Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Cabernet Grape Juice?

Someday, we would love to try making our own wine (actually tried it once with different grapes and got vinegar...sigh). We planted these 2 vines about 4 years ago, got them from my brother and sister-in-law, and they are quite productive. Rather than just let the grapes rot on the vine and because they were pretty tasty, we decided to make juice.


Wash thoroughly, if only to get rid of spiders so kids will continue helping (wimps).





We actually do a bit more cleaning than is necessary...the juicer will take the fruit stems and all but then it has to be cleaned out much more often, so we get rid of as much stem as possible.

After washing we pour grapes into Juicer (bought on ebay...love it!)





This is a view of the insides of the machine....

















I also strain the juice, you can see how much pulp makes it thru the juicer.








And the final stage of juicing ...dumping the pulp on the compost pile....nothing is wasted in the process....yea!


Seems like a lot of work for just 4 bottles of juice, but it feels better to not let the grapes go unused...and the juice is delicious. My favorite way to drink it is with sparkling water added ...what we call fuzzy water in the Garver house. I think it was Sam who coined the phrase when he was around 5....that's how it tasted to him...and the name stuck.

Monday, September 15, 2008

You gotta see this :)




Thanks to my brother John for sending it!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Broccoli soup


Kind of strange to be making soup when it's 90 degrees outside but hey, I had leftovers. This is another of those quick lunches for us (I love that DH rides his bike to school and that it's close enuf so that he can come home for lunch). Our oldest son likes this soup so much that whenever we have broccoli with dinner (which is alot) he wants me to make extra so he can have soup the next day.

Ingredient portions are kind of iffy because it depends on how much broccoli I have sitting around. This day it was just a small amount, probably a single crown, cooked. So I sauteed about a half inch slice of onion, diced, in butter and olive oil....added 2 tablespoons of flour to make a roux. Just as it was starting to color, I added about a cup of chicken broth and stirred to thicken. Meanwhile, I used another 1/2 cup of broth to mush up (technical term) the broccoli in the food processor. Add to onion broth along with a bit of grated Parmesan and about a half cup of cream....optional, but why?

Even in the heat, this was a good meal. We had it with whole grain bread ...and butter....but no wine. Steve had to get back to torturing the youth of America and needed to be sober :)

Friday, September 12, 2008

Steve and the Beanstalk


I have no idea what the hand signals mean that my wonderful husband is making while standing in the garden (but don't you love the German tourist thing he's got goin'....black socks and all :) I just wanted to show the scale of the pole beans in the background that are threatening to overtake the playhouse (aka storage)....Steve is 6'2"...these are some big-ass plants. Too bad I didn't save the pkg. from the seeds....if only to avoid buying them next year. Oh, I don't mind the size, it's actually a wonderful way of hiding a rather unsightly storage area for junk. It's just that for all their glory these vines put out only a minimal amount of beans, about enuf to provide a side dish for one meal....sigh. The bush beans were so incredibly prolific, and pole beans are usually more so. I figured we'd be freezing enuf green beans to get us thru the winter....bummer. I did save the pkg. from the bush beans....Classic Slenderette...those I will be buying again...in bulk!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Choices





About 5 years ago on a Sunday morning, just an hour or so after attending an uplifting service at the Visalia EV Free church, the Garver family walked out of our local Wal-Mart.... drained. I remarked to Steven that Wal-Mart just sucked the church right out of you; it left you feeling depressed and discouraged. That was it...no more Wal-Mart...and we haven't looked back. Around that same time we also decided to forgo eating at McDonalds....after watching Super-Size Me, the mere thought of McDonalds made us ill.
Even my kids got on the bandwagon (tho Wils still has a penchant for junk food and neither of the young teens in our house can grasp that energy drink is a euphemism for SODA) Tho we do think that both of these commitments is important, neither of them is exactly a hardship as there is always a Target or In-and-Out Burger nearby to satisfy the craving for salt, fat, and cheap blenders. So lately we have been chatting about possible new resolutions beyond not shopping at the local mega-store. We are considering various bans on buying clothes and country of origin...

....we'll keep you posted.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Lunch at the WIldflower


My older sister (she hates when I call her that) came to visit last weekend, from Mt. Shasta. She actually came to check up on Mom but the 3 of us had lunch together while she was here and it was wonderful. We spent hours chatting on all manner of subjects...laughing and eating and berating the errant members of our familial tree. Mom remarked that she couldn't remember the last time just the 3 of us got together. I said I was fairly certain that we hadn't....ever.

Anyway, Stephanie is an amazingly wise and pragmatic woman who is much more vulnerable than I ever thought. She is an ICU nurse with nerves of steel and sometimes she seems to have it so all-together as to be intimidating. Over the past few years she has become so much more real and approachable....I really like her!



We spend our lives comparing our insides with everyone
else's outsides
-author unknown

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Ugh


I need to lose 20lbs. (eek, that sounds so....fat!) And at 50yrs. old I realize that this could be a rather daunting task. But I am tired of snug fitting pants and of looking at clothes I don't even bother trying on anymore because I know I won't be able to close the zipper. So, today I start the first part of my two-fold attack on blubber....walking at least 3x a week. The other is cutting back on eating and as of now I am hoping that the addition of exercise on a regular basis will be sufficient to avoid the dreaded 'diet'. I've never been a big believer in diets. At least not in the sense of withholding certain foods for an indeterminate period of time- just long enuf to lose the weight ...then back to the cheesecake.

We have a pretty decent lifestyle diet here in the Garver house....plenty of fruits and veggies, pastas, chicken, whole grains....not a lot of crap. Though I guess whole grain Tostitos are hardly a health food and I'm sure there's a box of Cap'n Crunch in my cupboard as we speak. We rarely eat red meat and I try to keep things simple and use as few processed foods as possible. I used to shop once a month at Whole Foods in Fresno...but the hour drive got to be a bit too expensive and seemed to defeat the purpose of buying organic. Now we shop at the local Savemart and Winco (she says guiltily....tho better than WalMart, the whole big-box store concept is not something I am entirely comfortable with). We grow a lot of our own vegetables and were it not for feeding the kids, Steve and I would probably be content eating out of the garden almost exclusively.....add a freshly baked loaf of bread and a glass of wine...what more could you want?

So, tho I do think I eat pretty healthily....I guess I just eat too much of it. Darn. I hate the thought of giving up my glass of wine with dinner (or the one I drink while making dinner). I do so love the whole process of cooking and eating. It is one of the simple pleasures in our life and I don't want that to change. Which pretty much means the success of this mission hinges on the commitment to exercise...regularily...beyond gardening and cleaning house and painting and plastering and furniture refinishing.....

....geez, I certainly don't feel like I'm living a sedentary lifestyle.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Board games



Last night as I was reading before bed, I had the pleasure of listening to the voices of our 2 youngest teenagers (14 and 17) and 3 friends playing Apples to Apples and Scattergories....for HOURS....LOUDLY.

What fun!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Pesto Pizza


This is an easy answer to the dreaded 'what's for dinner?' question at our house. The boys prefer theirs with marinara and cheese, but Steve, Annie and I love the pesto.

Start with pre-made crust...you can make your own but that would defeat the whole 'easy' part.
Spread with olive oil and pesto...I do make the pesto from scratch but store-bought is fine.
Top with diced green peppers, onion (and any other veggies you have hanging around) and half a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped.
Sprinkle lightly with Parmesan, Feta and mozzarella cheeses.
Cook at 400 degrees for 9-10 minutes. I top mine with sliced tomatoes after cooking.

Serve with wine :)

Friday, September 5, 2008

Mom, this one's for you!

Your son is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.


...tee hee

Another Verizon story....hopefully the last

Called to cancel my service started on Sept. 28th 2006. Was told that I can't cancel on the 28th since my billing date was the 26th. I would have to pay thru Oct. 26th.

Me.....Are all Verizon customers set up to be billed on the 26th?

Verizon moron.....No, everyone is set up on a different date.

Me.... Is that date coincidentally 2 days prior to the service beginning so that you can charge for an extra month??????????

Verizon shill.....I don't do billing (seriously, that's what he said)

Me....(after rolling my eyes in complete disgust and a wee bit of disbelief)....Well, isn't that perfect; this is exactly the reason we're leaving Verizon.


After a minute spent waiting to speak to the supervisor (my usual, "let me talk to your supervisor" request) I am asked if I would like to pay my entire bill. No, as a matter of fact, send me a final bill and I'll pay (most of) that. Then I am told by this very nice woman (it's hard to be mad at someone who keeps calling you Ma'am) that since we are behind in our payment, they will be suspending our service and all billing stops so we won't have to pay thru October. I'm writing this down....and I have her name...Betty.


Moral of the story ..... occasionally it pays to be a deadbeat :)

Annies Red Room


Ok, it's not done yet, but I just needed to see some kind of progress. Did you know that when you paint with red it takes a minimum of 4 coats of paint, and I'm thinking 5 will be the final tally. And that's after a coat of pink (actually that's after a coat of pink....a coat of red that turned out to be too dark....then another coat of pink to cover that goof....then 2 coats of red and counting). Wouldn't be so bad if it was the whole room, but with different colors it's the line between the walls and the one at the ceiling that become problematic (that's high-brow talk for 'pain in the ass'). I just don't have a real steady hand and the thingie I bought to help (something called 'sure-line' with little wheels and a pad that is meant to go along the ceiling and create beautiful straight lines) works intermittingly....which is to say, not too much. I threw it away after the first coat....I will be doing a lot of re-touching.

Today, the 3rd coat goes up, and tomorrow the 4th and possibly final.....yea!

ps. the window actually opens out to the pantry off the kitchen. Steve thought is was cool, kinda like the old classroom windows that opened out onto the hallway in school. And it's handy when the cats want to get in and out of the room :)

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Labor Day weekend

Feeling so overwhelmed by the numerous 'projects' we have going (and continue to start) that I thought it would be a good idea to look at how much we got done instead of just how much is left to do. This was our Labor Day weekend (truer words were never spoken).



When he wasn't helping me on one of my jobs, Steve spent his 3-day weekend......


....cleaning out the shop and installing a new/used cabinet that we got via Freecycle. He is organizing, consolidating and throwing away (yipee, yahoo) years of accumulated 'we might need this someday' STUFF. It's difficult for him with his natural inclination to save and reuse, but after 10-15 years of moving certain items to new and different storage locations, he decided he probably wasn't going to use these things after all (drawer handles that came out of a kitchen in the 60's- safe bet we won't be putting them in our house).


We love to find new uses for old items and we have done a LOT of painting and refinishing both in our house and Sam's new room but I draw the line at reusing dirty, rusty, old relics...note to Garvers... if it looks like garbage, IT IS :)


The shop looks measurably better, can see the floor and walk all the way to the far wall....YEA!



This is the mess outside the back door (and that's the studio apt. in the background). Someday I will get my patio back, for now it is a workshop/storage area....sigh.


This is Brad's old room, soon to be Annies room. The before shots were taken a couple weeks ago but the big push to finish really got going this past weekend.



Annie picked out a beautiful cream color for three (2-1/2)walls and red (pink is the base coat) for the big wall and the wall along the top bunk (is there a more grown up/feminine word for bunk bed?). I'm going to need to get a wide angle lens to better show this room; it's 8x8 (reason for the bunk) and looks a bit like a college dorm room (or quarters on a air craft carrier). The red is going up today....will post results!



The loft bed....yeah, that's better!



And finally... Sam's room/future rental/Mom's studio....

Alan, our good friend and incredibly generous contractor/handyman extraordinaire, is floating the bathroom and kitchen floors. Since this was a garage conversion and we added to the sq. footage, the two concrete pads didn't quite match in heighth so he is putting in a concrete/glue substance that connects the two and will level out the differences before we tile.


******************************* Happy Helper! ****************************

And on to the Kitchen (ette:) The stripes are to differentiate between the rooms in the studio apt.


The blue tape will come down of course....it's all a process!




And this was just for fun!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Loco kitty


Yet another kitten that we need to get fixed....along with her mother, Psycho-kitty...yes, that's her name :)

Mama cat had just this one kitten and hid her behind the playhouse for weeks before we found her, so she was a bit wild at first. Now she loves being petted and playing with the kids and is no longer afraid to come in the house (which was actually part of her charm...one less kitty 'missing' the litter box)

Her and Psycho love to sleep in this dresser/sink that I am refinishing for Sam's bathroom. More on that project later....when it's finished!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Funny metaphors


Just in case you need some writing inspiration. Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year’s winners:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another
city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.