Harelipfrog

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Women over 50

Yes I know, this is one of those corny things that have been floating around cyber-space for a while now. However since I am slowly but surely approaching this milestone myself (12 years does not seem as long a time as it once did) I enjoyed it a great deal.

Women Over 50 -- Andy Rooney - CBS 60 Minutes

As I grow in age, I value women who are over 50 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

A woman over 50 will not lie next to you in bed and ask, "What are you thinking?" She doesn't care what you think.

If a woman over 50 doesn't want to watch the game, she doesn't sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do. And, it's usually something more interesting.

A woman over 50 knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whom.

Few women past the age of 50 give a damn what you might think about her or what she's doing.

Women over 50 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won't hesitate to shoot you, if they think they can get away with it.

Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it's like to be unappreciated.

A woman over 50 has the self-assurance to introduce you to her women friends. A younger woman with a man will often ignore even her best friend because she doesn't trust the guy with other women. Women over 50 couldn't care less if you're attracted to her friends because she knows her friends won't betray her.

Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 50. They always know.

A woman over 50 looks good wearing bright red lipstick. This is not true of younger women or drag queens.

Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 50 is far sexier than her younger counterpart.

Older women are forthright and honest. They'll tell you right off if you are a jerk if you are acting like one! You don't ever have to wonder where you stand with her.

Yes, we praise women over 50 for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed hot woman of 50+, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 18-year-old waitress.

Ladies, I apologize.

For all those men who say, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free. Here's an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage. Why? Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire Pig, just to get a little sausage.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

food food food

Husband here with pictures for your enjoyment.

Finally got around to getting the images into the picture host we use.

So here in full technicolor is the fruits of one weekends labor..

To start with the peaches.

We did these preserves and while the recipe was good I thought the fruit broke up to much. They seem a couple of hard stirs short of jam. We only did one batch of them as this whole canning deal is new and we are just getting our feet wet.

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Next up is the peach jelly. While we had only one recipe ready we did two varieties sort of.

The basic peach jelly is this.

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And several smaller 1/4 pints to give at Christmas.

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As we were about done with the jellies I grabbed some cinnamon and poured in a good amount. For me peaches always bring to mind peach cobbler at my grandmothers with a heavy cinnamon topping on the crust.

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We also did several sizes of jam.

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So that was the end of the peaches for the weekend.

Now comes the pickles

We started with Harkema pickles.

We did a mix of long sliced and whole pickles in quart jars.

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And then a bunch of sliced pickles in pints jars.

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In the same book we found a basic "quick dill" recipe and tried our hand on it.

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And the quick dill kosher version. All that means is that we added garlic.

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My wife and I have for many reasons a desire to use hand powered tools. While I agree that some things are so much easier with electric we want to use our hands.

So with that in mind we recently purchased this food mill from amazon.

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For peaches it was dang near useless. The slimy little slices just rotated so we went electric. But on the berries of the week following it worked superbly. It even helped sift out some of the blackberry seeds.

So that is the weekend loot for us.

I will post some nice pictures of the berries and plums items we made when I get some photographs of them.

With all of the jams and jellies we have made in the last month I was sure we had enough to last the year. WRONG!!!! My wife and I popped some butter biscuits into the oven last night and by the time we were done eating them we had wiped out about half of a half pint of peach jam.

Since it was the first real usage of our home production I can say easily that WE NEED TO MAKE MORE!!!

Sunday, August 14, 2005

This weekend and something new

More Jelly

This weekend we are making yet more jelly - Mint, Tangerine, Lemon, more Lime, and Orange.

We have also gotten something to help my back.

I do most of the standing at the stove, and after the last few weekends have had real problems with my back and feet. I found this item at the local Sams Club (also saw it at Walmart) and got it to stand on while working at the stove. I put down two layers and have discovered that it makes the amount of standing involved much easier on my back.

I would recommend it for anyone considering any serious canning.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Death by Jelly

I swear my hubby is trying to kill me.

Or at least my back and feet think so and we have only done 2 of the recipes planned on for today. (And it looks like we might wind up doing at least one more).

We have so far done:

Lime Jelly

Triple Berry Jam (we substatuted blueberries for the raspberry)

We are still planning on doing:

Strawberry Jam

Plum Jam

and it looks like I got enough blackberries to do Blackberry Jam too.

My poor feet.

Friday, August 05, 2005

More Pickles - Finally

Well, it has not been every night or two, I am sorry. Every time I think I have time to sit down and start on this something comes up.

Anyway, today's recipe is for Sweet Onion Relish. This is also from the Ortho Pickling book. My MIL says this is very good and very mild. I think it would probably be really good for hamburgers and stuff at least.

Sweet Onion Relish
12 Large Sweet Onions (I used Videllia) about 4 lbs peeled
1 tablespoon salt
2 green apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 red bell peppers
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon or 3/4 teaspoon dried (I used dried)
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon ground mace

Put onions through the medium blade of the food chopper (I diced them by hand as we don't have a food chopper) mix the chopped onions with the salt. COVER (stinks) and let stand overnight.

Press out most of the onion juice through a strainer. (The onion juice is worth saving for soup, just be sure the jar is well sealed).

Core the apples and seed the peppers. Chop finely.

Combine all he ingredients in a heavy pot and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Turn into hot sterilized jars, seal, and process for 5 minutes. (make sure you have plenty of liquid in each jar the onions are going to really soak it up). Makes 3 pints

The recipe lies. We got 18 half pints (or 9 pints) out of it, but we did have some very large onions.