Pheasants and Tomaters

Hi Y'all.

So I wrote a post on Saturday on my computer. Then I realized I didn't put it up and now it's all sorts of untimely.

See a few bigs things have happened in my life since last Saturday. Let me tell you in list form.

1) Pheasant Hunting. Yessir, the season opened up, and I, Aimee B., great hunter extraordinaire, shot a big fat whopping ZERO birds. That's right, great day to shoot holes in the sky for me. However, the group I was with did an awesome job, and they let me keep a bunch of the amazing feathers for awesome projects I will be doing for my apartment and Grandma's house. And don't worry, I'm going out again this weekend. I'll get some cock sometime.

Ok, side note about cock hunting, I wasn't prepared for the cleaning part.

It wasn't really that bad though. Maybe next time I'll actually touch one.

Also, fried pheasant tastes super good. Sandra Hagny has an awesome breading recipe.

I'm sure if you asked for it, she'd give it to you...for fifty bucks. You can give it to me and I'll make sure to pass it on :) 

2) 50 pounds of tomatoes. Yes, 50 pounds. That's how many tomatoes I got from my good friend from work, Virginia. I'm sure most of you know the sad story about my garden. Ok, so I had no tomatoes, but I've wanted to try my hand at canning stuff for awhile. So when Virg said she had an extra crate, I jumped at the opportunity to get going! Turns out, 50 pounds of tomatoes is a lot. Wayyyy a lot. Last night, I did 11 jars of tomato/spaghetti sauce. And it was easy.

This is how I did it: I grabbed a bunch of the tomaters, washed them, quarterd them and threw them in a blender (skins, seeds, everything). After I blended the crap out of them, I put them in a pot and boiled them for about 45 minutes (maybe an hour, I wasn't keeping track). You have to boil out the water. I added a bunch of minced garlic and basil and oregano. And instead of doing the water bath canning, I heated my jars in the oven. Sandy told me she had done it before and it worked like a charm. If Sandy does it, so am I. So in the oven for 10 minutes at 250 degrees, take 'em out, fill the jars, put the lids on them and listen to them pop on the counter :).

Tonight, I did salsa; a wee bit more complicated than my awesome sketti sauce, but the result tastes amazing! I did the whole boil water, put the tomatoes in for three minutes take them out and put them in ice water then pull the skin off. Well let me give you a little trick I taught myself tonight: make two "X's" on each side of the tomato. Then the skin will magically start pulling off. Ok another short cut, my roommate Megan got one of those awesome pounder chopper things where you slam the top down, take out your frustration of the day, and wham! chopped tomatoes! So I used that and also chopped up a jalapeno, red onion and a wee bit of habanero. Dumped it in a pot, and added this amazing concoction from a woman named Mrs. Wages. I imagine Mrs. Wages is pretty old now, but based on the seasoning she made, she was a pretty good cook. And because of that I'm sure she had her fair share of tail in the day. Hats off to you, Mrs. Wages. So anyway, I added her seasoning, boiled my tomato mixture for half an hour, cooked my jars in the oven, put the salsa in the jars, and WHAM, BAM, THANK YOU MA'AM, I've got a tasty town salsa.
So two nights of canning down and I think I still have thirty pounds of tomatoes. Yeesh.

3) I had a dog for two days. Her name is Tana, and she's a four-year old german short hair. Just gorgeous. The minute I met her, she climbed up in my lap and fell asleep. The past two nights she slept in my bed with me. When I woke up yesterday morning, she had my paw on my leg (melt my heart a little bit why don't ya!?) When I came home from work today, she was gone. She left me. I thought we had bonded and she would stay with me forever, but no, she left. Ok, really she couldn't do anything about it. Her owner, my roommate's friend from Montana, was in town to hunt for a few days and he left this morning. But I seriously bonded with that dog. And now, I want one even more. My birthday is in just a few short weeks. A certain someone could find a puppy and have it pottied trained in that time. Jus' saying.

One more thing before I go. I'm thinking about taking this blogging stuff to the next level. Like write more often, about more interesting stuff. More food stuffs, more crafty stuffs, more stories of my lack of intelligence stuffs. I hope none of you mind.


Shoutouts:
Scoby: Monday night bowling is now a must. Please enjoy your weekend "off."
Sandy: I cannot wait for our lunch date tomorrow. I hope we can find you some sweet boots!
Mary Wolfgram: Thinking about you woman, hope that ol' baby pouch of yours is doing ok! We need baby Ranchers!
Mom: Don't worry, I will not forget to give Sandy the homemade jelly your made her.
Awesome student assistant football coach that also works at Wal-Mart: Thank you so much for stealing those grapes, washing them, and searching the whole store to find me and give them to me. How did you know I was dying a slow death of starvation? You're my new favorite coach.