My Kitchen Adventures

I thought I would take some pictures of a few of the things going on in my kitchen.

In the photo above, I wanted to make “Triple Berry Scones” from my latest issue of Cooks Country. I was measuring my ingredients when my boys came in and announced that they too wanted to make their own berry scones. Joshua winged it and Nicholas cut the recipe down to one-third.

I try not to kick my kids out of the kitchen when they want to cook. It can be distracting though. For example, forgetting to add the sugar to my scones. Yup. I got them all done and then saw the sugar still sitting on the scale over by Joshua.

Oh well.

Cucumber pickles are growing at an accelerated pace. Really. These are the refrigerator dill pickles that I make (Jan’s Damn Good Garlic Dills). I’ve already made over four gallons of them. I started making them in quarts to give away. I’ve given my neighbor, Jen, A LOT of pickling cucumbers.  Just gave some to the lady that used to live in our house. And they KEEP COMING!

Here is this year’s plum fruit leather. Our plums are coming on strong and Nicholas and I cut them up (this type of plum doesn’t have a stone that comes out easily) and put them in a pot to cook down. I don’t like to add sweetener but it was pretty sour so I added a half cup of sugar. Still not any sweeter. Then I added some frozen pears that Bryn had given me. A little bit sweeter. Pureed it all together. Every day I spread nine dehydrator sheets with about eight ounces of the puree and dry. Five loads later we had plum fruit leather. You should see the color in person. Gorgeous. Joshua and Nicholas helped me roll each up in plastic wrap. Those dirty hands are Joshua’s. Oh well, he eats most of it anyway.

Every morning we milk Brown Sugar and Halle Berry. Then I come back into the house, strain it and get it into the refrigerator. This is a half gallon jar with both girls milk in it. Their babies are separated from them overnight so we can milk them in the morning.

Every evening we go out and milk Brown Sugar only. Her babies are separated from her all day long. We are trying to wean them. We are in the second week of separation. This is a quart jar with her evening milk in it. Again, strain and get it into the refrigerator quickly.

One morning Joshua requested cheese and mushroom omelette for breakfast. I can make this happen because I dehydrate the mushrooms. Once a year or so I go the Cash and Carry and buy a large box of sliced mushrooms. I spend a few days drying them and then put them in mason jars. Re-hydrate and they are ready to go. I made one for Michael too. Nicholas isn’t very fond of omelettes.

You might remember that Joshua wanted to plant a bunch of different types of cucumbers. Well, apparently I planted a Space Master Cucumber in his row. Not remembering this, I didn’t look at that plant. One day Joshua and I were in the garden and we spotted a bunch of cucumbers. HUGE cucumbers. Joshua let me know that those were mine and not his. So what do you do when you have 15 pounds of cucumbers? Make cucumber lemonade.

I pureed a few of them and then strained them. The rest are still in my refrigerator. Do you see all that pulp that was left behind after straining? (The juice is in the bowl underneath). I just plopped that into a pie plate and gave it to the chickens. They loved it. Then we all drank refreshing cucumber lemonade.

This is what my kitchen looks like most mornings after I harvest the garden. I’m giving away as much as I can and then preserving the rest.

Well, I’m off to make taco salad for dinner . Shh, don’t tell but I’m going to add broken up Nacho Cheese Doritos to it. I saw it on a blog and thought “Genius”.

Have a wonderful day,
Karen