An observation: our power actually did go out for several hours in the
wee time of the morning, and it got me thinking of the stuff I still
have left to do. I wasn't upset, because I feel pretty basically
prepared for quite a bit of nonsense.
However, I think there
is a pretty big contingency that actually rather wants a cleansing
apocalyptic experience to happen. Hang tight, I'll explain (if you
haven't figured our where I'm coming from already):
The GOONS are ruled by corporate bastards and the large scale
monopolistic companies who bought them, it is completely corrupt and
untrustworthy. The GOONS would like to "take care" of us, but are
entirely incapable of doing so, as taking care of us would make the
American public dependent on the GOONS, thereby creating a slave nation.
Got it so far? Not just a rant, it has a point.
Our
society walks on eggshells, and if an individual or corporation
doesn't, or won't, it is ostracized, boycotted and shunned for not
catering to the weak or stupid. If a person builds something through hard work, determination, smarts, and frequently dumb luck, that person is told they "didn't do it on their own", that no one ever built anything, it was society that built it, or at least the infrastructure that grossly assisted the building of said endeavor.
I call bullshit on the field. People have been building large and wonderful things since there has been commerce, and I will dare to say, that commerce did a lot of heavy lifting to get those roads and infrastructure built. To take away individual ambition is a furtherance of creating a slave nation.
This is why I think the populace wants a sweeping end of days. The folks that want it figure that the cleansing won't get them, and will rid us of all the other flotsam in the system. I think people are full up on corruption of governing bodies, are full up on being told to embrace all things different from themselves, while feeling guilt about the very precious and wonderful things they are in their hearts and culture. I think folks want to go back to building a healthy society that has been sickened by catering to the weak.
There isn't an easy fix to the GOONS as they stand today, there isn't an easy fix to Big Ag, Big Pharma, and privacy hacking social media, there just isn't. Perhaps that 's why, on some level, just want an apocalypse.
On a saner note, it won't be this winter, zombies are very slow and easily stopped in the dead of winter. Wait until spring, (she says with a wink)
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The Next 30 Years
I was driving about today on a mission for wine fodder, when on the radio came a wonderful country song about “the next 30 years”, and how they were going to be his best 30 years, and all the things the artist was going to do to make his future something he could look back on with pride and happiness. Such songs, however catchy, make me reflective on my own life and what I could do better, or if I have regrets about my life, anything I would want to get done, or was not proud of, or wanted to do before I pass on. I would say, for the most part that I have lived a life worth living.
I would encourage others to embrace their own sense of eudaimonia, or a life well lived. I would encourage you do to so starting now. No, not tomorrow, NOW.
Folks forget how to be true to themselves, true to their very souls, and that doesn’t really mean being mean or greedy, but knowing oneself, and doing what needs to be done. It means not waiting until the holiday season grabs you by the throat and makes you be ‘good for goodness sake’, but to be the person you want to deal with, and be the person others would want to have dealings with. This doesn’t mean being a doormat, but for the most part, doing the honorable thing whenever possible.
It has been said that our family has its own sense of honor, and I will agree with that. Honor is not always about following laws and rules, but doing what is right for yourself, family and neighbors. It’s well known that I have no time for the GOONS, and their cohorts, but the GOONS have no honor.
The next 30 years? My best time is now, and I can’t change the past, and the future hasn’t happened yet. Make today, make now, your best time ever, and while you’re at it, help someone else realize their own best time ever.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Tomato Sauce, the Lazy Way
It's late in the summer season, and early in the haunt season, so it is guaranteed to be a healthy dose of chaos in any home among my aquaintance. I like to get everything I possibly can get done, done at once, so come November I might be able to explore my sleeping options. One of the ways I've found to do more than one thing at once is to get several plates spinning on their sticks, and keep them there with a minimum of effort. Here is one method to do one thing while getting a slew of other stuff done.
Brace yourself, we're talking tomato sauce. Tomato sauce is probably the single most versitile canned item I know of to have on hand; it's the basis for chili, spaghetti sauce, a great component to soups, hot dish (or as we call it, red food), tomato soup... the list is pretty huge. I've never had a fondness for canned whole tomatoes, maybe it's a textural thing, maybe I've seen too many creepy canning collections that have dusty, unused canned tomatoes in them, dunno, they just don't seem to be what I care to put into jars. If you're having a not so great tomato year, head over to the farmer's market, and get a crate or two from that one ancient woman with the great produce.
In any case, get your haul into the kitchen and wash your maters. Here is the arsenal you'll need for making tomato sauce:
rectangular sheet cake pans, at least 2" deep, larger the better
slotted spoon
sharp knife
big stock pots
Kitchen Aid mixer with the grinider/juicer attachments
extra bowl
bowl to catch seeds and skins
canner, jars, rings, lids, lifter, timer, towels
Are your tomatoes washed yet? good. Preheat your oven to about 250 degrees. Now, take out your sheetcake pans, start halving or quartering your tomatoes. Make the pieces big enough to go through the feeder tube on your Kitchen Aid. Cut out any bad spots as needed. I remove the stems, but don't bother removing the stem ends. Closely stack your tomatoes into your cake pans, very close, but not squishing them. You do not want to squish your maters right now! Go ahead a heap them up a wee bit, maybe by one layer. Stick that first pan in the oven. Start on the next.
I've tried to be ambitious about getting as many maters going at once as I possibly can, but realized I have capacity to deal with about only about 2 gallons at a throw. 2 gallons is about 3 cake pans full for me.
When all your maters are in the oven, go do something else for, oh, four hours? You want to not completely dessicate them, but you do want to roast them to 1) carmelize the available sugars in the tomatoes 2) soften them considerably 3) get water out of the tomatoes.
Now, didn't it feel good to be able to do just about anything else you needed to get done finished up all while others think you were actively canning?
Alright, now that you have pans of mushy maters that have given up much of their water, set up your Kitchen Aid with bowls and everything, and pull the first pan out of the oven. Drain the water out. Now, you can keep this water and use it as liquid for vegetable stock, or you can toss it, which ever you please. Start feeding the tomatoes through the juicer. I use a slotted spoon, and I'm very careful to not tear or mush the tomatoes, so they come out of the pan as intact as possible. When my receiving bowl is full, I empty it into one of my big stockpots and keep heating the sauce while I continue on. I will send my seeds and skins through another time, just to get as many solids as I can out of them, too.
Empty your pans through the juicer. You will have a much thicker product than you are probably used to dealing with. I don't care for watery tomato sauce, so this is a good thing. When you've run everything through, your sauce is simmering away merrily on the stove, and you've cleaned up all your tomato mess, set your clean jars out, fill, lid and process in a hot water bath, 35 minutes for pints or 40 minutes for quarts. If you have questions on acidity, you can either add a TBS of lemon juice to each jar, or you can pressure can your sauce as you would for green beans or okra.
Keeping things hot during the duration is really important, drops in temperature just add a random element to your canning that you don't want or need. As it's in the oven, too, if you plan well, you might even run a couple errands while doing this job... gasp!
Good luck. As I find more to be able to do 8 things at once, I'll let you know!
Brace yourself, we're talking tomato sauce. Tomato sauce is probably the single most versitile canned item I know of to have on hand; it's the basis for chili, spaghetti sauce, a great component to soups, hot dish (or as we call it, red food), tomato soup... the list is pretty huge. I've never had a fondness for canned whole tomatoes, maybe it's a textural thing, maybe I've seen too many creepy canning collections that have dusty, unused canned tomatoes in them, dunno, they just don't seem to be what I care to put into jars. If you're having a not so great tomato year, head over to the farmer's market, and get a crate or two from that one ancient woman with the great produce.
In any case, get your haul into the kitchen and wash your maters. Here is the arsenal you'll need for making tomato sauce:
rectangular sheet cake pans, at least 2" deep, larger the better
slotted spoon
sharp knife
big stock pots
Kitchen Aid mixer with the grinider/juicer attachments
extra bowl
bowl to catch seeds and skins
canner, jars, rings, lids, lifter, timer, towels
Are your tomatoes washed yet? good. Preheat your oven to about 250 degrees. Now, take out your sheetcake pans, start halving or quartering your tomatoes. Make the pieces big enough to go through the feeder tube on your Kitchen Aid. Cut out any bad spots as needed. I remove the stems, but don't bother removing the stem ends. Closely stack your tomatoes into your cake pans, very close, but not squishing them. You do not want to squish your maters right now! Go ahead a heap them up a wee bit, maybe by one layer. Stick that first pan in the oven. Start on the next.
I've tried to be ambitious about getting as many maters going at once as I possibly can, but realized I have capacity to deal with about only about 2 gallons at a throw. 2 gallons is about 3 cake pans full for me.
When all your maters are in the oven, go do something else for, oh, four hours? You want to not completely dessicate them, but you do want to roast them to 1) carmelize the available sugars in the tomatoes 2) soften them considerably 3) get water out of the tomatoes.
Now, didn't it feel good to be able to do just about anything else you needed to get done finished up all while others think you were actively canning?
Alright, now that you have pans of mushy maters that have given up much of their water, set up your Kitchen Aid with bowls and everything, and pull the first pan out of the oven. Drain the water out. Now, you can keep this water and use it as liquid for vegetable stock, or you can toss it, which ever you please. Start feeding the tomatoes through the juicer. I use a slotted spoon, and I'm very careful to not tear or mush the tomatoes, so they come out of the pan as intact as possible. When my receiving bowl is full, I empty it into one of my big stockpots and keep heating the sauce while I continue on. I will send my seeds and skins through another time, just to get as many solids as I can out of them, too.
Empty your pans through the juicer. You will have a much thicker product than you are probably used to dealing with. I don't care for watery tomato sauce, so this is a good thing. When you've run everything through, your sauce is simmering away merrily on the stove, and you've cleaned up all your tomato mess, set your clean jars out, fill, lid and process in a hot water bath, 35 minutes for pints or 40 minutes for quarts. If you have questions on acidity, you can either add a TBS of lemon juice to each jar, or you can pressure can your sauce as you would for green beans or okra.
Keeping things hot during the duration is really important, drops in temperature just add a random element to your canning that you don't want or need. As it's in the oven, too, if you plan well, you might even run a couple errands while doing this job... gasp!
Good luck. As I find more to be able to do 8 things at once, I'll let you know!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Picking Your Inner Monster
This will be a quick post, and mostly questions that you should answer for yourself, and know the answers. Going through this will help you be the best monster you can be.
1. What kind of monster are you?
2. If you are a dead monster, were you a good person in life? a bad person? an adventuresome person?
3. How many bad days have you had since becoming a monster?
4. Do you, as a monster, enjoy bathing?
5. Would you rather not touch soap and water, preferring to be as far away from godliness as possible?
6. Are you a girl monster? are you a boy monster? are you telling no one these days?
7. How well do you heal from wounds?
8. What happens when things hit you, like sunlight? water? fire? bears?
9. At what point in history did you become a monster?
10. At what point in your life did you become a monster?
11. Do you like being a monster? Would you rather be human?
12. Are you a happy monster?
13. What makes you happy to be a monster?
14. What, as a monster, really grates your cheese?
15. Do you hang out with other monsters like you?
16. If you are a dead monster, how did you die? If you are still alive, how did you turn into a monster?
17. How do you get around? Can you walk? Do you have a limp? Do you crawl? Or do you just run there?
18. Do you like combs, brushes and conditioner? Do you know what they are?
19. Are you mixed with any other kind of animal, making you a hybrid monster?
20. What is your natural habitat? What are you willing do to to protect it?
I'll answer these to give you an example. I've found that knowing these things has helped me figure my costume, make-up, hair, character reactions and acting when I'm out in the field. If you know your inner monster well enough, your performance will be, even though very brief, something that will give people a long lasting impression, and hopefully fuck them up until you see them next year.
Ciao!
1. What kind of monster are you?
2. If you are a dead monster, were you a good person in life? a bad person? an adventuresome person?
3. How many bad days have you had since becoming a monster?
4. Do you, as a monster, enjoy bathing?
5. Would you rather not touch soap and water, preferring to be as far away from godliness as possible?
6. Are you a girl monster? are you a boy monster? are you telling no one these days?
7. How well do you heal from wounds?
8. What happens when things hit you, like sunlight? water? fire? bears?
9. At what point in history did you become a monster?
10. At what point in your life did you become a monster?
11. Do you like being a monster? Would you rather be human?
12. Are you a happy monster?
13. What makes you happy to be a monster?
14. What, as a monster, really grates your cheese?
15. Do you hang out with other monsters like you?
16. If you are a dead monster, how did you die? If you are still alive, how did you turn into a monster?
17. How do you get around? Can you walk? Do you have a limp? Do you crawl? Or do you just run there?
18. Do you like combs, brushes and conditioner? Do you know what they are?
19. Are you mixed with any other kind of animal, making you a hybrid monster?
20. What is your natural habitat? What are you willing do to to protect it?
I'll answer these to give you an example. I've found that knowing these things has helped me figure my costume, make-up, hair, character reactions and acting when I'm out in the field. If you know your inner monster well enough, your performance will be, even though very brief, something that will give people a long lasting impression, and hopefully fuck them up until you see them next year.
Ciao!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Counting and Using All My Random Blessings
We have been blessed with some really prolific and random squash in our gardens. Prolific. Now, these squash are what I think are parents of some hybrid squash I threw out there a couple years ago, and have been reseeding themselves each year since. The do not really cook or grill up well at all, and if they get too old, they make some kind of rind, the taste is adversely affected, and the texture becomes stringy.
So, what do I do with these questionable gifts of nature? I make them into squash pickles that are an incredible and completely unexpected hit. This recipe is very easily scalable and would work well with your spare zucchini, patty pan and crookneck. All weights on vegetation are pre-processed amounts, so, if you have 10# of squash, it is before you gut it all of seeds, your onions are all before you peel them.
The spices have the great capability to get into any cracks or cuts in your skin, and will burn like the dickens, so gloves are strongly recommended.
Squash Pickles:
10-11# Summer squash
2 large onions
1/2c non-iodized salt
Seed squash and cut into 1/2" matchsticks, about 4" long, and thin slice the onions in 1/2 rings. Mix and toss with salt. Put in non-reactive container and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
The next day, bring to a boil:
1 gallon cider vinegar
1 cup white wine
5TBS mild honey
2 TBS non-iodized salt
While that heats up, wash your jars, heat your lids and wash your rings. Mix in bowl:
5 tsp cumin seeds
2 1/2 TBS mustard seeds
2 1/2 TBS red pepper
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried scotch bonnet pepper
1 TBS garam masala
Rinse and drain your squash and onion until the water comes out very faintly tasting of salt. Drain as much as possible and toss with spice mixture, coating all the squash.
Lay out your jars, into each, put:
1 hot pepper (Thai dragon, scotch bonnet, jalapeno, it's really your choice)
1 clove garlic
Pack jars with squash mixture, add another couple garlic cloves or a pepper or two, depending on your taste. Fill with boiling vinegar mix, leaving 1/2" headspace, wipe rims and seal. Process 15 minutes in hot water bath.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Cleaning Up After a Minor Disaster
I've opted to not share this experience on social networking sites in detail, as I'm not sure I want the head tilt and the superficial "aw!" kind of reaction. This is just the news on what happened recently and how we're dealing with it. Allow me to preface this with acknowledging that many others have had far worse experiences than we did, and I very much appreciate that, but this just did happen to us, and it sucked.
We were camping, performing and being cowboys recently at a semi-regional affair, and were blessed with much rain, first on Friday, when S.D. could not be there, but with our friends, LvG and CvG, we managed to keep things together. S.D. finally was able to join us on Friday night, and we had a fantastic dinner over the campfire of roasted tomatoes, curry chicken and spiced rice. Dinner and socializing after was a very pleasant affair, including much wine and a campfire with many of the other cowboys in attendance. We stayed up until about 1am, and toddled to bed, S.D. doing some camp tidying before he retired.
Where we were staying, it had rained all day Wednesday, then was dry-ish much of Thursday, but the ground never really dried out. Friday, there was rain, but we kept the tent and awning up, even though others lost much canvas in the wind and rain. The ground that was already saturated was even more so. We had a significant puddle in front of the tent, but as the afternoon ground on, it soaked into the soil.
As we were sitting about the campfire (already tired from the earlier storms, setting up camp the day before, and the necessity of being pleasant to many torons), we watched storms in the distance, but we were fairly certain it would not come to us, or should I say we were hopeful (but not optimistic).
We realized, about an hour after retiring, that we were, indeed, in the path of the storm, but it did not sound severe, and the wind was not terrible, so, listening to the pleasant sound of raindrops, we slept on.
Around 6am, I woke, and looked about. There was approximately 4" of water in the tent. Our tent was completely flooded! Our rugs were literally floating, and a stream was flowing through our tent! The first instinct was to get everything we could to high ground, on top of trunks was as good as we could do with that. With all the water, I realized my bladder was full, and went outside to use the loo. The loo was occupied, with a line (at 6am??), so, I had a chance to really wake up and notice what was going on. I was standing ankle deep in water, and more was coming down from the sky. At this point, S.D. came out of the tent and we both saw the larger picture.
We waded back into the tent, and the enormity of everything hit like a wall. A wet, multi-thousand dollar wall that couldn't be easily replaced. S.D. and I had our 5 minuted or so where I went into complete meltdown mode, to be honest, I have no idea what he was thinking or doing at the time. I managed to get somewhat dressed, brush teeth, and get my head together. S.D. pulled the truck up, and together (he was still in his pajamas) started to pack things up and get stuff into the trailer.
This is the point where I can honestly say we are so incredibly blessed to be associates of an organization that will truly pull together for members in time of need, and this is where I start the incredible thanking process for all the fantastic help they provided.
When our associates saw what was going on, without being asked, without prompting, they just started to help. Everything wet went into plastic garbage bags, everything still dry went into plastic garbage bags to stay dry. Camp was broken in record time, and S.D. even got to get his teeth brushed and someone found real pants for him!
I have never seen chaos in my camp gear like we now have, ever. Ever. Somehow, without a true plan, and the trunks (all wet) all empty, it all got loaded into the truck and trailer. At one point, when I was organizing the rugs in the back of the truck, I turned around, and S.D. had someone on each pole of the tent, carrying it to high ground! I hope to never see that wonder again. Not for the rest of my days.
We got on our way with no drama, and got home. Twice we skidded on the rain, about giving heart-attacks to both of us, but we got home. Once home, we got the truck unloaded, and the first of the laundry pile was in the machine, and the exposed stuff was taken care of. We had breakfast out, as neither one of us had the will or desire to cook (it was now 10am, like I said, record time, we were about 45 minutes from home, and also had unloaded part of the truck!!!), and we had whatever the hell we wanted for that breakfast.
When we got home, Miss C, an associate from our organization was there to meet us, to help with the continued unpacking, cleaning and drying process of salvaging camp. When there was nothing left to do but wait for the sun to work its magic, S.D. took the opportunity to clean the guns while Miss C took me out for some retail therapy.
The clean-up so far has been over 6 loads of laundry, there has been, and will be more, regluing of furniture pieces, drying rugs, and sanitizing them with Lysol. We are also having to oil all the leather, cleaned and dried all the guns, hand washed all the wool bedding, dried out the tent and awning, and will be restoring the furniture and polyurathaning all the feet up to 6" up the legs.
This week, LvG and CvG will be bringing our kitchen back, with all our dishes, prep tables, food baskets, and coolers. I am certain that will need the same treatment as above.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
I Hate Being Told
If you haven't figured this out yet, I have a strong dislike of being told I "can't" do something, simply because someone (GOONS) might just never have done the research on it before. To say that you can't, without even trying, or pondering how to do a task, is just plain lazy and rather ridiculous.
I would even venture to suggest those that insist on "can't" lack a bit of the spirit of adventure.
My family believes in embracing adventure and living outside of the box marked NORMAL. (I haven't found a good set of words that NORMAL would stand for, yet, but I do feel that I ought to, don't you?) I would say that embracing adventure from babyhood to adulthood has put the power of fear into perspective and has made risks less emotionally risky, and sometimes, less mentally and physically risky. S.D. is a kindred adventuring soul, and together we've found all kinds of ways to make our lives the kind of lives we want to look back on with happiness and satisfaction when we are very old. We are working towards eudaemonia.
And what is a life well lived without hot fudge topping? When the zombies come, and we're living off what we've put by, a little joy into just surviving is just plain important. So, in the interests of the joy that only hot fudge topping can bring, I started to look into how to put-up hot fudge.
This is when I was told I "can't". I hate that. really really. If I am able to can bacon jam, onion jam, ghee, beef, pork, fowl, and other such things, fudge really ought not be such a stretch, should it? I didn't think so.
So I read, I watched videos, I bought cookbooks, I really tried to educate myself, and the biggest sticking point that I puzzled over was not about safety, as there are very safe ways of canning dairy, sugars and fats. I was concerned about how to make a quality product that was heat tolerant and would withstand pressure canning temperatures. This led to the collection of several hot fudge recipes, which I printed out and reviewed the positive aspects and negative aspects of each. I wanted to use cocoa powder as an ingredient, and I wanted to use regular sugar as an ingredient, but the recipes using those things would crystalize unless handled with kid gloves, while I was reluctant to use chocolate chips, they seemed like the best option for flavoring. My sugars are all in liquid form, and while I used some prepared items and combined them, I am certain I could break this recipe down to even more basic ingredients.
As a thought to ponder, though, would I really be doing pressure canning at the apex of the ZA? No, not really, which is why keeping the recipe as-is will likely be the adopted course of action. So, with much less ado, here it is, my current Holy Grail of Canning: Canned Hot Fudge Sauce
Gather together your weapons and tools:
heavy bottomed pot (I used a large one that would accommodate more than a gallon of liquid)
wooden spoon(s)
heat-resistant rubber spatula
wire whisk
measuring cups and spoons
jars, lids and bands
pressure canner and accompanying tools
Now, gather your ingredients:
#1 semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate (I may experiment with milk chocolate in the future, but this time through...)
1/2c salted butter
1c Lyle's golden syrup
1/2c corn syrup
1 tsp instant coffee
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 TBS vanilla
(I had gathered up all the ingredients for all the recipes I'd found, and played Jr. Chemist while doing this experiment, above items were what made it into the mix)
Melt the chocolate and butter over as low of heat as you can get in a heavy bottomed pot. You do not want to increase your heat for risking burning your product and having to start all over again. At some juncture in here, wash your jars, heat your lids and start water boiling in your canner. Add your syrups and coffee, mix well. Bring back up to temperature. Mix in evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk, you'll want to use the whisk at this juncture. Bring back up to temperature. Turn off heat, add vanilla, mix well.
Put product into half pint jars, leave 1" headspace. I'm not kidding about this, do not use 3/4" headspace, use 1", as the product will get really hot and will boil out if the jars are too full, and it's an unholy mess! Wipe your rims, lid and process at 10# for 60 minutes.
While I am certain that you could put the product into pint jars and process for 75 minutes, I think it would adversely affect your fudge. As it is, you will need to give it a wee bit of a stir when you open the jars to enjoy. There is a slight baked-brownie aspect to the final product, instead of being simply velvety-smooth. S.D. and Lucy found it to be very satisfactory, and had to be restrained from just eating it from the jar with a spoon.
Yeah, I hate being told.
I would even venture to suggest those that insist on "can't" lack a bit of the spirit of adventure.
My family believes in embracing adventure and living outside of the box marked NORMAL. (I haven't found a good set of words that NORMAL would stand for, yet, but I do feel that I ought to, don't you?) I would say that embracing adventure from babyhood to adulthood has put the power of fear into perspective and has made risks less emotionally risky, and sometimes, less mentally and physically risky. S.D. is a kindred adventuring soul, and together we've found all kinds of ways to make our lives the kind of lives we want to look back on with happiness and satisfaction when we are very old. We are working towards eudaemonia.
And what is a life well lived without hot fudge topping? When the zombies come, and we're living off what we've put by, a little joy into just surviving is just plain important. So, in the interests of the joy that only hot fudge topping can bring, I started to look into how to put-up hot fudge.
This is when I was told I "can't". I hate that. really really. If I am able to can bacon jam, onion jam, ghee, beef, pork, fowl, and other such things, fudge really ought not be such a stretch, should it? I didn't think so.
So I read, I watched videos, I bought cookbooks, I really tried to educate myself, and the biggest sticking point that I puzzled over was not about safety, as there are very safe ways of canning dairy, sugars and fats. I was concerned about how to make a quality product that was heat tolerant and would withstand pressure canning temperatures. This led to the collection of several hot fudge recipes, which I printed out and reviewed the positive aspects and negative aspects of each. I wanted to use cocoa powder as an ingredient, and I wanted to use regular sugar as an ingredient, but the recipes using those things would crystalize unless handled with kid gloves, while I was reluctant to use chocolate chips, they seemed like the best option for flavoring. My sugars are all in liquid form, and while I used some prepared items and combined them, I am certain I could break this recipe down to even more basic ingredients.
As a thought to ponder, though, would I really be doing pressure canning at the apex of the ZA? No, not really, which is why keeping the recipe as-is will likely be the adopted course of action. So, with much less ado, here it is, my current Holy Grail of Canning: Canned Hot Fudge Sauce
Gather together your weapons and tools:
heavy bottomed pot (I used a large one that would accommodate more than a gallon of liquid)
wooden spoon(s)
heat-resistant rubber spatula
wire whisk
measuring cups and spoons
jars, lids and bands
pressure canner and accompanying tools
Now, gather your ingredients:
#1 semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate (I may experiment with milk chocolate in the future, but this time through...)
1/2c salted butter
1c Lyle's golden syrup
1/2c corn syrup
1 tsp instant coffee
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 TBS vanilla
(I had gathered up all the ingredients for all the recipes I'd found, and played Jr. Chemist while doing this experiment, above items were what made it into the mix)
Melt the chocolate and butter over as low of heat as you can get in a heavy bottomed pot. You do not want to increase your heat for risking burning your product and having to start all over again. At some juncture in here, wash your jars, heat your lids and start water boiling in your canner. Add your syrups and coffee, mix well. Bring back up to temperature. Mix in evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk, you'll want to use the whisk at this juncture. Bring back up to temperature. Turn off heat, add vanilla, mix well.
Put product into half pint jars, leave 1" headspace. I'm not kidding about this, do not use 3/4" headspace, use 1", as the product will get really hot and will boil out if the jars are too full, and it's an unholy mess! Wipe your rims, lid and process at 10# for 60 minutes.
While I am certain that you could put the product into pint jars and process for 75 minutes, I think it would adversely affect your fudge. As it is, you will need to give it a wee bit of a stir when you open the jars to enjoy. There is a slight baked-brownie aspect to the final product, instead of being simply velvety-smooth. S.D. and Lucy found it to be very satisfactory, and had to be restrained from just eating it from the jar with a spoon.
Yeah, I hate being told.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Waste Not, Wine More
In our wine making endeavors, we allowed many, many pineapples to enter the house to become fodder for the wine mill. I dislike waste, but want a clear, pretty-colored wine product, so the skins had to come off. But what to do with the skins? After processing 10 pineapples, I came away with roughly 9# of skins, a magnificent quantity, but what to do with them? The internet provided an interesting recipe for them, which I will share here:
Pineapple Chili Syrup Sauce
Chop roughly 9# pineapple skins into 2x1/2" pieces (approx), and toss to coat well with: 6# sugar.
Let it sit, let it sit for a good, long while. Poke at it a bit here and there, then ignore it for a while, when night falls, stick it in the fridge overnight. Take it out the next day and stir it up a bit, and heat it all in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium/low heat until it simmers. Strain out the chunks, then strain again through a finer sieve to get the wee tiny chunks out. Return to heat and simmer some more. Add:
1.5cup lemon juice
1cup honey
1 TBS + 1 tsp ginger powder
1 TBS hot chilli powder
1 TBS Ancho chili powder
Monday, March 5, 2012
They Can Make a Pill for That
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249450115938044.html
It's time to plan gardens, it's time to start seeds indoors, it's time to take a stand on our health. Don't manage the disease, cure it. Most times, the cure is in your food, the real thing.
The GOONS are looking to approve a new obesity pill. This ought not be any kind of surprise, the thought of "curing" an evil that is manufactured by the same systemic corruption that is looking to any means to "subdue" it. Supposedly, we have a crisis on our hands; we do, just not the one they're (ostensibly) trying to fix.
I think it's just another means to add another ingredient to the culmination of the ZA... a drug that influences the pleasure centers of the brain and includes an appetite suppressant? REALLY? If you suppress something long enough, something comes in or out from the side, remember that.
So, outlining the steps for you:
The GOONS are in bed with everyone, BigAg, BigPharma, and the Media. You are going to be given "food" that isn't, get confused by contradictory information on what to eat and what not to, when you DO eat, the "food" will make you addicted and sick. Because you are sick, BigPharma is going to solve your problems by giving you more medication. When, or if you decide to attempt (and the majority of attempts are weak at best) to walk away from "food" to eat food, it is made incredibly difficult because the "food" is manufactured to be incredibly addictive!
All done in the name of increased sales, really, if you believe that.
So, the average American eats the "food" watches manufactured and addictive media, becomes sedentary, becomes sick, takes drugs to manage the sickness, works hard on the mill to pay for insurance to pay for the drugs that are managing the sickness, and the cycle continues. The people are controlled. Quite effectively, I must say. The managing of disease continues because the population has been convinced that the cure either does not exist or is too painful to grasp, and the above said powers that be keep folks believing the cure is not worth it, because to be cured means to take back health, will and self-determination.
Let's add in my bit on top.
All is happening as said above, right? Add in a lack of checks and balances on what chemicals are being put into the systems of the masses, the test tubes we call a nation, and add energy... perhaps energy from untested, unpublished scanning equipment put in place by the GOONS who just want to control everything.
Remember high school chemistry and what it takes to make a chemical reaction react? heat or energy.
I'm not saying that the GOONS, BigAg and BigPharma want to create the ZA, but I would say that they, through their own agendas and wondrous stupidity, are doing the heavy lifting to make it happen quickly. The control over our own fates still lies in our hands and I encourage you to grow your own food, eat as organic as you can, and put by what you can when you can, because like it or not, the tenuous control of the American people is in the hands of the GOONS.
When there is a revolt, they will take away the medication that manages the disease, and when that doesn't work, the GOONS and their minions will take away the food. Control through starvation and deprivation. People will do anything you want them to do if they are hungry enough.
What the GOONS (who can't manage a national budget, how in hell can they manage our lives??) haven't figured out is that their systemic poisoning of their populace is really gonna backfire, and what we have figured out is that those of us who are awake will have to do the surviving.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Coping With Canning (or Onion Jam)
When life gets ugly, I tend to hide in my kitchen, making things and canning up whatever there is to put into jars. Life's taken a turn for the ugly, so we're making onion jam today. S.D. had his doubts when I was researching my recipe, but it looked good to me, so I figured I'd run with it.
In typical fashion, I found about 6 recipes for the product, found similarities, differences, standardized the recipe to an easily divided amount that I might want to make, and then I created my own take on the idea. The jam turned out to have a very pleasant sweet/sour flavor that I would also not call savory, but would very strongly complement a savory dish or roast.
So, here's the onion jam recipe, if you're like me, gather all the stuff, take a picture of it, and roll from there.
7# red or white onions, chopped
1/4c olive oil
In typical fashion, I found about 6 recipes for the product, found similarities, differences, standardized the recipe to an easily divided amount that I might want to make, and then I created my own take on the idea. The jam turned out to have a very pleasant sweet/sour flavor that I would also not call savory, but would very strongly complement a savory dish or roast.
So, here's the onion jam recipe, if you're like me, gather all the stuff, take a picture of it, and roll from there.
(all of my ingredients, gathered for your entertainment)
7# red or white onions, chopped
1/4c olive oil
(Start those in a large, shallow pan, I had to cook the onions in stages because they just wouldn't all fit into my biggest pan. A pot would have cooked and reduced too slowly)
(honestly, I think all the onions look kinda like bait, really)
As my onions cooked merrily down on low heat, (I kept the cover on so they wouldn't burn) I peeled my:
5 head of garlic
I then measured and added:
1 1/4c red wine vinegar
1 1/4c apple cider vinegar
3/4c dry white wine
2/3c honey
1/2c balsamic vinegar
1/2c brandy
all of that got stirred in, and then I added:
1 package (12 sprigs) rosemary
I let it all cook about 20 minutes, and then I threw my chopped garlic in:
(by the way, I was officially not fucking around... I used the big Cuisinart for the onions and the little one for the garlic. We're canning specifically so we don't cry.)
At this juncture, I stirred the garlic in and added:
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
All this fun stuff had to cook down for a while, I allowed myself the afternoon, but really, it only took about 45 minutes, during which I was able to clean up my workspace (all 3' of it), the dishes, and hunt down my 1/2pint jars, lids and the canner of the gods. Give the jam a good stir now and again.
When it's quite a bit reduced, add:
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
And stir it in real good.
By this time, I'm watching the current episode of Grimm on the computer while it cooked down some more. I'd pause the show to go stir here and there, and it was just beginning to caramelize when I decided it was time to put it into jars, but the show wasn't over, so I let it cook for about 15 more minutes, coming in to stir here and there.
Ok, show over, putting into jars time. I put it into 1/2 pint jars and came up with 11 half pints of onion jam.
The tidy results of the afternoon's work
I pressure canned them for 15 minutes at 10# pressure. I'm certain I could've just water bath canned them, but I like the thought of pressure canning. There's likely enough acid and sugar in them to make them safe, but that there's oil in the recipe, there's garlic in the recipe, and onions are not an acid food, I'd rather pressure can them.
S.D. will be home soon, and we're going to try this out together with LvG and CvG, but when I was tasting it as I went along, it was pretty darned good. I know S.D. was thinking savory, like a very condensed French onion soup, but it just didn't roll that way. I may contemplate a variation on this, but for now, this is good. And comforting.
Surviving the ZA can also taste good, we can be the gourmet survivors.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Civil Rights Movement, Thoughts
Today is the celebration of a great, great man; Martin Luther King Jr. He was the figurehead for an entire movement to bring Civil Rights to blacks across America through non-violent means. He was one of the last Great Americans, in my book, but how really, is he being honored?
This is how we honor MLK? There was a victory, there was a picnic, and then everyone went home. Why not honor him by coming back out of your shells, having pride in the parents and grandparents that fought so hard, and embrace civic pride. The state obviously will not start the process, it's up to the new generation. Honor your own Civil Rights, honor yourselves, open your eyes.
In no particular order, some things come to mind, the bus boycott in Montgomery, the sit-in movement in Nashville, the de-segregation of schools in the deep south, so many things so very hard won. But once the prize was won, once all people became equal, what happened? In the words of a former and current Civil Rights activist, "we won, we had a picnic and went home."
There has been no honoring the victories won, no maintenance of civil rights earned, when the bus boycott was won, Montgomery reacted by over time shutting down the bus lines that served blacks, opening them only on the anniversary of the bus boycott.
The desegregated schools stayed desegregated, until whites opened expensive private schools that only privileged whites could attend. Public schools became for the poor and black, without proper funding and support.
SNCC won the right to sit at lunch counters with whites, but the memorial to their efforts is now faded, rundown and ignored, funding pulled by the city of Nashville, to hide that chapter in history. The statue honoring the slaves brought across the ocean is behind bars, where people can't learn from it or enjoy it, because it is so often a target of vandalism.
In the Delta region of Mississippi, slaves were brought out of the quarters to become sharecroppers, then brought into town, to live in row houses, working barely paying jobs, still scratching at poverty. Without hope, without ideas or education to create a brighter future. Corporate farms have purchased the available farmland, hiring those that would work the land at poverty wages. There is no spark brought about by education, no concept of change, and no hope. There are no community gardens, no farmer's market, the Delta region is a food desert.
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