2012 June 08 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Dinner Tonight

June 8, 2012 · by JudyL

Dinner tonight was leftover black beans eggplant casserole and chili rellenos.

The other day when I said that if we eat at 5:30 (which we didn’t), that I’d have to start cooking by 3. She wondered why it takes me 2-1/2 hours to cook dinner. Heck, I never thought about it but I’ve been paying attention. Just the peppers for dinner tonight involved the following:

Roasting the peppers
Letting the peppers sit and steam
Skinning the peppers
Removing the seeds
Making the stuffing for the peppers
Stuffing the peppers
Breading the peppers
Coating the peppers with egg mixture
Frying the peppers

Yes . . dinner often takes me 2-1/2 hours! And it was so worth it!! Smile

· Filed Under: Cooking · 8 Comments

Fall Garden

June 8, 2012 · by JudyL

Yes, I’m thinking about my fall garden. Pulling out the potatoes this week got me all fired up to plan my fall garden and get the seeds ordered.

Tomatoes can be planted in July. Potatoes, lima beans and green beans can be planted in August. September is a big planting month – English peas, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, mustard greens, spinach, turnips (have to stay out of the way of that turnip truck!).

There are many resources available on the internet that will give guidance on when to plant, as well as varieties that work well in your area. Here’s a planting guide I like for this area.

For northern gardeners, the list of items we can plant in the fall will be a surprise. Remember, we have little cold weather here. The climate/gardening seasons here are more like what I grew up with in Louisiana.

This is a list of the seeds I just ordered. I already have some seeds here (lettuce, carrots, some peas) so I ordered the things I don’t have but want to grow. I am going to plant fall potatoes but I saw potato seeds somewhere in town so I’ll get those here. There are probably other things that need to be ordered.

Now . . I must get myself out to the garden and pick beans! I’m so loving my garden. Last night we had fresh green beans with new potatoes and fried eggplant . . all from the garden. Since I took that long nap, I was sure glad we had leftover tuna steak that I could heat up for dinner. Tonight we’re having chili rellenos that I’m making from peppers I grew, and eggplant casserole from eggplants I picked yesterday. Life is good!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 8 Comments

Tattler Lids Ordered

June 8, 2012 · by JudyL

What I won’t do to save $35. The Tattler lid “deal” is that if you order the 200 bulk pack after 12:01 a.m. Mountain Time, today, you got 25% off. The price is regular $139.95 and with the discount, they’re about $109. The deal was only available to the first 300 customers and folks who can a lot love these lids so I figured this offer wouldn’t last long.

I’m such a smart girl . . I was telling Vince about it and he said “What are you going to do? Set the alarm and get up to order?” I said “No! I’ll still be up.” He gave me that look and I thought maybe I’d better re-calculate that Mountain Time vs. Central Time zone thing. For some reason, I was thinking I could place my order at 11:01 p.m. but in reality .. it was 1:01 a.m.

That worked out quite nicely because Wednesday night, the weather woke me up about 3 a.m. and every time I dozed off, it woke me up again. About 2:30 yesterday afternoon, I decided to take a nap. I figured a half hour nap would give me a little boost. I don’t nap on the sofa like Vince does . . I need to go to bed with my pillow and my quilt!

Next thing I knew, I looked at the clock and it said 5:30. I thought: It sure is daylight early . . thinking I was waking up from a good night’s sleep and then I realized . . OMG! It’s 5:30 in the evening and I’ve slept 3 hours. So, staying up til 1 a.m. was not a big deal.

The sale was only on their 200 bulk pack which is 100 regular mouth lids and 100 wide mouth lids. I use way more wide mouth lids than regular mouth lids so I almost talked myself out of placing the order but then I remembered how much pizza sauce, jam, jelly, and salsa we use and I use regular mouth jars for all that. And, I have quite a stash of wide mouth lids and hardly any regular mouth lids in my stash so I went ahead and ordered 2 of the bulk packages so that will give me 200 of each – regular and wide mouth lids.

I will still keep a few of the disposable lids for giving away. No way I’m giving away canned goods with Tattler lids on them!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 5 Comments

On the Needles – June 8, 2012

June 8, 2012 · by JudyL

Being accountable really motivates me. Last night, it was after midnight before I finished this sock but I was so determined I was going to finish it for this post . . and I did.

The yarn is Madelinetosh Sock, the color is Iris and the pattern is Zora. These were supposed to be the socks for the mechanic’s wife. The quilt hasn’t been set yet because I wanted to send it with the socks. I’ve decided to finish these socks and send them to the mechanic’s wife.

The yarn is String Theory Caper Sock. The color is Sandy River. The pattern is Simple Skyp Socks. I love this yarn and I love this color. While I certainly don’t need more yarn, if I send these to her, I may order more of the yarn or . . I may not!

Also, on the needles – the first Camp Loopy Project. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy. The color is Flamingo Pie. The pattern is Pine Forest Baby Blanket. Not much has been done on this project other than cast on and make a couple of rows but I will get it finished by the deadline – June 27.

One of the things I really want to do is get started on the shawl using the Wollmeise yarn that was sent to me by a blog reader but I will not let myself start it until I get the socks finished for the mechanic’s wife.

Goals for this Week:

Finish Simple Skyp Socks
Cast on and get the ribbing done for the second Zora sock
Finish at least two skeins of yarn for the baby blanket (there are three skeins)

What’s on your needles? Please do a blog post or post a picture on a photo sharing site. Copy the link and share it here. Please also give us details – pattern you’re using, the yarn you’re using and if you care to set a goal for what you’d like to get done in the upcoming week, that would be fantastic!