Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Monday Morning Meeting on Tuesday

Good morning everyone. I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. You know what that means though, summer is over! And you can't wear white unless you follow a set of ancient rules. Does anyone remember what they are?

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Usually the first order of business is food. But this morning I got nothing for you. Why? Because all my spare time is spent with my new obsession. No, not fabric..... a stupid online game called Marble Frenzy. Have you tried it yet? I'm hesitant to provide a link lest your family go unclothed and unfed.

MARBLE FRENZY

There, now I've gone and done it.

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Those of you who have followed my adventures for a while will remember my commitment to reviewing "fair food", that is, food that is sold at the county/state fair. There's lots of food-on-a-stick and deep fried silliness.

Here are the deep fried oreos.

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They were actually very good. The chocolate cookie part got soft like cake and the filling melted, imbibing the treat with sweetness. Thumbs up for the deep fried oreos.

I can't say the same for the deep fried Snickers bars. A bit too sweet and gooey for my tastes.

But, here's a story about the ultimate in deep fry madness.

DEEP FRIED BUTTER

I know. Foodies who have tried this concoction say thats it's very, very good. Something like a well buttered dinner roll. The article lists other state fair offerings. The deep fried Texas pecan pie just sounds like too much of a good thing but I'd like to try the deep fried peaches and cream with a side of vanilla buttercream icing for dipping. YIKES!

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I friend of mine gave me a great idea for an item to be produced and sold in my Etsy shop - old-fashioned clothes pin bags. Hanging clothes out to dry seems to have gone by the way of the dinosaurs around here, but I bet there's plenty of people out there who dry their clothes on a line.

My mom had a cute apron that had large pockets to hold the wooden pins and her friend had a clothes pin bag that hung on the line. After drying the clothes on the line my mom would bring them inside and sort those that didn't need ironing and those that did. The fabrics in those days were not permanent press and so the ironing pile was very high.

She would sprinkle the clothes with water from a large glass bottle that had a cork and sprinker head. Since she couldn't posssibly iron all those clothes in one session, she'd roll them up and tuck them in plastic and store them in the fridge until she could get to them. Does anyone else remember this?

It was a funny coincidence that my friend mentioned the clothespin bag because just the day before I had been driving through a very upscale neighborhood in a nearby town. We're talking very upscale and snooty. I almost slammed on the brakes when coming around the corner of a beautiful tree-lined street filled with expensive homes I saw clothes hanging on a line!

The woman of the house (or perhaps her maid) had strung a line across the patio, from the house to the garage, and on the line was the family's laundry, gaily flapping in the breeze like Buddhist prayer flags.

Knowing the area I'm sure this did not sit well with the neighbors. There are all kinds of covenants and rules, said to protect the value of their properties.

Personally I love the look.

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How about you? Do you dry your clothes on a line? How do you store your clothespins?

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We've all heard of money laundering but this is a new one on me...... honey laundering.

Really.

There's a scam that launders honey! Read about it in the Beekeper's Buzz.

HONEY LAUNDERING SCAM

There were also articles about this problem in the London Sunday Times and Mother Nature Network.

It seems the Chinese are finding ways to "launder" the honey to prevent paying tariffs but even more troubling is the fact that it's an attempt to slip tainted honey into foreign markets. Honey traced to China (through investigative efforts) has been found to contain antibiotics and pesticides.

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That's just another reason to buy local. I buy my honey at Heritage Prairie Market where you can not only meet and speak to the bee keeper, you can watch the hive at work.

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They've installed a window on the hive and you can watch them work from inside the store.

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It's very interesting.

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And now I'll announce the winner of the handmade luggage tag.

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And, the winner is....

BAILIE

Just send me an e-mail with your address and I'll get the luggage tag in the mail.

Thanks everyone for participating.

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I've said this many times before, but it bears repeating. I'm very thankful that you take the time to visit with me here "At Home". You all lead busy lives and I appreciate the fact that you take time out of your busy days to stop by and read. Thanks.



22 comments:

Lisa said...

Clothes drying on the line takes me back to my childhood. I have a list of things that I want in a home when we move out of our apartment...a clothesline is a must!

Have you seen the retractable clotheslines? These can be used indoors or on a patio. I do have one of those, it's better than none at all.

P.S. Clothespin bags are a great idea!

Jenni said...

I'd love to hang my laundry out to dry at least part of the time, but we live on a dirt/gravel road that gets a lot semi traffic from the feed lot a mile south of us. It's just too dusty to hang our laundry out to dry.
Yikes on that honey laundering! I'm even more determined to find a local source for honey now. Besides, local honey is supposed to help with allergies, and I could use all the help I can get on that front.

Vee said...

I'd love to hang my laundry, but I have a neighbor...bless his heart...who got booted from the transfer station so now burns all of his garbage. Can anything be done? Nothing that I know of. I've complained so many times that they simply ignore me. I do think it's a great trend now that so many of us are pinching our pennies. And, yes, I do remember the dampening bottle...I think my mother's was an old soda bottle with a holes poked in the cap...homemade in other words.

Fair food...yummy!

I am going to follow your link, though I may not like you much by day's end. ;D

Vee said...

Talk about hanging participles, etc. I do not think that it is a great trend to burn one's garbage in the backyard. But then, I'm praying that you know what I do mean since I'm unable to communicate clearly this morning.

Oh, and I'm so glad that we have our own honey man.

chocolatechic said...

All my laundry is hung on the line.

I haven't even owned a dryer for about 14 years. In those 14 years I have estimated that hanging my laundry out it has saved us $3,360.

I need a new clothes line bag. Mine is getting a bit ratty, so I'll be first in line to purchase one. You know what color I like.

Lily said...

Drying clothes on a clothline outside. Running beneath the clothes playing hide and seek - lovely memories of childhood.

Well, now living in a city in a flat we dry our clothes indoor. We have some clotheslines in the attic.

Sometimes it is really crowded and you get to know the other inhabitants of the flats. Someone must play soccer coz sometimes there are the clothes of a full soccer team drying on our attic.

BittersweetPunkin said...

Hi Suzanne...love the handmade clothespin bag idea...also a good idea would be some sort of bag for wayward socks who are waiting for their mates to surface :)

Hope all is well with you and yours...glad I could be at this mornings meeting...it's been awhile.

Hugs,
robin

Steph said...

Ever since we've moved into our new house, I've been trying to get Lance to put me up a clothesline. You can't really find supplies to make one in the stores anymore, except for the line itself, so we'll have to find something to make our posts with. I was hanging some of our clothes on our porch rails until the peacocks started visiting more often.

Lisa D. said...

Mmmm, deep fried food. If deep fried butter gets more butter in my mouth I'm all for it. I love bread and butter, but the bread is only there to hold the butter.
I wish I had a clothesline. I used to have one, but haven't found a spot for one in this yard. I really miss it. It was the best thing for drying cloth diaper, and the sun took out all the stains and made them nice and white again. I know that both my parents grew up without a fridge, so no saving the ironing for the next day like that. Both my grandmothers did laundry on one day, then ironing the next, with the iron heated on the wood stove. Thank goodness for some modern conveniences!
I was just talking to an aunt yesterday about needing to get more honey. I believe that our area - the Peace Country - is the honey producing capital of Canada. There are many honey producers and I am sure that you can get honey directly from any of them. We always get a nice 3 kg pail (that's about 5 or 6 lbs I think). Some of them will also sell a chunk of the honey comb and some make other products with their honey/beeswax as well, like candles, lip balm, etc.

Bailie said...

I do remember the clothes pin bag, what a great memory! I think it would be a great item to add to your store! I was suprised to win the luggage tag! Thank You!not just for the luggage tag but for all the fun blogging and ideas to keep us included! Thanks again!

Becky said...

Line drying was the norm for many of my early years...and even when my folks got a dryer it was only used in the winter or on rainy days. We always had a bag of clothes in the fridge. I learned to iron out of these bags....I started at age 4 with Mom and Dad's hankerchiefs, then graduated to pillow cases, then on to clothes. Good grief, that sounds too much like work now!!

Maureen said...

I use my clothesline from Spring through Fall. For anyone who hasn't slept on clothesline fresh bedding, I highly recommend it.

Beekeepers are becoming more popular in my area so the thought of buying honey from China is beyond consideration. Good to know though and important to get the word out.

Rose said...

I have two loads of clothes on the line as I write...I love hanging out clothes. A friend of a friend once said she hoped we hung out clothes in heaven...I would have to agree.

I leave my clothespins on the line...I always make sure they are around the wire...I guess I will need to take a pic some day. Anyway...they are not snapped on the line but hang upside down...that way I can slide them along as I need them.

If I am hanging out shirts, I don't need but a few and can slide the others out of my way...however, if I have socks, I can slide a whole bunch close...since I need one every 3 or 4 inches. I hope you understand what I mean.

Mary Rex said...

We have a retractable line that goes across our suburban backyard and attaches to our shed about 40 feet away. I live with my 86 year old mother who is quite a character. Yesterday, she hung out all of her freshly washed white underpants across the line while the neighbors had a Labor Day party in their yard. It did look something like Buddhist prayer flags:) This is why they have covenants and rules in some places. My mom was not embarrassed, but I was...even though I found it funny.
I think the idea of a clothespin bag is great.

Kat said...

What a timely article about the honey! I just harvested my first batch yesterday.
As for clothes drying--I'm all about drying them on the line. Winter's coming, though, so I'm not sure how many more weeks I'll be able to go before resorting once again to the dryer.

Judy said...

I love laundry hanging on the line! Pictures of Newfoundland always come to mind...where every place had laundry blowing in the breeze...it seemed.

I live out in the country...where line-drying is still OK. I just need to do the 'sniff-test' before hanging out the wet clothes...since manure spreading day does not make for fresh-smelling linens.

Leslie T said...

I do remember my mother sprinkling shirts and putting them in the refrigerator.
I iron all of my husband's shirts and all of mine also, and I have a spritz bottle that I use. No clothes in the fridge here.
I also air dry all of my clothes so that they won't shrink or fade. I don't hang them out in the yard though, I have a collapsible rack that folds down from the wall of my laundry room, and I hang my clothes on that. I also air dry all of my husband's shirts. I'm the only one in my family to do this, and my mother loves to chuckle and tell me that I am "of a different time". My sister refuses to purchase anything that requires ironing. Most of my family thinks that I'm nuts because I enjoy ironing. I would often agree about the "nuts" part, but not because of anything having to do with ironing. Hee hee.
I've always enjoyed the simpler ways of life. Perhaps it was all those afternoons of watching my mom do the ironing while the TV was tuned into Queen For A Day, or the mornings when she and I would watch I Married Joan, while mom did her housework. Those times seemed so great to me.
Whatever, I seem to live in a time warp, and life is good. :)

horse loving lineman's wife said...

I DO hang out my clothes. And I LOVE too! I usually just leave my clothes pins on the line...

Anonymous said...

In my part of Australia I would think that 95% of us line dry most of the time. We have bought baskets at the hardware store that can hang on the line or on the laundry trolley. Recently I found a very old laundry trolley and it has a compartment for the pegs so I fill that and then worry about what to do with the excess. We wash a lot! We have a Hills rotary clothes hoist. It is a blessing indeed and is filled most days.

I am rarely embarassed about the laundry on the line. I did have a Muslim neighbour who hated that we hung clothing. Interestingly his wife had to dry inside and when the weather was wet he would ask to use our dryer! We made some changes so we did not offend his beliefs.

Thirkellgirl said...

I have a clothespin bag in my laundry room! I often use clothespins to keep slippery fabrics on hangers, not so often for hanging wet clothes. My old clothespin bag is in my hall linen closet holding rags for dusting. And my old diaper-hanger-bag, made by my mom 21 years ago, holds bigger rags. Raised in New England by children of the Depression, I cannot throw out old tshirts, flannel sheets or towels, but tear them (not cut) into rags for car washing, silver polishing, etc. I would love to have a clothespin bag made by you!!!! Let us know when they're up on the site!

Ruta M. said...

My clothes line is in our little orchard/hen run. It just depends on the weather if I get to use it much as some summers it rains nearly every day here in wet Devon (UK). I don't have a drier on principle so if it is not a good drying day I rely on hanging my washing on poles above our kitchen range which is hot 24/7. I saw clothes peg bags on sale in a local cheap store a few days ago but I'm lazy and leave mine on the line.

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