A Peck of Pickled Peppers

I couldn't resist.  We've had a pepper glut lately so I've taken to pickling them.

These are banana peppers with a slice or two of yellow bell for good measure;  banana peppers are yummy on sandwiches.  Not that we'd know; the kids ate the whole first jar just plain!

On the right is combined jalapenos and habaneros.  There is a lot of spice in this little jar.
Finally, on the left, pickled squash.  No seriously, it's good.  It will be the perfect accent to my fall bentos!

For the peppers, I started with a mildly sweet pickle recipe I found.  However, I substituted a clove of minced garlic for the celery seed (not a fan).  The author does not process hers in a water bath but unless you are going to refrigerate them (as I am), you probably should.  10 minutes ought to do it. 

For the squash, I used the following brine recipe:

1 cup seasoned white vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Bring the brine to a boil; meanwhile pack  julienne squash in jars.  Squeeze a piece of long chili into each jar.  (This makes a very spicy pickle -- but it is a very     s-l-o-w    heat and I adore it).  I doubled the brine for this batch.  I had a lot of squash.
Bring your hot water bath to boil.  Brine and cap the jars; cook in hot water bath 10 minutes.  

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Summertime is Family Time - Album 2

It was worth driving 2400 miles for what awaited us once we arrived.  We arrived at my sister's in Montana on Friday and then got to the folks' in Idaho on the Saturday before Mother's Day.  Somehow the time just flew by and I did not get out to see the Uncles and Aunts, but I was so thrilled to get to spend so much time with "my" Idaho kids.  We didn't get to see Guy and John (in London)  Royce (in Montana), Anneka (in California) or Carin and clan (in Oregon) but we are hoping to drag them out for the next Huntley camping extravaganza.

 Uncle Jason and Gabriel

 Aunt "Dark" (Darinda) and Papa

 Alli looking happy to be out of the car

 Yes folks we have it right here -- Kolby can be captured for a kiss from his beautiful mama

 Lisa with her newest niece, Zita.  These two have a special bond.

 Cousins and friends; Kolby was so patient with all the Littles

 Ted looking pretty in Maggie's hat

 TJ and Mikayla monkeying around 

Love this sweet shot of Papa and the Littles 

He has endless patience!

 Mamaw and Papa

 Guy was busy working in London but here are the rest of us "kids" with Mom and Dad

 Mom and her "baby."

 Alli and our precious Zita

 She is the best of both her parents

PHere is her proud mama, Melissa.  We love you so much, Melissa -- we're so glad you and TJ ran into each other!

Every child should get to play in the wheat.

Uncle Ted

Summertime - Album 1

Very shortly after my last post on very short hair, the Littles, Pepper and I took off for Idaho and a visit to my folks.  Life has been a whirlwind ever since.  So rather than try to catch up, I offer you the first in a series of photo albums.

Our decorated car; somehow it makes all the hours in it more bearable.

The first time we got out the camera was this wonderful park in Springfield, Colorado.  We had a little scare driving up because I noticed a man following me and he pulled up right behind me at the park.  Turns out he was the local Church of Christ pastor and a former Texan.  He was super friendly and it was fun to meet him.

The park had a truly fantastic playscape but all our kids wanted to do was drive the tractor.   Here's The Blitz!   Look at that smile!

I'm pretty sure this is a pronghorn antelope, a truly native American species.  We saw a million in north-central Colorado and southern Wyoming

This is my great-nephew Indigo in Broomfield Colorado.  He'll be moving home to Texas soon!

This is his amazing daddy, Justin.

And his beautiful mommy, Juliette, with some of our gang.  We had a fun picnic in the backyard.

Pepper and Hannah.  Did I mention that we took Hannah along on our vacation?  And that we had to leave Sunshine at home to play ball?

This is our "new" house in Boulder, Colorado on Findley Way.  My parents built this house, I think in 1966.  

That tree in the front yard is HUGE!  But dad's brick walkway and the hedges are gone.

This is the "old" house on 31st Street.  The crabapple tree is there but the white picket fence is missing.  It's getting a bit ramshackle after all these years.

Some scenes from Northern Colorado

A fantastic play stop in Laramie, Wyoming.  

What follows are the good times in the car!

More to come!

Very Short Power of Observation Quiz

This very short quiz tests your powers of observation  (brought to you by "the Littles").

Can you see it?

Too subtle?  Let's try it on The Blitz:

Maybe another angle:

Alright.  Give up?
Let's try one far less subtle:

Oops.  Bet you see it now.
Good thing she looks cute with her bangs combed to the side!

The culprit:

 

  Oh my.  Well guess our resident stylist will put those clippers away next time!  

PS -- I'm keenly aware I've not posted The Blitz's birthday or Easter or Softball or Confirmation.  I will get there!  Too busy putting out fires (and covering up hair-don'ts!).

Natural Egg Dyes

Because of my bent toward kitchen experiments, our love of botanical and veggies, and my concern about food coloring in general, we went back to vegetable dyed eggs this year.  I used the information from a variety of sources but loved the marbled eggs I "pinned."  We used that technique and the one in a linked blog from the same source.  We will use even more of these ideas next year!

Here are the pics and the "how" is at the end!

This egg is wrapped with cilantro, cabbage, and onion skins - it's Hannah's and turned out so pretty

Here's our sweet friend Hannah

Sunshine and Tink - we also used berries

The boys.  Don't they look thrilled?

Pepper

Beets

Spinach - the Littles had a blast tearing it up

Cabbage - the kids tore this up too

Tumeric - gritty but pretty!

Waiting is fun at first

Then it got boring

Sunshine after ball practice

Aren't they lovely?

The middle one is tea -- it does have color!

It was messy and took about twice as long as the scary tablet way.  But it was more fun and we are so happy with the unusual look we will do it again next year with a few changes.

In the end, we went with the following recipe, garnered from several places on the web:

2 to 3 cups vegetable matter (see the end)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon alum
2 tablespoons white vinegar (added at the end so it doesn't cook off)

Cook the first three together a long time, 14 to 30 minutes.  When done, strain and add the vinegar.

Beets:  for a light redish pink --they really don't get very dark.  Next time I will try cooking them 45 minutes or pressure cooking them.

Cabbage:  Use red cabbage for blue; it's lovely.

Onion skins: we have used them in the past but only used them as decoration today (I'm allergic)

Spinach:  Never again. It did not work and we cooked it forever.

Tumeric powder:  2 tsps to 2 cups water.  Such a pretty yellow.

Strong tea:  2 tea bags to 1 cup water will yield eggs about the color of brown eggs.  But we like it!