Sunday Sundry - Vol. 7

My brother Darrell makes his own homemade salsa every year.  It's a labor-intensive, Labor Day weekend tradition that he undertakes solo.  I think he said he canned something like 50 quarts this year.  It's quite the production, often involving an all-nighter until the last jar is filled.  And his salsa?  ROCKS!

Here are a few of the peppers he grows in his garden for this endeavor—jalapenos, habaneros, both hot and mild banana peppers.  He shared these with me this week (thanks!), and so far I've made chili and spicy pulled pork with some of them.  I'll probably throw a few in some pad thai tomorrow.

We like it hot up in here, culinarily speaking.

See the XX label on that jar?  That means it's a midrange salsa on my brother's heat scale, which goes from one X to three Xs.  One might think, then, that a double X means medium heat, right?  Not exactly.  Compared to a medium heat store brand, this tastes something more on the order of "Fire in the Hole!"  

And his XXX?  Well, to paraphrase Nigel from Spinal Tap, "This one goes to 11."

[beep]

Does anyone remember the old filmstrips from grade school?  The image would be projected on a screen, but the audio came from a 33 rpm record or cassette tape, which would sound a tone that meant it was time for the projectionist (i.e., the teacher or the class brown-noser) to advance the film one frame.  

Does that sound like ancient technology, or what?  And we did math on an abacus and chiseled our homework on stone tablets by firelight.

Anyway, sometimes I think I need a divider on these sundry posts as the segue to the next subject.  That's what the [beep] was above.  Feel free to leave better ideas for a divider in the comments.

[beep]

I dropped in at a small, local flooring store this week to check out options for our kitchen/hall/half bath.  It would appear, from my less-than-scientific observations, that most flooring falls into one of four categories:  Wood, stone/tile, fake wood, or fake tile.  Good thing I didn't have my heart set on that hideously colored/patterned crap from the '70s.

Speaking of both hideous crap (not really; I love this pottery) and my trip to the flooring store, this was an actual exchange that occurred in said store.  Just for fun, let's use these vintage Haeger vases I dragged out today, for fall decor, to illustrate.

Setup:  I had been talking to a helpful female sales clerk and had given her my info so she could set up time for someone to come out and measure.  Then she invited me to continue looking at the samples and let her know if I wanted to take anything home.  I disappeared behind a display toward the front of the store.  The store manager guy had come in through the back while I'd been talking to the sales clerk, and assumed I'd walked out the front door.

Okay, here we go.

Store Manager (in a normal voice):  She's a tall drink of water.

Sales Clerk:  Yes...and she's still here.

Me (from behind display):  I heard that.

Do you think I should ask for a discount—the Manager's Embarrassment Special?

[beep]

I did get a couple more gathered clutches sewn this week.  I especially heart the gold one, made from what I have left of a couple Frolic FQs.

I've been just putting in the card pockets, not the other divider on the inside.

Every zipper gets a little easier and smoother.

I'm making these from stash and thrifted zippers, and I've been pretty lucky coming up with fabric combinations that will work with the color zippers I have.  But yesterday I had an idea for a combination I didn't have a zipper for, so a run to the thrift store for stock replenishment was in order.

I did get a few more zips, none in the color I really wanted, but I took what I could find for a quarter or so apiece.

I may or may not have also found some Pyrex..which I may or may not have room for...but which I may or may not have purchased anyway.  I think I'll save that post for another day, though.  It'll give me time to get my story straight!

Thanks for visiting!  Please enjoy some Peppers.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh) - (Link to youtube video, because it didn't allow me to embed it.)