pickles

I made my 1st batch of bread and butter pickles to day and my 2nd tomorrow. seem to be addicted to them lately so rather than get the big jar and finishing it in a day or two, i looked up the recipe.
It is a bit time consuming, but easy. All it takes is salt, an onion and pickling cuc's slices at first. After 24 hrs. the pickles are rinsed of the salt. Next, in a saucepan mix a c of sugar and 1 c of vinegar w spices & and boil for 10 min. Cool put in jars and there you are. I think it's cheaper.

The first batch I let the pickles sit on the counter until they were almost yellow. I tried the anyway and they turned out OK after their salt hydration. This latest batch is with fresh ones from the farmer's market this morning.

It's melon time. I love cantaloupe and crenshaw's. Not a watermelon or honeydew,(dad's favorite) person am I. I can still get berries and stone fruit too. I should freeze some nectarines and strawberries. Raspberries are my favorite, I need to make some more jam. I hate doing this in the hot days. The middle of the night is best. It always cools to 50 or 60 in CA. You need a jacket at night. That's why I took a jacket to Michael's wedding , after 33 years away, I forgot East coast weather.

I'll visit spring and fall and sometimes Christmas or for a family occasion.

I can't seem to get in a regular sleep period. I've been taking sleeping pills for the last week. You know if I could I'd be up all night and sleep all day. Usually I come home and fall asleep in the computer or reading in the afternoon and sleep for t20 hrs. or so. Today I forced myself to stay awake till 9:30 then I crashed and woke at 11.

I like fish tacos with a bit of cole slaw on top. Who knew. I was reluctant to buy them.

I'm looking forward for the kids returning to school. Then for the 1st time in a long time I'll go to Big Sur and enjoy the peace of one the most beautiful places on earth.

Then I'll mosey up to see Marilyn in Trinidad. I can only lat 4-6 days there.

Finally after the Mayo clinic et al they or she got an MRI on her lower spine and the found a growing cyst at the base of her spine. Everyone thought she was imagining it. There is one Dr. in Kansas city mo that does surgery. He's done 100 The ones in CA have just started with limited bad results. This tumor can push on the bone and intertwine with nerve endings. It's grown. It should have been found sooner.
Surgery is a last resort with a huge long recovery time. She would have to be on her side and only get up to pee. Beats a incontinence or cauterization

I applied for unemployment today.

Michael got a nice send off announcement from Watchovia.

Michael Jackson at 50 dies too

I can't get to sleep so I've been taking sleeping pills nightly for nearly 2 weeks and on rare occasions I take 30 not 15 mg. Last night I couldn't get to sleep till 5 so I took another one for the first time. Granted the expire in June but gee....

Last night I made these great scallops with garlic and w. wine w/ sauteed garlic and mushrooms, yum. I got the 4 lg. scallops at the farmers market on Wed.

Tonight I'm making roasted eggplant, eggplant, zucchini. yellow crookneck squash and roasted red and green peppers.The veggies look real good and caramelized. It brings the sweetness out. I was hard pressed to find a paper bag to put the peppers in to steam so I could take the skin off. I'm trying to go bag less at the market and bring my own canvas bags.

Have you heard about the garbage pile of plastic which doesn't degrade out in the Pacific the size of Rhode island. Don't use Styrofoam either.

I also made a meatloaf w/ potatoes and carrots. I've got food coming out of my ears.

I bought ground beef on sale in the economy tube and froze half, made a meatloaf of the other. Since I had no room in my freezer I took it to school to freeze. Had to bring it home on tues.made tacos and froze the other part till tonight.

Part of that 2nd meat loaf grew moldy, should have fed it to Diablo before that.

I tossed all the bread U had in the freezer and made a little space. Bread only freezes well for a couple weeks not 6 mo. or a year. I mist have had 6 partial loaves, pita, artichoke bread as so on.

I left a loaf of whole wheat in the freezer at school. What you buy in the store can't compete with the purity of stone grown fresh bread without and preservatives. It also only lasts a week so I need to stash some in the freezer for it is tough for me to get through a loaf a week.

I rescanned my channels and now I have CBS but lost ABC sorta. Found another PBS though. I may have to get an antenna booster of cable. I'll talk to radio shack.

I'm reading J Deaver's L. Rhymes novel The Blue Nowhere.I went to the farmers market downtown and finally got some nan and chicken curry that is good. Since this is the last week for blueberries I got a pint too. I saw shallots too.

I came home and made chicken w. breadcrumbs with shallots, garlic, lemon and mushrooms with white wine. I finally finished the bottle opened 2 mo. ago.

I ran by the library and school to fax a letter for a job and run off some course outlines for summer school. I mush be crazy applying for an English teacher position at the office of ed. for special day classes. I never used to accept those subbing.

Tomorrow is the open house. So far I have 10 6th graders, 4th 7,8,9 and 4 10-11th. He hopes to get more tomorrow.

He has a scanner so I hope to learn how to scan it onto a disk and load it on my applications.

Watched Skumdog Millionaire. Yikes, the slums are horrible and the people that maim kids in return for food and shelter and put them to work begging is horrible. I'll bet it happens in Mexico and other poor countries. I've seen it coming back to the US from Mexico.