Bits Of Dust

Archive for 2008

Over the last two months we have spent a lot of time smashing, squishing, chopping, and milling different fruits to make our yearly supply of jams and jellies.

We made blackberry jam, blueberry jam, watermelon jelly, and apple jelly.

The apple jelly didn’t set. We have no idea why. The balance of sugar and pectin should have been right. Everything else should have been right. Stupid apples.

Look at the pretty tomatoes.

By the way, they were delicious!

I finally did it.

Our kids love chicken nuggets from the fast food places, like most kids. From time to time I try to make chicken with a coating that the kids will eat. Each time I think I have it, I fail, big time. They end up eating some of it, but then stopping halfway through a bite to tell me they don’t really like it.

So last night I tried something different. When the chicken breasts were still a bit frozen I sliced them in long think slices (where they resembled small fish filets).

I “marinated” them in a mixture for 30 minutes, soaked them in a batter and friend them.

“Marinade” Ingredients:

3 eggs
3-4 Tbsp milk
2 tsp minced garlic
2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients, and add chicken. Stir until chicken is covered and place the bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Batter ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp Lowry’s seasoning salt

Remove chicken piece from “marinade”, coat with batter, and drop into 1-2 inches of hot oil in a cast iron pan. Fry for 3 minutes on each side. Oh yeah, about the oil. I didn’t have enough crisco so I added some light olive oil to the mixture.

Success! They loved it. They said it tasted a lot like Long John Silver’s fish. I had to chuckle. They loved it so much, they actually want to eat the leftovers tonight. Amazing I tell you. I have used the same ingredients before, I just didn’t use them in this combination.

This weekend was quite busy. We did lots of little stuff around the house. The kids cleaned their classroom and playroom in the basement, which was a shock. They did a great job too!

Friday night I made country fried steak, gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables. Sorry, no pictures this time, we were just worn out by the time dinner was ready.

Last night, Gidget made sweet and sour shrimp, mongolian beef, rice and veggies. I totally spaced taking photos until we were done, again. I know, I am bad.

I have lots of stuff in the works, including lots of work at the day job and mad-coding on Stuffr at night, so posting “might” be light here this week as I try to balance things out.

Who knows when the fancy will strike though, right? The weekend just ended and I am exhausted already.

A couple nights ago we were kicking back, watching television and I suddenly craved chocolate. Not just any chocolate either. I knew right then I had to have cookies. I asked the wife if she wanted some. At midnight, warm cookies with a glass of cold milk always sound good.

So that’s what we had. Don’t get too excited, there’s nothing fancy with them, and no secret recipe, they were simple Nestle Tollhouse Cookies.

And they were delicious.

We were eating watermelon the other night, and I casually asked my wife if people actually made watermelon jelly. She wasn’t sure ,but was determined to find out.

Before I knew it, I was standing in the kitchen slicing watermelon and getting things ready.

I can honestly say, that yes, people do make watermelon jelly, and it is quite delicious.

I was hoping to have a video that I am working on done by now, but our power went out around 6pm and didn’t come back on until nearly 10.

Needless to say I am still working on the video, and it involves the mixture shown in the pot in the photo. I hope to have it done within the next few hours, but I probably won’t get around to posting it until tomorrow sometime.

Here’s the photo of the blueberries. In fact, I think we have more blueberries than we had blackberries, which means we’ll have quite a few jars of blueberry jam when we are done.

Forgive me for not posting earlier today, but we went to the farmer’s market again this morning.

We bought more blueberries (the wife is going to make blueberry jam tomorrow), garlic, honey, and goat’s milk soap. We also got to see one of the best “worm demonstrations” I have ever seen, I just wish I had video taped it so you could learn everything you need to know about farming your own worms.

I am exhausted, but I will post photos of the blueberries tomorrow.

Do you ever crave hot wings? I do.

I don’t like them too spicy, but they should have some kick to them. We have tried them from all of the local pizza places, and sandwich shops, but none compare to the hot wings you get from the deli at Wal-Mart.

I have tried to imitate the sauce they use so I can make them from scratch, with no luck. Does anyone have a copycat recipe for Wal-Mart’s wing sauce?

I’ll tell everyone you are my best friend if you pass it my way.