the color white

I clean houses for a living. I curse the person who invented the white counter top, toilet, shower stall, appliances. It is easy to clean a surface, but de-staining a surface is different. Home-made cleaners with vinegar or baking soda or soap nuts will clean your home and rid you of odors and bacteria. But they may not take the stains away... Much of my "cleaning" time is devoted to removing stains.
The emergence of "stainless steel" in my client's kitchens makes me shudder, now I have a harder surface to "clean." Stainless steel appliances streak easily, leaving you to purchase cleaners to create a streak free shine that mimics cleanliness. I begin to wonder if the appliance companies are in with the cleaner companies, making profits in both areas of market.
Sounds plausible.

When I create my home I will try my hardest to find old retro tubs, sinks, toilets, etc; they came in colors like pea green, baby blue, and baby girl pink. I will choose anything but white NOT because I don't like to clean, but because I don't like to SCRUB and apply harsh chemicals that I breathe in and get on my skin. No white walls, no white counter tops, no white floors, no white cabinets. No white. Cream, maybe. Yellow? Yes. Pea Green? It may be considered ugly but paired with lovely colors, I can make it work.
For now I have my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to help me. I can only wonder what awful kinds of product exist in this little white foam "eraser".

Prudhomme Redfish Magic Seasoning

I love Chef Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic seasoning. It is superb on any meat, especially chicken! The skinny bottles of his seasonings go fast for how much they cost, leading me to wonder what the ingredients are so I can make it at home. Thank Science for the Internet!

today I will be following this recipe to create my own "RedFish Magic"
3 teaspoons salt, optional
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons paprika

Prudhomme's redfish magic became so popular in the 80s that the Redfish entered the endangered species list. Too bad they didn't know his seasoning is good on anything! Now you can enjoy your own home made bottle of Redfish magic without his creepy fat face staring at you from the bottle... unless you like it then buy one of his seasonings, use it up and refill it with your own! Everyone can get what they want :)

Sprouts!

I started growing my own sprouts in March. It is fun, easy and so much cheaper to start your own sprouts at home! I first obtained alfalfa sprouts from Ebay, but quickly found myself becoming bored with them. Then I found the Sprout People! They have so many different varieties and mixtures of sprouting seeds to tantalize your tongue! I bought 3 different types~ The Russian Mix, Beanies Super Awesome Mix, and the French Mix. They are all different and delicious!
Just be careful of how much you start~ I did 2 tbsp of the French Mix and it became huge!(See Photo)
Today, however, I started 1/2 tsp of the Russian and French mixes (lettuce varieties) to grow in the garden for a fall crop. The Sprout People's website even tells you how to grow their sprouting seeds in your home garden. Fast & friendly people- they really know their sprouts!

Smoothie Goodness

Some people pay $5 for a smoothie. Some people are also crazy!
All you need is a blender, fruit and liquid.
Bags of frozen fruit (usually picked at ripeness, not beforehand like what you get in the produce section) cost around $2-$3. If I buy 3 bags I can make well over 10 smoothies with them. Fruit juices come in cans (like Jumex at 33cent 8oz can), bottles, frozen concentrates, and in fruit(if you got the time to juice your fruit.
Got a pint of berries which half are beginning to mold? Toss em and freeze the un-molded berries. Bananas starting to get spots? Unpeel em and freeze em too!
Here are some suggestions for smoothie success:
Pick your fruits: Strawberry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Cherry, Mango, Peach, pineapple, banana, guava, kiwi, etc!!
Pick your juice: Fruit juices like apple, pineapple, grape, orange, cranberry; water, green tea (or any tea, I have only tried green and its great!), Soy Milk, Regular Milk, Almond Milk... you get the point here...
Pick your add ins: Honey, Yogurt (plain or flavored), powdered greens mix, or VEGGIES! That's right. Take a handful of spinach and throw it in there. The fruit will completely over power the taste of the greens.

How do I know how much to use? I always end up making a bit too much... but what I do is add my fruit to the cup of my choice, then add my liquid almost to the top. Throw it in the blender and blend away!
Now you have at least half your daily dose of fruits/veggies! don't it feel good?

Pindo Palm Jelly: Take 2

Today I am going to attempt the pindo jelly again. This time I am going to follow these directions:

Palm Fruit Jelly
5 cups juice (see cook's note)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 box Sure-Jell fruit pectin
5 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon butter, to prevent foaming

Cook's note: Gather fruit when the first fruit begins to fall from the tree, Chris says. People are happy for you to take it, especially if you give them a jar of jelly in return. I collect it in a plastic clothes basket and let the fruit ripen outdoors until it begins to fall off the stalk, usually in a day or two. I covered it with screening this year to keep flies away! Edit: I used a little more than what is pictured and came up with just at 5 cups of juice. Whew!

Rinse the fruit thoroughly; it is not necessary to remove the 'caps' on the fruit as they will cook off. EDIT: I removed the caps and pits, as the pits may change flavor and texture. Fill a large pot with the fruit leaving several inches at the top. Cover the fruit with water, bring it to a boil, and then cook at medium for 1 hour uncovered. Let the fruit cool down for an hour. To collect the juice: Scoop portions of fruit and juice into a jelly bag over another container and squeeze the bag to get the juice, some of it will appear thick, and then discard the pits. (This is the messy part). You may notice that your juice may vary in thickness, and you can combine all of it and stir to get a more homogenous batch before you begin the jelly making. As I measure for each batch, I sieve it through a handkerchief. (clean and free of hair or fuzz) to remove any small bits of pulp.
To make jelly: In large pot (pasta size) combine palm juice and lemon juice, and stir in box of pectin, using a whisk. Heat to a boil and stir in sugar and butter. Bring mixture back to a boil and turn heat down to medium high and continue to cook for 13-15 minutes. Monitor closely so that it does not boil over. Palm jelly requires longer cooking time than other jelly.

Pour jelly into half-pint sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, and process for 5 minutes.

*except I am going to remove the pits from the fruit (which is a bit difficult as the pulp clings to the pits securely) before I boil them for juice. I read that the pit may secret an oil substance that makes the fruit more difficult to gel, perhaps it is because of the fruit's naturally high content of pectin that the pit's job is to keep the fruit from becoming a jellyball on the frond. That would be Willy Wonka-esque!

Success!

My jelly has jelled successfully! The recipe calls for a juice of one lemon, one lemon equals about 2 tablespoons juice. i only had 1 tbs, but that didn't cause a problem. This batched turned out more orange than yellow color the last batch was.
There is another frond ripening today~ so beginning tomorrow I will collect the fruits to make more batches. I hope to sell them at the next festival I attend.

Pindo Syrup??

I've found some more information about Pindo fruits and learned the error of my ways. My last batch of Jelly is more of a syrup, delicious to use on pancakes, waffles and ice cream! It is too runny to be called jelly. Why?? I asked myself. Because the pindo takes longer to jell than other fruit, so you must boil it with the pectin longer. Also I left to seeds in when I cooked and juiced the fruit, this could have caused the mixture to not jell as the natural oils from the seeds keep it from doing so. Luckily there is so much dang fruit on the tree that I can try all day and still have more tomorrow. Last night I picked a fresh batch of fruit that had ripened and fallen into the bushes below. With gloves on, I grabbed handfulls and filled about 2-3 inches of the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket and it didn't even look like I had taken any!
So... what did I learn? Remove the pits and cook jelly mixture longer. I also learned a great way to test your jelly before you can it. Take a spoonful of your "finished" product in a very cold spoon. Sit it in the counter and wait for it to come to room temperature. If its jelly on the spoon and doesn't fall off, you're done! If not, try adding some more pectin and try, try again!
I am also thinking about buying a few of those cans of Jumex fruit juices at the store (usually 30cents a can) and creating a mango/pindo jelly and a few varieties. Fun!
If you are as interested in making jelly from the pindo as I am here are some links that helped me greatly:
Greenish Thumb
Eat the Weeds
Ehow

Pindo Palm Jelly

Also known as the Jelly Palm, the Pindo palm produces small orange fruits in the summer time. Each front of fruit ripens at a different time, giving you fruit all summer long. The taste is similar to apricot, mango and peach; but with a different (yet delicious) twang. The other day I picked a few fruits, just enough to cover the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. Then we had a massive storm that picked the rest of the fruit for me, and threw them in the bushes. Now I am more prepared for the next batch. (Photo: Six 8 oz jars Pindo Jelly and Two jars Banana pepper rings.)
I followed this recipe:

2 cups prepared palm fruit juice

3 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup liquid fruit pectin

Remove pits from palm fruit, barely cover with water and bring to a boil for about 5 minutes. Crush fruit and strain through a jelly bag. Measure into a saucepan. Add sugar to juice and mix well. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. At once stir in pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim off foam and pour quickly into hot, clean jars. For long term storage, the USDA recommends heat processing all jams and jellies in a waterbath canner for 5 to 10 minutes. Yield about 4, 8 ounce jars.

As far as the "Jelly Bag" goes, I made mine ghetto style and just tied up my fruit in a handkerchief and dangled it over a bowl to catch the juice. Once it cooled more I crushed them.
The amount of fruits I picked yielded me about 4 cups of juice so I can make another batch probably.
I also bought the liquid pectin, as specified, and used just one envelope of it, which looked to be about 1/2 a cup.
I also cut the sugar down a whole bunch, just measured 3 almost full cups of sugar. I put it all in a one quart jar, but I didn't fill it all the way up, I poured the rest in a small mason jar as a "tester". This is my first time making jelly EVER, so hopefully it turns out good! It sure smells wonderful.

Here is my set up to drip the juice out, thinner fabric may work better)

EDIT~ Aug.9
This morning my jelly is still a bit too liquid. I understand that some jellies do take a few days to set, so I am going to sit this one out until tomorrow or the next day and remake it. Luckily it is easy to fix jelly! you can find out how at here (How to Fix Runny Jam or Jelly), at pickyourown.org. So either way I come out winning! Looks like the next front is ripening, if I get good at this I can send jars of Jelly to my friends. I missed a majority of the fruits that fell, and the amount I collected gave me a good amount of juice. If i play my cards right I could make several dozen cans of jelly this summer! Now that's the kind of work I like!

Edit~ Aug 11
Today I fixed my jelly. I also made another two 8 oz jars since I had just enough juice and pectin left over. They are still setting but I can tell that this time probably worked. The mixture became very firm and gelatinous towards the end. Also the bit that remained on the bottom of the pan was jelly~ and delicious! I added lemon juice the second time around, as I added this in when I fixed the first batch.

I also canned Banana Pepper rings while I was at it. A farmer at the farmer's market was selling Banana Peppers for 5 cents each! I should have bought them all. But instead I bought just enough to make Two 8 oz jars. I boiled two jars of filtered water and one jar vinegar. Meanwhile I crammed banana peppers, cut into rings, into sterilized jars. In each jar I added a pinch of sea salt (regular table salt may discolour the fruit and/or water), 1/3 of a huge garlic clove, and some black pepper corns. In one I added a pinch of sugar, but I wanted to see what difference would be to leave it out. Then I poured the water/vinegar mixture to fill the jars most of the way.

Everything got processed (canned) in boiling water for 10 minutes. You can probably get away with just doing it for 5 minutes, but I wanted to make sure I did it right. You know you are doing it right when the cans Pop! when they are cooling, this is when the cans seal. Pretty neat!


Who wants some jelly??

Palm fronds, are they useful?

Here in the devil's buttcrack, South Carolina; its so hot even my bell peppers are stressing out. It makes me wonder why people like to live here, and what kind of edible plants grow well. Now I know that tea would grow great, as well as vanilla and of course hot peppers.
Near where I live there are palm trees, and lately they have been dropping these small, orange, persimmon-like fruit. I brought one in, tore the skin with my finger nail and licked it. The smell reminds me of peach a little, and the taste is very different, with a slight spice to it. I am not a foodie so I cannot tell you what notes and hints are there... But I can tell you that it is a bit too strange to eat on its own. So I have been looking on the internet for hints as to what on earth I can do with these fruits.
So far I have found this
"Jelly palm (Butia capitata), a South American monoecious palm native to Brazil. The large cluster of yellowish-orange drupes is produced on a stalk near the base of the curved leaves. The drupes have a fleshy, sweet mesocarp with the flavor of apricots. They are eaten fresh or made into jellies, jams, cakes, pies and other delicious deserts. "
But I have not found any sort of recipes for it. I was thinking perhaps I can also make a scented oil or potpourri from it? There are millions of these little fruits (see photo? There are at least 4 of these trees in my yard) which makes me happy that I don't have to worry about landscaping as I rent, but I hate to see something of use to go waste.
Do you have any ideas for these? I am sad it isn't a date palm, that would be preferable.