Friday, August 26, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sssolving The Sssssssssnake Sssaga
About 7 years ago, just after I asked my daughter and family to move in to help me, we decided to store some things of theirs in the attic. My son-in-law was in their living room upstairs (by the walk-in short attic door) and Mateo was still a baby in a baby chair. I opened the attic door, saw movement by my feet in the electric main-feed lines. Once my brain processed 'eeeeeeek!!! Snake!!!', you never saw a door slam so fast.
My s-i-l whipped around and asked me what was wrong. I explained that there was a huge snake right by the door. He looked shocked and asked how it could have possibly gotten in there. I explained to him that with old century homes, like this one, there's often older parts under the house that are still dirt-floor crawl spaces, and that it must have tunneled under the dirt and gotten in.
I couldn't bear the thought of a snake in the house, even if it was locked in the attic, so I knew I had better come up with a plan, (especially since, God forbid, neither one of us wanted to actually touch it.) I told him to wait until I got some supplies, and didn't fill him in on what I was doing....not yet. So, I went out to the shop and made a sort of smaller shepherd's hook with a fairly long handle, similar to one I saw Jungle Larry (on TV) use when he was handling snakes.
When I came upstairs, I had my shepherd's hook, and a flip-top hamper. Boy, did his eyes ever bug out when I explained what I planned on doing! I explained that he was going to put the baby up high, safely up and away from the floor...ya know...'just in case'. He was to hold the hamper with the lid open at floor level, and when I got that sucker in there, he was to slam the lid shut and take it immediately outside.
Now, while that all sounded good in theory, I didn't think about the snake moving away from where it was. It was now part way behind something, and had his wrong end sticking out. So, I slammed the door again and said 'You know, you're going to have to hold that hamper up higher, and I'm going to have to try and fling him in there.' Boy, if I thought his eyes bugged out before, they were nothing like the incredulous 'whaddya, crazy?' look I got then!
I must say that I hit the basket first try, and, I'm fairly sure God never heard such fervent prayers from two people over a snake. He prayed that I wouldn't miss, and I prayed that I wouldn't get bit AND I wouldn't miss the basket.
Looking closely at the snake I realized I had never seen one with this particular skin pattern before. It reminded me of a rattler, and was extremely aggressive, chasing me when it should have been running away like any other normal snake. I don't usually kill snakes, I prefer to take them for a ride on a shovel to the edge of the field. This one wasn't so lucky, because there was a little child in the house, and because it was so danged aggressive, I thought that I would have to find out more about the snake. Was it poisonous? If somebody got bit, we'd at least have to know what kind of snake it was in case some kind of antedote was needed. So, we killed it.
The next day a couple of the neighboring farmers stopped by. Being 'old timers' I thought that maybe they could identify it. (Ok, yeah...I get it. I'm an old-timer too, but hey, they got 15 years on me lol) When we work fields, we see all kinds of different snakes and stuff, but not one person in the area had ever seen this particular kind.
Thus began my endless searches on the internet at snake sites, and department of natural resources sites. I found nothing, the only close looking one was from Arizona! For at least 3 to 4 years after that, we found none in the house. BUT, they totally invaded the garage. One day I saw one coming out of a teensy hole that was where the foundation cement met the bottom cement block walls. Yikes! For years we couldn't step foot into the garage without a hoe or a sharp shovel, and if needing something stored in a box, or by the wall...well, we had to tip it first 'just to make sure...' (Did I mention earlier that they were aggressive and chased you?!)
From there I read up on ingredients of Pine Sol, and I hit on what I thought to be a good answer. WalMart was having a sale on Pine Sol that week, so I got a few big bottles of it. I mixed it with water, and with a funnel I poured a gallon down that hole where they were coming out of. Judging from how many babies we caught coming out of there over the past few summers, we all assumed that they had hollowed out a huge den type area under the concrete floor. I took the old orchard sprayer and made a mix for that too, and I sprayed the garage floor with it. I was amazed that by doing something as cheap and simple as that, I didn't see many snakes on the floor afterwards.
I kept that up for about 3 years. It helped a lot, but never totally eradicated them. And each season I'd dump another gallon or two of my Pine Sol mix down any holes I saw one come out of. Every year there seemed less, and less, and we didn't need to open a garage door with hoe in hand.
Forward to this summer...I had a young fellow stop by here to talk about some trees. He saw this dead snake laying there and asked about it. I told him nobody has been able to identify it, so I was going to Fed-Ex it to Columbus dept of Natural Resources hoping that they could. He said he had a friend that was worked in that very dept. and could he take a picture and email him. (Those emailing and camera phones sure can come in handy!) A few days later, the guy emailed him back, and he called me with the findings.
After all that worrying, it turned out to be a variety of milk snake. The Eastern Milk snake, to be exact. When I was doing my searches, I counted out the milk snake because the patterns didn't match or even come close. Then I found out there are more than 25 sub-species of the milk snake, and many, many variations. No wonder I had such trouble finding it.
It is now almost the beginning of September. It's one month past the time when we typically begin with our snake problem. The babies are usually hatched by now, and adult skins have been shed. None of us has seen even one in the garage so far this year. I believe the Pine Sol bath I keep giving their den has really decreased their numbers. I did find one skin shed in the garden today though...and to think I was picking beans from that spot yesterday....ewwwwww!! Time to bring out the orchard sprayer, fill it up once again, abandon the flip-flops, and keep a hoe by each door....you know...'just in case.'
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake
Since Labor Day is not too far away, I thought I'd share this recipe with you all. I grew up with this one, and it's an easy cake to make, and makes for a great dessert for a 'bring a dish to pass' type gathering. When I take it to our neighborhoods party, I just leave it right in the sheet cake pan. That way it's easy to carry, cut, and share. If you're a chocolate cake lover, you'll really love this one!
TEXAS SHEET CAKE
2 sticks of margarine
4 Tablespoons of cocoa
1 Cup water
Put the above ingredients in a large cooking pot. Bring to a boil, stirring, and then cool a little.
2 Cups sugar
2 Eggs
2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Cup sour cream
Add to the chocolate butter mixture. Stir well. Put into a greased sheet cake tin and bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 20 to 22 minutes. Prepare the frosting while the cake is baking.
TEXAS SHEET CAKE FROSTING
1 Stick margarine
4 Tablespoons cocoa
6 Tablespoons milk
Put all of the above ingredients into a cooking pot & bring to a rolling boil for a minute, then remove from heat.
1 Pound (1/2 bag) confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Put the sugar and vanilla into a separate bowl and then add the chocolate mixture to this. Stir well. Put on the cake immediately after taking it out of the oven. Sprinkle crushed nuts over top if you want to add them.
TEXAS SHEET CAKE
2 sticks of margarine
4 Tablespoons of cocoa
1 Cup water
Put the above ingredients in a large cooking pot. Bring to a boil, stirring, and then cool a little.
2 Cups sugar
2 Eggs
2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Cup sour cream
Add to the chocolate butter mixture. Stir well. Put into a greased sheet cake tin and bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 20 to 22 minutes. Prepare the frosting while the cake is baking.
TEXAS SHEET CAKE FROSTING
1 Stick margarine
4 Tablespoons cocoa
6 Tablespoons milk
Put all of the above ingredients into a cooking pot & bring to a rolling boil for a minute, then remove from heat.
1 Pound (1/2 bag) confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Put the sugar and vanilla into a separate bowl and then add the chocolate mixture to this. Stir well. Put on the cake immediately after taking it out of the oven. Sprinkle crushed nuts over top if you want to add them.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
An Easier Way Freezing Tomatoes & Green Peppers
TOMATOES:
First, before I go on, and you read and go 'say what?!', I thought I should preface this with the fact that I have successfully been doing this for around 35 years, and I have never, ever, gone back to the methods my cookbooks all said to do. That being said...
When I have a lot of cherry tomatoes, and my family has had their fill for the summer, I set about to freezing some of them. I know that they always say tomatoes need blanched and all that, but really, cherry tomatoes don't. I rinse them off, taking the leaf part off, (but not cutting or dicing, nor taking out the part where the stem attaches.) Then I put them on a cookie sheet with sides on it, and place them in my freezer for a few hours to flash freeze them in a single layer. Once they are frozen solid, I transfer them to quart zip-lock freezer bags and keep them in my fridge freezer.
In the winter time, if I'm making a stew, or a soup, or something, I can just reach into the bag and grab a handful to thaw and add. I don't bother to cut out where the stem was, and nobody has ever noticed. (Case in point...did you ever snatch a cherry tomato right off the vine and pop it in your mouth? Did you have a knife to core it, or did you just eat it? Aha!) The frozen cherries are a nice addition to the winter meals, and doing it by my method, makes them easier to process for freezing. The skins do not get hard while they're frozen. A few times I even sneaked a few thawed ones into other dishes, and nobody noticed that either!
For the larger tomatoes, like beefsteak and such (or even Romas), I do it a little differently. I wash the tomatoes, core them, quarter them, and then run them through the blender or food processor. Notice, I didn't blanch them, nor did I peel them. When I throw them in the processor, all that breaks down to edible size. If I don't want the peel part in, then I drain off the juiced tomato and throw out the leftover skin part. Personally, I like to keep the pureed skin part in, it doesn't affect the taste in spaghetti sauces and things like that, plus I've always heard that most of the nutrients are closest to the skin!
After I have them all pureed, I put them in a large stockpot and cook them down for a while. I let it simmer about half an hour or so. Once that has cooled down to room temp, I start preparing it for the freezer. I do not cook it all the way down, it seems like a huge waste of energy, plus this way works well for me!
I put this cooked tomato juice into, tada...you guessed it, quart or pint zip-lock freezer bags. I know you're going 'is she nuts?!' (Well, yes...but that's a whole nuther thing lol.) I place the zip-lock in a short jar and fold over the edge over and around the top (so the bag doesn't fall in when I'm filling it.) I then fill each bag leaving about an inch, or so, head space. I remove the bag, get as much air out as I can, and zip it shut. I layer the bags, standing up, in a bread pan, and then freeze them.
I know you're probably thinking, but it's not cooked down to make it thick. Well, yes and no. When I take a bag out to thaw it for cooking, or to make my own V-8 drink (or whatever), I stand it up and let it thaw out. Once it's thawed you notice that the thick part is at the bottom, and the top part is more watery looking. I pour off the watery part into a cup, and add the rest of the contents into what I'm cooking. If I'm making a juice drink, then I blend the whole thing back together and add my spices, etc. If I'm just using the thicker bottom parts, then the saved juice part gets used for if I need to add some more while somethings cooking. If it's still not thick enough, then I add a Tablespoon or so of purchased tomato paste.
Whoa...purchased tomato paste? Yes, to my way of thinking, it costs me more for the hours it takes to cook down my tomatoes to the paste stage. Plus when it's on sale, the paste is actually fairly cheap. When I get the paste and I only need a little bit to thicken something, I take the rest and give a ice cube tray a quick shot of Pam (or something similar), stick the paste in there and flash freeze that (of course, I transfer the frozen cubes to what else...zip-locks :-)
PEPPERS
I won't go into freezing whole peppers, but I like to keep bags of diced peppers on hand for those omelets and other things I want diced peppers for. Do I blanch those? No. Do I peel them? No. I wash them, core them, dice them, flash freeze them on a cookie sheet, and store them in quart zip-locks. Not one guest or family member has ever been able to tell they weren't blanched and all that other prep. They taste just as good as fresh, or frozen, store-bought.
First, before I go on, and you read and go 'say what?!', I thought I should preface this with the fact that I have successfully been doing this for around 35 years, and I have never, ever, gone back to the methods my cookbooks all said to do. That being said...
When I have a lot of cherry tomatoes, and my family has had their fill for the summer, I set about to freezing some of them. I know that they always say tomatoes need blanched and all that, but really, cherry tomatoes don't. I rinse them off, taking the leaf part off, (but not cutting or dicing, nor taking out the part where the stem attaches.) Then I put them on a cookie sheet with sides on it, and place them in my freezer for a few hours to flash freeze them in a single layer. Once they are frozen solid, I transfer them to quart zip-lock freezer bags and keep them in my fridge freezer.
In the winter time, if I'm making a stew, or a soup, or something, I can just reach into the bag and grab a handful to thaw and add. I don't bother to cut out where the stem was, and nobody has ever noticed. (Case in point...did you ever snatch a cherry tomato right off the vine and pop it in your mouth? Did you have a knife to core it, or did you just eat it? Aha!) The frozen cherries are a nice addition to the winter meals, and doing it by my method, makes them easier to process for freezing. The skins do not get hard while they're frozen. A few times I even sneaked a few thawed ones into other dishes, and nobody noticed that either!
For the larger tomatoes, like beefsteak and such (or even Romas), I do it a little differently. I wash the tomatoes, core them, quarter them, and then run them through the blender or food processor. Notice, I didn't blanch them, nor did I peel them. When I throw them in the processor, all that breaks down to edible size. If I don't want the peel part in, then I drain off the juiced tomato and throw out the leftover skin part. Personally, I like to keep the pureed skin part in, it doesn't affect the taste in spaghetti sauces and things like that, plus I've always heard that most of the nutrients are closest to the skin!
After I have them all pureed, I put them in a large stockpot and cook them down for a while. I let it simmer about half an hour or so. Once that has cooled down to room temp, I start preparing it for the freezer. I do not cook it all the way down, it seems like a huge waste of energy, plus this way works well for me!
I put this cooked tomato juice into, tada...you guessed it, quart or pint zip-lock freezer bags. I know you're going 'is she nuts?!' (Well, yes...but that's a whole nuther thing lol.) I place the zip-lock in a short jar and fold over the edge over and around the top (so the bag doesn't fall in when I'm filling it.) I then fill each bag leaving about an inch, or so, head space. I remove the bag, get as much air out as I can, and zip it shut. I layer the bags, standing up, in a bread pan, and then freeze them.
I know you're probably thinking, but it's not cooked down to make it thick. Well, yes and no. When I take a bag out to thaw it for cooking, or to make my own V-8 drink (or whatever), I stand it up and let it thaw out. Once it's thawed you notice that the thick part is at the bottom, and the top part is more watery looking. I pour off the watery part into a cup, and add the rest of the contents into what I'm cooking. If I'm making a juice drink, then I blend the whole thing back together and add my spices, etc. If I'm just using the thicker bottom parts, then the saved juice part gets used for if I need to add some more while somethings cooking. If it's still not thick enough, then I add a Tablespoon or so of purchased tomato paste.
Whoa...purchased tomato paste? Yes, to my way of thinking, it costs me more for the hours it takes to cook down my tomatoes to the paste stage. Plus when it's on sale, the paste is actually fairly cheap. When I get the paste and I only need a little bit to thicken something, I take the rest and give a ice cube tray a quick shot of Pam (or something similar), stick the paste in there and flash freeze that (of course, I transfer the frozen cubes to what else...zip-locks :-)
PEPPERS
I won't go into freezing whole peppers, but I like to keep bags of diced peppers on hand for those omelets and other things I want diced peppers for. Do I blanch those? No. Do I peel them? No. I wash them, core them, dice them, flash freeze them on a cookie sheet, and store them in quart zip-locks. Not one guest or family member has ever been able to tell they weren't blanched and all that other prep. They taste just as good as fresh, or frozen, store-bought.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Free Printable Internet Password List
I don't know about you, but I belong to a lot of sites on the internet. That means a whole lot of passwords and user names to keep track of. I don't use the same password and log-in info. I found these free printable internet password/username lists come in very handy! I keep mine in a thin 3-ring binder by my desk.
My favorite one that I use the most is this first one. It's real simple and straight forward: the website name, username, and password. You need to have Adobe Reader, but I think most people have a version of that.
http://www.samplewords.com/password-list/
This second one is a little bit different giving you fields for more info. It has a place for the web address, the site name, username, password, and date of registration. I found this one to be very handy for some of the sites I belong to that I need to keep track of the registration date. If you belong to something like CashCrate, where you sign up and then unsubscribe after a certain period of time, then this is the form that would help you keep that straight. At the top, it also has 'email address I used for the following registrations:'...some of the sites I belong to I join under a different email address than the one I use for my own personal correspondance and such. (Well, that is, unless I don't mind getting spammed because I signed up for something lol.)
http://www.mochabaydesign.com/printables/passwords.html
My favorite one that I use the most is this first one. It's real simple and straight forward: the website name, username, and password. You need to have Adobe Reader, but I think most people have a version of that.
http://www.samplewords.com/password-list/
This second one is a little bit different giving you fields for more info. It has a place for the web address, the site name, username, password, and date of registration. I found this one to be very handy for some of the sites I belong to that I need to keep track of the registration date. If you belong to something like CashCrate, where you sign up and then unsubscribe after a certain period of time, then this is the form that would help you keep that straight. At the top, it also has 'email address I used for the following registrations:'...some of the sites I belong to I join under a different email address than the one I use for my own personal correspondance and such. (Well, that is, unless I don't mind getting spammed because I signed up for something lol.)
http://www.mochabaydesign.com/printables/passwords.html
Monday, August 15, 2011
How A Tech Would Answer: Daddy, How Was I Born??
Daddy, how was I born?
'Well, son, Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom, and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, and googled each other. There your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button , nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:
'You got Male!
'Well, son, Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom, and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, and googled each other. There your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button , nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:
'You got Male!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The Queen Of Random Renames Her Bathroom
I decided I'm hanging a sign on the bathroom door: Her Royal Throne Room. It occured to me one day when I was sick and dizzy and I fell off my throne and got crowned by the bathtub. I knew I was truly a Queen when a circlet of bright red gleaming rubies started appearing around my head. Besides, I know that this is the only room I can truly rule in.
I got to thinking too that it's fitting because my robe is in there along with my magic mirror and the scales of justice. You really do have to listen carefully to what the magic mirror says. One time I went out after the mirror told me I was beautiful, and then I found out I missed the mark and had a huge streak of mascara on my cheek. I just know that magic mirror was laughing behind my back!
I have often felt that the scales of justice have been misnamed. Is it just and fair that it should point out that I shouldn't have had that extra piece of pie and ice cream? Is it fair that despite the magic mirror showing me showing a thinner waist that I actually weigh more than I look. Do NOT trust the scales of justice, I've found it can lie just as badly as the magic mirror!
What's nice about the throne room is that I can be myself, and quite cheeky if I want to be. I also rule over all the porcelain Gods that live within those walls. A few times I've actually bent over praying to the one porcelain God, but mostly I am busy giving it a clean environment so it can maintain it's gleaming personality. I'm fairly certain this must be where the phrase 'cleanliness is next to Godliness' came from. It doesn't realize though that real prayers can only go to the real God.
The throne room is the only place I can actually kick all my royal subjects out of. And I have many royal subjects who insist on following me wherever I go...er, that would be the 2 dogs and the cat, but I digress. I can truly relax there. No milk and honey baths, but I do let Calgon take me away because it does tend to bring out my bubbling personality. It's also a good room to be in when I first wake up because I know I can go there, talk to the mirror, and it will take away dragon breath by giving it the brush-off.
The other day I got to use the royal scepter. I knew I'd have to drag it out from it's place by the throne because the Prince of Hearts is only 8 and he forgot that he had a royal flush at hand.
Most people don't notice, but I do keep a few royal jewels in there too. One is a great book I got for Christmas appropriately called The Bathroom Reader, chock full of facts and trivia that every Queen should know. Most of the others are in a crystal bowl. I believe when it was presented to me a Jester referred to them as some kind of air freshener crystals, but I'm not positive on that. They're very pretty, a sparkly jade color. Up until then I didn't have a clue that jewels could have a pleasing aroma too.
All in all, I'd say it deserves the name of Throne Room. It has everything a Queen could ask for, and loyal subjects can always feel free to visit...preferably when I'm NOT there.
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