Pickles :-)

Today we canned some bread and butter pickles. It's been years since we last did any canning, and I no longer have my big canning pot. So until we have the proper equipment, batches are just going to remain small. I can tell you I was pretty nervous listening to the jars dancing in the boiling water because there was no rack to hold them.

Cucumbers, bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, all from our garden.

They look like they turned out fine. Now---the long wait, not opening any for at least 4 weeks. Haven't tried the tomato preserves yet, either.

In other news, if you love cats, or even remotely like cats, you must watch Nora play the piano! Nora even had a concerto written for her, a CATcerto!

The Conference this year will be in Nashville. Sounds like fun. More later...

Jam!

Here's the jam! Actually, tomato preserves, because we left them whole.

Can't wait to try a jar. Probably need to wait a week.

Tomatoes Cooked

We decided to make Tomato Jam from all those little Yellow Pear tomatoes. We have a recipe in an old WWII era cookbook we found at a garage sale. The recipe actually calls for Yellow Pear tomatoes.

We needed to scald them and then plunge them into ice water to we could slip off the skins. The directions were a bit vague and we ended up processing them a bit too long. They are tiny, so they heat up fast. But I don't think it matters as they didn't fall apart. Here are 2 pounds of tomatoes sitting overnight in 3 cups of sugar. Tomorrow I need to go buy jelly jars because I don't have any!

Oops we missed a skin. Do you see it? It's orange.

TOMATO PRESERVES

2 pounds small yellow plum tomatoes

3 cups sugar

1 lemon

Cover tomatoes with boiling water, cover and let stand 2 minutes (this is what didn't work). If we make them again I will put them in boiling water in batches and then into the ice water and then drain them.

Peel, taking care not to break them. Place in layers with sugar in a bowl and let stand overnight. Then drain and cook juice to 228 degrees or until it spins a thread (*when dropped in a glass of cold water). Add lemon, thinly sliced, and tomatoes. Cook until clear and thick. Seal in clean, hot jars. Makes 2 quarts.

*If you aren't familiar with cold water candy testing, see Science of Candy: The Cold Water Test

Tomatoes!

Aren't they pretty?

The little yellow ones are Heirloom Yellow Pear. The little red ones are regular cherry tomatoes and the larger striped ones are heirloom something that were accidentally mixed in with the yellow pear.

Movies

I have neglected to mention some of the movies we have enjoyed lately.

The Great Buck Howard (a story based on the Amazing Kreskin)
Frozen River (upstate New York Indian Reservation & smuggling, good story)
Bait Shop (Bill Engvall--funny of course)
New In Town (Renee Zellweger)
Outsourced (takes place in India--a realistic look at life there, touching yet funny. Truly well done and worth watching.)
Hotel For Dogs (family-orientated movie, fun to watch)

Ubuntu & Windows 7

As a business environment research project I downloaded and installed Ubuntu Linux on one laptop and Windows 7 RC (release candidate) on another. Now you have to understand, the people using the laptops in the work environment only need Office, email, a web browser and a wireless Internet connection.

Ubuntu is an easy download on DSL, under 700 MB. You must install an ISO burner to burn it to a CD. The first thing that amazed me about the Ubuntu is that it installed and worked without installing the time-consuming Windows driver installs. Right "out of the box" I had a working email program, OpenOffice and a DSL cable connection. However the wireless connection utility was not connecting. I have to admit that I am so much a newbie with Ubuntu that I didn't know how to install the utility needed to make it work. But...when I found the right support it was a breeze! Everything works from a drop-down menu from a task bar at the top of the page. I love it! However---IMPORTANT---before you go formatting your drive and installing Ubuntu, remember Windows applications won't run on it.

The next laptop got the mega install, 2.3 GB download---took 5 hours! Since this is also an ISO image, you must use an ISO burner to burn it to a DVD, since a CD isn't large enough. The machine you install it to must also have a DVD player, so it can read it. Anyway, Windows 7 is an upgrade of Vista, and honestly I haven't figured out why anyone would want to drop that much moola into a program which looks pretty much like the one they just paid a lot of moola for. I did find out that avast! antivirus works on Windows 7. However it does NOT come with an email client. I downloaded Windows Live mail and I don't like it, so I installed Thunderbird instead.

So, I expect to be testing these two laptops for awhile.

On Soapbox

Well, I've been quiet too long. Time to spout off a bit. The doomsday people, special interest groups and naysayers are trying to spell health care as E-V-I-L, so I'm going to pass on some important info I got from the AARP.

Here are some Myths the fear mongers want you to believe:

Health care reform is socialized medicine.
Health care reform means rationed care.
Health care reform will hurt Medicare.
Health care reform is too expensive – we can't afford it.
Health care reform means the government can make life-and-death decisions for you.

The answers to the above statements are FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE and FALSE.

Read the TRUTH here: http://aarp.convio.net/site/PageNavigator/Myths_vs_Facts

Although I'm several years away from Medicare, I am an AARP member and here are some important messages for all of us.

FACT #1: Medicare will not be ended, and no benefits or services will be cut.
Your services will not be ended, nor will your benefits be cut. AARP's position on this could not be clearer. And we have sent this message loud and clear to Congress. While the current proposals include savings in Medicare by cutting out fraud, abuse, waste, and inefficiency, we're standing up and making sure benefits for Medicare recipients are not only fully protected, but are improved. [See "A" below]

FACT #2: No legislation currently in Congress would mandate the rationing of care. Period.
Our staff has read all of the legislation circulating in Congress and there are no provisions in these bills that would ration care for our members. None. If any ever did, we would vigorously fight to stop that legislation. [See "B" below]

FACT #3: There is no provision of any piece of legislation that would promote euthanasia of any kind.
The rumors out there are flat out lies. Right now Medicare does not cover counseling for end-of-life care. The portion of the bill in question would simply provide coverage for optional end-of-life consultations with doctors, so that the patient can be aware of all of the treatment options on the table. It is not mandatory and it has nothing to do with euthanasia. [ See "C" below]

FACT #4: We have not endorsed President Obama's plan.
In fact, we haven't endorsed any plan. We are supporting reform of our health care system, something that AARP has pushed for many years.We're working closely with Republican and Democratic members of Congress to lower health care costs and to ensure quality affordable coverage for older Americans - and we want reform legislation passed and signed by the president this year. [See "D" below]

So what is AARP fighting for in health reform?

A. Stopping insurance companies from charging older Americans unaffordable premiums because of their age.

B. Ending the practice of excluding people from insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

C. Holding down health costs and making insurance coverage more affordable for all Americans.


D. Making prescription drugs more affordable by narrowing the Medicare doughnut hole, bringing generics to market faster, and allowing Medicare to negotiate better drug prices.

So...there you go.
Off soapbox.