Presidential Debates tonight!

I don't have tv at my house but I will be using the live stream at youtube to watch. Here is a link for anyone else out there who is a non-t.v. person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1jXLzNto70

And a fun link to some Debate Bingo cards.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/03/14202015-your-debate-bingo-cards-are-ready?lite

GO Pres. Obama!

Refrigerator Pickled Hot Carrots!

OK I suspect I might be a freaking genius at this homemaking thing...again.

To make the carrots I peeled and sliced the carrots, and placed them in the bottle with a slice of sweet onion, one crushed clove of garlic, half a raw Anaheim chili, 1 tsp of salt. (I neglected to wear gloves when slicing the Anaheim chili as it's a 'mild' chili...yeah, not going to do that again. Ever! My hands were still burning 8 hours later. So that part wasn't exactly part of the genius at homemaking part of the adventure.)

Take 1 part water and 1 part vinegar and heat to a boil.

Once the liquid has come to a boil pour it into the bottles until the carrots are covered (it's easier if you have a canning funnel thingie and a ladle for filling the jars. If not find a cup with a lip so you can poor it in the jars without the water going all over.)

Once you have filled the jars put on the lids and let them cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 5 days for the flavors to meld together and the magic of vinegar can pickle them, or as long as you can possibly wait without tasting them.

Finished bottles of carrots ready to go in the fridge.

My last nori wrapper...I wish I had about a million more. Veggie rolls make me smile. A lot.

I always use spinach in place of rice as I am trying to keep white food to a minimum. This roll has spinach, cilantro, cucumber, avocado, pickled ginger...and I forgot that I had grated some carrots for it. But it was still delicious.

The brave little tomato plant that could. Sort of.

Well he is dying. Half of him is dead and the other part is giving up section by section as the tomatoes ripen. It's been a sad year for this plant. I will end up with about 25 tomatoes in total, which is pretty weak. And even though each tomato has been absolutely breathtakingly sweet and perfect, I still wanted MORE!

Maybe it's my own darned fault for giving my money to the evil corporation that is Wal-Mart, but I saw this little plant in front of the store and it was so cute and had tomatoes on it, and the price was good, and I was easily impressed. The minute I got him home he tried dying a million times on me. Next year I will have to take myself elsewhere to find plants for my homestead (and yes I am still calling it a homestead, I now have a decorative pepper plant, and a succulent of some sort...so I'm growing things. Don't judge.) :P

You can kind of see the dying action thingie he's doing. The leaves, then the stem just shrivel up and die off. It started out looking like a phosphorous deficiency, with purple leaves, then all sorts of colors appeared and it started dying. I am waiting for the final 5 to ripen and then I will be taking him to the recycle bin. I don't want to compost him if he has a blight of some sort...I don't know if that will pass it on to other things planted in that soil? I guess I better google that and see.

The first fruits of my labor.

Yay first tomatoes from my 'garden'. :)

Tomato on toasted Dave's Killer Good Seed bread, with a little bit of butter. Seriously the best, sweetest tomatoes I've ever eaten. I wonder if it's because they came from my own little homestead. No, completely unbiased, they were the best ever! ;) Just need to add the second piece of bread to the top, cut and eat. My mouth just watered thinking about it.

Wish I had a million more just like it!

There is one more tomato on the vine that is almost ripe and then all the rest are green, green, green! Get with it tomato plant. After eating this I am going to be dreaming of tomato sandwiches.

Breakfast, lunch, snack...and dinner!

Oh cherry season how I have missed you my old friend! And now you are back and I can't get enough of your goodness.

Almost ready to pick! :)

My first tomatoes of the season, almost ripe now. Yay to me. I am like a new mum all proud and taking pictures every time the color changes even the smallest amount.

Weather alert. :-\

I have a feeling this blog could become a secondary AccuWeather site with hourly updates, because I can't stop obsessing and talking about the weather. When you are a delicate flower such as myself, with a system that can't be too hot or too cold it makes you a little crazy sometimes.

Health wise summer is fraught with danger, so I feel compelled to keep a close eye on the thermometer, and then have a small panic episode if it looks like it's going to go past 85 degrees or so. Sigh.

Segueing to my second favorite thing to talk about...food. Here are some adventures in sprouting pictures. Not sure what I think about my mung bean sprouts. They didn't turn out big and plump like the ones in the store. Not sure what happened.

 They are sort of spindly and thin.

And purple, I don't know, they just don't look right. I wonder if my seeds were old? Or if there is something that commercial growers do to make theirs look so pretty? Oh well, since I grew them I did eat them and they tasted fine.

My urban homestead (one sick tomato plant).

Well my little nod to a garden is not doing so well. He's dropping leaves and whole segments are shriveling and dying off. BUT he keeps producing fruit like a little champion! So when he finally dies he will get a moment of silence before I bury him!

And one is starting to get ripe. Please hold on until the others ripen!

Even though it looks like a blight of some sort I fed him some tomato feed stuff and I'm pretending like he was nutrient deficient and he will perk up (yeah, denial).

Summer is finally here. :-\

I have mixed feelings about this. I have Multiple Sclerosis so my body doesn't do well in the heat. BUT I have a lone tomato plant that is dying for some sun.

Today is 83 degrees and if it stays in this range I will be fine, but much hotter and my body will have to be scraped off the floor where I have melted into a giant puddle of  fat lady goo!

As a nod to the heat I made some limeade.

Yes that's my cat's face. The second anything happens in the house she is there to investigate. You can see the lime pulp swirling around in there making it very tasty! I put some of the juice into some popsicle molds I have, so in a few hours frozen limeade pops!

So basically I'm trying to beat the heat any way I can.

New Blog! :)

I have been doing a lot of playing around with raw veganism, urban homesteading (albeit with one tomato plant), and and then also whinging about my health (and the weather) thought I should have a place to put it all.

THIS is that place! :)