Have a good one...!
Cleaning the racks will be bad enough. My poor aching fingers! 
What the hay? It IS a pagan holidayWe had NO kids, likely because of the humorous sign I hung on the garage (Lannie's brother sent it as a joke) that says "Witch parking only. All others will be toad." Everyone within a 10 mile radius of us are "good Christians" and probably don't want candy from us Pagans.
Same here. Most holidaze are SSDD events for me. I suppose I hated the crappy behaviors of folks during holiday events. The only events that are celebrated in our house are birthdays and our anniversary. That's it.
Thank you.
Anyone can watch. Fewer are open minded enough to fit in though.
Got it!
Perhaps I have a slightly differing viewpoint. I have no idea who that person was, but any voyeur who wants to watch us should also be willing to talk with us. You don't want to join the discussions? Fine. Glad to see you gone.
Hi Lannie,this might help you with peeling your butternut squashI did a LOT the last couple days. Day before yesterday I decided I needed to vacuum because the dog and cat hair was getting to be ankle-deep and it was disgusting to look at. Hey, I've been busy with other stuff... housecleaning wasn't a priority. But since I'd spent the day before doing applesauce, I decided to take a day off apples and clean the house. But the vacuum cleaner wasn't sucking up very much stuff, so I took it apart (it's one of those canister ones, not bags), and the filters were indescribable. I won't even try. I should have cleaned it months ago, apparently. So I spent an hour or so trying to wash the sludge out of all the filters and cleaning the canister and all its related parts. Then I couldn't use it because it was all wet, so I dragged the Rainbow out and decided to use that, but it's been sitting for several months (using the upright is quicker and easier), and I'd left some water in the basin, which had dried to a crusty layer inside, so I had to clean THAT all up, and then I cleaned the rest of it and wiped it all down so it looked OK, THEN I filled the basin and vacuumed. Apparently, I should have cleaned that upright several times over the last few months, because the sludge that came up out of our rugs was also indescribable. Rich keeps telling me, "We live on a farm, there will be dirt," but seriously, this was gag-a-maggot gross. Well, anyway, it's cleaner now.
After I got done with the floors, I dusted, and that finished me off as far as work. I spent three hours on cleaning the vacuums, cleaning the floors, and dusting everything, but it was beautiful (for the moment) in here, and I felt better. Of course, it wasn't an hour before I started seeing little clumps of hair here and there, so ever since then, I've been picking up everything I see and tossing it. It's a lot easier to see the little bits now that the floors are clean, but that's gonna get old after a while, and I'll stop picking them up in a couple days. Sometimes I don't know why I bother to clean at all...
So yesterday, with a clean(ish) house, I decided to make a Samhain dinner for us. I always miss "my" holidays because I'm too busy to do anything other than say, "Oh, it's such-and-such a day," and go on with my work. I had defrosted a whole chicken that I was going to roast, and then I grabbed a large butternut squash from the basket in the garage (those things STILL aren't canned), and spent an hour and forty-five minutes getting it out of its skin. Not kidding at all. Blew my whole afternoon. I was going to make some rolls and a few other tidbits to go with dinner last night, but we ended up with squash and chicken. It was VERY good, so it's OK. Anyway, I'd also noticed a few big rutabagas out in the garden, so I grabbed one of those, and while the squash was boiling, I peeled and boiled that monster rutabaga as well, then I combined it with part of the squash and mashed them with cream cheese and butter. Cream gravy from the pan drippings brought it all together.
Speaking of rutabagas, if anyone grows those, I tried a new type this year that are long rather than short and squat, and it was SO nice! You can peel them with a peeler, just like a potato. The traditional short ball shape was always so hard for me to peel with a peeler, so I'd end up using a paring knife and peeling it like an apple. These long ones are a breeze!
Anyway, I haven't done any apples for two days, but the house is clean and we have dinner for a couple nights (leftovers), then I'll make stock and soup from the chicken carcass. Today I have to clean the oven. I absolutely LOVE roast chicken, but I hate the mess it makes. The whole inside of the oven is spattered with grease. I'm grateful for my self-cleaning oven, because cleaning it by hand, on my hands and knees, would likely kill me.
I'm sure you will have one of your trusty employees handle it while you're gone. But with no internet at the EC house, does that mean we won't be hearing anything from you for that month?
Cloudy, low this morning 32, high was 55 degrees and windy. Next week, the highs are expected to be right around freezing with lows in the 20s. Wish I was going to EC...
As hard as you have been working Dale you deserve a vacation my friend
I have internet on my satellite phone, lil expensive, but I can tether the laptop to it...or just use the phone, but the screen is too small for these eyes.
Just like most it sucked, had to go grocery shopping today to get the monthly supplies. Damn,
people can be so rude, thanks for asking though my friend.
Slow here too
I hate having to use the phone to get on here, takes me forever to type while holding my magnifying glass
hey that's great, everyone needs an easy day every now and then
I thought it maybe it was just me
Mine is working normally now....before the site was hanging
No i had to finish watching something
I guess I'm watching something too, though I didn't really notice until my head hit the keyboard... Hmmmm... seems like there is fuzz growing in my belly button... or maybe my eyes are just getting really blurry. In any case, I think I should probably find my bed while I can still walk that far.
G'night Dale I am not far behind you my friend have a good day tomorrowHave a good one pholks.....I'm outta here.....
It doesn't have all the pictures that are online, but I like to sit at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and peruse at my leisure. I might have to bake them all, in batches, then peel and mash and freeze them, rather than can them. Once baked, the skins just fall off. They're SO GOOD, though! They're worth the effort.I just tried (a few days ago) to cut a butternut squash like yours. I ended up using a sharp knife and a meat maillot to chop the thing. No way I could peel it. I had to bake it.The seeds will be used in my garden next year. Somehow, I will find space. I didn't grow this but obtained it from a organic farm. I did grow a ton of spaghetti squashI get all my seeds from Victory Seed Company. I've been buying from them for as long as I can remember. They have excellent seeds, it's a family-owned and operated company, and they have GREAT service. You can find them online and order a paper catalog (it was $2 last time I got one) if you'd rather look at that than the online catalog. I like the paper catalogs, myself.
That squash in the video was a store-bought one, nice and young and tender. Yes, technically, that's how you peel a squash, and that's how I tried to do it, but mine sat out in the garden too long and the skins on them are like elephant hide. I have several peelers, and one like the one in the video, and they just slid across the skin. Mine is ceramic, and fairly new, so it's not dull. It will fly through potato peels with no effort, but this squash was a different animal! LOL! I had to cut it across the waist (mine are bulbous at both ends now), and THAT was hard, then I set the two halves cut side down and split them from the ends into quarters, then cut the quarters into slices, then used a big SHARP butcher knife (the same one I used for all of it) to cut the skin off each slice in shallow chunks. Then I cubed it all and tossed it in the pan. I had to stop and rest and flex my hands several times during this procedure, which is why it took so dang long. My one squash filled a 1.5 gallon pot to within an inch or so of the top, to give you an idea of how big it was. As hard as that sucker was to peel and cube, I don't know how I'm going to can the rest. There must be 15 or 20 more that size out in the shop, waiting.
The good thing about it is the seeds are nice and mature, so I saved out about 50 nice fat seeds from that one squash and they will be my future squashes.
You seriously expect people to grate their own parmesan cheese?So many food substitutes in so-called food these days it is a national disgrace - and few care about it and go on eating that
You have never milked an almond?
I might start raising almonds in the back yard to produce "milk"! My only problem is I cannot tell the difference between a male or female almond.
Cool I hope it goes well for you Sandi, very healthy nuts and it's hard to find "TRUE" raw almonds or raw any kind of nuts.
