31 October 2010
Home Made Stuff
31/10/10 09:50
This week I made my annual pot of chile. I know I've mentioned this before. Every fall, usually sometime in October, I make a big pot of chilli from scratch. In the past I used produce from friends. In Minnesota I never had to grow a garden. Everyone else would bring in their extra tomatoes, peppers, beans, celery, carrots, zucchini, and such to the office to give away. This year for the first time I wanted to grow all my own stuff. It came out great and the best part was the knowledge that I raised all the stuff with my own two hands. I went out in the heat of August to water the plants. I picked the slugs off the leaves with my own fingers, no pesticides for me. I pulled the weeds out myself. It's been very satisfying and the chilli came out great!
The best part is that it's really a simple recipe:
Tomatoes (Hand Raised in my garden by me)
Green Peppers (Hand Raised in my garden be me)
Seasoning* (from the store of course)
See how simple it is and best of all it's nearly all home grown.
*'Seasoning' includes pepper, chilli powder, cayenne, oregano, paprika, celery, garlic, red beans, white beans, black beans, onions, and stewed tomatoes.
Also this week I started on our annual Christmas card. As many of you know I have made our Christmas Cards since the early '90s. The first few years I drew the images. Then I used computer drawing programs to create the images. More recently I've been using photographs we've taken. I have an archive of all of our cards here
http://web.me.com/geoduck/Site/Xmas_Pix/Xmas_Pix.html
What most don't realize is that I create a lot of cards and then We** sort through them and decide on the one to use. These rough drafts usually disappear into my computer never to be seen again. This year though I decided to share my rough drafts. To show you how much thought and work goes into my cards. So in no particular order:
The first image was taken in the Cathedral Grove.
It's a bit too 'nerdy'. You need to be a fairly serious fan of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings books and movies to remember the Ents.
The second image
was also rejected. Somewhere out there on the Internet there may actually be an Eau 'd Tunafish and with my luck I'd end up with a bottle of the stuff this Christmas.
The third one
was amusing but it might give the younger members of our audience (of which as far as I know we have none) bad ideas.
The fourth one
was amusing but really not all that Christmasy.
The fifth one
sends COMPLETELY the wrong message. I knew that when I made it.
And the last one
was, oh I don't know, it seemed, perhaps a bit militant for the season.
**"We" is defined as when I show something to Marsha and the reaction is "Ha Ha Ha Ha, No, because....". Not that I object. Good writers come from good editors.
And the winner, the 2010 Christmas card is...
in the mail, or will be shortly. They are being printed right now and we expect to have them ready to go in about a week. You'll just have to wait. for them to arrive. You also can see it on the Xmas Card Archive mentioned above, but I won't be putting it out there until mid December.
No peeking.
Doug & Marsha
The best part is that it's really a simple recipe:
Tomatoes (Hand Raised in my garden by me)
Green Peppers (Hand Raised in my garden be me)
Seasoning* (from the store of course)
See how simple it is and best of all it's nearly all home grown.
*'Seasoning' includes pepper, chilli powder, cayenne, oregano, paprika, celery, garlic, red beans, white beans, black beans, onions, and stewed tomatoes.
Also this week I started on our annual Christmas card. As many of you know I have made our Christmas Cards since the early '90s. The first few years I drew the images. Then I used computer drawing programs to create the images. More recently I've been using photographs we've taken. I have an archive of all of our cards here
http://web.me.com/geoduck/Site/Xmas_Pix/Xmas_Pix.html
What most don't realize is that I create a lot of cards and then We** sort through them and decide on the one to use. These rough drafts usually disappear into my computer never to be seen again. This year though I decided to share my rough drafts. To show you how much thought and work goes into my cards. So in no particular order:
The first image was taken in the Cathedral Grove.
It's a bit too 'nerdy'. You need to be a fairly serious fan of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings books and movies to remember the Ents.
The second image
was also rejected. Somewhere out there on the Internet there may actually be an Eau 'd Tunafish and with my luck I'd end up with a bottle of the stuff this Christmas.
The third one
was amusing but it might give the younger members of our audience (of which as far as I know we have none) bad ideas.
The fourth one
was amusing but really not all that Christmasy.
The fifth one
sends COMPLETELY the wrong message. I knew that when I made it.
And the last one
was, oh I don't know, it seemed, perhaps a bit militant for the season.
**"We" is defined as when I show something to Marsha and the reaction is "Ha Ha Ha Ha, No, because....". Not that I object. Good writers come from good editors.
And the winner, the 2010 Christmas card is...
in the mail, or will be shortly. They are being printed right now and we expect to have them ready to go in about a week. You'll just have to wait. for them to arrive. You also can see it on the Xmas Card Archive mentioned above, but I won't be putting it out there until mid December.
No peeking.
Doug & Marsha