Okra Fresh From the Garden

Our okra plants have really taken off this year. They have always been a good crop for us, but have done especially well this year. Maybe it’s that dose of fertilizer that Jeff gave them a little while back ~ or maybe it’s the “organic” fertilizer left by the two barn cats who, for awhile there, were using this garden plot as their litter box. No matter what the cause, these plants have gotten huge and are producing okra for cutting daily.

Here is what I do with them once cut. They usually gather on the kitchen counter for a few days until I get around to slicing them. Then I get out my cutting board and knife and start slicing.

Now, I only cook okra one way around here, and that’s fried ~ I do not care for the stringy mess that comes from the other ways of cooking it, but fried okra? – well, I grew up on that. Remember I do live in the South. So, during the summer, I keep a Ziploc freezer bag (gallon size) in my freezer, in which I have placed a mixture of corn meal and flour (no measuring here, just mix some together). As I slice the okra every few days or so, I place the slices in the freezer bag and shake it all up to coat it well.

I then place the bag back in the freezer until next time. As the bag fills up, I have ready-to-go okra waiting for me to fry up with a meal ~ especially good with fried chicken and mashed potatoes or corn on the cob (don’t ask me how our corn crop went this year ).

Blessings,
Nancy

We saw them!

Image courtesy of Corbis

Well, we didn’t see as many as these people are seeing, but we did see some great ones! Tuesday night the clouds were too much, and we weren’t able to see anything (although Tommy thought he might have seen something once), but last night the skies were perfectly clear, so we went outside around 11 pm and watched and waited.

We were soon rewarded with some spectacular meteors shooting across the sky! It was very exciting every time we saw one, and I was glad that each of the kids was able to see one – most of them for the first time ever. David was asleep, but Anna, who was afraid of missing out on the big kid fun was allowed to stay up and watch with us, although her patience with waiting for them wore out pretty quickly.

We stayed out for about an hour, but then it was time to get them all to bed ~ plus, our necks were getting sore from looking up for so long. It would have been much better if we had been laying flat on the ground on a blanket to watch, but we were all sitting around the edge of the hot tub by the pool, due to the presence of several large spiders who had built their nightly spiral webs in very inconvenient spots ~ literally taking over the area, except for the spot where we were.

The stars were spectacular in themselves, a beautiful sight and enjoyed by all. The meteors were like bonuses on top of it all. I think that maybe next year I will try planning an overnight campout in the yard (weather permitting) and we can spend the night (more comfortably) watching the sky. That is if I can work up enough courage to face the spiders, snakes, and other nocturnal creatures that inhabit our yard at night ~ ah, life in the country ~ but the stars are amazing and worth the effort.

Did any of you get to see them this year?

Blessings,
Nancy

A Garden Visitor

“Peter heard noises worse than ever, his eyes were as big as lolly-pops! He was a step or two in front of his cousin, when he suddenly stopped.”

~ from “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” by Beatrix Potter.

This little guy stood very still for a long time while I took many pictures of him trying to get a good one!

Blessings,
Nancy

Perseids Tonight!

photo courtesy of Corbis

Tonight and tomorrow the Perseids Meteor Shower will be at its peak. They say that you may be able to spot 50-80 meteors per hour! We were getting all excited about it around here, but, sadly, it looks like we will be socked in under clouds and possible rain, so I guess we’re going to be missing it this year.

Hope you’ll get to see it where you are!

Blessings,
Nancy

Updates

Just wanted to share a few updates from around our house.

I have officially decided to cancel summer camp plans for this summer. I have postponed it a number of times already and the next possible date to have it would be into late August. I will be well into thinking about back to school by then (already am!) and the time for summer camp seems to have come and gone. I am packing up my notes and supplies so that I’ll have them ready to go again next summer – hopefully in June, which is when I get most excited about camp plans. Having just come off a week of VBS with a camping/hiking theme kind of filled our camp tank anyway, so we’re not too sad about canceling it.

I have a new camera. It came about that I needed a new camera one day when my old one was returned to me with the words . . . “I don’t know what happened, but the screen isn’t working quite right.” Upon further investigation, “not working quite right” meant that there was a big slash across the screen and everything in the background was black . . . obviously it had been dropped. Now, I won’t mention the name of the culprit, but maybe you can guess from these pictures (taken previously on the old camera) -

How’s this for evidence? (especially since these were the last pictures I found taken on said camera) -

And finally, we have a picture of the lovely lady herself – now how can I get upset at a beautiful smile like that?

So, about a week later, my knight in shining armor came home with a new camera for me. It has been an adjustment as this camera is different from the old one and I wasn’t sure for awhile that it was going to be allowed to live here – I’m still not totally sure, but we’re getting along a little bit better. I think that it’s true that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – or at least the old dog doesn’t like to learn them, but I’m not calling myself an old dog, you understand.

I haven’t actually uploaded any pictures off of the new camera to my computer, so you haven’t gotten to see them yet. It’s because I don’t know how to do it – more new tricks to learn and I haven’t had the courage to try haven’t had time to read the manual and decipher how to do it. I must force myself to do so soon, because I’m running out of old stock to include with my posts.

I was going to update you on the gardens, but I think I’ll save that for it’s own post (maybe with pictures?).

I’ve been spending much time pouring over my notes and websites making a plan for our new school year. I have been drawn for many years now to the teachings and educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason, and have implemented many of her ideas for different subjects into our homeschool over the past 5 years or so, but am feeling the Lord leading me to include even more of this gentle approach to schooling into our days. I will hopefully post more about this in the near future, as I think that I’m closing in on my final plans for the year. Can you please pray for clear thinking for me and the Lord’s will to be clear to me in this area? He is the center of our homeschool and I only want to go where He is leading us.

Well, I think that’s enough for now! I am being called to the kitchen – to make cookies and to carve an apple doll for Anna. We read “The Apple Doll” by Elisa Kleven last night before bed and she asked if we could make an apple doll today – we will carve the face and let it dry for about a week. Guess I better take my camera to the kitchen with me.

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Happy 4th of July!

Photo courtesy of Corbis

We have been busy working on our 4th of July lapbooks this morning. It is good to remember why we are celebrating today! I will be hitting the kitchen soon to bake some brownies and start chilling the homemade ice cream. I am even going to try my hand at fresh squeezed lemonade if I have time.

It will just be our immediate family for the 4th this year with my Dad “relaxing” in the hospital (Hi Dad!) and my siblings off with other plans. Ryan will be coming over later, and we will be swimming in the pool, cooking out hot dogs, shooting off some fireworks and lighting some sparklers, eating ice cream, and – when it gets dark – heading out to watch the local fireworks display.

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th, whatever your plans may be!

Blessings,
Nancy

Crockpot Barbecue Pulled Pork

Here is a wonderful easy dinner that is so perfect for these lazy, fun-filled days of summer. We had dinner about a month ago at my sister-in-law’s home and she served this for dinner. It was delicious, so, of course, I asked for the recipe. It turned out to be a recipe on the back of this McCormick seasoning packet -

A few weeks ago, pork loin went on sale, and so I decided to try cooking this myself. I bought two packets of seasoning and about 6 lbs. of pork loin to be sure that I had enough for our group. It turned out to be plenty with extras to eat on for lunch throughout the week (always love that!). I will give you the ingredients for a single recipe ~ you can double it on your own if you so choose -

Ingredients
1 pkg. McCormick Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork Seasoning
3 lbs. boneless pork shoulder roast, well trimmed (I used pork loin and it was fine)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar

Place pork in slow cooker.
Mix seasoning, ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar until blended. Pour over pork.
Cover and cook 8 hours on LOW or 4 hours on HIGH.

Remove pork from slow cooker.
Shred pork, using 2 forks.

Return pork to slow cooker; mix and heat with sauce before serving.

Couldn’t be easier! And it was kind of fun shredding the pork – it fell apart so easily.

There are also instructions on the packet for using this to make BBQ Spareribs, if you prefer.

Serve it up on hamburger buns with french fries and some cole slaw (wish I’d thought of that when we had it!) and you’ve got the perfect summer evening meal!

Blessings,
Nancy

Summer Has Officially Arrived

We recorded our first 100 degree day yesterday for the year. . . with how many to follow? Looks like we’ll be spending our afternoons here for the foreseeable future -

Happy Summer!

Blessings,
Nancy

Chicken Pasta Salad with Grapes & Poppy Seed Dressing

I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website a little while back and tried it a few weeks ago. It was delicious and a wonderful summer meal. The recipe calls for using the boxed pasta Suddenly Salad. I knew that I was going to double the recipe, so I opted for just using bagged spiral pasta instead. I will give you the recipe the way that I cooked it and in the amounts that I used. If you want to see the original recipe, click here.

Ingredients
Pasta (spiral or your choice)
2-3 cups cooked chicken
1 1/2 cups halved red grapes
1/2-1 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 bottle refrigerated poppy seed dressing

Cook pasta -

I used two boxes of Rotini -

Drain pasta, rinse well with cold water. Shake to drain well -

Chop up chicken and vegetables. Grapes -

Celery -

Chicken – I used two packages of this chicken that came already grilled, I just had to chop it up -

Toast the almonds by sprinkling them in an ungreased heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently until the almonds begin to brown, and then stirring constantly until light brown -

Now everything’s ready to be mixed together -

Mix all of the ingredients except dressing in a large bowl -

Add the dressing. I used this one -

Mix well. Serve immediately or refrigerate -

This salad would be perfect for a luncheon or as a light, cool dinner on a hot summer evening. I loved the flavor of the toasted almonds in the salad! Enjoy!

Blessings,
Nancy

Crawdads and Kissin’ Cousins

While out looking over the pool this morning the kids discovered a few visitors, who most likely got lost on their way to the pond or the creek. Here are some photos of the poor wayward souls -

Lest you think that this guy was hugely intimidating to us, you better see this picture, which puts him more in perspective -

And here he is staring at us from his temporary jar home, where he will stay until transported back to the pond -

But our pinchy friend wasn’t the only visitor lurking in the pool water. We also discovered these -

And look at them now! -

Isn’t that sweet? Well, I thought so too, until Sarah informed me that she posed them that way on purpose for the picture. Oh well!

A few minutes later, another friend was discovered to add to the mix –

I love their beautiful markings, but will leave the holding of them to the kids. Here’s the whole happy family -

Blessings,
Nancy