July 11, 2026

 Before I start telling you about my day, I wanted to solicit advice for a reader who commented asking me for a recommendation on a dehydrator. I have an Excalibur and have been 100% happy with it. I think I bought my first one maybe 30 years ago. Then probably in about 2016, I bought a newer model. Then not long after we moved here, it was still under warranty (5 year warranty as I recall), it stopped working. Vince contacted him, they tried to troubleshoot and then replaced it so you can't ask for better service than that. No hassle at all.

It does everything I need it to do and I have no complaints but I probably don't use it as much as some people do since I also use a freeze dryer.

So, if any of you have more knowledge of dehydrators, would you please share the info in the comments so the lady wanting to know more about which models might be right for her can see your responses. Thanks!

Now to my day. I guess I will never learn my own limits. This morning I went upstairs with recipes for a chocolate cake, caponata (eggplant salad), and honey oat whole wheat bread. Also I knew I had to finish the pickles and can peaches and bake a ham! For lunch, we were going to have caponata, ham and baked sweet potatoes. 

I got ready to make the pickles and could not find my mustard seeds. I looked everywhere they might be. I even went downstairs to see if I had an extra container of them. Nope. I had black mustard seeds but I wanted yellow. I was contemplating running to Walmart . . nope! Not doing that. Then I saw them .. on the wrong shelf where I have my large containers of herbs and spices. If they would have been in a small container on the spice rack, I would have found them but I had to laugh - how could I miss a half gallon jar full of mustard seeds? I got the pickles canned.

When we went to the Amish auction the other day, Vince bought peaches. I told him I was not going to have time to can them. That was ok. He was sure he would eat them all before they went bad. He had them in a cooler with ice packs that he was changing out daily. He decided he might not be able to eat them all . . he would help if I would can them. I thought that was a good idea then I realized that was probably not a good idea. Vince and I could be the only two people in a gymnasium and we would get in each other's way. He was in his office working on ham radio stuff and I knew he was really getting into that so I did it but I was so tired when I got finished.

21 pints of peaches and 5 pints of mustard pickles. This is a new recipe for me - one recommended by a reader so I'm very anxious to try them. I'll wait at least a week before opening a jar and should still have plenty of cucumbers in the garden if I want to make more.

Nothing about lunch went as planned . . the ham was baking at 300 degrees; I waited too long to put the sweet potatoes in the oven and have them be done in time; and I ran out of energy before making the caponata so we ended up having ham sandwiches with sprouts and pickled onions and I fried some potatoes that were very thinly sliced - almost like potato chips. The cake and the bread never got made. Maybe tomorrow.

Friday, July 10, 2026

 First thing this morning, I got back to canning the tomatoes and got the last ones finished - 100 pounds of tomatoes = 40 quarts of crushed tomatoes. All canned and all except the ones I canned today are put away.

Next I cut up some of the bigger cucumbers to make pickles using a recipe a reader mentioned. I'll get those finished tomorrow.

Then I went out and did chores in the garden. We have some kind of weed with wicked thorns on it. They go through all the garden gloves I have so Vince put on his heavy leather gloves and pulled them out for me. He put them in a bucket and will put them in the trash. I do not need those things reproducing in the yard. I picked two more of the Candy Roaster squash. I weighed the biggest one and it weighed 15 pounds! I cut one this morning and used about 1/3 of it for a souffle type dish for part of our lunch (oven roasted country style pork ribs, homemade baked beans and the squash, along with a cucumber/tomato/sprouts salad. 

Tomorrow I'll cut up and can the four candy roasters I've picked so far. I hope there will be at least four or five more.

After lunch, I was really tired so Oscar and I took a nap. Cooper will sleep on my lap during the day but he will not get in the bed and sleep if it's daylight outside.

On the cross stitching front, a blog reader/enabler wrote me to say she is starting Come to the Garden by Teresa Kogut. I've been working some, ok . . just a little, on G. Leger. I originally started that thinking it would be in memory of my grandma because she loved pretty flowers but then I was thinking maybe Come to the Garden was a better choice because it's more primitive/folksy and I think my grandma would have liked that one better. I believe G. Leger is a better choice for my aunt who loved flowers and also loved dainty, pretty things.

Then, I was trying to decide what linen to use for Come to the Garden and I was looking for finished pieces or anyone who mentioned what linen they had used. I came across Jo's finished piece - you know Jo or you should know her from Jo's Country Junction. Here's the post she wrote when she finished hers and it's gorgeous. Jo changed the verse at the bottom to be part of the old gospel song, In the Garden. My grandma played the piano at their little country church and she had a piano in her tiny little family room. She loved that song and not only did she play it often at church but on the weekends when we would be up in north Louisiana visiting them, almost every night, Nanny would play the piano and we would all sing. It was always hymns and this one was sang frequently. So, that confirmed for me . . Come to the Garden will be in memory of my grandma. I had already pulled out half a dozen pieces of linen but Jo had used Vellum by Picture This Plus and I loved hers so I that's what I'm using too! Thanks Jo (and Kayla for charting the words to the song!).

I had been working on Christmas Roads and was trying to get to where I could start stitching the big red house. I was almost there but I'm going to put that one aside for a few days . . . just long enough to get the border frame done on Come to the Garden, then I'll switch back and forth between them for a couple of weeks and decide what I'm going to do.

We were maybe going to have bad weather tonight but so far (almost midnight), nothing bad yet. Let's hope it stays that way!

Thursday, July 9, 2026

 As I was thinking of what I wanted to include in this post and thinking about a title, I'm reminded what a jumbled word salad most of my post are. No main topic. Any post could be about cooking AND gardening AND dogs AND cross stitching. Since the blog name is "Diary of Judy L.", maybe I should just write about everything (within reason), like I did in my middle school diary. 

We'll see how that goes.

We went to Sam's Club this morning. Vince had told me yesterday that he needed a couple of things from there. Of course, one can never leave Sam's Club with a couple of things. When we were there on July 2 or 3, they had a three pack of Boursin cheese on sale so I wanted to get another one of those. I got the last one! Good timing, huh?

Here's something I didn't know. I have a big 64 oz. jug of soy sauce in my garage fridge. I keep re-filling a soy sauce bottle with that. The big jug is almost empty so I wanted to get another one. They didn't have them in the store so I figured . . it's been a while and they don't carry those any more. I bought a 2 pack of 20 oz. bottles. Then I got home and looked online and they do still have the big jugs but only to order. The two jars I bought in the store are .20/oz or $7.98. The big jug is .12/oz or $7.38 for the jug. Instead of $7.98, the at the jug price, the two bottles would have been $4.80 instead of $7.98. I need to shop smarter!

Did I already tell you we went to an Amish fruit and vegetable auction earlier this week (Tuesday)? I don't think I did so . . Vince needed to go to Lamar, a bit north of here, and a bit north of Lamar is an Amish fruit and veggie auction on Tuesdays and Fridays during gardening season. We've been wanting to go and the timing was right so we went. We ended up buying 100 pounds of tomatoes and maybe 15 pounds of peaches. Tuesday night I canned 40 pounds of tomatoes. Wednesday night after I got in from stitching with Debbie, I canned 20 pounds of tomatoes. To today I canned about 20 pounds and I should have about 20 pounds left to can tomorrow.

That's 35 quarts of tomatoes - just crushed tomatoes. I can use them for soups, stews, pasta sauce, pizza sauce. My goal is 60 quarts to get us through a year but we'll see. Water bath canning is slow because I can't can two layers at a time and still have at least 1" of water over the top of the jars. In my big canner, I can pressure can 15 quarts at one time but I can only do 7 quarts at a time with water bath canning.  And, since the food is cold packed, I have to either dump the water after each session or let it cool down almost completely before running another load. That big canner is super heavy and handling it when it's hot and full of hot water isn't a good idea. So . . 14 quarts is about all I can do in one evening.

I'm making good progress on Christmas Roads.

I'm trying to work my way to where I can start on the big, red house . . maybe tomorrow. I'm thinking before bed tonight, I might be able to make a few stitches on the red house!

GH 1857 - Cross Sttiching!

 This is kind of a funny story - at least I think it is! 

Sometimes it seems that there's a cross stitching chart that EVERYONE is working on and talking about on YouTube and Facebook. That's what I'm seeing with GH 1857.

In my opinion, this photo doesn't do it justice. There are many of them popping up on Instagram and on Facebook that are just gorgeous! I kept saying . . I have too many projects; it's too big and talking myself out of it but the more I see it, the more I want to stitch it . . or should I say  . . start it!

Last night while in the shower, for some reason, I remembered that I have the chart and I thought it was kitted and it might be in one of the storage ottomans that I haven't opened in probably a year. 

This morning Vince needed to run to a little town a bit north of here and asked me to go with him so while I was waiting to leave, I decided to check and see if Vikki Clayton has a "packet" of floss for this project. Yes, she does! It's here if anyone else wants it. How's that for enabling?

Before ordering the silk floss, I thought . . you'd better check that kit and (1) be sure you know where it is and (2) be sure you don't already have the silk floss from Vikki Clayton.

I got up, found the kit right where I thought it was. How does that happen when so many of the things I look for I never find? And, I had Vikki Clayton's packet of silks for it. AND I have linen which I'm probably not going to use. It's the called for linen but I think my piece is kinda dark and the house may not show up so I need to see what else I can find. It's big enough that I need either a sampler cut or a half yard and mostly I have fat quarters. I do have a few pieces that are larger so I'll check that out soon.

I looked back to see when I had ordered all of this - March, 2022. Yep, it's time to get that project out and get it stitched!

The Garden

I figured no one cares what I'm doing 99.9% of the time but this is the "Diary of Judy L." so I'll just share what's interesting to me and I can guarantee it likely isn't something that's going to interest anyone else. Sorry!!

Last week I picked up my new glasses and there's something not right about them. After wearing them for an hour or so, I get a headache and it's a weird headache - not a sinus headache or any kind of headache I've had before so right off the bat we went back to get some adjustments made. Whatever they did, I don't think it solved the issue but I'll give it a few days before I go back. I say that but I'm back to wearing my old glasses.

We got home and Vince had to rush off to physical therapy. I headed out to the garden and this is what I got.

 There's a delicata squash in the back - I did not plant delicata so that's more seeds from the compost bin. I would have sworn that zero seeds went into my compost bin but I would be wrong.

That big gold cucumber was hiding and I will use it for the seeds that I will plant next year. There are more yellow zucchini, a couple more eggplant, giant Marconi peppers (my favorite), jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, a few tomatoes and more yellow zucchini. Tomorrow we have appointments and I probably won't have to pick anything out of the garden tomorrow.

I've mentioned before how much I love Mandy in the Making's YouTube videos. I'm pretty sure I also mentioned this particular video because I already made the Garlic Butter Lemon Chicken Thighs and they were delicious. Today, I was going to make the Crockpot Cheesy Marinara Meatballs. She doesn't even really list the recipe - just a very short list of ingredients. The recipe calls for frozen storebought meatballs but I can't bring myself to use storebought ground meat for several reasons. If you do use storebought ground meat . . don't ask me about my reasons! You're welcome!!  :)

I got out in the garden and started working and never took ground beef out of the freezer so I grabbed a jar of ground beef I had canned a while back. Quick and easy! While we were eating, I told Vince that it was canned ground beef, not knowing what he would say. Sometimes he asks questions about my canning and I don't know if (1) he's just trying to be nice or (2) he's concerned about whether I really know what I'm doing and we may die! But, when I told him, he said "WOW! You would never know!" One of the things I said was "We never have to worry about the power going out and losing our meat if it's in jars! Then he wanted to know how long it would last in the jars. I know there are rules/suggestions and most will say 2 years max but we're still working on taco soup that I canned in 2013. I'm not sure why I decided that 50+ quarts of taco soup was a good idea but I did.

The only change I made . . can you guess?? I added yellow zucchini! How else am I going to get rid of all that zucchini? A reader had posted that she adds zucchini to her spaghetti sauce so I did too and from now on, if I have zucchini, I'll probably add it to my sauce.

I really liked this recipe. Debbie suggested EVERYTHING is better with Boursin and that may be it. I'll definitely make this again. 

The last garden related thing I did was to cut back the basil. I put it all in the dehydrators. It will take two loads to get it all done. I am also dehydrating the stems and I will grind those and add them to salt to make basil salt.

Look at the size of those basil leaves! I was going to grab a coin for reference but my wallet was downstairs so I grabbed a butter knife. Hope that gives you an idea of the size of these leaves! I've made pesto for the freezer and will probably make more before the basil bolts. I don't think it's possible for me to save enough basil and pesto to get us through the year but I give it my best shot.

Last - the squash bugs. My squash is doing way better than it has in recent years but look at this . . 

Normally I find the eggs on the back sides of leaves. They can lay them anywhere but this is the first time I've seen so many eggs in random places. Here's some on a squash blossom and on the stem of a leaf. I could be wrong but I choose to believe we're doing good fighting them and they're frustrated and confused and maybe they won't come back next year because we've not had the welcome mat out for them! Right!!

It's 4:30 p.m. and I'm going back to my cross stitching!

Cross Stitching

 There's still a little cross stitching happening but what little I do has to get squeezed in between the garden and canning. And . . The finger! Ugh! It's frustrating. The finger is so much better, and I think it's still improving, but it's still a problem. If I bump it, or tap it against something or try to peel anything - potatoes, eggplant, apple .. it gets red and swollen again. It recovers within a day or so but it's been six weeks so I'm more than ready for it to be "normal".

I still cannot use the index finger to stitch unless it's just for a few stitches so I'm getting pretty good at using the thumb and middle finger.

On the stitching front, I've framed a few pieces that had been sitting around for quite a while. One was from 2021. About time, huh? I'll get pictures when I get a couple more framed. I ordered two more frames last week

Now that the patriotic stitching is not my priority, but I do still have a couple of pieces to get finished, I want to start working on WIPs again and Christmas projects.

The Blooming Stitcher and Rushing Rabbit Studio are hosting a stitch along for Christmas Roads, which started July 1. I had bought the chart when The Blooming Stitcher first mentioned it so I started that.

I didn't have the green floss for the border and the trees but it should be here this week. I went ahead and started with the floss I have. I'm working to get to the house so I can stitch that but without the green for those trees, I'm afraid to trust my counting so I'll keep working on other areas til the green floss arrives, hopefully Tuesday. Markup tells me I'll finish it July 27 but Markup thinks I'm going to keep stitching without stopping and working on something else. Crazy app!  :)

My linen is more gold than the photos are indicating. I started at the top and almost all of the white oval has been stitched. There's a bit more fill in at the bottom to be done.

I thought maybe if I got the words stitched, I could count up from there and start the house but I'm not that brave. I didn't have the called for color of floss for the text either but I had one that's close enough. It's supposed to be a gray and this one is kinda grayish green. I like it! I actually have a green that might work for the outer border and trees so if my package doesn't arrive by Tuesday, I may go ahead and use that one if I'm ready to start stitching those things.

Garden & Canning

It's that time of year when the garden is keeping me busy. I've canned more potatoes, cowboy candy and LOTS of chicken broth, which obviously did not come out of the garden.

There's still a lot more chicken broth to make but the bones/chicken are all in the freezer so I'll work on that as I can. Actually, it's all in Debbie's freezer because I didn't have room in the freezer for them but I'll bring them home, make the broth, then get more til they're all gone.

I'm so happy with the "fix" Vince came up with for protecting the squash. I think I had mentioned that apparently squash seeds accidentally got added to the compost and the pepper bed has pretty much been taken over by squash. At first I thought it was all butternut but there's delicata squash in there too. Who can complain about all that coming up and producing when I didn't even plant it? I'm most excited that I'm going to get at least a few candy roasters this year.

I had to pick this candy roaster and it wasn't quite ready so I hope it will be good. It was about an inch from growing right under the greenhouse. Those vines are taking over the entire back yard. If I had left it to grow under the greenhouse, it would have died over there and hundreds of seeds would have produced and grown through the spaces in the wood floor in the greenhouse and it would have been a mess . . probably for years. The fines were attached to the rocks around the base of the greenhouse so I couldn't move the vine so . . I picked it and will probably cook it tomorrow.

We're getting lots of eggplants, peppers, still a bit of zucchini, and a few tomatoes. The tomatoes aren't doing great and neither is the okra. I may have to give up growing garlic so I can get the okra planted sooner since I harvest the garlic, amend the soil and plant the okra in the same bed. This year it was at least three weeks later than usual when the garlic was ready. We'll see but the okra is really behind. Garlic is fairly inexpensive to buy. Okra is rather expensive to buy so if I have to choose, I think we'll keep growing the okra. I may end up buying tomatoes for canning and if I can get good ones that aren't too expensive, I may not even grow tomatoes next year. 

Vince is NOT a gardener. He'll help me when I need help but he has zero interest in gardening. He's funny though . . we've been together for over 30 years and I've had a garden almost every year and he still seems shocked when I come in with a big basket full of goodies from the garden. Today I came in with a bunch of peppers and four big and beautiful eggplants. His eyes got big and he said "You grew those??"  He seems surprised that things grow in our garden!  :)