NaBloPoMo | aLightningbug

Sweet and Tart and Vegetal; I’m Your Garden Huckleberry

16 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Food, Foodie, NaBloPoMo, The Daily Prompt Tags: Daily Prompt, Garden Huckleberry, Huckleberries, NaBloPoMo, Wordpress Daily Post

For Novemeber 15, the Wordpress Daily Posts’s Daily Prompt is Tart.

This post also uses the Daily Post’s prompt from November 10, so I’m adding that. That Daily Prompt was Vegetal.

Both of these prompts work well to describe the second food experiment we did over the weekend. The first was the squash.

The next food experiment involved berries called Garden Huckleberries.

: Raw, ripe Garden Huckleberries.

If you’re familiar with regular huckleberries, then you might think, “oh, yum.” I’ve had true huckleberries in Montana, and they are similar to wild blueberries. Sweet and very yummy.

The Garden Huckleberry is different. It’s a nightshade plant similar to tomatoes.

I think I may have had some of these self-plant in flower pots a few years ago. Once I identified them as from the nightshade family and realized they weren’t tomatoes or peppers, I wasn’t really sure if they were edible, and I pulled them. They were probably safe if birds left the seeds behind (which is probably how the seeds got there), but I didn’t want to take any chances.

These Garden Huckleberries were grown by a farmer, and I purchased them at a farmers’ market. So I felt pretty confident that we could eat them.

But they did come with special instructions, and I looked them up on the Internet at home.

Garden Huckleberries must be cooked before they are eaten. They also need to be fully ripe (the green, unripe berries are toxic). Raw they taste a little like a green tomato, except I’d prefer green tomato to the taste of a raw Garden Huckleberry. They weren’t just tart or sour, but also bitter with a strong, unpleasant vegetal flavor.

After removing the tenacious little stems from the Garden Huckleberries, we boiled them in enough water to cover and added a pinch of baking soda (per many instructions).

Blueberries and red cabbage both contain pigments called anthocyanins that change color depending on the pH. It’s redder in acid and turns bluish-green or green in alkaline (basic) solutions. It can be fun for at-home science experiments and can even be used to dye Easter eggs.

Garden Huckleberries have an abundance of anthocyanins.

So we got a little surprise as the water with baking soda boiled away. Green foam began to form on top of the water. And as the berries continued to burst, dipping a spoon into the water showed us a vibrant blue-green water.

As Halloween is not long gone, it felt like we were cooking up a strange and exotic witches brew that might be used for unsavory purposes. You might think I wouldn’t let that stuff anywhere near my mouth.

But we kept on.

Recipes for Garden Huckleberry all suggest adding lemon and sugar, so that’s what we did after straining out the creepy green water from boiling the berries. (And after doing a mini-science experiment before throwing all the fascinating water away.) Red cabbage can be these same colors.

I tasted the cooked berries before adding the lemon and sugar and was not impressed. They were still somewhat tart, bitter, and vegetal tasting but much less so than when uncooked. Now they had a hint of berry taste & aroma to them. So we were getting closer.

: Garden Huckleberries parboiled with a little baking soda.

Then we added the sugar and lemon juice and let them simmer away again. Adding the lemon juice turned all the greenish shades back to a reddish purple. The berries became a beautiful, deep, dark purple.

Now when I tasted them, some of them were delicious and others were still a little off. I’m pretty sure the best tasting ones were the most ripe berries that had also burst very early in cooking. While the ones that weren’t as good were either less ripe or didn’t burst (or both). Regardless, I decided to add more lemon juice and sugar and simmer longer.

The end result was fairly close to a fruit preserve or pie filling. It tasted a little like blueberries, but also had its own sweet & slightly tart berry flavor.

The longer we cooked with lemon and sugar the better they got. It wasn’t just covering up the weird taste. The end result didn’t taste like lemon really. But I think the combination of lemon juice and sugar transforms some component in these berries, so that the flavor actually changes.

So Garden Huckleberries were good. We put the goop in jars. I may add some to a pie or fruit tart. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll get them again. I like berries that I can eat raw. But these were fun to try and the colors (all of them) were pretty amazing.

This post is also for NaBloPoMo.

The Sleeping Fishes

14 Nov 2016 3 Comments

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, The Daily Prompt, WordPress Tags: daily promot, guppies, NaBloPoMo, pet fish, sleeping fish, The Daily Post

The WordPress, Daily Post’s Daily Prompt is Fish.

This works out almost perfectly since I was just thinking about our pet fish.

We have quite a few guppies. All of them are descendants of fish we got many years ago at my daughter’s after-school-care program.

They had both male and female guppies. Only they called them Glowfish. Again with mislabeled items. I think they purchased them someplace that had the wrong fish in the tank or vice versa. But actual Glowfish reproduce by laying eggs. These fish produce live young. Glowfish also glow. These do not glow, not even under special lighting, but they can be colorful.

Along with producing live young and the lack of glow, many parents commented, “oh, they look just like guppies.”

And, indeed, they are guppies.

With all the live young, the after-school program had a fairly steady supply of fish for the kids to see and also for feeding to a small pet crab (of some sort) that lived in their aquarium too.

They also had extra fish that the kids could take home with them from time to time. So we did. And we got both male and female fishes because somehow I thought that would be such a cool thing.

It was. For a while.

Many, many fish later, I’ve tried to separate the females from the males and put a halt to the fish population (that also bread at least once with a pet-store guppy that gave all the subsequent offspring more color variations).

So we still have lots and lots of fish. And, what a lot of people may not know is that fish sleep.

I walked in on them again earlier this evening and got a little weirded out.

At night when it’s dark, they stop moving and just hover in the water. It can be a little disconcerting to flip on a light and see a whole tank full of fish not move. They seem so lifeless. It can easily feel like we’ve had a mass die-off. But they gradually wake up if I leave the light on for long enough.

During the day when I walk in the fish are ready for food, so they swim all around and back and forth, much like our cats do when it’s dinner time. It’s like a feeding frenzy.

Life is a lot like that. We have times we’re so lively and thrashing about and other times when we just need to be still. And sleep.

Squashed

13 Nov 2016 1 Comment

by alightningbug in Food, Foodie, NaBloPoMo Tags: cooking squash in microwaves, kabocha squash, NaBloPoMo, red kuri, winter squash

Oops! I was trying a new squash, and there was a little incident.

This was labeled a Kabocha squash, but I’m pretty sure it’s a Red Kuri or orange Hubbard that had been mislabeled.

Kabocha have a fairly soft skin. Hubbards (and Red Kuri which is related to a Hubbard) do not.

The soft skin of the Kabocha allows the skin to be eaten once cooked and also allows the squash to split open easily so that pressure doesn’t build inside if, say, you put it in the microwave.

I tried my first Kabocha squash this fall. The local H mart had a great sale, and I was looking to try a new winter squash.

Kabocha are wonderful. They’re sweet, flavorful, and dense. If you’ve never tried one and you like winter squash, this is hard to beat.

A few years ago, I started partially cooking winter squash in the microwave before slicing it open and scraping out the seeds. I poke a few holes — a lot easier than trying to cut an entire stubborn squash in half — then pop it in the microwave for 3-6:00 minutes. This softens the squash enough to cut a lot easier.

Then seed and cook the rest of the way in the microwave or roast in the oven.

So I was trying to soften this new squash which had been labeled Kabocha. I thought maybe it was an orange Kabocha. (I’ve only cooked green Kabocha so far). I’m not an expert. What do I know?

I could tell the shape was a little different.

Another name for Kabocha squash is Japanese Pumpkin. They are shaped like a squat pumpkin and have dark green or deep orange skin. This new squash, however, was somewhat teardrop shaped — a shape much more common to hubbard or (I would learn) red kuri squash.

I only managed to poke just one smallish hole in this squash because it was one tough cookie, er, squash. I thought it would be fine. All the other Kabochas have been fine.

Then I put it in the microwave for about 6:00 minutes because I figured it was pretty big (and three minutes didn’t seem to have done much to soften it).

It was that second half of the time that did me in.

“Boom,” I heard from the the kitchen.

Then I heard the sound of the glass base rocking in the microwave. I hoped it hadn’t broken.

It turned out that the skin on this squash was hard, tough, and thick (even once cooked). It held the steam rather impressively even with the little hole bubbling a little.

The squash had exploded. The plate and microwave glass were fine, but squash guts were splattered all over in various sizes. I had a quite a mess to clean up … after I got done laughing.

Oops.

My family laughed too. Then my daughter helped me clean the squashed squash from the inside of the microwave.

(I once exploded an egg in the microwave on purpose. It was for science. Luckily the squash was much easier to clean up.)

This squash tastes quite yummy, but does not appear to be a Kabocha squash. So my guess is it’s a red kuri or orange hubbard.

Part of this bright orange exploding mystery squash (the parts that weren’t plastered to the inside of the mircrowave) went into a roasted veggie mixture. The rest went into a lovely squash soup (just bouillon and pureed squash). Yum.

I purchased two of these and the next one is even larger. So I better poke much larger holes — several of them — or watch out.

The Week

12 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Foodie, Games, Kitties, NaBloPoMo Tags: blog, blogging, cats, Mom stuff, NaBloPoMo, school

It was a busy week. With the election on Tuesday, I got up early to vote. Then, like a lot of people, I didn’t get much sleep that night. I dozed, looked at incoming election results, then woke up. Then dozed a little more. It was very surreal.

Wednesday, I had a meeting at my daughter’s school. So there I was talking with her teachers, and so very tired. Though, I think we were all a little tired. The teachers had very nice things to say about my kiddo, and I’m very proud of her.

Thursday, before work I took the cat to the vet to get his blood drawn. Then dropped him off at home before I went to the office.

My daughter had Robotics club after school, so I had to pick her up.

The school was having an International Night that evening. Since it started several minutes before I arrived at the school, my daughter was already in line to sample the many tasty foods, and I went inside to see what it was like.

I’m so glad we went in. International night was really cool. Our area has students from so many places. We got to taste foods from around the world.

One of the desserts was called, Casery (maybe also spelled Kesari). It was from India and flavored with cardamom. It was different but yummy!

Then we saw a video the students made and watched part of a talent show the students performed.

Then I had pinball league. I stayed awake enough to play a few good games. Yay!

I came home and tried to blog. I. Was. So. Tired.

I kept typing and falling asleep mid-sentence. And I kept typing the wrong thing. Finally, I managed a couple of tiny sentences and was done. I had to count that as my NaBlogPoMo.

Friday’s blog post didn’t go much better. I was so tired. But I was a little peppier since we got good news about our little old kitty cat. He’s a lot better. That made me happy.

Today is catch-up day … for many things. Laundry. Groceries. Blogging and writing. Resting. But still driving my daughter to and from places. At least I’m getting a few of these done.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

And an other (NaBloPoMo Skimpy Day 11 and Cats)

11 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Kitties, NaBloPoMo Tags: Feline Triaditis, Kitties, NaBloPoMo, Old Cats

Hopefully, I can do some extra writing over the weekend. But Thursday and Friday were days of skimpy writing.

I got good news about one of our kitties. He had stopped eating several weeks ago and was otherwise not well. Blood work from the vet told us his liver enzymes were way off and his pancreas was off too. Feline Triaditis is what the symptoms seemed to be telling us. One liver enzyme in particular is considered high if it’s over 150. His was over 2,000.

He had to take 4 medicines for a while. And when I say he had to take 4 medicines, I don’t mean that he took them voluntarily. He’s a cat. So I mean that we had to give the medicine to him and this was not always easy. One of them involved plopping (or more often shoving) a pill down his throat as he tried to kick me away. Not fun for any of us.

But his bloodwork came back almost all normal today. We can drop the med that’s hard to get him to swallow, so this is a huge plus on many levels. Of the other meds, one he already finished and the other we get to taper off. The last one he will stay on for his Thyroid.

I hope he stays healthy for a good long while.

Yay!

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Thursday

10 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in NaBloPoMo Tags: NaBloPoMo

This is one of those days where I’m just not going to write much.

But it kind of counted for NABLOPOMO.

Another Awesome Day and Cats

06 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Kitties, Mom Stuff, NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo Tags: fall festival, NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo, old kitties, writing

I have over 500 words for NaNoWriMo so far today (only about another 1,500 and it will meet a daily goal except that I’m behind on my total goals). It’s early, so I have another chunk of writing time planned for later.

Plus this post counts for NaBloPoMo Day 6 which probably seems silly except that this way it’s done. That’s better than not done. (And actually I wrote more than I thought I would. So I may post again later today or not …)

I’m trying to squeeze a lot into this beautiful day. I’m planning to get several things done at home then maybe visit a farmer’s market. Then maybe take my daughter to Cox Farms to enjoy some Pumpkin Madness (a day of pumpkin smashing and fall activities). There’s a market there too though so maybe I’ll just skip the farmer’s market beforehand.

Our cats are completely battling it out in the kitchen as I type this. I can hear them squealing and thumping on the floor and on each other. Glad they still have some spunk. They finished the old-man gruel that we like to call “cat food,” and now they’re just full of it (piss & vinegar along with the food).

We have old kitties, so we mix their food with lots of extra water and some added clear fiber (like Benefiber only generic).

Dave recently purchased a mini-blender for the sole purpose of mixing up the cat food. The cats gobble this stuff down, and then they don’t know what to do with their extra time.

They feel like they should be eating for longer, so they pester us and each other in the time they would have used for eating. It used to take them about a half hour to an hour to finish their food because we’d have to add more water and give a little stir. They’d leave and come back a couple of times.The blender has changed that.

Plus, our cat Mojo doesn’t like to drink water the same way most cats do. He likes to stick his paw in the water, splash it a while, then lick the water off. Sometimes he’ll even leave his paw in the water as he sucks on it, almost like a straw. It makes a mess. When he’s done, there’s water on the floor and a path of wet paw prints.

Our other cat, Fletcher, usually looks at us as if to say, “Do you see what I have to put up with?” He doesn’t like drinking the water after Mojo’s had his paws in it. Today, Mojo was especially splashy with the water. So we took the water away for a few minutes. That’s when the cat fight started.

They’ve calmed down now and will probably take their old-man naps in a few minutes.

Maybe they can sun on the balcony for a bit while it’s still warm out. Kind of what I’d like to do.

Beautiful Day, NaBloPoMo Day 5, and NaNoWriMo

05 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in NaBloPoMo, NoNoWriMo Tags: autumn, fall leaves, NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo, urban farm

Well, the weather may not be the most attention-grabbing topic for a blog post, but few days are this lovely.

The leaves were at the peak of their autumn beauty. There were just enough crunchy ones on the ground to do cartwheels in the light breeze. The majority clung to their branches and when the sun hit them you’d swear they were lit and glowing from the inside. Reds, oranges, browns, and yellow, along with occasional greens lurking among the warm hues for added contrast.

It was warm at the peak of afternoon, but before and after that it was just crisp enough to feel like fall.

While my daughter was in dance class I ran errands and enjoyed the day. Between stops for essentials, I stopped by something called an urban farm that I’ve driven past many times but never stopped to visit. Today I did.

: The house of pumpkins at DePaul’s Urban Farm.

It had beautiful fairytale pumpkins, squash, and an assortment of mums that looked like displaced sea creatures. The shop had apples and cider, specialty candles, and jars of yummy jam and apple and pumpkin butters.

There was also a large wood fire cracking in a large metal fire kettle that hung from a tripod. I could smell the burning wood before I stepped out of my car. Is it possible to overdose on autumn? Two adirondack chairs sat at the fire beckoning me to relax.

: Mums the word (of beauty) at DePaul’s Urban Farm. The fire is peaking out from behind the white chair.

I could have spent the entire rest of the afternoon there and been quite happy. I’d read, write, and enjoy the fire and the day. My daughter would have been a little upset if I’d failed to pick her up after dance though. And I’d have missed her company. So I filed the name of the DePaul’s Urban Farm in my brain for a future outing and took a few pictures on my way out.

Meanwhile, I think I officially registered for NaNoWriMo. I could be wrong.

It is highly doubtful that I’ll make the word count, but if I set aside a little time most days through the end of the month then I should get something done. That’s better than nothing.

This compleats my NaBloPoMo post for day 5.

NaBloPoMo Day 4, Wax update and Patti LaBelle Pie

05 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Food, Foodie, NaBloPoMo Tags: glade seasonal, NaBloPoMo, patti labelle sweet potato pie

Well, I’m may not be posting my Day 4 post before midnight on the East Coast, but I posted an update about Glade wax melts to another post well before midnight on Day 4. I think that will just have to count. See my updates to the Glade Winter Scents by clicking here. Maybe I should have made the wax melts update a separate post. And technically, I’m posting this post before midnight Chicago time so … maybe this counts for Day 4 too. (Gah, long week. Want sleep. Started to doze and bolted awake at 12:00 because I knew I needed to post.)

My topic for the rest of the Day 4 post is just a simple post on pie. In this case it’s the Patti LaBelle Sweet Potato Pie. Maybe you’ve heard if it.

I work very close to a Walmart. Last year I saw the Patti Labelle Sweet Potato Pie in the store but didn’t buy any. Then I read about the internet sensation of YouTube personality James Wright Chanel reviewing, eating, singing, and praising the Patti LaBelle Sweet Potato Pie. See that on YouTube by clicking here. By the time I thought, “Hey, maybe I should try it,” there was no more Pie to be had anywhere. Pies flew off the shelves after that YouTube video.

So this year the pies are back! I love pie and had to taste one. Is it worth the hype?

Yes and no.

The pie filling is quite good for a grocery store pie that costs under $4. It is a beautiful vibrant orange. It’s a brighter orange than pumpkin pies, but might otherwise be mistaken for one. The pumpkin pies nearby looked almost sickly and anemic in comparison. The Patti LaBelle Pie is even prettier than a lot of other sweet potato pies I’ve seen in stores.

The flavor is also similar to pumpkin pie. The packaging on the Patti LaBelle Sweet Potato Pie says it is made with “sweet potatoes, butter, and spices.” Many of those spices are the same as pumpkin pie, but the ratio is a little different. So this has its own flavor too. This pie is well spiced and somewhat sweet.

While pumpkin pie filling has a texture closer to that of custard. This pie is somewhere between custard and sweet potato casserole in texture. It’s like a brighter, slightly starchier-textured, first cousin of pumpkin pie. Everybody thinks they look alike. But they are also unique.

As far as nutrition, the Pattie LaBelle Sweet Potato Pie has some vitamin A and iron as well as fiber and protein. Nutrition value in pumpkins pies is similar. The downside is that both are loaded with saturated fat. (There are some pumpkin pies out there that somehow avoid having much vitamin A but I don’t know how.)

The Patti LaBelle pie slices beautifully. It’s not runny and not dry.

The pie crust is where this sweet potato pie comes up short. It isn’t the light, flaky crust you’d expect in a homemade or gourmet pie. The texture and flavor ring “grocery-store prebake.” It’s not horrible, but this pie would be amazing in a flakier crust.

But it is still beautiful and the filling is really good if you enjoy that kind of spice. The price is very nice too. So I can live with the crust for now. Our pie will get very well eaten.

And it has.

It was yummy!

Cubs Win! NaBloPoMo Day 3

03 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in NaBloPoMo, Uncategorized and beyond. Tags: Cubs Win, NaBloPoMo, Things Come To an End, World Series

Well, well, well. It actually happened! The “curse” is broken.

It’s exciting to see the Cubs break their 107-year losing streak even though I am not much of a sports fan. That’s the longest drought in history.* Gobs of folks lived their entire lives and never saw the Cubs win a World Series. Birth to grave and so many games in between. That’s even multiple lifetimes for some. (And just image how many in hamster lives.)

All good and bad things come to an end. It is reassuring in its own way. Like maybe I’ll conquer Mt. Laundry someday for real. Or write a novel for NaNoWriMo.

I like sports from time to time. And since I’m originally from Chicago, there’s Cubs fan fiber deeply embedded in my being.

It’s great to see my Chicago family and other Cubs fans so elated (while also seeing them stress a lot leading up to the win). Thank you Facebook for letting me share in some of their joy. (Did I just THANK Facebook? Gah.) Thank you, family, for sharing your crazy-happy moment.

Go Cubs!!!

(Sorry, Cleveland.)

And, hey, this was a blog post for NaBloPoMo Day 3.

*Non-winning streaks for major American sports teams anyway. I’m sure there’s some official designation, but I probably don’t know sports well enough to word this right. I heard the word drought used for this on the radio, and I thought it sounded good.

Following up to add that Neil deGrasse Tyson, posted several facts to give a better idea of how long it’s been. It’s a fun way to put it into perspective. Halley’s Comet has appeared twice since the last time the Cubs won a Workd Series. Mark Twain was still alive. The cosmic object Pluto, formerly known as a planet, hadn’t even been discovered yet. Ford’s Model-T cars had only just started rolling off the assembly lines. So just imagine what the streets looked like in 1908. Wow!

aLightningbug