Still Wednesday- Part II

I ended up making 5.5 pints of pickles. You can still call them pickles even if they aren't made with cucumbers? And I made Garden Vegetable Chowder because I found a large crown of broccoli in the back of that "fridge I am not getting along with right now". I found a red pepper for the pickles in there and then later the broccoli which I hadn't seen when I found the pepper. Do you think I may have some sort of magical, never empty fridge all of a sudden?

The chowder is using up all the broccoli, some frozen corn, tomatoes, my cup of fresh picked peas (remember them?), an onion and some of the quart of half and half I bought to go in my iced coffee which I keep forgetting to drink. I will venture out for basil and parsley to adorn the finished chowder when we decide to eat dinner. And add 3/4 cup of grated cheddar cheese. Yes, cream and cheese. It's good chowder. Do you actually think G would eat all those vegetables if there wasn't butter, cream and cheese involved???

This reminds me of that cooking experiment from a year or two ago on the internet. For a week, you have to use and cook with only the stuff you have in the cupboard or fridge. You can buy perishables like milk, eggs, bread and butter but nothing else. You have to be inventive and it sure would clean out some of the backlog of items purchased and never used. The idea was to force us to try new things. Find a recipe for the items you have to use and eat. Each day, it gets more difficult depending on the items in your cupboard and fridge and freezer. G would have to find something else to eat when he runs out of bagels for breakfast. Or his usual jam and jelly. But, I do have a large stock of jam and jelly on hand. And I could MAKE bagels. See how this gets you thinking in a new way?

I'm sure Deborah is playing this game as she gets ready for the movers. When I moved to Europe, I baked and cooked for the four days it took the guys to pack me up. They had a large assortment of good things to snack on and eventually the fridge was empty and I scrubbed it and filled it with newspaper and open cans of ground coffee for the sea voyage. The newspaper and coffee absorb any odors.

Thunder in the background. I am so happy I didn't waste any of my day outside watering the garden. I scrubbed my bathroom. Vacuumed carpets and window screens. Made the bed. Made pickles (canner, jars, lids, funnels etc). Read blogs. Ate a good lunch of sweet potato burger and zucchini pickles. Ordered another Jo Nesbo from the library and sent an inquiry to the head reference librarian of my local library regarding finding out of another state might lend me the remainder of the books. I also washed all the dishes I used and made chowder. I feel like I've had a productive day. G brought me a Mocha Frappe from work. Really sweet. Got a brain freeze. Ouch!

Lots of things to watch on television and I want to go watch it thunder, lightning and rain. This is also something we never had much of in Maine before global warming. Thunder.