Rhu-berry Pie!

For reason I can not pronounce Rhubarb strawberry pie, hence rhu-berry. I've been planning on making this scrumptious pie back when rhubarb first came in season but I somehow forgot. A week ago I remembered my longing and went on a search for late season rhubarb. After purchasing nearly two pounds on the ruby stalks from a local produce stand, I planned my pie date. Now, for this pie not just any strawberries would be good enough. Oh no! I picked my own at Trauger's. For $1.50 a pound, who wouldn't? I made the top crust myself but the bottom is a premade pie crust that was taking up space in my freezer.

The recipe that I used is adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook. I highly recommend this cookbook to anyone that likes to cook.

Ingrediants:

Pie crust enough for bottom and top

2 cups rhubarb peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

2 cups strawberries sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl mix everything together. A poor into pie crust lined pie pan. Put other crust on top and "pinch" it down. Poke ventalation holes on top. Cover edge with tin foil. Bake for 40-50 minutes taking the tin foil off for the last 15 minutes of baking.

Your end product should look something like this.

It's getting hot in here!

Progress on the garden is slow. This weekend I plan to plant my crops, try to deal with the weeds between the rows, and reinforce the compost pile.
I've been busy with other things, mostly reading and books. I've been trading and buying books. It's a good addiction that really doesn't that much if you know were to look for great deals. If any of you decide to join paperbackswap.com use my username catsnbooks as a referance. I've got about 15 new books to read.
I have really done that much cooking because my mom deciedes to cook certain things on the nights that I plan to cook dinner. That needs to be worked out.
I'll update this weekend and see how far I get with my garden.
Almost forgot! Tomorrow is opening day for my town's farmer's market. I'll check it out before I go to work.

Sell Your Stuff!

So, I'm not one of those people that desperatly needs money but I really don't see why I should just give away things that are worth something, like books.
Books are pretty much the only thing that I bother to sell used because they cost me $7 and up to purchase new. For me it's worth the effort to post everything on Half.com. I've been selling my used unwanted books online for about five months and so far I've made $25.50 not including $5 for a pending sale via Cold Antler Farm Forum. It's not much but it's a lot better than having them take up valuable space on my bookshelf.
Back when I was out of a two years ago, I found that there was money in making small animal hammocks. It was a good year for it. I estimated that I made at least $200 that year until business trickled down to nothing because the forum I advertised on was over flowing with other people making them. Every now and then I'll sew some up but it's very rare.
Currently, I'm working on putting together an Esty shop that will sell market bags, aprons, soap, and maybe jam and homemade cleaning solutions. What can I say? I like being a business woman.

The Spice of Life: Sweet Saffron Rice

Namaste! Head over to Manjula's Kitchen. Indian food is very intimidating but it's really now that hard. Today I made Manjula's Sweet Saffron Rice and it took me about thirty minutes and wasn't hard at all! Most of the ingredients are cheap. I only used sliced almonds because I could get them easily in a small quantity but I would defiantly get some pistachios and it needs more raisins.

Long grain rice instead of the special rice. Work just a good. Cinnamon sticks can be had for very cheap. I didn't had whole cloves on hand so I substituted them with 1/4 teaspoons if ground cloves. I think it was a little too much so 1/8 teaspoon would do.

The cardamon set be back $2 while the saffron set me back $8 for .5 grams. Eight dollars for saffron is understandable. It's the little threads of the crocus flower so imagine what a pain it is to get them out intact! It was worth it since I bought it at a local dry goods store.Anyway, give it a try. You will like it and having the house smelling like spices isn't bad either. Yum!

Note: The written recipe on the site says 2 tablespoons of milk but she says 1 cup in the video. However, I think 3/4 would be fine

Alpaca Socks and Squirrel Shirts

Fall is well on it's way. You can tell by the few yellow leaves that are falling. The temperature at night is getting colder and the nights are getting a little longer each day. I know I wasn't as active as I wanted to be this summer with my garden because I had no control over what my dad did with it but next year will be different. I'm putting my foot down and planning that garden myself.

On Friday before I headed to work I stopped by the farmer's market. The vendors were few before the sky decided that it was going to rain on their parade. My mission was beets but none of the vendors had any. The one vendor that I had talked to said that his beets were taken by the deer. But I didn't leave empty handed.

I've been wanted some really warm socks for a time now. I've attempted to make my own but that hasn't gone to well. The only choice I had was to buy them. I snagged a really good pair of alpaca socks from a vendor that came from Hunderton County, New Jersey. There's 78% alpaca wool, 20% nylon and 2% lyrcra. Not bad. The best part is that they have a terry cloth like interior which makes them really cozy.

Normally, I don't bother with getting warm socks but I'm challenging myself this winter by not using the electric heat in my room. My one dog will get a nice blanket for extra warmth and my sheltie should be fine. As for me an extra blanket or two will be added to my normal four layers. As soon as the sewing machine is fixed I'll make my fleece blanket and I'll perhaps buy a nice alpaca blanket for the same vendor I got the socks from unless a better product elsewhere.

I'm still knitting my scarf. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of September. Then I'll make a hat.

A little earlier on Friday I bought a T-shirt that I've been wanting for awhile. It snagged it at a garden center that is going out of business for $10. This particular shirt has a squirrel with a mask on that reads "Hand over the sunflower seeds and no one gets hurt." The line is called Squirrel Stuff. I have a long love hate affair with squirrels. In middle school they where the cause of everything that with wrong. The artist as a lot more up on her website that you can buy. Very cool stuff.