Weird Anne: Herb

October 24, 2009

update

Well it's been awhile but I've been here =)

Everything is done in the garden except leeks, broccoli, peas, oregano, thyme, parsley, and sage. Although I bought and timed our fall garden for a perfect last minute harvest - it didn't happen. Seed germination took longer than I expected - which makes sense, germination depends on warm temps. And we are having unusually cool weather this year here.

And that brings me to my next problem - I don't think my broccoli is going to make it because it's in an area of the garden that floods when there is excessive rain, which we have been getting. BLAH! Last night I spent about $7 drying clothes at the laundry mat because we've not been able to hang them out. =(

We also discovered that out of 3 dozen jars of salsa we canned a couple months ago we only have about 9 jars that are any good. I'm not sure what happened to the other ones but they are fermented and had to be tossed. And we have implemented a daily "ration" of pickles and jelly LOL! We have TOO many and this I think is the only way we will be able to get through all of them in the next couple years. Yes -- YEARS!!

Also we had planned to be moved into our new place by now - not happening. We went and talked to the guy who owns the place where we used to live in Roodhouse about 2 months ago. He was very happy to let us move back in, even resume payments pretty much where we left off. Except he thought that the place was empty because he was renting it and the lady stopped paying - he figured she moved out. She hadn't. Why he has all of the sudden stopped checking on this piece of real estate is beyond my comprehension. So he tells us to do whatever we need to get her out. Key word -- US.

He for some reason is not wanting to do anything to get this woman out -- this is so unlike him! I think age has taken it's toll on him because he has also sold a house in that same town for less than a third of what he bought it for. And he also recently changed his store hours to only being 5 days a week. He's been open for 6 days a week for more than 40 years!

Because of city codes in the town this property is in, we are not able to transfer the property into our control so that we can kick the lady that is in there out. Well we can BUT (there's always one!) we would need about $5000 - $6000 -- oh yea, got that in my other pants LOL! And although the man who currently owns it is more than happy to sign anything or call anyone, he isn't willing to actually go somewhere (like 2 counties away) to go to court.

So after a roller coaster of emotions over the last 2 months we have decided to hold off on trying to move into this place till we either have ALOT more money or he is successful in evicting this person. In light of this decision we are planning on another addition to the addition and we have also applied for an apartment that is based on our income. Then at least we won't have to worry as much about job losses and how it effects our place to live.

We also in the past 2 weeks have been dealing with child support - UGH! They are doing a review and are wanting to reduce our current amount down by a third. It is very aggravating because they are using the income that we had while Darkside was working that GREAT job -- that job only lasted for 4 months and it was 9 months ago!! They are attempting to say they can use it because he voluntarily quit - WHAT?!?! Did they not notice that after he quit that job we moved a state away? Oh that's right their computers don't compute in things such as that. There is supposed to be a person behind each one of those computers doing this paper work.

And I'll post tomorrow with all our halloween costume ideas =)

later...

June 19, 2009

How I make herbed bread crumbs

I did a little photo tutorial the other day and I wanted to share it. I know that this has been done probably a million times, but one more won't hurt!

How I make herbed bread crumbs -

Start with any leftover breads you have. This can be buns, white bread, anything besides overly sweet bread. What I normally do is save all heels, extra buns or toast and put them in a baggie of some sort and throw them in the freezer. Then once a month or so I get them all out and sit them somewhere to air dry. If I'm in a hurry I'll throw it in the oven and turn it on till it gets hot then shut it back off. That usually dries it out pretty quick. Be careful though -- it can & will burn if you forget! (can ya tell I did that? LOL!)

But anyway once it's dry you just throw it in a food processor and chop it up. Then if you want you can add herbs, seasonings, or even Parmesan cheese. Bread crumbs made like this will last forever pretty much in a jar. I have gallon jars from pickles that I like to use for them.

New term for me here is home. Home means one of the following -- grown here at home, dried here at home, canned here at home, or made here at home. Not real original I know but....?

My dried home herbs are grown and dried here at home. They are a mix of 2 kinds of basil, lemon thyme, rosemary, sage, mint, and oregano.

We used these bread crumbs for meatballs that we made and pre-cooked, then froze for later this month. Haven't tried them yet, but I'm sure they're tasty!

Anyway here's the pictorial =)

later...