Ot July Chit Chat II

[agate]

I barely cook corn on the cob too, but I think Peg is talking about cooking for a large crowd because she mentions a family reunion. The cooler idea is probably a way to cook lots of corn on the cob all at once. Maybe she or Sally will clue us in.

[SalpalSally]

I would imagine that, how long you cooked it, depended on how much you're cooking. 30 Min. is what I said, though, not Pegs 2 hours.. I don't like Corn cooked too long. I like it crispy.

[Gary]

When we had the bar and grill we would serve corn at lunch and dinner we would boil it for about 1 min and then keep it in a vat of warm milk at the back of the grill. My plan is to have the water boiling and run out to the garden and pick it run back in an drop it in the boiling water. And there is nothing like cold corn on the cob the next day for lunch!!

Feeling a bit better I went out and pulled a few weeds this morning and it did not take much before I was wiped out. This afternoon is HOT 102+ for most of SW Idaho. TV and a/c time for me. Peg I have been watching weather reports (once a farmer always a farmer) and think about you guys often. It looks like the dust bowl of the 1930's . Folks don't realize that this will have lasting effect on everybody as it is driving up corn and hay prices already. I see spot futures on dairy hay are already up to $150 a ton. As a result of the beef rancher having to dump cattle they cant feed on the market while the price is low now it will not stay that way long look for all direct farm stuffs (beef, pork, milk) to be higher than ever about January.

Jeanie I do not know what to say other than if the power of positive thoughts helps EVERYONE is behind you.

Felt good enough to make a couple of batches of sausage. Made 15 lbs of bratwurst and about 5 lbs of head cheese didn't have pork head so used picnic roast cheapest cut there is. Daughter stopped over to see how I was doing and smelled the head cheese cooking and knew right away what it was and she put in her order SIL statement: You people EAT that?!? Planning on making blood tongue and scrapple too depending freezer room. Wanna know what it is? Just ask.

Yeah you guessed it, we are fat German kids as my kids say.

Stay cool.............

[nuthatch]

Okay, I'll admit that I don't know what blood tongue (sounds like when you bite your own tongue) or scrapple is. I'm sure it's nothing like Scrabble, the game! Educate me.

Your post, Gary, brought back memories I hadn't thought about in a while.
My father tells stories of his mother making blood soup when he was young. He said you had to leave the house, it smelled so bad. Both of dad's parents were from an island off the coast of what was then Yugoslavia. Grandpa was a fisherman and grandma worked in the tuna cannery. I remember, as a child, going to their house in San Pedro and being intrigued by the barrels of salted fish in the cellar and the language that my dad and his siblings switched into speaking whenever we went there. I never learned the language, but I sure wish I had now. I can still remember the smell of the old fishing nets and cork floats in the garage.

Hello to everyone!

[renee]

Gary, you are talking about my dad's kind of food.
Breakfasts of grits and scrapple- he never got any takers.
I have warmed up to grits but noone out here serves scrapple so I don't know if I like it.
Head cheese...still spooked by mad cow disease.

Someone at work wants a farewell potluck party of coworkers family recipes.
I thought i would bring in a one pound brick of butter and another brick of lard.
Got the picture?

I can't even make my great grandmothers Huddersfield Yorkshire pudding.
It would gross out everyone.

Oh well, I could try the crust of dry bread branch of the family.

Bon Appetit!

[Pegakafarmgirl]

Hi gang,, Sally,, I mis/read it,, your right,, 20 minutes,, duh,,lol once a blonde, always a blonde moment,, and his sister is doing it,, we opted to let her,,

Yes the weather here, in Iowa, was a bit on the warm side,, Wednesday it was 106. then the rain {you can call it a rain} came, knock power out, and a Canadian cold front came down, felt good,,

Now on to the family reunion today. can't you tell how excited I am to spend time, with the relatives ?,, we have my famous beans, plus tomatoes, and cucumbers soaked in vinegar,,how to you guys like your cucumbers,,this is the only way we fix em,,

Sam is doing good, she is so smart,, I better go feed her,, its time,,,,,,,,later

[SalpalSally]

@ Renee...Rotfl!!!!

[stillstANNding]

Peg, I like my cukes sliced w onions and left in a bowl of vinegar w some sugar over night. Mom's side of the family.

ANN

[Gary]

It looks like a dust bowl around here but only because the grains are beginning to be combined and then the fields are watered once (to sprout the weeds) then plowed and put to bed until next spring. Its been in the upper 90's or 100+ every afternoon I have been getting up early to at least get the garden watered. We are not going to mention the weeds or the fact that my yard needs mowing.

Lots of tomatoes if anyone needs any also cucumbers and I think I went over board (again) on the potatoes. I tried a new strain of seed potatoes this year and I have a 99% germination rate. The difference is almost all spuds in the store are treated with various things to keep them from sprouting. Most of the stuff wears off and that is why at the end of the bag you end up with a couple that look like extraterrestrial things growing in you kitchen.

Now on to my sausage projects....... My family is German even though they have been in the United States since 1845 I am the first generation that started school speaking English better than German. Speaking German in public was an embarrassment so us kids pretended that we didn't understand what our folks were saying. Yeah I know and now some 50 years later I can hardly speak it. Actually my Spanish (or Spanglish as it REALLY is) is much better than either my high German or my low German..... So blood tongue is a type of head cheese made by boiling a thoroughly cleaned pigs head, I used a picnic ham instead and one or two pigs feet (for the fat and collagen) and as with LOTS of German food lots of vinegar. With blood tongue you use blood and suet thickened with bread crumbs and/or oatmeal along with chopped tongue. I usually make up some bratwurst and knackwurst along with Braunschweiger (liver sausage) I usually use natural casings and smoke the whole mess and freeze it. My dad used to say the only thing you waste on a pig is the squeal.

Trying to decide if I want to make pickles this year I don't have near enough but they are cheap. Besides over the last few years the 2 kids have managed to cart off a lot of the glass jars. Peg is correct "fresh" pickles and tomatoes are a regular staple around here, in separate containers because I cant stand fresh tomatoes.

I am feeling much improved I just run out of energy fast so I have divided up my projects into manageable time slots and I have decided that I am pleased wiht "what" I have done rather than "how much" I have done it is frustrating at times (okay LOTS of the time) but you know......

Jeanie how are things going? I cant imagine how being separated is on both of you. I will continue to keep you in my thoughts.

Hi Ann great minds think alike we literally posted at exactly the same time!

Is it fall yet?

[stillstANNding]

Yes, Gary, but I won.;)

ANN

[Cat Dancer]

I love head cheese.. I'll send my address..
But you can keep the scrapple and blood tongue.

I've got a pretty well-stocked freezer, just waiting for the prices of basic commodities to start going up. Drought around here, too. Rain keeps coming north and south of us..but never AT us. Even my prairie is drying up. At least my husband doesn't have any grass to mow.

Hot here, too. A "cool" 87 today, but forecast for tomorrow is back into the mid 90''s...again. Don't wanna open my electric bill in a week or so...

[Jeanie Z]

:) Hi everyone. I think those of you who can and garden are amazing. I never got exposed to any of that. I planted some watermelon, carrots and cucumbers one time years ago. I had a nice watermelon and had it cold to have for desert and when I cut into it it was a huge cucumber. So much for gardening!

The nurse called David and said the radiologist has been out of town and he is the one who decides on what treatment to give. But she said that since David's cancer has spread to the left side of his liver he probably is no longer a candidate for a liver transplant. She said they might send him home with a RX for chemo pills. David is very down. They will discuss his case Monday AM and he can call them at noon.

I am hoping they will do the ablation which kills the tumors and put him on the transplant waiting list. His sister is after him to come and visit she and his mother in CT. I want him to come home and have whatever treatments the VA here can do. I don't want him to stay any longer with no treatment as the tumors spread in this 60 days he has been in VA.

Thank you all for being here and for thr thoughts and prayers. Jeanie :)

[Frog42]

I love head cheese.. I'll send my address..
But you can keep the scrapple and blood tongue.

Y'all can keep all of it for yourselves. Don't send me any of it, please!

[SalpalSally]

Saying an extra prayer for you Jeanie, tonight and for David.

[Jeanie Z]

David update

:) Hi everyone. I wish it were good news.

The VA liver team discussed David's case this morning. They said he is NOT a candidate for a transplant. They also said he has too many tumors to have the ablation (heat treatment to kill them) done. They are going to refer him to an oncologist here in WPB and put him on a chemo pill called Sarazen. He will have follow up CT scans or MRI's to see if the drug is working and if not they can put him on another experimental treatment.

This is not the news we were hoping to hear. I am hoping they can continue to do some more TASE treatments here through the femoral artery putting chemo in each tumor and pellets to stop the blood flow to them and give him more time. The doctor there wants David to call him the end of this week about the oncologist referral. So David should be heading home by the weekend or the first of the week.

Tomorrow is our 20th Anniversary. We will have to celebrate when he gets home. I miss him a lot.

Thank you all for your prayers and being here. Please keep praying. Thanks, Jeanie :)

The drug is not sarazen it is Nexavar or Sorafenib.