More Pickles!!!

Hey All!

Today I was blessed with 6 cucumbers, a pile of green beans, and one onion from my garden.

I got worried that the cucumbers I had picked the other day would go bad, so I have been pickling most of the evening.  Here are the photographs:

I seasoned these myself (with a recipe of course).  Fresh dill, garlic, mustard seed, and love.  I sure hope they come out good.  I guess we'll have to wait and see.  So, while the pickles were in the water bath, I blanched the green beans.

I forgot to take an after picture, but they were bright green and beautiful.  They are now in the freezer for later.  I SO need a pressure cooker.  :)

I was born to be in the kitchen!!!  I love it!

Anyway, it is so very exciting to have made all of those pickles from homegrown ingredients.  I am ready to make some more jelly.  Guess it's time to go back to the farmer's market.  :)

OK, I'm tired...Off to bed!!!  God bless...

It's Shake and Bake and I Helped...

That's how giddy I feel!  I am exhausted after a LONGGGGGGGG night at work, but I had to drop in and share a quick garden update [ummm...drum roll please Maestro...]

I know what you're thinking:  "Ooooo...Awwww...".  Well those beauties were picked a couple of days ago.  Sit down, fasten your seat belts, and hang on, because this morning when I got home I picked this:  (Maestro???  Hello?!?...this guy is awful with clues!!!) 

YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!  Pickles for everyone!!!  OK, just for first few people.  LOL!

Sorry for all the goofiness.  I'm really tired. 

On another note, check out the belly I'm working on:

I feel HUGE and it's only week 19!!!  Long row to hoe folks.  :)

And, just because I like it.  My brother snapped this shot while guarding the Police Officer Memorial yesterday.  I thought I would share it.  Ladies and gentlemen...our beloved H-town:

OK, enough ramblings.  Lil critter and I need rest.  God's blessings to you all. 

First Canning Experience and Garden Update...

My sisters and I had a big time at the farmers market.  It seems that it was a little early in the season yet.  They didn't have a lot of fresh stuff, but it was enough to make me as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning!!!

This morning, I got up feeling better, so I made strawberry jam and dill pickles.  Now, go easy on me as this is my VERY first attempt at canning/pickling.  I've watched Memaw do it, but I was a lot younger and there were horses to play with...so...I was outta there as soon as possible.  LOL!

Anyway, I got some beautiful strawberries at the market, so I started with jam.  It turned out that I only had a enough for one pint jar (and about a 1/3 of another...that one is in the fridge.  I'll put it on pancakes or waffles.)  Anyway, drum roll please...  Here is my very first, don't-be-to-hard-on-the-rookie, Strawberry Jam!!!

OK, I know I should have taken more of the froth off.  Live and learn right?   :)

I taste tested the little bit in the fridge and YUMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!  It's so much fresher than store bought.

Then, I tried the pickles.  Since it was my first go at it, I bought Ball Dill Pickle Mix.  WARNING:  They color it or something because I now have a pickle-green spoon.  LOL!  I had enough cucumbers to make 2 quarts and one pint.  By the way, in the middle of preparing to make pickles, I heard the heavenly sound of the Strawberry Jam jar sucking in the lid to create a seal.  YAY!!!!!!!  WOO-HOO!!!  Seriously y'all, the clouds parted and the sun shone through into my kitchen.  I would have done a snoopy dance, but you know how that goes for me lately...morning sickness.  So, here are my pickles:

Two lessons learned, I will season them myself in the future and you have to really cram those babies in there so they aren't floating so much.  And, yes, I heard the blissful "I'm sealed" pop three more times!!!  YAY!!!!

So, we'll give them the recommended shelf time and I'll let y'all know how they taste.

On to the garden...More exciting things going on there.  Here are the pictures:

Cucumbers, peas, tomatoes.  Yippee!  More awesome news:  D has promised to double the size of the garden next year.    The kitchen garden is also growing well.  God is blessing us.

A couple of weeks ago, D told me to buy a new oven because mine is dying a slow and painful death (read:  set to 350 degrees and get either 150 or 5,000 degrees).  Our house was built in 1982 and I'm pretty sure the oven is earlier than that.  So, this AWESOME guy at Lowe's helped me pick a new one.  Pardon me if I drool on the keyboard...It's a stainless steel Whirlpool.  Momma HAPPY!!!  Anyway, it was to be delivered on May 22nd, but they just called to say it would be here Monday.  Momma VERY HAPPY!!!  We have to get the klunker disconnected and they'll take it away.  Our neighbor, S, has graciously offered to install the new one as he had to replace his last year.  I'm even getting a bigger oven.  We currently have a 27 inch wall mount.  S said he got a 30 inch in his with just a little 'tweaking'.  I've seen it and it looks very nice.

SO EXCITED...SO EXCITED...SO EXCITED...  Someone do the Snoopy dance for me...  :)

On another note, work is planning to take me off of patrol on June 5th.  I'm very very very sad to have to be reassigned as I love my job.  But, it's just to dangerous for lil critter.  I'll get back to it soon enough.  Desk duty is kindof dull, but it's temporary...right???

Anyway, "Hi!" to my new friend Elizabeth from Six Golden Coins.  I love her blog.  There's a link here on my page.  Check it out!

Take care and I'll be back soon.

Baby Blues and Garden Goodness...

Hey All!  My apologies for the delay in posting.  Life is busy...Morning sickness whipping me...Fatigue...You get the picture.

I want to go on and on about how I feel like a useless member of society, but I'll let the picture tell the story.  I am titling this "Pregnancy is..."

This is how I feel most of the time.  Meet Forrest...he's a "special little man".  D refers to him as 'touched'.  Uh, yeah...that will work.  He is just a little sloooooooowwwwwwww.  But we love him.  This picture was taken the day after Hurricane Ike upset everything for miles.  He's truly traumatized...really...no really...you just can't tell because he's sleeping like a baby full of cereal.  :)

Anyway, my canning supplies are pretty much all here.  (I still need a pressure cooker...but I'm not letting that stop me.)  My sister's and I are planning a run to a sort of local farmer's market on Monday and I CAN NOT wait.  I just hope I'm not sick the whole time.  (I missed work last night.  You do not want details.)

The garden is growing like crazy and I am very excited about that.  There are several tomatoes that the birds had better NOT eat.    Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!  The squash and cucumbers are coming along VERY nice as well.  The pea plants had the prettiest little flowers on them.

A few days later we had...

Yay!!!   I would usually be doing a snoopy dance, but if I move to much, baby protests.  Then I'm back to praying to the porcelain gods.  Last week, I finally got my kitchen window garden put in.  I know...I know...it's late, but I have to do things when baby lets me.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!

Here's a picture...

I have serrano peppers, jalepeno peppers, sweet banana peppers, basil, dill, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, parsley, and mint.  Let the cooking begin!  Or, we can wait a little while to let these little beauties grow a bit.  :)

Little critter is 17 weeks along and doing well.  The poor thing is already grounded for life for making me so sick.  LOL!  Just kidding!!!  We'll find out the gender at the June 1st appointment.  We're excited and constantly bantering about whether it's a boy or girl.  D keeps referring to the baby as "he", I gently correct and say "or she" and the fight is on.  It's all in good fun and we're excited either way! 

That's about it from here.  Having the family over on Monday night, which is always a HOOT!  Catch y'all next time!