The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Best Witches to You All!

October Wonderland

Snow?  How could there be snow?  It’s 62 degrees outside!

And has been for weeks….

A Few Things I’ve Made Today

I’m currently obsessed with making little zippered bags.  I made four yesterday.  Three today.  These are the three.

They’re lined bags, and the zippers are salvaged from pants the kids have outgrown.

A Day For Sewing Projects

We’re supposed to get snow tonight, though perhaps not much in this part of the state.  We often tend to be on the line where the snow and rain meet.  The ice and sleet line. 

It’s already pretty cold out, and the sky has that pale gray, thinly clouded look to it that says “yes, something’s coming.”

We’re supposed to get rain first, later this morning, and then the snow tonight as the temperatures drop further.

So…I am here in my work area in the basement.  I’ve got laundry in the wash, and I’ll work my way through all the week’s dirty clothes while I do more fun things like practice making little zippered pouches or drawstring bags and finish Julia’s Halloween costume.

Oh, and I’ve also decided it’s a perfect day for a Harry Potter movie marathon.  Sorcerer’s Stone is playing now. 

Anyway, that’s what I’ll be up to today, for the most part.

How about you?

Little Cat Feet

They were just there, practically begging to be photographed.

Legume Love

Sorry, no picture.

I made a batch of baked beans again yesterday.  I’ve decided that when I have a day off mid-week, that’s what I’m going to make.  Not just because they’re yummy, but because we’re trying to keep our heating costs down this winter, and if I’m running the oven for 6 hours to cook the beans, not only will that throw off a little warmth, it’ll also make the house smell fabulous.

Pumpkin Pecan Oat Bars

 

Looking for just one more way to include pumpkin in your life?  Look no further….

Guitar Lesson

Jamestown, RI

Some pictures from this morning.

Strawberry Pecan Oat Bars

In my ongoing quest to spend less at the grocery store and provide my kids with yummy but healthier versions of the treats they like in their lunch bags, I made these.

Actually, I’ve made a few versions now, and this batch is my favorite so far.

The Most Important Ingredient

Julia seemed to need a little something extra in her oatmeal this morning.

Still Oatmeal with Scratchy

He refused to budge.

I’d just finished taking pictures for another upcoming food post.  I brought that food back into the kitchen and traded it for the three jars you see in the picture above.

When I returned to the living room, Scratchy had claimed the table.

He’s a big cat.

And when you try to force him to move…he suddenly weighs two hundred times his ordinary (over)weight.

I wasn’t in the mood to wrestle him, so I let him stay.

Productivity and Grocery Insecurity

That about sums up yesterday.

Besides the usual morning stuff – coffee, breakfast, making lunches for people, getting everyone out the door to work or school on time, doing most of the laundry, and ironing all of Bill’s clothes – I clipped coupons, perused flyers, planned my attack, and headed off to the stores.

October in the Garden

A tomatillo husk.

Bill’s been closing down parts of our gardens in preparation for the colder weather.  He’s harvested the last tomatillos, the last peppers, the last eggplants…

Lizard Cake

Alex’s birthday was months ago, but for an assortment of reasons his birthday festivities were delayed.  And delayed.

Finally, he had a couple of friends sleep over (friends who haven’t slept over before – that was his criteria), and I made his cake.

Inside, it’s chocolate.  And that’s peanutbutter frosting.

And those are lizards.

Boston Baked Beans

I don’t know why I haven’t made these until now.  So simple, so warm and sweet and savory and yummy.

The recipe is part of a collection of family-and-friend recipes my mother put together before Bill and I were married.  This one came from Bill’s mother.  Actually, from his mother’s mother-in-law.  And who knows where it came from before that. 

Someone in Boston, presumably.  Heh heh.

Halloween Hair Clip

Just made this today.  It’s one of my little polymer clay spiders and wire and some black tulle and embroidery floss and a plain little hair clip and glue.

And cuteness!

Making Sausage – The Stuffing Part

Here it is.  The stuffer.

And I’ll say right up front that one day we will have a better one.  This one gave us some problems, but we are new to the business of making sausage, and we figured this would be nice and simple to use.

It is, but it takes superhuman strength to operate.  Fortunately we had John with us, who, thanks to carrying around his small children, has massive biceps and the strength of ten men.  Or five, at least.

Anyway…

Making Sausage – Grinding the Meat

We’re using an old meat grinder that belonged to Bill’s mom.  It’s old school, burly, and simple.  There are three dies – coarse, medium and fine.  We started with the coarse grind.

Making Sausage – And Other Things

It’s a big food production day here.  Not only are we making sausage, but we’ve got a few other projects under way.

Bill brined a turkey breast overnight in a mixture of water, salt, sugar, limes, bay leaves, thyme, black pepper, and I don’t know what else…

This morning he rinsed it off, dried it, and now it’s on the grill – it should smoke for about an hour and a half to two hours.

When that’s done, we’ll trim the meat off the bone and slice it up for sandwiches.  Most of it will go in the freezer.

And…

Ribs.

Trimmed from the pork belly, we’ve got two sets of ribs.  One will go on the smoker and the other has been cut up for an Asian recipe Bill’s made before. 

Yes, this is man’s work.

After Bill and John sawed the ribs in half, John separated the ribs like this:

At the moment, Bill’s got water on to boil, and I’ll let you know what happens next with those.

Oh – and last, but definitely not least, John’s smoking a batch of bacon.

I think that’s everything.

Oh – and I’ve got a batch of baked beans simmering in the oven.  They’ve been in there since a little after six this morning.  We’ll have them with lunch.       

Making Sausage – Part 1 – Cleaning the Hog Casings

Hog casings.

Just a fancy, in-polite-company, not-for-the-squeamish way of saying pig intestines.

These are packed in salt and need to be rehydrated and rinsed.  Rinsed a lot.

Paws

Scratchy was curled up on a chair the other day and he looked so cozy I couldn’t just let him be.

Clay and Wire and Beads

Just figured I’d share a few pictures of some of the things I’ve been doing lately….

First, there’s another spider.  This time, the head and body are clay, and the legs are wire.  (Pictures at the end of the post.)

I also watched some videos on youtube about different wire projects and had some fun making a few hair vines for Julia.  (Hair vine?  I’d never even heard the term before yesterday.)

Here’s the one she wore today:

Permission to Play

I had a few folders on my desktop.  Images of various things I made recently – mostly canning projects. 

I looked through the folders right now and, frankly, the pictures are horrible.  Mostly horrible.  Nothing worth posting.  In some cases, not even a complete series of process pictures…or no pictures at all of the final product.

So I dumped them.  I’ve got one good set, and I’ll write up that post another day this week.

Today?  Not in the mood too write about food.

Tomatillo Salsa

I’ve made a few batches of this salsa, first in 8 oz jars, and, later, after we realized how good it is, in pint jars.  It doesn’t have quite the same flavor as the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa I wrote about a while back, but it’s pretty similar and very, very good.

Happy October!

I went around the house – inside and out – looking for a suitable banner image for this month.  (As usual, I am not ready BEFORE the new month.)

Not much was happening inside, so I prowled around outside looking for signs of October…