Playing with pears

Well, I'm at it again in the kitchen. After my hair appointment was cancelled on Tuesday (my stylist was in the hospital!) we drove on up to Catoctin Orchard to pick up some more apple cider and see about some pears. I'd come across a few recipes that I wanted to try and I wanted to try them with fresh pears.

I don't know too much about these lovely fruits because if I did, I'd have known that pear season is pretty much over in our area. The pickins were a little slim, quantity- and variety-wise, but we did bring home enough for a crockpot full for pear sauce (like apple except with pears) and a recipe or two. We also bought a small bottle of pear cider -- yum, really good!

The pear streusel loaf I made yesterday with Bosc pears is not one I'll be bragging about -- surprisingly very dry in spite of two, count 'em, 2 sticks of butter! I might try it again with apples or juicier pears, but I dunno. It was disappointing. The pear sauce I made today with Magness pears, though -- wow! Good stuff! I think I've found a new favorite pear. Very sweet, very juicy, very good (I'm eating the three we have left!) ;-)

Think I'll wait a couple of days to see if our 4 leftover Bosc pears will ripen more. If not, I guess we'll just sauté them, call it a side dish, and try again next season.

The ugly revisited...

*sigh* Well, two weeks later the refrigerator issue has reared its ugly little head once more. Last night it started blowing warm air again so that's it - we're just not gonna keep fooling with it.

Unfortunately, we can't get a new refrigerator delivered until May 25 (!!) which means the next three weeks or so will be a real pita going up and down the stairs every time we need something cold. Aargh!!

I keep telling myself to look at the bright side, at least I have another fridge... but I'm still NOT amused!

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

Well, it's been far too long since I've
updated,so here's a bit of a summary
of what's been going on in my world.

THE GOOD

Our trip to SC was fun, especially handing over all the baby stuff I've been accumulating since I found out I was gonna be a great-mommaw... and feeling my great-grandbaby kicking and moving around in Christy's tummy! What a thrill!
My son, the grandpa-to-be, is as enthralled with his new grandchild growing as he was with his own children ... it's just dear.

Always creative, Christy has gone into nesting/crafty mode and is making things for her new son... here she's putting the finishing touches on his first piggy bank that she designed (with the Univ. of SC gamecock/color theme.)

One of a set of three that she free-handed and painted, this cute little monkey guy will join a giraffe and elephant on baby Bryce's wall.

A little sibling bonding with a raucous session of Rock Band...
ha! my great-grandson will be a rock star! lol

The mommy-to-be, looking absolutely beautiful and glowing at 28 weeks.

THE BAD

Have spent the last week and some days nursing a bad back. I can only attribute it to the aging process, I guess, because I haven't fallen or twisted it or anything. It just happens. I can be going along minding my own business one day and the next day be out of commission. Then it pretty much goes away ... until the next time. Maybe a touch or arthritis or something, I dunno. It is, however, MOST annoying - not to mention painful!!

THE UGLY

This past Friday night, our less than 4-yr old refrigerator died... just up and kicked the bucket without so much as a howdahyado, kiss my butt, or see ya later!! Luckily, we have a second fridge in the basement and the freezer in the garage, but oh... I was sooo NOT amused!!

A call to Sears repair got us nothing but a service call scheduled for April 26!! God, I hate dealing with those people!! I know it was a weekend, but still! So, we found a local repair person who could come out today, Wednesday, the 21st.

In the meantime, Lew scouted out a few places - Best Buy, Lowes, Sears (grrrr! I refuse to deal with these people any more even though I love their appliances) Bray and Scarff - to see what a new fridge was going to cost us if this one couldn't be repaired. However, the gods must have been looking down on us because as luck would have it, the local repair people called Monday and were able to come out then.

Now, over the weekend Lew had tried a couple of times to see if it would work and all it did was put out hot air, so we just left it unplugged, put a box of baking soda inside and left the doors ajar so it wouldn't stink like refrigerators are wont to do when they're closed up and not running.

So, Monday the guy came, plugged it in and... you see it coming, don't ya??... of course the damn thing started working, blowing out cold air! Aarghhh!! After checking everything there was to check, he couldn't find anything wrong and allowed as how it might just be a fluke or a balky part that may or may not give up the ghost any time... or not.

So, at the moment, the ugly is on hold, the fridge is still running, and we'll just see how things go.

Lots of cookies...

Back in the day, when there was a little kid needing to fix Santa Claus his midnight snack, shaped and decorated sugar cookies were an annual tradition around our house at Christmas time. I'd gather up all the paraphernalia we needed -- cookie cutters, candy sprinkles, colored sugars, Karo syrup, cheap little paint brushes, etc. -- and we'd make a night of it.

Nowadays, my little kid is far from little and is off making his own, so sugar cookies don't get baked here anymore. Neither Lew nor I need the extra calories and quite frankly, I just can't be bothered. I was never too good at it anyway and only made them because my little guy liked them. I've never really mastered the art of rolling out cookie dough and usually overwork it, which ultimately ends up with cookies tasting like, in my humble opinion, sugared sawdust.

However, since that same kid and his family will be here to celebrate Christmas this year, I've been a cookie-baking fool the past couple of days... none of which needed rolling out!

Chocolate chip and snickerdoodles...

butter cookies rolled in colored sugar,
my one concession to decorated sugar cookies!

'Course I had to sample them to make sure they'd be fit for human consumption and I declare them all right tasty, even if I do say so myself! ;)

Chicken feed...

Whenever chickens are on sale, we pick up a couple-three, rub 'em good with the called for spices, and pop 'em in the freezer. When we want sticky chicken,* we thaw one in the fridge overnight then let it cook in the crockpot for a bunch of hours. Deeeelicious chicken!

Last night we had sticky chicken for dinner. Today I picked the remaining bones and carcass clean and ended up with 7 cups of chicken meat for use in casseroles, etc. later on (like the chicken enchiladas we'll be having tonight.) Then I took the leftovers... bones, skin, etc., along with some frozen necks, bones and leavings from previous chickens ... and threw it all in the soup pot with some water and the spicy broth from last night's chicken. Added some celery, carrots, and onion and I now have a big ol' pot of chicken stock simmering away for later use in soups and more.

So, having wrung this chicken dry of any possible further use, I do believe it has fed us well, don't you? ;)
*And now, because someone wil probably ask, here's the recipe for sticky chicken in the crockpot.

Sticky Chicken

4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 roasting chicken
1 onion, quartered

Directions:

Start this the night before serving.

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices.
Remove giblets from chicken, clean the cavity well
and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture
into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure
it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin.
Place in a resealable plastic bag, seal and refrigerate
overnight.

When ready to roast chicken, stuff cavity with onion,
and place in crockpot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. The
chicken will fall right off the bone when it's done.

Ears and ears...

Last week a friend gave us some corn that she got from a farmer near where she lives. We had some for dinner that night and the next, and oh. my. goodness!!! It was truly the best corn I've ever had!! Sooo tender and sooo sweet... I was almost gnawing on the cob!

Wanting more of this deliciousness to add to our freezer stock, we were going to drive up her way to pick up a couple of dozen more ears, but she surprised us by showing up yesterday with 5 dozen ... count 'em, f-i-v-e dozen!!... ears!! Needless to say, we've got corn coming out of ours, so we've been busy in the kitchen.

Started with sweet, succulent ears

Slices of yum

Scraping the creamy goodness

The fruits of our labor

Compost bound

This batch gave us 13 bags, 2 servings each. Today we did another 9 bags, with another dozen and a half ears yet to go. I think we'll have plenty of fresh creamy corn this winter!

Baking needs...

Don't know what it is about cool weather that makes me want to bake, but think I'll be spending some time in the kitchen this weekend. Been hankering for some pumpkin gooey butter cake and apple bread, plus I have a new recipe for a banana sour cream cake I want to try too.

The apple bread will freeze fine and I'm thinking the banana cake probably will too, but gee, too bad... we'll just have to eat the pumpkin one cuz I don't think it would freeze well at all. All that gooeyness, you know? Wish I could share, but you know how that goes... I'm here and you're there. I'll think of y'all while I do though, k? ;)

Some things never change...

*sigh* Ants. The little beasts are back from their winter hiatus and are proving to be more of a pita than usual. They made their first appearance about a month ago... one here, one there... but that's usually just the beginning signs.

In the past two-three weeks they've shown up on the window sill and along the floor, but worst of all - waltzing nonchalantly as you please across my kitchen counter and table! Oh, no, no, no - that's just not going to happen! We were only seeing them one, two, maybe three at a time, but still... not on my kitchen counters or table!

So, the bug man was here last week for his regularly scheduled visit. He poked and he probed and he crawled around and he found nests outside where they were coming inside. So he sprayed and he dusted and Lew caulked up a couple of spots where there were gaps. Sounds like a good plan of attack, yes? NOT!

They're still showing up daily. I expect what I see dead on the floor. That tells me the stuff is working, However, I don't expect to still see them prancing across the counter or table. Every day. One at a time. How strange is that? What's even stranger is they're not going where the food is! Go figure!

Miserable critters. Why they can't stay outside where they belong is beyond me. I'll give it a few more days, and then I'm calling the bug man back.