Mixing it Up

It was a mixed up, hurry up day yesterday. I felt behind on pretty much everything, and so I wanted to feel more like things were under control. I devised a strategy for attacking the day that allowed me to get it all done. Today feels a little more relaxed. 

First, I tackled the green beans. Except for a few cut off ends saved for later, I used all the green beans harvested so far to make six pints of Dilled Green Beans. 

These are good as a garnish for a Bloody Mary, but they're also delicious straight from the jar. The recipe was published in our local newspaper way back in the 90's. I tried finding their old recipe, but only found a newer different one. Here's how I do it:

Dilled Green Beans

recipe from The Oregonian

Yield: 4 pint jars

Ingredients:

2 pounds young slender, straight green beans

2 cups water

2 cups white vinegar

3 tablespoons pickling salt

4 sprigs fresh dill

4 garlic cloves, peeled and flattened

1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Wash 4 wide-mouth pint jars, keep hot until needed.  Prepare lids as manufacturer directs.

Wash beans; trim stem ends so beans are 1/2-inch shorter than jars.  Combine water, vinegar and pickling salt in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Keep hot.

In each hot jar, place 1 dill sprig, 1 garlic clove and 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes.  Pack beans lengthwise in 1 jar at a time.  Add hot vinegar mixture to cover, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.  Release trapped air by slipping a plastic knife between beans and side of jar.  Wipe jar rim with a clean, damp cloth.  Attach lid.  Fill and close remaining jars.  Process in a boiling water bath 6 minutes.

Note: About 30-35 beans will fill one wide-mouth pint jar.

* * * * *

When that was finished, I was ready to do some quilting. Keeping in mind I wanted to do some housework, I decided to quilt two rows of horizontal sashings, and then break for a housekeeping chore. And so I went to work. The horizontal sashings are done just the way the vertical ones were. I used a hera marker to draw three vertical lines and then marked off one inch increments to try to keep the chicken wire consistently spaced and sized. Since I'm doing this completely free-hand, I'm bringing the "free" into free-motion quilting.

By the way, someone mentioned the hera markers didn't work very well for them. Just FYI, I like this one the best:

I use the side on the top right to draw the lines, and it gives me a good crisp indentation.

When I'd finished my two rows of quilting, I headed out to the greenhouse to harvest some of that pretty lettuce for a dinner salad. While there, I found the first ripe tomato. There have been others, but they all had the blossom-end rot. The rest are looking pretty good, and so I'm excited to be seeing some ripe tomatoes on the vine. They're late this year.

I think I did some housekeeping in there too, but then I was back to my quilting. Here's how the blocks look with quilting all around. You can't see it very well in this image, but the cornerstones have a big single chicken foot in them.

Smitty thought all this quilting was pretty boring. Also, he wanted to be let out again. We've limited their outside time significantly, and he is not happy about it. They get to go out late morning, and they generally come in around lunch time. After that, no more outings for the day. It seems a happy medium between indoor only and outdoor fun. They really love a chance to hunt, and they need the exercise.

When I didn't give into his pleading eyes, he settled himself in the corner to try guilt-tripping me into opening the door. Nothing doing, Bub.

By day's end, the housework was caught up, and all the sashings were quilted. When I was ready to quit for the day, I tried out my border design just to see how it would look. And that's where I left it for the day.

Today, I'll finish going all the way around the border, and then I'll get the binding sewn on. It'll be great to have it ready for hand-stitching.

Just before dinner, we found Smitty on the catio in his usual position. But look who came for a visit down below. I missed the better shot when they were both looking at one another. The squirrel sat there for the longest time. I suppose he was giving Smitty the neh, neh, neh treatment.

Thanks to all who have chimed in with your wavy border suggestions. After considering your ideas, I went a simpler route and chose a couple of black-headed pins from my pincushion and pinned it to the wall at the bottom two corners. The pin barely shows, and I doubt the casual observer would see it.

It helped with the waviness significantly, but not perfectly. Then I was thinking about the "blocking" suggestion. Now, I'm thinking if I add a couple more pins to the wavy spots and then spray it with water, I can flatten it out...in other words, I'll block it where it hangs. That'll be on today's list, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

As I mentioned I harvested lettuce for last night's main dish dinner salad. Only the lettuce is from the garden. The rest is store-bought. This wasn't a new recipe, but it was one I hadn't made in quite a while. It was at Mike's request and so good. Definitely, I'll be making this more often. The recipe is from the Cooking Light Diet. This is a Cobb Salad with Green Goddess Dressing. 

The dressing is delicious and it's low-fat and sugar free. The recipe calls for romaine lettuce and watercress. I used three different lettuces from the greenhouse: red leaf, green leaf, and butter lettuce. So good. It was all made up earlier in the day, and all I needed to do was to add the dressing, which made it a simple fix at the end of a busy day.

This morning we awakened to fog. We haven't seen that in a while.

It only took about half an hour for the fog to burn off to a sunny morning. Now the morning sun is warming the water in the bird bath. Garden cat appears to be lying in wait.

 

Today I'll harvest more beans, and then figure out how to use the pressure canner to turn them into pints of Plain Ole Green Beans. No recipe required. My highest priority is to finish off the quilt, and then I'll do whatever else fits in the day. I think I'll make some steak marinade and let the Resident Grilling Chef make dinner tonight. What's on your Saturday agenda?