Hammock House

Well, got my FTP straightened out, thank goodness. Found out it was not just my account, but anyone on the same grid that my site was located. (mt) Media Temple did a great job, not only of catching the problem, but taking steps to immediately start damage control. Turns out, my account, thankfully, was not one of the actual ones that had a problem, but since I am on the same grid, chances could not be taken and so my account was ‘locked’ also. Which is fine, I was sick as a dog at the time, and quite frankly, didn’t care. *grins* Now, I have to get used to all the new passwords… pain in the rump, but worth it.

While I was sick, there were some bananas getting awfully ripe, too ripe to just eat, unless you like mush, but, perfect for banana nut bread. Well, I wasn’t up to making it at the time, so, I threw the bananas in the refrigerator and watched as the skin turned black. This of course was on top of the ’spots’ from it ripening.

Even now, I am still not at 100 percent, but I am up and moving and those bananas were just hollerin’ my name! These beauties were made on the 5th… one has been nibbled on for the past 3 days, and the other is safely ensconced in the freezer. Now these were full sized loaves, but, I ordered Wilton Aluminum Mini Loaf Pan, which is great since it is 6 pans together. I figure this will be a great size to make individual loaves, and with Christmas coming up… well, you know where my thoughts are headed.

In the last post (sorry it was so long, but it honestly was the short version!), I talked about how much dehydrated corn will fit into a quart jar (roughly 6 pounds!). Well, I couldn’t add images at the time, but, I can now. :o) Having dehydrated foods, along with my home canned foods, has really made making dinner or lunch, and yes, even snacks super easy! Not to mention, we know exactly what is in our foods… and it is not loads of salt. As for the dehydrated foods, if using them in sauces or soups, just throw the amount in that you want and they will rehydrate in the liquid that you have in there.

I try and make fixing dinner easy on myself, so I’ve started grating carrots (okay, actually I threw them in my food processor and it grated them for me, as well as having sliced carrots. For roasts and stews where you want larger food, then I use my home canned, which I usually have quartered carrots as well as sliced. These are just some options… but it works for most fruits and veggies. Now, your banana chips, apple slices, etc., that you are wanting as snacks, then of course, just pop them in your mouth and enjoy!

Now, to save up money for a WonderMill grain grinder. :o)

It really is hard for me to believe that it is already May. It just does not seem possible, I mean just yesterday it was February, wasn’t it?

To catch up with what has been happening, you need to understand when it all started to go awry, and this was last post on it: If it weren’t for bad luck….

Since that post, I now have my laptop hooked up to one of my old 19″ monitors, so that I can use it, which kinda messes up that whole, just grab the laptop and go thing that it had going for it, but hey, it works this way. Still don’t have cellphone fixed, but, found out that if I take it in, they will put new cover on it! WOOT! I’ll get to that in the next week.

Finally, got some rain last night. Yes, I know, we had gotten our 30 drops, but then, in the afternoon/evening, the skies let loose. It was wonderful, fantastic, and coming down so fast that… much didn’t soak into the ground. Yards and streets were flooded. Oh well, at least it rained. I was thrilled. Didn’t get out camera to capture the awesome lightening that was going on, but I did get to enjoy it without worrying if shutter was open long enough to capture some photons, or if it was open too long, which would overexpose that same photons.

Okay, so, let’s catch up, now that you know it rained here, and no I am not making light of the storms that have been happening all over - for those that they are adversely affecting, my thoughts and prayers go out to you, and to those chasers that are following them - Godspeed and don’t forget to just enjoy Mother Nature, without all the gizmos and gadgets.

Here we go…

I posted about MiMi passing away in April, April 15th to be exact (I’m not looking forward to Friday), what I haven’t said, and it is NOT because I didn’t think it was important, is that my great-aunt also passed. My Aunt Norma, my Pappap’s sister, passed on April 27th. We are still trying to deal with that, and how it is effecting my Pap. :( Prayers for him, would be awesome, he is the last of that line.

I want to take the time here to say that corporations that don’t take care of their obligations, like paying their rent, greedy money-grubbing corporations, SUCK!! What on earth am I talking about? Well, let me tell ya our tale of woe.

Way back when, my family owned a “Mom and Pop” type grocery store, everything from extra hoses/belts for your car to groceries and fresh meat and produce. This was back before chain groceries stores moved into Miami. Then big chain store moved in and after 30 years, the store had to close.

Skip to present time, a time when apparently honesty is no longer a quality in people and doing business. You see, the company that rents our land (where the store used to be), is playing games. They keep subletting and not telling us, they refuse to answer their phones, oh, and let’s not forget, they haven’t paid rent in 3 months, are not keeping up the property according to Miami-Dade County code, AND, here is the biggie… have not paid the property taxes. Yes, per the antiquated contract (which we have been trying to get updated), they are supposed to pay the taxes. But they haven’t. Which means… if anyone cares to GIVE us money, that would be awesome, because on top of the economy which sucks, and stock plummeting which has made it harder, what little stock we had left, we had to sell, to come up with $20,000. Yes, you read that correctly.

So, that is what we have been dealing with down here, on top of all the normal crap… plus, trying to get some veggies going, which took longer than it should have because items I ordered, they were back-ordered and didn’t come in on time, making our own bread, butter, jams & jellies, candles (wow, do they smell so much better than store bought), slipcovers and more!

So, if any of my rich friends wants to just give out money, free and clear - call me. *laughs*

Would it be selfish to pray to win the lottery or powerball???

Mock Ham Salad a.k.a. Poor Man’s Ham Salad

Hopefully I will start getting images again soon, and make the blog a much happier place.

To leave you tonight, I’ll end with a recipe, a simple recipe for sure, but it really is oh so good, this is what my great and my great-great grandmother’s used to send with the ‘men-folk’ when they went down into the coal mines of Pennsylvania:

Mock Ham Salad a.k.a. Poor Man’s Ham Salad

1 lb chunk bologna (not beef)
6-7 sweet gherkins (with about 1-2 Tbsp juice reserved)
2-4 Tbsp (depending on your taste) salad dressing (Miracle Whip type)

Modern day - cut bologna into 1 inch pieces, cut gherkins in half, throw into large food processor and blend to puree (consistency of a spread). Add enough salad dressing to moisten and bind. I don’t like a lot of dressing, other members of family do, so they add more to theirs.

Blend all together, spread it thinly or thickly, depending on your liking, on bread, roll or crackers and enjoy.

I’ll try and grab some shots of the new self-watering containers that we put together for the veggies - they are really cool, but really ugly. *grins*

Be well, be safe, be happy!

I have been asked about how I make butter, partly because I keep saying how easy it is; well, it is!

Warning: this post is long and it is image heavy. I have purposely kept the images small to make it easier to load.

A little background: I love making things, whether it is home-made candles, jams, paper, clothes, etc., it matters not, I enjoy it all. And making things the old fashioned way just appeals to me, in the sense that I have always felt ‘older’ than I really am. With that in mind, even though I would love to have an old fashioned butter churn, and even would try it, I am not sure I would relish standing or sitting and churning. So, I found a different way.

Put on some music, preferably, KC and The Sunshine Band’s, Shake Your Booty! (Have to give a shout here to Mr. Eugene Timmons, one of the best Music Directors and Instructors, not to mention sax player, that I have ever met!)

Do I have your attention yet?

If not, then you need not read any further. But if I do have it, good, because that song stands for exactly what you will be doing! Okay, shaking your booty is actually optional, but shake, shake, shake will be how you make the butter.

If you are lucky, then you might remember doing this as a youngster in school, unfortunately my teachers never taught us this. Now, before I get e-mails and comments telling me how much easier it would be to use a hand-mixer or a stand-mixer, thank you, I do already know this, but it is not near as fun, to me. And yes, you can purchase butter at the store, again, it is not nearly as fun, nor satisfying, not to mention that it is more costly, and the flavor is not comparable.

You might be wondering how on earth can making butter be cheaper than purchasing, because you have to buy the cream to make the butter, unless you are lucky to get cream for free. First, let me say, that I use heavy whipping cream, that is what I am able to get at our local store, so it is what I use. That out of the way, go to a store and compare prices for 1 quart of cream, 1 pound of butter, and 1 pint of buttermilk. Unless your store prices are way different than mine, the quart of cream will be cheaper than the butter and buttermilk combined. But, that is exactly what you can make with 1 quart of cream!

Unless I am baking, I make smaller batches, 2 cups of cream (1 pint) will give you 1 cup of butter and about 1 cup of buttermilk, maybe slightly more. That equals 2 sticks of butter, which is half a pound of butter! Now I said smaller batches, but honestly, that is a lot of butter! If you want even smaller batch, then use only 1 cup of cream, which will yield a half-cup of butter (1 stick of butter) and approximately a half-cup of buttermilk. Do you need more for baking, then just add more cream, or make more batches, see, it is easy!

Enough already, you have me convinced, just tell me how to make the damn butter!

No need to get all huffy and puffy, here you go:

• 1 wide-mouth quart jar (I use plastic)
• 2-cups of cream (I use heavy whipping cream)

• Pour cream into jar, put lid on loosely and let it set out, until it reaches approximately 55-60 °F. I have even been impatient, who woulda thunk it?!, and have used it at 50 °F, with absolutely no problems, it just took slightly longer to shake. If you don’t have a thermometer, give or take 5 minutes, you can just let it set out for about a half hour and it will work; unless your house is an ice-box inside! (The longer you let the cream set out on counter, the less sweet it is, so if you are not looking for sweet cream butter, then just let it set out, it is totally up to individual taste!)
• When it is time, tighten lid down and start shaking your booty shaking the jar.
• Keep shaking, if you have kids, this would be great fun for them, just make sure to use plastic jar in case they drop it.
• Shake some more, I know, your arm and hands are getting tired, but it is worth it! By now, you should start hearing a difference in the sound of the contents. It will not be as ‘liquid’ sounding, but heavier. If you take a peek inside, you should see something that looks like satiny smooth thick cream. Resist the urge to pour it straight into your mouth! Close the lid and keep shaking.

• Continue shaking until you hear nothing, and the ‘feel’ of the shaking jar changes to ‘nothing’. Go ahead and peek, you know you want to; you should see no liquid at all, just thick wonderful goodness! Plus, it gives your hands and arms a small break, they will thank you, again though, resist the temptation to dive right into the jar. Congratulate yourself, or whomever is doing the shaking, because you are at the halfway mark! Go ahead, look at the clock, yup, in that little bit of time you are already halfway to delicious butter.
• Close the lid now and quit trying to snort the soon to be butter! Now, start that shaking again. Getting tired again, you could put on some different music, yes, I know, no more booty, and shake the jar to the rat tat tat tat tat tat on the drums. I have always found this song by Miami’s own Gloria, to be hard to resist moving to!

• In just a short while, you will again feel a difference inside the jar. Remember at the halfway mark, you could feel nothing when shaking, now though, you feel things starting to come together slightly. That is great! If you look at the jar, you will see that the insides are starting to pull away from the jar, this is what you want.
• Keep shaking, I know it is hard to at this point, try turning the music louder! Wait, you hear a different sound and jar feels differently when you shake it now? That sloshing sound and feel is ambrosia to some on its own and gold to bakers of biscuits; that dear readers is the start of buttermilk. Yum!

• Keep shaking, when the liquid inside gets to the point where there is almost as much of it as there is solids, then drain it off (carefully - I use a fine mesh hand strainer.) into a clean jar or container. For heavens sake, do not throw it away, that is good stuff! Yup, go back to shaking, but first, make sure to put the lid back on, and keep right on shaking and pouring off the liquid.
• When you can no longer get anymore liquid out, go ahead, pop off the lid, let your eyes feast on the goodness inside. That my friends, is butter! We are not done quite yet though, sorry.

• Place butter into a bowl (or cheesecloth and strain it that way if you wish), add some cool water (I add a little less than 1/3rd cup), take a large spoon, butter paddle, or spatula, and start massaging the butter. Work all the way through it several times. What you are doing is pressing out more of the whey. This liquid, since it is watered down, I do not keep for buttermilk. If you have animals, they might like it though, I honestly have not tried. Drain this liquid off and add more water, continue to massage the butter. Keep doing this until the water runs clear.
• Now, this next part is purely up to individual taste. If you want to add salt, now would be good time. I normally do not, a few times though, I’ve taken salt shaker and shook it two very short times and massaged it through. Because it is such a small amount, less than a small smidge, I still consider it to be, and use it as, unsalted.

• Whatever way you decide to store it, you want to make sure that air does not get to it. You could use a crock, a bowl, a jar, even a small oval baking dish, which is what I use sometimes. I also have a butter press to use when I want something fancy, but that takes longer (you have to harden up the butter a little first), so does using a butter stamp, but they do make the butter look prettier. If using a bowl, jar or container besides a butter bell, then you need to add cold/cool water over the top after making sure to press butter down completely leaving no air pockets. This is important if you want fresh tasting butter. The cool/cold water will also allow you to leave the butter container out on the counter or table, allowing you to enjoy spreadable fresh butter! Each time, just empty out the water (for plants, maybe?), use the butter, then press out any air, and add water again. You want to enough water to completely cover it, preferably bringing it above 1/4-inch. If you are using container that does not come with designated lid, then you can use plastic wrap. I keep washing mine, and use it over and over. If using a jar or something with lid, then fill as near to top as you can and place lid on.

I do hope you enjoy this, it takes a lot less time to actually do it, than it was to take all the images and make this post! After leaving the cream to set out for approximately a half hour (or longer if you do not want as sweet a butter), if using 2 cups of cream, it should only take about 30 minutes from first shake to putting the yummy butter into container for keeping. Not long at all!

Cautions and tips

You may want to place container on something that will wick up any water that seeps out; we learned this the hard way. Also - if you live somewhere, like me, that can get hot very quickly, you may want to change out the water on top of the butter (if you can keep it from being eaten immediately, and that is hard to do!) every day, or if you have no air conditioning, twice a day. In colder climates, every two days should be okay. You have to judge it for yourself. Also, butter will go rancid, and it will do it even quicker if there is no salt in it - if you know you will be baking or having a lot of people over, you can make ahead, freeze it, then take it out to soften before needed.