Pumpkin Seeds

This is a picture of our Jack-o-lantern for 2008. My son did the carving. Oh, and the towel next to it is my latest Swedish Embroidery project, finished yesterday.Tonite, after the finished project of carving, my son wanted to roast the pumpkin seeds. They turned out very well; here is what I told him to do:

Separate the seeds from all the pulp and wash. Lay the clean seeds on a baking sheet lightly coated with olive oil. Sprinkle salt liberally over the seeds and roast in a 325 degree (preheated) oven for 20 minutes. Be sure to remove the pan and stir after 10 minutes. Let cool and eat! Just a reminder, those that you don’t eat after the first day need to be stored in an air tight container. It was very easy to do and even my teen son enjoyed the process!

For those following the series of “Cast Iron Cooking”, to adapt this recipe for outdoor use, lightly line the bottom of a cast iron skillet with olive oil, place it directly on the coils and heat for approximately 5 minutes; dump in the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle on the salt. Use a LOT of salt – we just sprinkled over the top and it wasn’t enough. Stir frequently and cook for about 5-10 minutes. Do not let them burn. Remove from heat and dump onto paper towel or paper plate to drain and cool. Do not rub them or the salt could come off.

Swedish embroidery: I call the pattern in the picture above ‘Christmas trees and ornaments’. I’ve been experimenting with different designs and colors using the available patterns I have and modifying them a bit here and there. One thing I am trying to find is the same type of pattern books that we used when I first started doing this in the early 70’s. I believe the book is one of the set of 5 produced by Mildred Krieg in the 30’s-50’s. If I can’t find some new patterns, I guess I will have to go on e-bay and order this relic set and hope for the best. There used to be several pattern books available (for Swedish Weaving) using Monks cloth, afghans, huck toweling, etc – but our local Hobby Lobby & Micheals and other fabric stores nearby just don’t seem to carry them any more. Guess I’ll have to experiment with my own designs; maybe with native american designs next. My current project though is to design a towel with a red stocking pattern. Help! This is harder than it looks. I could just switch over to Crewel Embroidery – now that is a piece of cake!

Teenage Angst

The more I have to deal with my teenager, the more I appreciate what my parents went through to raise 3 of us – and my parents were very young when they had us. By the time my mother was 19 (dad about 24-25), they had 3 babies to raise up. Ick.

Tonite, in a fit of whatever the heck teens get into, my son messed up something on his computer (read: tore something up that can’t be fixed), then went outside in a fit of anger to call someone, dropped his cell phone, it flew into two pieces and he couldn’t put it back together, so now his phone is broken and I can’t fix or replace it (though I still have to pay for the dang service) and apparantly, this comedy of errors has resulted in ‘everything in the world’ is wrong and shut down of communications. And THEN, my husband gets involved – oh, now it’s fun. No computer and no phone the rest of his (son’s) life and now they both think it’s all my fault and both are mad at me. Never mind finding out what the problem is and solving it first. What a fun evening it is.

Hawk attack

A fantastic piece of nature played out within arms reach of me today. I was sitting on the front porch near the Koi pond, when suddenly, an explosion of feathers hit the Sego Palm & holly bush in front of me. Then, in a blink, a little blur flew in front of me, quickly followed by a Hawk as they battled it out in the Red Tip Photenia. If I had bent over and stuck my hand out, they would have brushed my fingertips – it was so close! If only I had a camera.

Broad Wing Hawk

After much research in our bird book and a few pictures on line, I determined that this bird was a Broad Wing Hawk, not your typical Red Wings of the area. For the past couple of weeks, my son and I have seen several hawks hunting the area, different from the normal buzzards we have. So this explosion of fury, while exciting and unexpected, I guess was bound to happen somewhere nearby. I guess they must be in their winter migration.

Oh, and by the way – the sparrow got away! (This time)

Garden Jambalaya

Had to share this, it was so danged good! All came from my garden or at least Texas (like the gulf shrimp, deer/hog sausage and dove didn’t exactly come from my yard – but close enough). If we’re gonna starve and have to pay so much for food, driving, etc., I want as much local produce as I can get.

Wild Game Jambalaya -quick ‘n easy method

1/2 pound chopped sausage (hog/deer), 8 dove or breasts of 8 birds, 2 cups water. Boil with a teaspoon of salt for about 15 minutes. I leave the breasts on the bones and take them out as I am eating, but have to actually pull the bones (as best I can) when I have company. You can omit the meat entirely if you lean more towards veggies, but will have to have a couple cups of some kind of stock (chicken broth, fish, oyster or veggie).

While this is boiling (the meat/stock); collect and finely chop:

2 cloves garlic, 4-5 big bell peppers, 6 ripe jalepeno peppers, 1 onion (red preffered but others OK), half a stalk celery (about 6 arms), 2 quarts of quartered tomatoes, 2 bay leaves, 5-6 chili peppers, half a handful each of thyme & oregano & basil - destemmed & chopped or a teaspoon dried of each, a few pinches of sage. Sometimes I add a couple shakes of dried cayenne pepper, but I haven’t grown those yet, so I used the jalepenos – which are nice and hot now.

Throw all of the above in the stock/meat pot, which should be done cooking. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for about 20 minutes until all veggies are tender. Add 20-30 fresh peeled shrimp for the last five minutes. Serve plain or with your favorite rice.

Be sure to pull the tails and dip for bones if you are serving this to company! If it were a real Cajun dish, I think they leave the bones & tails on and let you pick your own out – that’s how I serve it at home. This makes 4 main dish servings.

Cat Helps Solve Robbery!

Some of you may remember back in September a small blip on my blog about a cash register drawer, with money in it, found in my yard by my son. At the time, I meant to write more about the event, surely a robbery of some type, but I was somewhat ill for a few weeks and just could not concentrate on anything, especially writing.

To summarize, my son found a cash register drawer (with a little coin in) and I contacted the local police. They came and recovered the drawer, took some fingerprints, walked around a little in the area and I (not them) found a little more ‘evidence’ to help them along. It was just a torn coin roll, with a few pennies inside. But still, something. That was basically the end of the story on my end. The officer did not have much hope in finding out anything about a robbery in the area and mentioned to me it was most likely a dead end. At the time of the incident, there was a rash of hit and run robberies occurring in Austin, and I did a little research on line but really couldn’t tie the two events in any way. So I dropped it, mostly, with the thought of someday including it in a small mystery story of some kind.

Today, however, I made another discovery in my yard, and I feel so very foolish now. I believe I’ve flunked my first CSI test – let alone not trying to look for further clues! And I call myself a writer? Shame! Oh, but you want to hear the story. Here goes.

I was walking out to my car with the goal in mind of running out to get some donuts – something we haven’t done in maybe 10 years. I know I haven’t had a donut in at least 4 years. I woke up this AM with memories of cooking donuts with my mom when I was growing up, then started fantasizing about what kind of donuts we like. I even mentioned to my husband, as he walked by, that I wanted a selection of donuts and would he go get them? He thought I was nuts, and also alarmed because he knows I am diabetic and have been fanatical about avoiding sugar & flour, etc. The thought was so deeply planted in my mind that I decided I needed to indulge this brief fantasy while I would allow myself to do it. So – back to the car. I walk out to the car, and the dogs in the back orchard are barking like crazy – in a hysterical way. Not a normal bark to tell me that the neighbors are walking by – but a frenzied ‘Mom MOM come get this thing’ bark. They have something, probably alive, cornered. Cautiously, I walk over to the outside of the orchard fence towards a pile of old tree limbs my husband had dumped. The pile had been there a while and weeds had grown high within, creating a substantial mound. A piece of what looked like heavy cardboard had blown over the pile, offering even more cover. Cautiously peering under the brush from the outside, with the dogs on the inside going into an even larger grenzy – I spot what looks like a black animal. OK. No skunk smell. Phew – that had been my first worry. I saw a little white in there as well. OK, it could be a raccoon. I wasn’t about to stick my hand in the unknown and try to figure out what was inside – so I went back in the house, out the back door, through the yard and out to the orchard with the dogs. They are still going crazy. Parting the weeds at the fence, I see – a CAT! Now, it’s making that low growl, hopefully aimed at the dogs and not me. Taking the dogs into the house, I go back out front to the mound and see if I can free up kitty. I think it is my neighbors cat (we call it Tinkerbell). Lately, about the past month or so, she has been making it a habit to hang around that one spot in my yard. She even Meow’d me over once to pet her, which I did. I was only a couple feet away from the brush pile, but didn’t pay it any particular attention. Several times my dogs have chased her off and several times I would see her sitting there by the patch of weeds and branches.

When I get back to the brush pile, I reach down to pull aside the cardboard looking thing, only to find – it was a bottom panel covering the rest of the cash register we had found last month. Thinking only to free up the cat, I moved it a little (the register), stuck a stick in and drove the cat out. She ran off without even letting me pet her. But her job was done. After a month of trying to get our attention, she finally had gotten what she wanted.

Ah- now, for the crime. When I moved the panel and saw the rest of the cash register, I saw pieces of paper sticking up that had been hidden. With the wind and the little tiny bits of rain we had had, I knew there was not much chance of evidence (like fingerprints) remaining, but I still approached carefully and only touched one tiny piece with my fingers. I got the packet of paper free, which proved to be a bundle of checks. Underneath that, a couple coins (26 cents). I pulled out the bundle of checks, now with two of MY fingerprints on the front and back of the pile, took them in the house and called the police. That was over an hour ago; I don’t even know if they will ever come back out again. But I stuck the bundle of checks inside a ziplock bag (after I thumbed through them) and found out where the register had originally come from. I don’t know if I should mention the name of the store or the city…..oops, the police just showed up! Back in a bit.

Where was I? Oh, update. The cash drawer we had found before had given up some good fingerprints, but were not identified. The case was dropped for lack of more evidence as no local burglaries had been reported. The city where this register is from (thanks to today’s find) is about 20 miles away. Our local police dude is going to contact their people and let them figure it all out. The register and it’s hidden booty of checks will now make their way back home; or actually, into a dumpster for the wrecked register. Thanks mostly to the attentions of one seriously PO’d cat, we now know where the crime happened.

Now – does this have anything to do with the locals in my neighborhood? Last week someone siphoned about 25 gallons of gas from my vehicle. Yes, there are some teen hoods that hang out, shoot guns, start fires in the nearby woods, etc. Please don’t let it be that group of boys! I like their parents so well and they own a restaurant here in town. My own teen boy, thankfully, is maybe a year too young and thankfully, does not hang out with them!