What's Another Five-to-Eight Inches?

So it took me an hour to ride the bus home, but much of it was a delay caused by an irrate passenger who spat on the bus driver (although, the passenger stated that she spat on the bus transfer and not on the driver). The snow started slowly coming down in the late morning and probably won't cease for another couple of hours. It's predicted that Minnesota will get around five to eight inches of snow by midnight. After having gotten twelve to fifteen inches of snow, five to eight inches isn't too bad.

This weather is making tonight's Monday Night Football, between the Vikings and Bears, exciting. During the blizzard two weeks ago, panels of the Metrodome caved in. Tonight the game is at the U of M's TCF Stadium, the first time in about 29 years that the Vikings have played outdoors in Minnesota. Also, the field has no warming technologies implanted in the field, so the field is hard like a rock. Wowser!!!

Books of 2010

The following are the books I remember reading this year. I feel as if I fell short of my goal of reading at least twelve books per year, but I will add more as I try to recall what I read during the 2010 year. I admit that I really need to keep better track of the books I read.

1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2. Tongue: A Novel by Kyung-Ran Jo
3. The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel
4. Black Flies by Shannon Burke
5. The Women of Brewsters Place by Gloria Naylor
6. French Dirt by Richard Goodman
7. The Candy Vendor's Boy by Beatriz de la Garza

Blizzard-Like Condition

OMG!!! Minnesota got so much snow today (and yesterday), that it's ridiculous. Parts of the state, including my neck of the woods, got between 12" to 18" of snow. That much snow is outrageous, but mix it with gusty winds and you get blizzard-like conditions. Driving this morning was intense and I was glad to get home safely. Having lived here for the last eight years, this is the worst snow storm I've seen. Someone commented that this snow storm could rival the snowstorm of Halloween 1991. Who knows. All I hope is that this is the first and last BIG snowstorm of the season.

Happy Halloween

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. I hope you're in good spirits and have by your side some yummy treats. The above pumpkin looks a little bit sad (the squirrels got to it and chewed on it before I got a chance to cut into it), but I still wanted to take a picture of it. Happy Halloween!

Fall Foliage

Half Apron

Is this a cute apron? I made it last night out of some fabrics I found in my stash. Since my cousin has been visiting me, she reintroduced me to aprons when we went antiquing. She purchased two cute aprons, in which neither had a utilitarian purpose, but both were quite cute to look at while worn.

Anyhow, upon coming home I searched through the internet and found a variety of designs and styles, in addition to several free patterns. I'll admit, I'm too cheap to I buy an apron and I have a lot of fabric that needs to be to turned into something useful. After perusing images of aprons on the internet, I came up with a simple apron and just "went with the flow." I didn't come up with a pattern, nor did I follow a pattern, but I had an idea of what I wanted and I just figured things out as I went along. My cousin thinks its a cute apron, and very girly. What do you think?

Wonderful Day

Today was such a beautiful and wonderful autumn day. There were fluffy white clouds in the piercing blue sky and leaves were aflame with color. It was much colder today than expected, due to the wind, but it was quite warm in the middle of the lake.
My mate and my brother were busy fishing, while my cousin and I chatted away. An egret or a crane (I'm not too sure) even walked at the edge of the lake, right on my property. It was so peaceful and I really didn't want the day to end.

Princess We-No-Nah

["We-No-Nah" means oldest daughter in the Dakota language. The City of Winona, MN is named after Princess We-No-Nah. Picture taken September 11, 2010.]

Pickled Peppers

I started pickling jalapeno peppers last summer, which was also my first time pickling peppers. Since I didn't blog about it last year, I might as well blog about it this summer, especially since it's so yummy.

I don't exactly know how or what got me into pickling. I do know that on a whim I decided to follow a recipe posted by David Lebovitz, hoping for decent results. I purchased jalapeno peppers from the farmer's market and the requisite ingredients. So what was the pickled result? Crispy, tangy, sour, slightly sweet, and HOT peppers. I've also used this recipe to pickle onions and has also turned out yummy too.

This summer, in addition to just pickled jalapenos, I've also decided to try a mix of hot peppers. I mixed together jalapenos, cayenne peppers, and some smaller Thai peppers (I think). I can't wait to see if this trio turns out yummy too. By the way, these are known as "refrigerator" pickled peppers because the peppers are not canned, but left in the refrigerator to pickle.

Pickled Hot PeppersRecipe
Source: David Lebovitz
Amount: Makes three quarts of brine

1 pound (450g) fresh jalapeno peppers, washed (see Note)
2 1/2 cups (625ml) water
2 1/2 cups (625ml) vinegar (I used white distilled vinegar)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons coarse salt, such as kosher or pickling salt (do not use regular table salt)
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons black peppercorns

1. Stab each pepper three times or make slits in the pepper with a sharp paring knife and place them in a large glass preserving jar.

2. In a non-reactive saucepan, bring the other ingredients to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes.

3. Remove from heat and pour the brine over the peppers. Place the lid on the jar and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate for at least a week before using, if possible. (You can use them sooner, but Michael says they're worth the wait.)

Serve whole, with Mexican dishes, or remove the seeds then chop and use to season any recipe that is improved by a little bit of sweet heat.

Storage: I've kept pickles like this for up to a few weeks, under refrigeration, without any problems. But like anything preserved, you should take precautions. If you wish to preserve them longer, you can use these canning instructions and guidelines.

Note: You can use another chile pepper in place of the japeños.

Seed Saving

Like many frugal gardeners in the blogsphere, I collect seeds from spent flowers to further expand my flower garden for less, especially if I do not have the flowers in my garden. Of course, for the flowers in my garden, I could let nature do its work and have the flowers reseed itself, but sometimes mother nature can be quite harsh during the winter time and the seeds may not survive the winter.

This spring I didn't get much chance to enjoy my annual pink poppies. Unfortunately, I've been quite busy with work and my home, and only got a passing glance at my pink poppies. Yet, last week I noticed that all of the poppy stalks had dried out. At that moment I made a mental note that I had to collect the seeds. So today, I took an empty envelope and shook all of the pods into the envelope, carefully collecting as many of the seeds as possible. After I emptied all of the poppy seed heads, I sealed the envelope and labeled it with the month and year. I'm already dreaming of next year's pink poppies.