It's Seriously HOT. Seriously!

Good lord. I woke up at 8am this morning. Yah - I got to sleep in for once! But I knew I needed to get my tail moving and out to the garden to pick the ever producing green beans. They are really coming out of my ears. At 8am it was already 80 degrees. That's crazy. So, I got the kiddos fed and dressed. Andy headed over to the hog barn to do chores, and me and the kids headed out to the garden. It wasn't long and I had beads of sweat literally dripping off my face. Gee-ross!!! I think I've mentioned before that I don't do well in extreme heat. (for the record, we are in an Extreme Heat Advisory until Wednesday or Thursday) It was brutal out there, but I managed to pick 3 gallons of green beans - again. We filled the sink full, and now I must blanch them to freeze. JOY! Not a process I love, but it must be done. Unless anyone wants to come unload green beans off of me. I also picked peas....and I will admit, they are not worth the time and effort. For $2 I think I'll go to the store and buy the frozen variety - my preference, petite peas. They are just as good and require no picking or podding. Someone please remind me this when I order my garden seeds for next year. When I made it into the house after picking the goods, my tank top was drenched, and I felt horrible. My stomach was nice and queasy - not sure if that was from the heat or the one too many beers with friends the night before. Even after a little 10 minute snooze, I didn't feel a whole lot better. Sure drained my much needed mojo for the day. I have a ton of crafty projects that need to get done this week for our 2011 Stampin' Up! Catalog Kick-off Party. Hopefully mojo will return after the kids go to bed tonight....
My sweet hubs took the boys to the County Fair this afternoon. I'll be anxious to see how that went over. Alex requested to see the cows, pigs, and hopefully a horse. No doubt his request will be granted. I hope they all come back in one piece along with the ice cream and root beer I requested! Nothing like a good ol' root beer float on a hot day.

Back when I was a young 'en - I used to stay at my Grandparent's farm for a couple of weeks during the summer. We'd walk beans - the old fashioned way of doing things - to get the weeds removed from the field. We'd go out for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours after supper. The plus was Grandma always gave us a dish of ice cream before supper, and on really good days, we'd have root beer floats. We'd sit on their steps, and cool off with those yummy floats - sometimes served up in old fashioned metal glasses. They were the best. We'd watch the fire flies buzzing around, and sometimes we'd even see deer off in the distance. I so loved those days! I hope that I can create memories like that for my kids....so I really hope that Andy brings home the goodies! I can already hear Will asking for a special treat! :)

Alrighty - I need to get supper rolling, and I'm feeling less than ambitious about it. Oh well. Pampered Chef recipe tonight. Maybe I'll feel pampered??? Have to admit - ya can't ever go wrong with a Pampered Chef recipe. They are always the best ever!!!
So, with that, I'll be done rambling, and get to work in the kitchen.

Bug Off!

This, my friends, is one reason I do NOT like living in the country! Flies! They have inundated my house....ugh! Typically, we use bug bombs in the house and that takes care of them. We haven't had a chance to do that yet this summer. Not that we haven't been gone for long enough periods of time, we just forget. So, now there are tons of flies in my house. They stay pretty well in the kitchen bathroom and my craft room. Basically where I am hanging out the majority of my days! I can about guarentee the bug bombs will get put to use in the near future.

For some reason they really like my ankles, er, cankles when I'm out picking beans in the garden. ANNOYING!!! I can't go out there anymore without a douse of bug spray on! It's like my new summer scent. I think Andy has become attracted to the smell of Off. Yick!

Speaking of beans. Lately I've felt a bit like a migrant worker. We have green coming out our.....you know! Just yesterday I picked three gallon buckets full! I have to say tho - yummy! There is nothing like fresh green beans. And I like to pick them young - before they develop that little seed inside. I seriously could eat a whole plateful! I'm not a huge fruit eater, and so I make up for that in veggies! I love veggies. Beets - they are the other thing we have been chowing down on. This year are beets are better than ever. The spot that our garden is in used to be the foundation of a shed. So the dirt sat there idle for 50+ years. The last few years are beets had no color inside of them and they really didn't have any flavor. We put some fertilizer on the garden this year and I think in conjunction with the ground being worked the last couple of years has helped. The beets are deep red, almost black and full of flavor. Yumm! We had those for supper tonight - they go great with grilled burgers. I've also got peas in the garden, but they've been slow. I think this will be the last year for those. They are really a pain in the ......! Now, we're just waiting on the sweet corn........it's awfully late this year, so I hope it'll be good.

Sorry, that's all I got today. Not much but blabber!

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Drumsticks

Hi all....when life hands you lemons....let's just say I've been drinking a lot of lemonade lately. or Michelob Ultra....I told you I wouldn't blog daily. But I didn't think it'd be 10 whopping days. Things have just been swamped around here. After we got back from our camping trip over the 4th of July, Andy noticed in the Sioux City paper that one of his college buddies' mom had passed away. He came home and immediately said we needed to get a sitter - for the next day! So, I called my awesome sister, and she agreed to help us out. Ironically, it wasn't long, and that college buddy called us. I felt so bad for him. His mom was 61 and died very suddenly of a brain aneurysm. So, so sad. Andy and his buddy have been friends for 18 years now! Andy had made several trips out to their house, and had spent quite a bit of time with them. It was nice to hear Andy's stories on our 2 hour drive over to the funeral. It's so nice and comforting to reminesce (I think).
After that funeral, I had to kick it in gear as far as working goes....so I've been working my tail off a bit. I'm driven tho - I've got a lot of goals that I really need work for. I fell a bit short on a couple of goals I had this past year, so need to work harder this year. (Our Stampin' Up! year runs July 1 to June 30th) Anyway.....these are all of the reasons for my lack of posting. Hopefully life will settle down a titch so I can be freed up just a little more.

Anyway...while we were camping I made these Chicken Drummies one night for the group of us. I had made them a couple of times at home - in the oven - and we all love them. Even my lil' Aubrie will eat an entire chicken leg! So, we decided to make them over the campfire. I had put them in a couple of aluminum pans, we set them over the coals and then we trekked off on a little adventure. I figured they needed to cook over the coals for about an hour and a half ( since I wasn't sure of the temperature). We were gone a little longer than expected...thanks to a horseshoe game and a couple too many brewski's! I was a little nervous that they would be overcooked. They were cooked, but not overly so. And they made up so many juices, and simmering in those juices for so long, they just fell right off the bone....they were good, but I thought they were better when cooked in the oven. If we make them on the coals or grill again, I think we will try poking holes in the bottom of the pan midway thru so that some of the juices run out.....maybe.
These are really super yummy, and I won't claim credit for the recipe - I got it from Taste of Home - I find a lot of their recipes to be easy and delish! This one ranks right up there:

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Drummies
2 C sugar
1/4 C paprika
2 T. salt
2 t. pepper
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. cayenne pepper ( I leave this out for the sake of the kiddos!)
20 chicken drumsticks - although you may have enough seasoning to make up to 30

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine everything but the drumsticks. Add drumsticks a few at a time, seal and shake to coat.
Place in two greased 15 x 10 x 1 baking pans. ( I have used 9 x 13) Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. ( a small amount of juice will form in pan)
Bake, uncovered at 325 for 50 - 60 minutes or until chicken juices run clear and a meat thermometer reads 180.

I will add that I do cut this recipe in half when it's just our family. So, 10 drummies. There are never any leftovers. Ever. Will can eat 4 of these - and he's 5!!! Alex asked for chicken legs for lunch, and cried when I didn't have any!! They are very easy. Toss a salad to go along side, and maybe some veggies....you've got yourself a meal!

Go ahead - go try some!! If you have a Hy-Vee near you - drumsticks are on sale this week for 88 cents/lbs!!!

Iowa in July....

Humid. That's Iowa in July. Flat out humid. I'm one of those that likes heat. I like a good 85 degrees. Just get rid of the humidity. I can't deal with it. I had a heat stroke in a field similar to the one about when I was about 15. Ever since then....the humidity just kills me.

The corn loves humidity. Remember the other day I said there were probably times when you can actually watch the corn grow. I bet in the next few days, you'd be able to see it if you really wanted to. But who wants to do that. It will be growing fast here in the next few days, and pretty soon their little tassles will be sticking out, turning the fields into a new color. That's one of the great things about Iowa. The color is always changing. We are really green right now, and soon the corn field will turn to a beige color - only across the tops. If you were to fly above, you'd see a neat patchwork effect created by the yellow-beige tassles on the cornfields, the deep green soybean fields, yellow-green pasture ground. It's an awesome sight.

My garden is coming right along. I love fresh garden goodies. My all time fave - beets. Ya - I'm an odd one. And so is my hubby and all three of my kids. We all like them - a lot. This year we planted 3 rows of beets -which is quite a bit. I noticed the other day that they are starting to push up out of the ground. That means very shortly we'll be having some yummy goodness. I'm hoping to freeze some of the beet crop this year. We'll see. Typically I just boil them, skin them and slice them up, and throw on a slab of butter - real of course. This year I planted a new variety that claims we won't need the butter. Time will tell.

I also planted green beans which have little baby beans on right now. Beans are kind of a pain in my - you know where! They come on SO fast - it's hard to keep up with them. We've also got peas, zucchini, watermelon, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, and sweet corn. Oh, and my strawberry and rhubarb patches. We've also got a blueberry bush to get in the ground. That's another story there that has to do with our lovely dog. I've got some raspberry bushes too. I noticed tonight that there are quite a few berries on - we planted them about 3 years ago and this might be the first year we get to pick berries. They are in a mess of a spot - along a fence that has become overgrown with grass that we don't weed eat often enough and would be remedied easily enough by some cows back on the farm. Again - another story. Back to my garden. Things are looking the best they've looked in years. I think part of that has to do with the fact that we've put a little more effort into it now that the kids are a bit more manageable. Also, Preen has been a tremendous lifesaver. I don't usually like to use chemicals in the garden, but we didn't use Preen last year, and the garden became and overgrown jungle. We ended up giving up on the gardening thing last year. The Preen made a huge difference this year. We could see where we used it and where we didn't. I'm pretty sure they make organic Preen too. I've also got some black hornet looking things eating my rhubarb leaves. I used Seven on those. It seemed to help until Mother Nature decided to downpour and wash it off. Are you getting the jist that I'm kind of a lazy gardener? Well, I kinda am. I like to garden. I just don't like to weed. And I suppose, if you are going to garden, veggies, flowers, any of it, weeding is part of the territory. It's just not fun when it's 95 and so humid that you can see the dampness in the air. Or you walk outside and instantly bead up. UGH!

Okay - that's all I've got for you today folks....hope it's cooler where you are!

Product review...

Lemi Shine. I was introduced to this product by my mother in law who also lives on a farm here in Iowa. We have interesting water. I don't know that are water is neccessarily "hard", but we do have a lot of calcium or lime in our water. And our dishwasher wasn't doing a great job anymore. It didn't mater how much detergent I used or didn't use. Our glasses were getting built up with film and our silverware was dulling. I had used plenty of dishwasher cleaners on an empty load. They didn't help. One day my husband and I completely took our dishwasher apart and removed as much limescale build up as we could. That was a tedious and disgusting job. And it didn't improve much of anything.
Insert Lemi Shine. I opened the bottle up. OMG! It smelled just like a Lemon Drop. It said to put some in on an empty load on your first use. I'm not one for following directions well. I was too anxious to see if it worked even a little bit. So, I followed the OTHER directions for your second load. I put in the Lemi Shine in half of the dispenser and my detergent in the other half. I shut the door and crossed my fingers. A couple hours later I opened the door and went right for a glass. OMG - it was like magic had happened in my dishwasher. The film that had built up over the course of - I don't know - a year??? - it was gone! I'm serious! GONE! My silverware was actually sparkling. And I hadn't followed those directions to run an empty load with the stuff first. Two years later - I'm still using it. On every load! That being said, for a while, it seemed to be hurting my silverware for a while. So I quite using the Lemi Shine in every load. I would use one of the Cascade Power Pacs with bleach and Dawn - or whatever they are called in between Lemi Shine loads. That helped. But now, I'm back to Lemi Shine with every load, and for the past 6 months I haven't had any issues, and I haven't had to pay the higher dollar for those Cascade Pacs.
Where do I get Lemi Shine? Target. Our local Wal-Mart does not carry it. And Target is about an hour away. So when I go, I buy about 3 or 4 cans of it. It also makes your dishwasher detergent last a lot longer, since you are just using half as much as before. At our Target store it costs about $3.64/can. You can buy it directly from lemishine.com, but I believe the cost is higher. Amazon also carries it, again more expensive. Therefore, I stick with Target!
If you are having problems with cloudy dishes - give it a try. I think you'll be glad you did.

FYI - Lemi Shine did not sponsor this post. This is simply my opinion!!!!