Sorry I've been AWOL. I wish I could tell you it's because I've been working on projects, but that's only partly true. The truth is that I've been working on projects and that YouTube has been sucking up a lot of my "on the phone while nursing" time.
Including clips of the Depp/Heard trial. To my shame.
Anyway (ahem), here's some of the less shameful uses of my time and attention lately...
1.) Pickles, Pickles, Pickles
Behold, the cucumbers are upon us.
Despite the vines coming in kind of sparsely, we've gotten a LOT of cucumbers coming in. I've put some in salads, snacked on a few, given some to the baby as impromptu chew toys, and I've started making pickles.
I am still very much a pickle novice, as it were, and the first attempt was a comedy of errors.
It started with realizing that while we are awash in cucumbers, we didn't manage to grow any dill this year. That led to a special trip to the grocery store to buy a tiny bottle of pickling spice (seriously HEB, that's enough for one batch), basically figuring out the substitution on the fly, and then (stupidly) trying to process the first jars via pressure canning instead of water bath canning.
Turns out you're not supposed to do that, because it'll turn the pickles into mush.
Luckily I found an article online saying as much while we were only 5 PSI into it and the jars sealed, but because you're supposed to be super careful and exact with cook times while canning, the jars currently live in my fridge.
They're probably just fine to be on the shelf though. Probably.
The second batch was bread and butter pickles, and that went ok except that the bottom of a jar broke clean off in the water bath.
I fished out as many cucumber slices as I could, but still ended up canning the other three jars in what amounted to a vinegary cucumber soup.
Third time is the charm I guess; last night I tried another batch and I think it actually worked out. Proper cooking method was utilized, and everything sealed.
Now I've just got to figure out what to do with all this zucchini.
2.) I've actually been working on that project!
Wonder of wonders! I actually managed to sit down, crack open some books, and take notes! Felt like being back in college.
I am extremely thankful I married an ex-seminarian with a nerd streak. I'm pretty sure normal people don't have a copy of the Code of Canon Law lying around the house, but the fact that we do made my life much, much easier. I'm also very thankful for the copy of the Our Sunday Visitor Catholic Encyclopedia I found at the parish rummage sale for 50¢.
Still kinda proud of that one.
In the event that you also end up researching a theological question for an article you're not sure you can actually get published somewhere, New Advent is a kinda clunky but very useful website too.
I think I'm very nearly done with the research stage. There's a random canon law blog I found that I'm going to slog through in case I find something useful, but other than that it should be a wrap.
Now comes the hard part.
3.) Pretty Garden Pictures
Sometimes I just like to go outside, stand there, and look at it. I know it's a vegetable garden, but it's just so pretty.
There's some baby figs now too!
4.) Oopsie Email
That moment the Abbot of the monastery where the monk who sexually assaulted you lives accidentally includes you on an email for his European pilgrimage group.
It felt a bit like that corporation that you sued for injuring you through negligence accidentally including you in the itinerary for the company picnic.
Always double check the send line, y'all.
5.) Musical Baby
We attended my younger brother's middle school concert the other day.
6th grade concerts aren't anything too complex. They played some notes, scales, and only a couple songs.
It was frankly pretty boring until they got to the songs.
During the note section, ("we're going to demonstrate how our band can play a series of barely distinguishable notes in unison for three beats each!") I noticed a tiny echo.
"WHAAAAAAAA!" "whaaaaa!"
"BLAAAAAAART!" "blaaaart!"
"WHOOOOOMP!" "whoooomp!"
Bitty Baby, who had been wiggling around restlessly up to this point, had calmed down and was watching the stage. Every time a note played, she reacted by singing along.
She wasn't doing a half bad job of matching the tone either. I'd be interested to see if she has any choral inclinations down the road.
6.) Blog Post!
I had a very long take here that I just gave its own post.
Baby+cat in the garden is the best picture. Also, I sympathize with you on the cracked jar bottom. That's the worst, after all that work.
ReplyDeleteYeah...the recipe called for soaking the cucumbers in ice water before adding hot brine and putting in a vat of boiling water. In retrospect, I'm honestly surprised I only had one jar break.
DeleteI don't think I'll be using that recipe again.