Apologies Again

Isn't this pretty? I liked it.

Yesterday... flew by. Like, really, I did not notice time passing *at all*. Next thing I know, it's after midnight, I'm starting to get sleepy and well... here we are. No Post Card Saturday.

And today I had more mango adventures. I'll go into more detail tomorrow. Suffice it to say that I am plum wore out, lol. 

So apologies, but I think I'm just going to skip Post Card Saturday this week. Otherwise, it's just right on the heels of the next one by the time I get to it, and well... you know.

Look for Mango Madness tomorrow, if you dare, ha ha! And an awesome postcard thing starting on Saturday. Something I've been sort of saving for a while, but I'll start it then.

Thanks!

:)

Farmer's Market Needed

One part of this gardening experiment of mine was to get better quality food. After all, I don't think anyone can argue that fresher food, grown without pesticides and the like, is better for you. And hey, growing it should be cheaper than buying it.

However, my gardening efforts aren't paying off they way I want them to. I'll give them all another shot in the fall (which is actually the start of the "real" growing season here in South Florida) and hope to have learned a few things.

In the meantime, though, I still want better veggies and stuff. And that means - Farmer's Market. There is supposed to be one sort of near where I live, but it's one day a week. I've heard mixed reviews at best about it. I'd love to find some more, but so many of them are soooo far away, I'd burn as much gas as would be saved buying locally. 

I did find one that isn't close, but not so far as to be out of reach. I found a really nice one back in February, but I haven't returned. There's a possibility of going tomorrow with my awesome neighbor. Wouldn't that be awesome!

What are your thoughts on Farmer's Markets? Any good ones you know of? I will keep looking, because there has to be something closer. But so far... I'm heading north, lol.

:)

Mango Jam Take 2

Look at it! Isn't it amazing?

Okay, I'm still totally jazzed about the jam. And yes, that's not yesterday's batch, it's from the first day. The stuff made last night looks amazingly similar, so I didn't figure I needed another picture, haha!

I will say that yesterday's batches yielded slightly less, only 8 jars in total. I think that was because the mangoes were riper and so juicier, less pulpy. And there were a few bad spots to cut away, etc. So it all cooked down a bit more, too. Still, 8 pint jars of awesome mango jam ain't bad for an afternoon  :D

Overall, the jam has been mighty well received! And generated some questions, too. So here are some more observations on my two time jam making experience, lol.

1. Nope, I did not do this "intuitively".
Well... maybe. I approached it like I approach most new recipes for something I want to try. I read a lot of websites and kind of composite all the information into my own brain. 

If you want the main site I used, go here.  And this here is one of the sites I got the lime juice idea from. Almost every site said to use lemon juice, so I don't believe it's for a bit of "zing". I used limes because I had them on my tree (now several of them are in my jam, lol), and a couple places used lime for mango jam.

2. I put in some butter - forgot that part yesterday. Just a chunk of it. One site claimed it would cut down on these bubbles you're supposed to skim off before you put the stuff in jars. Since I didn't have any bubbles to skim off, I guess it worked?

3. Boiling mango glop is *Hot*. You would think that's not something to have to say, but you know, I didn't always pay as much attention as I should have to that, lol. Take a look at my mango jam injury:


Now, since I always sustain at least a minor injury when I cook, I figure I probably got off easy this time, given it was my first jam making experience.

4. Boiling mango glop is *insidious*! I mean - it gets *everywhere*. I've cleaned and wiped and washed, but it might be a year before I find it all. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I still keep finding little orange splotches in the oddest places...

So there are my thoughts post jam making two. Feel free to ask questions if you're brave enough to venture along this path. You will find it surprisingly easy!

Now, if my neighbor continues to be kind, I might try some mango salsa... 

:)

Look What I Did!

Heck yeah, it is. That's just what you think it is - Mango Jam!! And not just Mango Jam - my first batch of jam I've ever made, Ever!

I'm so excited about it I don't even know where to start! Lol. But be forewarned - this is gonna be a much longer post than usual.

So - if you recall, there was some serious Mango Envy going on between me and the neighbor (Go Here for the post about that). Well, I sucked it up, went over, and offered to trade basil plants for mangoes. The woman (yes, I got her name even, ha ha!) was as nice as she could be, and I won't say she begged me to take as many mangoes as I wanted, but not far off. So I took a few and said I'd be back on the weekend.

And then one of my brilliant students suggested mango jam, I went back on Saturday (and ended up chatting for over 2 1/2 hours - they are super nice people!), and this is what I ended up coming back with.


Oh yeah. But that's because who knew how many mangoes it would take to make jam, you know? Apparently half of this pile will make two batches. But... more on that below.

Sunday dawned and mango jam fever was upon me! So I began assembling the necessary supplies:

Stock pot (the small one). Apparently I didn't need even something this big, but oh well. Dream big, right?

Washed jars

New lids and pectin


Sugar (sorry, no picture, but I think everyone knows what sugar looks like, right? lol)

And the fruit. Mangoes (of course), but if you notice there are a couple of green ones from one of the trees here. Unripe mangoes are supposed to have more pectin in them. And also some limes (from my tree, of course!). More on why limes below.

To read more about the process, click "Read More"

Entirely Too Awesome!

So today netted an amazingly productive product, ha ha! Unfortunately, I didn't get to this until my phone died and is now charging - full of he pictures.

Which means that be prepared! I'm going to show you some awesome tomorrow!

:)

Post Card Saturday

This is another in the chapter of Cool Post Cards People Sent Me Because They Know I Collect Them  :)

Or rather, two. These are both from the same person, my friend Jenica. She was on a trip to CA to visit some art museums, and they had these super nifty cards. 

So here are two that she sent me. The picture kind of makes it obvious why I put them together, lol.

Yep, those are indeed postcards, one shaped like a mask (here's the back so you can see that it is).

The message says (if you can't read it):

RAWR! I'm an old man face! Aren't you glad you asked for postcards?

Jenica

And here's the back of the other one, again so you can see that it's truly a postcard. 

The message (again, if you can't read it):

Look! I got you a post card shaped lie a vase. Don't try to keep flowers in it.

Jenica

How cool are those?!

:)

B-Limey!

So yesterday I was lamenting the status of my watermelon. And I promised something better today. With that in mind, let me give it to you:

Limes! Yep, that's an old picture. I forgot to take my camera out today before it started raining and such, but let me tell you - Jorge (yes, I've named my lime tree. What's wrong with that?) has several limes that are nearly ready to pick! Mom and I picked one while she was here, and it was a-ma-zing! 

I guess the big question is what to do with all these limes? I don't think there will be any overload of them, just one ripe enough at a time. I know they are good in gin and tonics, ha ha! I guess I need to start looking for a few recipes for chicken and such, see what comes up. They are so awesome looking, I am definitely not going to let them go to waste.

That's some good news then, right? Let's hope for more. Google is our friend and I guess I just need park myself in front of it and find out what's happening to the rest of my garden. No point in doing this and not getting anything from it, right?

:)

Watermelon Lament

Sad news on the garden front.

The watermelon plant is dead. Here, tale a look:

This picture was taken a couple of days ago. It's worse today. I know it looks like it needs water, but trust me when I tell you that is the *last* thing it needs. Between the torrential rain we had several days last week, and my own efforts, water isn't the problem.

I've fertilized, I've diatemaceous earthed it, sprayed it with my sister's guaranteed soap and water treatment against bugs. And nothing. Nada. Zip. It looks almost just like what happened to my squash over and over, and that was larvae in the blossoms. But watermelon isn't squash so... I just don't know. It was all so promising, and now I"m super bummed.

The beans are worse off than the watermelon, but I'll save that for another day. Tomorrow, a good gardent thing!

:)

Post Card Saturday

Time for it once again - Post Card Saturday!

This week I decided to feature another one of "my" cards. If you remember, I actually started this by people sending me post cards when they went on vacation. (Yep, that's how it was done back in the day, the dark ages when there were no cell phones or email, ha ha!)

After a while, I started soliciting people to send me post cards. And then a while later, people learned of my collection, and just sent me cool post cards because they knew I collected them. Up top is one of these!

This is from a woman I used to work with. She knew all about my post card collection, and when she had plans to go home to visit her family, she also made plans to send me a post card, lol. She told me at least two weeks before she left that she knew just which one she was going to send. How awesome is that?

And she sure enough did! Here's the back:

It says:







Pam,
Days are crazy, so this will get to you after I get back. 2 wks go too fast! I hope you like this card for your collection. 

Lavada

Here's the blurb on the back about the card itself. I mean, how cool is that, to have a copper covered card? I think it's copper. Whatever it is, it's amazing looking.

So there you have it - Post Card Saturday!

:)

Waiting Watermelons

Tonight I was going to lament my waning watermelon plant, show pictures of the poor thing and so on. However, when Counting Crows tickets fall into your lap, you do that instead, hehe! Off to a concert tonight. Look for watermelons tomorrow.

:)

Mango Envy

So it's getting to be mango season here in South Florida. And there are two mango trees in this enormous backyard! So what's the problem? The tress are little and don't seem to be getting any bigger. It's a stumper, for sure, ha ha. 

But there are mangoes there! Here's the littler tree - see if you can find all 7 mangoes!

And here's the bigger tree. There are 17 there. I think I got them all in the picture.

And here... is the neighbor's enormous mango tree, full of mangoes. *sigh* I sometimes hear them falling off the tree and hitting the shed back there. Here, if I don't get to the mangoes first, and they fall on the ground, the dogs get 'em.

Mango Envy.

I wonder if the neighbors would share... I bet I could trade a few limes or some lettuce, maybe some basil? It's worth finding out, right?

:)

Post Card Saturday Delayed

So once again, Post Card Saturday has turned into Post Card Sunday. I don't know what happened to the day yesterday, but it was gone before I knew it. 

Short and sweet today, too. I just thought this one was pretty. It's really old, too, or it feels that way. 

Unfortunately, as you see on the back, the date and postmark are both covered by strips of what I can only figure is glue or tape of some kind. It must have been pasted into a book once upon a time, and then later pulled out. I suppose I could try to get that stuff off there, but I'm scared of both damaging the card, as well as how long it might take, lol.

The message, as far as I can tell says:

Tuesday, Aug. 31
I am still in Rotterdam. Love from your Daddy (?)


So there you have it, another postcard from my awesome collection!

:)

Basil Comin' Out My Ears...

I believe the title says it all. Anyone want some free basil plants? These things are as bad as the tomato plants, and I still don't have all those in their separate pots.

Exhibit A

That's supposed to be parsley in the pot to the right.

Yes, each one of these *tiny* pots has 3-5 tiny basil plants in them.

Exhibit B

Some of these are probably dead. The majority of these have actually rooted and need pots. *sigh*

Exhibit C

Yep, about 7 of 'em in this one pot and they all need their own.









Exhibits D & E

As if there wasn't enough basil here, Mom and I couldn't resist and bought a purple basil. Well, actually five purple basils, as there were five in the pot. And all smaller than this. They are seriously getting big and will all need their own pots. Double *sigh*

I can't stand to throw out live plants! And this is more basil than I can shake a stick at, or even use! And heck no, I don't have enough pots for this stuff. Or for the 8 gazillion spider plants I could pot up, or the other 4 tomato plants that are still all sharing one pot. 

I gotta find a place to sell this stuff before I start having nightmares about basil and spider plants coming to strangle me in my sleep... ha ha!

:)

Latest Cooking

Whew! Time flies! I have no idea how it got to be Tuesday already! haha

Saturday was busy, having people over and cooking for said people. As well as just doing the house cleaning stuff that one does extra when they are going to have guests. It was great though, a fun time was had by all.

What, pray tell, did I cook? Well, I will do better - I will even show you!

The Before Pic

Main course - Aji chicken enchiladas. 

After coming out of the oven.

My own creation, and tomorrow I will even give you the recipe. For now though, here is the after to the previous before picture.

And for dessert? Why, my world famous cheesecake, of course! Though I'll be honest, I didn't let the cream cheese soften enough (or at all), so the texture was off. Still tasted marvelous though.

So there you have it for now. Have a yummy night, day, whenever you might be reading this!

:)

Post Card Satur... er, Sunday!

Busy-ness and fun ensued yesterday, but kept me from posting on time. But here it is, Post Card Saturday! Only it's on Sunday this week, obviously. And an interesting one it is - I learned something cool! So without further ado...

Another pretty one of Washington, DC, with the cherry blossoms in bloom and the Washington Monument in the distance. Here's the whole back to start with.

The message part. As far as I can tell it says:

Dear Mother!
We arrived here at 7:00. We went to the Rialto and swa "Held by the Law." We are in the hotel now. It is 11:45. Love to all
Clara

So there you go - there's the 20s version of a check in call? Lol. Because again, Mother wouldn't know what her kids were up to immediately unless it happened in the same place, most likely. Again, I just love that stuff!

But that's not what I learned. Look here at the postmark - 1927. And look at what was stamped along with the postcard "Let's Go! Citizens Military Training Camp". I had no idea what that was, so of course, I Googled it. To see the wikipedia link, go here. And here's another page about it that I found - here. I had no idea we did this here in the good ol' US, and I am definitely going to read more about it. 

I realize Wikipedia is not a "real" source, to quote in papers and the like, but it does give a good general explanation of a lot of things. And I have no idea how reliable that second page is. But I got the gist of it, and now I'm interested. That's a good thing, righ?

So there you have it - the latest in the series. More next Saturday!

:)