Tony Chachere cajun spice

Here is a scaled down version with no salt and no MSG:

3 Tbl Black pepper
4 Tbl Red pepper
2 Tbl garlic powder
2 Tbl Chili powder

Enjoy!

Food time!

It's too wet to do too much of anything so I thought I'd post some delicious recipes I've tried lately and clarify something about my last post.

A friend thought that I started and hand dug the septic trench by hand.  Sorry if I didn't make that clear.  The backhoe driver roughed out the black water trench but couldn't get it to proper slope because of the rocks.  If he had dug any deeper to get the big rocks out, there would have been huge gaping holes that we would have had to fill later and all the excavation we paid for previously to get the house grade (the level part) would have been destroyed.  So we had to hand hammer, dig and chip the trenches to slope properly.  It took so long that several times it rained and slumped dirt back into the trenches we had already dug out causing us to re-dig and re-dig.  I don't think it would have been possible to start the trench out by hand because of the rocks.  Now if we hadn't gone down so deep maybe?

Right now it's VERY wet outside and I can't screen dirt or do much at the site.  The clay dam finally broke from all the rains and the paths to the spring are littered with huge trees that have fallen.  So today I've been planting trees and getting ready for the herbal conference next week.  Here are two AWESOME recipes that you must try!

I used to love Pappadeaux's crawfish bisque and for any special occasion, when I lived in Houston, that is what I wanted.  Recently I found a recipe for Corn and Quinoa chowder.  So I mixed the two recipes together (sort of) and came up with:

Dandelion woodstove enchiladas

This is a delicious way to eat dandelion greens. Pick the dandelion greens, wash and blanch for 5 minutes then discard the water.

Sautee peppers, onion, and garlic in olive oil. Add greens and a little broth and cook 5 more minutes or until most of the liquid is gone.

Gravy

Here are photos of my niece and nephew. My nephew caught his first fish. Aren't they beautiful?

Supposed to be working!

I've been working on the drawings we need for the house. The elevation drawings look so easy in the book, but I didn't realize how much thought had to go into them. Where is the bedroom wall in on the inside of the house so I know just where to put the windows on the outside? What pitch does the roof have to slope? If I put the root cellar right next to the house, how will I do the berm? How thick are the North and South walls so I know how long the roof will be? I spent probably 3 hours yesterday just trying to figure out the best way for the retention wall to go so that the root cellar is totally covered in Earth, but the berm doesn't stick out too far. We have limited space on the hill and still have to find room for a workshop. Every time I thought I had all the answers and started to put pencil to paper, I'd have to stop because there was some other minor detail I hadn't thought about. Plus my drawing skills are pretty lacking, I apparently didn't inherit any of my grandmother's talent.

I.T. Withdrawals

Here are the dogs enjoying the cabbage scraps I threw out for Rufus (the pig). Rufus licked it and moved on, so the dogs moved right in.


I found this really nice article the other day when I was looking at root cellars online. It's a man's memory of his grandfather building a root pit/cellar. It was a beautiful story and I could almost see it. http://www.masterjules.net/rootcell.htm

Cooking fall harvest on the wood stove

It smells like something grandma would cook in here and the cinnamon sweetness puts a smile on my face. Since the wood stove is going today, I decided to use the heat to cook some butternut squash. This is the recipe I used and it smelled as good as it would if there were an apple pie baking. I left the potatoes out of the squash soup recipe so it would freeze better, then forgot to make a big batch. I followed the recipe except for that and it only made enough for about 2 1/2 bowls. Next time I'll make a lot more as a matter of fact, I'm pulling the baked squash out of the freezer and making it up tomorrow! It is so delicious it's going in the top 5!

It's a hot one today

It was so hot today. The desire to finish though is greater than reason that creates balance and I think our brains baked a little too long in the heat today. More of the seeds that need to go in for July were planted this morning and the remainder will go in this afternoon. Then the next planting will be for August 1st and before that some succession planting. The RV is now on top of the hill and has provided tremendous relief from the hot sun for us and the dogs. The weather forcasted 85 degrees today and I believe it hit that while I was planting Kale. After I watered the seeds, 3 small solid yellow butterflies and one larger, darker yellow butterfly "fluttered by" and all around us landing on the freshly watered soil. I tried desperately to get photos of them, but they were bashful today. I managed to snap 2 of them together.