The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Little Red Fish

I was playing around with new beads earlier today, and this is my favorite result.

Rings

A bit of what I’ve been up to today.  These are the good ones.  I’ll be putting them in my etsy store later today or tomorrow, once I’ve cropped the individual pictures.

I’ve also got a bunch of sub-par rings that I’ll cut up so I can salvage the beads.  Except one that I sort of like and might just keep for myself, as I don’t mind the flaws it has.

Here are some individual shots….

Big Violin

I don’t remember if I’d ever mentioned that Alex is learning to play the violin at school. 

We’ve decided that it’s about time Julia, who is learning classical guitar here at home, should quit slacking and learn another instrument, too.

Wrapping Wire

I should have been born second.

In all the books I read, it was always the second sister who looked up to and admired her fabulous, amazing older sister.  Of course, some of the time these older sisters were horrible and shallow, but I didn't pay attention to that.  I just wondered what I was doing wrong.  I didn't see anything fabulous about me, and I wished I was more like my younger sister.

That doesn't seem to have ended.

The other day I was talking to her on the phone and she said she needed to buy a mandrel because she'd been making rings - wire-wrapped rings - and was having a hard time getting the sizes right.

Wire wrapped rings?

I wanted to make rings, too!

Four Cooks, One Fondue Pot

Ever had oil fondue?  If you haven’t, you really should. 

And last night – for the first time in this home – we did.  What a fun meal we had!

Make Your Own

We had salad for dinner last night. 

All four of us.

Salad and some leftover rice Bill had made the other night.

That’s all.

And everybody loved the meal.

I feel like I need to say “even the kids,” except that I don’t have that problem, for the most part.  My kids like their vegetables.  Most of their vegetables, anyway.  Enough so that if they dislike one or two, I don’t worry about it.

I know.  I’m lucky.

Out With the Old

That’s how our fireplace looked a little while ago.

It doesn’t look like that now.

Now it looks like this:

Held Captive by a Hypoglycemic Squirrel

I’ve been baking cookies over the last few days (in a frantic attempt to get caught up), and I decided to save the final trimmings from the cut-out cookies to bake and toss outside for the birds.

Yes, I could just throw those last few scraps away, but it just seems so wasteful.  So I made cookies for the birds.

Well, and for the squirrels.

I baked the little bits, let them cool, tossed them out the window onto the platform outside my kitchen window, and went back to the next batch of cookies.

I was scraping down the stuff inside my stand mixer when all of a sudden I heard a THWACK!

And here’s what I saw:

Fortunately I had the sense to pick up my cell phone and fortunately the squirrel had the courtesy to freeze in position every now and then.

What the heck was he doing?  They don’t usually behave this way.  They sit there, cutely nibbling seeds or crusts of bread.  They don’t ATTACK THE HOUSE.

But then, I don’t usually give them freshly baked cookies, either…

“Please, ma’am!  I want some more!”

But I didn’t have any more.  I shook my head regretfully and the squirrel scampered away.

I thought he (or she) had accepted my head-shaking and was okay with that, but apparently not.  Because several minutes later I heard another THWACK!

And I looked behind me and saw this:

Um, buddy, I’m sorry, but I really, really don’t have any more cookies for you today.

“Yes you do, lady, I can smell ‘em!  Let me in!”

No, those are cookies for my family and my friends.  Not for squirrels.  Sorry!

The squirrel made a rude gesture and fled.

That was weird.  Maybe I shouldn’t

 

THWACK!

Not again!

But yep.  Again.

This time at the kitchen door!

 “I know you’re in there, lady!  I NEED THOSE COOKIES!  And stop taking my picture!”

“Please?”

Fixing My Dryer

Warning:  All photos in this post were taken with my little cell phone.  There will be blurriness.  And poor lighting. 

But!

There is the replacement of the drive belt in our dryer, so it will all be worth it!  (Well, to me and mine, at least.)

Anyway – this was not really difficult at all.  I did it solo, so you probably can, too.  If you haven’t already.

Shall we?

I Fixed It

I just fixed my dryer.

I replaced the drive belt that spins the drum that tosses the clothes that lives in the house that jack built.

My dryer is now running properly, and there are wet clothes being thrown about inside it and soon they will be dry and fluffy.

YAY.

I will post pictures of the whole thing but first I have to email them all to myself from my cell phone.  Yep.  Didn’t even bother to use my real camera because I don’t need any more frustration at the moment.  My kids’ cameras?  Dead batteries in both.  No wonder they haven’t been taking pictures of their butts lately. 

Anyway, I found a FABULOUS how-to video on youtube, which I’ll link to as well.

But right now the main thing I want to convey is this glorious sense of accomplishment bubbling inside me.

I told my sister it’s like that scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where Dick Van Dyke has been working night and day on the car and then finally, FINALLY, the workshop doors open, like the splitting of a chrysalis, and out comes the transformed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

And (this is the part in my head now) you hear the high-pitched English voices of his children shrieking delightedly “He fixed the cah!  Daddy fixed the cah!”

Only in my head, they are shrieking “She fixed the dryer!  Mummy fixed the dryer!”

I wonder if it would be acceptable for me to get my kids out of school early, just so they could shriek for me…..

The Hair of Julia

(for Donna B, who asked)

Here’s what I did with Julia’s hair this morning.  Sort of a strange criss-cross braided thing.   It wasn’t what I set out to do; it kind of just happened.

Post Ponement

I started working on a post this morning (another sausage-making post), but it’s on hold for now.  I’ve got a little project to take care of, and also, our dryer isn’t working at the moment (it’s been such a year), so I’ve got clothes out on the line “drying” in the thirty degree air, and next I’m going to hang our unmentionables in front of the fireplace so they will dry by the time we go to bed, perhaps.

Anyway, for your entertainment, here are a few pictures I took at Capron Park Zoo this summer. 

Reluctant Caroler

But I don’t want to go a-caroling…

Camera Issues

There’s some annoying issue going on with my camera.  At first I thought it was a battery issue, but it’s still continuing.  So now I’m thinking it’s some other issue, and since I am not a camera repair pro, I think I need to have a professional look at it.

Nail Art

Julia wanted to do her nails in Christmas colors – red and green.  Alternating – red, green, red green….

But I got involved and took it a step further.

One Last Bit of Thankful

Julia brought this home last Wednesday.  I meant to share it earlier, but I kept forgetting.

Anyway, it starts out traditionally enough with

“T is for the turkey I eat on thanksgivin.”

H is for hapey pepale.” (happy people)

and then…

Hearthside Bananas

Do you remember making these when you were a kid?  I know I first had a version of these warm chocolate and banana treats at some sort of camp when I was young, but I don't remember anything else from that time.  I figure I retained what was most important.

I taught Alex and Julia to make these the same day we cooked ribs and beans in the fireplace.

Hearth Cooking Day – Beans and Ribs

Doesn’t it look gorgeous? 

Looks like there’s got to be something special inside.

And after six hours, there had better be.

Some Images from Hearth Cooking Day

I soaked the beans overnight.  This time I used a mixture of pinto, black, and navy. 

But first things first – we need fire.

Billy and the Blue Butterfly

Here’s Alex, aka Billy the Exterminator.  I made the costume for him last year, and he decided to wear it again this year.  It still fits, after all.  His beard is slightly different – it’s made with his own hair, saved from his last trim.  And Bill decided to superglue it to Alex’s face. 

Moving along…if you look behind Alex, in the right of the picture, that blue (and barefoot) creature?  That’s Julia. 

October Wonderland

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

And has been for weeks….

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.

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 – 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.       

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:

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…

Webs in the Windows

Okay, I know, it’s not even October yet, but we’ve started putting up Halloween decorations anyway.  For whatever reason, we felt the urge earlier than usual.

Alex and Julia scattered skeletons and skulls throughout the house, and I made spider webs out of nylon cord for some of the smaller windows.

As I was struggling with my project – it’s not easy to make a web – I kept thinking of the illustration in Charlotte’s Web of Wilbur leaping around with a bit of rope in an attempt to show Charlotte he could weave a web. 

He failed, of course.

And while I don’t have spinnerets, at least I have fingers and opposable thumbs.  That helped somewhat.

I don’t plan to use nylon in my next web-weaving endeavors – it’s slippery and doesn’t hold a knot really well.  But still…I think they look kind of cool.

I’ve put them below the jump, just in case webs (with fake spiders dangling in them) creep you out.

Scratchy vs The Lobster Twins

Bill brought home a couple of lobsters last weekend, and while we waited for the water to come to a boil, we put the lobsters on the floor near Scratchy, just to see what would happen.

See the picture above?  See the fierce, predatory look on Scratchy’s face? 

That’s not at all what really happened.

Don’t Look If You’re Arachnophobic

I’ve got a couple of pictures below, but they’re not of REAL creatures.  The pictures are at the very end of the post, so if you want to keep reading, feel free.

Just a friendly warning for some of my friends.  :)

A Look at My Morning, So Far

This was my dining room table at 6:55 this morning.

Please ignore the bags of potato chips.  In this house we only eat homemade potato chips, of course.  Those were…for………the neighbors.

Anyway. 

On the table I’ve got some canned crushed tomatoes, other canned stuff that’s buried and you can’t see it.  Bowls of basil, sage, and kale, a little plastic container of cookes, a bowl of tomatillows, some apples, peaches, garlic, tomatoes, a few jalapenos somewhere, 6 ears of corn, that bag of shredded coconut…which is also……for the neighbors, because of course we only travel to tropical islands, climb up trees, harvest our own coconuts, and shred the flesh ourselves….

Booger Jam

This isn’t something you’ll be able to make all the time, of course.  In fact, in order to make the project worth your time and effort, it helps if you gradually stock up on the ingredients over, say, a year.

It really helps if you’ve got small children and your whole family gets massive head colds throughout the winter.  Just, you know, save the bits and pieces in ziploc bags in the freezer so they’ll stay nice and almost-fresh.

Ah-choo!

September’s Banner

I just put up a new banner for this month. 

Finally.

It went through several incarnations, but I knew I wanted to include images of yesterday’s harvest.

September is a big transition month, I think, garden-wise.  Lots of harvesting, lots of clearing out and preparing for the winter and the following spring.

Breakfast

Lizards.  And a blob of extra batter.

Alex had a friend sleep over, and I promised I’d make pancakes for breakfast.

Just to amuse myself (and score “best Mom who makes pancakes” points), I put some batter in a piping bag and had fun drawing. 

Pasta Prima Winner

Using Random.Org’s Integer Generator, I entered the number of entrants (12) to the Pasta Prima giveaway I mentioned a couple of days ago.

 

Here’s the result:

 

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2011-08-15 16:08:25 UTC

 

And that means Zoe is the winner!

Congratulations, Zoe! 

Please email me – jayne (at) barefootkitchenwitch (dot) com – with your full name and shipping address and a phone number.  The pasta will be sent via Fed Ex, and they require a phone number.

 

Thanks for playing along!

Getting Saucy with Pasta Prima (and there’s a giveaway, too!)

Nope, I didn’t make the ravioli.  Wish I had – aren’t they pretty?

The ravioli are Pasta Prima’s Butternut Squash Ravioli, and they are nestled in a fresh tomato, nasturtium flower (yes, really) and goat cheese sauce I whipped up for them.

And Then I Went Back to Bed

I haven’t been sleeping well. 

There’s a lot on my mind, and it gets kind of hushed during the day when I’m busy with other, more immediate things, but then at night it senses the silence, the lack of motion, and, like a baby in my belly, it starts kicking.  Hard.

So I woke up sometime after three this morning.  Couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up in a feeble attempt to flee the babble in my brain.

I didn’t escape them, of course.  They came along for the ride.

I went downstairs and switched on the tv more as an aural distraction than because there was anything to watch…and I puttered.  I folded laundry, started another load, wished my cousin a happy birthday on facebook, read stuff online, added a rosary posting to my etsy store, and tried to feel like I was accomplishing something good.  Something to make getting up worth it.  Not sure if I accomplished that or not.

I did get drowsy again, though, and at about quarter to six, when I couldn’t form intelligent sentences for another etsy upload, I figured I could go back to sleep for an hour or so.

So up I went.  I fell asleep, wrapped in a blanket (the fan was on in the room because Bill and I have different air temperature requirements to sleep well, at least in the summer), and dropped deeply into a dream.

Bill and I had gone…somewhere.  To something festive, it seemed…a wedding, a party…somewhere away.  And during the course of the festivities, whatever they were, Bill ended up hanging out with a bunch of guys that were there and I ended up heading back to whatever room we were staying in that night.  The next morning, I texted him because I didn’t know where he was, and then somehow I was home, in the basement, and I found his cell phone there, plugged into the charger.

So he didn’t even have it with him.  And I didn’t know how to get in touch with him, or where he was, or anything.  I worry all the time.  Even in dreams, apparently.

And then, I heard his voice.

It was saying “Jayne!  Jayne!  It’s trash day!”

I swam up, up, up through my unconsciousness and emerged, still wrapped in a blanket, still foggy-brained.  I opened an eye and looked at him.

“I heard the trucks,” he said urgently.

So my body rolled out of bed, dragging my sluggish brain with it, and we hurried downstairs to get our trash and recycle bins to the curb so we wouldn’t be stuck with smelly garbage fermenting in the sun for the next week. 

I tilted the gray garbage bin back on its wheels and started rolling it toward the street.  Bill was behind me, hopefully planning to carry the lawn bags, which were still wet from recent rain.  I hate carrying wet lawn bags – I’m always expecting them to break, and I really don’t want to have to deal with that.

Anyway, I’m also thinking, which week is it, green or blue?  Green is paper recyclables, blue is bottles and cans and metal things.  I’m pretty sure last week was green, but I scan the street to see what the other, more organized, neighbors have done.

Hmmm.

I see one gray bin over there.  But nothing else anywhere. 

It crosses my mind that everyone else on our street is SO efficient that not only did they put their bins out the night before, but they also ran outside IMMEDIATELY after the trucks ZIPPED THROUGH and returned the bins to wherever they keep them the rest of the week.

But that made no sense.  More foggy thinking…it IS Wednesday, right?

And then just as the dim bulb in my brain was starting to glow a bit, Bill said “Monday holiday!”

Rhode Island is the only state still observing “Victory Day.”  It used to be VJ day – Victory over Japan – but then a lot of states stopped celebrating it and then I guess the name got changed to sound more PC. 

Anyway.  Aha.  Monday holiday.  That meant our trash pickup would be…tomorrow.

I just looked at Bill, who kind of smiled and said “Sorry.”

I wanted to glare, but I laughed instead and headed back inside, up the stairs, and back into my blanket cocoon. 

I figured it might make for a good story later.

Firewood Camp – or – What Mom and Dad Forced Us To Do On Our Summer Vacation

While Mommy slacked off inside pretending to make beef stock and other nourishing foods, plus do laundry and dishes – OR SO SHE SAID – Julia and Alex were pressed into service as Firewood Transportation Specialists.

While I Make Cheese…

Here’s a picture of my arm from a couple of days ago

Bunnies

I was getting ice from the freezer, which is near the back door in the kitchen, and I just happened to glance outside.

And I saw a little bunny on the grass on the other side of our driveway.

Eeeeeeeeeeeee!  A bunny!  Only there was no one to tell, because everyone else was (and is) still in bed.

And THEN!

ANOTHER BUNNY appeared!

Barefoot Rock Climber

Among all the things to do and places to eat at the resort, there was a little area that included a batting cage and a rock climbing wall.  Or…tower, I guess.

Julia climbed some of it one day, and then, on our last day, she gave it another try.

Flower Girl and Ring Bearer

I’ve got so much to write about, but for now, I just wanted to share with you some pictures of Alex and Julia on wedding day….

Backyard Fireworks

Fireworks are now legal in RI – I think that happened last year or the year before.  Or, anyway, SOME fireworks are legal.  But anyway, the kids gave Bill some fireworks for Father’s Day, and the other night, he set some of them off in the driveway.

The Pork Butt Smokes at Midnight

Well, it smokes at one a.m., anyway.

Yep,  it’s the middle of the night, and I’ve just put a 9+ pound pork butt in the smoker.  It should be done around twelve hours from now.  Lunchtime tomorrow.  Or, actually, lunchtime much later today.

My husband thinks I’m nuts.

A Few Recent Meals, Courtesy of Our Garden, Farmers Markets, and Other Local Sources

Baby Bella Mushrooms stuffed with Ricotta, Fresh Herbs, and More Mushrooms.

I love being able to throw together dishes like these.  I have no real recipes for any of them; no measurements, quantities or times.  I just had a garden, a recent trip to the Farmers market, some homemade cheeses, and a few other ingredients – mostly local.  And a hungry family.

Herbivores of the African Plains – Julia’s Cake 2011

Originally Julia said she wanted a giraffe cake. 

Because I’d done elephants before.

And Beluga whales last year.

The plan was to have a bunch of fondant giraffes all over a grassy cake.

But then, as is her womanly right, Julia changed her mind.

Not Exactly a Nimbus 2000

But it gets me where I need to go.  ;)

Bill “surprised” me with this the other day.

And no, not for Mother’s Day.

Testy Snakes

Spammed comments are annoying, because I have to go and delete them and then ban the IP address, which takes time…it’s kind of like weeding the garden, only less meditative.  And it doesn’t smell as good.

But sometimes I just have to laugh.

Hoppy Easter

I hope the Easter Bunny brought you lots of chocolate, if that’s your thing.  Or lots of whatever else you like.

Unfortunately the Easter Bunny didn’t bring me what I wanted.

More hours in the day.

Ah well.

I’ll have to ask Santa.

Again.

Easter Eggs

I’m getting a lot of traffic for these eggs I made a couple of years ago, and for any of you new to this website, I figured I’d post the links to those original posts, just in case you’d like to give them a whirl…

Coloring Eggs

Wow!  And Welcome!  And More Egg Pictures!

The kids want to make these again this year, so we’ll probably be doing that next week, and I’ve got an idea for something new and different as well.  That’ll be a project for this weekend, maybe. 

I’ll keep you posted!