A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Coffee House 2664

Ground pork and bread for the meatballs?

Yes, if it is fresh then you do not even need to add an egg to bind it. I add salt, pepper and onion powder then mix in. You can't over work it though, gently fold it together.....the meatballs are so tender. I use them for Italian dishes, barbq, sweet and sour, Chinese style and even Hawaiian style.

Thanks for the tips Sunny.

Good morning

Good morning to you as well.

I picked my first gallon of pickling cucumbers this morning. I can't wait to make a couple of bottles of sweet relish tonight.😋

Cucumbers have produced a lot for me this year but I usually get a good croup of cukes. I love them. I eat at least 1 every day.

I have bought 1 cucumber this summer. I really prefer the tiny ones as you can eat the skin, but they seem to go moldy on me, so the regular ones it is. I don't grow them. when I do I get like 2 on 1 plant.

I love the taste of pickling cukes better than any other. I leave a couple get larger to eat raw. I use the heirloom variety, 'National pickle' so that I can keep my own seed. They have not let me down yet....although this year they are about two weeks late due to the weather.

On another note, I broke out my new food processor that I received for Christmas. I shred the cukes, onions and a piece of pepper. Then I sliced my finger on the shredding plate washing it. DH threw away my mandolin slicer many years ago after giving myself a 'cut of a lifetime'....I'm going to have to hide the processor on him.🤫

I put a butterfly stitch, wrapped it and I'll use gloves for a few days. I'm so clumsy.

I had a food processor, that Ginger talked me into buying, that I never ever used, so when Gingers broke I gave it to her. After reading about your injuries it's probably a good thing I gave it away. If we lived closer I'd beg a jar from you.

you sound like my momma Sunny
Dad would not put in a garbage disposal for her because he knew she would reach down intp it when it was on. I hope you are better soon.

Too funny Junie, your momma and I think alike.😉

Bestofour, I had a small food processor but the motor gave out. I used to do it all by hand since then, after DH threw away my mandolin. But when the food processors went half price at Christmas, I figured it was a good time to get one. I have learned this one is ALOT sharper than the old one.🙄

Take care of yourself, Sunny. I have such a tiny kitchen I don't have many newer type of appliances. Even my blender is packed away in a closet shelf off of the kitchen. I rarely use it for that very reason. It is not worth the half hour it would take.me to clean out the shelf, find the item, pack back the cabinet, then do whatever I wanted to know.

I don't have much for appliances either, my old hand mixer is on its last as well. I use a wooden spoon more often than not for baking.

I think if I had a bigger kitchen I'd want more but like you said, it's not worth the bother having to spend the time to dig stuff out.

about the mixer
I have both a stationary mixer ( it was a present from Rod) and a hand mixer that was a gift from my MIL..so you know how old that has to be. But a whole lot of bakers I see on the Internet now a days use spoons. whisks, or such..so I am thinking it does not matter one just needs to mix the ingredients.

I don't have a lot of space either so my stuff is stuck where I can make it fit. If I had more counter space I'd have all sorts of gadgets.

oh yes, IF I had more room I would have more "gagets"...... if my kitchen were bigger...BUT I would really love to have a very large pantry..with one whole side to set out all my appliances, single file, so they are easy to access. Then I want a place for all my other baking supplies, and baking pans and dishes..my pots. etc..and of course a very large area for all my pantry staples...THEN in my kitchen I want a big clear counter so I can make meals and easily do all my baking.

well I can dream right ??

Junie, I was in my house close to two years when I told DH that I absolutely had to have a kitchen island. We built it ourselves, so it was to my speciations. I do all my prep and baking on it. The top shelves hold my pots and pans and the bottom holds all my baking supplies. The front is done with four narrow shelves that hold sugar and such in glass bottles. It's the best thing I've ever built. Thankfully they were still able to order a wide top to match my cabinets.

But.....I still want a pantry. 🤔

Lucky lady, you are Sunny !!

When we moved into the house in town in Illinois, I had a big very wide island. I am sure the cabinet space under it was ment for such as you say...however I had 24 place setting of my good dishes that had to go somewhere, so that is where they went. Then one day when I was out in one of the hardware type stores, I saw a 24 by 24 cabinet that would fit in my laundry room ( yes, praise the Lord I had an actual laundry room with a deep sink, which I SO miss.)_ so I bought it, and that is what I brought here.

Good morning.

My kitchen is in a L shape so the island works well. Mind you, all my cabinets doors were bought on clearance when a kitchen company was going out of business. They are all oak but they were sold in sets of two....each with a different edge or curve. Mind you, I sanded them, stained them all the same and nobody notices until I show them. DH told me to stop pointing it out to people. 😂

I guess no matter how much storage a person has, they never have enough. I would love to have a laundry room with a sink...that will never happen though.

I agree about the amount of space one has...it is never enough. Strange but true. I DO miss my laundry room with the deep sink though. But it is what it is.

I agree with your DH. Why point it out ??

I am making baked potatoes for supper. I will put shredded cheese and mixed veggies on top. I told him it was meatless Monday..

Good morning, it's still wet outdoors. I don't know what today holds but I'll find something to knock off the chore list.

I do have a gigantic pantry because we had it built ourselves. My house was built in 1929 so had no cabinet or storage space. What closets and cabinets I have we put in ourselves. My kitchen is 12 x 14 so there's no room for an island - I'd love to have one. I do have a laundry room and in the beginning had a sink it in, which I rarely used because it didn't drain right, so we took it out. If I thought I'd use it I guess I could figure out why it didn't drain and replace it. What do you guys use yours for?

I'm still at Wrightsville Beach but it's been so horribly hot that I may go home today. It's not even fun to walk on the beach with a breeze with 88% humidity.

Sheri: I used my deep sink for soaking clothes, hand washing larger items. and washing out exceptionally dirty items before I put them in the wash machine. And then there were the muddy leather shoes that I washed. Anyway I loved having it.

So glad you were able to add on a nice pantry. I had a small one at the farm.
It had a utility cabinet, for such as mops and brooms. then a tall cabinet for dry groceries. lastly It had drawers that I used for cleaning sponges and rags. I had my dad add shelves for my cookbooks and then I had an area below that for my trash cans. really for a house built in 1914 it was nice.

Another rainy day here. July was pure heat, August is pure wet.

I'll take wet over heat any day of the week. Today it is overcast and rainy. yesterday, I had to go out to pick some tomatoes, and it was very nice. like a warm summer day should have been. I wish we would be having more of those instead of the terrible heat we have been having all summer.

I'm with you on that one, there's a big difference between normal heat and scorching. People wait all year for Summer, then you can't go outside to enjoy it.

I went into the yard this morning at 7:30 so I wouldn't be scorched to death. I got the plant watering and pruning and bird food out by 10:30 and came in and got in the shower. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and I hope it does. Amazingly my little garden is still producing tomatoes and cucumbers.

I've been cleaning out a closet and have got a bunch of stuff to donate. I even took a few things out of the attic. It feels good to look into that almost empty closet. I had saved 3 shower curtains and rings and I don't know how many bathmats and kitchen rugs. I figured if I had forgotten they were in there that I don't need them. When it cools off I'm going to tackle the attic.

Gee I am proud of you, Sheri.. Sounds like you get a lot accomplished. Good for you !!

Great job Bestofour, someone will appreciate the donations.😘

It rained last night so I'll have to wait until later to mow the lawn. As crazy as this sounds, this weird weather is making my tomato plants flourish. For the first time ever, I am going to have large tomatoes ripen on the plants. Yet, it's making my cucumbers drop their blossoms.🤔

sorry for the cucumbers but hopefully you will be able to put up a lot of tomatoes. I hope so anyway.

We ate my first red tomato with supper tonight, it was a Roma but it was still straight from the vine.

Lawn is done, weeding as well. I was glad to have a full dry day.

Nothing like a homegrown tomato. Weird about the cucumbers. Hopefully all the blooms won't fall off. My yard is done too but I didn't do it myself

I'm looking for a rug to go at my kitchen sink. Today when I was out donating my stuff I stopped in at TJ Max, found a lovely rug, but got it home and realized it's not rubber back so it's slippery. It's a perfect size at 26 x 45 and weirdly I can't find that size on Amazon or any other online site to buy one that will work. Everything is 24 inches or 36 inches wide and one is too small and the other too big. Guess I'm gonna have to go shopping which I hate to have to do.

Sheri:

There is backing tape and rug squares to hold rugs in place...look around and do not get in a hurry.
I am sure you will find something that will hold the rug in place.

Sunny!! Hurray for garden tomatoes. I am happy for you all. I know it was good.

glad you were able to get the lawn taken care of. I am sure that feels good. Rod says he is cutting ours tomorrow evening.

Good idea Junie. Yes, I'd look for non skid tape for the rug. I've seen it sold in hardware stores, check Amazon as well.

yep, Amazon seems to have everything.

I have the tape on some of my larger rugs but I'm not going to use it on the kitchen rug because I take them up to vacuum and mop all the time. I ordered one from Amazon today, a bit bigger at 3 x 5, so we shall see. On that note I've had quite the experience from an order a Lowe's. Do you guys have Lowe's?

This is just a buyers beware.

I bought new kitchen cabinet knobs from Lowe's. What I wanted wasn't in the store so I ordered online. 3 boxes arrived via FedEx and weren't exactly the same as depicted on the Lowe's website so I returned them while I waited for the 4th box to arrive - it never has. I called Lowe's and was told by Betty in customer service to wait a few mores day which I did. I called Betty back and she looked up the order and said "Oh this is an outside vendor so you'll have to deal with them and she gave me a phone number." No one answers the phone and there's no way to leave a message. I called Betty back again and she said she'd talk to her manager. 2 days later she called back and said since it's an outside vendor Lowe's can't deal with them and she gave me their website and told me to put in a refund request. The site keeps telling me they have no record of my order number. Today I called Lowe's and asked to speak to the store manager who told me to put in the PO number, which I did, and get the same "No record." I called him back and asked how Lowe's is not responsible for this since I ordered from the Lowe's website and paid with my Lowe's credit card. He said because it's an outside vendor so I said "yes but I'm paying Lowe's with my Lowe's credit card. I haven't dealt with an outside vendor person when placing this order." He said he'd call me back. We shall see.

I will be sure to remember your story. I will for sure make sure I am not dealing with outside venders.
Thanks for your story. And yes we have Lowes.

Good luck with the. newly ordered rug.

Ooooh, it's the same with our Walmart online site, Bestofour. My DD got screwed over with an order. Apparently, you have to go on the main site and put in what you are looking for. Once the items come up, you are responsible to click on the filter button to show if you are ordering right from Walmart, a seller fulfilled by Walmart....or a seller(that you can get screwed over by). It is all a scam.

We do not have a Lowe's but I am betting they are doing the same thing.

Thanks for the info Sunny. It's happened to two of my friends with different items. Can't trust anyone these days.

no you cannot
not even insurance companies
My health insurance company is no longer allowed to find me the best company for my prescriptions. ( apparently this changes every year. this whole thing is scary..just what is the average person supposed to do ?

I don't know how the insurance company thinks that the average person can sort that out, they have all the info at the touch of a button....and they can't. Junie, that is going to be a mess to sort out.