Musable

Something that starts with an E.

Would you look at that.

My money would have been on the fattest one to start laying first, but Quiche beat her to it and gave us this perfect little egg this evening.

Because it was the first, of course we had to take a look at it.

Perfect yolk.

And thankfully, no aliens or other weirdness inside.

Unfortunately, the three of us here had all just finished eating a couple of bowls each of some hearty stew, and the thought of frying this up right now was a bit nauseating. We’re hoping to con….vince Aubrey to eat it when she gets here.

Today, I pulled all the carrots that had been residing in front of the original batch of snow peas (the vines of which have since gone into the compost pile, spent). Two varieties: parisian market, and little finger.

I also decided the other day that it would be instructive to keep a tally of what we’re pulling, weight-wise from the frames that actually have things in them, even though we still got a late start this year on getting things in.

All of these tipped the scales at just over three and a half pounds.

They clean up well for presentation, too.

Three and a half pounds of carrots is a lot of carrots. Unfortunately, yours truly is unable to taste them. The others who serve as my loyal taste testers said they were sweet, and more “carroty” than store bought. Good thing, because I have a batch of sugar snax carrots started and another round of both parisian and little finger in a flat.

Why scream when it isn’t necessary?

Homemade ice cream sandwiches, from top to bottom: the perfect summer treat.

Me, I just call it a bitch. Not the light wind that swirls around, keeping the air moving, drying the sweat off you while you’re working outside. That’s a welcome breeze, sometimes carrying the hint of rain in the distance.

No, I mean the 30 MPH sustained wind that gusts to 45-50 MPH, changing direction entirely at random, snapping the plants back and forth, blowing dirt and dust around, and pushing any hope of rain away from our area. When it lasts, literally, all day, for close to 12 hours, it causes stems to break off, some younger tomato plants to be almost uprooted entirely, and blows other things right off their trellis. Like this.

Since they’re about to end their production anyway, I decided to try to prop up the battered plants instead of just leaving them lie and harvest whatever I could over the next week before taking them all out. That day’s haul:

Some of this was used in a stirfry that very evening, and the rest went to the freezer. In the grocery store today, I saw that Publix had snow peas. From Guatemala, at 4.99/pound. Good thing we grew our own.

We also finished up the planting of the front corn plot (four rows x 25 feet of Japanese hulless popcorn) and the back plot:

Eleven rows x 35 feet of Silver Queen. In total, we have planted about 1400 kernels of corn. That should be something to see if it all comes up and survives. The soil is so iffy that I’m not holding my breath over it and not expecting a lot, but naturally I’ll still try to baby it through.

Mother’s Day dinner, for mom and for our newest mom in the family: shrimp two ways, salad, rice, asparagus, broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken breasts.

I’ve said before that I could eat thanksgiving dinner every meal and be happy. There’s just something rather comforting about a nice plate. This one, for instance.

In a way, it’s one of those true southern meals: meat and three.

On the upside, the multicolored gunk is dying off, and I’m feeling not as badly as I have. Still coughing, which I could do without, but as long as it continues to fade, that’s all that matters.

I think I figured out the issue I’m having with WP and posting. So, another recreated post here and hopefully that will be the end of that.

We had a household of people the morning after the baby shower, since the Atlanta folks couldn’t very drive home after a very very long day of eating and visiting and more eating and more visiting. They all sacked out, and in the morning, as people begam to stir, I started breakfast. After all, it’s only hospitable, and you can’t send people off on empty stomachs.

First up, start the hashbrowns: potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, and garlic. That’s all you need.

Threw some ham on the griddle to warm it.

For a lot of people, you need a lot of eggs.

Because I was already feeling not so well, and because everyone wasn’t quite fully up and about, no special orders. Scrambled in batches, with cheese.

The gravy that no one allowed on the table the day before…

…was paired up with biscuits. Not homemade. I didn’t have the time or energy for it.

Hi, girls!

Put some melon out, and breakfast is served.

Just watch out for the circling sharks.

Here we go.

I actually starting prepping and cooking things on Thursday for Saturday’s gathering. The turkey and the pork butts both went into the brine on Thursday. Both were drained and rinsed on Friday, then went onward to their next destination. For the turkey, into the oven, accompanied by some beef tips that would serve as dinner Friday evening for the hordes descending on the place.

The butts received a rubdown.

And then 14 pounds of pork went into the smoker.

With those things out of the way, I moved on. Mom had made some cakes for her Hawaiian dessert.

Those were topped with a combination of vanilla pudding, coconut flakes that I toasted for her, crushed pineapple, and frosting. People love it. I also made a couple batches of strawberry ice cream to go with the vanilla ice cream I’d made previously.

We also boiled some eggs…

…and some shrimp.

Potato salad, shrimp salad. Yummy. We were running low on barbeque sauce, so I decided to whip up another batch.

Between doing all this and working the “real” job, it was starting to get late. There was still quite a lot to do, though. Like pull the turkey out.

Nothing quite like the smell of roasted turkey. In the wee hours of Saturday morning - about 1 AM, I suppose - I had made four batches of dough for sandwich rolls.

At 2:30 AM, I pulled the butts from the smoker. Fourteen hours of smoketime.

I made a funny face at the butts and they started to fall apart right before my eyes.

Just kidding. I actually pulled them both by hand. They melted like butter, though.

I’d also shaped the rolls from the dough.

While those were undergoing their final proofing, I carved the turkey. White meat and wings/thighs…

…and dark meat.

The rolls went into the oven and the gravy train started while those were baking.

The batches of rolls were finished…

…and by this time, it was approaching 5 AM, so a nap was in order. Just after 6 AM, I got back up and started up again. T-7 hours to the arrivals.

First up, getting the crabcakes formed.

As usual, lots of crab, very little cake.

The day before, I’d sliced some cucumbers and onions on the mandoline.

These were combined with sour cream, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and dill to make a cuke salad of sorts. One of my sisters’ favorites. Aubrey had picked up the flowers and started arranging them.

I got the spinach-artichoke dip started.

This went into the fridge to wait until it was time to heat it through. We also roasted some beef to slice for sandwiches.

Another batch of crabmeat, to mix with a few things to stuff mushrooms.

A little onion, red and green peppers, Old Bay, pepper, butter, and the crabmeat went into mushrooms caps and was topped off with provolone.

We steamed some broccoli for the gratin.

Publix made the cake.

Mom also contributed a sweet potato souffle (great, by the way). We put it all together, got everything for the main meal on the table (the appetizers having been put out some time before, with people snacking away), and forced everyone to back off while we got a final picture.

Let the games begin.

Later that evening, since apparently I’d not had enough cooking for the past couple of days, and since someone had mentioned it, I decided to whip up some focaccia.

Two batches, actually: the second batch I formed into doughballs for pizza (or mini focaccias).

The cheese was added to the bread about halfway through the baking time.

In retrospect, I probably should have made two focaccias.

Because eight minutes and forty seconds after taking the above pictures and pulling the bread out, this was left.

Tasty stuff, I guess.

Eventually, almost everyone left except those enjoying the hospitality at the estate. Those who were left crashed where they could find space. Based on the lack of leftovers to pack up, I’m guessing that everyone enjoyed their meal. That’s always a good thing.

So, officially, I am very ill. Last night was awful - sore throat, trouble swallowing, draining sinuses, and mucus making me choke. Swell. Spent most of this morning in bed, with bathroom breaks for me and the dogs and to swig down some Nyquil and kiddie Tylenol (which, by the way, doesn’t taste like bubblegum at all to me). I could wrap myself in a bubble, but that would make it difficult to cook and move around the kitchen.

When I finally rolled up out of bed to go to work, what do I find? Mom, very kindly making up a batch of stuffing. Hoo-rah.  Maybe later tonight some turkey, stuffing, and gravy will be in order. She tells me that there’s also another bag of cranberries in the freezer. And we have potatoes for mashing. Sounds like thanksgiving dinner to me. Just the thing to cure what ails you.

Still in the process of rebuilding the gigantic, picture-filled post from Saturday’s festivities. There weren’t many leftovers, but I had saved the legs and wings from the turkey I roasted, thinking I’d figure out a use for them or eat them with some gravy (and stuffing, if I can talk my mom into making some from the giblets we boiled off). Since I woke up with a horrible headache and my throat is on fire - not to mention this horribly deep cough I seem to have today - I did find a use:

Just the thing to soothe a sore throat and  try to fight whatever buggies were brought along by the crowds. I suppose this is one of the problems with not getting out amongst people a lot (plus that whole radiation/chemo thing): the defenses aren’t what they used to be.

The final menu for Gabs’ baby shower on Saturday, even though she’s being irritable and hormone-y (is that a word?), is ready. There will be in the neighborhood of thirty people here for fun and games and food. Slightly more than originally expected, but who cares? I like to cook for crowds. Since it’s a lunchtime shower, it isn’t quite as involved as a regular evening meal would be, but there’s still quite a bit of work to get done.

Menu

Appetizers: Mushroom turnovers; spinach and feta and spinach and havarti turnovers; spinach and artichoke dip (homemade bread bowl); assorted crudites; cheese platter; deviled eggs

Mains: roasted turkey, pulled pork, and roast beef for sandwiches (on homemade rolls, of course - the dinner rolls I made can easily be adapted for this); shrimp salad; crab cakes

Sides: Potato salad; homemade potato chips with bleu cheese; broccoli gratin; sweet potato souffle; cucumber and onion salad

Desserts: cake; homemade ice cream (vanilla, strawberry); Hawaiian dessert cake; assorted cookies

I’ll start the cooking tomorrow and we’ll end up on Saturday morning with the things that we can’t really make in advance. Everyone will come, eat, have a good time, and then be gone before the evening - except for the clan coming from Atlanta, who will enjoy our hospitality and then leave on Sunday to go back after we have breakfast of some kind. That breakfast will not include homemade bacon, alas. I did not expect that we’d go through five pounds of bacon by eating it here or giving it away over the course of just a couple of weeks. Since we did, we have none here - but I did get two fresh pork bellies Wednesday, so  those will go into the cure and be ready by next week for smoking and storage. I’m hoping to get the sausage done tomorrow as well. It didn’t quite make the list of things done today because we wound up looking for a farm truck to haul everything from cow poop to lumber to hay.