Wednesday, July 21, 2010

2 comments Posted by MandaMac at 11:26 PM

Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted. Lots of stuff going on the last few days...I was sick over the weekend, and it just took awhile for me to get back in the swing of things.
But, I did have the opportunity to do some online snooping today after getting caught up on work and housework, and I found out something interesting: nothing in the resident handbook says we can't plant vegetables. 
The last time we lived in base housing, we were told it was against the rules to plant vegetables. So I assumed it was the same this go round. However, I got curious today, and looked at the handbook...and nowhere does it say, "Thou shalt not have vegetables in your backyard." So guess who's gonna be planting up a storm next summer? This girl! Although, I think I will play it safe and use containers.
Now I feel like a kid in a candy shop...so many different types of veggies....where should I start? Lettuces and salad greens are a must have, and tomatoes. Bush beans will be nice, and I can use trellises for peas and squash. Definitely need to plant some bell peppers, too. But what else? I think carrots? There are a bunch of nice compact ones that are suitable for containers...which reminds me; I found this great site that sells seeds especially for container gardening. Try www.containerseeds.com...great little site. they even have a blue sweet corn designed for containers that only grows 3-4 feet high...gotta get some of THAT!!!!
This is going to be fun. I'm itching to see how productive I can make my little 15x25 backyard next year!


MandaMac

 

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Why I'll Never Reach For the Bottle

0 comments Posted by MandaMac at 4:08 PM

So, I've been gone for a couple days. Stupid internet. Sorry about that. BUT...the enforced time away from the interwebs did allow me to get a lot of stuff done that I'd been putting off for awhile, so it wasn't that bad. Missed my blog, though. I did think about something while the net was gone-the fact that I LOVE my gray hairs!

What is it with people that makes them so obsessed with hanging onto youth? I mean, I can't exactly say I'm old at 33, but I look at all the people around me who are so obsessed with staying young and looking young...creams and masks and hair goo and botox and surgery...why? I liked the way I looked in my 20s, but I'm not so obsessed with my looks then that I want to look like the idiot I was then for the rest of my life! 
On the contrary...this may sound strange to most of you, but I was THRILLED when I started to notice the gray in my hair, and I've gotten more pleased as the years go by, and more and more silver threads show. It's so attractive! I have been lucky to inherit my grandfather's silver hair; my husband says I look like I have strands of tinsel in my hair....he thinks it's sexy.
I had a friend tell me the other day that she thought it was time for me to pick up a bottle of hair color. I was a little shocked, to say the least. When I asked her why, she commented that all my gray hair made me look "like an old lady, and who wants to look old?" (Ok, to explain, I guess I have a bit more gray hair then the average 33 year old...it's not as noticeable when my hair is down, but I have two decent size streaks of gray at the tops of my temples, and threads and locks of gray throughout the rest of my hair). So who wants to look old? Well, I do.
My grays are marks of the passage of my life. They make me feel dignified, and I look at myself in the mirror and think that maybe, just maybe, God has granted me a little bit of wisdom and maturity along with them. Why would I want to hide those? They're special. It just boggles me that women(and some men) feel the need to try and hide who they are and the records of their life experiences...can't we be proud of those? Who in the world wants to be mistaken for a perpetual 21 year old? Not me. I'm happy to be a mature 33 year old with gray in her hair.
and when the wrinkles start showing, I'll be proud of those, too.

MandaMac

 

Monday, July 12, 2010

Carbon-Neutral Blogging...Mine Is, Is Yours?

0 comments Posted by MandaMac at 1:11 AM

I recently ran across a very intersting blog post about the carbon footprints of blogs...yep, your blog has a carbon footprint. Who'd have thunk it? "Making Your Blog Carbon Neutral For Free" on Green-Eyed View has some pretty interesting facts and figures on how much carbon dioxide is emitted by the average blog every visit. I know my little corner of the blogosphere isn't anywhere near average, but I was nevertheless shocked at the thought of my blogging causing carbon emissions, although when I stop and think about it, I do get it.
The answer? Plant a tree. One tree will neutralize the carbon footprint of your blog 100%. sounds pretty cool, but I bet you're thinking about the cost of a tree, care and maintenance, etc., right? Or if you live in an apartment, you're thinking about the fact that you can't plant a tree at all. But there IS good news: if you go to the post listed above, there are steps you can follow to have a tree planted FOR YOU....just by passing this bit of news onward in your blog. Pretty cool deal, if you ask me. 
I would urge all of you bloggers to consider this option...anything we can do to green the planet will benefit us all!
MandaMac

 

Saturday, July 10, 2010

One in the Eye for all my Early Risers from a Night Owl up too late

0 comments Posted by MandaMac at 2:16 AM

Ok, I ran across this post and I had to share it...because I feel vindicated:
"Night Owls vs. Early Birds: Who Will Win? Morning or Night People?" from Looking For My Life. 
See? See? There is scientific data backing me up! Hah! No more cracks about making marmalade at midnight, please. My DNA has given a statement and says it will take full responsibility for my vampiric sleeping habits; thank you DNA.
I can't help it if I sleep until 11am most days and stay up until 3am...it's just the way I am. The thought of getting up at 7am nauseates me. I have breakfast at noon. It's great...try it sometime.
so for all the Early Birds out there in my world who have ragged me about my sleep habits, and you KNOW who you are...you can rest easy in the fact that my nocturnal nature is one less thing you have in life to worry about.


MandaMac

 

Friday, July 9, 2010

Jamming---again.

2 comments Posted by MandaMac at 10:13 PM


Well, yesterday certainly was a productive day in terms of canning- I made cherry preserves, more plum jam, and lemon marmalade. everything was an unqualified success, except for one thing: the preserves. Of course, the cherries floated to the top, but a weird thing happened.Everything BELOW the cherries jelled, but the layer with the cherries in it didn't. Does anyone know why this might be?
I can't for the life of me figure out why that happened, especially since I thought I'd read somewhere that cherries are naturally high in pectin. I'm sure they'll taste really good, and all the jars sealed; but I'm going to store them in the refrigerator just to be sure. So half failure, half success. I need to figure out where I went wrong and make another batch. 
Another question for you canners out there: has anyone used the Tattler reusable canning lids? I was wondering how well they worked...I'm not inclined to pay money for them if they're not effective. If you're not familiar with them, you can check them out at the link above.


Here are the results of yesterday's venture:
They're so pretty in the window! And having taste tested with my hubby, I can vouch for the fact that they are all delicious and husband-approved for consumption.
so without further ado, here are the pics for my "marmalade" experiment:


 Juicing the lemons, something I normally HATE doing. Just didn't feel that lemon juice from concentrate was what I wanted for this experiment though. I added zest from a couple lemons to the mix, too. Side note: that juicer in the picture there is the most durable thing. My MOM got that as a wedding present...35 years ago. And it's still running like a charm. Let me tell you, for doing a reasonable amount of this type of citrus juicing, this thing can't be beat.  It took me less than 3 minutes to juice all two dozen of my lemons.
Simmering the lemon juice and peels. I have to say, by far the most tedious part of marmalade is slicing up all those little pieces of  lemon rind. You have to peel out the leftover pulp and the inner membrane and as much of the bitter white part as possible and cut it into thin strips. My hands were really hurting by the time I was done! But anyway, here it is on the stove, simmering away after all the prep was done. I simmered it for about 30 minutes to let the rinds soften up some and release as much essential oil into the juice as possible. That way you get maximum flavor, and nice, tender rinds that won't feel like little bits of leather in the jelly. I had some homemade marmalade once where they didn't simmer it, and it was nasty!
Stirring in the pectin. I used 1 packet of regular Sure-jell, and after I heated the juice up to a boil, I added the pectin and stirred thoroughly until I was sure it was dissolved. You have to work quickly at this stage, because once you have added the pectin, you're on a time clock. Pectin can't cook too long, or it will loose it's effectiveness and won't jell properly. I was really doing a balancing act trying to get pictures and stir at the same time...without dropping the camera into the juice. I'm not sure Dale would have appreciated that!
I thought I would include this picture, too, because I like it. I was still stirring the pectin, and somehow I came out with this great swirly shot of the juice and rinds. Ok, so I thought it looked cool...I guess it's the photographer in me that gets caught by this sort of silliness.  Amazing I got something neat like that from a cheap point-and-shoot. A Lemon Whirlpool! Anywho, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, instructions for making marmalade.
So after stirring in the pectin, I added the sugar. About 7 cups, allowing for the tartness of the lemons. Normally for this quantity of liquid(about 6 cups) I would use around 5 cups of sugar, but I figured since I was using lemons I would need to counter the sourness of the lemons with some extra. Here you can see the syrup is almost at a full boil. Boil it at a full rolling boil for ONE minute, then immediately remove the pan from the heat to stop cooking (remember about not overcooking the pectin?). What you DON'T see here is me dealing with the results of a boil over, LOL.

And here is the marmalade after being ladled into hot jars...yeah, I use a ladle. Funnels are for sissies. Make sure to wipe off the rims with a clean paper towel though before you put the lids on so you get a good seal. Then it was off to the water bath for ten minutes(I wish I could have a long hot bath...jelly is so lucky). All went well,  and they all sealed immediately after being pulled out of the water. All done. Now I just have to figure out what went wrong with those darn cherries...you know, it's really been driving me nuts the whole time I've been writing this.  I'm going to have to get more and figure it out. And a cherry pitter, but that's a whole n'other story...
so now what? All I have left is canning the rhubarb sauce. Then I'm going to be depleted of projects! At least until next payday. Maybe I need to paint some furniture or something...

MandaMac


 

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