Northwoods Woman

I’ve basically gotten over my creepy crud *knock wood* with the exception of a few coughing spells here and there.  I figure those are just hanging around because they enjoy my company.

Or not.

Before that ugly crap invaded my body, I was working on getting myself more active.  I was planning 2 – 3 things that I needed to accomplish every day so that I wouldn’t automatically sit down in front of my computer after work and veg.  And it was going really well too.  For 3 solid weeks I felt more productive and slept great.

And then Typhoid Mary came into the house and put all that hard work to a stop.  And now that I do have energy and am back to a semi-normal person (I was never completely normal, just ask my kids), I just don’t have the mojo that I did just a few short weeks ago.  And with hibernation season (aka Winter) right around the corner, I don’t want to fall back into the sit-on-my-ass-all-day-at-work-and-repeat-process-when-I-get-home routine.

So on Saturday when Rick and the guys were working on the shed, I decided to get off my duff and bake cookies.  Nothing special, just some Chocolate Chip sweetness to fill the cookie jar.  And it felt… good.  So good in fact that it gave me some inspiration to look for new recipes for something that I’ve never tried baking:  turnovers.  (I know, cookies and turnovers aren’t the same thing, but baking is baking.)

And I came upon these:

Now, I’m not a “It’s a good thing” fan, but this recipe is just to simple to pass up!  Bonus points go to the fact that you can make them ahead of time, throw them in the freezer, and bake only what you need without having to thaw them out.  Definitely my kind of baking.

Many years ago when Rick & I bought our first house, I was able to have a real garden of my own.  It had perfect soil and I could grow whatever my little heart desired.

One thing that I had always wanted to grow was my own herbs.  I hated the fact that the stuff I bought in stores tasted slightly more than nothing, and the color always seemed to be “off.”  I wanted to be able to flavor my dishes with something more than salt, pepper and Lawry’s.

The only problem was, I needed a way to dry them.  I knew I could put them in the oven or hang them, but neither idea appealed to me.  So for Christmas one year my Mom bought me a Ronco Food Dehydrator.  The.  Best.  Present.  Ever.

Not only could I dry my oregano, chives and countless other herbs, but I could also make fresh apple and banana chips for the kids!  Heck, if I was really ambitious I could make jerky (although I’ve never been that ambitious… ever).

That silly electrical piece of plastic was another notch in my belt in food preservation.  And I worked the heck out of it!  Until we moved to the Northwoods where it remained in storage for years due to the worst soil conditions on the planet.

This year I decided to dust it off and put it to use for something I’ve never made in my life.

On a brighter note, it appears that our sunflowers are doing just fine.