyandpups site. New to me and looks fun! Leftover steak--reheated in the SV bath. Needed biscuits and gravy to go with.

Frog legs, white bass caught at the lake and collards from the garden.

Well, in my defense, it is a pickling cucumber.

Pickage today. First cucumber. Newman loves lettuce.

What???? Woman, how did you do that? I, too, hope you mend fast. Your garden needs you.

SV'd steaks (oh man they were huge and GOOD.---perfectly rare for me) salad with lettuce from the garden and a few fries. Homegrown strawberries from the wonderful girl that cleans my house and keeps me supplied with eggs

I've been told here ( I think by @andiesenji ) and I've read online that one can freeze heavy whipping cream with no problem. Online it says that you just shake your thawed container to incorporate the separated fat. It didn't work so well for me and I'm not sure why. We bought several pints of the stuff because it was a good price so I froze a couple for future use--mainly with making ice cream in mind. I took one out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for a couple of days. When I opened it up I was surprised to see that it was just one big lump. There wasn't just a bit of butter fat that had separated, it was ALL of it. Seriously, it looks like ricotta cheese. I forged ahead--I knew better, but I did it anyway--and made ice cream. My recipe calls for heating a cup of the cream with the sugar. That part seemed to look normal. The butter fat globs melted back into the liquid. However, the recipe then calls for me to add another cup of cream after removing the pot from heat. That didn't look so normal. I cooled the mixture as I always do overnight in the fridge and went on to pour it into my ice cream maker the next day. It's AWFUL. Big globs of fat that coat your tongue. Blech. It seems to be ok when you heat it like for a sauce...but not for cold use like ice cream. Am I missing a trick to get the cream back to normal after being frozen?

Spaghetti night

Made my first ever whole wheat bread. I had been craving ww toast with lots of butter for some reason. Used a KA recipe with their flour. Turned out ok. A little heavy but certainly edible.

Needed fried chicken again. Please excuse the missing skin on one piece. I picked it off and ate it.

Yay!!!! I'm so glad for you, Kay Such a rewarding feeling and I know that you worked hard for them--and I know that you've had a lot of gardening in your early years and were sick of it. Your mom and dad are up there smiling

Glad you dove in, Porthos! One thing that might help ( and maybe you already did this ) is using hot water to fill your pot. That way it takes less time to get to temp. Another thing....I do chicken breasts at 142F. The most tender, juicy meat you'll ever eat.

I'm wanting to buy another.....just waiting for a tempting price. I've had a corned venison roast going for 2 days and have wanted to do other things during that time so that definitely calls for two.

What a lovely way to phrase it. I wholeheartedly second this. Best wishes and drink some champagne for us!

I do too...not always, but sometimes. I always tell Rotuts to avert his eyes when I've included anything like that

Awesome! (that's my second favorite flower)

Yes, I think squash, too. Don't murder them lol!

Salad night

You are very brave.

Gorgeous radishes.

Your garden is definitely not mini! I just do a bit at a time. I weed at least twice a week--should do more. When it starts getting hotter I'll weed every day in the morning. We usually get a frost by mid to late October, too. September is usually nice, but it isn't the same as July and August for tomatoes. I've never tried to grow artichokes. I love to eat 'em...but I can't recall ever seeing the plants around here.

I don't wanna post my pictures after Elaina!! I love your herb garden. I wish I could do something like that here....but I'm too lazy and it gets too hot lol. I spent a few hours yesterday putting up some support fences for my peas and pole beans. I have never planted pole beans and I am just tickled pink with them already--even if they don't make a single bean lol. I was done with the fences around oh 11:30 or so. Then I weeded for a while and then went back inside. Around 5 p.m. I went back out to make sure the fences were doing ok. The beans had already wrapped themselves around the supports! I was blown away (yes, I am easily entertained lol). If I had been sitting outside I could have seen them do it. Anyway, I thought it was neat. Volunteer cilantro and dill are all over. I sure wish they wouldn't go to seed so quickly. Onions Peas I planted waaaaaay to many cucumbers I don't know what the hell I was thinking. Okra are coming up well--I have a lot of those, too. Two eggplants Collards Pepper patch Brussels sprouts. Excuse the white powder on everything--Sevin dust for bugs. OH and the red powder is ground up dried hot peppers to keep the rabbits off. Seems to be working! Lettuce patch I'm not showing the tomatoes...they do seem to be perking up a bit. Ronnie bought about 40 more plants from someone yesterday for $1 a piece. They are BIG and are needing to be planted. I'm just waiting a bit to see how many of ours pull through. So, we will have somewhere between 40 and 90 'maters. But they will be late...hopefully they grow fast and catch up. Also not showing watermelon, cantaloupe and lots of zucchini and yellow squash. And, over the top of our new septic system, I threw the pumpkins from last year so I have a huge pumpkin patch going That's the late spring update from Shelby's place