Well, it smelled good anyway

We have several plum trees in our backyard. We hate the trees because they have prickly branches and we have scraped hands, arms and legs when dealing with them.  But the best grass in our yard is under these tree......?

 Usually we only see the plums on the ground after they are over ripe and bees are busy feeding on them.

This year I wanted to finish something on my to-do list. I was going to bake with the fruit in our yard.  I could reach a few branches by standing, then I went and got the golf cart and stood on the  seat, stretching to reach ones higher.  They were a nice reddish-purple color and they smelled really good.  I searched on line for recipes using plums from trees in Minnesota. I found one that looked promising.

It took quite awhile to chop all the plums as they are quite small. I tried to peel a couple, but it took so much flesh with. I was hoping if I cut the pieces small, they would disintegrate while baking in the oven.  I was concerned with the amount of sugar in the recipe-1/2 cup sugar and 3/4 cup of corn syrup.  I followed the directions and it smelled so good in the kitchen.

I eagerly waited for Dude to come home and have some. Yep-not a good experiment. The peels didn't disintegrate and the cobbler was waaaaaaay too tart. With all that sugar?  But I crossed part of my baking with fruit from the yard. As we speak (or as I write this) I have about 6 pounds of apples off our tree stewing to make home made apple pie filling I can throw in the freezer and make Dude a pie in the middle of winter-and it will taste like summer.  So I add this to the fail category, but nothing ventured, nothing gain.  On to the next challenge.

Grandma Oney's Pickles

My Grandma Oney was a really good cook. She made meals out of nothing it seemed like sometimes. Having been through the Depression she knew how to stretch a buck. She had a large garden up into her late 60's.  It was really no secret that Grandma didn't really care for my Mom a whole lot-other than birthing me. Mom said while it seemed petty, she got a kick out of it when my Dad proclaimed that Mom's fried chicken and potato salad were better than Grandma's.

 While Grandma was never outright mean to my Mom, she would be condescending and snarky.  However, she did share some recipes with Mom so she could keep her little boy fed. This is a refrigerator pickle that my Dad really likes, so when Mom found it in a drawer with other recipes, she collected several cards and sent them down to me.  Dude really liked the pickles. Of course, there are several jars in the fridge since the cukes are going crazy, but on the recipe it says "these last a really long time in the fridge". I am going to bring some to work though-just to clear some room for more pickles!

Grandma Oney's Refrigerator Pickles

6 cups unpeeled thin sliced cukes

1 cup onion, sliced thin

1 TBSP salt

1 tsp celery salt

1 small green pepper, cut into thin strips

1 small red pepper, cut into thin strips

1-1/2 cup sugar

1 cup vinegar

Dissolve sugar in the vinegar. Toss the cukes, onion, peppers, salt and celery salt in bowl and let stand 2 hours. Pack the pickle ingredients into freshly cleaned jars. Pour the liquid over the veggies and place in fridge. It made 2 full quart jars for me.



Dude and I spent a glorious 5 days camping and boating on the St. Croix river a week ago. We had so much fun-we cruised, we beached, we swam, we ate. The best vacation I could have asked for.

Snicker Salad and the Photo that didn't happen

I never thought it would be so hard to photograph a plate of food. I tried inside, I tried outside, with a flash, without-I just couldn't make this look pretty.

But it does taste good!

Snicker Salad

3 medium Granny Smith apples

2 standard size Snicker candy bars, chilled

1 tub of Cool Whip

lemon juice

Cut apples into bite size pieces. Sprinkle with the lemon juice so they don't brown. If you have juice that has accumulated in the bowl, carefully pour it out.

Remove candy bars from fridge. Cut in half length-wise and then cut the each half into small slices. Chilling the candy bars makes them easier to cut.

Place candy bar pieces in the bowl with the apples. Scoop the Cool Whip into the bowl and stir to combine all of the elements.

Lick the Cool Whip spoon.

While it didn't photograph well, it was gobbled up quickly.

I've Linkedin

I've linked up my apple salad recipe to the Hearth and Soul Hop.

http://premeditatedleftovers.com/hearth-and-soul-hop-with-premeditated-leftovers-711/
Yeah, I still can't figure out the linking thing....old dog, new tricks ya know.

Check out Alea's site. She has so many great ideas about saving money, using fresh ingredients, and has wonderful recipes!

Apple Salad

 Real heat has hit Minnesota. It is hot. It is humid. No one wants to cook in this heat.

We took our boat out to the St. Croix river which separates Minnesota and Wisconsin in the middle section of the state. The St. Croix is a nice river for water sports-tubing, skiing, jet ski(ing) and just taking a ride.

We brought our friend J along again, this time with both of her daughters and Dude and I. We boated for about an hour and a half, then beached our boat on one of the several islands that sit between Hudson WI and Lakeland MN.  Most of them were pretty full, but we motored around one larger one and found the one side empty. We got our bag of snacks, the cooler and the portable gas grill out and set up camp on the beach.

I had made hamburger patties and wanted something a little sweet, a little tangy for a side dish. Something without mayo that could sit out for a little while when we had our picnic.

Enter the apple salad. I first had this dish about 23 years ago when I was first dating Dude.  We had gone up to his parent's lake home for a weekend and my MIL (to be at this time)  put this dish out with our grilled burgers and brats.

I have stated (numerous times) that I'm not a big salad person, but have come to like several over the last 10 years or so. This one however, it was love at first bite. It included three ingredients-6 if you count the lemon, water and cornstarch-and I love all three.

It is sweet from the pineapple, tart from the Granny Smith's and just plain tasty.

Apple Salad

3 Granny Smith apple, washed, sliced and chunked into bite size pieces

1 small can of pineapple tidbitd  (6-8 oz), juice drained into small saucepan

1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 TBSP cold water

1 to 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Half of a lemon

Drain pineapple juice into small saucepan. In small container, shake the water and cornstarch together until well mixed. Heat pineapple juice to slight boil. Shake the water-cornstarch mixture again, and slowly pour into hot juice, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil and stir until thickened-maybe a minute. Remove from heat, and pour into another container to help it cool faster.

Chop the apple slices into bite-sized pieces, place in a medium size bowl and squeeze lemon juice over apple pieces several times as you are chopping the apple so it does not brown.

Place drained pineapple in bowl with the apple chunks. Chop the walnuts into smaller pieces so they are easier to chew. Place them in bowl with the fruit.

Pour cooled dressing over the fruit and stir to distribute the dressing over all of the pieces.

Cover and chill in the fridge until serving time.

Sneak some into a small container and hide in the back of the fridge to take to work the next day.

Oh, and if a boat beaches next to you that has a dog.....make sure all the meat is off the grill and eaten or stored in the cooler. We had a guest help himself to our last burger while we were all chatting. It was the funniest thing ever! His owner came over with a $10 bill and offered to pay for whatever his dog had grabbed. We laughed and waved away his offer and told him it was just a burger and we hope he enjoyed it.

Independence Play

 I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July. We celebrated with our good friend and one of her daughters. You may remember me speaking last year around this time about my friend. Her and her husband were our very best friends. We went on vacation, had BBQ's, went to car shows, out to dinner, spent most of the past 17 years together on New Year's Eve eating junk food and playing cards. He cheated, for the about the whole time we knew them, and it broke her heart. She is picking up the pieces of her life and mess he left her with.

We had been waiting to get her out on the boat and as we normally spend the 4th together, we thought this would be the perfect way to celebrate.

We laughed so much-all day. After boating and tubing we came back to our house and grilled up dinner, played a game and laughed some more.

It was the ultimate 4th of July celebration-my hubby, my girls and our dearest friend.

We are so very blessed.

 Hermit Crab

 Drama Queen and Hermit Crab holding on for dear life!

 Our friend J and her daughter B

 J and B on the tub-squealing

Drama Queen and Hermit Crab-one last ride before we leave

What has been happening around here.....

I celebrated my 45th birthday. Dude took me away to Minneapolis for a weekend.

We enjoyed rooftop bars, an awesome dinner, and just hanging out.

Drama Queen graduated high school.

How did this happen so fast?

We have cruised the local lake in the boat.

 
                                      There is a new skipper in town, or so she thinks!

Enjoying Father's Day night on the boat.

It has been really busy-graduation, the party, getting her registered for college-that starts in 4 weeks.

I've been a little overwhelmed and taking some time to get stuff in place and trying to relax. Throw in a couple health'ish things and I'm looking for a lounge chair, a pool boy and a bartender!

Off to make some stuff to hopefully put up here soon.

Hope all is well with everyone, and I will see you soon!