Like WOW dude!

Check out this quilt back!  It’s TOTALLY awesome!  One of my customers brought me a tshirt quilt and wasn’t sure about a backing for it, so I suggested she tie dye some Moda muslin, and she did!

 Actually I think she did four of them, but this was the winning choice.  I absolutely love this!  What could be more perfect for a tshirt quilt!

Jim and I planned to make sausage today, but I picked eight colander bowls full of blackberries off of our bushes this morning… that’s probably about eight gallons I guess. 

Looks like I’ll be spending the day steam juicing them, then canning the juice, and we’ll probably make either jelly or wine with the juice later on in the year… when it’s not 300 degrees outside. 

My favorite summer dish

Jim had to work for a half day today, so I was out picking blackberries at 5:30, as soon as it was light enough, right after I put two chickens on the smoker. 

Blackberry season is winding down now (thank heavens!) as I only got four cake pans full.  I fill cake pans as I pick, and freeze them right away, then once they’re frozen I vacuum seal them into bags.  I’d rather go back later and process them however I want, rather than try and deal with them as they come off the vines.

Then I spent the rest of the morning weed whacking, I’ll mow tomorrow.  Maybe this afternoon, we’ll see.  I pulled the chickens off the smoker at noon, and vacuum sealed the meat and the berries and tossed it all back into the freezer.  The chicken carcasses… now that’s what I was really after!  I love, love love chicken broth made from smoked chickens.  Most of the fat cooks off in the smoker, and I toss the skins into the pot, the flavor is incredible!

When tomatoes are fresh off the vine, my favorite summer food is beans and rice.  My recipe is very simple to make, and everyone loves it.

I soak a cup and a half of either pinto beans or small red beans (I love them both) over night in water.

In the morning, I fry a package of Jimmy Dean hot pork sausage with a medium onion and one poblano pepper.

Drain and put it in a crockpot with the soaked (and rinsed) beans, and enough smoked chicken broth to cover, or a little more if you like your beans and rice a little soupy.

Deglaze the pan with a little water, you don’t want to leave that yummy stuff behind… and pour it into the crockpot as well.  Makes the pan much easier to clean too!

Let it simmer all day, and salt to taste once the beans are soft.  Pour over rice, top with lots of shredded cheddar cheese, fresh tomatoes and green onions.  Yummy!

Add a cold beer and it’s even better!

Berries, berries berries!

The dogs woke me up at 3:30 this morning wanting to go out… they were barking at something, probably the darn deer eating more of our fruit trees!

I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up, had a cup of coffee, and decided to run to Walmart (it’s open 24 hours) and get the ingredients to make Karen’s cheesecake.  It sounded like a much lighter version of my white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, perfect for summer!  I had everything on hand except for the cool whip, that isn’t something I use very often.  Honestly, I think the stuff tastes like whipped bacon grease! But mixed in, it tastes fine.

I opted to leave off the toffee chips, and make a blackberry sauce for it instead… why not?  I have blackberries in abundance!

By 5 o’clock I was back from the store, and by 5:30, the cheesecake was made, the sauce cooking down, and I’d chopped up and marinated some veggies I plan on grilling for lunch, along with Chorizo and steamed rice.

Anyone else love grilled veggies?  I honestly could live on them and bread, but Jim is not the veggie lover I am. He’d eat the asparagus and yellow squash, but not the red pepper, onions, or portobella mushrooms.

And then… miracles of miracles, it started to rain!  Only a light rain, but it lasted for two hours!  And that’s just about how long it took me to pick these blackberries for my folks, (in the rain!) who are coming down for a visit today.

That’s a huge stockpot, it holds five gallons.  I have two of these, I used to use them to make cheese in back when we had the farm.  I’ll probably have this many berries again day after tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be making some jam.

Update on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 8:44AM by Created by CJ

I have the most generous hubby in the world!  Not just to me (always!) but to complete strangers as well.  He just emailed me to let me know there was going to be a large charge on his credit card.  He’s down in New Orleans working again, and three army guys were at the front desk of his hotel, and were going to share a room for the night to save costs.  Jim got them each a room… isn’t he the best?

Anytime we eat out and see men or women in uniform eating, he alway picks up their tab.  Just one of the many reasons why I adore him!  I mostly love him to death though, because he makes me giggle… a LOT!