Happy Halloween!!

Cats and Mice

This weekend, the boy and the man had their first Boy Scout campout ever. I was nervous for them. It rained Friday night and they had frost warnings both Friday and Saturday night, but when they called last night, it seemed everything was going well. The boy couldn't stop playing to talk and the man seemed like he had teamed up with some of the other dads and caught the Georgia/Florida game on the radio. GO Dawgs!

I asked the girl what she wanted to do when the boys were gone:
G: You could paint my nails.
R: Yes, I could do that.
G: Then we could vacuum.
R: I suppose we could.
G: OOH! Can we do laundry?!

That's when I decided an intervention was necessary. Instead of domesticated chores (which we completed when we got home regardlessly) we picked up her grandmother and went to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. They have a whole Jim Henson museum with an entire Big Bird, Ernie and several other puppets. My favorite was Dr. Teeth, oh yes it was. We went to see a production of "Silly Hollow." It was cute, but I think she got rather bored in parts. They wouldn't allow pictures there at all, so all of our pictures came later when we met her grandfather for lunch at a local 50's style diner.

She loved the juke boxes at each booth.


Here's her best Popeye imitation.
No lunch is complete without trying on Grandma's earings.
We got home and found the man had sent a picture of the boy camping. It looks cold, but he also looks like he was having a great time.
Such it is. We're on our last hour or so of manlessness as the boys will be home soon. Guess I better finish that housework I ignored yesterday.

The morning comes early. Stay warm, my friends.

Nothing Like a Good Rivalry!

Everyone loves a good football rivalry. Within a county of 18 high schools, not including alternative high schools, rivalries are plentiful and not so hard to come by. Some, however, reign above all others.


Such it is with this Friday's game between the Grayson Rams and Brookwood Broncos. These two teams have taken spirit and rivalry to another level with amazing results.


Both schools have taken to YouTube to showcase their school's prowess in video and song. Grayson issued the challenge with their video "Brookwood, Where You At?" and Grayson answered this week with "Grayson, Step Your Game Up." Both teams' songs are now available on iTunes and they're giving the proceeds to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

The kids at my school are so impressed by these songs, and honestly, so am I. I'm most likely going to jump on the interest and have the kids break down the songs to study them for alliteration, assonance, consonance, allusions, similies, metaphors, etc, for whether they know it or not, rap is a literary form that we've yet to fully recognize the power of.

Check out their videos - I promise you you won't be dissappointed.

Grayson's film: "Brookwood, Where You At?"


Brookwood's resonse: "Grayson, Step Your Game Up."

Sir Gawain and the Green....Tomato?

We knew it would likely happen. Yesterday while I was in the Foods lab preparing to teach for the day, an administrator brought in a ton of green tomatoes. You know, I thought...I have a lot of green tomatoes sitting out there as well.

The day went on and the foods teacher talked about doing a demo on fried green tomatoes. Yummy! Then, she said, I wonder if we could can them.

Why, yes. Yes we can.

I started the process today during my planning period, but it became obvious rather quickly that I wasn't going to get done in time for my last class. It just so happened, that my last class was during her planning period. I relocated my class to her room and we finished up Sir Gawain and the Green Knight while canning the green tomatoes. It made for a nice change of scenery.

Here are two of the tomato jars - I can't wait to try them to see if they're as good as the ones I had this summer. I also snapped a shot of one of the roasted garlic jelly jars from yesterday.
I've come to the conclusion that powdered pectin doesn't work worth a .....you can fill in the blank. I've never had a problem with anything using liquid pectin, but recipies that call for powder usually stay runny. Can I just substitute the two bags of gel for the one box of powder each time or do I have to stick with the variety the recipe calls for?

The morning comes early. Sweet canning dreams.

Changing Hats

I'm so lucky that once a year the foods teacher at our school allows me to come in and teach the kids about home canning. I just love it. The foods teacher was kind enough to be the best sous chef there could possibly ever be and she had absolutely everything chopped, measured and ready to go the class before we needed it.
You can see on the counter I also brought a sweet potato, peppers and the dried (desicated - vocab word for this week) tomatoes and basil. Poor woman took several pictures throughout the day, but even said herself that she couldn't get one of me without my mouth running.

I always bring things for the kids to try. Usually, each class gets to try two different things from jams and jellies to pickles. They're always very appreciative and are surprised at how flavorful things are. One kid said he was never buying store grape jelly again and several each period asked if they could buy cans. When I told them I couldn't sell them, they asked for them as Christmas presents.

We try to stick to the crowd favorites as we can. We like to do grape jelly, banana jam, and apple conserve. Last year we also did pickles and salsa. Each year we try to do something new. Last year it was onion jelly. I thought it was gross; she loved it. This year we tried roasted garlic jelly. This is where she was a life saver. She started roasting the garlic, steeping it and draining it while I was doing the easier batches of grape jelly and banana jam in the morning. By the time we were ready to do the garlic jelly in the afternoon, everything was ready to go. She's amazing.

We tried some of the garlic jelly that we had left over and it was really rather good. I can picture it would be great on a bagel with swiss cheese. I pour the apple conserve over brie and serve it with graham crackers. Does anyone know a good soft cheese that would be good with the roast garlic jelly? I'm looking for something I can just pour it over and people can scoop out some for crackers.

Here are some of the cans when we were done. There's not a picture here of the garlic jelly since we did that last. It's a beautiful light amber color.

It's always fun to take a break from literature and put on a different hat. That.....and I got to add great things to my lecture about the Botulism Broad (had to make it alliterative somehow) from the festival a few weeks ago.

Still...talking about her makes me want pumpkin butter all the more. I may make some and freeze it. I hear it holds up pretty well. Any good recipies out there?

The morning comes early, and my cupboard is full. Sweet gardening dreams.

Cold Start, Great Day

It was a very cold start to the morning, but it turned out very nice. We were out most of the morning, but when we came home I decided to pull some of the sweet potatoes. The ones in the corner yard did very well. I got about three huge ones, but they all have some sort of worm damage. I'm going to try to use whatever parts of them I can. Sadly, the pots in the front that did so well for me last year didn't pan out this year. Actually, I only emptied one of the pots, but I expect the same from the other. They only had finger length and width potatoes. Looks like it's planting in the back for me from now on...but I have to keep moving them around because of the beasties in the beds that keep getting at them.

I did take one of the potatoes and chop it up and make some roasted sweet potatoes with honey, lemon and cinnamon. They turned out very well. The man came downstairs and said it smelled like Thanksgiving. I suppose he's right!
We spent the morning and afternoon out at a park helping with our county's Law Enforcement Appreciation Picnic. One of the guys (Joe) in one of the man's bands works for the sheriff's department so their band played and I sold keychains. We had a blast which was only made better by a visit by one of my old students who recognized me. He's gone through college and has now been working for the department for about a year now and knows Joe well. Very cool, very small world.

Added some more ribbon for Keychains for a Cause since we've been doing some festivals in the area. They've sold pretty well. I was just able to cut the school's relay team a check for $470 and I'm already positive again on the year. It's wonderful how everything is going! Anyway, here's what I've added:

Phew! That's a lot for now. We've added a few more things as well. Our next stop is a 5K being held to help another local family. I'll head there in a few weeks and see how we can help out.

The morning comes early and I'm thinking about getting the garlic in. Sweet gardening dreams.

Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind

We had a cold front come through, and what a cold front it was. This isn't like your GA summer cold front where you go...Really? This was impressive. Along with fierce wind we sheparded in a 45 degree day. This wouldn't be bad if the temperatures the day before weren't in the mid 80's. We all knew it was coming. The news was a broken record and talked about nothing else for days, but I still sent my kids to school without heavy jackets. That's how I roll. No mother of the year nomination for me yet again.

When we got home, I braved the wild winds and went outside to gather what I could. We've got a frost warning out for tonight. Some of you may know my deal with peppers. I can't grow them. I've tried and failed for an umpteen number of years. Ok - Two, but that's good enough. This year, however, even though the peppers were planted in stinkin' April, I've just now started getting peppers out of the deal. I couldn't be more excited.....and....I hate peppers. Hate them. The man likes them and I try to grow them for him, but now I've got all these peppers and the man is out of town. I kept three of the largest and put the others in the mailroom at school.

But let it be known that I grew them; yes I did. I grew them and someone else ate them, but I grew them. Took durn long enough, but I grew them.

Last night I decided to 'trim' my basil plants. I've five basil plants in the other corner yard that really have remained diminutive and rather embarassing. I planted two in the main corner yard and have gotten three batches of pesto, numerous daily meal cuttings and two batches of my favorite creamy tomato basil soup, yet I still put 'trim' in quotation marks. This may look like a butchering, but I promise you that if the frost doesn't kill these plants tonight, I'll harvest another load like this in a few days.

I'm going to bust out the dehydrator later tonight and see what I can do with the rest of this.

I just love the tomato basil soup I made earlier this year. I honestly think the heirloom tomatoes make it a bigger success than otherwise. My friend (Auntie Daddy from posts of yore) came over for dinner and we jointly made a succulent dinner.

Looks nice, doesn't it? You missed the preparation. Everything went as planned. The veggies stewed, the tomatoes boiled, the basil was fresh and the mixture smelled heavenly. Then came the blending and all is well. Everything churned up according to plan, however...and you knew that word was coming...when I removed said glass chalice from the mechanism, the bottom remained on the contraption and the soup went everywhere. Everywhere, my friends. I wish I was exaggerating. Friday the 13th had nothing on my kitchen last night.

Auntie Daddy, who was reading the kids a story for bed, came downstairs right at the pinacle moment. I shouted, "Don't come down here!" and she dutifully made an about face and went back upstairs. God I love friends who understand and recognize a fragile disposition and don't question the absurdity of a barked command. I cleaned up the calamity, salvaged what I could (thank goodness for quick thinking and dragging the pot under the deluge midway) and just threw the second batch back into the pot, carrot and onion chunks be damned.

Auntie Daddy would have been none the wiser if I hadn't cracked and 'spilled' all. Get it? Yeah, I'll just go ahead and wrap up the post now.

Such is life.

In other news, the most important day of an elementary school student's life (besides the winter holidays) is right around the corner. The boy is rather unnerved by my lack of innitiative in making him his Harry Potter glasses that he so desperately needs NOW even though Halloween isn't for another week or so, that he made himself glasses out of Legos.
What is they say about invention and necessity?

The morning comes early. Sweet -if the frost doesn't do you in- gardening dreams.