food Leave a comment

Cookbook of the Month: January

In 2017, I resolved to cook 50 new-to-me recipes. In the end, I tried a total of 55 from various sources: online, magazines, cookbooks, the recipe box.

This year, I decided that I’d delve into my collection of cookbooks. We inherited several old-school cookbooks and compilations from my husband’s family, plus I’ve gotten some as gifts over the years, bought some for cheap at garage sales, and gotten some freebies from Weight Watchers meetings.

I’m planning to devote each month to one cookbook, and cook at least one recipe per week from that cookbook. January’s cookbook was from Trinity United Methodist Church in Swanton, Ohio, published in 1990 — from the estate of my in-laws.

Trinity United Methodist Cookbook 1990

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food, gardening, snapshots Leave a comment

Homegrown Dulce Rojo Paprika!

The deer left me six dulce rojo paprika peppers by harvest time last fall. I’ve had them sitting in my kitchen, drying, for months now, and I finally decided that tonight was the night I’d put them through my spice grinder and turn them into a delicious spice.

I unintentionally made “pink paprika” by also including some seeds and ribs of the peppers — those inside bits can be hard to shake out of a dry pepper sometimes. Perhaps next time, I’ll slice them in half and remove the ribs and seeds before I dry them…?

At any rate, it definitely has a distinct smell and taste about it, and it’s just a little different from any store-bought paprika I’ve tried. I hadn’t been planning to buy any more seeds for this year’s garden, but I might have to try some different pepper varieties now.

year in review Leave a comment

2017 Year In Review

I started compiling data for my Year In Review way back in November because I knew this would happen. It happens every year. I want to post my Year In Review, but once January comes, I can’t find the time/motivation to sit down and do it.

This year, I finally decided to sit down and get it done during the last weekend of January. Yeah, that Sunday when there was a widespread cable outage in my metro area. *facepalm* So, I started writing and organizing in the text file I use for later blogging, saved on my Pusheen thumb drive. Then my son asked me to play Balloon Catch with him, then LEGO, in between the loads of laundry I still had to wash. So, the Year In Review didn’t happen on Sunday.

Monday was a sick day for both me and my son (at least I didn’t have his fever and wheezing cough), so it didn’t get done Monday.

Come Tuesday, though, I managed to squeeze in some time over lunch and in the evening to start gathering my data and making it presentable. Finally, this evening, I sat down after I got Connor all tucked in and finished everything up. I stayed up later than I probably should have, but it’s done, and I’m glad.

I’m not feeling the meta-reporting about my blog posts this year — instead, I’m focusing more on what actually happened during 2017. Even without the blog entry breakdown, though, this Year In Review will be chock-a-block with data you mostly didn’t care about in the first place.
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