Early Fall and Cold Winter?

Yesterday was rather interesting. I got some hairflower pictures edited and listed the item up in Fabulous Pants Store. They are a great set of magnolia style flowers that I gave iridescent middles to. They are simply gorgeous.







I spent a lot of time on the web researching different things that needed to be looked into. Once I got frustrated with all of that looking about, I left for the type of research I like better, books! I went up to the library and dug around until they closed. I found a few good books with some new jelly and jam recipes that I cannot wait to try out. Hopefully there will be some that I can find the ingredients to! They are quite exotic and may require some food hunting to accomplish the goals. I hope to sit down over coffee with my canning buddy and find somethings that interest us both.

While I listed up some beautiful hairflowers that are definitely summer, and the weather is also finally acting like summer around the Bay Area, I cannot help but wonder if this is going to be a harsh winter with an early fall. I have noticed that I am turning into quite the stocking up for something type as of late. Aside from the usual familial stocking of jam and canned fruit for the winter and next year, I find myself stocking up on meat and staples as well. Our freezer is overflowing with meat that I have bought that was on sale in large packs. It is just Dan and I for most occasions, so I went though breaking down whole tenderloins of pork, large beef roasts, ground beef packages, and full chickens into meal sized portions for us and vacuum sealing them before freezing them for later. All of this was, of course, on great sales, hey I cannot pass up 76 cents a pound chickens. I justify it as being something that will save us money in the long run, which it will, and then I joke that it is my flu defense food bank. That if this H1N1 is really bad we can barricade ourselves in the apartment and survive nicely for a few weeks. I wonder though if deep down inside there is some sort of animal instinct kicking in making me want to hoard to get through an awful coming winter and early fall season. It is something to ponder I suppose, and as I was pondering these thoughts last night and this morning, I saw that we are supposed to have a more rainy than normal winter this year due in part to El Nino.

On the note of overflowing things, I am going to work on a tutorial today for making chicken stock. Right now I am overflowing with extra chicken cuttings and a carcass from last night's dinner. I have found that since I started making my own stock and using that in recipes I am much more happy with my results in flavor. It is also great to have on hand in case I need to whip up some quick chicken soup for a sick husband or friend. It really is easy, and when you freeze it into the hockey pucks, they are also convenient. I do this same thing with the turkey after thanksgiving, only that takes place the same night, so I don't have to find a place to put the carcass in the fridge full of leftovers. I also have some bread to bake for sandwiches as well as flat breads for tonight's Greek lamb dinner. Well I guess I am off to the kitchen and some sewing machine action later this afternoon!