SPINACH SQUISH?

Blanching.

Do you know what it is? According to helpwithcooking.com it is:

"If you plan on storing your vegetables for several months in the freezer it will be necessary to blanch them first. This involves immersing them in fast-boiling water or steaming them for a specified amount of time, depending on the size and type of vegetable and then plunging them into ice-cold water before draining and packing.


Blanching the vegetables before freezing impedes enzyme action during storage time in the freezer and this means that the deterioration of the vegetable is kept at a minimum and that vegetables will emerge from the freezer in the same condition as they entered."
 

(image from here)

I thought that I would try to give this a shot.

My biggest question is, have you ever done it yourself? Or wait, an even bigger question, how nasty does the spinach get? I mean, traditionally, we eat it raw. I've never cooked it. I have had it cooking in things - like a layor in lasagna or mixed in a bit of pasta. Popeye eat your heart out.

(image from here)

I just would like us to try to get the most out of our garden, not that I'm unwilling to give it away. But at the end of the day there will be times when I have ripe veggies to use up and perhaps no one to give it to. The blanching process doesn't seem too complicated or time consuming.

And is the basket worth the investment? Will it make it even quicker and more easier? Time efficient?

(image from here)

Maybe I will have to pop into Stokes and see how much these babies cost. Curiosity. Cause I don't have a big spoon with holes in it for scooping and straining either. Hmmmm.

Food for thought, and hopefully also for dinners after the summer ends!

ROUTINE SHMOUTINE

First thing in the morning my routine starts with hunny waking up earlier than me. I vaguely remember each day being smothered in kisses and mumbling something nice about loving you. Don't worry, he says sweet things back to me. Probably remembers them better a few hours later too.

Anyway, I fall back asleep and wake up shortly thereafter to Bear fussing. This doesn't happen all the time but seems to be a new phase. Perhaps because he knows hunny is up and gone, and he can see that it is light outside... so he doesn't want to be held back. I've learned that if I sit up in bed, pound firmly on the wall and loudly call out to him to go back to sleep, that seems to be the most effective say of re-settling him for a nap.

So then my alarm goes off, usually around 6:30am. Generally it's not hard for me to get up at that point because the sleep wasn't all that sound between hunny, Bear, light and now alarm. I lay there a minute, gather my wits (hahaha I know, made me laugh out loud just typing that) and roll out of bed. I grab a pair of clean undies, yesterday's pants and a tshirt (probably hoodie too) and head out to face the animals. Release them into the house, put on my sneakers, grab a bag or two and out the door I go. Remy first. Speed walk as quickly as possible around our route. Return home to Bear sitting, awaiting his turn. Grab his leash out of my car, hook him up and then we go out as a pack and do walk part II. His little legs don't need the distance or speed that Remy does so he gets a shortened, slower version. She goes first because if she isn't panting before we pick up Bear she just can't handle dawdling along beside him without losing all focus. My little angels.

This process takes about an hour. Yes, up above that is a picture of sunrise this morning. Cool eh? So the rest of the morning is spent all over the place. Eating some cheerios, making tea, reading some blogs, watching the news, showering and getting ready for work, making and packing my lunch and maybe - if I have time - putting something on my blog for all of you.

With that being said, I'm eyeing the clock now and wondering exactly how much longer I have for blogging before I'm going to be putting myself dangerously close to the state of rushing. No one likes that.

So I'm going to skedaddle now, looks like I've lost my hair styling time. Oops - Have a fantastic day everyone! Lets hope that I remember to scoot over to the library after work today. Oh! And I forgot to mention that auntie and I came up with a perfect sewing project, so hopefully I will get to start that this weekend. So Excited! *hugs*

DRIZZLY TEA THURSDAY

I love my hunny. A few weeks ago he was given an award at work, and part of that recognition included the choice of a gift. He waited, and went over the list of options with me and ultimately let me pick a present for myself. On the flip side, not many of the options were what I would consider practical - and I think we both realized that one of them was something I would definitely use.

A nice glass tea pot infuser! Now, the glass seems awfully fragile so I will have to make the extra effort  to be less clumsy and more careful. How nifty is that?

I was sewing last night! We sat down and watched the dvd on my laptop, pausing every second step or so, allowing me to do what they were doing on my own sewing machine, and then pressing play again. Following along. Once we were all set, I spent the rest of the evening playing with the stitches. There are about 9 or so stitches, with 5 width settings for each. That's alot to get used to. So I played with what they turn out like. Ohh and that also helped me get use to the foot pedal.

Now, I'm just waiting for auntie to send over directions on how to actually make something. Haha.

Oh! And I forgot to mention this to you yesterday somehow, but I thought you'd get as big a kick out of it as we did. When my friend and I were step sitting and catching up yesterday we saw an interesting thing making its way along the sidewalk. What was that exactly?

It's a man operated vehicle with a big suction pipe designed to remove litter from the sidewalk. Yes that's right. It's rediculous. Instead of paying some students, or using up public service requirements for people on probation the city has purchased this rediculous contraption. Not to mention it obviously runs on fuel, so that's just one more reason why it's stupid. And how much does this guy driving it make? I don't even want to know.

So he was driving along the sidewalk, sucking up debris, missing pieces we could even see from the opposite side of the road. Then he shut it off a second and a bottle fell out. Obviously this thing doesn't recycle. When he started it back up he spent an entire 10 minutes trying to suck that bottle back up the tube. When he finally gave up, he got out, walked around and picked it off the sidewalk with his hands.

Give me a break. Makes me want to write a letter to the local paper. I can't be the only one unimpressed.

The other thing I wanted to add is yes, another layout change. I think this works best, the better of both worlds. I 've figured out how to have a wide blog path and my goodies on the side. Now I didn't intentionally change my background but I think this is cute as is. Love you all, have a great day!

sewing salad

This sewing DVD is awesome. Except for one small thing, they make it look so easy. I'm watching all of the chapters first before I begin anything just to get a better understanding. Then I will give it a shot.

First fantasy project: Properly thread the needle and bobbin (oh and get that wound properly too).

I would just like to say that I momments ago came across a baby spider nest right outside our front door and I killed it. I sprayed it down with some leftover homemade insecticide that we mixed in our kitchen last night (with googled instructions). Take that. Nasty.

I'm feeling the effects of little sleep. Last night, after we were in bed asleep a neighbor somewhere decided it was a night for fireworks - which took us all by surprise. Not only did we wake up but a startled Bear meant he began preparing for world war three in his kennel. I'm hoping my hunny got more sleep than I did, I had to take up camp out with the dogs to get them to calm down. Then after he headed off to work Bear decided he wasn't going back to sleep either. Needless to say he isn't my favorite puppy today. That fireworks guy should get a nasty letter for pulling a stunt like that on a tuesday night.

I am proud to say that last evening we harvested our first salad out of our garden. It only required about one leaf per plant and there was more than enough for two of us. We are going to have so much to give away once it gets bigger and the spinach is in. I'd have to say it was probably the freshest lettuce either of us ever ate. Pretty exciting! Meanwhile, my hunny having to pick very sticky, slimy green mini-worms off the broccoli was less than pleasant. We are learning our lesson with this brocolli. We are both thinking perhaps next year we will simply skip it. For this year we are trying to save it - you can see the damage being done even in the photo. Little buggers. Hence the homemade insecticide spray we had laying around.

Also, I was super happy this morning because I got to spend some time with a friend that is back in town visiting. She lives away and we haven't seen each other in a year. We've missed each other, pretty obvious too. I'm hoping we'll get another chance to visit before she leaves. Her time is a bit booked up with being home for her sister's wedding.

Today I'm off work and even though it is warm it is also completely grey. Good thing it was sunny all day yesterday and I missed it! hehe. My body might have gone into shock.

After some lunch and hopefully a nap - I tackle the threading. Wish me luck!