In the kitchen

~ Summertime ~

August 10, 2016 by Patricia Fisher

Summertime….the pool, bee swarms, and lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

My “little’s” (I had that book as a kid, “THE LITTLE’S“, and loved it. I just realized that as I typed it!)…but I digress (to quote Pastor Bujno), are all learning to swim this summer. Such fun! The bees have not been behaving! The beekeeper has had to drop everything to catch swarms several times. Sometimes, literally in his hands. Diona and Delilah found the first swarm of the year, in my little blue spruce tree, which was sacrificed for the cause. My potager (kitchen garden) is doing well, but more weeds than I would prefer…… three year old’s don’t stand around in the garden long, and Greta, well, she is quite wonderful!

The motor home/playground is new at a park up the road, and I just couldn’t help but take a picture it’s so cute! I tried my hand at stuffed squash blossoms at my neighbors suggestion. Some were just blossoms, some had the baby zucchini still attached, so cute! They are time consuming, but tasty. The “Hubs” prefers fried green tomatoes. We have loads of blueberries again, so blueberry crisp and blueberry pie were in order. The pesto is garlic scape pesto and it is great on pasta.

As you can see “The Beekeeper” had to be pretty creative to get the upper hand on one of our honeybee swarms. Success was the word for the day! Those little buggers better be producing a lot of honey for the trouble.

Summer is speeding by fast, as usual. This coming weekend will be the first one in a month and a half that we don’t have a commitment. Yay!!! Maybe by Monday morning I’ll have a few less weeds. One can dream, right? I haven’t canned the first thing this summer, and I really don’t feel bad about it. I have found myself at my art desk more, which doesn’t usually happen in the summer. Carving out a creative space in the living room is proving to have been a good idea. Who knew when I did it that I would be entertaining a three year old this summer!?! Who by the way has her own “art desk” in the living room also. Start them young!

I’m reading a series of books that I found by default on Amazon. You know how you go on to search for one thing and they suggest another that sends you down a bunny trail, where you end up with a totally different thing than you started out looking for? Yeah that! That’s what happened. I found this book that looked interesting, read the reviews, bought it, read it, loved it, and then found out that it is the middle book in a series. As it turns out they don’t have to be read in order, in fact the author didn’t even write them in order. So, now I’m reading the second, which is actually the third, ha! I truly enjoyed the first one I read, which is actually the second. The books are her(Susan Branch) story, her life so far. They’re also filled with her watercolor illustrations and some photos. A lot going on, on the page. Maybe too much for some people, but it keeps the right side of my brain very engaged. I’m thinking that the one I started with may very well be my favorite, but I’ll continue on to see after I have actually read the first one..

The Beekeeper and I are coming up on our 10th anniversary, and I surprised him with reservations at a seaside resort in Maine. Needless to say, I can’t wait to go back to the rocky coast of Maine. It truly is one of those places that is a must for a bucket list. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures to share, and of course the hunt will be on for some great treasures to bring back.

Enjoy the sunshine!

This post contains my affiliate links.

Filed Under: Family, Grandchildren, Honey Bees, In the kitchen, My Potager

~ A Long Time ~

January 28, 2016 by Patricia Fisher

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat here and done this. Sometimes it seems hard to just think of what I have to say…what is “post worthy”. I often tell myself, “nothing, I have nothing to write about.Nothing new has happened.”

Just life, day after day. Not that life is bad, on the contrary, life is going along quite well. Sometimes it seems to be a challenge to put everyday life into words that would be interesting enough for someone else to want to read about it. But being a lover of journals, the “old-fashioned” pen and paper kind or the online “newfangled” way, it just doesn’t matter, it’s the concept that I like. So, here I sit typing out my thoughts for random (unknown in some cases), passers by.

It’s the end of January, and I find myself thinking, “where did this first month of the year go….and what have I accomplished?” January is usually my hunker down, get creative, take an online class, forget the rest of the world month. But this year seems very different. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it feels like winter hasn’t started, or at least not what we were use to the last two years. I mean we didn’t light an inside fire until after Christmas. We have no snow. The beekeeper hasn’t plowed once. It’s all good, I’m not complaining or anything. It’s just different. So, maybe this is why I’m out of wack with my normal January train of thought.

So to quote Pastor Bujno, “I digress”. About this blog and my absence…..It’s unexplainable or maybe unacceptable! I just went looking for a picture to post with this and realized that I had some shots that I hadn’t uploaded to my computer yet…ummm, 534 to be exact! Opps…well I guess there may have been a couple of things to blog about after all! MY BAD!!! Here’s a few……

The Beekeeper doing his thing!

The island being beautiful.

My boy…just being a boy.

My girls…..being country girls.

All three together being A-dorable!

Having fun with Grandad.

Me being artsy.

Squash being delicious! I made this more times last fall than I care to say. Here is the recipe.

I’ll try to do this more often…no promises though. Just enjoying life…..

Filed Under: Adirondack Mountains, Family, Grandchildren, Honey Bees, In the kitchen, Nature, Photography

~ Tomato/Tomahto ~

October 20, 2015 by Patricia Fisher

I find myself overrun with wonderful, homegrown tomatoes this time of year….I’m not complaining! It does motivate me to find yummy ways to use them. So I decided to share a few….

First homemade salsa, so fresh and delicious.

The amounts are going to depend on how much you want to make of course, but for ingredients:

Tomatoes, green peppers,onion, garlic (we grow all these, so they are nice and fresh and chemical free).

I add fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, fresh lime juice, red pepper flakes and fresh cilantro. These will be to taste, however you like it. I also drizzle a little of our raw honey on in the end.

This little gadget is from Pampered Chef, I really like it, but it is a little pricey. You can see it here.

I bought it thinking it would be handy for camping, since it doesn’t require electric, and my cousin’s daughter was selling Pampered Chef at the time. This Zyliss Manual Food Processor is one that looks similar,but costs a little less and this one Chef’n Veggie Chop even less, but I haven’t tried these.

So, just add your veggies, pump the little handle, it chops them all up…

….and voila! A bowl of fresh yumminess! (This is a word, in “my world”!)

Okay, next up, Tomato Cobbler. My Dad actually found this recipe and gave it to me. I made it three times, changing it up a little each time. In these photos you can see I used fresh leeks and Italian kale from our garden.

You can tell how late we eat by how dark my photo is, sorry!

Here is the original recipe that I began with. There are a lot of others on Pinterest.

Next, this recipe was found, made and shared by my lovely sister-in-law, Lisa.

So fresh and delicious, I felt like I could have eaten the entire bowl!

We had a lovely “catching up” time with a close friend, enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon in NY.

Here is the recipe she used.

Sad to say this last recipe, which was given to me by a friend, has no picture, because I waited too long to try it out and we got an early heavy frost. Which, of course, was the demise of my tomato plants for this year. Do check it out though, it looks like a keeper….Quick Pickled Tomatoes.

While you are contemplating all these juicy tomato recipes, I’ll leave you with this….

Enjoy!

Filed Under: In the kitchen, My Potager

~ On The Home Front ~

July 8, 2015 by Patricia Fisher

So much time has passed, I have no idea what to post about. It’s been months! Something must have happened that is post worthy! My garden is growing, somethings better than others. My baby girl and her little family visited from Florida (I don’t know why I didn’t take pictures of this!) We’ve been camping, to a pig roast, going to another, invited to a third. We’ve been on a couple of great picks and a really good, on sight auction. The booth is full, as is the shop at home and the overflow tent! We have 20 hives going right now, so the Beekeeper has been busy. For now let’s take a walk through the garden.

The Beekeeper and I designed (well, my design, his measuring, cutting, welding skills) my new potting bench, from an antique iron bed. I’m loving it!

He is a handy one….swoon!

The galvanized tub holds my potting soil (which has a cover to keep the rain out). On the top he cut a hold and we set in an old iron grate, so when I’m potting my plants it allows excess soil to fall back into the tub. The front pieces that hold the wood are the actual side rails of the bed. The small shelf at the top is made from a piece of another bed. The whole bench is constructed so that the wood could come out to be stored inside for the winter and only the frame would be out in the bad weather.

We went to the Adirondacks camping with our new puppy and new camper. It was awesome!

This young man graduated pre-k….(proud Nana).

One last thing for this post. I’ve had a special request from a faithful follower (and awesome cousin), for more recipes on the blog. So, this is my favorite soup recipe just for you, Lisa!

I add a little pasta to the bowl before I ladle the soup in.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Adirondack Mountains, Grandchildren, In the kitchen, My Potager, Photography

~ Reorganize ~

November 10, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Time to reorganize some things, furniture, rooms, closets, my schedule. With the change of the season my daily routine changes considerably. Our horses get stabled at night, and therefore stalls need to be cleaned every morning. My garden gets put to bed for the winter, now that next years garlic is planted. All the winters wood is split and stacked, the barn is full of gorgeous second cutting hay, and my raised beds are mulched down with chopped up fall leaves. Time to enjoy some inside projects that have been put off for the busy summer months….like this blog! I’ve missed the blogosphere, posting and reading everyone else’s post. So, time to begin again. Here is what is happening now….

We had an abundance of beautiful concord grapes this year, so we made 35 quarts of delicious grape juice. I’ve always made grape juice like my grandmother did, grapes, sugar and boiling water in a quart jar, process in boiling water and wait a few weeks….and grape juice! This year we tried something different and bought this 11-Quart Stainless-Steel Juicer Steamer. It worked well and I like it, but the juice is much thicker than the other way. Good stuff but 35 quarts was enough, so we decided to try our hand at wine making with the rest. The Beekeeper found a recipe for dry wine using our grapes, as neither of us like sweet wine. We truly have no idea what we are doing here, all new ground for us. So we went to this local shop for help. They suggested the book, Joy of Home Wine Making . Can you make “good” wine from concord grapes? Time (lots of it) will tell. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

This post contains my affiliate links.

Filed Under: In the kitchen, My Potager

~ Oh, Go Bake a Cake! ~

July 11, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

I’ve been in cake baking mode. I love cake! I like to look at them (as you can tell here), I like to make them and I like to eat them. They are far better than pies in my book, or even than the ice cream that people pile on them. So, I was on Pinterest a few days ago and found this cake. It looked good and I love the name, so I printed the recipe and gave it a shot.

The first thing that happened, on the very first step of making the white cake was my mixer died! My beloved Kitchen Aid! We’ve been together for 14 or 15 years, I wanted to cry (I’m serious, well, pretty serious). So I dug out the only hand mixer I have left after giving my good one to my youngest daughter. This one is actually my good immersion blender that came with attachments. I was reluctant to use it for a big task thinking I might burn it out. It did however, see me through the job. So, now I have the white layers baked and cooling, the brownie layer in the oven and I’m just beginning to mix up the cream cheese frosting. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we had a tornado warning for that evening. Just as I begin to beat the butter and cream cheese…..our power goes out!!! We do have a gas stove, but with electric ignition and my brownie layer is in the oven. Since the oven is up to temperature and it’s half way through the baking time I leave the door closed and hope for the best. I wait, but the power doesn’t come back on. So I wrap the cake layers after cooling, including the brownie, which seems to have “weathered the storm”, so to speak. I refrigerate the beginning of the frosting and the beginnings of the chocolate sauce which I had already placed in a pan on the stove. I go to bed, only to awaken at 1:15 am by the electric company removing a limb that had become entangled in the wires across the street during the storm. The power was back on, but no cake constructing in my immediate future. In the morning the Beekeeper informs me that a couple limbs came down in the storm on our pasture fence, the pasture that the horses were in! So, we load everything for tree removal and fence repair on the wagon and 4-wheeler and head up to the pasture, only to find two whole trees that have to come down and be removed…..hours of work! We were almost finished and ready to close up the large hole in the fence, when the lovable, very old, pretending to be sleeping pony darts through the fence while my back is turned! Do I have to even say that this gave the other three, normally well behaved, much larger horses the incentive that they needed to also dart through the broken down fence! Now we have four very happy, very large, four-legged creatures enjoying the well groomed lawn of my Dad’s rental property. I yell for the Beekeeper, who laughs at my inability to control my small herd and we contemplate how to best rectify the situation. Too late! One moves, they all move (they are a herd you know?), through the stone wall and into the cemetery! Unhook the wagon, hop on the 4-wheeler and begin the round-up. So, fast forward….we “guided” them into the other pasture and loaded all the fire wood that would fit on the wagon and headed home. We arrive to find my dad, sister, daughter and two grandchildren waiting on the deck for us. A shower for me, a dip in the pool for him and mojitos for the house, all is well!

What about the cake, you ask? I did finally finish it, whipped the frosting, heated up the brownie layer a little, made up the chocolate sauce and put it all together.

Given the circumstances of the way this cake was made, it didn’t turn out too bad. If made the “normal” way and if the Beekeeper and I liked brownies, which neither of us do, (I remembered this once again as we were each eating a piece after dinner), I think this would be a keeper recipe. So, give it a try. Here is the post where I found the recipe, here is the website of the creator of the recipe, and here is her book Surprise-Inside Cakes , which does look very fun. Happy baking!

This post contains my affiliate links.

Filed Under: In the kitchen Tagged With: cake

~ Birthday Snow ~

February 6, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Yesterday was the Beekeeper’s birthday. I had been planning a surprise two day trip, with an overnight stay at a lovey B&B. There is a little restaurant that we like in Saratoga Springs NY, called Hattie’s, that is one of Bobby Flay’s Throwdown restaurants. So a fun road trip, good food, antiquing, and checking out a new B&B (I have a Bed and Breakfast fetish…I not so secretly want to have my own). But, alas, the weather did not cooperate with my plan at all! This is what the Hubs spent the entire morning doing….

And although everything looks beautiful with this fresh covering of snow, it continued all day and messed up my plans.

So when life gives you lemons….well, I wouldn’t exactly call this pretty new snow lemons and I didn’t try to make lemonade, but I did make the Beekeeper’s favorite cookies (he prefers these to birthday cake) and I did take him out for dinner (which in thinking about it was a gift to myself since it meant I didn’t have to cook). Although, I did pay so, maybe that wasn’t the best plan!

Anyway, I thought I would share the cookie recipe with you.

Spiced Crackle Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and molasses on medium speed until blended. Beat in egg until blended, scraping down side of bowl.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon and white pepper into clean bowl. Add to butter mixture; beat on low speed until blended. Stir in crystallized ginger. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour.

3. Heat oven to 350. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

4. Roll dough into 1 inch ball, then roll in confectioners’ sugar to coat completely. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

5. Bake for 12 minutes or until they have expanded and flattened; the tops will be covered with cracks. Let cool on baking sheets 2 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.

(This recipe was found in Family Circle Magazine years ago)

Enjoy!

Filed Under: In the kitchen, The Catskills Tagged With: cookies

~ Up To Speed ~

January 5, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

It seems I took an unplanned break from blogging. It’s really been on my mind and I’ve been taking pictures. I guess the holiday busyness just got in the way. But I’m back and ready to share a little of what happened over the last month. So here we go…

Not too many inside pictures I realized after, the lighting in our house is a challenge. We live in what was my grandparents 1930ish Sears, Craftsman style house (with an addition to fit a family with 5 kids), which I love, but it is a little on the dark side for picture taking. We still have all the original unpainted woodwork, which I also love, but it is dark. Here, by the way is a link to a book I found on Sears houses, in case anyone is interested. Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company. Back in the day they had a catalog of house kits you could order from. The train use to run down the center of our little village and that is how our house came to be. I like that, it’s fun. While hunting this link I found a children’s book on Sears houses also The House in the Mail.

So we’ve had a lot of cold weather. It snows, then turns a little warmer and rains… melts the snow…turns cold again and leaves us with ice! Life in the great northeast!

We went to a couple of Christmas parties. One hosted by my very talented sister and niece. Above is just a sampling of the deliciousness that was there to tempt us.

We also attended a Christmas wedding for the son of some very dear friends, a beautiful evening.

A couple of Christmas pages from my journal. The Beekeeper wrapped all my gifts in coordinating paper, so I glued a piece of each in my journal with a note of what gift was wrapped in each kind. Kinda goofy looking, but a good memory! He is a good gift giver.

These are the Christmas pictures of my grandbabies. Love my three sweeties!

Here are a couple of cookies recipes that I made this year. The raspberry almond shortbreads were a big hit with the Beekeeper. The red velvet crinkle cookies are super easy and just looked Christmasy.

So now that I’ve said all that…let’s move into 2014!

Filed Under: Art Journaling, Family, Grandchildren, In the kitchen Tagged With: christmas, cookies, Sears houses

~ My Creation Weeks 4/5 ~

October 30, 2013 by pafisher

I know, I missed week 4! Well, I didn’t really miss it, I just didn’t get it posted. The last two weeks have been a blur of Fall activities. Here’s a visit to the farm where we bought our winter supply of hay for our four-legged babies. They had a great Fall display and lots of pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn and all different types of winter squash for sale.

Fall brings on that “nesting” feeling for me. I want to move back inside, crochet by the fire and make Fall foods.

Blueberry banana bread

Pumpkin bread

I bought a new loaf pan that makes 4 mini loaves of bread. It works great, but I’m still adjusting my recipes for the right amount of batter. First time not quite enough, the second time a little to much. My boys don’t seem to mind eating the mistakes.

Pasta Fagioli soup w/ “rustic” meatballs…haha!

This soup turned out so good, (I was wishing my brother hadn’t been a duck and headed to Florida already, he would have really liked this one). One of these days I’ll start putting my soup recipes to pen and paper!

Potato Leek soup

Here is a similar Potato Leek Soup recipe to what I made (I made a really large pot so I don’t have exact amounts for mine).

The Beekeeper has been busy taking the honey boxes off the beehives and getting the bees ready for winter. We have about half of the honey extracted, looks like a good honey year for us.

And then there was the grape harvest….just when I thought I was done making jams and jelly! I forgot about the grapes.

I did get a new scarf crocheted and a little doodling in between the fall chores.

Time to get started on the next week!

P.S. Here are the bread recipes:

Blueberry Banana Bread

1 cup blueberries

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup margarine (I use butter)

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed banana

Toss the washed and drained blueberries with 2 tablespoons of the flour. Sift the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together. Set aside. Cream the butter and gradually beat in the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the mashed banana, stir in the blueberries. Bake in a greased loaf pan in a 350 oven for 50 to 60 minutes (this is different of course if you are using a mini loaf pan like I did). Makes 1 loaf

This recipe is from a great cookbook I use a lot, The Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook.

Ruthie’s Pumpkin Bread

3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 eggs

1 cup oil

Mix well.

Add:

1 cup pumpkin

2/3 cup water

Blend in:

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

Bake in 3 greased and floured coffee cans (you need the kind without a lip), filled 1/2 full, at 350 for 1 hour. This can also be done in a loaf pan.

This was my Mom’s recipe. I’m not sure where it originated from, but pumpkin bread in a coffee can reminds me of my childhood…happy memory!

Filed Under: Creating Every Day, crochet, Honey Bees, In the kitchen, The Catskills Tagged With: blueberry banana bread, fall, Honey, pumpkin bread, soup

~ Peach and Plum Jam ~

September 22, 2013 by pafisher

We only have one peach tree and one plum tree, and they are both young, but they are producers! The Beekeeper had to prop their limbs up to keep them from breaking under the weight of all the fruit. That always reminds me of Aaron and Hur holding Moses’ arms up during battle ( Exodus 17:12 ). I know, really one has nothing to do with the other, but still those propping sticks always bring that bible story to my mind. Anyway the point of all this was, we had a lot of peaches and plums this year, and they were delicious! So we ate some, we sold some on our little farm cart out in front of our house and I made jam. Here’s a look…

…just like that!

Delicious!

~ Here are the recipes ~

PEACH JAM

1 quart chopped peaches (peeled, pitted/cored)

7 1/2 cups sugar (mine came out a little too sweet for me…next time less sugar)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 pouch liquid pectin

Combine fruit, sugar, lemon juice in a saucepot. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir in liquid pectin. Return to a boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim off foam. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and process for 10 minutes in water bath.

PLUM JAM

2 quarts chopped plums (pitted, but not peeled)

8 cups sugar (you may want more, mine came out a little tart, but I like it that way)

1 tablespoon butter (cuts downs on foam)

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 package of pectin

Combine plums, sugar, butter, lemon juice in a saucepot. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. I used my hand blender just a little at this point. Add pectin, return to boil, boil 1 minute. Ladle into hot jars, add lids. Process 10 minutes in water bath.

*my plum jam was silky smooth and a little thinner than the peach. I was really happy with it, but if you like it set up more cut back on the amount of plums per batch.

Happy Canning!

Filed Under: Fishers Beehive Shoppe, In the kitchen, My Potager Tagged With: peach jam, plum jam

~ Summertime ~

~ A Long Time ~

~ Tomato/Tomahto ~

~ On The Home Front ~

~ Reorganize ~

~ Oh, Go Bake a Cake! ~

~ Birthday Snow ~

~ Up To Speed ~

~ My Creation Weeks 4/5 ~

~ Peach and Plum Jam ~

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