Razzies :: The New Zucchini

On our way home from a 3 day vacation at the beach, within just a few feet of our home, Leprechaun the stuffed iguana, flung himself out the window and ran down the street.  When we arrived in our driveway, we found out what was so important to risk the bodily harm that is entailed in one's flinging oneself out of a moving vehicle. :) 

 According to our estimates, a whole mess of razzies were to be due the day before we returned home.  Moose feared that Leprechaun would suck all the sweet juicy jewels from the vines if he didn't react quickly.

So he ran inside and snagged a quart bowl from the cabinet and started plucking.  "One for the bowl, two for me...." 



And in 15 minutes, he had collected enough for his first batch of raspberry preserves of the 2011 season.  Good thing he's off work this week! :)

For those of you dealing with ridiculous amounts of heat this week...this one's for you

courtesy of Western WA Beaches

Stickin' It to the Groceryman

The Great Twenty-Ten Put Up

4 lbs red grapes, frozen
4.5 lbs bing cherries,pitted & frozen
2 lbs Rainier cherries, frozen pits and all
1 gallon raspberry jam (canned by Hubbie)
48 oz Strawberry Orange jam
48 oz Strawberry Orange syrup

Preserving on the Internets

I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barabra Kingsolver (a fellow former Tucsonan.) Her book is inspiring! So, while i am rendered useless with backache these last few days, not only have i been finishing her book and rereading parts i enjoyed, but i havve been making occassional trips to the computer to search for info on preservation of harvest--be it in your yard or at your local farmer's market. ;o)

General info

Food Preservation Resources and Nat'l Center for Home Food Preservation

Links to preserving that i have found on the internet that i wish to try this year:

Grapes

Rhubarb

Don't worry....the list will grow

And because she has some good recipes, here's the link to the official Barbara Kingsolver's site. She and her family have some wonderful advice in the book and delicious looking seasonal menu plans. Now, if i could just get my kid to eat more veggies from our garden than just popping open the occassional snap pea and eating a few of the seeds inside. ;o)

And in other news that has made our weekend a delight, my kid won first prize in a homeschoolers photography contest for her age group! Hot dog! The best part about it is listening to her talk about it with our cat, who was the subject of the winning photo. This morning she was telling the cat, "You know, Sadie, i am going to give you my medal because after all, you did all the work by being cute to help me win. Just be careful with it though, okay!? I wouldn't want anything to happen to it!" Kids rock!!! Even when it's a devil of a time to get them to eat their carrots. :o)