Busy as a Bee

Well, at least one of us was...
I snapped a bunch of critter pics as I was watering the flower beds and garden this morning. After those 2 weeks of rain we haven't been using the sprinkler system for the last several days so watering the flowers take a good hour by hand.

I love this action shot of the bee:

And of course this guy was at it again:

Summer bounty

Now this is what I've been waiting all summer for. A fresh tomato sandwich with a thick layer of mayo on soft bread. So yummy, so Americana, so reminds me of hot summer days on the farm.
This particular tomato is an heirloom "Brandywine" variety, believed to have originated from the Brandywine river region of southern PA. The leaves and blossom of this tomato were so different from the varieties I'm used to. It was a very pretty plant. It produces a huge tomato, very juicy with a firm, sweet flesh, though not the most flavorful variety I've tasted. Of the few different tomato plants I've grown this year the best performer was the Celebrity for globe (round) tomatoes and the Juliet Hybrid for grape tomatoes. Both were prolific producers and healthy plants. They did better than I expected in my first year gardens. My only complaint for the Juliet Hybrid was that the fruit were too big for salad tomatoes and a little too small for cooking tomatoes, although I just made another batch of tomato sauce using Juliets exclusively and it was quite good,... it just took 90 tomatoes to make. Tomorrow I'll be canning the rest of my globe tomatoes. I think the season is dwindling down- the curse of living in a Zone 4 region! We're already coming up with some strategies for extending the gardening season next year.

Spinner and Blayze were keeping an eye on us while we were working by the compost pile.

Roses and an acrobat

I tour my gardens about twice a day. Usually I'm bringing in an armload of tomatoes each trip. My roses are doing beautifully on the south side of the house.

Notice the visitor to my roses?
I ran back into the house for my camera as soon as I saw him.
Unfortunately over the last 2 weeks of cold and rainy days, my Rose caught a mold. I had to do some pruning to fix it up. Nothing drastic, but I had to clip 5 buds off. So painful to remove rosebuds before they've blossomed. All the beauty gone to waste.

The next day I was on the north side of the house checking out my front flower beds. I had to plant Coleus to cover the spot where the storm knocked down my bleeding heart a few weeks ago. The Persian Shield is getting pretty big and it's a beautiful colorful backdrop for the flowering tobacco.

Sure enough, that little guy gets around. I have no clue how on earth he climbs into these plants!

His and hers...

Last night, armed with a 25% discount at Linens-N-Things, we picked up a 6qt Kitchenaid mixer. Why would anyone need a 6qt mixer when they already have a 5qt mixer? Well, I'll show you:

The last time I was back east Michael had a family reunion to attend. He wanted to make his famous sticky buns. He made 2 batches and while the first batch of dough was kneading in the mixer he figured he had enough time to run to the store for more yeast. (Any of you veteran mixer owners are probably saying, "Uh oh" right now.) He returned to a kitchen filled with smoke as the mixer had stalled and the motor was burning itself up. He told me about this the next night while we were on the phone. (Keep in mind, this was the mixer I had been saving up for years to buy and it was a gift to myself back when I was single for getting myself out of debt) I was so upset I hung up on him and immediately called Rosanne to ask her if this is something that is worth getting upset at my husband about, or if I am being a brat. She said it was something that would make her feel bad. Michael and I spent the next few days sorting out the matter and he assured me it still worked. It just didn't work at slow RPM's anymore. Now when you turn it on, it goes right to speed setting 4. My last batch of cookies sent cocoa flying all over the counter. He must have felt really bad because a month later I now have a bigger better mixer! We're still keeping the small mixer because when we cook it gets pretty busy in this kitchen and we'll foreseeably be needing both mixers in the future. Michael tested the new mixer out on an almost doubled batch of brioche dough and it successfully shut off before the motor stalled when kneading. After 20 minutes of cooling the mixer finished kneading the dough. Very nice!

Rabble rabble rabble

The other day when Michael came home from work the first thing he said to me was, "You were brushing Spinner today?" The cubic foot of hair by the porch was a dead giveaway. I brush and brush and brush but I swear he generates more hair as fast as you take the old off. That's why he lays around all day, all his energy goes into hair production. I love walking down the stairs behind him because his coat bounces with each step he takes. He amuses me.

The last 2 nights we've had severe thunderstorms roll through after 2am. Sunday night was the worst. The thunder wasn't what woke me up, it was Spinner climbing into bed beside me. I indulged his anxiety attack until I remembered that my computer was still plugged in. I got up to take care of that and when I returned poor Blayze was having a complete meltdown. We opened the door to the bathroom and turned on the exhaust fan to help drown out the noise of the thunder. Here in the plains of the midwest there are no hills for the sound of the thunder to bounce off of and dissipate. It rumbles loud and true for miles and miles and miles. Blayze must have appreciated the bathroom fan white noise because she slept in there on the rug. She definately can be neurotic. Poor Blayze.
The lasagna last night was to die for. I also made a salad using fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden and local cucumbers and green peppers. I opened a can of olives and used feta cheese from the grocery store. The cheese was a big disappointment. Michael and I both share the opinion that the best Feta cheese is that big brick you find at Sam's club. It has the right saltiness and tartness you find in real Greek Feta. The shame is we never consume the entire brick before it goes bad. Maybe I should make Spanikopeta every once in a while...

My car now humms down the road rather than screaming! Michael replaced the wheel bearing and upper ball joint on the front passenger side and then replaced my brake pads and rotors on both front tires. Then, while he was at it, he tightened up the heat shield (somewhere along my exhaust system, I wasn't paying attention) to get rid of that occasional high RPM rattle. I knew I did well when I found him!

An enormous flock of Grackels passed through our neighborhood the other day.
I was sooo tempted to let Patch loose, it would have been hilarious, but that darned "What would happen if" sketch on Sesame Street kept running through my head.

Killjoy...

My Cup Runeth Over with Tomatoes

My garden is yielding well. I used several pounds of tomatoes to make a few jars of sauce, but during the canning process i forgot to add lemon juice (to increase the acidity and aid in preservation) so I decided to test the sauce and make a lasagna. If I'm making a lasagna, I'm going to have to do it right so I made my own noodles.
I used ground venison and thick strips of sauteed onions with peppers and mushrooms for the meat layer, a typical ricotta mozzerella blend for the cheese layer and the sauce I made last night. If the smell is any indication of the taste, then this will be a wonderful dinner.

Right now Mike is out buying the last part he needs to put my car back together. He replaced the wheel bearing on the front passenger side and we hope this eliminates that awful squealing noise it made on corners.

Dog daze of summer

After a long afternoon of working in the yard there's nothing better than a nap.

Minnesota State Fair

We went to the Minnesota State fair in St. Paul today. The company picnic where Michael works was today and they had a pavilion and a catered dinner for everyone. The plan was to go to the fair at 2pm and walk around until dinner at 4pm, stay for a bit then explore more of the fair after the meal. That was the original plan. What happened was we arrived at the "park and ride" location, one of several outlying parking lots where a free shuttle service took people to the fairground, and parked our car at almost 2pm. We waited for the bus for the next 20 minutes. The ride then took about 40 minutes. It was agonizing. We could honestly have walked to the fairgrounds faster than the bus took us. Once we got to the fair we were so frazzled the very first thing we bought was a beer. Now we were ready to tour the grounds and take in some quality people watching. We consulted our schedule and found that we had very few minutes until the first event I wanted to catch which was a demonstration given by a renouned local baker called, "Why European Bread isn't better." When we got to the creative arts building where the event was held I balked for a moment and said, "Are you sure we can bring our beer in here?" Michael assured me it was okay and sure enough there were several other people there carrying beers around. (Culture shock for the east coast gal. Minnesota balances its beer consumption with it's number of churches. They have large amounts of both in this state) It took a while to find the baking demonstration because I kept gaping at the knitting and quilt displays. Once there we listened to the baker (Chef Lorenz) talk about his experiences in bakeries in Italy. One interesting point he made is that Italy is so regional that someone could become a master baker but have only one or two items available. Here the consumer demands breads from all regions of Italy. He also mentioned that almost all flour used by bakers in Italy is imported from the US and Canada. Once he opened up the floor for questions I was fueled by my 16 ounces of liquid courage and an empty stomach (extra woosy) and I asked him, "I understand that Europe has very strict guidelines about using genetically modified foods, do they apply any of these standards to ingredients imported from the US?" (I ask because I know that most corn grown in the states now is hybridized and lab created, and I wondered if the same could be said of wheat and if that mattered) I must have stumped him because he rambled on about quality control and lot tracking and just got completely flustered before the other baker stepped in to get him back on track. I'd have preferred it if he said he didn't know.
From there we went to the company picnic and had some nice catered food, chatted with a few of Mike's co-workers and then went off to find another beer and some greasy fried Fair food including a super corn dog, a chili dog, a fresh dairy strawberry shake and an ice cream cone.
First we went into Heritage square and found the some truely awesome stuff.





We walked past the Butterfly house.


We saw a demonstration on making homemade fudge. They poured a big gob of molten fudge on a marble table and the guy kept going around and around the table folding the fudge back in on itself until it cooled enough to take a shape, and they could add a layer of peanut butter which he folded the fudge over one last time. Decadent???


We saw a dog obedience class from a school called "Dances with Woofs". They had the dogs and owners doing steps and formations to music. The also sprayed glitter on each dog's hind end. wtf?


My favorite character of the event was a guy I spotted outside the pet building who was stroking and talking to his parrot. I snapped a pic of him and as he walked past I commented how beautiful his bird was. He said her name is Betty and she's 5 and a half years old. He let me pet her too. Awww...

We didn't visit the animals this year, we focused on crafts instead. I feel bad, the birthing barn is a fun event, but my feet were killing me and my stomach was stuffed after over 4 hours of walking around. In all, a great day.

Dog blog

I don't want anyone to get the impression from my last dog post that I've had enough of these four dogs. I've had far worse days with just one dog! Like the time Patch ran off into the neighbors yard to poo and when I brought him back he tried to bite me and kept doing an alligator roll as I held his collar and dragged him back across the road. He was by far the worst behaved dog when we first got him. A year and a half later we've gotten used to dog antics.

We've decided we're only taking 2 dogs out on leashes at a time for potty breaks. Patch and Miranda are fine with this because this is what we used to do on a daily basis before Spinner and Blayze came along. Spinner and Blayze on the other hand don't belive certain functions should happen while on a leash. So after waiting and cajoling for a few minutes I sneak them off to the back yard to do their business off leash and I keep one eye out for angry-lady. Everybody's happy but for some reason Spinner likes to aim for my flowers. I'll have to have a talk with the boy about that someday.

Venison Roast with Onion and Apple port wine sauce

We were watching Iron Chef America the other day and the competition was wild boar. We saw a few inspiring methods of cooking one of Michael's favorite game meats, so I dug our last venison roast out of the deep freeze and tried to make a Czech inspired dish. I sauteed thick strips of onion until they were clear then I added a firm cooking apple. (I used Sundowner just because I had it on hand. This apple doesn't turn to mush at all. Granny smith should be a good substitute)I also added some chopped up carrot. I then dumped in a bunch of port wine and a smidge of molasses and let it reduce a little then added some beef stock and the roast. Simmer for at least an hour or until the meat reaches approximaetly 155 degrees. Sprinkle with paprika. I then removed the roast, strained the vegetables and used the remaining juices to make a gravy. The apple and onion side dish absolutely made this meal.


The accompanying wine was 7 Deadly Zins a wonderful Zinfandel. I highly recommend.

Some days it's tough to be a dog owner. Today is one of those examples. Maybe it's because its the first sunny day we've seen in over a week. Maybe it's because the dogs were all behaving like perfect pets yesterday and now I had to pay the price.
Let me start with describing yesterday:
What is Nirvana? The sound of four dogs peeing all at once. We took our morning walk across the street to the park and into the edge of the woods behind our mailbox. This is the perfect spot to take the dogs to go potty because every dog in the neighborhood "goes" there and that bit of competition for space encourages even the most stubborn of animal to potty almost on command. Where there is usually some pleading from me for someone to hurry up and go already, this morning all four felt the urge at the same time and it was by far our fastest potty break ever. I happily escourted Miranda, Spinner and Blayze back inside and Patch pulled me on his leash. He's the only one I have to hold onto, the others are so well behaved that a quick, "C'mere!" is usually all I need to corral them. Everyone ate their breakfasts and then proceeded to lounge around all morning. Michael asked me out to lunch at Chili's so I kenneled everyone up, went for lunch and let them out when I got home. They lounged again until Spinner and Blayze joined me as I got the mail. Michael invited me out for a drink after work and I again kenneled the dogs, went out with Michael and his co-workers and we retired to the living room to watch "Wild Hogs" while the four dogs lounged around at our feet. An almost perfect day despite Miranda's evening bout with flatulence. Whew-ee.
Now, onto this morning. I hooked up Patch and all four of us went out for the morning potty break. Nothing out of the ordinary until I spotted angry-lady jogging with her white lab. (I've had some encounters with angry-lady before. Miranda ran out into the road once to visit her and she started yelling at and threatening Miranda. I feel sorry for her white lab) I quickly grabbed Miranda and Spinner's collars in one hand and Blayze's collar in my hand that held Patch's leash. I was hoping to hold all the dogs until angry-lady passed by. Unfortunately Patch decided to be a monster and reared up barking like a maniac. Poor Blayze was being tugged around by his thrashings and she yelped. I let her go to avoid hurting her and of course, she headed right over to angry-lady. All the while this is going on, I'm desperately trying to calm Patch down as he's lunging with all his 70 pounds of sporting dog might, practically pulling me off my feet. I can no longer hold him and the other 2 dogs so I let them go and of course they also head straight for angry-lady who has already started yelling and me and my dogs. She was accusing me of getting her dog into a dog fight, she was yelling at each dog and swinging at them to get away. I tried dragging Patch back into the house while trying to call the other dogs back but I was being drowned out by Patch's barking. So I grabbed his collar and hoisted him onto his back 2 feet and put him in a headlock. (I'm not being inhumane, this is the only thing that works. He can breathe just fine and he has no problem walking that way) Once I start heading back towards the house the other dogs start running back with me. I get inside and start seriously scolding Patch. I put him in a time-out in the foyer and I head upstairs. I heard a bunch of little kids yelling in the park and I look and see Blayze sniffing around the trees. Krikey, how did she get by me?! I yell for her to get in the house and she starts towards me just as a SUV comes around the corner. I know the driver isn't coming fast enough to meet up with her path but all the little kids start screaming, "Nooooo!" and the SUV driver slows down to a crawl. Oy vey, I look like the worst pet owner on the planet. Blayze gets inside safely and I put Patch in his kennel for the rest of the morning. All dogs accounted for and my last nerve offically shot.

Entry for August 22, 2007 (Yahoo Blog)

Entry for August 22, 2007

Still gloomy cloudy and cold. I've been hanging out with a bunch of lazy dogs. They seem to be affected by the weather the same as I have. They're not nearly as anxious as normal to go outside and play. I've been toying with the idea of making a batch of cookies for Mike to take into work. I really should focus on canning some tomatoes or making sauce. I keep waiting for just a few more plum tomatoes to ripen.
Update: Today's mail helped brighten my day as the Thank You cards from the reunion came pouring in. Alright!
I'm making a new concoction for dinner. I'm trying a venison roast with port wine reduced onions and apples. It sounds good but the proof will be found at dinner. Wish me luck.

First post on new site

I'm just testing the waters here. I might get ambitious and copy-paste all 267 or so posts I had on my Yahoo 360 page. I left that page because i wanted a more customizable blog, so here you have it!