We been busy! Family Thanksgiving, then some kitchen experiments... both good and bad...

     It's been a busy month!  We had Thanksgiving dinner down in South Florida with my (Lee's) parents.  Dad went into the hospital for some breathing difficulties before Thanksgiving, and got out of the rehabilitation center two days before the holiday.  It just didn't seem right to have my parents spending Thanksgiving alone, so my darling wife, my two stepchildren and I did a boatload of shopping on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we headed down to my folks after doing some cooking at our home (homemade desserts.)  Thursday, we woke up, watched the parade on television, cooked up a wonderful dinner, and, to quote the announcers, "A good time was had by all."

     Back at home, in between work weekends, we have had quite a few culinary experiments.  While cleaning up our backyard, LouAnn noticed the kumquat tree and orange tree were blooming, so we decided to do some harvesting.  As we were doing that, LouAnn also noticed a WHOLE bunch of acorns lying around from the three oak trees in our yard.  So, a big plant pot full of kumquats, a big plant pot full of oranges, and a big plant pot full of acorns found their way into our home.

     First experiment... preparing acorns.  First, breaking open the shells.  Then, leaching out the tannic acid through multiple hot water baths.  Then, roasting the acorns.  All told, this entire process took close to 48 hours.  Finally, we get to the wonderful point of taste testing our delightful, roasted acorns, and.... BLECH!  EWWW!!!! GROSS!!! It's probably that acorns that have fallen to the ground are no longer ripe, but we all agree that this particular acorn project is completely in the failure column.

     Next experiment... kumquat and orange marmalade.   First, chop up the kumquats and oranges.  Then, let 'em soak for a few hours.  Next, add a bunch of water and sugar and cook it down for a few hours, until it reaches the right consistency.  Then, taste it, and... BLECH!  EWWW!!! GROSS!!! It tasted like we had burnt a candy bar until it was cinders and then tried eating it, or as LouAnn says, it was even worse than that... something akin to drinking lighter fluid...  (LIT lighter fluid.)  Chalk another one up into the failure column.

     Now comes the giant list of successes we've had the past couple of weeks...

1. From our Thanksgiving Turkey... some SERIOUSLY WONDERFUL soup stock...
2. The next day, a whole bunch of chicken stock so, after some beef stock (coming soon), we will be SET for soup base until we move up north in February...  Then comes some experimentation into making bouillon.  I feel a little bit like Dr. Frankenstein in his kitchen laboratory... EEGORE!  GET ME SOME MORE (fill in the blank)!!!!
3. Home made hand soap... no more chemistry set at our basins and sinks!  Our next venture is into removing ALL chemistry set items from our bathrooms... Say goodbye in short order to our body wash, toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, and facial cleanser... If my darling (LouAnn) can find a working recipe for anything to clean our bodies, then a' cooking we will go...
4. Laundry detergent... still going strong, and LouAnn's addition of a pure wool ball to the dryer has gotten rid of all of the chemicals from bounce sheets that were formerly soaking into our skin.
5. Spaghetti Sauce... 9 quarts and 3 pints of delicious tomato-based excitement just waiting to be devoured!
6. Salsa... 3 pints of yummy Mexican goodness...
7. Caramel made from sweetened condensed milk... 2 cups of deliciousness!   Orange juice from our tree!  Three quarts of scrumdeliumptious!
8. Homemade peanut butter... 4 pints of taste bud ecstasy!
9. A working bread recipe that we've now used at least five times!
10. A great way to sift our wheat so that my children don't freak at the graininess (also known as wholesomeness) of our home ground wheat flour!
11. Today, we made potato bread... my kids love potato bread, and I am now working toward getting a recipe they'll like so that we can avoid even more chemicals from the store.
12. Pickles, pickles, and more pickles... we've got garlic dills (my favorite) and bread and butter pickles (Michael's favorite).
13. Homemade deodorant for the family.
14. I discussed the cleansers last post... still working strong.
15. Now, we've got a homeopathic remedy for our cat's urinary problems... and so far, it seems like it's working.  Maybe we don't have to go to the vet, but only have to struggle to administer apple cider vinegar to a feline?  Not a fun trade off, but if it's gonna work, I'm all for it!
16. Today, as a special treat for Michael and his friends, we used our ice cream maker for some homemade ice cream!  YUMMY!

Next adventure in the kitchen is canning some beans for soups, stews, and refried beans.  So... fair warning... if you hear in the news about a methane gas explosion in Jacksonville, Florida... it's not a utility problem... we just ate too much.  (Grin)

     Today, Michael graduated with his Bachelor's degree from the University of North Florida... Way to go, Michael!  Tomorrow, my son Jeremy graduates from East Stroudsburg University... Way to go, Jeremy!

Thanks for joining us on this wonderful ride!  Recipes will be posted soon for our projects... Probably in the next couple of days.

PS  Here are the pictures of our canned successes.