June 2011 Blog Posts (27)

Howdy folks! This is my entry for the cook-off, and actually this is a post that I made on my CCR blog earlier in the week.

I would say that 95% of the ingredients in this recipe are from my front yard garden, and 99% of the ingredients that ended up on the final plate are from our front yard garden. I say front yard, because we have a back yard garden also.

The…

A SOLE Food Challenge is something I've been thinking about for ages now, just haven't had the time or energy so far this year, and really, I still don't. In an attempt to reduce the pressure I might put on myself by calling it a…

The other day my sis asked me to share my recipe for laundry soap. It's very simple, but I'm not so good with measuring things. I tend to just make by feel (needless to say, I don't always have spectacular results). For the sake of passing on the info I'm going to make an attempt to quantify the process. I hobbled this particular laundry soap recipe together from various sources across the web. I've been making my own for so long that the process has evolved a bit to suit me, but you can…

Here it is year number two of successfully making mango chutney, well that is if I can follow the recipe and stir the chutney every ten minutes for the next three hours. It is 4:00 p.m. which means the chutney won't be finished until at least 8:00, three hours to simmer and then canning time. I started this project at 1:30 and love every minute of it but really wish the mangos had ripened in a week as planned to be able to…

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the first day of summer than by making a batch of ice cream. The raspberry canes in the garden are completely doubled over with the weight of this year's crop. Already filling their own corner…

A while ago, I read a lot about post carbon.

Which led me to read about peak oil, through the lens of our suburban life in the outskirts of Montreal.

Which led me to read about british-born…

[Originally posted on my blog briciole as English-style Coulommiers (a.k.a. English farmhouse cheese)]

I am not sure why I had never tried to make this fresh cheese before, but I am certainly glad that the availability of fresh goat…

Hi everyone! I'm getting excited to celebrate the start of the summer solstice tonight. Anyone else have special plans?

Above is a photo of my friend Katie Red at our solstice celebration last year. We actually ended up celebrating at the very end of the solstice instead of the…

 Want to save some money and take your subscriptions with you?  When  subscribing to periodicals or purchasing  books,  go with  the digital version of your subscription. 

I have updated the majority of my magizine subscriptions this way.  I've, stopped those which were not in digital format, after asking the publisher to digitally publish their periodical and moved over to reading artilces using their on line websites.  I  also purchase my hard books in digital format as well when…

(Hey, come visit me sometime at eatatdixiebelles)

Having some down-time in the last week since my operation, I've been thinking about big issues (trying not to, but you know my brain doesn't listen to me!), and…

Summer vacation is upon us here in Southwest Virginia. Kids home 24/7...need I say

more? The house is alive and wild, noisy and happy, bubbles being blown on the

front porch and squirt guns squirting through screen windows...literally as I

typed this my daughter just turned on the stereo and it was playing, "School's

Out For Summer"...really loud, whereby I asked her to turn it off. Really off.

Not that I don't like the music, just not…

For those of you new to my posts, my friend Cheryl and I have started a community garden and urban farm in Baltimore City. This link will take you to the early March section of the blog that shows us meeting with the…

So, picking back up where I left off...regarding our premature turkey hatch and 3 'hens' setting on 8+ eggs-

Let me just say my wife is awesome. For so many reasons, but specifically, in this instance, for buying my plan.

We're going to pull the chicken hen off and isolate her with the poult and remaining 7 eggs.

To provide a little image, our setup is part Sanford & Son, part clever given our stamp-sized lot. We built a 4x10 permanent coop with…