Sunday Dinner, August 3, 2008

Funny, it seems like only yesterday that I posted.

Oh. That's right. It WAS yesterday.

Well. It seems that yet another week has gotten away from me and here we are about to discuss Sunday Dinner again already, and believe it or not I have my menu already decided upon for the most part. And it's going to be a vegetarian meal again 'cause I'm using all the fresh veggies we've been given while they're in season.

Earlier in the week Lamar's Mom and step Dad gave us a bunch of garden stuff and amongst all the veggie goodness was a couple of sacks of fresh purple hull peas. I shelled them and tomorrow after we get home from church I'll cook a big pot of those and some of MY HOMEMADE PAN BREAD or MY HOMEMADE CORNBREAD. I'll take a vote of all that are here and the majority will win: either pan bread or corn bread.

You can find my recipes by clicking on the bold links, and you can find MY RECIPE BLOG HERE.

I also have quite a bit of yellow summer squash and okra and I'll probably fry some of each. I have a fresh supply of garden ripe tomatoes and I'll slice a big bowl of those and I still have fresh refrigerator pickles.

So, we're having fresh purple hull peas, either pan bread or cornbread, fried yellow squash, fried breaded okra, sliced garden ripe tomatoes and refrigerator pickles.

Now, what's on the menu at your place this Sunday? If you'd like to participate this week, just share your plans/menu in the comments.Someone asked me about MY RECIPE FOR REFRIGERATOR PICKLES. I've looked back through my comments and can't find it, so unless I overlooked it, which is entirely possible, it must have been asked by email.

I sincerely apologize but I can't recall who asked for the recipe. Ha ha, like I have a recipe. Every time I make them I make them a little different. A little of this, a little of that, add more of something....Keep in mind that I don't measure any of this stuff. I just start throwing stuff in a bowl until it tastes right to me.

But, here's my recipe as best as I can put it down. I've also posted it on MY RECIPE BLOG for easy reference.

To make about 1 quart of pickling brine:

1 cup white vinegar
3 cups cold water
2-3 tablespoons canning/pickling salt if you have it, if not, you can use table salt
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, or coarse ground black pepper
1 large onion, sliced in rings
3 or 4 large cloves of garlic, sliced
small whole cucumbers and/or peeled and sliced cucumbers
fresh hot peppers or crushed red pepper as desired, optional

Stir brine ingredients to dissolve salt as much as possible.

In quart jars or any airtight container that can be used in the fridge, pack fresh whole cucumbers or peeled and sliced cucumbers, adding sliced onion and garlic equally among the jars/containers. Stir brine again and pour over cucumbers to cover, then cover tightly and place in the fridge.

Just a note for V. from Northern Idaho and any others who may be interested: you can also use small zucchini squash in this recipe or almost any pickling recipe that calls for cucumbers, including relishes, chow chow, piccalili and my favorite, bread and butter pickles.

For the refrigerator pickles I'd use equal parts cucumbers and small zucchini if using the squash in this recipe.

According to how many cucumbers you have you may need more onion and garlic and more brine to cover your cucumbers. These have to stay refrigerated because they're not processed in a canner for long storage. However, they will keep indefinitely in the fridge, if they last that long. Hope they turn out well for you.They didn't tell me anything about the results of my fasting glucose tolerance test that I had done on Friday. I'll have to wait until they call me, send me the results by mail or I harass them by phone about it. By past experience I can tell you that it'll probably be the latter of those options.The high temperature today was 104F. That's 40C. With the humidity factored in the heat index (humidex for some of my friends) was well into the 110'sF (45+C) and we were under an excessive heat warning until 8 pm tonight and will be again Sunday.

It's now 86F (30C) at 11 pm and we're under a heat advisory all night.

It's dangerously hot and miserable. What else can be said about it?One thing we did today to help beat the heat was go swimming. Our church rents the city pool in a neighboring town each year before school begins the Fall session and anybody from the church is welcome to bring picnic stuff and go swimming.

The pool was bath water warm but it was still a little cooler than the surrounding air so was refreshing and we had a great time of watery fun and fellowship. We swam for a couple of hours, then got out to eat our picnic, then back in to swim for a couple more hours. By that time it was beginning to get dusky dark and the mosquitoes came out in force!

There was one fly in the ointment, though. Or rather, a LOT of flies on us! Horse flies, that is. The things swarmed us, biting whatever was sticking out of the water and just generally making a pest of themselves. Those things hurt like crazy when they bite! I went with Jason, Jessica and Emmy and we had to extra careful that the horse flies didn't bite her.

Miss Emmy had herself a high old time, and the rest of us had a great time as well. Every time Emmy saw a horse fly light on the edge of the pool she'd say, "boog, boog!"

She is so cute at this age. She'll be 15 months old next Friday, August 8th.

And yes, I did have my camera with me, but since we were around all that water I only took a few pics at the picnic tables. I think most of us know my record with cameras and water. I wasn't about to take any chances with my new camera getting rurnt (ruined) so I didn't take my camera anywhere near the pool.I had Emmy today while Jessica worked and Jason went to orientation for a new job, then we swam for about 3½ hours and as soon as I got home I took a shower to get rid of all the chlorine and chemicals from the pool.

Swimming always saps my strength, more than almost any other type of exercise.

Diane is a TARD girl tonight.Remember back there a few paragraphs when I said our church rents the pool before school starts each Fall? Well, school starts here on August 18th.

In 2 weeks, y'all.

Glory be, where has this Summer gone? I sure won't miss the heat but time is mortally flying!

School starting back is always the first sign of Fall for me. I know that it will still be smotheringly hot for at least another month after school begins, but I am so ready for this Summer to be over and for the cooler, less humid days of Fall to arrive.Did I mention already that Diane is TARD tonight?

My prayer for each of you my friends is that God will richly bless you by meeting all your needs, and may you have enough to share.