Kids, Toes, and Tomatoes

D sure loves his Juicy Juices. Grace took this picture while babysitting him.

Warning: Graphic Picture

Poor Alex ended up in the ER on Friday evening after D pushed the piano bench over on his bare toe. Who would have thought that a standard bench without storage in it would be so heavy to split his toe open? We could not get it to quit bleeding so we had to go the ER. They cauterized his toenail to let the blood out. Then, they had to give him 2 stitches, and one had to go through his nail. Yikes!!! I made him hold my hand, probably for my sake.

Alex is a good sport. Even though he felt all cruddy, he had it in him to blow up that glove and stick it up his nose (sort of).

I had so many tomatoes this morning on the counter that I had to freeze them. In the picture above, I had already combined my tomatoes and had scored on the bottom of each one. I got my boiling water and my ice water ready. I blanched, peeled, and froze them. I got 6 small quart bags out of this. I also gave some to one of our friends last night. My 4 tomato plants have really been putting out. I am really not sure how many pounds each plant has yielded, but I bet it is over 10 pounds.

Cajun Watermelon Relish

Excuse my iPhone pics. They are not the best. I have an awesome camera and no time to use it or edit photos. One of these days...

Anyway, this picture above is what it looks like when you brine watermelon rind. It doesn't take as much watermelon rind as they say in the recipes. You cut the pink off. You can tell that I did not remove every last piece. It was fine. Then, you take a handheld grater and remove the rind. You can keep removing it, and it will have a slight green color. Since this was a double batch of my recipe, I added 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of canning/pickling salt. Refrigerate for 8 hours or more. I left mine in there for over one day because I had stuff to do.

This recipe calls for red and yellow sweet pepper. When you use those colored peppers, the mixture turns out beautiful. I grew my own bell peppers this year so I used the green. It was not as pretty, but it still tastes great.

This is what my mixture looked like cooking in the pot. You can see my pickling spice cheesecloth bag in it. Yes, this is an ugly pot. I can't quit using it because it is so thick. I think it is third-hand. ha!Your house will smell pretty stout for a few hours after you do this. My girl thought it smelled good.

My recipe came from the You Can Can book put out by Better Homes & Gardens. That link went to the Amazon listing. This can also be purchased at Wal-Mart in the canning section.

I found that I had scanned this recipe in awhile back. It is in picture form. Click it to go the bigger picture.

It is very green due to the green bell pepper. 6 half pints and 1 itty bitty sampler.

On the right in the above picture is the same with the colorful peppers. I made this batch last year. That was probably Jalapeno Pepper Jelly on the left. Still, the same iphone camera.

Family updates & Garden stuff

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Here is my little buddy, D sucking the ketchup off of his fries at the Macaroni Grill in Shreveport. He had a pretty great time sitting in a booster chair.

Alex seems to have a good time in D's tunnel. haha

D got a cowboy hat at Academy. He really loves it. He got a little fishing pole to go with it.

Here is my biggest baby, Grace, with her fish. She has been doing great at fishing lately.

Just a crazy face from me.

This is from 2 days of picking. It was close to 10 pounds of tomatoes. That is from only 4 tomato plants. We were pretty blessed with great weather at the beginning of our growing season. I have been able to make salsa, eat tomatoes everyday, give away 5 small sacks to people, and freeze 4 quarts. It's not over yet either.

I will leave you with this great video of one of my fave girl folky bands, The Be Good Tanyas. This is a good upbeat song that is fun to drive to when you are on a road trip. The Littlest Birds

Gonna make a quick blog that just contains stuff about Cajun Watermelon Relish.

Maters and Taters

Here is my harvest today. This is from 2 potato plants and 4 tomato plants. I just picked tomatoes 2 days ago. They are turning quick. Woohoo! D can't resist these taters.


I stopped at a farmer's fruit stand in Pittsburg today. I got okra, cucumber, squash, onions, and peaches for $17.00. If you saw in person the amount of food you get for your money, you would be surprised. When you grab your bag, it is heavy.

That smarts

Respect your knives because they will bite you. I was handling a knife that was too big for what I was doing. Ended up grabbing the blade with my thumb. My hubby doctored me up so I could finish cooking (with a glove on). This is picture is the day after. It was a bleeding mess yesterday. I am so glad he poured the alcohol on it because I am not sure that I would have done it.

I love my knives although they are sharp. :) I was using the largest in this set. Danny got me these for Christmas. It is a Fiesta Cobalt Blue Wood Block Set that can be found at Amazon. I didn't even know Fiesta made these. This is a Kitchen Cutlery Set. It is not a steak knife set.

I found this pretty picture of the Fiesta Steak Knife Set that matches it. Ahem!!! Hint!!! Smiles!!!

I did finish preparing my meal anyway - King Ranch Chicken Casserole and Fried Green Tomatoes. I grew my tomatoes. ;)