Blanching Squash

Since my garden is doing so well I needed to learn a way to save my bounty.  I don't mind giving some to friends and family but I have A LOT of veggies and I'm not going to pretty much give away money by giving away all of them so I had Lincoln get on the computer to see if we could freeze it.  Of course you can and it's super easy.  Tonight I took about an hour out of my night to prepare probably 10 lbs or more of squash for freezing.  In the end I put 2 gallon bags and 4 quart size bags in the freezer. 

For your own squash saving follow the easy steps below:

Patterns

picture via Bing

Summer Time

Adult summer

swimming pools

tans

bathing suits

cocktails

cookouts

camping

lake

Kiddo summer

no school

no work

free time

sleep overs

late nights

rolling houses (or as some people call it "papering" ??)

boyfriends

Can I have the adult and kiddo summer list rolled into one?  So all the things as an adult pretty much but I would need to quit my job and drop out of summer school! LOL  At this point I will even conceded to one and just quit my job, take all the other things, and still go to summer school.

picture via Bing

Martha for a Weekend

This weekend I did EXACTLY what I intended on doing....NOTHING and if I did do anything it was only the things that I wanted to do.  Mainly I was a little homemaker.....

Saturday:

• Made the best cupcakes ever and got all Martha on them by decorating them fancy and even using my little cupcake tower.  I adapted the recipe from www.allrecipes.com

Best Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 tablespoons vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 2 cups sugar, cocoa, 1 teaspoon salt and baking soda. Stir in oil, water, vinegar and vanilla until blended. Pour mixture into prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.
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• Fixed Lincoln's coveralls for work.  Both the pockets had torn away from the butt so I had to sew them back and that was really hard.  I only had a little whole to work with since I didn't want to but the seam on the pant leg!  I was cussing them and him by the end of it. LOL  While I had the sewing machine out I went ahead and made my kitchen curtain that matches the dining room curtains I did back last year.
• I did a little gardening and gathered ANOTHER bag of goodies and also let the chickens have a little holiday by letting them out of the coop ALL day long.
• I also accomplished a bit of laying out and reading my new Sookie Stackhouse novel, Deadlocked.

• Saturday night was low key. Lincoln made breakfast for supper and it really hit the spot.
• In my post on Thursday I mentioned needing a HP fix and unknown to me my TV had been showing HP all day on ABC Family.  I only discovered this when it was almost too late but I set to record all of them and watch them today.

Sunday:

• watched a ton of Harry Potter
• finished Deadlocked
• started James Patterson's 11th Hour

• didn't get up off the couch

I had a great weekend doing NOTHING and it was much needed.  Now I just need to prepare mentally for me week ahead.  I hope everyone has a great Monday.

Sunday

means that tomorrow's Monday. :(

Fresh Picks

Monday I picked my very first vegetables. 

2 banana peppers

Wednesday I picked a few more things.  I wasn't sure when to pick what so I picked what I thought looked good just so I could test things out.

I fried the squash and zucchini that night.  It turned out great.

Thursday at work I did a little research on when is the best time to pick certain crops....the ones I am growing of course and THIS website was the most helpful.  I learned that my Wednesday reaping was a little overdue so Thursday I put my knowledge to work and got bags full of vegetables. 

My bounty (left going clockwise): zucchini, squash, cucumber, okra, some variation of banana pepper, and regular banana peppers

The only things that are missing out of what I planted are watermelon, which they still have a while, tomatoes, jalapenos, and bell peppers.  I am so happy with the way my garden is coming along and I feel like I'm going to be canning and trying out a lot of new recipes to help me use all these crops so they don' waste.  Out of the above picture I took about half of that to my Mom Thursday night.  I also plan on taking a few things to my neighbor today or tomorrow to thank them for lending me tools and things when I need them.

While I was out weeding and inspecting the other night I took some pictures of my garden plus of the animals.  My little hobby farm is coming right along and doing wonderful.  If only I could add my frizzle chicken and I'm dying to get a little pot bellied pig but that is going to have to take a lot of talking into....Lincoln says NO! :(

growing squash

Jalapenos

Okra

tomatoes

baby bell pepper

zucchini

banana pepper

My mature garden

Tyson and Hercules

Saturday with Averie

Last Friday night Averie conned her way into spending the night with MAGAN (which is the way she says my name).  Of course I can't say no to her, so we gathered her things and headed home.  We watched movies and ended up falling asleep but Saturday morning after she slept in until almost 9 we got ready to start our day.  She was really concerned about collecting eggs from the chickens so after I braided her hair and we tried doing a puzzle we headed out to the coop and to feed the dogs.  She loved seeing the chickens and thought it was the coolest thing that they had eggs. 

After the feeding was done we loaded up and headed to the donut shop.  She wanted a chocolate donut but they were pretty much out of everything so instead she go a HUGE chocolate twist and some chocolate milk.

After breakfast I had big plans to go to Sayadream and have Averie pick out something to paint for Shanna for Mother's Day.  When I went to turn down the street that the shop is on it was barricaded off!  Apparently the Winnsboro Spring Festival was in full swing last weekend and I didn' even know so not only were we going to get to paint but look around and do another fun activity.

I finally found a parking spot and the first booth we came up on was a little petting zoo.  Of course Ave went crazy wanting to go in so I paid the 5 bucks and off she went.  They had mostly farm animals but either way she loved it and I had to beg her to finally come out after a while in with the animals.  She especially liked chickens.  I don't know why she likes them so much but I guess she's like her aunt in that fact.

The goats were the funniest.  All they wanted was the food and they even knocked her little cup out of her hands because they were so aggressive.

They were also the friendliest

These little llama/alpaca things (not sure which) were pretty cute as well.

BUT for the grand finale of the petting zoo.................. the CHICKENS!!!!

This would be a frizzled chicken and I want one.  I have already told Lincoln and all my family that for either b-day or Christmas I want one of these.  They are so pretty and even though you can't tell in the picture their feathers are so silky and shiny.  I think she would make a perfect with all my other hens! :)

Once I coaxed Averie out of the petting zoo we hopped across the street to the art studio.  I figured that what we created that day wouldn't be ready until later on and I was right but that's ok because Averie had a great time creating her surprise for her Mom.  I picked up the finished product Thursday after work but didn't get any pictures of it.  It looked pretty much the same except the colors were more defined and it was shiny.  I recommend this little activity to anyone.  First off it was a whopping 8 dollars for this little project, it will last a lifetime, it's something you create yourself, and it's not just for kids.  The Sayadream studio even has ladies night which I would really like to do with a few of my gals.

Averie picked a heart to design.  She stenciled on couple flowers and a butterfly.

Hard at work.  It took a lot to get her to use other colors.  She wanted to do the whole heart in pink....designs and all.

Averie's art work

I helped do the other side.

We had a great day and I think Averie really enjoyed herself!