Just need to talk to my friends (213)

Good morning.

Happy Solstice. I, for one, am looking forward to the additional sunlight.

Gothic G— Yes, you can have a dog's cataracts treated. My former neighbor had his Jack Russell's done at Penn Veterinary Hospital a year before DH had his done. Same basic procedure excepting DH didn't come home in a cone. DH's surgeon said that the vet specialist makes more money for the procedure than he does.

I have a single gift to wrap and then I am done with that nonsense. This package will be a 2-person job as it's really heavy. Niece wanted a raised planter for her herbs and sent me a link. I assumed it might be some kind of PVC— nope. It's wood and it's heavy. Not as heavy as the safe I got my mom last year thankfully.

HB

Lorita, after one good night I guess my body said that was enough, maybe two hours last night.

I’m craving some good butter and buttermilk biscuits. Lorita, if I bring the churn to the front porch, do you think that you could talk your girls into giving us some fresh milk. I can remember my grandmother sitting what seemed like forever churning butter just to get a little chunk of butter. But you can’t find any butter anymore that is that good.

Memories: churning butter, milking cows and squirting the cats with one of the utters, ringing chicken necks and watching them run around without a head, sloping the hogs, butchering the hogs, gathering eggs and coming across one that is still warm and soft, canning vegetables from the garden, plowing behind a old mule, picking cotton and many more that I’m sure some in the porch can relate to. Almost forgot……. One I hated was the smell of chitlins boiling in hot water.

By the way even though I was a city boy, we had lots of kinfolk’s in the country and visited often.

Ron

Happy New Year (solstice)! 💥

Ron, I can't help you with biscuits, but Price Cutter sells some Irish butter that's pretty near as good as Mama made while she watched TV. Did your grandmother have butter molds that printed little pictures on the sticks? Remind me some time when the women aren't around and I'll tell you the story about churning butter with a turnip.

Pretty day here, 50 and sunny. The weather guessers think we'll have shirtsleeve weather for Christmas. That usually means a sleet storm for New Year's, but we'll see.

Carl, speaking of short sleeve shirts, my son after hearing it will be close to 70 by Christmas, he blames me for bringing Louisiana weather.

Isn’t this beautiful!

Ron

We are expecting an atmospheric river in SoCal beginning Tuesday and lasting through Christmas Day.

Good night.

Iris

Good morning,

Ron

Good morning.

It's cold and bright here and the wind has finally died down. Tomorrow we get an additional 8 seconds of daylight— it's a start.

I remember making butter in a jar— it's a pretty common kiddie activity. I know I did it in first grade, DS did it in kindie and again in cub scouts. A dozen energetic seven-year-olds is the best approach IME. I've done it accidentally when attempting whipped cream; it can turn quickly. When I'm entertaining, I make sure to have a second pint on hand just in case.

Today is mom-centric. She needs a non-fasting blood draw and then I'll take her to get her eye injections. I would have scheduled for a different day, but every 8 weeks is optimum. I have a lot to do yet. I did decide I am not doing Christmas Eve as well. I just don't have the bandwidth.

I should probably start moving her gifts to my house. She has a lot of stuff to bring and if my niece picks her up on Christmas, it won't all fit in the Mini. Speaking of gifts, I ordered my niece 25 Florida Boys Caladium bulbs. I got the mixed pink; I think they'll click with the MC vibe of her home. I already sent her peonies for her birthday to be delivered in spring and mom ordered her a dahlia collection, so I didn't want to overly burden her with planting.

I hope all have a pleasant day.
HB

Mint, the first picture you shared is exactly what my grandma used to churn her butter. I can make the red eye gravy and there is nothing like smokehouse curied ham, I’ve just about eaten all the jelly, but do have some fig preserves.

I have picked cotton and while in Kentucky, Lou’s Aunt and Uncle had raised tobacco. I’ve seen all stages of the harvest from planting bed, to the barn hanging, never made it to the actual last stage. I did try once and only once, her uncle’s homemade tobacco twist.

Ron

buttermold…I want one

I don't know of a live chat for caregivers. I have always posted my questions on the bulletin board and have received answers there. You might want to read some of the postings there, some of your questions have probably been asked before.

I'm sorry you have to be here. My wife passed away in May, after having progressive dementia since 2017, and it was a long haul for us.

To ask a question, just click on the yellow "new discussion" button.

I hope I can explain this.

In the bottom picture, the mold is sitting on the counter you see the handle of what I’m gonna call the plunger. So what you do is you pull the plunger up and turn it upside down and have it in your hand with the handle of plunger falling in between your fingers. You fill mold with butter and you pack it in there tightly. Then you turn it over and push the butter down and take the plunger off the top of the butter. A pretty flower design that you saw on the plunger is on top of your butter. The plungers came in all different designs. Seems like I remember someone having a pineapple and someone having a cherry. But I got my Aunts and hers was a flower.

Iris - I that there will be an atmospheric river headed your way. Be careful out there.

I'm thinking about what I like youtube for .. music, for sure. Sometimes movie clips, dinosaur info, Pompeii is fascinating, and some "how to" videos.

Carl - I spent a little while last night on youtube looking for a good live version of Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. As far as rabbit holes go, it was a fairly benign one.

HB - I've never made butter in a jar. I guess it's not a southern California thing? As I think about it, I'm not sure I'd ever seen a live cow until we moved away from southern California (after 8th grade).

Beth - that snow globe restaurant looks like my kind of place!!!

Good for you for going to class today - I did the same! I'll go tomorrow and Wednesday as well - I'll be guilt-free about what I'm going to eat on Christmas eve. 😄

I've never seen butter molds or a butter churn …..

Mint - how big is that butter mold? It seems very large …. How much butter does it make? And how large is the butter churn?

JeriLynn - how large are your butter churns?

Lorita - I'm with you, we need to take care of our world.

Zetta - I'm in your city girl camp. I don't think I'd be able to handle the death end of raising farm animals. I'm sure I'd feel like they were all pets to me.

It sounds like the flu hit all of you fairly hard. Having Christmas dinner come to you sounds like absolutely the right thing to do.

I'm doing Christmas-y things today/tonight. I'll mail my cards out tomorrow morning before gym - I know they're going to be late, but they'll be post-marked before Christmas, so that has to count for something, right? 🙂

I've got a few presents to wrap, and I'll get that done in just a bit.

If I have time tonight I'm going to make a batch of snickerdoodles to give to friends tomorrow.

Good morning. We're getting a dusting of snow at the moment to be followed by a wintry mix.

I am kind of surprised at the number of folks who have churns at the ready. The molds are pretty, but they do seem to hold more butter than I would use in a week. My SIL had some smaller ones she used at holidays that she would put on individual bread plates when she still enjoyed entertaining. They were kind of labor intensive.

Sausage and Gravy is a favorite of my DH. It's a go-to for him when we travel to visit his brother in SC. I have a can in the pantry and some frozen biscuits at the ready should I need to throw together something for him to eat. I have never heard of Bulgarian buttermilk. DH drinks buttermilk I get a local dairy. They do a full fat version that he likes better than most. It's funny, I have a whole section in the pantry of things he likes that are just not something I eat— sardines, kippers, canned hash, lentil soup, and old school Ragu for when I make my own homemade sauce or gravy.

I'm a little obsessed with the snow globe decor in that restaurant; it looks so fun.

I haven't shopped for our holiday meal yet. Zetta's catered dinner sounds appealing at the moment but it's too late to order here. My local fancy market is doing complete prime ribs for 4 or 8, turkeys, hams and individual Beef Wellingtons. I'll probably roast a prime rib and make Yorkshire puddings, mashed and some sort of roasted veg (maybe carrots). I've already ordered a "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus" cake and am thinking of poaching some pears to serve with caramel sauce and ice cream. I need to figure out wine. I have a lot of hand at the moment, but I don't know if they're big enough to stand up to beef. I may do some easy apps or soups for Christmas Eve.

Mom's bloodwork is back. It looks great so I guess she'll get to stay on her diuretic. I wonder if the dose needs to be higher. Now that she's back on the maintenance dose, her weight is at the starting point and not really flushing fluid as I expected. I collected her around noon to go to the lab; from there we went to a new French bakery/cafe where we had lunch and split a couple desserts which she washed down with a large peppermint mocha. After that, we drove to her eye appointment which took an hour. She didn't get home until about 5:15 and she hadn't needed to use the restroom once.

I hope all have a calm day.
HB

i’m guessing the butter mold is about a pound. It’s not real large. It’s the normal size they were, which I’m guessing is a pound. I have seen the small molds they would be labor intensive for sure. Never seen my family use them.

The churn has a 5 on the front so thinking it is 5 gallons.

Yes Jerry you can help. I have not seen them with the handle.

I am not familiar with Bulgarian buttermilk either