Playing Taps for My KitchenAid and Other Miscellany

Back when I was a child bride, Hubby Dear loved to indulge me by buying kitchen equipment that we could not afford. I've never been one for jewelry, but I always want the latest, greatest kitchen gadget. For Christmas one year, he bought me the mixer of my dreams - a KitchenAid Professional 600

Rest in Peace, dear KitchenAid 

My KitchenAid served me well for over ten years. I was never totally happy with the job it did kneading bread dough; the dough seemed to just ride around and around the dough hook rather than get kneaded. Last week, I was making a double batch of EZ Whole Wheat Bread in it and things got truly ugly. First, I smelled a "hot" smell. I turned the mixer off for a minute or two, but I still had 7-8 minutes of kneading left, so I felt like I had to turn it back on. Big mistake. Smoke began pouring out and it quit running. I hoped that it would begin working again after a long cool down, but, alas, it seems like I killed it really and truly.

Hubby Dear and I debated fixing up my KitchenAid vs. buying a new mixer. From the research I did, it seems like it can be just about as expensive to fix a stand mixer as it would be to buy a new one. If I'm going to have to spend hundreds of dollars anyway, I'd just as soon get a new mixer, preferably one that is better for making bread. So I'm getting a Bosch

I don't think the Bosch will look very cute on my counter, but the fact that you can make up to 6 loaves of bread in it at once more than makes up for that! This month, many Bosch retailers are offering a $50 rebate, which helps make it more reasonable. Still, it's quite an investment. I hope it lasts me a decade like its predecessor.
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I bought an aloe plant this week, too. Much easier on the budget than a Bosch! ;)

Aloe vera

I'm not much on houseplants - if I can't eat it, I'm not interested in messing with it - but it seems like my neglect won't kill it.  As I read here, aloe plants need a bit of sun and very little water. I think I can do that. Here are some of the uses of aloe plants. I think an aloe plant is an excellent addition to our first aid supplies.  
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I was walking through the garden the other day and I ran smackdab into this:

Yuck! A Tomato Hornworm!

This is the first time we have ever had tomato hornworms in our garden. I can safely say that they are one of the most disgusting garden pests I have ever seen. Not only are they disgusting, but they are also very destructive. They can reduce a healthy tomato plant to a skeleton in 24-48 hours. Tomato hornworms are found most often on tomato plants (surprise), but they also like potatoes and peppers, which are members of the same botanical family.

Picking them off by hand is the preferred method of dealing with this pest. Yeah, um, no. I'm not going to do that. Have I ever mentioned that I have a serious phobia of caterpillars and butterflies? (Really. Long story involving a traumatic childhood incident.) This is the biggest, most foul caterpillar I've ever seen, and I have no intention of touching one if I can help it. Hubby Dear did remove it from the plant and then he sprayed our tomato plants with Neem Py (an organic-approved pesticide with neem oil and a bit of pyrethrin).

I was nervous that our outrageously healthy tomato plants would be consumed overnight, but when the next day dawned, everything seemed OK.

Last night, however, we saw three hornworms. There were two on two different tomato plants and one on our potatoes. Ick! Hubby Dear picked them off and then he dusted the tomatoes and potatoes with Bt, another organic-approved pesticide. Bt is actually a bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, that kills caterpillars. I'm crossing my fingers that this does the trick. I will cry if my tomatoes get ruined before we ever get to eat them, and by caterpillars to boot!


That's my week in a nutshell. What prepping/gardening/food storage -related things have you been up to?

Homemade Bug Repellent for Your Garden

Our garden did wonderfully in the month of May. We harvested buckets of lettuce and the newly planted tomato and peppers shot up quickly. We had minimal weeds and no pest problems at all.

Enter June. Weeds galore - even in our newly made garden boxes - and bugs going to town on our itty bitty green bean plants.

The weeds we dealt with the old-fashioned way, but what were we to do about our pest problem? If this had happened a few years ago, we would have broken out a can of Sevin dust and happily gone about our business. That won't cut it now since we're trying to go all organic.

I did a little bit of research on organic pest control and decided to try my hand at making a homemade bug repellent before I went out and bought a pricy can of organic pesticide.

Sinus-Clearing Bug (and Husband) Repellent: 

1. Peel and mince a full head of garlic and place in a quart Mason jar.
2. Add 2-3 teaspoons of mineral or vegetable oil. I used the food grade mineral oil that I rub on my wooden cutting boards.
3. Sprinkle in a goodly amount of ground cayenne pepper. I used about 1/4 teaspoon.  
4. Let soak for 12-24 hours, then press the mixture through a fine sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth. Put the liquid back in the Mason jar, discarding the solids. 
5. Add a couple of squirts of biodegradable dish soap and 2-3 cups of water. Shake the jar to combine. 
6. Pour mixture into a squirt bottle and spray on the affected plants.   

When I presented the idea of a homemade bug repellent to Hubby Dear, he had some doubts. After he took a whiff of the potent mixture, he wondered if the brew might kill the plants in addition to repelling the bugs. Nevertheless, I took my little spray bottle out the garden and boldly set to work.

Don't you love the great tan I got from our week's vacation in Florida? 

It has been several days since I applied the repellent and it actually seems to be working. The plants have put out new leaves and there does not appear to be any new damage. Just one caveat: if it is a windy day when you apply this spray, make sure you are not down-wind! Ask me how I know!