Prickly Pears: A How To

I've never been a big cactus fan, but we inherited a group of prickly pear bushes that were growing in our chicken run when we bought the house (you can probably scavenge them around your area too if you look hard enough). As my husband hates to pull up any green and growing thing, I have to pick my battles on what I try to get rid of. This year however, I gotta say I had fun harvesting and processing the fruit with him. It's been a long while since he and I were able to work on a food/garden project together because someone usually has to be keeping an eye on the Wee One. Claire was a good girl for this project though, and went down for her nap when we started and woke up from it just as we were cleaning up.

The biggest thing to deal with when working with prickly pears are the thorns. Its not so much the big obvious thorns that will get you. What you need to be concerned with is the layer of fine as peach fuzz thorns that also cover the fruit. How to get rid of all of these thorns is the subject of this post, along with lots of fun pictures involving fire and the like.

After a little online research, Jeff found the best way to get rid of the thorns was fire. Other ways that people take care of them is by rolling them in sand or straw/weeds. Fire won for many reasons like it sounded more fun, less labor intensive, more effective at getting rid of all those little buggers that are so fine you can't see them and we happened to have a fire pit full of wood in our back yard. The Internet recommended using a blow torch, but I think our way was more romantic and probably the way great grand pappy would have done it. Well, that is if our great grand pappy's were a little less European.

The basics of the process is as follows.

1) When your prickly pears have turned a nice red color, carefully pick them with a pair of tongs. We found the kind you'd use in the kitchen (as opposed to BBQ tongs) worked best for this step. The fruit will be pretty delicate so just gently twist and pull until it pops off. DO NOT TOUCH THE FRUIT WITH YOUR BARE HANDS!!

2) Whatever fire source you are using needs to be big in the flames department. You want them to actually lick the fruit. Using BBQ tongs, roll your fruit around in the flames until the skin becomes shiny and a little dark. Be sure to pay special attention to the ends of the fruit where the big thorns are. Heavy gloves to protect your hands from the heat are recommended.

3) Place your fruit in a bucket of icy water to cool.

4) Peel the fruit by cutting off the ends and then running your knife along the sides. The skins should come off pretty easily.

And that's all it takes my friends! This was effective enough at taking off the thorns that I didn't wear any gloves to peal them. I'd be lying if I said no thorns poked me, but after a good hand washing they seemed to all come out. We harvested five gallons of prickly pears and juiced them. In my next post I'll let you know what we made with them!

 

 

 





After a while we realized doing one at a time was a waste of time.

 

Well I'm pretty sure my grandpa never juiced prickly pear back in his day, but this juicer of his still has a lot of life left in it.

 

The final product.

 

 

Halloween Decorations

I am very excited to report that I finally actually decorated for a holiday! I have always been a holiday decorator, even when I was renting with roommates who thought I was a bit strange for decorating the house when no one else was into it. Even for minor holidays I like to put up at least a few things as a reminder that there is a special day coming. I love that holidays are a time when you can see our shared culture and can take a day out of the normal march of time and make it special (even if its a silly made up  kind of special like American style St. Patrick's day and Cinco de Mayo). Who wouldn't like an excuse to have fun?

In the last year, however, I have found something that would be strong enough to dampen my decorator's spirit, morning sickness and a very young baby. Now that Claire is old enough to entertain herself a bit, I have no excuse to not bust out my bins of decorations and channel my inner Martha Stewart. Considering Halloween is one of my favorite holidays I think its appropriate that I got back into the swing of things with it. I don't think I go overboard, I just like to add touches of the holiday around the house on bookshelves and table tops mostly. Here are a few pictures of my Holiday/Fall decor. 

Decorating also gave me a cleaning bug. I scrubbed down my front door for the first time ever (though I ussually use Halloween as as good excuse to leave up spiderwebs) and purchased a new welcome mat from Costco.
 

 

 

 

 

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

As the Summer harvest slows down, its not uncommon for me to end up with an awkward amount of tomatoes left over. There aren't enough to be worth pulling out the caner, but too many to make one dinner of pasta sauce. Normally this is the time I'd whip up a batch of salsa with the last of the tomatoes, onions and peppers. Salsa and sauce are the two big uses we have for tomatoes in my house because Jeff won't eat them raw, but this week I also wasn't planning any Mexican food to pair the salsa with. After being taunted by them for several days with no inspiration of what I was going to make out, I stumbled upon this post on The Hungry Tigress.

I had seen oven roasted tomatoes on other blogs before, but had never quite gotten around to giving them a try. I figured they'd be a hit around here because they are often compared in flavor and use to sun dried tomatoes, and Jeff is definitely a fan of those.

I am now happy to have a new option when it comes to using up my tomatoes. I actually wish I had tried it earlier in the season when I had more on hand. I only have one jar in the freezer now, but there are still a few late tomatoes hanging on the vines outside. As soon as they ripen, I think I know just what to do with them.

 

I forgot my oregano so it had to go on top. Learn from my mistake.


Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients

20-30 small tomatoes
8 cloves of garlic
1 large sprig of rosemary
2-3 tbsp. of oregano and thyme
3-4 tbsp. sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

1) Cut the garlic into thick slices. Don't cut it too thin, you'll want it to be able to hold up to a long time in the oven.

2) Roughly chop or tear up the herbs. Sprinkle the garlic and herbs in your baking dish(es).

3) Cut tomatoes in half and place cut side up on top of your herbs and garlic. Sprinkle with sugar and pour a liberal amount of olive oil over them.

4) Put the tomatoes in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature of 325. Bake for two hours.

To store the roasted tomatoes you can add some more olive oil to them after cooking and store in the fridge for a week, or you can freeze them for later use.

This recipe is very versatile and you can jazz it up with whatever seasonings suit your taste. I think some red pepper flakes could make a nice addition.

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chop

Today is one of the first days in a long while that I feel I can just let out a big sigh and take the time to do a blog post. I feel silly for always feeling behind on things, and for my house always just barely being kept up, because it seems like as a stay at home mom with only one baby to tend to I should be able to find more time to get things done. I foolishly thought when I had Claire that I would continue to have time to blog during the day like I did when I worked in an office and sat in front of the computer all day waiting for the phone to ring or for someone to need copies made. Today, however, my house is fairly clean (my standards are modest), the dog has been walked, my yard is pooper scooped and my baby is asleep all at the same time. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Even time seems to be moving slower today. No racing against the clock wondering how its already time to start dinner (at least I'm too busy to worry about boredom of SAHM life). So in celebration of free time, I would like to share a recipe I tried recently and to save it here so the next time I need it I'm not searching the Internet trying to remember how to make the darn thing!

Before I moved in with Jeff, I didn't do a lot with pork chops. I liked them when other people made them, but non-bacon pork always seemed a little bit of a mystery to me when it came to how to cook it. Once Jeff and I discovered how easy it was to BBQ up with very little fuss, just a bit of salt and a little time on the grill, it became something I always kept my eye out for in the grocery ads. As much as I love pork with just a bit of salt and a side of apple sauce, I was recently looking for something to go with polenta (a few too many mashed potatoes had been gracing our plates) and for some reason pork just stuck in my head. This recipe also fits into the category of looking more impressive than the preparation of it really justifies, and I always like to have a few of those recipes up my sleeve. Nice enough looking for a dinner with company and easy enough to make on a weeknight. Win, win.

Obviously I was not thinking of blogging this when I snapped this photo. Welcome to the harsh reality of how we eat. TV trays are our best friend.

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chop
Original recipe from
Cooking Light can be found here.

ingredients

 

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3  large garlic cloves, minced

4 (4-ounce) boneless pork chops

 polenta

1) In a bag or Tupperware combine the rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic and meat. Allow the meat the marinate for an hour.

2) Pour the vinegar into a saucepan and simmer until it is reduced by half. Vinegar reduces fast so don't walk away from it. This step will take less than five minutes.

3) Grill on medium high heat for five or so minutes per side depending on their thickness. Pork is done when it reaches an internal temperature of about 150 degrees. Baste the pork with the reduced balsamic vinegar while it cooks.

Serve with creamy polenta that is made following the package instructions. Using chicken broth instead of water and throwing in a small handful and Parmesan cheese and a tablespoon of butter when its almost finished will make it particularly tasty. Of course you could also just be lazy and buy pre-made polenta, but I think making it yourself is worth your time.

I hope you enjoyed the recipe. As for me, my baby appears to still be asleep, and I still have another hour before I have to think about starting dinner. Now the question is should I be good and put away some laundry or throw my cares to the wind and do a little knitting...

Pulling Up

Last week I walked into Claire's room to pick her up, and I caught her trying to grab her mobile.

 

Her ability to get herself up into a sitting position is still new enough that I was impressed by that. Her attempt to grab her mobile was just icing on the cake, but then, this happened.

 

 

Oh goodness. Claire is getting to be such a big little girl (and yes her mattress has since been lowered to a much safer height). OK, so I have to admit, she did it once the day before, but I didn't catch it on tape so it didn't happen.

 

 I shouldn't be surprised that there is only one guaranteed way to get her to stand up and that is to call Prince into the room. After I had taken the video of Baby reaching for her mobile I saw her get into position to pull herself up, but she couldn't quite get it. I tried doing everything I could to encourage her before I gave up and just called the dog in. The second he came in she popped up. I may not have any irrigation lines in my back yard anymore, but I definitely don't regret getting Claire her best friend.

 

 

 

A Little Bit of Everything

I've been a little uninspired to blog lately. I don't feel like any one thing that has happened is worthy of an entire blog post, but I have been taking a few pictures of things thinking I  might eventually feel inspired to blog. So here is a post about a little bit of everything, home, food and a baby thrown in at the end. Enjoy.

We recently bought a big clothes drying contraption at Costco. Its main use will be for drying baby diapers because the sun works as a natural bleaching and deodorizing tool. It also seemed a little more earth friendly since you have to run cloth diapers through the dryer several times to get them completely dry. One problem this has brought up though is that clothing that is line dried tends to be scratchy and stiff. Am I doing something wrong? People talk about how wonderful line dried sheets are, but if they are anything like line dried diapers then I have to imagine slipping into line dried sheets would be rather scratchy and uncomfortable. I've started putting them in the dryer on a heat less cycle after they are dry just to soften them up, but this sort of defeats the purpose and seems like a ridiculous extra step. I would try fabric softener but everything online says those will lessen the absorbency of the diaper. Any ideas?

In food related news, I made a fool the other day. A fool is a simple old fashion dessert that is basically a fruit compote folded into whipped cream. I know I'm not suppose to be eating dairy right now, but I had a bowl full of fresh picked strawberries sitting on my counter and couldn't resist trying it. I think this would have worked better with a tart fruit (the original recipe called for rhubarb) or one with more body, but it was still pretty delicious. I also saw some ideas online for strawberry fools that add a little basil to it. I wasn't feeling brave the day I made this so I left it out, but next time I'll add it. Whatever fruit you choose to use, this would be a great way to use up leftover cream. It always seems like during the holidays I have recipes that call for a cup of cream and then I have to find uses for the rest. Generally it ends up being a treat in my morning coffee, but this could be a fun way to change it up.

Ok, so if you know how to make whipped cream you don't really need a recipe for this one, but here ya go. I didn't measure anything when I was making this but these general amounts made two big fools (hey wait a minute...). I think next time I'd use something more the size of a whiskey glass. These could be a great way to make a pretty dessert for a dinner party without a lot of effort because you could do that fruit ahead of time and just whip up the cream after dinner.

Strawberry Fool "Recipe"

ingredients

+/- 1 cup of whipping cream
1-2 tbsp. powdered sugar
a splash of vanilla extract

+/- 2 cups of strawberries quartered
2 tbsp. sugar

1) Wash and quarter the strawberries and then add the sugar. Allow to sit for at least a half and hour until they get juicy. Then, mash them with a fork.

2) Add remaining ingredients to a bowl and whip with an electric mixer until its the consistency of thick whipped cream. You'll want it a little stiffer  than you would normally make it because its going to sit for a bit.

3) Layer ingredients in a glass and then spiral a spoon down into it and back up. Refrigerate for a half and hour and then enjoy with a couple of shortbread cookies.

And now on to Baby. She's been having mild but continuing diaper rash issues lately so I've been trying to give her some diaper free time every day. While we still haven't been able to completely clear up the rash, it has led to some cute pictures.

Well that's it for my jumbled theme-less blog post. Hope you all are having more inspired weeks than me!

Baby's First Swim

A few weeks ago we bought Claire a little pool off of Amazon. We couldn't help ourselves. I stumbled upon it when I was looking for a sun tent for our beach trip and it was so adorable we decided we had to have it. Bonus, it was only twelve dollars for a super cute mushroom shaped inflatable baby pool. I didn't get a picture of the whole pool, but you can see the listing here.

Now that Claire can sit up on her own, and we are experiencing a particularly warm streak of weather, we decided it was time to give the pool a try. Claire has had warm baths, but this was going to be her first encounter with cool water. So while the Giants game was wrapping up today I blew up the pool and Jeffry wiggled Baby into her swim diaper. She was stylin' and ready for her first swim.

The pool also came with about six different inflatable mushrooms and butterflies. For much of her pool time those were far more interesting to her than the water.

I really should have given these a good wash before she went in the pool. Whoops.

The added challenge of pool time, is that toys can get away from you. Luckily, Momma was there to give her a hand.

Look at her little legs go!

Claire was in the water for quite a while before she realized that splashing was also a fun option, but when that cuteness happened it suddenly got a bit too wet to be taking pictures so I just enjoyed the moment!

 All in all I'd say it was a successful first pool experience that Claire really enjoyed. I was also really excited to see that the swim diaper kept the pee pee in and the water out. I think my $1 investment from the JBF sale paid off!  I have always been a little skeptical of both disposable and reusable swim diapers. I'd like to get her one of those sun blocking shirts to go along with it for when we go to grown up pools that don't have mushroom cap shades.