Enough beans already!

I finished my bean project last night.

Here are the fruits of my labors - 15 jars dilly beans. One jar had the bottom fall out of it in the boiling water bath. It must have been fractured to start with. And, I bought a new tool - a jar lifter. Why have I not had one of these before? It was only $4 and made the job so much easier (and safer!).

I have to admit, I don't have the endurance I used to have for standing in the kitchen for hours at a time. I must bite off smaller pieces!

I do love to make the dilly beans, because my family all enjoys them. They are just a savory treat, to have once in a while; next to the olives on the buffet table for the holidays. Or with cheese and crackers when dinner is running late.

Now that I still have beans to be cooked and eaten or frozen, what would you do with them?

Tomorrow Tori is coming over and we are going to try making a jumbo cupcake! This should be interesting!

Exercise in Creative Foraging and dilly bean tutorial

On our Port Townsend trip, I found lots of goodies. Our first stop was a community sale in a grange - I bought 2 large and 6 small sparkly Christmas houses for $2.00. I shared with Claudia. We have renovations in mind for these houses... The scarf underneath is one I bought at a thrift shop, to put on our small outdoor table, as a tablecloth. I paid $4.25, which may seem high, but I really liked it (bandanna look, with fringe) and the proceeds went to a good cause.

At the same sale, I bought 3 neckties - .50 each. I do have a plan to make a silk crazy quilt one of these winters! Its fun to find a tie with images on it. And I found the mortar and pestle at the next garage sale - $2.00. I've always wanted one but wasn't sure how much I would use it. I have recipes for pesto, made in a mortar and pestle instead of a food chopper. I'll try it soon!

I really like this tie - so here it is again. I also bought a round deck of cards ($1), A Martha Stewart Living hardcover book called Tag Sales and Flea Markets ($1), and a tupperware pie keeper (which I understand works well for a cupcake carrier).


DILLY BEANS

I picked up 20 lbs of beans today. That is a LOT of beans! Of all things, I ordered them for pickup on the Sand in the City Day! The Farmer's Market was busy- I had to park pretty far away. The box is enormous! I may have to just freeze some. Here is how I make them:

Ingredients:

2 # green beans (preferably pretty straight!)

4 heads dill

1 tsp cayenne

4 cloves garlic

brine:

2 1/2 c vinegar

2 1/2 c water

1/4 c. pickling salt

Makes 4 pint jars

Preparation: clean and trim beans; make brine and get it boiling; get the canning gear out for a boiling water bath.

1. Put one head dill, one clove of garlic, and 1/4 tsp cayenne in each clean jar;

2. Pack beans in, as many as you can.

3. fill each jar with brine to 1/2 inch of the top; seal.

Process TEN minutes in boiling water bath.

As you can see, my jars didn't need to be this tall, but in the past this tall jar has been perfect. Let them sit for a couple of weeks so the flavors really soak into the beans. They are great on the table with the olives and carrot sticks at the holidays. I've seen them used in bloody Mary's; we like them with cheese and crackers as an appetizer too.

You can also make pickled asparagus. I have not tried it, but it is very expensive in the grocery stores! You use the same process, but blanch the asparagus first. This recipe is straight out of the Ball Canning Handbook.

Johnnie's Angels

My sister's birthday. We headed to Port Townsend bright and early (8:00 a.m.) for our birthday celebration expedition. Claudia wore her 3-sisters pin. She reminded me she bought this on another sister's outing, downtown Olympia I think.
A goofy shot of the three of us on the deck of the ferry. First try! What sports my sisters are.

A little glimpse of the "card" I made for Claudia. sometimes I don't know when to stop - add more! add more! I made this using an old book cover for a canvas. First time and I liked the way it worked out.

We were not on the road long before we started running into garage sales. The first one was in a grange building. It wasn't supposed to open until 9:00, and it was only 8:30, but they let us in and we had the place to ourselves - 3 rooms of goodies. That kind of set the pace for the day. We were addicted to finding treasures! Shortly after that, we ran into this community garage sale at the fire station in Hamma Hamma. Lots of good stuff, and great prices. I will show you the goodies I found in tomorrow's post. I found some FUN stuff! We just started pitching our finds into Jonny's trunk, to be sorted out later.


Our day started off misty and cool. We did not need sunglasses. But by the time we reached Port Townsend, it was clear. There was still some fog out over the water though, and this direction remained hazy. Mt. Baker? I don't know my volcanoes very well.

We bought our tickets at an electronic ticket kiosk, and walked on board. Our destination - LUNCH! (oh, and Keystone)

We were not out of the Port Townsend Ferry dock 5 minutes when we found ourselves in a cloud. That was ok though, we were concentrating on the picnic lunch we brought to eat on board. Claudia brought a darling vintage mint green and white tablecloth - we had carrot-raisin salad, shrimp cocktails, tiny chicken salad sandwiches on Ezekiel raisin bread, chips, many many more tasty treats - we got many jealous looks at our spread of food as people wandered by. I was so enchanted that I didn't get any good photos. Suddenly, there was an announcement on the P.A. system - we were there! We really had to scramble to clean up all our food and get packed up to disembark.

There is nothing really at the Keystone Ferry dock - town is a drive away. It was our plan to just turn around and return. The ride back was beautiful and sunny. We stood on the deck for a while, looking for whales (none). I got lots of photos coming into Port Townsend, but the lighting was not so good and although I love having them for the memories, most did not turn out as well as I would have liked.

The town was really crowded with tourists. It was nice to be out on the water, seeing it from this vantage point. The rest of our day we spent going to garage sales and thrift stores. We found three great thrift stores on the outskirts of town, and about three garage sales in the residential areas. We really had the bug. Jonny was wonderful about turning around and finding parking and all that - that's why we enjoy going out together, just the 3 of us! Finally we had to call it a day and head home.

We stopped in Shelton for dinner - El Sarape. It was our third choice - the Geoduck Tavern was my first choice - too crowded; then Vern's in Shelton (gone! an attorney's office in its place), but El Sarape is always good and lots of atmosphere. Dinner was on our dad - he gave Claudia an envelope with money for dinner - on the envelope he had written:

FOR THE GANG OF THREE

Johnnie's Angels

Three Amigos

Three Sisters

Happy Birthday Sister!

in over my head?

The Farmer's Market gets really busy on a hot summer day. Sometimes Vicki and I take our lunch and go over beyond Anthony's and sit in the shade with our lunches and watch the kids throwing rocks into the bay and see all kinds of people doing athletic things on the water... ...like these kyakers. I know they are pretty far away but I was talking and suddenly remembered to take a picture!

We got the biggest box ever of CSA vegetables this week. I don't know how we are going to eat them all up. I may have to freeze some. But,it makes me happy. Also...

...these peaches make me excited! Next week I will blog how to make an EASY peach pie with a refrigerated pie crust and three peaches. I don't care how many pies I have to make, I'll get a photo of one of them before we gobble it up!

I also got 10 lb of gravenstein apples. I will be making a pie out of those as well, and maybe some applesauce. They are such an old fashioned apple, with such great flavor in pies. They are also the FIRST real apples to ripen in this area of the country. I think you mostly can only get them from an old tree in some one's yard.

AND I am getting 15 lb of green beans on Sunday. I will also blog how to make Dilly Beans. Yum. Peaches, apples, beans, oh dear, I hope I'm not in over my head!

Chew toys

Babysitting, just for an hour. 8 year old girls are sooooo funny! Once we got started it was "take another picture, take another picture!"

Meanwhile, Wyatt is inspecting this blue hand ...

And a video of little Wyatt-dog chewing his chewy toy: Watch it at least 3 times for full effect! In just a week he has gotten the hang of grasping and bringing it to his mouth.

Something different today...

I left my camera at my son's house...I always leave something behind! I don't like to go too many days without posting something, so here are some fun things I have been "collecting" on my computer... French playing cards.

These must be antique. They are beautiful.

From Tongue in Cheek.

I found this on a how-to site. I immediately thought of my sister Claudia, and how I can totally see her making this, with family photographs, and hanging in her living room! Makes me want to start watching for an old window. I've seen them but hesitated to buy because I wasn't sure what I would do with it. Now I know!

These are from the Better Homes and Garden's site - picture frames, no glass, covered in fabric - add knobs or push-pins, hang your jewelry. Pretty and useful.

and on the same site, making miniature frames out of jewelry and belt buckles. cute!

So many ideas, so little time.

Refreshing

Another gorgeous sunny day in Washington. I am loving it! This morning Phil had some errands to do that would take all morning, so I got to work on my cooking prep for the rest of the week. I steamed potatoes, cooked rice, washed and bagged up 5 dinners of vegetables. Wow I feel accomplished and ready to hit the week running. Oops, I mean to relax the rest of the week!

But, shortly before Phil was due home he phoned me. His car developed a leak in his water hose, and he was just letting me know he might be calling me for rescue, so stay near the phone. He thought he could make it, but his car overheated and he was waiting for me on Black Lake Blvd. Judy to the rescue with duct tape and three gallons of water. It was a pretty easy temporary fix.

We were both starving, so we decided to go somewhere NEW for lunch. We went to the Fish Tale. They had outdoor seating, which suited us fine, and all this beautiful artwork painted on the outside walls. (the above is now my desktop picture).

We were very impressed with the food. They have a real chef in their kitchen! My Fish Tale Eggs Benedict were the best I've ever had!

Ciabatta bread instead of English muffins, the best bacon ever in place of the Canadian bacon, the eggs were poached to perfection, and there was not a lot of creamy sauce on top. It was hard to choose, there were so many delightful things on the menu. I think we'll be going back there again.

I'm really getting into these reflection photos aren't I? This one was unique because of the painted silhouettes on the windows. Then, we did something we have never done before, even though we have both lived in Olympia most of our lives.....

We got jugs of water (heh heh just happened to have empty jugs in our car) from the downtown Artesian Spring. Really, this pipe is in the middle of a parking lot, and there are people gathered around with their jugs or water bottles filling them up with this cold clear water.

I hope your day was refreshing also.

Birthday Greetings

SWEET!


Happy Birthday to my darling daughter!


The best thing that ever happened to me!





I made this cupcake in my art journal with YOU in mind.


It is entirely made up of little scraps of torn paper.


It was gooey, messy, and so much fun I think I'll make another one.

Communication

We are really enjoying these nice summer days. This morning Retired Husband washed my car for me! It was soooo dirty! Isn't it beautiful now? I could eat my dinner on it. I can even see my reflection in it!

While he was doing outside things, I was whipping up a few dinners for next week. (this was early, I was not wasting my day -- I did this between 7:30 and 9:00 a.m.) But first, I want to tell you last week I did a good job of only cooking on the weekend. Our meals were good and pretty care-free that first week. Hubby was even getting in the habit of looking at my menu plan and enjoying seeing what was coming up. I planned the next weeks' meals, picked up my veggie box on Thursday and did my week's worth of grocery shopping afterwards.

Then Friday turned into such a pretty summery day that Phil suggested we go out to eat in the outdoor dining at El Sarape. It has been a long long time since we've done that, so of course I said -sure!-.

So this morning my menu schedule is all messed up, but I have six meals already put together for next week!

3 packages of "lemon mushroom chicken" - to be served over rice, and with a steamed vegetable.

2 packages of "Thai beef lettuce wraps" - kind of a taco meat mixture, to be spooned into a lettuce leaf and eaten by hand. If you know me, you know I don't test taste when I cook. weird I know, but it doesn't even occur to me. This smells delicious though, kind of like teriaki. I'll probably make rice and green beans to go with those.

1 package chicken vegetable soup - it still needs more vegetables added to it, and chicken broth, but that will be easy! I plan to make it on Wednesday, and use up all my leftover vegetables, before picking up a new batch on Thursday.

Maybe it was because I didn't cook much this week, or maybe because I had a plan, but I really enjoyed putting all this stuff together. Even though it made a pretty big mess in the kitchen, I cleaned it up pretty quickly when I was all done. Also, I kept myself out of the grocery stores all week. That felt very strange - but in a good way. I definitely had more free time.

Everything is in the fridge getting nice and cold before I freeze it.

Friday I remembered I hadn't bought any bread, and we were almost out. Phil went to Costco Friday and decided to buy bread too. Friday we had FIVE brand new loaves of bread! More stuff to put in the freezer! We won't run out of bread for a while.

Trading up!

I found a few good things haunting my favorite thrift stores this week... These two cup and saucer ornaments will be for Adrielle when Christmas comes around...

I found a stack of train layout buildings at Goodwill and had to phone hubby to see if I should buy them. His layout is all finished, but his dad has one that is kind of skimpy...so two new buildings.

I bought this Quaker Oats tin for .99. It goes nicely with my big bread tin doesn't it?

Today was my day to pick up my CSA vegetables at the Farmer's Market. I met up with two of my friends there today and we took our lunches and sat in the shade at Percival Landing, watching the boats and the kids and dogs and these paddlers go by.

The boxes are getting heavier each week! Lots of green beans, two bunches of broccoli, three red onions, bok choy, a head of lettuce, a very long cucumber, a head of Asian garlic, and two bunches of carrots! Without Walker here, we are going to have to double up on our vegetables at dinner!

And what would we do without our friends. Vicki saw I was parked next to this red corvette, and insisted on getting a photo of me pretending it was mine! I wouldn't really want a red corvette, but I do look right at home, don't I?

Blue flowers and true-blue friends

We are having a lovely burst of summery weather here in Olympia. My Hydrangea's are in bloom. I love BLUE flowers! The Jasmine not only looks beautiful and fresh, but it smells that way too. I didn't think it would EVER bloom! But, finally!

I looked at my apple tree today - it is LOADED! I can't believe the bunches of half grown apples. That makes me very happy!

I got home early from work today, and wandered around the yard taking these photos. I was surprised to hear a car pulling up the driveway, and it was Phil's (and my) friend Jeff. Phil and Jeff has been friends since junior high. Jeff was the best man at our wedding and our companion on half of our dates! A true-blue friend.

I tried to get some good photos of Wyatt today. I love how he is reaching for toys and sometimes gets one! Like all my grandchildren, he indulges me.

My sister Jonny reminded me Sunday that the reason I started this blog was to find the joy and treasures in every day. I had totally forgotten that! It really does make me stop and think during my day, "This is a special moment I will want to blog about".

Phil is not home for dinner tonight, so I made the above just for me. With my CSA box, it is always a challenge to use up all the vegetables before the next Thursday delivery! So, I figured I better eat some vegetables tonight! My salad is green leaf lettuce, sliced cucumber, and finely sliced fennel. I topped it with Caesar dressing, croutons and Parmesan. Good! I made the potatoes via a recipe I saw on the cooking channel tonight. Steam new (tiny) potatoes. Smash them (so they still hold together) and then fry the little potato patties in oil with some salt and pepper. Delicious! I love potatoes, and these were great.

I don't know how this little video of Wyatt will come out, but I'm giving it a try. Just for Auntie Carissa.

I love Mondays!

W's last day here, we carved out a little time to go to a movie together...We went to see Captain America! It was pretty good. Lots of action for the guys. I kind of liked the comic book aspect, it wasn't filled with a lot of angst. Lots of great photography and interesting characters. I shot this photo of Puss 'n Boots in the lobby. I wonder if that will be one we want to see...

The above is a photo I made everyone freeze on the streets of Shelton...on our way to watching the newest Harry Potter movie. Our family portrait!

Tonight's dinner - I just have to share. This is my chicken-vegetable soup, made a few days ago, for tonight's non-cooking dinner. It is packed with fresh vegetables from Farmer's Market: onions, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes, kale, zucchini. I added a can of Northern beans and a can of diced tomatoes. Plus quite a bit of chicken. It was very good! I probably enjoyed it more then hubby did, but I did make him a nice grilled cheese sandwich to go with his. Today was supposed to be a rainy gray soup kind of day. I am happy to report it's sunny and in the upper 70's. Beautiful.

I love Mondays because that is when I babysit little Wyatt. We had so much fun today, so many giggles, chortles, smiles and grins.