Act 20: In a Pickle...

Well the garden has been a success so far, with out main crop being cucumbers.  In fact, last weekend we had so many ready to go that there was no way Steve and I would be able to eat them all.

What better way to use all these yummy looking cukes than making pickles??  I found a dill pickle recipe (my favorite kind by far) online and then found an invaluable website for beginners: the USDA Canning Guide.  It took a bit to navigate at first but it gave me everything I needed to know about sanitizing the jars and lids, how to process the filled jars, processing time, etc.

Armed with this new knowledge, I set out on Saturday to pick up supplies.  Steve already had 4 quart sized Ball jars, so I only need lids and bands for those.  Easily found at the grocery store.  I needed pickling salt and fresh dill for the recipe.  Pickling salt was easily found too (right next to the jar lids) but I had to go to 3 grocery stores before finding one with fresh dill!  I couldn't believe it.  Apparently this is not a popular item.  A little bit frustrating for sure.  The last thing on my list was canning utensils.  I went to the kitchen store in the mall and asked if they had something to easily transfer the jars in and out of the boiling water.  They said of course... a jar lifter!  It came in a set of canning utensils that included a lid lifter (a cool magnetic stick that lifts the lids out of the boiling water), tongs, a wide mouth funnel, and a few other toys.  All my purchases, the cucumbers, jars, some garlic and vinegar and I was ready to go!

First we simmer the jars, lids, and bands to make sure they were all sanitary and ready to go.  Everything stays in the hot water until you're ready to use them.  We also got the brine ready.  6 cups of water, 2 1/4 cups of white vinegar, and 1/2 cup of pickling salt boiled until the salt is all dissolved.  Next we cut up the cucumbers.  We did half slices and half spears.

One by one we removed the jars.  We put fresh dill and a garlic clove in the bottom of each, stuffed with as many slices or spears as we could fit, put another garlic clove and more dill on top and then poured the brine in to fill up the jar.

Once the jars were filled we used our nifty magnetic lid lifter to get our lids out their pot and closed them up.  We used the jar lifter to transport the jars into the stock pot (which was acting as our canner since we didn't want to invest in an actual one for our first time.

We had a candy thermometer on the side of the stock pot because the water was supposed to be 140 degrees when the jars first go in.  Then you cover the pot, bring it to a boil, and then process it (let it boil) for the proper amount of time.  The website I linked to above has tables that help you determine your processing time by what you are canning, the size of the jars, and your altitude.  Our cucumbers processed for 15 minutes.

Turns out the stock pot was barely big enough.  Safe canning instructions say that the water must be at least one inch above the tops of the jars and not drop below the lid during boiling, even if that means you add more water.  Also, the water must never stop boiling during the processing time or you have to start all over.  The water was all the way to the top of the stock pot and the boiling made the lid jump and sputter the whole time.  Clearly if we do this again in the future there needs to be a purchase of either a canner or a bigger pot! 

We got through the processing time without any mishaps though.  The next step was to turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the water for another 5 mintues.  After that we lifted the jars out of the pot and set them on towels on the counter.  The jars need to cool completely before you check the buttons on the lids to see if they sealed or not.  It was recommended to cover the jars with towels so they don't cool too quickly; there is a chance the glass could crack if they do.  Don't say I don't follow directions!

I was dying to check the seals the whole rest of the day, but Steve kept me in line.  Finally on Monday after work I was able to check and all 4 jars were perfectly sealed.  Success!  I was so excited and proud after this little adventure that I couldn't stop bouncing.  It was fun!  One thing that was surprising is how much room there seems to be in the jars.  We stuffed as many slices and spears as we could shove into the jars, but now there is a lot of wiggle room.  Guess that's just how it works.  Next time maybe I'll try to get more in there.

Though we could open them as soon as the next day, I hear we should wait a couple of weeks for them to become properly pickle-y.  This means one more week before we can dig in and see how they taste.  I can't wait!  Looks good, eh? :-)

Act 19: My Vacations are Going to the Dogs...

For a long 4th of July weekend (and because I needed to go somewhere that is even hotter) Steve and I took a road trip to Georgia to visit my parents.  I've done this drive two or three times before, but this time we had a little company... DOGS!  Steve's 3.5 year old Siberian Husky Satchmo and my almost 3 year old German Shepherd Dean :-)  I've never traveled with dogs before, except bringing them home or driving 20 minutes to the dog park, so we were all in for a new experience.  Through the kindness of Steve's mom, we got to drive her Ford Flex down to Georgia.  This meant we could fold down the third seat and the boys had plenty of room to stand, sit, lay, and move around.  Much better than being in my tiny car!  I've never seen a reason for me to have anything larger than a little car since I don't have kids right now but if I ever needed a reason, this would be it.  It worked out SO well.

I was excited about the trip, but I also had some serious reservations about how it would go since so much was going to be new for the dogs (and the humans).  As I mentioned before, they don't do more than 20 minutes stints in the car.  This was 15 hours!  But they were angels!  They just laid down in the back and stared out the window or slept.  Couldn't have been better.  I was a little worried about the leash too... let's face it, the fenced-in back yard has spoiled me.  I don't walk the dogs.  And when I do they go crazy and pull me all over the road.  Not fun for anyone.  I was hoping this trip would be like a leash boot camp that would whip them into shape.  1 point for me!   The boys took to the leashes wonderfully.  The pulling was far less than at home, possibly because they didn't know what in the world was going on.  It was soooo much fun to take them on walks with my mom and sister :)

At my parent's house they got along well with my sister's chocolate lab and were very well behaved.  Moreso than at home actually!  They had plush toys (usually off limits) on the trip that went 5 days without being torn up.  This is a world record for these guys.  First day back home though?  Two of those same toy, dead.  Stuffing everywhere.  Apparently when things are different from the everyday routine, the boys are on their best behavior.  I'm not opposed to this.  Makes me more willing to take them places!  They even got to go on my parent's boat and had a blast sticking their heads out in the wind and watching the wake.  Turns out though, they're not exactly swimmers.  They can if they have to, but they need a push off the dock first :-P

The rest of the trip included golfing, more boating, and LOTS of card games with the family.  It went so well that I'm hoping to make the same trip every couple of years, dogs included.  I might even consider taking the dogs on other trips with me... but that would depend on whether I could find a hotel that would allow 2 big dogs, weighing 65 and 78 lbs, in one room with me.  Might be a tough find!

The boys were tuckered out after a morning on the lake!

Garden Update...

I’ve written a couple posts about my first foray into vegetable gardening… starting my tomatoes and peppers inside and then planting a square foot garden outside. I figure it’s time to update since it’s not so much a garden anymore, but a jungle!

The green beans were the first to explode. They sent out their shoots and started climbing and when they reached the end of my 5 foot trellis they just kept going! They actually started wrapping around each other to make them stable enough to grow taller and when they couldn’t support their own tower any longer they fell over and started winding themselves around the railing of the back steps. One shoot keeps grabbing onto my clothes when I try to go in the back door… I’m currently not sleeping to avoid nightmares about Audrey 2.

The cucumbers are also out of control. The leaves are huge! Tons of flowers are sprouting on there… I had no idea that cucumbers are actually the stem of the flowers. There are literally itty bitty little cucumbers growing on this plant with yellow flowers at the end. Not all of them… only the female flowers. Thanks to Kate, my resident expert and the only person I’ve ever met that majored in Ornamental Horticulture, for explaining to me the ways of the plant world. (This conversation about male and female flowers also led to the revelation that the Grease 2 song “Reproduction” is all wrong. A female sings “make my stamen go berserk” but in reality the stamen is part of the male flower. Just goes to show you that movies are no replacement for education. Come on lyricist… do your research!).

And just today Steve and I picked our first three cucumbers!!  I couldn't believe it, but a couple of full-sizers were hiding way underneath all those branches.  We were soooo happy, as you can see!

The tomatoes and peppers were actually the slowest growers, which I thought was strange since I started those inside in March. Imagine how long they would take if you didn’t do that! But now we have little hybrid tomatoes and little pepperoncinis growing so they’re on the right track.  Woot!

Act 18: Paddle Chatting

My friend Carrie, who I know will be reading this (Hi Carrie!), came out to see me run a triathlon in mid-June and saw that the lake that we swam in also rents paddle boats. Being quite excited about this, we went back and rented one the next day. Getting onto it without being dumped in the water was a bit of a trial at first but once we figured that out it was a breeze. It’s a pretty good workout really… my legs definitely got tired. We had it out for an hour and we were able to circle the whole lake and have some time to just float. It was a beautiful (read: hot) day… perfect for being outside on the water.

My favorite part about it? The talking. When just the two of you are on this little boat paddling around a usually pretty empty lake, there’s nothing to do but talk. About everything under the sun. Of course you can talk about anything, but it seemed like such a great place for those deeper, more personal conversations. The kind of conversations where you really share and connect; really catch up. The kind that can be hard to have when there are other people or things going on all the time. On the lake it’s just you and the other person and whatever is on your mind. I love that.

I also think it would be a great activity for a date. It would allow you to get to know the other person (instead of sitting in a dark movie theater and not talking) and if you run out of things to talk about 15 minutes in, take it as a hint ☺

Act 17: Don't Tri without the Train... and Magic Drinks

Okay, I’ve done a triathlon before. I trained solidly for a few months and it went really well and it was awesome.

Fast forward two years. I sign up for another triathlon. I don’t train. I run it anyway. This is my new thing that week. Running a triathlon without training. I know, it’s a stretch, but it’s all I had.

Surprisingly, it was not as terrible as it could have been. I could have passed out. Or collapsed from exhaustion. Or fell asleep on my bike, fallen, and broken a bone. Or pulled all of my muscles and been unable to walk for days.

So considering everything that could have happened, the fact that my foot went numb for the last mile of the run and my time was 17 minutes slower than 2 years ago is really pretty good. A little disappointing on the time front but overall I was just excited to finish. Still, I can tell you… I won’t be running many more races in the future without training (hopefully). Maybe it’s a “anything worth doing is worth doing well” mentality, but hey, that’s me!

Oh! So you know those energy gels (GU, Hammer, etc) that are thick and pasty and really hard to swallow but are recommend for all kinds of endurance or multi-sport athletes? I don’t like those. I have found something I do like though! Thanks to my local bike shop I found GU Electrolyte powder and GU Recovery powder. These are powdered drink mixes, meant to be mixed in 16 of 20 ounce water bottles with… you guessed it… water! Two of us put the electrolyte mix in our bike water bottle and drank that on the bike leg of the race and then drank the recovery drink right after the race. Considering my lack of training, this is the only thing I can possibly think of that would explain how I wasn’t terribly sore for days after. In fact, I was never really sore. Tired yes, but my muscles had the best recovery of their lives. I highly recommend this stuff… it’s like magic!

Act 16: Skiing Trials and Tribulations

Backwater Gamblers are a water ski team. They put on two free shows each week that act as their practices for the competitions that they compete in all summer. They have jumpers, pyramid teams, two and three person groups that do gymnastic/cheerleading-esque lifts and turns, and girls that do fancy ballet-like things like turning around on their skis and holding the handle with their foot. It’s all very impressive and fun to watch.

The downfall is that they only have a few boats and there is a decent amount of downtime between acts. Actually the downtime isn’t the problem, but what they fill it with. It’s a little skit that continues throughout the whole show. It’s a radio station (the sound equipment work nicely for playing appropriate music during the ski acts) and three people pretend to be a station manager, DJ, and call operator. These people try so hard to keep you entertained and keep it funny and interesting, but the script is really ridiculous. I think the downtime would be better filled by music and possibly interviews with the skiers that aren’t setting up for the next act. That’s my idea!

The one things that I couldn’t get over while watching the show was how incredibly jealous I was of them. I am insanely jealous of everyone who can water ski. I just can’t ski. CAN NOT. This is one of the major failures of my life. Not kidding.

My mom and her siblings grew up on the water and some of them were on a water ski team. They were awesome. For most of my childhood we had a newspaper clipping from the 1950’s hanging on our fridge; a picture of one of their pyramids. Also as a child, my family had a boat and water skiing was a big deal. We were always out skiing, tubing, or knee boarding. In fact, my parents still live near a lake and this is still the norm when I go home.

The first time I remember trying I couldn’t have been more than 5. I remember trying to start off the dock and I remember people being in the water with me teaching me what to do. And I remember not being able to figure it out. My sisters and cousins got up and pretty soon they were slalom skiing or skiing two at a time and weaving back and forth around each other. Not me. Never even really got out of the water.

This continued until… well… about 4 years ago. That’s when I stopped trying. Because after you spend nearly 20 years of your life trying to do something and failing miserably and then minutes later watching others do it effortlessly and have a blast, it gets frustrating. I do still have visions of going home one future summer and deciding to try again. In the vision I finally get up out of the water and ski, fulfilling a life-long desire and eliciting beaming smiles of pride from my family…

It’s good to have goals.

Act 15: Comedy Sportz

Back in May I attended a bachelorette party in Chicago and went to Second City. If you live near one (lots of big cities have them) and you haven’t been, you should go. It’s a rollicking good time! They are an improv and sketch comedy group that has turned out some of the most famous comedians in history including Bill Murray and Tina Fey. In fact, this time around I could’ve sworn Tina Fey was there. One of the comedians playing in Chicago might as well be a clone. Scary thought.

The show this time around was funny but I remember thinking that I wished they did more improv. I think that every time I go actually. They are currently about 80% sketch comedy, which makes sense since they basically exist to supply SNL with their next lineup. And while sketch comedy can be really good, I’ll take Who’s Line Is It Anyway over SNL any day. Seriously, how does Wayne Brady come up with this hilarious songs off the top of his head?? (If it’s all a fraud and it’s not really improve, well, don’t tell me. Ignorance is bliss in this case.)

Anyway, out of my hankering for some more live improv I found out about Comedy Sportz. It’s an all improve comedy troupe in the area. I went the next weekend, with 6 or 8 of my closest pals. The place was packed and the performers were pretty hilarious. They did a normal improv show with several shorter ‘games’ and had an extra show after the main show that was long-form improv. In long-form one performer tells a story about anything he wants, all off the top of his head, and when he’s done the rest of the people do all kinds of funny jokes and skits inspired by the story. This was the really good part. My favorite was a story that mentioned a restaurant called Orchard Green and a skit that ended with “Orchard Green is people!”. ☺

Thank goodness I saw them when I did… they’re currently looking for a new venue and not performing again until they find one.

Get Ready because...

I’m baaaaaaaaaaackkkk!

Well, that was a nice 7 week break! Turns out the last thing I want to do in the summer is sit inside on my computer. I do that all day for my job… why would I do that at night? So basically I’m saying that the reason that I haven’t written anything in so long is because I’ve been out DOING things! Just in case you don’t believe me, I’ll even tell you about some of them. These posts (separated so as not to overwhelm you with one monstrous novel on seemingly unrelated topics) are going to come hard and fast over the next few days, so get ready!