Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Peanuts, get your peanuts....

Unless you have southern roots, you probably won’t appreciate this delicacy.  I am lucky enough to have those roots, and I love boiled peanuts!  I thank my wonderful mother and father for introducing them to me when I was a child.  Boiled peanuts and sweet tea, it doesn’t get any better than that to me.

Every year, just before Easter, I buy raw peanuts in the shell to boil and give them to my godson as a birthday gift.  He does not have southern roots, but he LOVES them!  And if I don’t get them done in time for his birthday, he lets me know about it!  Tonight is when the process will begin.  I’ve got to deliver his gift on Monday, March 31st. 

It’s not at all hard, but it is time consuming.  If you don’t schedule your time just right, they will be undercooked.  Boiled peanuts need to be DONE.  If I had to compare them to anything, they would come close to black eyed peas.  They don’t taste like dry roasted or salted peanuts.  They are more like an oversized-soft-salty black eyed pea.  The only way to know for sure is to make them or try them yourself.  Here is the recipe I’ve used for years…

BOILED PEANUTS (using dried raw in the shell peanuts) This picture is 2 one pound bags.



Put 1 pound raw peanuts in a 3 quart crock pot.  Fill pot with water.  Allow peanuts to soak 8 hours or overnight.  Peanuts will absorb a lot of the water making it necessary to add water until the pot is filled.  Add salt to taste*

Cook peanuts on low for 8 hours then on high for 1 1/2 hours or on medium for 4 1/2 hours.  Drain.
Serve hot with sweet iced tea.

*Try 4-5 tablespoons of salt and taste toward the end of cooking time.  Add more salt if taste dictates and allow to cook for about 1 hour more.

Now, I took notes from years past....and here's what I said:

2010   I cooked them on low for 8 hours in crock pot, then on high 2 hours, then on low 4 hours (could go another hour or more)  Just ok.

2011   On low for 28 hours.  Good.

Now, don't be shocked at the cooking time in 2011, because they came out perfect.

My peanuts are in their water soak tonight and will be ready for their 28 hours in the crock pot beginning tomorrow morning at 7am.  I will take photos for you!  Oh, and one more note...I put the crock on the porch so the house doesn't smell days afterwards!

UPDATE on the peanuts...I tried a few and they were fine.  But, I wanted more so I did another smaller batch that had soaked the same amount of time as the first batch.  I cooked in crock on high for 5 hours, then on low for 5 hours.  I think they came out better!  Pictures to follow, I promise.

Wow, did I miss this one.....I promised pictures and did not produce them.  While writing my latest post, I came across the pictures that I failed to post here so, here they are...with my apology.
 Soaking...
 Slow cooking...
 Mmmmm....done!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Fate...

March 25th, 2013

While my sister and I were shopping in one of our favorite consignment stores, Again and Again in Dunn's Corners, Westerly, I came across a hard cover book about Newfoundland dogs and immediately thought of a dear friend of mine who breeds these dogs.  This friend moved away quite some time ago, but we've stayed in contact all these years.  Without hesitation, I turned to my sister and said, "I am buying this book for Mickey."  We finished up with our shopping.  Spent very little, and got very much.  That is the treat to shopping in consignment stores.  I dropped my sister off at her house and headed home to settle in for the evening, tucking the book in my bag for mailing out the following day.  On my desk, the book was ready to mail and I thought, 'I should stick a little note on the inside cover'.  To my surprise, on the inside cover was Mickey's name and a date....in her writing!!!  What are the chances of this sort of thing happening?  I was simply blown away! 


Fate....it's a marvelous thing.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Almost springtime in VT....

March, 11th 2013

It's been a while since we had the opportunity to head north.  What a beautiful weekend it was!  There was a good foot of snow on the ground, the sun was shining and there was no wind at all.  The temperature hit 50!  Talk about the best of two seasons....we had it and we loved every minute of it.



Saturday was our putzin' around day.  Doing whatever entered our minds at the time.  It felt good to get stuff done without any sort of agenda to follow.  I did quite a bit of snow shoveling.  The tin roof snow removal was more than my body was accustomed to and the proof of that was my sore muscles the next day.  We did a bit of riding on the ATV.  I took a good walk with friends to catch up and get some exercise in.  Just an overall "good to the last drop" weekend.



And, let's not forget about the food.  I love food.  I believe I've mentioned that a time or two before.  We dined on home made tomato orzo soup with croutons, a scrumptious salad with tender greens, mandarin slices, slivered almonds, cranberries and crumbled cheese with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  My mouth is watering just writing this down!  Oh, and salted caramel brownie bites.  Can you say YUM?



With spring right around the corner, we will soon be planting, mowing, fixing and doing all those things we think about while the snow melts.  Can't you just smell it?

Until next time...




Sunday, March 3, 2013

Sisters....

Friday, March 1st, 2013


This weekend was super special for me.  I had the opportunity to spend some quality time visiting with my two sisters.  One who lives ten minutes from me, and one who lives more than half way across the country.  We only had a very short period of time, but we made the very best of it.

I started out by picking up Carolyn first so we could both arrive to greet Stephanie at the train station.  Her train was to arrive at 5pm.  I got a call from Steph around that time telling me she was safely off the train so we picked her up and after a few minutes of hugs and kisses, we headed out to dinner.  Ah...dinner.  I love to eat and because we are on the seacoast, I thought what better place to dine than The Dog Watch Cafe in Stonington CT.  It was a great choice.  While waiting for our culinary delights to arrive, we never stopped talking about memories, moments and moms.  When our smorgasbord of greatness from the sea arrived at our table, we were so delighted!  We had clams casino, calamari, scallops in bacon, coconut shrimp and oysters on the half shell.  It was the perfect dinner choice for a party of three sisters.


After our bellies were full, we headed over the border toward home in RI.  Dropping Carolyn off first, we said our good nights and wishes of a great nights sleep because the following day was also going to be time well spent.

Saturday, March 2nd, 2013

A bittersweet day ahead of us.  Stephanie's flight home is this evening.  Since her airline doesn't fly into RI, we had a road trip to New York to do.  This was perfect...more quality visiting time.  After all, we hadn't seen Stephanie since her wedding 10 years ago!  And away we went.

A while into the trip, I started feeling hungry but didn't say anything.  I wasn't "starving".  About ten minutes after I felt my stomach growl, Stephanie said, "I'm starving!". (yippee!!)  Stephanie is the "techie" of the three of us.  She had all the go go gadgets in her bag.  So, she pulled out her smart phone and told Siri she was hungry.  Siri told us of a diner called Chip's to try.  So we did.  The place was packed!  Good sign.  The line into the restaurant moved surprisingly swift.  The staff definitely has it together there!  We were seated and had coffee in hand in about ten minutes.  The food was delicious and the people were so friendly.  If you find yourself in Orange, CT with a hunger for good food fast....try Chip's.  The link is here on the right side bar.  So with bellies once again full and more stories under our belts, we were hitting the highway.




Stephanie was my co-pilot on our journey to the airport with directions in hand.  Carolyn was our Miss Daisy.  We made our way into the short term lot and headed into the terminal.  You know that feeling you get when you have an appointment with the dentist or doctor?  The one where you know you have to do this and yet, you don't want to.  That was the feeling I got as we walked toward the building.  I love my family and it brings tears to my eyes to send them off.  Although we made many "reunion" promises and knew we would be seeing each other again soon, it still tugged at my heart strings. 




Until next time...