Nee canning advice

I'd like to start canning my own pickles and relish and stuff. But I'm allergic to the whole onion family, which includes garlic. Anyone have any suggestions about what I can substitute? Or can I just leave them out?

Power brown out and black out

Yep. Since Sunday, we've had an enduring brown out/black out. Insanity. So, I am behind on my blogging. And all my life. I will catch up with my entries in the next few days. Right now, the house is a wreck, more so than normal. Must put that to right first.

I planned to take pictures - really I did

So, I made a really good meal tonight. So much so that I meant to take pictures for here and they ate it. They ate it all. lol I made brat burgers, coleslaw, grilled corn, and lemon bars. I have to cook up the rest of the meat tomorrow, so I will take pictures then. If I can keep them from the food until after I do. Yes, it was all dairy, onion, garlic, MSG, meat tenderizer, and all that stuff free. I'll post the recipes when I post the pictures. They all had less than 10 ingredients each and took an average of 15 minutes hands on. Seriously. The cost of the whole meal was right around $10. We had company, so that was for six people with some leftovers. I'll tell you how tomorrow.

My vegan pizza

I cannot eat dairy without getting very very ill. Two years ago, I became very ill and they found a cyst on my liver. It was probably caused by my body rejecting the dairy I was eating, knew I shouldn't be eating, but was eating any way. Yeah, it was a special kind of stupid. Now, I don't eat it at all if I can help it. Sometimes hidden dairy happens, but I try to be really careful.

There are times I really want pizza. I don't like most of the cheese substitutes out there, so I just do without. I also don't eat a lot of meat. Lately I've been on this meat kick, but my body is telling me to stop, so I'm going to limit it to fish a few times a week. Maybe. I really wanted pizza for the last few weeks, and finally gave in. I made it with a Pillsbury pizza crust, just because I didn't have time to make it from scratch. I really need to make some and freeze it. I also used some crushed tomatoes, roasted red peppers, olives, and thinly sliced squash and zucchini. Oh, and mushrooms. I love mushrooms. I sprinkled oregano and basil over it, and baked it for a while. Really. No recipe or specifics. I just kinda made it up as I went along.

Here's the result.



It was yummy and didn't last long. I served it with grilled corn. Pizza is so easy to make as a healthy dish! What was for your dinner tonight?

Bah hahahaha!

I just read the one post I did here before life became truly crazy.

"My aim is to update this blog several times a week. I'll be honest. Life is busy and I've already mentioned my disorganization. There may be weeks when I slack a little."

...said the woman 3 months ago. lol Well, I am getting back to my routine. I'll just call the break between posts my summer vacation. Yes, I am getting back to blogging. I'd ask if you missed me, but unless you read my other blog, you barely knew me. I'm going to start posting meals and menus, and to do lists, and all kinds of stuff. I have so many fun things going on in my life right now! I purchased the rest of my mentor's candle business, so I have something like 500 candle molds now. I have so much wax I barely know where to start! We now have a new fully functional stove that I have NOT lit on fire yet (that is kinda how the old one died). We got it the day before the microwave died, so that's a blessing. We were using two burners and the microwave to cook for a while. Now, life without a microwave is getting to be the norm. School starts in a little more than a month. I'm training to do a marathon with Team in Training. I am trying to greatly grow the business. The house is still torn up while the waterproofing and reconstruction downstairs goes on. And on and on goes the list. My disorganization is becoming more and more evident and dangerous.

So, my blogging time is almost over for today. I have a to do list that is incredibly, and may I say unrealistically, long. I'm going to cut this off now and move to the next thing on my list. Talk to you all later!