First Melon Harvest

I harvested our first successful melon from the backyard this week. I probably let it get a bit too ripe, but the kids have declared it delicious! Surprisingly I have another one that looks like it will be bigger than this one! The melons have been really fun to grow and we will definitely be doing it again next year.

Jim also brought home a cantaloupe that a customer gave him as a tip. I guess they got to talking about melons and this customer had a backyard full of melon vines.

I am behind on fall planting - I was hoping to have stuff in the ground already but I still need to get soil for the new boxes and make a plan. Hopefully I will get that done this weekend!

It is a playdough type of day...

I have been working really hard to get the girls to bed at reasonable times and into a routine before school starts up again. So far its been going well, with both girls asleep before 10pm, but that also means that both of them are up at 7:30/8am every morning. That will work out great for school, but its hard for me to adjust since I am such a night owl.

Because of the early wake up times, by the time it gets to be noon, everyone is a bit crazy and bored. The "witching hour" used to be about 4 on our old schedule and we could survive til Jim got home, but now that its noon I am having to come up with lots of afternoon activities to distract them. One of our favorites.... playdough!

Now, playing with the dough makes them happy, but making the dough from scratch makes them even happier. They love to help measure out the stuff, pick out the coloring, and watch the mixer go around. We tried a lot of dough recipes before we found one that is 1. easy and 2. a great consistency. Here is ours, made in the stand mixer with the dough hook:

A bread baking deal.

I have to start this by admitting I have a thing for kitchen gadgets. Most people who know me find this interesting, or maybe odd, because I really don't enjoy cooking or being in the kitchen. But for whatever reason, I love neat kitchen things! I do try to hold back a bit because I want to live simply, its just a struggle sometimes ;) Anyway I was walking around Bed Bath & Beyond a few days looking for a pineapple slicer. We all love sliced pineapple and I have been buying it already sliced and cut at costco, but its about $7.99 and I was curious as to whether having a slicer of my own would be cheaper because then we could buy the whole pineapples when they are on sale for $2.50/$3 each.

However as I was walking around an open box bread machine caught my eye. I have a bread machine, I got it from goodwill for $10 a few months ago. I love it for making dough, but I don't cook in it because it makes funny shaped, tough crusted loaves. It was perfect for mixing/kneading dough and then doing one rise. Then I would take the dough out, shape it and let it do the 2nd rise in the pan and then bake in the oven. Yet, staring back at me at Bed Bath & Beyond was a $200 Zojirushi X20 Bread Machine for only $49.99 on clearance because the box was opened. I stood in disbelief for a bit because this was the same machine I had almost bought months ago and then decided I couldn't spend $200 on it no matter how good the reviews were. Luckily I also happened to have a 20% off one item coupon in my purse (I have a collection of these since BB&B excepts expired ones) so I walked out of the store with that $200 bread machine for $42 after taxes.

Now I can make horizontal, unfunny shaped, loaves without using my oven! Its been so hot lately that we were buying bread, but since purchasing the new machine we have made 3 loaves. Yeah the first 2 were "test" loaves and not really very good, but now I have a recipe that works and my house doesn't heat up to bake it. On top of that I am totally trying to think of a good reason to use the cake function on it. It also makes jam, too bad we don't have a pick your own berry place somewhere around here!