Bonding

Two boys bonding after surgery. One with a broken finger and had to have it operated on to screw the bones back together. The other went in the day after to get neutered. They make a lovely pair don't you think. The bandages on the hand are now a florescent orange cast.

FOOD:

I was at the store looking for canned vegetarian baked beans, but couldn't find any so I decided to make a double batch of Dreena's black strap molasses baked beans in the crock pot and decided to can several jars of it in my pressure cooker. I got 7 pint jars plus enough to eat for a meal, 2 jars did not seal correctly so I stuck them in the freezer to use first when I am ready for some more beans. While I was at it I canned my own chickpeas. I soak them overnight, change the water, bring them to a boil, and fill the jars 2/3 full before adding water and salt. Lid them and process for 1/ 1/2 hour at 10 lbs pressure. The clear jars allow me to see that the chickpea water turns to gel when it cools.

FAMILY LIFE ...

DH is the sound man for a Christian band called Piercing The Darkness. This past Friday evening they played for an event called JUNE JAM at an amphitheatre .... an out door concert in the middle of the forest. I thought it would be an awesome place for a music video with the lush greenery around.

City Wide Garage Sales were also this weekend in our town. I picked up this unique, brand new microwave cooking dish made by Tupperware. All of it's attachments (sold separately) and a cookbook were included. Supposedly one can cook a three course meal (including pasta in the water) all at the same time. After looking at the cookbook a bit I'm pretty impressed with the possibilities. I hope to show something impressive after spending a whopping $10 on this gadget ... the receipt was in the bag and the whole set cost $70 ... this was in it's original wrapping unopened. The entertainment value of trying this out will surely will be worth my money, hopefully I even be able to tell you it was a real steal!


GARDEN ...

I have been harvesting spinach and edible pod peas, Sugar Anne type, they have a plump pod . I like these better than other types of edible pod peas (aka snow peas).

To use these up I made a wrap using some thin sliced seitan, herbed tofutti soy cream cheese and thin slices tomato (purchased from the market not local) along side of the baked beans and peas. The peas were raw and fresh picked form the garden, I love the way they taste without dressing. I also made a schzeuan veggie stir fry. I didn't want to wait the 45 minutes to make brown rice so I served this over a microwaved red potato. My stir fry consists of carrots, mushrooms, purple cabbage, onion, garlic, and a homemade schzeuan sauce. I finished this meal with a fruit smoothie and was very satisfied.

I have been drinking a lot of iced herbal fruity teas from celestial seasoning. My favorite is the peach, but black cherry and raspberry are good too.


In the mood to bake again, I also made some whole grain (white wheat) bread dough with wheat Bulgar and sunflower seeds added. The last bit of dough was formed into cinnamon rolls starring chocolate chips. This time I chose to bake the rolls in muffin cups, they turned out well .... err, so I heard I actually didn't get one of these.

LAST MY FAVORITE ....

My herb garden. This is how it looks a week ago, but I have several seeds planted that are just beginning to break through the ground right now. I have dill, thyme, Italian basil, chives, rosemary, radish, sunflowers (these will get big so I will only allow 2 but mainly for looks), English breakfast radish, and an early girl tomato plant because I had one left over and didn't want to waste it.

I love this time of year. I hope everyone is enjoying it. We have not yet hit high temperatures. It has been getting into the 70's by day and down to the 50's at night.