A Bit of Color for a Sunny Sunday

All the flowers exept a few mums have been frosted for this year,

but we still have pictures.

Drunken Rabbit Stew

This recipe originates from the fact that my city's government frowns upon hunting rabbits within the city limits with firearms, bows, slingshots, or blow guns.  So some creativity is required when it comes to obtaining the primary ingredient.

Supplies needed:
A healthy rabbit population
1 or 2 live traps
A bunch of apple peels and cores that have been sitting in the compost bucket for a few days fermenting.

Directions:
Place the bait in the live trap strategically located where the critters hop and forage at night.  Go outside in the morning and check the trap.  If it is inhabited by a squirrel with a hangover, let it go.  If it is inhabited with an inebrieated rabbit, you are in luck.  It is already somewhat anesthetized.  It will not show any sign of concern when you reach in with gloved hands, grab it behind the ears, pull it out of the cage, and slit it's throat.  After skinning and gutting it, place the meat in a bowl of water.

Drunken Rabbit Stew Ingredients:
One or two rabbits, cut into pieces (not deboned).
One large onion, peeled, and diced.
3-4 potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks.
1-2 large carrots, washed, and cut into chunks slightly smaller than the potato pieces.
1-2 cups of water
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp ground sage or a couple whole leaves

Brown the onions.  Add the meat, vegetables, seasonings, and water.  Cook in a pressure cooker for 30-40 minutes.  The meat will be falling off the bones.  Enjoy.

Don't go Boating Today on Lake Michigan

Some of the remaining winds from hurricane Sandy are blowing south down the length of Lake Michigan.  Wave heights for the southern end of the lake are predicted to peak in the 22-25 foot range.  The shorelines in Chicagoland and Gary are gonna get wet.

The SS Badger and various other large craft like ore carriers are riding out the storm away from shore.  Prayers for the safety of their crews would be greatly appreciated as the small Coast Guard vessels are staying in port to ride out the storm.  If any rescues are attempted, they will be by helicopter.  Unfortunately, hypothermia will most likely claim anyone unfortunate enough to fall in.

Hello Sandy

This is the first time I recall clouds from a hurricane reaching as far inland as Wisconsin while it's center was still making landfall on the coast.  It is really weird having clouds come from the east to the west.  Thank God it is only a category one hurricane!

I went outside tonight hanging out more of mom's wash to freeze dry.  There was a huge, beautiful halo around the moon.  The weather forecasters are predicting windy weather tomorrow.  Along lake Michigan, Sandy's outer clouds may even pick up some moisture and produce some snow.

Those of you receiving the brunt of Sandy's wind, rain, and snow are in our prayers.

Busy Days

My apologies for not posting more often this week.  Chore filled days just seem to slip by so quickly.  There will be pictures, soon.  Some of the activities included the following:

Finishing the paint job in the downstairs back entry.  (Still need to install the repainted shoe moulding and paint over the caulk that hubby the "caulking king" applied along the stair edges of the "new" linoleum we had installed last fall.)

Emptying the garden.

More cleaning at mom's house and assembling a shelf to organize her sweaters and winter clothes.  (Still working on organizing all the clothes that still fit her into categories.  More culling and another trip to the thrift store may be in order - way too many clothes mom!)

Emptying the live trap.  Live trapping activity has really picked up after the hard frost and clearing of the garden.  So far this week we have caught one toad, two rabbits, and a squirrel (twice - it went back for seconds after it was released the first time).  The fermented apple peels and cores really seem to be working.  Although a refill is needed now because this morning's rabbit wasn't drunk enough for hubby to reach in and grab it.  Recipe for drunken rabbit stew will follow in another post.  But stay clear of drunken squirrels; they can be mighty cranky when they are hung over.

Meatless Green Tomato Mince

I cannot take credit for this recipe.  The inspiration came from the book Blue Ribbon Preserves by Linda J. Amendt.  Her recipe is called Green-Tomato Mincemeat, but the primary ingredient in her recipe is apples - go figure.  Since apples are in short supply this year, and face it I have trouble leaving a recipe unaltered, I changed it a bit (by switching the quantities of tomatoes and apples, increasing the brine salt from 3 tsp to 4 tsp, adding 1/4 cup more vinegar, substituting 1 cup white sugar and 3 cups dark brown sugar for 4 cups light brown sugar, substituting raisins for currants, simplifying the citrus zest quantities, doubling the ginger and allspice amounts, and substituting smart balance light for butter).

Yields approximately 8 1/2 pints; I'm not sure where she got the estimate of a 10 pint yield.  Every time I made the recipe, it came out consistently at 8 1/2 pints.  (Even with switching the tomato quantities and apple quantities, the total volume should remain the same.)

Ingredients and procedural components:
10 cups chopped green tomatoes
4 teaspoons canning salt
5 cups boiling water

8 cups apples, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
1 cup white sugar
3 cups dark brown sugar
4 cups raisins
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
zest from one orange, chopped fine
zest from one lemon, chopped fine
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons butter or smart balance light

Place the chopped green tomatoes in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt, stir well, and let sit for one hour.  Rinse and drain well.  Return to bowl and pour 5 cups boiling water over the tomatoes; let sit for 5 minutes, then drain really well.

While tomatoes are brining, peel, core, and chop apples.  (The original recipe did not even specify if the apples were to be peeled.)  Sprinkle the apples with fruit fresh to keep them from browning.  Gather other ingredients.  I usually "zest" the citrus carefully by slicing the colored skin off with a paring knife and then chopping it finely.  Combine all ingredients except the butter in an 8 quart stock pot, stir well.  Over medium high heat bring mixture to a boil, stirring to avoid mixture burning to bottom of pan, then reduce heat to a high simmer/very low boil and set lid on at an angle to allow some steam to escape.  Cook until apples are tender and starting to mush.  Add butter/smart balance and stir well.

 What it looks like at the beginning of cooking.

What it looks like when done.

Honest, it tastes better than it looks.

Ladle hot mince into hot sterilized jars, remove air bubbles if there are any, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Make sure jar rims are clean.  Cover with scalded lids and apply rings tightly.  The original recipe calls for processing pints or quarts in a hot water bath for 30 minutes at 200 deg. F.  My electric stove refused to maintain a constant temperature of 200, so I had to settle for a very low boil instead, better a little hot than too cold!

It works well on toast and pancakes.  It might make a tasty topping for pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving.  Then there are the usual mince pies and tarts.  Hubby even enjoys it as a condiment along side steak or roast.  Enjoy!

Testing has proved

that front loading washing machines just don't get the clothes as clean as the old top loader's used to.  So you ask, how was this test performed?  Simple, I washed the couch cover from the downstairs couch, the one that was covered in cat hair because it is Tigger's favorite napping place.  Once it had run through the wash, I put it in the dryer.  When I took Chloe outside to go potty, she promptly did a u-turn, stuffed her nose up to the dryer exhaust and pointed to the "cat" with a somewhat perplexed look on her face.  I can only imagine that she was thinking, "How did you fit that fat, lazy cat into that little hole and still manage to have a breeze through there?"

There you have it, undeniable proof that the washing machine did not get the couch cover clean.