Sunday Dinner, August 16, 2009 & Selected Ramblings

Wonder of wonders, I have my Sunday Dinner menu all settled and Saturday's supper as well, and it's only 3 pm.

Saturday's supper will be TEXAS HASH and there's still plenty of CORN SALAD left from the triple batch I made on Wednesday.

For Sunday Dinner, I'm cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot, fresh garden purple hull peas, basmati rice and some okra and tomatoes. I have a canteloupe that we can have for dessert if anybody still has room for something sweet.

As soon as I get this posted I'll dive right into cooking supper and preparations for Sunday Dinner. I like to get as much as I can done the night before so I don't have to spend any more time than I have to in the kitchen on Sunday afternoons.

What are your plans for Sunday Dinner this week? Just share your menu in the comments if you'd like.Where has this Summer gone? Public schools start back here on Wednesday, August 19th, although some private schools and most colleges won't resume until after Labor Day.

I believe I've made it quite clear that I'm not a fan of hot weather, so I don't mourn the passing of the heat and humidity, but the time itself has positively whizzed by in the blink of an eye, or so it seems.

Oh, I'm well aware that there's still plenty of hot weather ahead before Fall really arrives, but it seems once school starts that Summer is officially over for the most part. I can hardly wait for those crisp Fall days and nights, with impossibly blue skies by day and clear, starry skies by night.

And no more mosquitoes till next Summer!Last Fall I bought a food dehydrator from an online company. They'd occasionally sent me brochures through the mail over the last several years and I had a bad case of coveting for one, but they were just too expensive for my budget.

Finally they had a big sale and combined with a coupon I'd saved from them, I managed to procure my dream dehydrator. I have a Wal*mart cheapie dehydrator that I've used for several years, but the trays have gotten brittle and are breaking, and it takes fourteen forevers to dry anything with it.

Comparing the Wal*mart dehydrator to my dream dehydrator is like comparing a Hot*Wheels toy car to a real Ferrari! My new dehydrator has 8 drying trays, a big multi-power fan for fast, even drying and a timer so I don't have to babysit it and watch the clock so I can unplug it when it's done drying.

I had grand plans for drying garden veggies and making beef jerky, fruit leathers and other treats. I did make bags of deer jerky, and still have more deer meat in the freezer so I'll be making a lot more deer jerky in the near future. My nephew, Danny, provides most of the deer meet for the jerky, and deer season isn't that far off.

But one thing I really wanted to try was drying tomatoes. Well, forget that. This year has been the worst for growing tomatoes that I can ever remember. We had a cold, wet Spring that had many gardeners having to replant their gardens multiple times, and many gardeners just gave up and didn't even have a garden this year.

The gardeners who actually got their tomato plants to live and grow into the Summer didn't fare much better. We had a hotter and dryer June than average, followed by a record setting wet and cool July.

All this, combined with drifting chemicals from rice fields around here that damage or kill the tomato plants, have resulted in little or no tomatoes for area gardeners. And the few tomatoes that have managed to actually set fruit are not the best quality. Some gardeners that are fortunate enough to live away from rice fields have had better luck than most.

Usually by now my family and friends that garden have more tomatoes than they can use or give away, which means that I have all the tomatoes that I want, but not this year. I sure wanted to try dehydrating some tomatoes to put away for Winter. I usually can my excess tomatoes and occasionally even put some in the freezer for soups and such, but not this year. I didn't even really get as many as I'd like to eat fresh.

Maybe next year will be a better year for tomatoes.Life continues around here. I spend most Mondays and Tuesdays with my sisters CECIL and Sue, and sometimes JESSICA and Emmy join us. We sometimes eat out together then go to the mall, or sometimes we eat take out burgers here, and sometimes I cook for us.

Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays Emmy is here with me from early afternoon until her Daddy gets off work and picks her up around 6:30 pm every evening. While it's so hot and humid we spend most of our time inside, but once it cools off we'll spend more time outside.

Lamar takes Emmy for walks in her stroller, but they wait until late evening when it's a little cooler, and they make frequent stops at home for cool drinks and so Emmy can go potty. For all intents and purposes, Emmy is potty trained except for naptime and at night, and for long car trips.

Yay!

Saturdays are a lazy day for me. I take my time deciding what to cook for Sunday Dinner, making Saturday Supper and writing my Sunday Dinner blog post, then making Saturday Supper and Sunday Dinner happen.

Sunday is church day. Sunday School, preaching and then Sunday Dinner either here or eaten out somewhere with various family members and sometimes friends also join us.

Sunday afternoon is usually spent in my living room, making fun of those who doze off and snore or snort themselves awake.

Sunday night, church again.

There are occasional variations in my routine, but most weeks fit into the pattern.

And now I need to get this posted and go make Texas Hash for supper!

Y'all have a great weekend. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.