Preserving The Harvest

By now, most of you know that I am a huge gardener. Like, HUGE.

Perhaps a little crazy. But in a good way.

Some of My Favorite Summer Cocktails

The days are long and oh-so hot, the nights are sultry....summer is the perfect time for a frosty cold cocktail. 

The Easiest Thing I Do To Prepare for the Summer Months

All these gloomy, rainy days are kind of getting to me....I know we really need the rain but it's been raining now for about 4 days.

Enough is enough!!

DIY, My Way

I love visiting all my blog friends and seeing what they are doing with their different DIY projects. I find it so inspirational....and also sometimes a little overwhelming. I don't have the time or the energy to work on a million DIY projects. I work full time and we have a very busy social life on top of that. Remember back in my very first post ever I sort of gave you a rundown on what I would be blogging about. That's not to say the list is set in stone by any means but chances are you won't find a ton of DIY projects on my blog at this point in my life. And odd one here and there perhaps....fingers crossed. 

Let's talk about DIY my way. 

Welcome to DIY according to Debbie!

This morning I pulled out all the mason jars that have been "cooking" in my downstairs fridge since the summer months. 

Friends, meet my infusions. 

Alcohol, meet my friends. You may have made their acquaintance before. 

Aren't you all gorgeous?

I know you're not supposed to love one child more than another but I am most definitely partial to these gorgeous raspberry babies. 

Infusing alcohol is quite simple. Amazingly easy, really. Are you ready?

Ok here we go. 

Grab a clean jar that has a lid. 

Fill it with fruit or veggies or vanilla beans or herbs. Experiment. Think about what you like. 

Fill it with your choice of alcohol. 

Close the lid, not too tightly though. Let it breathe. I usually close it tight, give it a couple of gentle shakes, and then loosen it again a bit. 

Put it in the fridge. 

Forget about it for about a month. Sometimes I forget about it for longer. 

That's it, all done! 

Wasn't that tough?  Sorry to put you through that....

When you have time, you can follow the rest of these steps for getting it ready to have drinky-poos! Yes, you heard me right. Drinky poos. 

Make sure your containers are clean and ready to go. 

Side note: These bottles remind me of the beautiful bottles in Brenda's lovely home at Cozy Little House. I have always loved colored glass!

These are the tools I use - my large Pyrex measuring cup (4 cup), the largest mesh strainer I have, twine, wooden tags, and a permanent marker. And a funnel, but I forgot to put it in the photo! Must have been the fumes....

Put the measuring cup in the sink. Position the mesh strainer over it. 

Carefully pour the contents of the jar into the strainer so the liquid ends up in the measuring cup. At least most of it - trust me, you don't want to waste any of this liquid gold!!

Look at how awesomely beautiful this is! This is the Raspberry Gin, my all time favorite. Best summer drink on the planet - Raspberry Gin on the rocks with a good squeeze of lime. Just ask my contractor. He was in heaven when we toasted with that cocktail at the end of a long week this past summer. 

Pour the strained berries into a labeled freezer bag. I don't save all of them but I do save any batches that are nice and fresh looking. Remember they have been soaking in gin for a couple of months so they are POTENT!!  I like to pop a few into a glass of prosecco....mmmmm.  I bet they would be awesome in a glass of frosty lemonade also!! I might try making raspberry chutney from some of the berries this year if the mood strikes and time allows. 

Feel free to pop a raspberry into your mouth and let your head gently explode. 

Pour the liquid into a clean bottle. I have some wine bottles I save for this purpose, labels soaked off. And these lovely colored glass bottles also. 

Important: do not put the lid on at this point! I made that mistake once and the bottle exploded all over the kitchen as it came to room temperature!!! Kind of like Benita's eggs, in a way. Except with slivers of broken glass and raspberry gin all over the kitchen. Just picture it. It was NOT. GOOD. 

Seriously though - isn't this Gorgeous? My whole kitchen smelled like a distillery this morning!

Done! Label it, leave it on the counter to come to room temperature and then you can seal it up and add it to your bar. As long as it doesn't have fruit pieces in it this will last as long as any other booze on the bar. My raspberry gin last summer lasted me through the winter and into the summer again (when I finished it with my contractor!) and it still tasted every bit as fresh as the day I strained it. 

The end result is three bottles of Raspberry Gin....I told you - I seriously love this stuff!!

One Cucumber Mint Gin...this should be excellent with tonic and a squeeze of lime. An experiment. I volunteer to be the guinea pig. 

Strawberry Tequila AND Strawberry Vodka. The vodka smelled like heaven. 

And 2 bottles of Cucumber Tequila - I made this last summer with some excess cucumbers from the garden and it makes the most amazing margaritas. You have to believe me. No, really! I told you all about it in this post. Way back when. 

Today's harvest. Tee hee, not quite the same as this one is it?

Hey, it's all about the balance, isn't it? 

After all we only go around once. 

Sharing at Cozy Little House  and Tipsy Tuesday 

The Times They Are A Changin'

Without a doubt, The Times They Are A Changin' -

Bob Dylan Says it Best

I don't know about you, but by the time we hit mid August I'm pretty much ready to see signs of Autumn. Up here in the mountains we typically see the first leaves starting to change no later than August 1st. This year they seemed to be even earlier, I could swear I saw leaves changing by the beginning of July!

There are leaves littering my deck and my lawn daily now and their numbers are increasing rapidly.

This is the culprit right here - this beautiful tree that shades the deck in summer afternoons is already showing fall colors and dropping leaves.

I'm not much of a summer person, I need to be super careful in the sun and I try to keep my skin covered with light clothing - anything that's not covered is slathered in sunscreen.

In addition, this is my first autumn at my new home and I'm excited to see what kind of foliage I will enjoy here. Early signs look good! Just check out these ferns with the start of their fall colors - beautiful!

The Burning Bush is showing some early signs of what hopefully will be a glorious fall display.

One little branch on the Burning Bush gives me a hint of what's to come.....

And the Dogwood Tree is putting out a last ditch effort in a feeble attempt to keep its place in the center of the garden. Too late, Dogwood! You're a day late and a dollar short!! I gave you an entire season to show me why you should be the centerpiece of the garden and it's time for you to leave the island.

The Sumac is full of these gorgeous blooms and I already know how lovely Sumac leaves are in the fall so I'm super excited about this one. I'm going to have to do some research on Sumac infusions - I believe Vodka or Gin is a good match.....

The Rhodies are already looking forward to spring, putting their energy into making flower buds for the gorgeous spring display.

Goldenrod is blooming everywhere!! I truly love to see Goldenrod at the edges of the woods - however I think my allergies are not too fond of it....

The berry bramble is putting out the last fruit of the season - this photo was taken right before I ate every ripe berry!

Where flowers bloomed just last week on the Clematis, now we have these interesting seed pods.

And where Daylilies bloomed just a short time ago we have nothing but dry twigs and green leaves.

The grasses at the edge of the lower deck are ready to set seed for next season.

But the Autumn Joy Sedum hasn't even begun to put on a show yet.

And the Delphinium that I planted in the spring has just begun to bloom - gorgeous! Look at those two-tone flowers - so pretty!!

The Black Eyed Susans are happy in the shadow of the Burning Bush.

And check out the color on these babies! I think Zinnias will have a home in my garden every year now - they just flower non stop all season! And they seem to love the heat and sun so they put on a terrific show in the late summer garden.

And the Yarrow is blooming everywhere. I mean......EVERYWHERE!!  Nothing wrong with that!!

And I have my eye on this guy - this is a GINORMOUS squash!!  I think it's butternut but I'm not really sure - I also planted acorn squash but it definitely doesn't look like an acorn squash.....

Nor does it really look like a Butternut Squash!

Any idea what it may be?

The Party's Over

Friday is Weigh In Day. It has been for me for many years. Sometimes I skip it, when I know I haven't been "good" lately. Lately I've been skipping it a whole lot. 

This morning I decided to face the music, even though I knew I wouldn't be happy with the results. 

And I wasn't. 

Most people would lose weight when they move to a new house, right? I truly thought that would be the case, that I would certainly drop a few pounds lugging all those boxes and working my butt off to get the house organized. 

Nope. I gained 3 lbs. On top of the weight I already wanted to lose. Which I hadn't lost yet. 

And I know why, too. 

I love good food. Love. Like, truly love. LOVE. Did I say love? 

I get excited at the thought of making a great meal for my peeps. I've been photographing my food for years, long before I ever thought about creating a blog. (FYI: Many of these photos are from the archives, from past homes, taken with my iPhone. Excuse the quality!)

This one is from my new home. A recent meal. Black angus cheese burgers made with the most amazing ground beef from a local farm. Garden fresh salad with all sorts of yumminess tossed in. Yumzers. 

And I also love cocktails. Many types, but especially my infusions. Like raspberry gin with a slice of lime. Pure heaven, right there. 

And sometimes I make food with cocktails. Like this bourbon vanilla cranberry sauce that I made the past two Thanksgivings. Best cranberry sauce EVER! Made with cherry bourbon to make it even more amazing!
http://www.eatliverun.com/bourbon-vanilla-cranberry-sauce/

And let's not forget a nice glass of wine paired with a great meal. More love. 

And sweet stuff like chocolate. Especially when made with....you guessed it, COCKTAILS! Like this Black Forest Cake made with cherry liqueur. Yup. Amazeballs. 

Did I mention cheese? I put it in/on almost everything. Cheese might just be my greatest weakness. 



Cheese is a big problem for me. Huge. Ginormous. 

And we can't forget my weakness for nuts. And nut butters. Which are actually good, in small quantities. However, not great if you are trying to drop some pounds. Or if you inhale them. 

Can you tell? I love food. Good food. And occasionally food that's not good for me. Like chips. And candy. And cookies. 

And lately I've been eating more of that "bad" food than I usually do, which does not make me happy at all. It's a vicious cycle. Once you have it, your body craves it. And I need to break the cycle. 

And eat more of this food.

Which I also love. But, let's be honest -  it doesn't quite satisfy the same way cheese does when your body is craving cheese. Or craving crunchy salty snacks. Or sweets like candy and chocolate and ice cream.  A pea pod out of the garden just isn't going to have the same satisfying effect, not immediately. 

But there's hope - because......the beauty of the whole thing is that the more you eat this type of food, the more your body craves this type of food - that's the magic!

Aren't our bodies wonderful? We can retrain them, and break the craving cycle. You just have to be ready. And now I'm ready. It took me a while, I had to "nest" in my new house for a few months and be ready to get back to taking care of me, not just the house, house, house. Well, I'm ready. It's time to break the cycle. It doesn't mean eliminating all the stuff I love, it just means reining it in and following the 80/20 rule again, where 80% of the time I make the healthy food choices, and 20% of the time I loosen up a little. 

Fortunately I love to cook. And I have a fantastic vegetable garden right outside my door. And it's the heart of the summer, when the farmers markets are in full swing. 

So, here we go again. For reals. I'm ready. 

Who's in?

xo