(Enlarged close-up of hardened foamy section of a cough drop.)
I’ve never made cough drops before, just so you know. But I happened upon this post about making cough drop lollipops and coincidentally my husband is sick, AND I forgot to pick up cough drops at the store yesterday…so I just had to make them.
That makes perfect sense, right?
I thought you’d agree.
Julia has wanted glasses for ages.
She doesn’t need them, she just likes them. She likes to “borrow” mine now and then (when I let her…and if I don’t need to see for a while), but since I don’t let her keep them, her glasses-wearing has been minimal.
Until, of course, now.
I had two days off, back to back, last week, and figured I’d use them for a baking marathon. That time of year, you know. I try (really, I do) to get the German cookies made early enough so we can ship them off to various far-flung family members so they arrive BEFORE Christmas. (Without having to overnight them, heh heh.)
Anyway, one of the cookies that’s part of that collection is Lebkuchen, a traditional German spiced cookie that includes candied citrus peel – what kind you use depends on the recipe you’re following. Bill’s mom’s version has candied orange peel and candied citron, the kinds that come in those 4 oz. containers in the grocery store.
I generally make more than one batch of these cookies, because they’re one of the favorites, so that means several containers of each kind of candied peel.
Now, this year, for various reasons (including the Scratchy saga), money is tight. And those candied peel containers are pricey, for the amount you get. And they’re also probably loaded with preservatives and additives and other “-ives” that aren’t at all good for you…so I decided it would be both healthier and cheaper to make my own candied peel. And it’s a cool thing to do. And pretty.
I’ve thought of doing it in years past, but then I’d get lazy and just buy the containers. This year, with two days off IN A ROW! I decided to candy some peel.
So here we go…
My dining room, right this very minute. And probably into tomorrow.
Those jars – marinara. Two kinds – one with a lot of basil and oregano, one with a lot of garlic. The rest of the table? All sorts of stuff, most of it food related. Scratch that – all of it food related.
That’s Julia’s work. She’s got this hideous blob of silly putty that she’s had for I don’t know how long, and lately I’ve been finding it wrapped around plastic tigers on the small table in the living room, or in a blob on my kitchen work table, or – the other day – right there… Continue reading Spelly Putty
Found this in my drafts folder. I’d written it on August 10th, but never posted it. Don’t know why. Anyway, figured I’d share…. I haven’t been sleeping well. There’s a lot on my mind, and it gets kind of hushed during the day when I’m busy with other, more immediate things, but then at night… Continue reading And Then I Went Back to Bed
Look at that face.
Granted, it’s not a good picture – lighting is bad because of where he was when I took it a few minutes ago, but I didn’t want to force him out just to take a better-lit image.
Anyway.
The feeding tube.
On a what?
I’ll get to that in a minute.
But first, the innards of the BLT:
Homemade Bacon
Home grown Lettuce
Home grown Tomatoes
The basil-mayo is made with home grown basil. No, I didn’t make the mayo.
And, finally,
the Claffle.
Remember our corn with the pink hair? Part of the 3 Sisters gardens? Yeah.
Well, we picked a couple of ears a little while ago and though they looked fully matured on the outside, the kernels were still small and flavorless.
Ah well, lesson learned.
So we waited a bit longer, and watched, happily, as more ears grew to full size.
Earlier this week, on one of our morning meanderings through the yard, Bill decided to check an ear to see if the kernels were mature enough (you know, they cleaned their rooms without being asked, didn’t roll their eyes when we said stuff, made sound financial decisions) to be harvested. He peeled back the husk and pressed against one of the kernels with his thumb nail. It was not milky yet – the innards of the kernel – so the corn wasn’t ready. Oh well, what’s another day or two?
And then he noticed this:
July is the month of Visiting Family Members From Outside New England, which means, in addition to Alex and Julia having to share a bed, lobster.
Now, there are several types of lobster eaters. There are the Big Claws and Tail Only people. There are the I’ll Eat Other Parts of the Lobster As Long As I Don’t Have to Pick Through All The Body and Squeeze Out All The Meat in Those Skinny Legs Myself people. There are the ICK, What’s That??? people. And there are the people who will eat every last scrap of edible lobster – meat, fat, coral (roe) and tomalley (liver) – and will suck all of this down faster than the Big Claw and Tail people can get their crackers and picks going.
I belong to the latter group.
But.
There are times when I curb my impulses and leave the body and little skinny claws alone, just so we have meat to do something with the next day.
This post is about one of those times.