Recipe: Tailgate Salad

It's getting warmer and picnics and barbecues are on the horizon. Which means I get to pull out my recipe for Tailgate Salad.  I often get asked for the recipe when I take this as my contribution. So here it is. I double it when I take it to potlucks. :)

Tailgate Salad

1 can corn (15 oz or thereabouts)
1 can green beans
1 can peas
1 cup celery, sliced/diced (whichever you prefer)
1 cup chopped onion (I just use one onion)
1 small jar pimento, chopped (optional: I never use it, though MIL has gone to the trouble/expense of using it and says it didn't change the taste at all--it's just to add color)

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
1/2 cup oil (I use grapeseed oil or extra light olive oil)


Drain canned veggies and combine with celery and onion in a bowl. 
Heat sugar and vinegar in a saucepan on the stove until sugar dissolves.  Add the oil and cook briefly.  While still hot, pour over veggies and stir to combine well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Keeps up to 3 weeks, but doesn't last long because we eat it in a matter of a few days.




Sometimes, to add more protein, or to substitute for one of the veggies, I will add a can of garbanzo beans, black beans, or kidney beans (drained and rinsed). Yum!

Enjoy!

To Plant, or Not to Plant...That is the Question

Yesterday was actually sunny and warm for a change. I think I heard someone say that in the last 31 days, we've had like 3 days of no rain. Which really makes for wet, mucky dirt in the garden and long flourishing wet lawns in desperate need of mowing.

We usually have our garden completely in around Mother's Day week. Needless to say, that didn't happen with all the rain. Any borderline dry day(as in not actively raining) has been spent in trying to get mowing done before it gets long enough that we would need to bale it. The garden has been way too wet to till, and then the tiller broke when hubby was making an experimental run through the garden and it is in the shop getting fixed (not that we can till anyway).

So yesterday, as the sun was shining and my seeds were crying out to me from their little packets, I went out and in an act of desperation started turning soil over with a shovel in the dryer end of the garden. Hubby deemed it too wet to plant in, and that it would turn to hard packed soil once dried and I really shouldn't plant. But I rebelled. I had to try. Just a little.

I felt like a grasshopper, rather than an ant, trying to take a nap earlier in the day.  I needed to do something out there in the garden!  Especially since there are 10 days of rain in the forecast! I'm dyin' here!

So, I planted a short little row of Royal Burgundy Bush Beans, and next to them I did hills of bush cucumbers and between the hills I put some beet seeds. I probably put them all way too close, but at least I got something in the ground! :)

Time will tell whether I should or shouldn't have planted, but I feel better for at least having a tiny patch of a garden in before June!


Here's the whole garden....(looks like the weeds are doing well, huh?)....my little patch is off to the left side.

Wildcrafting: Morel Mushrooms

Morels have been the talk of the town these days. 

I am very new at hunting for Morels. We've known they do pop up in these parts, but we've just never been at the right place at the right time to find them. I've also been a bit tentative about hunting for them because of the fear of eating a bad mushroom. BE SURE YOU ARE 200% SURE YOUR MUSHROOMS ARE INDEED MORELS BEFORE EATING THEM! If in doubt, your county extension office should be able to tell you if what you have is for sure Morels.  They must be cooked before eaten.

Last night, some friends and I had a conversation about Morels. One friend, who has fond memories of her grandmother picking them and cooking them up for family, wants to pass those memories on to her children.

As you may already know, Morel hunting can be a secretive art, with successful hunters keeping mum about where they hit the Morel jackpot.

Well, a mutual friend of ours wasn't so secretive(perhaps she is new to this too!) and let us in on where she happened upon some, so we went looking this morning.

We looked for maybe an hour and found 1 good one(pictured) and two moldy/smooshed ones. We were getting ready to leave and decided to look just one more time....and found 2 more! That was all, though.

Now that I have been introduced to Morel hunting, and have at least a little better idea of what to look for and where to look, I think I need to head out into our woods and hunt for some more.

One good resource for Wildcrafting that I actually have on hand and would heartily recommend is Abundantly Wild by Teresa Marrone. It has plenty of information and pictures to let you know what to look for and where.  It also has recipes for each of the foods featured in the book.

On the topic of Morels, Abundantly Wild gives plenty of description and ways to know you do indeed have Morels(or if you have something else). One good thing to note is that Morels should be completely hollow when cut in half.

I personally am going to saute my Morel(s? hopefully) in butter. Everything's good in butter, right?

Here are a few tips I have learned in my short experience of Morel Hunting:


1. Go 'shrooming when the lilacs are blooming (recommendation I got from the above book). But it's not an exact science, this.


2. Wear pants/jeans, tennis shoes/boots and perhaps long sleeves. The ground will probably be wet, and you will likely be walking through the undergrowth under the trees(in our case it was wild rose bushes/rugosa rose, wild raspberry plants, young poison ivy, hedge apple trees/saplings and numerous other plants).


3.Look under and near dead trees/decaying logs and shaded areas.

4. Be careful where you step: walk slowly and keep your eyes peeled. Sometimes it helps to squat and get closer to the level of the Morels.

5. If you find one, keep looking for more nearby--they tend to grow in groups.


6. When you find your Morel(s), put them in a mesh bag. This serves the purpose of allowing for air circulation(a must--you don't want squishy mushrooms when you get home!) AND allows spores to fall out and spread through the forest as you look further.

Happy Hunting!

Bee Bliss

Just wanted to share a pic I took the other day as I was chopping down some bushes. I kept this bush, and couldn't resist taking a pic of this bee having a jolly old time in the flowers!

BioAllergenix Treatment Today: SOY, Licorice and Fragrances

I went to the chiro today for both chiropractic and allergy.

I suspected a few things and brought them in. Many of them seem fine with muscle testing, but the worst one for me was the DGL Licorice that I was taking over a month ago to hopefully aid in gut healing and was getting extremely chapped lips from.

I described my eating-out experiences and requested testing for preservatives, soy, tomato and peppers. The only one that I had problems with, according to muscle testing, is SOY(again!). UGH! I don't know why this keeps creeping up on me!

I also mentioned my issues (itchy throat) with fragrances(like what's in liquid soaps and dishwasher detergent, and the like--I was doing fine this morning until I washed my hands in the chiro's restroom with their scented soap and afterwards had a short stint of itchy throat).

I was treated today for SOY, Licorice and Fragrances.

Now, off to see what I can fix for our dinner today w/o SOY.....and not going to be doing the dishes until tomorrow, just to be safe on the fragrance side of things(as well as soy--don't know for sure what is in the dishsoap/detergent).