Petticoat Junction

Crisp Oatmeal Cookies

2012-01-29T15:23:00.003-05:00

I know most people's oatmeal cookie recipes are for a soft, slightly chewy cookie, but not mine. My father came across these cookies at some point in my teens and it was the only oatmeal cookie he'd ever liked - partly because it wasn't soft and chewy; he prefers crunchy cookies. He wheedled the recipe out of whoever he got the cookie from, and the rest was history. Because these were the only oatmeal cookies I ever made, it kind of stands to reason that my own children like crunchy oatmeal cookies best. And some of them won't eat other oatmeal cookies at all unless there's a layer of icing in between two of them. :)

Oatmeal Cookies
1/2c. soft butter
1/2c. shortening (we use palm kernel shortening by Spectrum, but Crisco will do)
2c. light brown sugar
2 eggs
2c. all purpose flour
2tsp. baking soda
1 to 2tsp. cinnamon ( I use 1 heaping teaspoon)
2c. quick oats
1tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350.

Cream together sugar, butter, and shortening. Beat in eggs. Mix the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon, and then add to the creamed mixture. Sir in the oatmeal and vanilla. Cover and chill mixture for 1 hour. Roll into balls, slightly smaller in size than a walnut (actually, we've taken to just using a small cookie scoop), and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet that has been lightly coated with cooking spray. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. We like to bake ours until they are turning darker around the edges. They should be puffy when you pull them from the oven, but they will deflate in just a few seconds. If you bake these and they stay softer, increasing your baking time by a minute or two should get them crunchier.

The mixture will keep for a few days in the fridge, but if it's been refrigerated for awhile, you'll need to let the dough warm up a bit on the counter before you start forming and baking them, otherwise it will be hard as a rock, and the cookies may not flatten out as much or bake up as crisp.

Versatile Homemade Bread Recipe

2012-01-23T01:38:00.002-05:00

I probably have a hundred different bread recipes floating around the house, but this is my fall-back. My tried and true, most versatile, easily multiplied or divided recipe. I have used it for regular loaf bread, cinnamon bread, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza pinwheels, pizza crust, cheesy breadsticks, croutons, and even donuts. It's not that I don't have recipes for the other things, and even recipes that will give a slightly better cinnamon roll, pizza crust, or donut, but this one is quick, since I have it memorized, and it's so easy to double, you can whip up a large batch(enough for 2-3 loaves), use half for dinner rolls and make up half into cinnamon rolls to pop in the fridge and then bake in the morning.
Years ago, hubby's Grandmother scribbled this onto a 3x5 index card for me. She and his Grandfather ended up living with both sets of in laws in order to make ends meet. Although her mother and her mother-in-law made bread practically the same way, one used milk, and the other used water. She started using a combination of both, maybe as a way to compromise. :) For whatever reason, it woked out great. I loved her bread, and have never had any complaints on mine.
First I'll give you her recipe, then I'll share tips.

Homemade Bread
yeast - instant - 1Tbls, or active dry - 1 packet
1/4c. warm water - if using active dry yeast
1c. boiling water
1c. milk
1/4c.melted butter or oil (or a combination of both)
2 Tbls sugar
2 tsp. salt
4 -6c. all purpose flour

If using active dry yeast, put yeast and 1/4c. lukewarm water in a small bowl and let sit until bubbly. If you are using instant yeast (rapid rise), you skip this step and just add your yeast in with the flour.

Pour your boiling water into a large bowl, or the bowl on your stand mixer(fitted with a dough hook). Add your milk, melted butter/oil, salt, and sugar, and mix 'til the sugar and salt are dissolved. By the time you've add in the cold milk and other ingredients, and stirred until they are dissolved, your liquid should be just about the right temperature for your yeast. But you should still check. Instant yeast can stand a slightly higher temp., but as long as it's not much warmer than your wrist it will be fine for either. Stir in your yeast here if using active dry. Add in 4c. flour and your yeast (if using instant). Mix until everything is incorporated and dough comes together. Keep mixing, adding flour a little at a time until your dough is smooth and elastic, or if using a stand mixer, until the dough cleans itself off the inside of the bowl. Form dough into a ball and place in a large, greased bowl; cover with a non-fuzzy towel and let rise until roughly doubled in bulk. Punch down. Shape. Allow to rise a second time. Preheat oven to 350 during the second rise and bake for approx. 30 min. Loaves are done when they are golden brown, you can easily turn them out of the pan and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Makes 2 standard loaves.
To increase or decrease this recipe, for each loaf you'll need:
1c. liquid (1/2c. each, milk and water)
1Tbls sugar/honey
1tsp. salt
2Tbls. melted butter/oil
2-3c. flour
yeast - 1 1/2 tsp. instant, or 1/2 pack of active dry (plus 2Tbls warm water to dissolve it)

Lots of things will affect how much flour you will actually need. The humidity, the moisture content of the flour, or how accurately you measured. You just start with the lowest amount and keep adding. As long as the dough isn't super soft and sticky (too little flour), or very firm/hard and not very pliable (too much flour), you should have a pretty good loaf. Practice makes perfect.
Also, kneading is the key to a good loaf because that's what activates the gluten, so knead it well - 10-15 min by hand, or 5-10 min in your mixer. Personally, I love that part and will frequently pull a batch out of the mixer to knead by hand. It's a great stress reliever.

Now these are some of the things I do:
I substitute honey for the sugar.
I almost always substitute at least half of the regular, all-purpose flour with some sort of whole wheat; regular wheat, white wheat, or Kamut. You can use more whole wheat, but this recipe always performs much better if you use at least 1c. all-purpose flour. Gradually substituting one cup of whole wheat for one cup of all-purpose is a good way to sneak up and switch your family to more nutritious bread.
If using instant yeast, and making a standard loaf, or dinner rolls, it's not necessary to allow the bread to double at the first rising. You can just knead for several minutes and then let the bread rest for 10-15 min before shaping and then allowing to rise fully before baking. I usually do two rises though, the additional rise does make a finer texture.

Now, the fun variations I've used this recipe for:
Dinner Rolls - just shape into rolls, allow to rise and bake at 425 for 20min. Brush tops with melted butter.
Herbed rolls - add 2 tsp. italian herb blend in with the salt and sugar, use olive oil. Rise and bake as above and brush finished rolls with butter.
Cinnamon bread - roll out loaf, spread with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sprinkle lightly with sugar or brown sugar, roll into loaf, rise and bake as for regular loaf.
Pizza pinwheels - roll out, spread with pizza sauce, add mozzarella cheese and pepperoni, roll up, cut into rolls and bake at 425 for 15-20 min. These don't need a second rise.
Cinnamon rolls - roll out, spread with butter, sprinkle on cinnamon, add a layer of brown sugar and roll up. Cut into rolls and bake at 425 for 15-20 min. As with the pinwheels, these don't need a second rise. Also, you can make them up the night before, put them in the fridge, and then pull out and bake the next morning. These are decadent with a cream cheese glaze: Mix together 2-3 oz soft cream cheese and 1/2c. soft butter, then add approx. 1 1/2c. powdered sugar, dash of salt,1 tsp vanilla and a dollop of sour cream. This isn't runny like a regular glaze, but more like a very thin icing.
Cheesy bread - roll out, cut into strips, place on pan - fairly close, but remember, they'll rise; sprinkle with garlic salt, add cheese (your choice - we like an Italian blend), sprinkle with parsley or italian herb blend. It's easiest to sprinkle everything on after they have risen - that way there's little to no room between the sticks for stuff to fall through and burn. Bake at 400 for 15-20 min.
Bread sticks - roll out, cut, and place on pan as above, but brush on melted butter or a mix of melted butter and olive oil, sprinkle with garlic salt, herb blend, and parmasean cheese. Bake at 400 for 15-20 min.
Donuts - Cut into circles, or strips (that you can then fold in half and twist like cinnamon twists in bakeries), and allow to rise. When they are about finished rising, bring a large pot of oil slowly up to 350 degrees. Fry 'til golden brown and then carefully flip over. It should take 3-4 min to cook each side. Cook one first, let cool a bit and tear it apart to make sure it's done before cooking the rest. Drain on paper towels. Only cook 2-4 at a time, depending on the size of your pot. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon(our favorite), or you could make a simple glaze out of milk, powdered sugar and a few drops of vanilla.
Pizza - no second rise - roll out, top with sauce, mozzarella and your choice of toppings and bake at 425 for 15-25 min depending on the thickness of your crust. This does make a pretty bready (that has to be a word) crust, so I'd suggest rolling it fairly thin. If you are making this dough for pizza, you don't have to knead it as much. In fact, the more gluten is activated, the harder it will be to roll thin.

There you go. A tried and true, depression era recipe that has been served at countless meals through my hubby's family and into my own.

Wedding Plans

2012-01-12T17:03:00.001-05:00

     For those of you who have planned a wedding in the last, say 21 years, congratulations!! You have my respect. I don't really remember it being this involved, but then again, my mother probably did more than I remember, or ever gave her credit for. Thanks Mom!!
     I must first add that unless you like to be harassed, don't go to one of the big chain bridal stores. Give them a little bit of information (which they supposedly need for your daughter to try dresses) and suddenly you're receiving snail and e-mailings by the truckload. Ugh!
     Other than that, things are going along pretty well, but wedding stuff is starting to take over. I'm considering adding onto the house for it all. :D Last night, Ri and I went through everything we had so far for the wedding, reception, and shower, which will be given by her maid of honor (Lys), but will be held at our house, because Lys lives too far away from most of the guests. We catalogued everything, boxed it up, and listed the items on the outside of each box. We didn't buy one of those fancy wedding planners, but early on, after seeing Ri fumble around with things she had written on different scraps of paper, Kay went to the school room, commandeered a spiral bound notebook, found some self stick, write on tabs, and made her get it all organized. It's worked out great.
     We have the places for the ceremony, reception, and a private family dinner (per the couple's request, and later in the evening) all booked and ready to go. We have decided the menu for the private dinner, and will be working on food selections for the reception and shower within the next few weeks.
     Ri and the maid of honor's dresses will be in by the middle of Feb., and Lys will be up at the end of Feb. to start the fittings. As of this week, we've acquired everything else Ri will need that day, from her shoes to her decorative hair comb - she doesn't want a veil. We've also talked to our stylist, lined her up for the wedding day, and requested a "trial run" day for the hair styles she'll be responsibe for at the wedding.
     Superman has already picked out his suit and had it tailored, and the best man and ushers also have their suits. We just have to help them pick out the right color shirts and get dark green ties for hubby and the best man.
     T.Lynn's flower girl dress is in and we got her hair decor as well; she wanted a tiara. We'll wait to pick out shoes closer to the date since she's growing pretty quickly right now.
     We came across a lovely blouse just the other day to go with the skirt I'm making for Beenie, which just leaves Kay, Bree, and me to dress.
     We have the favor boxes for the wedding, and for the bridal shower, but I'll have to show you later what we plan on doing to the ones for the shower - it's too cute.
     I have the cake stand we want for the cake - yes, I am making it - no, I'm not crazy. Not yet anyway. Hey, I made my own wedding cake, and this one will be much easier.
     We have several other small decorations, and a few other small details to think about with regard to decor, but the biggest decor item, flowers, we haven't really worked on at all. Ri and I have to go visit a couple of florists soon to get that taken care of.  Thankfully, we do have a general idea of what we want, so it shouldn't be too hard.
     We are having acustic guitar for the music, and do have the muscian lined up; Beenie's guitar tutor. We just need to go over some of the selections with him.
     We're working on the wedding invitations. We already ordered one so we could see what it would look like, but have decided on a few changes to make, so we'll do that and order another trial invite.
     Lys told me about seeded paper, and after looking around, I found a company that makes some that is seeded with miniature sunflower seeds. How cool is that? It's yellow too. I ordered it and we'll use it to make her bridal shower inviatations. I've also picked up most of the stamping supplies we'll need to make those.
     Let's see...is there anything else? I can't think of anything right now. There probably is, but it's packed in a box. :D So I'll leave you with this:

This is T.Lynn's basket - and the monkey (ok - oraguntan) she insists on carrying.

Ri doesn't much care for traditional flower girl baskets, and I can't say as I blame her. I found this cute little wire basket at Hobby Lobby and couldn't resist. I told Ri if she didn't want to use it for T., I could certainly find a use for it somewhere in the house, but alas, she loved it.

The rustic look will go so well with the sunflower theme.

Got any great wedding ideas or tips? I'd love to hear them.

Tutorial: Do-it-yourself lined envelopes.

2012-01-07T01:14:00.002-05:00

Between the holidays and wedding plans, we have been hopping. Since some of Superman's family will be coming from out of state, and will need to make travel arrangements, we decided to send out Save the Date cards. Ri designed them using Shutterfly. I kind of wish I posted head shots because they are very cute.

But I digress. This post is about adding a personal touch to cards, invitations, etc., by linging them with pretty paper. I saw this idea in a magazine I was looking through recently, and Ri and I decided to try it for her Save the Date cards. It turned out so well, we might do it for her invitations too, which she also designed through Shutterfly, using a picture she took of one of our sunflowers last summer. BTW - sunflowers are her favorite flower, and will be the primary flower in her wedding.

All you need is your envelope, a glue stick, scissors, and some pretty paper.

We designed our own paper using some of the gimp brushes Ri has downloaded to our computer for blog designing, but you could copy any pretty pattern. I've even photocopied fabric to get a design I liked on paper. A couple of things to keep in mind: One - I don't know about all copiers, but mine doesn't always copy true to color, so when that happens, we scan it into the computer and then print directly from the image in the computer - for some reason, that works better. And two - you need to use regular paper. Most scrapbook paper, while pretty, is too thick. One standard sheet of paper made two envelope liners for our 5 1/4" square cards.

You have to lose one of the envelopes, so I hope you have extra.

Carefully take it apart along the seams.

There you go.

Fold it out flat, and then call for one of your kids to bring the scissors you forgot.

Cut across the bottom, just inside the fold. You are cutting off what was the back of the envelope.

Oh, and when you make that call for the kids, make sure you tell them to bring you a grown up pair of scissors. The only criteria I gave was for a pair that was for cutting paper (you know, as opposed to my sewing scissors), and I definately could have used a bigger pair since I have rather large hands.

Now cut up the sides, again, just inside the fold.

This will allow for the pattern to be just a bit smaller than the envelope, making it easy to insert the lining later.

Finally, cut off the glue strip at the top.

Now you have a pattern you can use to cut your lining paper.

As you can see, I dispensed with the scissors and used one of my rotary cutters and some acrylic rulers for this part. Don't worry, this cutter is specifically for paper and never touches fabric.

Cut out all your lining papers.

There you go - now you just have to slide one in the envelope,

and line it up with the bottom of the glue strip.

Fold back the paper and apply the glue.

Then press your lining into place.

After giving it a few minutes for the glue to start drying, go ahead and fold down the flap, pressing well along the edge to crease the lining paper.

And there you go. From plain to pretty.

We choose the black on white because, as you can just catch a glimpse of, her Save the Dates are black with white, including the photos, and there are a few scrolls thrown in here and there.

I love it when things coordinate.

Just for good measure, we decided to allow these to dry completely overnight before putting in the cards and addressing the envelopes.

Looking forward to the New Year.

2011-12-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

With a pressure canner and serger, which my mother and hubby (respectively) got me for Christmas, I'm excited about learning a lot and experimenting even more this coming year.

We have plenty to look forward to on other fronts as well, what with everyone getting older and interested in so many more things. And, of course, there's Ri's wedding to look forward to and plan. A couple of the girls have been going shooting with Dad, and Bree is starting to spend time with him, learning how to make guns (he's a gunsmith). One of her gifts this year was bullets. :) And one of Ri's gifts was a beautiful recurve bow and some arrows. Everyone was in the backyard earlier, giving it a try. Now, if we could only find that one arrow...

Oh well, plenty to look back on and be thankful for, and many, many things to look forward to.

I hope you all have a great New Year.

The Christmas Octopus

2011-12-21T00:15:00.000-05:00

What? You don't have one? Everyone needs a Christmas octopus.

This photo doesn't quite do him justice, but he realy does look like an octopus.

He came about one year when my younger brother was making ornaments with the girls out of beads and pipe cleaners. He started stringing on the beads and adding more pipe cleaners, I think in an attempt to make a star. After a whole bunch of fiddling with it my brother made the mistake of asking the girls what they thought of all his hard work. One of them proclaimed loudly that the only thing it looked like was an octopus. He wasn't offened in the least. Instead, he worked with it a bit more, shaping the head, adding a couple of red beads for eyes, and voila!, the Christmas Octopus was born. We've had it on the tree every year since. There's always great care taken in placing him in just the right spot. Up front, near a red Christmas tree light (because he looks so cool lit up from behind with a red light), and on some reasonably sturdy branches, because he is a little heavy. The only problem we have now is that all the girls want one for themselves, for their own, future Christmas trees, and my brother isn't really sure how he made the first one. I'll have to buy him a bunch of pipe cleaners and beads and see what he can come up with. You never know what may become a tradition for one of the girls, because if he comes up with something funny, they're sure to put it on their tree.

Everyone needs a weird holiday tradition or two. They're great.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Savior, and spending some quality time with the people you love.

How does your winter garden grow?

2011-12-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

Mine doesn't grow as good as it could, considering I live in the South, but we do grow a couple of things.

Around mid-November we finally got around to cleaning out the raised beds and planting our garlic.

And guess what we have now?

Well, I hope it's the garlic. I seem to remember planting it in rows, but these don't seem too straight, so I'm hoping it is garlic. It looks like garlic. :)

The Khabar seems to be coming up better than the Mild French Bree and I planted.

We have a few chives left around the deck and a small bit of parsley, but if I were really industrious I'm sure we could grow more during the winter since our winters are not bad - comparatively speaking. I know we could grow greens. Most southern gardeners grow greens in the winter, but I don't like them, so I don't bother.

On another note, the houseplants are doing great.

This is the last of my Christmas cacti to bloom, and the first year this particular plant has bloomed. I never knew why it didn't bloom since it's been treated the same as the others and even sat right beside my best bloomer for years, so they always received the same light. A friend told me that they are just picky sometimes. She also told me she has a white one, and will pot a cutting of it for me. I can't wait. I've never even seen a solid white one. One of mine has white flowers that are rimmed in the hot pink, but the others are pink.

So, how does your winter garden grow?

Blogger

2011-12-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

Hi all!
Normally I like Blogger. I've only had problems a few times with pictures, or for a little while when I was having trouble with the commenting. I couldn't comment on my own blog without publishing the comment under anonymous - imagine that.

Oh well, I guess we can live with a few bugs now and then.

Right now I'm having problems with my followers list. It shows on my dashboard that I have a few new ones, and I was able to visit one of their blogs before I completely lost the ability to check it, but now it's kind of stuck where it was a couple of months ago.
Normally I like to go visit the blogs my followers have, but I can't do that right now because I can't "see" you in my list, even though you are counted on my dashboard. And I've noticed you are not counted on my sidebar either - go figure.
I'm sorry. I would love to visit - I've been to one, and would love to go back - but I can't seem to find you.
I hope whatever bug Blogger is having will be straightened out soon. I may see if Ri can sort it out when she has the time - for all I know it may be operator error. But she is a little busy with photography school right now, so I'll wait until she has a bit more free time before I drag her in here and ask her to tinker around.

Until then, I have tried to save the ones I can still "see", so I can check out your blogs as time permits.

P.S. I also have to try to talk her into designing me a Christmas or winter theme for my blog. :D
If you could only see her face when I do.

Our Mad Hatter Tea Party

2011-11-30T13:46:00.001-05:00

Okay - if you think raising nothing but girls means I live in a house filled with taffeta, glitter, and pink then you'd be wrong. Most of my girls hate glitter/sparkles, frufru stuff, and especially pink. I can't blame them. After the fourth girl was born I forbade everyone from buying us anything else pink. Especially anymore pink baby dresses. Yes, I know they are cute. But there's only so much pink one family can take. And since pink was never my favorite color anyway, I'm actually suprised it took me until our fourth to totally nix the pink stuff. It stands to reason then that the only one of my girls to actually like pink is T.Lynn - our fifth. She is also the one that has always liked the glittery and frufru things as well. Go figure.

So, when my girls came up with the idea to host a tea party, it couldn't possibly be the fancy pants, hats and gloves, mind-your-manners, type of tea party. No. They wanted a Mad Hatter tea party. Well, that was fine with me. Mad Hatter certainly seemed more my style than gloves and fancy manners anyway.

But it was a Mad Hatter party, so we did have to wear hats.

Here T.Lynn is modeling mine. One of our guests came with a hat that looked like a flower vase, complete with silk flowers popping out of the top. The hats were great.

We played several games. One of which was pin the hat on the hatter.

Bree is our artist.

We also played paint the roses red; divide up into two teams and then race to color paper roses and tack them on bushes that were drawn and posted on a large cork board. Another game was to find the doormice we had hidden around the living, dining, and sun rooms. We also had everyone think up names for themselves, along the lines of 'Mad Hatter', and then had everyone vote on their favorite. And in honor of the riddle the Mad Hatter says at his tea party, we encouraged each of our guests to bring a riddle to share. We also passed around a basket at the table that had slips of paper on which we had written examples of behavior you should not display at a tea party. Once everyone had choosen a slip of paper, we had them demonstrate the inappropriate behavior that was described. I started it off with slurping my tea, and T.Lynn was tickled that she pulled the slip that allowed her to swipe something off her neighbor's plate.

The menu consisted of pigs in a blanket (not pictured), ants on a log, mock turtle sandwiches, escargot roll-ups, pizza pinwheels, mousey crackers, pumkin dip, and a veggie tray with dip served in a cabbage bowl.

Pumpkin dip is so easy, and so good.

Mix together 8 oz softened cream cheese, 2c. powdered sugar, 15 oz pumpkin, 3Tbls pumpkin pie spice, and 1tsp. vannilla until creamy. Serve in a small, hollowed out pumkin, with apple chips, graham crackers, or ginger snaps. Yummm!

The pizza pinwheels were a big hit. So much so that some of my guests suggested I bring them at the next pot luck dinner for our church. I did, though I didn't bother putting them on the sticks for that, and they were a hit there as well.

These were also simple. I just used my standard bread recipe, rolled it out as if for cinnamon rolls, spread on pizza sauce, sprinkled with motzerella cheese, and laid on some pepperoni. Then I rolled it up and sliced it with a serrated knife. To put them on the stick just soak some bamboo skewers in water while you're preparing the rolls and insert the skewer through the wheel, positioned to hold the end flap in place and bake at 400 for about 15 min. Without the sticks they can be placed close together to hold them closed until they are baked. If you cook them on the sticks they must cool completely before you lift them off the pan or they'll slide down the skewer.

The mousey crackers are just too darn cute.

We cut cheese into wedges, placed them on a cracker, poked in some mini pepperoni ears (you can used cut up hot dogs in place of the mini pepperoni), and chives for tails, and then completed them with eyes and noses of black sesame seeds.

The escargot roll-ups were probably the most labor intensive (next to the large cake). They are large tortillas, spread with cream cheese, layered with butter lettuce, turkey, and cheese, then rolled up and sliced. Gerkins, cut at an angle, with chive "eyes" poked in, were secured to the rolls with a toothpick. The chives had little knots tied at the end for the eyes.

There were also plenty of sweets.

Cake, cookies, petite fours, macaroons, mini lemon bundt cakes, and meringue mushrooms.

Bree has been fascinated with macaroons lately, so that's why they were served.

They were yummy.

Some of the cookies had to say "Eat Me". You know they did.

We did have one minor catastrophe.

When moving the large, 1/2 teacup cake to the table, it fell forward. I caught it without damage to the cake, but the cupcakes and meringue cookies that were supposed to look like they were holding up the cake got a little mushed on the side it tipped toward. I repaired it the best I could, and since the meringue cookies took the biggest hit, I had to put some of the meringue mushrooms around them to fill in a bit. But it certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been.

You can just make out one of the 'hidden' mice sitting on the base underneath the cake.

The doormouse sleeping in his hole on the side of the cake was the one that tripped most people up.

I don't like fondant, so I used modeling chocolate to make the pink tablecloth under the cup at the top, the tea showing in the 1/2 teacup, and the doormouse's hole. Modeling chocolate tastes much better, and with a silicon mat made for pressing a design into fondant, you can press the design in the chocolate, which is what I did for the tablecloth.

We didn't get a chance to get a picture of the completed table before the guests arrived, but here it is in progress. We used mismatched tea cups, saucers, sugar bowls and creamers, many of which we picked up at Goodwill for next to nothing. We also found the teacup planter we used for one of the flower arrangements at Goodwill for only $2. I was just going to have the one arrangement, but my sweet hubby had them make up a second arrangement in a very pretty teapot since we had such a long table.

We've had this pink, tea party print cloth stashed away for a long time - one of the girls (I think it was T.)had begged us to buy it when we were shopping a going-out-of-business sale at a cloth store years ago. Since we had 3 tables pushed together, I cut it in squares and used it as an accent over inexpensive vinal table covers.

We had paper lanterns and spirals hanging down, and one of the girls came up with the idea of using the bright paper we'd cut the hats from for the pin the hat on the hatter game as decorations as well. They looked so cute placed at odd angles along the wall behind the table.

We ended up making this into a sort of week-long house party. Ri's best friend came to stay with us early in the week, and another friend came the day before the tea. These two helped quiet a lot with the preparations, and then another friend stayed the night of the party as well. Getting ready for church the next morning with three extra girls wasn't as much chaos as you'd think, but we did have to take two vehicles. Thankfully, one of the girls had come in her own car so she was able to drive that to church.

It was a great time, and we all had a lot of fun.

Canning: Pomegranate Jelly

2011-11-27T22:19:00.003-05:00

This has become one of my all-time favorite jellies. I can't wait for pomegranates to come in season each fall so I can make up a batch. Out of season they are too expensive to warrant making this. I usually try to hoard the last of what I have in the jelly cabinet so that I don't run completely out of it before they go on sale.

Pomegranate Jelly
4c. pomegranate juice
1/4c. lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin
5c. sugar

The first thing you have to do is get the arils out. The aril is the fluid filled covering around the seed. The juice around the seed is what you want. There are two methods for getting all the arils out. One is to cut open the top and then pull the pomegranate apart and fish out all the arils, and the other is to cut it open and then submerge the fruit in water before you pull it apart and fish out all the arils. I don't care what anyone tells you, the water doesn't make the arils come out any easier. It just means your standing over the sink, or have to hold your arms at an odd angle over the bowl on the table to do the work. One way or the other, you just have to pluck those little arils out on your own, so do yourself and favor and sit down in a comfortable chair because you have to do this to at least 6 pomegranates to get enough juice for the jelly. After you've gotten the arils out you can fill the bowl with water. Most of the residual white membranes will float to the top, and the arils will sink to the bottom. Fishing those arils out of the pomegranate is a great job for the kids. :)

Drain them off and then put them in a blender.

Pulse on high several times to release the juice.

I had to fill my blender twice to get enough juice.

Then pour into a jelly bag set over a bowl.

A large (8c.) batter bowl comes in handy.

If you don't have a jelly bag you can line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth and then set that over a bowl. I've used that method and it works just as well.

*Please disgregard the boxes of low sugar pectin in the picture. I use regular for this recipe, but I had to search the cabinet for it and I didn't put these away before the photo.

Next you need to let your juice sit overnight so all the sediment will settle to the bottom of the bowl. The sediment will cause your jelly to be cloudy. If you don't mind cloudy jelly, you can skip this step. If you do this though, you need to remember to start with at least 1 cup more juice than the recipe calls for because there will be quite a bit of sediment, as you can see in this picture.

Carefully skim the clear juice off the top and measure out the 4 cups you'll need for your recipe.

Now go get the canner, and everything else you'll need for canning ready, because it doesn't take long for the jelly to cook and be ready to go in the jars.

Measure out your lemon juice and sugar (in separate containers) and have them ready.

Once all your jars, lids, rings, canner, and assorted implements are ready, combine the pomegranate juice, lemon juice, and powdered pectin in a large pot. I know it doens't look like much in the bottom, but as with all jelly, it has to come to a vicious boil so you'll need the room.

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. This has to be a full boil; one that cannot be stirred down.

Then add all the sugar at once and continue to cook, stirring constantly until it reaches that full boil again.

Begin timing when it reaches a full boil, and boil for 2 minutes.

Pull it off the heat, allow it to settle down and then skim off any foam.

Fill your jars to within 1/4", wipe rims, place lids and rings and put in canner.

Process for 10 min. once the water in the canner reaches a boil and steam is coming out from under the lid.

Allow the jars to sit overnight and then check the seals.

The 4 oz jar wasn't full so I didn't bother processing it. It went straight into the fridge for immediate enjoyment.

I never feel like I can take a picture that accurately depicts the beautiful color of this jelly, but I tried again anyway.

The smaller jar did a bit better.

It only looks a bit cloudy because this was the last that I was scraping out of the pot and some of it was already jellying, so some air bubble got caught in it. Trust me, it didn't affect the taste. :D

I hope you all enjoy this jelly as much as I do.

Organizing Thanksgiving Dinner

2011-11-22T20:42:00.002-05:00

Per a friend's request, I'm going to detail how to organize a large dinner if you are doing all the cooking. Most families have large dinners pot luck style, or some assign dishes for each person/family to bring so they don't end up with 11 bowls of corn, but on occasion you have a very large dinner where all the cooking is done by one person or family. That's how it's done for my mom's side of the family. I/we have done all the cooking for that Thanksgiving, which happens to be our largest, for the past 14 years. Trust me when I say that all the planning, shopping, and the cooking for two days is easier than trying to get everyone in my family on the same page, or in the same place at anywhere near the same time. At least if I do it all I can eat when I want.
WARNING - this may seem very long and involved, and I guess it sort of is, but once you get to doing it, many parts of it become second nature and it gets much easier to bring it all together. It just sounds daunting when you have to spell it all out in detail.
I will add that this has become increasingly easier over the years since the girls have gotten old enough to help with the cooking, and we have purchased things like a roaster oven, two large crockpots and a large, 3 pot buffet server that have made getting it all cooked, and staying warm much easier. But it can be done without all that if you keep the menu fairly simple. Also, even if you don't have those things you may know people who do that would be glad to loan them to you. Maybe even someone who's planning on being at your dinner. And include those kids. My kids earliest jobs were peeling potatoes and scrubbing sweet potatoes and wrapping them in foil. They can also open cans, or pakages of frozen veggies and get those in the proper pots, fill the deviled eggs or help set up the extra seating or buffet line, or set the table if it's small enough to be a regular sit-down meal. As they get older you can teach them how to make certain foods during the course of the year and then let that be their job the next Thanksgiving. They love being able to tell everyone which dishes they made. The last thing to keep in mind is oven and stove top capacity. Like I said before, I have many items that make that less of an issue now, but when I didn't I cooked a smaller variety of food and had my mom bring the ham. I couldn't fit both the turkey and a ham in the oven, even though I needed both in order to serve so many, and I could trust my mom to get the ham there on time.

With all that said, on to the timeline.

I actually start several weeks in advance. I make a large batch of chicken stock (it's used in a couple of dishes) if I'm running low, and I start buying things that will keep in the pantry or freezer. It's much easier on your budget if you add a few things at a time during your regular grocery shopping. The week before the dinner I sit down with the menu and any recipe that I will be using and make out a grocery list of anything that I don't already have on hand. I go through each and every ingredient in every recipe and double check the freezer, fridge, pantry, and spice cabinet. Remember to keep a count on those ingredients. If several of your recipes call for butter or eggs, don't just put butter and eggs on your grocery list. Count up how much you will need, add in some extra, "just in case", and then put the number of boxes of butter or how many dozen eggs you'll need on your list. And though you may not think about it because you don't actually need a recipe for things like mashed potatoes, those need butter, or cream cheese, or cream, or whatever you put in them and those items will have to be included in the count as well. Butter is one of those things I start buying in advance because it can be frozen. I also let everyone in the house know about any ingredients that I'll need so they don't disappear over the course of the week. Finally, I pick which day I need to do the shopping. If you're getting a fresh bird, you don't want to keep it in the fridge for more than a few days. If you're getting a frozen one you can shop a bit earlier, but keep in mind the shelf life of any dairy or produce that you may be using. Then you start preparing your game plan for baking the day before and cooking the day of the dinner.
Game plan? Yes - most definately. The best way to manage it all is to sit down and make out an hour by hour list of everything that needs to be cooked. My list actually breaks it down into no less than 30 and sometimes 15 min increments for particulary busy portions of the day. Start by deciding how long everything needs to cook. Then, taking into account when you plan on serving, count backward, remembering to factor in things like rest time before carving the turkey, and the actual carving time. If you want to serve at 1:00, and your turkey will need to cook for 2 hrs., you need to start it around 10:15. 2 hr cook time, 20-30 min rest time, approx. 15 min to carve. = 2hrs 45min. If you want, you can factor in a little cushion time, that is, add up to an addtional 1/2 hr, just in case your turkey ends up needing a little extra time. Personally, I don't do this - if it happens, I just tell everyone they have to wait a bit because the turkey's not done. They may offer up a few (usually good-natured) protests, but you can tell them how close the nearest McDonald's is if they don't feel they can wait. :D I may have to ~~beat~~ shoo foragers out of the kitchen, but no-one has ever left, or even been angry because of it. Hey, if you're doing all the cooking, the least they can do is be graceful about a little delay. Do this for everything you're cooking, plotting out exactly when each thing needs to be started in order to be done on time. Don't forget to add in things like prep time. When able, fit prep time for things into cooking times for other things. As and example; it only takes about 30-40min for the stuffing to bake, so it doesn't need to go in until sometime nearer the end, but it can be prepared much earlier and left to sit until time to put it in the oven - of course, this is if you do it in a casserole dish instead of in the turkey (please don't do it in the turkey - that's just gross, and more likely to cause salmonella poisoning -okay, nuff said). Likewise, potatoes can be peeled, washed, chopped, and left to sit in their pot, covered with water until it's time to start them. You can do those things while the turkey cooks, or sometimes even before it goes in. Finally, think about things like setting up an area to eat, or getting everything on the buffet line. Our food is served buffet style. The kitchen counters are U shaped, so the regular food is all served in the kitchen. It starts beside the coffee maker and works around to the fridge, going right across the stove. Since I don't have to take it far, I only have to factor in a few minutes for getting the plates, utensils and napkins in place and serving spoons in the dishes. We do have to set up tables in the garage though so that everyone has a place to eat. We also set up the desserts and the drink table out there. Time has to be set aside to set all that up, but it's usually done well in advance of serving. So, now you have your ingredients, you have all the paper products, and you have your game plan stuck to the front of the refrigerator, along with a pencil somewhere nearby in order to check things off (somewhere as in the top of the fridge, where only your 6ft teenageer can see it - if you don't do this, your pencil will walk off). Now, get plenty of rest this week - you're going to be exhausted by Saturday evening.

Here's a practical example of what we generally do, and just did this past Friday and Saturday for our big dinner.
Menu:
Ham                                          Apple Pie
Turkey                                       Lemon Meringue Pie
Stuffing                                      Sweet Potato Pie
Gravy                                        Pumpkin Cheese Pie
Cranberry Sauce                        Chocolate Pie
Pinto Beans                                Lemon Pound Cake
Mashed Potatoes                       Chocolate Pistachio Cake
Baked Sweet Potatoes               Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Icing
Macaroni and Cheese                 Pumpkin Roll
Green Beans w/ New Potatoes    Brownies
Lima Beans                                 Brown Sugar Brownies
Corn
Deviled Eggs
Olive, Pickles, Baby Carrots        Sweet Tea
Biscuts                                         Unsweet Tea (brought by a guest)
Cornbread                                   Assorted Soft Drinks (brought by guest)

Friday
I don't really map out every hour for Friday, I just think about/jot down everything that can be prepared the day before so that Saturday runs much smoother. I don't serve any dessert that requires last minute preparation or cooking, so I make all my desserts on Friday. We also make the cranberry sauce , deviled eggs, and at least 2 gallons of sweet tea, put the pinto beans on to soak, and prepare the brine and get the turkey in it. The first thing you should do is lay out any ingredients that need to come to room temperature. Baking usually requires butter and cream cheese to be soft and many cake recipes tell you to have other ingredients like milk, sour cream or eggs at room temp., so go ahead and get them out to warm. Since I only have one 9"x13" pan, and we do two batches of brownies, the first thing I cook is a batch of brownies. They cut with much less mess when they are completely cooled, so cooking one first means that they'll have time to cool properly before you need the pan for the second batch. While they are cooking I get my pie shells out to thaw. Yes, I use premade, frozen pie shells for this dinner - hey, everything else is homemade, this one convience won't hurt anyone. I also put the eggs on to boil for the deviled eggs and scrub and wrap the sweet potatoes that I'll need for the pie. I slip those in the oven as soon as they are wrapped and ready (before the brownies are done). They'll cook while other things are coming in and out of the oven. When the brownies are done, I begin cooking the pie shells that need to be completely pre-baked (remember to prick those crusts with a fork). I even cook the ones for the apple and sweet potato pie for a few min., just to keep the crust from getting soggy under all the filling. While those are in, I make up the next cake or pie, usually trying to get a couple of things that require the same baking temperature in at the same time. When there is something in the oven that takes a good while to bake, like a pound cake, which requires at least an hour, I can make the chocolate pies because the filling is cooked on the stove top. We can also get the cranberry sauce prepared since that's done on the stove too. Using the actual bake time of one thing to prepare others keeps everything moving along. Just remember that anything that uses levening should not sit for very long before going in to bake. There are plenty of other things to do though, like deviling the eggs, making the sauce, mashing the sweet potatoes (for the pie), or even washing up some of the dishes, then when something is ready, or just about ready to come out of the oven, you can mix up the next item. Just don't get too harried. Remember, nothing will be served tonight. You're just doing all this today so that you will have less to do the next day. Try to relax - you probably won't be able to tomorrow.

Saturday - dinner @ 1:00
7:00am - Start pintos.
*When I used to have to do all the cooking I'd make sure I already had my shower and everything else done before this so that I could use the whole day for cooking. Now that the kids can cook, I start the beans and then let someone else keep an eye on them while I go take a shower and get ready.*
After the beans are started, feed the crew breakfast, make sure they are all dressed and ready, etc.
8:00 - 9:20 - Go ahead and start peeling the white potatoes (cover them in water once they are cubed), scrub and wrap the sweet potatoes in foil, get out your crock pot(s), and set up any buffet servers you may have. Other examples of things you could potentially do during this time would be chop onions or other veggies, prepare any cold plate, unwrap the paper products, prep the coffee maker, or fill the butter dishes, salt and pepper shakers and the sugar bowl, and get them in place. Preheat your oven. Put water on to heat for the macaroni noodles.
9:20 - Get your roaster pan ready and get the turkey out. I use roasting bags to cook my turkey, so I get that out and get the flour in it. Then, since I brine our turkeys, I bring the turkey in and get it rinsed off and in the bag. Remember to keep and eye on the beans. Check your list.
9:30 - Start the turkey (ours was pretty big, so it needed at least 2 1/2hrs. They do cook quicker in the bags.)
Then make the macaroni and get it in the crock pot. I just prepare it plain for this dinner - no bacon.
10:00 - Put the turkey necks on to boil (for the turkey gravy - I really prefer to use smoked turkey necks; it makes a great gravy).
Check that the chicken stock was completely thawed in the refigerator and if not, put it in a pot to melt.
Remember to keep an eye on the beans.
Put ham in the second crock pot. It can be turned to warm once it's cooked.
If any of the above suggestions haven't been done, work on those, or set up the eating area and start putting out any desserts that don't require refrigeration. Set up drink table.Check your list!
10:30 - Put in sweet potatoes (I choose small ones because the larger ones just get cut in half anyway, and they cook quicker. I place the wrapped potatoes in a shallow baking dish and slide them in under the turkey, on the lowest rack.)
Prepare the stuffing. For me this includes time for frying bacon and onions to mix in with the stuffing. Have it ready to go in the oven as soon as the potatoes are done. Get the corn, lima beans and green beans in the buffet server and get the lima beans cooking. The limas take longer to cook and the buffet server won't bring things to a boil as quickly as the stove, so I keep this in mind. If I didn't have the server I would jockey pots around on the stove. I've also used the rice cooker to cook veggies before. Just keep an eye on the water level. Mix the shortening or lard into the self-rising flour for your biscuts. Get your baskets ready for the biscuts and cornbread. Check your pintos!
This is a good time to double check your check list. Anything else that can be done in advance should be done.
11:30 - Start boiling potatoes. We fix a really big pot of potatoes (about 10lbs), so it takes quite awhile to get it boiling.
Start the corn and green beans. They can be held on warm once they are heated through.
11:45 - Grab your biscut flour (with the shortening already in it), add the buttermilk and start forming your biscuts. You'll need a little extra time to do this because you'll keep having to stop to check other things.
Check your list!
12:00 - Pull turkey necks out so the meat can be picked off the bones.
I have to admit that someone else (a dear friend of the familiy, who always shows up and hour early to help) has always done this for me.
Pull the sweet potatoes out of the oven and put in the stuffing.
Pintos are done - just keep them warm.
Finish any last minute set up - ex: put the plates, napkins, and utensils out and bring the deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, and the pickle, olive, and baby carrot plate out of the fridge.
12:15 - Turkey comes out and a pan of biscuts goes in.
12:25 - Mix a batch of cornbread
12:30 - Stuffing comes out and cornbread goes in.
Start the rue for your gravy and have a strong man take that extra large stock pot of potatoes to the sink and pour them into a strainer (or two strainers). Save some of the potato water! Pour the potatoes back in the pot. Keep an eye on the rue (better not have your stove on very high) and throw some butter and cream cheese in with the potatoes to start melting. Add your turkey neck stock and chicken stock to your rue to form the gravy. When the consistency is right, add the meat from your turkey necks.
12:45 - Hunt down your older brother so he can carve the turkey. Of course he may be one of the ones you've been trying to kick out of the kitchen for the last 20 min., so that might not be hard. In my case, hunt down means holler, because I'm busy making the gravy. Check biscuts because they're probably done, and get them in the serving basket.
Mash the potatoes and grab any handy person (there will be many vultures in the immediate vicinity) to remove covers and place spoons/tongs in dishes.
Take cornbread out and get it in it's basket.
1:00 - If everything went well (and yes, sometimes it does :D) hunt down your husband so he can ask the blessing. This may literally require hunting.
1:02 - Run interception in the buffet line
Grandma first, then all the littles (who can't hold their own plates) with their parent, or another, older relative next, then everyone else.
Once you know no one is actually going to get hurt in the fracas that has become the buffet line, jump in front of one of your own kids who has made it near the front of the line.

Now go enjoy the meal and make other people clean up.

You may note that I did not include any dish washing time into this, but never fear; constant dish washing is mandatory. I usually try to keep things washed up as I go, but the last hour or so is always so busy I never actually have time to wash any dishes myself. The aforementioned, dear family friend has always stepped in to help during that last hour and keeps the dishes washed up, and now that my kids are older, there is always someone who can be called in for that task.

I think that's all. At least, I hope that's all. It makes me tired just looking at it all.

Meal will serve 25-30, or 6 teenagers.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

2011-11-21T01:08:00.000-05:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd post a recipe that we have come to love serving at our big dinner. I know everyone pictures the canned stuff when they think of cranberry sauce, but I think if you ever had the homemade, you'd never go back. I don't know where Ri got the recipe, but I never liked cranberry sauce until the first year she made this. Just the smell of it cooking made me want to try it.

Cranberry Sauce
1c. sugar
1c. water
1 (12oz) pkg. fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained
1/2tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2tsp. grated orange peel

Mix sugar and water in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add cranberries, cinnamon, and orange peel: return to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer approx. 10 min. or until cranberries burst and sauce begins to thicken, stirring occasionally. Pour into a casserole dish, cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

I wish I had a finished picture, but we always fix it the day before, while we're doing all our other baking, and trying to get a final picture kind of got lost in the shuffle.

This is so easy to make and tastes so amazing you should really give it a try.

Blue Ridge Parkway

2011-11-17T22:11:00.002-05:00

As promised, here are the pictures we took of our trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway last month.

Hey - what is a group of fall pictures without pumpkins?

There were several pumpkin patches, some much larger, but this one was the easiest to stop, dart off the parkway for a moment, and get pictures.

This was one of the better scenic overlooks.

There was a picnic area, where we had our lunch, and and observation tower.

The tower offered some terrific views.

This was taken early in our trip, well before we stopped for lunch and the pictures above.

We were still 'reasonably' close to Pilot Mountain.

I've always thought it looked like someone used a huge ice-cream scoop to scoop some out of the top and plop it over on the side. My OCD makes me wish I could flip that knob over into the dip and smooth it out.

This was taken quite a bit later.

The tallest peak in this picture, just off center to the right, is Pilot Mountain.

Unfortunately, some of the best photo ops were not where the scenic overlooks are.

The popularity of a couple of vistas has worn some decent parking areas into a couple of places though.

This was one where a few cars could pull off across the road from the view. Thankfully, the speed limit on the Parkway is 45mph, and most people drive even slower past the parts with good views, because we were standing at/on a stone retaining wall, a few feet from the road.

Same place. Ri had zoomed in for the picture above.

In other places there just wasn't a good place to stop, so if there wasn't any traffic behind us, we stopped right on the road and Ri took pictures out the van window.

Pilot Mountain is in this one too - way in the back, on the right side.

This was another such picture.

And another. I love this shot.

You should click on it to really appreciate all the beautiful colors.

It got to where I'd hit the brakes (if there wasn't anyone behind me), have Ri hurry up and snap photos while the younger girls were on lookout for traffic coming up behind us (my rearview mirror didn't always have the best view), and then take off when the girls started hollering, "Go, go, go!!!"

At one point I passed the view too quickly, slammed on the brakes, put it in reverse, had Ri, take a couple of pictures and then took off again as soon as someone came around the curve behind me while the girls yelled, "Hit the gas!!!" Perhaps it wasn't the best example of how you should drive, but it was a lot of fun, and we were never in danger. I'm sure glad we went up on a weekday; the Parkway was practically deserted. We'd have never been able to get away with that during busy weekend traffic.

And we couldn't resist a picture of this, taken on the way home.

From the do-it-yourself, camouflage paint job on the truck (you can just make it out if you click on the picture), to the barely contained, porta-john cargo, you just gotta love red-neck country. You'd also love the irony if you could hear my thick-as-molasses accent accuse someone else of being a red-neck. :D

BTW - There's Pilot Mountain again in the background.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. We sure enjoyed our trip up to take them.

*All photos are property of my lovely daughter, Ri.

The life and times of a mad woman.

2011-11-10T20:23:00.001-05:00

Okay - so things may not be quite that dramatic around here, but sometimes it sure feels like it.

October flew by in a wirlwind of activities, field trips, canning, parties/gatherings, etc., etc., etc.

November has kind of started that way, with a Mad Hatter Tea Party we hosted (some pics coming soon - I hope), finally getting Ri's best friend (and Maid of Honor) up here and getting dresses ordered, and starting plans for our Thanksgiving dinners.

Oh, and as I was reminded earlier this week - Christmas is only 6 Mondays away. How on earth it manages to slip up on me so quickly is still beyond my comprehension.

There are several things I plan on posting about as soon as I can.
1)We did get back up to the mountains and Ri got some great pictures from the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are some neat stories in there too, because some of the best photographic spots are not from the scenic overlooks. In fact, someone needs to rethink (or at least prune) those. I'm sure some of them provided great views when the parkway was originally constructed, but trees do grow. Several of the overlooks have views that are completely obscured by trees.
I'm just waiting on Ri to finish the photos before I post.

2)Our Mad Hatter Tea Party. It was so much fun. Lots of cute food, adorable hats, and some funny games. We need to get those photos uploaded to my computer as well.

3)Garlic planting - I have yet to do it, so that's what's holding that up.

4)I also have some recipes I plan on sharing, but I want to make them so that I can take some pictures for you.

So there's a lot in the works, just bear with me.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

2011-10-31T10:03:00.000-04:00

It's turning off cool, and the lower temps make it the perfect time to start having soup for supper.
So, as promised ladies (we have the nicest bank tellers), here's my recipe.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup
baked potatoes               raw potatoes
1 small onion                   bacon
cheese                            sour cream
green onions (optional)    butter
flour                                salt and pepper

Bake several potatoes.
I usually plan on making this the day after I served baked potatoes with a meal. That way I can just go ahead and bake several extra potatoes to have on hand for soup the following day.
Oh, and in case you can't tell from the list of ingredients, I'll warn you in advance that this soup is not low calorie. :D

Peel and cube your raw potatoes, and get them boiling in a large pot.

You'll want to cook these until they are very done - as in, practically falling apart.

Once they are done, just turn the pot on low and let it sit until everything else is ready.

While those are cooking, you want to cube your baked potatoes,

grate your onion,

and fry your bacon.

Fry your bacon slowly because you don't want to scorch the bacon grease. You want to use that to make the rue. After the bacon is done, pour the grease off in a small bowl (or coffee cup) and wash your pan.

Melt a little butter in the pan and cook your grated onion just 'til it barely starts to turn light brown.

You don't want to do this in the bacon grease because the grease can scorch too easily.

Then pour your bacon grease back in and add flour to form a rue.

You can use all butter for the rue if your bacon grease did get scorched.

Turn your pot of potatoes back up until they come to a boil again and whisk in your rue.

I'll be honest here, once I whisked my rue in, my soup still wasn't thick enough so I had to make a bit more.

After you have it as thick as you like, season with salt and pepper and add your baked potatoes and some shredded cheese. Cook for a few minutes until the baked potatoes are warm. Because it's already thick and you've added your cheese, you'll want to keep this stirred so it won't scorch.

Then turn off the heat and stir in 2 or 3 healthy size dollops of sour cream.

Serve it topped with a bit more shredded cheese and some crumbled bacon.

It's very pretty topped with some green onions or chives too, but it was already dark outside, and damp, so I didn't want to forage around in the garden for chives.

Go ahead and bake some potatoes for supper tonight so you can make this tomorrow.

Well, there you go.

2011-10-28T15:42:00.001-04:00

T.Lynn has an aversion to taking a shower. She always has. It's not that she minds water. Any water she's playing in is fine, and she likes getting in the jetted tub, it's just bathing she has an aversion to. Don't get me wrong. She really dislikes being dirty, and can't stand having sticky hands, but if she doesn't feel dirty, she doesn't want a bath.
Last night I was trying to get her in the shower and she had more than her usual arguments against it. She has a cold and was trying to convince me that standing for the length of time required to take a shower would just be too exhasusting. I did my best to change her mind by telling her how taking a shower makes you feel better when you're sick. I told her the steam would help her stuffy nose. In the end, I nixed all further discussion and sent her for her shower. She returned to the sewing room a bit later, with her hair wrapped in a towel and a frown on her face.

"All that shower did was get me clean!"

Oh the horror. :D

She was highly put out. On the other hand, Ri and I were more than a little amused.

BTW - If you have a child that has tons of reasons why she/he shouldn't take showers, you may not want them watching any documentaries on America's aging infrastructure. One look at the inside of a badly clogged water main and your child may have a reaction similar to T.Lynn's. Her comment?

"See that pipe? I knew we shouldn't take baths. Hobos are cleaner than us!"

Under construction

2011-10-27T20:07:00.001-04:00

Ri here again... Yes, I did just design a blog for Mom, thanks for asking. I swear, I am gonna ban seasonal blog designs. Mom, you are stuck with this until the 4th of July.. no I don't care about Christmas designs or Spring!

Canning: Apple Pie Filling

2011-10-24T00:55:00.001-04:00

I love keeping this apple pie filling on hand. It's just so easy to whip up a last minute dessert if you keep a stash of pie shells/dough in the freezer.

This is what we canned this year.

I also like giving this, along with a ziploc baggie of crumb topping (minus the butter of course) as a gift.

Apple Pie Filling

Peel and slice enough cooking apples to fill 7 quart jars.

I like Granny Smiths, but if you have a favorite cooking apple, feel free to try that.

Combine:

1 stick butter*

6c. sugar

1c cornstarch

1/2tsp allspice

3tsp cinnamon

8c. water

Bring to a good boil, stirring constantly. It will be very thick.

Feel free to taste and adjust the spices as you wish. I add a few dashes each of apple pie spice and ground mace.

Pack your apples in clean, hot quart jars. Fill well, but only pack them to the neck of the jar. I prefer to use the wide mouth jars for this because it's easier to get a small spatula in there to remove the air bubbles. Pour syrup over apples, making sure it's gets all the way to the bottom (I actually start with a little of the syrup in the bottom - it just makes it easier). Remove air pockets as you go. Leave 1/2" headspace, wipe rims, fit on lids and rings, and process for 20 min. in a water bath canner after the water reaches a full, rolling boil.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

1) These are not complete canning instructions, so if you're new to it, check out basic steps before attempting this recipe.

2) I know - the syrup will boil out from under the lids after you pull them out of the canner and you'll have a mess on the towel and counter. Do not try to use less syrup the next time in order to keep this from happening. The 1/2" of headspace is very important for developing a good seal. If you fill the jars with less, they will not seal properly and you'll be left with a bunch of pie filling that will need to be re-processed. You may not figure out the seal is bad until a jar or two pops its seal later on in the cabinet. Yes - I know this from experience so trust me, fill to that 1/2" headspace. You can clean the outside of the jars, and anything they came in contact with the next day, once the jars have cooled down.

1 quart jar will make a standard pie. It will seem a little skimpy for a deep dish pie shell, but you can fill in a bit with some extra crumb topping if that's the only size pie shell you have on hand.

*Please read the comments, as I received a very good question with regard to the butter in this recipe.

Canning: Strawberry Applesauce - A++

2011-10-18T15:46:00.004-04:00

I saw a recipe for this in one of my canning books this year and just had to give it a try. Several of the kids made a few disparaging noises at the thought of strawberries mixed in their applesauce, so I decided to make a small batch of it out of whatever we had left when the rest of the apple stuff was finished. Boy - do I wish I had tried it out right at the beginning. Even the first round of tasting, while it was still warm, was recieved with very little enthusiasm, but all that changed once a jar (the last one - not quite full enough to process) had been refigerated. The final verdict? Massive success!! It is absolutely scrumptious.

And quite pretty too - don't you think?

I couldn't resist using these cute little jars I found on one of my rare trips through a Walmart.

Is it bad that I can't go through a store that carries canning equipment without checking out what they have in stock? I was only at Walmart because I was out of coconut oil and none of the grocery stores near me carries it. I didn't even need to be on that side of the store. My buggy just went that way and I followed.

Oh well - this applesauce certainly won't curb any addiction to canning that I may be developing.

On to the recipe!!

First I will give you the recipe as I found it in my book. Then I'll tell you what I did, because you know I changed it.

Strawberry Applesauce

7 lbs tart cooking apples

1 lb strawberries

2 c. water

1/4 c. lemon juice

3/4 - 1 &1/4 c. sugar

Combine everything except sugar in pot and cook until apples are tender. Process fruit through a food mill or blender, return to pot, add sugar to taste, and water if necessary to reach a desired consistency. Bring to a boil and proceed to can. Leave 1/2" headspace and once your canner reaches a boil, process pints for 15 min. and quarts for 20 min. Makes about 6 pints.

There's the original recipe. Here's what I did.

My Strawberry Applesauce

8 lbs. apples (this was 8lbs after peeling and coring)

1 & 1/2 lbs frozen strawberries

sugar

water

I did use tart apples, Granny Smiths in particular, but that was only because that's all we had left after everything else was canned. Personally, I don't know why anyone would use tart apples for applesauce, only to have to add sugar to sweeten it up - it makes no sense. Plus, the tart apples don't usually cook down quite as well. They hold their shape, which is why they are called cooking apples, and are generally used for pies. You know, so your pie doesn't end up with a bunch of apple mush as it's filling. My sauce is delicious, but it doesn't have quite as smooth a consistancy as I usually like my sauce to have, even though I ended up running it through a blender. I'll use sweet apples next time.

Next, I did not add 2c. of water during the cooking. Expierence has taught me that you only add enough water to cover the bottom of the pot at no more than 1/2" before you start adding the apples. You just need it to get some steam going to start cooking the apples without scorching the ones that touch the pan. They will start to release their juice as they cook and you may well end up with very runny sauce if you start with a bunch of water in your pot. You can always add it if needed, but you can't take it out, and cooking it down without burning it is a tedious process, best avoided if possible.

I also didn't add any additional lemon juice. I don't know why you'd need it. I've seen numerous recipes for applesauce, and none of them require lemon juice (this was the only one I've ever seen, and the strawberry was just a variation allowed in the recipe). I know some jellies/jams do in order to bring up the acid level for safe canning/storage, but strawberry is not one of them. Plus, I keep my cut apples in cool water with lemon juice added in order to keep them from turning brown while I get the rest cut, and I sprinkle them with a little Fruit Fresh, or Mrs. Wages fresh fruit preserve as I place them in the pan (also to keep from browning), so I don't imagine I'd need any additional acid even if that were the reason. Finally, more lemon juice would just have required more sugar to offset the tartness, so I left it out.

Since these were Granny Smiths, I cooked the apples by themselves for a bit before I added the strawberries. I knew it wouldn't take long for the strawberries to turn to mush, but the apples would take much longer. If I were using softer, sweet apples I may put them in at the beginning, or shortly thereafter, but I waited to add them this time until the Grannies were starting to get soft. As I expected, they never softened as much as the other apples do, so I got them as soft as I could and then added the strawberries, running it all through a blender once the strawberries were mushy. I did have to add a bit of water to a few of the batches in the blender, but I didn't really need to add much because the frozen strawberries released quite a bit of moisture as they cooked. When it was all blended I put it back in the pot and started tasting and adding sugar until I thought it was sweet enough. I think I ended up adding about 1 &1/2c of sugar, but I will add, while it's warm you taste the tartness more than you will once it's cold. And if you use sweet apples you won't have to add as much, and maybe not any additional sugar.

Though I used pint jars, I processed them for 20 min. out of habit. I don't usually can applesauce in pint jars so I'm used to the 20 min. for the quarts. I got 9 pt. plus one pint jar that was about 3/4 full.

You should really try this out. It is wonderful.

Crockpot Cooking: Camp Stew

2011-10-15T16:59:00.001-04:00

I got this recipe from a salesman who frequents history reenactments, and while the smell of a real wood fire and dishing a bit of this up out of a cast iron cooking pot do add to it's appeal, it still tastes quite good when cooked on your stove, or in your crock pot. I'll give you the quatities for a regular sized batch.

Camp Stew

1 smoked sausage or kielbasa 4-5 potatoes

2 carrots 1 small onion

1 can diced tomatoes 2 ears of corn (or 1c. frozen)

1/2 head of cabbage Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning

cornstarch (optional)

Clean and chop your onions, carrots and potatoes. I only peel the potatoes if they are russets.

Cut corn from the cob. I cut my sausage in half rounds to make it easier to eat, but that's optional.

Place all of this, along with the tomatoes and 2tsp. seasoning in your crock pot and cover with water.

Cook all day.

If you're doing this on the stove it will cook in about 30-40min - just 'til the carrots and potatoes are tender.

A few minutes before serving, turn off the heat, chop your cabbage and add to the pot, stirring to mix it in.

As you can see, I had to transfer mine to a large stock pot because of the quantity I was making, but if you're making a standard sized recipe this can all be done in the crock pot. Taste, and add more seasoning if necessary.

That's all there is too it - or to the original recipe anyway.

We prefer to thicken it with some cornstarch, but that is entirely up to you. If you do, mix your cornstarch with a little cold water and stir it into the stew before turning off the heat. Allow it to heat through for a few minutes, then turn it off and add the cabbage.

This is currently the only way I eat cooked cabbage because, in reality, the cabbage isn't cooked, it's just kind of heated up. That way you don't have slimy, yucky cabbage in your soup.

Back to the Mountains

2011-10-08T15:11:00.001-04:00

In a rare moment of spontaneity, we decided to drop everything after Beenie's guitar lesson yesterday and go to the mountains. Actually, I have to admit here that it's only rare because, though hubby loves to do things at the spur of the moment, I greatly dislike having my plans for the day disrupted. But I relented and we had a fabulous day. When we went apple picking we went north-west, a bit over the Virginia State line, staying just this side of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This time we headed south-east, going past the Parkway.

Being your "typical" homeschool family, we chose to turn this into a field trip and visited a very old mercantile. Mast General Store now has several locations in NC and surrounding states, but we visited the orginal store, located in Valle Crucis, that opened in 1883.

It still holds a small, operating post office for the tiny community.

If you click on the picture, you may be able to read the sign (to the right of the window) warning patrons of the store that the post office is still operational, so they should not try to open the postal boxes.

Aren't these the coolest, old organizing bins.

They still use them to keep their selection of carriage bolts and other, small hardware.

The store also comes complete with it's own pet, who apparently thinks the counter is a perfect place to sleep. What is it about cats wanting to sleep right where you need to work?

You get a clear picture of the fact that they don't take to kindly to salesmen.

This is part of the view behind the store.

I hope if you click on the picture you can see that a house sits on the very top of the mountain.

There is already more color in the trees here than down where we live, but they're still a week or two off from peak color. We did see a few isolated areas where the trees were in full color, but none where we could stop and get a good picture. Hubby has said that we may take a picnic and go up on the Parkway once the trees have reached full color. I kind of hope we do. It's so beautiful.

Isn't it beautiful, even when the colors aren't quite at they're best?

And barns are everywhere. I love big red barns.

All decked out for fall.

After we left the mercantile, we headed back to Boone in order to eat supper at the Dan'l Boone Inn and Restaurant. It's an adorable old farm house, turned inn and eatery. They serve things family style, meaning there's a fixed menu and they just bring you some of everything in bowls to pass around the table, just like you would do at home. There are precious few of these type restaurants around here anymore.

The place is just too cute, and I couldn't go home without a jar of the black cherry preserves they serve with the biscuts.

They used to have a live tree in one of the dining rooms. They had just built right around it when they added on. But after many years it finally died and they had it taken out. We got to sit at a huge round table with a lazy susan built in the center that had been placed where the tree once grew.

That lazy susan made eating so enjoyable. No-one had to interrupt anyone else's meal to ask for dishes to be passed. Maybe we should look into getting one for our house.

I have to admit that all the moss on the roof of this little store front is what grabbed my attention. I didn't even notice the sign until the photos were uploaded on the computer. Interesting name isn't it? Kind of makes me want to stop and check it out next time.

If we do indeed head out for a picnic on the Blue Ridge Parkway during peak color, I'll be sure to supply you all with plenty of pictures of those gorgeous mountains.

Ooohhhhhh, can you feel it??

2011-10-03T21:06:00.000-04:00

It's fall!!!

I love fall, but most people already know that. Apples (preferably cooked ones with cinnamon and brown sugar), hot soup, turning leaves, falling acorns, and pumpkins everywhere. I have a thing for pumpkins. It's probably not healthy, but hey, I can't help it. They are just too cute!! And the things you can do to decorate them, or with them. But I digress.

It's fall and that means it's time for apples, which for us means a trip to the mountains. Yay!!

We thought picking the Granny Smiths was tricky - trying to get one without the adjacent ones getting knocked off, until we got to the red delicious. There were so many, and they were growing so close together we eventually had someone try to stand under where some of us were picking so they could catch whatever else fell. The trees were very prolific this year.

Kind of looks like Kay is spying on someone doesn't it?

Maybe she was - she's good at helping to keep an eye on younger siblings.

T.Lynn and I looking for a good Granny Smith tree.

The first several trees on each row had been picked pretty bare, but if you went further down the rows the trees were still heavy with apples.

Beenie and T. looking for small apples for some friends with younger children.

Bree and T.Lynn.

I asked Ri how T. got into so many of the pictures and was told she is Ri's favorite subject. T. says that's because she is the only one who'll voluntarily be in a photo. Ri only partially agrees.

Bree was probably our fastest picker this year. She decided not to use one of the picking baskets, preferring to walk around and choose trees with apples still on the lower limbs. Everytime I turned around she was heading back our way with her arms overflowing with apples.

These were her secret weapons. She remembered from last year's trip, and had the forethought to wear her boots so she could get much closer to the trees. Although the pathways between the trees had been mown down fairly well, the area right under the trees wasn't and there tended to be various plants with thorns growing all around the bases. Since most of us wore our standard footwear for about 70% of the year (that would be flipflops) we just didn't want to get that close. The rest of us will have to keep that in mind next year.

All in all, we picked 6 bushels. Only five were for us. One was for one of the families at church.

2 bushels of Granny Smiths (1 1/2 for us and 1/2 for them), 2 bushels of red delicious (1 1/2 for us and 1/2 for them), 1 bushel of Fugi, and 1 bushel that was a mix of Braeburns and Romes.

Draining juice from the apple pulp.

So far we've only processed about half a bushel of the red decicious, but from that we got 13, 1/2pt jars of apple jelly, 12, 1/2pt, and 1, 4oz jars of cinnamon apple jelly (would have had a full 13, but my pot overboiled - that was fun to clean up), and 5, 1/2pt, and 16, 4oz jars of apple butter.

Now for the other 4 1/2 bushels.

In addition to the apple orchard, we went by one of my favorite country stores while we were up there. They have the best assortment of dried beans and ham side meat and hocks for flavoring those beans. All the paper sacks have dried beans - pintos, kidney, navy, and great northerns. They also have locally produced honey (we got a small one with the comb too) and sorghum molasses.

And just look at that head of cabbage. It was huge. As soon as I picked it up Ri and Bree started talking about all the soup we could make with it.

We keep peppermint on hand for when someone gets a headache, but I couldn't stroll through their candy bins without letting the girls get a couple of other things as well.:D

And finally, I'll leave you with a few mountain shots we got as we were driving down.

We were actually much closer than these pictures lead you to believe.

This is the original panoramic shot Ri took and in it you can see how the clouds kind of framed the mountains so they show up much better than they would have.

One of my favorites was this one she got as the sun was setting.

We were a bit higher on the mountain for this photo.

Tee-shirt dress tutorial.

2011-09-22T00:00:00.003-04:00

The project for my sewing class last weekend was a tee-shirt dress. These are very simple and inexpensive to make, and sew up quickly once you get the hang of it.
Warning - this post will seem LONG - but it's mostly because of all the pictures.

All you need is a t-shirt, coordinating fabric, and matching thread.

I made three dresses so I could have them in different stages for the class. I snapped pics as I remembered, so you'll see parts of all of them.

To start, have the person you're making it for try on the shirt, using a pin to mark a point slightly higher than the person's natural waist.

Then use a sewing gauge to mark a line on the shirt, slightly lower than your pin to allow for the seam.

I think this one was 5/8", but anywhere from 1/2"-3/4" will do fine.

Draw the line all the way across and cut the excess off the bottom.

For older girls or women you can't cut the shirt straight across the front; you must make allowances for the bust. You'll need to draw a line that drops as it goes toward the middle of the front of the dress, similar to the way the front of the bodice in this pattern dips down as it goes toward the center. How much you need to go down depends on the size of the bust. While having the person wear the shirt, mark a point near, but slightly to one side of the front and then again at a point on the side that is visually along a straight line. Once the shirt is taken off you should be able to see how much you'll have to adjust for the bust. If this isn't done, the dress will ride up in the front.

Once the shirt is cut, you need to make little darts in the sides of the shirt.

Since tees are stretchy, they tend to flare out a bit once the skirt is sewn on, making the waist appear baggy. The darts in the side will help keep this to a minimun.

Put your shirt on the machine with the cut edges first, sewing toward and ending your dart in the seam. If you start in the seam you're apt to end up with one side slightly longer than the other.

The finished dart should look like this.

Clicking on any picture should enlarge it if necessary.

Now the shirt is done and we'll move on to the skirt.

To decide how much fabric you'll need, you will have to measure the person from where you put the pin in the shirt to however long the person wants the dress to be, and then add at least a couple of inches for seam and hem allowances. Two yards is a good rule of thumb for most people if you're using a 44" fabric. Very small girls can get away with one yard.

You'll cut two panels, one front and one back, making sure they are both going the same direction if you have a one-way print. Both panels can be the same size. For very small girls you can cut one panel. You can also do this for extra wide (60") fabric, at least up to about size 10.

After you've cut the panel(s) the proper length, you need to cut off the selvage edge. How much you cut off depends on the person. For older girls or women, or if you're only making one panel for a very young/small girl, you can just cut off the selvage. For other girls you can cut off a few inches in addition to the selvage to keep from having too much excess in the skirt. I cut about 3"-4" off the sides for T.Lynn's skirt panels. She's about a size 10 (but that's really just for height/length).

Next, put the skirt panels right sides together and sew down the side seams.

For one panel, fold in half with the right sides together, and sew the side seam.

I used a 1/2" seam allowance.

Finish the edge - you can do this by zig-zaging over the edge (basically an overcast stitch), or for cottons, you can use pinking shears to trim the seam allowance. Of course, if you used pinking shears to cut them out, you wouldn't have to do anything else. If you used a lightweight denim, you must use an overcast stitch on the edge to finish it or it will fray, no matter what you used to cut it.

Press open your seam (if it was pinked), or press it to one side if you stitched over the edge.

Now we need to run a gathering stitch across the top of the front and back panels.

To do this you just pull your top thread out to a length that is equal to the width of the panel, plus a few inches. Starting at one side seam, line the edge of your fabric up with the side of your presser foot and center the top thread under the presser foot, pulling it toward you. Set your machine on a wide zig-zag stitch. Make a couple of stitches and then back stitch over those to lock the stitches in place. Proceed to stitch forward, keeping your top thread in the middle of the zig-zag stitch. Do not catch your top thread with the needle or you will not be able to pull it to form the gathers. When you get to the end (the other side seam), back stitch a couple of stitches to lock that side in place. You will want to run gathers for the front and back separately.

Lightweight fabric may tunnel when you use the zig-zag stitch, but this won't prevent it from gathering. If you have a lot of problems with it, starching the top edge may help keep it from tunneling quite so much.

This is what is should look like once you're finished, with the top thread under the top zig-zag.

Time to attach the skirt to the shirt.

You'll place the shirt in the skirt, right sides together.

The skirt is inside out and the shirt is right side out. Pin at the sides and the centers, making sure to pin the dart to one side.

Then you'll pull the gathering thread to form the gathers, pinning the gathers to the shirt.

You see how, ahem, "smart" I was to take a picture of light colored thread with a white sewing machine behind it? Thank you Ri for editing the pic so you can see where the thread should be.

After your gathers are all pinned in place around the shirt, sew the two together. I used a 1/2" seam, but 5/8" or even 3/4" may be a better choice. You'll see why in a minute.

While you're sewing, be sure to pick up the dress from time to time to make certain the shirt is not folding up under the presser foot. The t-shirt material tends to do that quite often, so keep an eye on it.

If not, this is what happens. And no, I did not do it just for the effect. I wasn't watching closely enough.

If this does happen, just pick out the few stitches that got caught and sew that spot back together properly. I saw this happen while it was on the machine, but it's much easier to just push the fabric back out of the way, keep on sewing and go back and fix it later than to try and take it off in the middle and then put it back on the machine. You're much more likely to get stabbed by a needle if you try to stop in the middle.

Once you've sewn the shirt and skirt together, set your machine to a wide zig-zag and overcast the edge.

Remember to watch for folds in your shirt while you do this too.

You can see the overcast stitches right above the zig-zag that formed the gathers. The seam stitching is just below the gathering stitches.

Next, press your seam allowance toward the bodice of the dress.

This is a good time to make double sure the dart was sewn into the seam.

Pin the seam allowance in place and top stitch on the right side of the shirt. It's easiest to just line up the edge of the shirt with the side of the presser foot. This will hold the seam allowance in place and keep it from doing that hulla-hoop thing (as I heard it referred to this weekend). In other words, the seam allowance tends to pull down and poke out if not sewn in place.

You're almost done!

Fold the bottom edge of the skirt up twice and iron it in place to form the bottom hem.

It's a good idea to have the wearer try it on before you hem it. That way you know just how much you want to take it up.

Stitch in place, as close as possible to the top edge of the fold.

This will keep little toes from getting caught in, and ripping out the hem.

No, I do not blind hem stitch any hem on children's clothing (and very seldom on adult clothing).

It's a total waste of time, unless you just like to mend hems.

Troubleshooting

Every great once in awhile you'll run across a t-shirt that will just give you a fit. Usually this is because they stretch out more than most other tees. If that happens your dress will bag at the waist even if you put the darts in. There is a fix to that problem, and it lies with adding elastic to the waist of the dress.

The white tee I bought for T.Lynn was like this. Here is my fix:

While I was sewing the shirt to the skirt I noticed the shirt's tendancy to stretch way out of place - it's part of why a fold was caught in the waist seam. It just stretched and folded way more than most shirts will. As a result of noticing this shirt's propensity for distortion, I actually sewed the top stitch just a bit further away from the bottom edge of the shirt. Remember me telling you a wider seam allowance may be better? Yeah, this is why - if I had used a wider seam allowance, I could have made this top stitch even further from the bottom of the shirt, giving me an even easier way to put the elastic in. But alas, it was not to be. You could do it much better though if you do as I say, and not as I do.

At any rate, sew your top seam almost all the way around the shirt.

You want to leave and inch or so unsewn, because by top stitching the seam allowance in place, you've basically formed a casing through which you can insert some elastic.

I would suggest leaving one of the sides open, right over one of the darts and then run the elastic through so that it will be running in the same direction as the other dart. That way the pin won't get caught on the opposite dart and you can see to get it over the one you've left open.

I used 1/4" elastic because I didn't really have much room to work with, unless I wanted to take apart the dress and redo the whole waist - I didn't.

Once you've run the elastic around, stitch the ends together and tuck it into the casing. Turn the dress back over to the right side and finish top stitching that last little section.

All done. She wanted it extra long because she said the print on the skirt looked like an old fashioned dress.

This dress gave me a fit. In addition to the extra stretchy top (which, admittedly wouldn't have been as much of a problem if I had made a larger seam allowance to begin with), I managed to pop the safety pin open while it was in the casing and I twisted the elastic when I went to sew the ends together. At least I caught that mistake before I finished the top stitching. :D

Some days you just gotta roll with the punches.

"Hey Mom - the flash is blinding me!!"

Feel free to personalize them any way you want.

I added an applique* (made from the skirt material) and some embroidery* to this tee to mimic part of the pattern in the skirt. You could add some ribbon, or sew on a few buttons to dress up a plain tee, but they look just fine plain too.

*You must use a couple of layers of tear/wash away stabilizer in order to applique or embroider on knit.

The embroidery on this lightweight denim matches the colors in the shirt. I couldn't resist it when Ri spotted it in the fabric store. I would only suggest using denim if the denim is very lightweight and the tee shirt is a fairly thick knit.

Can you tell she just likes her dresses long in general?

The extra fabric from the bottom of the tees, or from the skirt material make up cute little scrunchies.

With tees bought at consignment stores, Goodwill, or the clearance rack of a department store, and fabric purchased while it is on sale, it's very easy to make these dresses inexpensively.

More hope chest goodies.

2011-09-14T21:28:00.003-04:00

I've been working away on several things to add to Ri's collection.

The washcloths have been completed for a little while now.

I ended up knitting 15 in all. 10 white with colored stripes, 2 solid white, 1 yellow w/white stripe, 1 blue w/white stripe, and 1 yellow/gold/orange/white variegated yarn w/gold stripe.

Then I finished up two bread cloths. The one with the sunflower and ladybugs is done on Adia cloth, but the one with the Delftware style plate and cup (with the lemon and yellow flowers) is done on linen evenweave. I've never worked on evenweave so it took a bit longer to complete. I do like the suppleness of the linen fabric better though. I may use it more in the future.

And last, but not least, there are the two potholders on the left.

I don't much care for how I quilted the one on the far left - I forgot to change to a thread that blended in. The quilting is done in dark blue on the back (the back is done in the blue floral fabric), so my little errors show up more. It doesn't bother me enough to redo it though.:D They can be used as regular potholders, or she can slip her hand in the pocket to use similar to a mitt. You can click on the pictures for a closer look if you like.

Of course, I'm still working on her quilt - I did manage to get all the dresden plates ironed. Then there are the projects Beenie and T.Lynn want to make that I will have to help with. I also want to do some embroidered towles for both the kitchen and bath. It's enough to keep me occupied and out of trouble for a little while anyway.

For now though I'll have to put all that aside and get my lesson ready for sewing class this weekend. We'll be making t-shirt dresses. I may try to get pictures along the process and post a tutorial on it later on. No promises though. You know my picture taking abilites are spotty at best.

Homeschool Meme

2011-09-09T13:15:00.001-04:00

Mumma's Place posted this meme the other day and I thought it'd be fun to do.

1) One homschooling book you have enjoyed.
Come on!! When have you ever met a homeschooler that could pick just one book about something?
The first I ever read about homeschooling was Home Grown Kids, by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. I liked that, but there are plenty more I've enjoyed and gleaned wisdom from over the years.

2) One resource you wouldn't be without.
The library. Though if I had a choice of two I'd add in the computer - with internet access of course.

3) One resource you wish you had never bought.
I don't want to speak badly about any curriculum, because they have their place and purposes, but many years ago we did invest in a unit study curriculum that I wish we hadn't spent the money on. I hated the brevity with which each topic was handled and ultimately ended up doing unit studies on my own.

4) One resource you enjoyed last year.
The Hooked on Math we got for T.Lynn.

5) One resource you will be using next year.
We'll be using the Key To Math for Bree this year and I liked using those with the older girls.

6) One resource you would like to buy.
A month ago I would have said a new globe, but I'm getting ready to buy one of those so...

7) One resource you wish existed.
Hummmm. I'm with Ruby here, A full time house keeper - or at least one that could keep up with the laundry, make sure the refigerator stayed clean and corrected all the math drills.

8) One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading.
Now that so much is available online I rarely look through catalogues. Of course I've been doing it so long I know what I like and just limit myself to searching for those things. I used to love looking through a lot of them, but it's easy to go overboard with what you think you'll be able to accomplish when you do that.

9) One homeschooling website you use regularly.
I don't use any of them regularly. I use a few occasionally when I'm looking for something.

10) Tag other homeschoolers.
Anyone who wishes to may do this meme for themselves. :D

Doing nothing is exhausting.

2011-09-05T16:25:00.000-04:00

I did it. I managed to do nothing today. Well, almost nothing. I did have to run out to the store for a couple of things. Okay - so I didn't actually have to go to the store, but I was kind of bored and we could benefit from getting some lunch meat and cheese from the deli, so...

Anyway, I slept in horribly late today, and other than going to the store I have done absolutely nothing except pick up the dirty clothes from the bathroom floor - but that's just a habit. I do that every morning.

And you know what? I'm tired. I want to take a nap and I have a horrible headache. Doing nothing kind of stinks. I broke down a minute or two ago and took a pain killer and when I'm done with this I plan to go do something - anything. I've about had my fill of doing nothing.

Other little things from last week.

2011-08-30T20:26:00.000-04:00

Hubby and I went looking through antique shops. I was particulary interested in finding a drop down or secretary desk, but so far the ones I like are a little out of my price range. I did get a couple of small things though.

I loved this little dish.

So cute and a little shabby since some of it's gold plating has been worn away, but that's why I liked it so much.

I've been wanting a small dish to put beside the sink for the baskets and stoppers, and this was just perfect.

I love old linens and these dainty little handkerchiefs were just adorable.

And this linen kitchen towel was calling my name.

Coffee on one side,

and tea on the other.

I was also able to enjoy these little beauties everytime I've washed dishes. I think I may see if I can get sunflowers to grow down that whole side next year. What a sight that would be while washing up.

This is one up close. Isn't it perfect?

When you do manage to get a picture of one without a bee on it, there's sure to be one on the way - as was this little fellow to the left.

Or maybe an inchworm, like the one near the top of the center of the flower on the right.

This is the first year we've planted the large yellow sunflowers and we've enjoyed them so much I can't imagine not planting them in the future. We didn't have to plant the orange, Mexican sunflowers again this year. We had plenty of volunteers from the ones that went to seed last year.

A little of what's going on around here.

2011-08-28T19:11:00.001-04:00

So this is part of what's been happening here recently.

Okay - so this has been in the works all summer, but I love seeing the veggies grow up over the deck. Most of this is beans, but there are some cucumbers to the left.

And lots more tomatoes.

We've been able to use our own for a large part of what we've canned this year.

T.Lynn just loves helping out with the food mill.

All these tomatoes (and this is my really large stock pot),

cooked down into this much tomato paste.

These little 7oz baby bowls were perfect for holding the standard 6ozs of tomato paste once you left the proper head-room for freezing. Don't worry, the paste is red, but the bowls are blue and green so it makes it look weird.

This bushel of peaches we picked up were far from ripe, but since the grower had recently had a death in the family I didn't get picky. We laid them out on some tea towels and covered them with a couple more until they ripened. It took about a week. You can see them in the back of the photo of T.Lynn. That was my biggest problem. For a week we either ate on tray tables in the living room, or took shifts eating at the table. To say the least, it was a little interesting.

But when all was said and done, 16 more quarts of peaches made it into the cupboards. And everything was finished up just before my grandmother got really sick and then passed. It allowed me to go visit her without worrying about everything I still had left to do. I know I shouldn't worry about something like that when this sort of thing happens, but it's to easy to obsess over everything you think you should be doing - especially when it comes to putting up food for your family. After buying food in bulk, or even if you have a large surplus from your garden, it's not easy to walk away when you know that preserving it will feed your kids the rest of the year. I'm thankful the canning was done and I felt free to spend time with her.

The girls have been at my mother's since my grandmother's funeral a week ago Saturday. It's been a nice long vacation for them, but for me? Well......

The garden doesn't seem to know that the girls aren't here, and that hubby and I can't eat nearly as much produce by ourselves. Too bad gardens don't come equipped with a pause button. What's pictured, with the exception of two of the tomatoes, came in on just one day. I added it to the other 2 dozen tomatoes and 6 or 7 cucumbers we already had, and we are eating what we can. On top of that, 8 cantaloupe have ripened this past week, plus I've cut okra every other day, and pulled beans off almost every day. I haven't pulled many of the peppers though. There are a lot of them that I've left on the plants because they'll last better that way. The plant will slow down it's prouduction, but in the case of the black hugarians, that won't be too bad. BTW - the red peppers on the table are black hungarians. If you leave them on the plant they, like any pepper, will turn red. So, while the girls have been gone I've been tending the gardens, foisting extra produce off on the neighbors, and when all else fails and you just can't let it go to waste...

...you can it, or blanch and freeze it, even though all your little helpers are unavailable.

Sometime in the next few days I'll share a bit more of what I did this week, but this post is already long, and to be honest, I kind of want to kick back and relax for a little bit before the girls come back tomorrow evening.

Life long learning.

2011-08-26T21:11:00.003-04:00

When people ask me what subjects I feel are the most important to teach my kids, I tell them none of them are. And just for the record, I get some pretty funny looks with that response. Don't worry, I do teach my kids all kinds of subjects, I just don't feel they are the most important things to focus on. My goal is not to teach about every single ancient civilization, or that all of my children become capable of accurately reproducing the periodic table. I don't care where you go to school, you will not remember everything you're taught. Shoot, I don't even remember everything I teach. I'm constantly having to review, or look up new things, or research topics. Since there's a bit of a gap between my older two girls, and my younger three, I'm always going back over stuff I've not only learned myself, once upon a time, but also that I've already taught the older two. Then there's all the bits of new information I'm unearthing during any research I'm undertaking. And we won't even get into the things that just catch my eye and cause me to look up everything I can find on it. Sigh - there's just not enough time. Suffice it to say, I feel this quote.

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." ~ John Cotton Dana.

My ultimate, educational goals for my children have always been the same.
1) That they learn to read WELL, and that they enjoy reading.
It doesn't matter to me whether they master it at 4, or not until they are 15, I just want them to be able, not only to read, but to fully comprehend what they've read. And I want them to love reading. Whether or not you can read is almost immaterial if you won't. I recently bought the book Endangered Minds, and the author, Jane M. Healy, talks about the rather huge problem of aliteracy in younger generations. I don't want this for my own children.

2) That they love to learn.
I want them to be interested in things; fascinated with life and God's creation. I want them to wonder how and why things work. I want them to marvel at everything from the workings of a beehive to the ancient wonders of the world. I want them to see and experience things, and then have a thirst for finding out what they can about it. I dislike seeing people totally wrapped up in themselves, and/or day-to-day nosensical garbage; people who don't ever have anything better to talk about that who's currently a favorite to win American Idol, or any other "reality" show. I definately don't want my children turning out like that. I want to be able to have marvelous, enriching, challenging conversations with them for the rest of their lives.

3) I want them to know how to think.
Yes, how to think. Not what to think, although I'm rather partial to some of my own ideas, but how to come to a decision about something on their own. I want them to be able to listen to one side of an argument and then find out the other possibilities, weigh out the options/opinions/etc. and think it through on their own. I want them to be able to figure problems on their own, and not drudgingly. I want them to find it a challenge that they willingly embark on.

4) I want them to know how to find information.
And not just by clicking on a search engine on the internet. I want them to be able to use the library, research texts, periodcals and anything else available to them in order to find out about the world around them. My children are very much at home in the library. When we lived in a much larger city, the girls adored wandering through a very large library. Ri has been with my step-father to visit, and make use of the library at the State University he taught at (...seven stories of books Mama!), and though the library near our house is very small, the girls have learned how to use the feature that allows them to order (from other libraries) nearly any book they want and have it shipped to the branch we frequent. And they use that feature often. We don't even have to go to the library to order it. They have everything set up online so they can check the available titles at our own branch, and order anything that isn't already there, then the local branch calls us when the book(s) arrive. It does cut out a few extra trips.

5) I want them efficient at basic math.
This may seem like a 'no-duh' type thing, but...well, lets just suffice it to say, I want my children to be able to count back change. I also want them to know their multiplication tables, not cringe at fractions, and how to at least figure rough percentages in their head. Come on, everyone should be able to figure out what a 10-15% tip would be without whipping out their cell phone and using the tip calculator. I didn't even know cell phones had tips calculators - well, not until about a year or so ago. Now I use it as a game. Give me a number and lets see if you can input the info, and have the phone give you the answer before I can come up with an amount that's less than $1 off what the phone says. I don't quibble down to the penny (or even a quarter) with a tip anyway, so I figure in round numbers when I tip. That's certainly close enough for government work, and the poor waitress/waiter that deals with our (usually) large table deserves the extra change. So, while the girls are welcome to go as far in math as they want (Kay hated math and only took basic and practical math courses, while Ri wanted to take advanced math courses), I just want them very good at what I feel to be ordinary, everyday math.

"The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life--by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past--and he has to be equipped to acquire futher knowledge by his own effort." ~Ayn Rand

So yes, we teach reading, writing, arithmetic, physical science, geography, history, anatomy, agriculture, etc. We learn about nouns, pronouns, fractions, polygons, ancient civilizations, longitude and latitude, types of clouds, past presidents and kings, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. But first and foremost, we read, we challenge them to think, we encourage them to imagine, and we get excited about ideas, inventions, flowers, storms, finger paintings and lizzards we find in the garage.

Two Thumbs up for Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

2011-08-22T15:31:00.000-04:00

In my post about gardening and pantry organization, I mentioned having little success with the Amish Paste tomatoes I grew this year. After the post, I decided to e-mail Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which is where I purchased them, and let them know of the problems I had. I wasn't looking for a refund, or anything else really, but I figured that any company with integrity may want to know if one of their products was not producing up to par. Since they specialize in heirloom seed I felt they would definately want to know that the seed I had may have been mixed, either due to cross-pollination, or perhaps in packaging. After sending them an e-mail briefly describing the problems I had with the Amish Paste, and assuring them the other seeds I had ordered from them had produced beautifully, I received a very nice reply. They asked more specific details with regard to the unusually shaped tomatoes and asked if I knew the lot # of the seed I'd planted (I had kept the packet). Then they told me they would replace the pack of seeds, even offering me the opportunity to choose another variety if I didn't want to try the Amish Paste tomatoes again. I rarely have need to return anything, and even more seldom complain about a product, but most of the time the response is a little lukewarm at best. I was greatly relieved that they wanted more information about the problem. For a company offering the service they do, it would have been a little disheartening to have received a generic reply to my e-mail.

I look forward to continuing doing business with them. Plus, you really should try their purple calabash tomatoes. They are outstanding.

90 Years is a long time.

2011-08-17T21:57:00.004-04:00

A long time to live, laugh, love, grieve, work, and then live, laugh, love, grieve, and work some more.

My grandmother passed away in the early hours this morning. Along the 90 year path she traveled, she enjoyed the three brothers her father and mother had given her, and then numerous half-brothers, and one half-sister which came along quite a bit later. She had five handsome sons, and her list of grand-children, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren is seemingly endless. But as with any life, it comes with it's share of heartache. Her mother died when she was only 8. Several of her half-brothers died in infancy. The youngest of her brothers by her mother was killed in Vietnam, and another of her full-brothers passed away when I was in my teens. Several more of her half-brothers have also passed away in the last few years. Her older brother, and a couple of her half-siblings are the only siblings to have survived her. She has out-lived nearly all of her childhood friends and stood by one of her sons as he buried one of his daughters (her 2nd grandchild), who was only 36 at the time. But far and away the worst grief she ever expirenced was the death of one of her own children. Her oldest son died of pneumonia when he was only three. At the time, my uncle was around 18 months old and she was about to give birth to my dad. I can't even fathom what that time must have been like for her.

My grandmother was an extremely hard worker. Because of my grandfather's alcoholism, and my grandparent's subsequent divorce, care of my father and his brothers fell squarely on her shoulders. She worked third shift for years and years because it paid fifty cents more an hour, and she needed every penny she could get in order to provide for her and her sons. Her independence helped her greatly when she was younger, and had to support her children on her own, but it did make it difficult for her to adjust when she became frail and really needed help from others.

She started working in textile mills in 1934, at the ripe old age of 14. She had decided she was grown, moved out of her grandmother's house (where she had lived much of her life after her mother's death), and got a job. She passed for older than her true age, and they weren't too particular about labor laws in those days. The person in charge of hiring didn't ask her age, so she didn't tell. Later, when a supervisor suspected and did ask, she was just told not to spread that information around too much. She retired in 1985 after working for 51 years.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are from family dinners spent at my grandmother's little duplex. There were always way more of us than there ever should have been in such a small place, but we enjoyed every minute. It had to be freezing outside to keep us from spilling out onto either the front or back porch. She had a magnificent, climbing, yellow rose growing up a trellis that formed a living screen for the front porch and there was a lovely weeping willow in the front yard. She always had a vegetable garden in the back half of her half of the yard, and we'd play games on the concrete steps leading down from her back porch. There was a tall hedge between her and the church next door that was overrun with honeysuckle, from which we would drink nectar each summer. She had an old vanity in her bedroom where she would let us sit and play dress-up. Okay, maybe all of us grandchildren didn't share in that experience. I'm pretty sure my brothers didn't. My cousins, all of which were girls until I was 13, and I would spend the night and take turns brushing each others' hair. We'd laugh and joke, I'm sure being quite silly, and grandma would get all cracked-up. We'd have her laughing so hard she couldn't breathe. It was hilarious.

My grandmother loved flowers. Two of her favorites were yellow roses and African violets. They are certainly the two I associate with her. She had that gorgeous rose outside her house, and she always seemed to have some of the most beautiful African violets inside. I was determined to get an arrangement for her with African violets in them and was extremely dissapointed to find that they apparently aren't very popular this time of year. With hubby's help, I finally found a small shop that had a few still in bloom and after picking up a planter and some filler plants, I made my own African violet arrangement.

I think she would have loved it.

She would have liked the purple monkey behind it too, but we probably won't take that to the funeral home.

Getting organized in the garden and pantry.

2011-08-16T11:24:00.003-04:00

I'll admit it. If you came to my house, opened the top level of my "pantry", and plastic containers fell out on your head (which is a distinct possibility), you probably wouldn't think kitchen organization was my strong suit. First off, I want to let every building contractor, real estate agent, and anyone else concerned know that a two ft. wide set of floor to ceiling cabinets is to the world of pantrys what a 4' x 5' slab of concrete in front of your door is to porches. A sad, sad little imitation of the real thing, and not worthy of the name. Also, you have to bear in mind that the vast majority of dishes washed in my house are not washed by me, and even fewer get put away by me. I've told them how to do it properly, but you know how it goes; unless I stand in there watching, shortcuts will be made. And since I don't have anymore available time to sit and watch than I do to try and keep the kitchen clean all by myself, I just continue to rant and rave everytime the plastic containers fall out on my head, and routinely assign people to reorganize the cabinets and drawers. *Before any of you girls come complaining to me that you're not the culprit, I'll admit that some of you are much worse about this than others.*
But I digress.
What I'm specifically talking about today is keeping records. I've only been canning since moving to this house three years ago, so I'm still fairly new at it. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to keep a list of everything I made, but it wasn't until after reading a post about keeping a canning log on the Food in Jars blog that a light bulb went off in my head. Well that would be useful. It would be much better to keep a log of what you made and how much of it you ate during the course of the year, than to blindly can whatever suited your fancy, ending up with shortages in some things and overwhelming abundance in others. In June, with that in mind, the girls and I pulled all the jars we had left out of the cabinets in order to take inventory. I used that opportunity to purge a couple of jars from the first year we canned, along with some things that just didn't look like they held up as well. I also went ahead and purged some jam that had not been as popular; no since keeping it if no-one will eat it. I made a list of everything that went back into the cabinet, and as soon as we started our canning again, I purchased a small (6.5"x9.5"), three subject notebook to keep my canning log in. I transfered the list of already canned items to the first section, and started listing the things I was currently canning in the second. When the final batch of peaches was finished last week, I took inventory of my jars and lids, listing that in the third section. I plan on putting a note of any major seal failures in the first section. We had several jars of pie filling pop their seals last year after we had an accident in the cabinet, so we wouldn't want to count those in with the amount we actually consumed. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything turns out in the coming year.

The other thing I've decided to start keeping records of is my garden. Our gardens have never been particulary large. It's been easy to remember where everything is planted, or which types of plants I've grown. This year we doubled our garden space and I plan on putting at least a couple more beds next year, so I don't want to continue relying on my memory to keep up with what was planted where, or how each variety of plant performed. I've already drawn maps of the garden beds for the last two years, noting where each different type of plant was grown; not necessarily the particular variety, just whether it was a cucumber, tomato, etc. My notebook will hold these maps, along with information that will help me keep track of which varieties of veggies or herbs I chose to grow each year and how they performed. There are several things I'll be making note of from this year, and a few things that I remember from last year. For instance: I grew purple cherokee tomatoes last year but was not impressed with their taste or yeilds. A friend from church had similar results with hers, but that won't necessarily rule them out. My aunt loves them, and another friend's son produced impressive cherokees this year. Sometimes where you get your seeds or starts from has a lot to do with it. However, the purple calabash tomatoes I planted this year turned out so delicious, and with such good yeilds, I may just stick with them. Also, I had excellent results from my Roma tomatoes last year, but the Amish Paste tomatoes I grew this year have been a sad disappointment. They produced poorly and repeatedly developed blossom end rot, though the conditions that cause it are usually quite easy to reverse. They also did not produce true. This may be the result adulterated seed, or because the strain is not completely stable, but whatever the reason, I got several small tomatoes that were more like typical tomatoes than the oblong, thick walled paste tomatoes. Though many of the fruit that did develop fully were huge, it doesn't make up for such a small, overall yeild. The one Roma volunteer that popped up in front of the house more than out-produced all six of the Amish Paste tomatoes I planted. I plan on saving seed from that prolific little plant. Another thing it may help to keep a record of would be pests. An example of that would be how I chose not to plant Rutger tomatoes this year. The plants did pretty well last year (especially given the circumstances), and the tomatoes tasted good, but they were a magnet for tomato horn worms. Almost all of the worms we picked off our tomatoes last year came from those plants. At one point they munched the entire tops out of all the Rutgers, seemingly overnight, while leaving the Romas beside them alone. The Rutgers rallied quite well after we diligently picked off worms for several days, but if they are that attractive to the ugly little buggers I'd rather not deal with them.

So we'll give the log books a shot. I'm sure they'll be very helpful if I'm conscientious with my record keeping.

No. I'm trying for one with green eyes, and other answers to "those" questions.

2011-08-12T23:20:00.008-04:00

With regard to my last post, Megan Jenelle asked, "I wonder . . . what have been some of your responses to the questions? Any good but ladylike comebacks? Just wondering . . . ".

So I decided it would make a good post. I'll warn you up front - not all of the responses have been ladylike. Sometimes my lack of patience is plainly evident. Some are humorous, and I do have a very strong sarcastic streak in me, but some of them, especially with regard to our beliefs are fairly good (and not sarcastic) answers.
Keep in mind that all answers are dependent on who is asking the question and why. Some people are genuinely interested, some people are nosey, and some people are just plain rude. Others will get instantly offended when you answer a question with something along the lines of, "Because we feel this is what is best for our children.", and some professing Christians will get more than a little offended if you tell them you're trying to follow God's direction with regard to how you raise/educate your children. The minute someone else, particulary another women, gets the idea that you feel a mother should stay at home with her kids (whether or not you actually said that) the battle lines are drawn. It is my expierence that with some people it is a no-win situation. They will get offended at the most obscure comment, or try to keep questioning you until you do say something they object to. I like to be as honest as I can with my answers (well, sometimes - like when I'm fairly sure they aren't just trying to be crass), but I also try to word things as non-controversially as possible. There are times though, that you just have to chalk the whole thing up to not casting your pearls before swine. Some of the answers were reserved for family members - as far as I'm concerned it's pretty much no-holds-barred with them. They've known me my whole life. If they are going to ask me stupid questions, well... I will answer them properly when I feel the joke episode has come to an end.

1) Do (Don't) you know what causes that?
This is never asked seriously. It's rude. Period. No - it's never funny. Okay - maybe I'm just a bit touchy about this. Uhhh, on second thought, no I'm not. It's crass. This never warrents a real answer and to be honest, I usually tried to ignore it. Unless you were related.
Sometimes the sarcastic part of me took over and I'd say, "Well I'm not sure, but I think there's something in the water.", or "I don't know, but I think it's contagious."

2) You should get that fixed.
Yeah - everything I said about the first question applies to this comment as well.
Again, it was often ignored, but I have answered with, "Ummmm, it doesn't appear to be broken.", or "Everything seems to work just fine."

3) Are they all yours?
This one can be fun. Some answers:
"Ummm, I think so.", or "Only the girls." (This one usually has them looking around.)

4) Are you trying for a boy?
Well intentioned or not, this question never fails to grate on my nerves. It insinuates the girls aren't good enough and even if that wasn't the questioner's intent, I always felt as though the girls could potentially take it that way. Ask them now and they'll admit they did feel that way occasionally when we were asked the question. Some answers:
"Of course not.", "What for?", "No - in fact we're hoping for another girl.", "We're trying to set the world's record for the most girls one family can have in a row.", "No - we're just trying for babies.", and my all time favorite, "No, I'm trying for one with green eyes." To understand this one better it helps to know that I was expecting T.Lynn (our youngest) and my husband, and all four of the other girls have varying shades of blue, blue/grey eyes. I have hazel, but not the kind with brown in them. They are a funny, changeable green/greenish-blue, and although they only occasionally look true blue in person (or so I'm told), in pictures they often look very blue. Because of this, I wasn't expecting to have a child with green eyes anymore than I was expecting a boy. Maybe my weird hazel, but not green. Never fear though, poetic justice is always right around the corner. T.Lynn has green eyes. Not blueish green, or changeable, or anything else. Just green. You gotta love it!

5) You have FIVE kids???
Really - with the way some people say it you'd think I had forty or fifty. Of course a lot of people just start counting. Some stop and start over repeatedly, on occasion never getting past two. And most of the time the kids aren't even moving around, confusing the counter. Once they were all lined up on an elevator and then I only had four.
I ususally cut to the chase when I see/hear someone counting and just tell them five. That's when I get the above question.
*Ri here. Sometimes when people start counting us, some of us have a nearly overwhelming desire to start moving around and darting behind each other. We've never actually done that, but that desire is there nonetheless!

6) All girls?
Or any variation of that theme - All girls? Only girls? No boys?
I would really love to start looking around, muttering something like, "They were just here....", but so far I've restrained myself. The girls will admit to wanting to say, "Do you see any boys?", or "Yeah. We have boys, but we don't like to let them out of the house.", so they've also restrained themselves admirably. We usually just sigh out a, "Yes, all girls.", or "No boys."

7) Oh, you must be so patient.
No I'm not. The girls are old enough now to either snicker, shake their heads, or come right out and say, "No she's not.", or "Her??" Sometimes I'll take the time to explain that I'm not particularly gifted with patience, but that my mother used to say she had made sure she raised us in such a manner that she would be able to enjoy spending time with us, and that I had done my best to do the same with my own children. At other times, particularly if the person saying it was asking advice because she assumed I was patient, I would explain that part of the reason my children were reasonably well behaved was not because I was patient, but because I was intolerant of annoying behavior. For example, I really dislike whinning and squealing, so I didn't let my kids whine or squeal. I wasn't patient with it, I just didn't allow it. I would often go on to explain, not how to be patient (except with the fact that it would take a bit longer to correct a bad habit than to set a good one to begin with), but how to correct whatever problem they were having.

8) How do you do it?
Often this is a rhetorical question. When it is I'll say something along the lines of, "I don't.", or "You just do it.", but occasionally it's legitimate and then I explain that I'm not supermom. I just keep doing what need's to be done; crossing things off my list or moving them on to the next day, or week. I'll often explain that there's no way I can do it all. I have to train the girls to help and then I spend a good deal of my time delegating and following up. I've also told people that with God all things are possible. (No - I wasn't joking.)

9) How do you manage them all?
"With a whip and a chair!!", or "Good 'ol fashioned military training." No joking here, I've really said that, but all kidding aside, when this question is sincere I usually use the same answer with regard to my mom and training them in such a manner that I'll be able to enjoy being around them. I've also said, "With a lot of prayer."

10) Why so many? (This has a few different variations as well.)
"Because we love children." "Because we feel children are a blessing from God."

11) Are you Mormon? (Or Amish, Mennonite, etc.)
No - We are Christians.
As I said before, that doesn't seem to help some people and they'll go on to ask, "Well, what are you?" Some people start off asking that. You wouldn't believe all the potential answers that bounce around in my head when people ask me what we are. (Ummmm - human? or That's classified.) Of course some of them just ask what denomination we are. It all usually boils down to me explaining that we would be considered fairly conservative Christians and that we attend a family integrated church. Then I usually have to explain what a family integrated church is.

11) Why do you wear dresses?
We do believe you should dress modestly. We don't believe you absolutely have to wear dresses (as in, we don't believe it's a sin for women to wear pants), but we do feel that dresses are the best answer to dressing modestly and femininely. Sometimes I answer by stating simply that we wear dresses to be modest and as a way of honoring the differences God has created between men and women.

12) Why do you practice courtship?
We won't go into all the, "That's crazy." comments we get on this one. There isn't enough time in the day, and I usually ignore them. Ri's biggest problem is with all the comments about her not being able to think on her own because they feel practicing courtship means I, or my husband will try to control her life/marriage. She has taken to telling people they'll have to come up with a more original question/comment if they expect her to answer it.
We feel it's important for a young couple to focus on their future lives together, to take time to really get to know one another without getting sidetracked with a lot of the stuff that normally goes on during casual dating, and we want to maintain purity.
You have to remember here; Ri and he are both adults. They are willingly submitting to this.

13) Do you have to (wear dresses, practice courtship, not wear makeup, have long hair, have lots of babies, homeschool, etc.), because of your religion?
No. These are personal convictions of ours. Well, most of them anyway. We don't all have long hair - not the type where it's never cut. All of us keep our hair cut to whatever length we currently want it, but we do prefer them to at least have it down to their shoulders. We do wear makeup - when we want to anyway. If you're asking if we believe in birth control, that depends. We do believe you should welcome children into your lives, but we also believe you should use common sense. Sometimes refraining from having children for awhile (possibly for health issues) could be a good idea, but we would use natural family planning. I wouldn't use the pill or any other device/medication.

Homeschool questions

1) Is it legal? (You can do that?)
Yes

2) Don't you have to be certified?
No

3) How do you do it? (Is there something you have to do to teach them at home?)
I explain our state's requirements.

4) Why do you homeschool?
Depending on the person asking this, it can be a long or short answer.
We feel God tells his people that they are responsible for teaching their children about the things of God continually (Deut. 6:6-7), and that the best way to achieve that is to homeschool them. Public school not only doesn't teach about God, but by teaching from an evolutionist's standpoint it goes directly against what God teaches us. Then there's all the garbage that goes on in school. I don't think it's a good environment for children at all. I am responsible for teaching my children about God. Trying to find someone who'll do that for me isn't really embracing my responsibilities.

5) What about socialization?
"They're girls - what makes you think they'd have any problem socializing? They talk to everyone!"
"Are you kidding? If they knew my social security number so would half the county."
"Well, we let them out of the house/off the compound every great once in awile."
Then there are the times the girls mention something about a popular singer, book, or movie and their peers will say something like, "You know about that/them?" To that, my girls have gotten to where they say, "Yeah. Every so often something drifts into the bubble we live in." Then again, sometimes they beg and plead for someone to come up with something original to say.
When we're being serious, which I have to admit isn't often with regard to this question, we'll explain that having them around all kinds of people, in every situation, from every socio-economic background, and of all ages, is a much more normal form of socialization than being stuck in a classroom with 25-35 other kids of the same age all day long. And it is.

Okay - I know that's long. There were some serious answers and some not so serious answers, but I hope you enjoyed it.

"Are you like the Duggars?"

2011-08-10T21:33:00.001-04:00

I have fielded a lot of strange questions in my time, but that one...well, it got my attention, and temporarily left me at a loss for words.

I've said it before. Strain against societal norms, especially when you're raising children, and you automatically set yourself up for every inane comment and asinine question immaginable.
Just try having more than two kids without hearing, "Don't you know what causes that?", (BTW - never ask that question to an extremely tired mom in the third trimester of her fifth pregnancy. She is physically unable to restrain herself for the millionth time, and you'll most likely wish you hadn't asked her - at least not in public.), or the ever popular, "You should see about getting that fixed." And if you only have kids of one gender you'll inevitably be asked if you're trying for the other gender. (Both of those are also comments that should be withheld from a tired, pregnant mom.) Oh, and let's not forget, "Are they all yours?"
While they're babies, and then (gracious me!!) toddlers, you'll be asked when you plan on returning to work. The older they get without you seeming anxious to dump them in daycare, the more you'll start getting "the look". The one that suggests you've either lost your mind, or that you're failing society by "not doing anything". And don't worry, you won't just get the look. Some of the braver souls will actually ask you when you plan on doing something worthy again.
Announce you're homeschooling (or simply answer the oft asked question of why your kids aren't in school on a school day) and you may as well have begged society to hunt you down with a barrage of criticism. You can recite the questions/comments in your sleep, you hear them so often. And the looks, comments and questions vamp up again when you dare to continue homeschooling through high school. Never fear though, society won't actually have to hunt you down because you get the questions everywhere. Now what was that question about socialization?
Wear dresses, practice courtship, have longer than average hair (by that I just mean none of them have hair above their shoulders), and fail to wear makeup most of the time (never mind that this is just because you're too lazy to put it on) and you'll get:
"What denomination are you?"
"Are you Mennonite (or Mormon, or Amish, or Fundamental, or ......)" We're Christian doesn't seem to answer them sufficiently.
"Do you have to.......?" Fill in the blank here with any of the above mentioned items, from having more than two kids, to wearing dresses.
"What are you?" This is one of my favorites. I have to bite my tongue often when asked this question.

But, despite all my years of training in this sort of thing, I was completely unprepared when asked if we were like the Duggars.
What??
Like the Duggars???
What?????
It took me a minute or two. Long enough for her to go ahead and explain that she had already asked the question of my older daughters and they had suggested she talk to me. I'm sure my bemused expression was part of the reason she hastened to add that she only asked because we seemed like such a nice family.
Well thank you, but still...
With the question still fumbling around in my head, I did manage to ask her, "In what respect do you think we're like the Duggars?" She went on to tell me, "Well you have such a lovely family," (thank you), "and you have a lot of children," (5 is a far cry from 19), "and, well....". I had to extrapolate from there. I made the assumption that all of us wearing dresses had something to do with the association as well, although she was too polite to say so. I told her that I knew little of the Duggars. Of course I know who they are, but I don't watch their TV show. I do have one of their books, but it doesn't really explain all their beliefs so I was limited with regard to how I could comment. I do know that they speak of their beliefs being responsible for why they dress modestly and homeschool, but here again, beyond passing on that bit of informaiton I was at a loss. I also know that they hold strongly to living a lifestyle free of debt and shared that too. They describe themselves as conservative Christians, so I went on to add that as such, we would most likely believe some of the same things, but we would probably have differences as well.

The whole experience left me more than a little amused, and with yet another strange question to add to my list.

Making Life a Little Easier

2011-08-05T22:23:00.000-04:00

If not life in general, then at the very least, canning.

Last year we did all the tomato sauce by hand; peeling, coring, chopping, and squeezing out the excess liquid before cooking it down. For Christmas last year, I asked my mom for a Roma food mill. I love it. We just washed and chopped the tomatoes and ran them through the food mill. It took a bit longer to cook down because there was more liquid, but the time savings in the prep work more than made up for the additional cook time.

My largest stock pot, filled to the brim.

Some of the sauce is behind the peaches.

Don't ask me why the picture looks pinkish - I think cameras hate me.

One of the things we used some of the tomato puree for was barbeque sauce. I got to cook, and taste, and cook, and taste some more until I liked it. We don't use barbeque sauce much, but I'll like the fact that we'll have homemade on hand whenever we want it.

We also finished up our diced tomatoes for the year by making our homemade version of Rotel. What made canning the diced tomatoes extra special this year was that we raised all of the tomatoes we used for the plain diced and the Rotel ourselves. Even the peppers we used were homegrown - most from my younger brother, but some from our own garden as well. We used a mix of red and green cayennes from my brother, and poblanos and black hungarians from our garden. I think it'll be a bit hotter this year - I can't wait to see.

Tomorrow the plan is to make some blackberry jelly, and some blueberry and mixed berry jam. Yummm. I love canning.

Summer means........

2011-07-30T22:24:00.002-04:00

sunflowers,

and happy bees on the sunflowers.

(He's up there near the top.)

It means tomatoes all over the windowsills,

and piano bench.

(Don't tell Ri I used some of these photos before she got a chance to tweak them.)

It means putting extra produce everywhere you can.

When you're doubly blessed it means volunteers, like this roma, that nearly outproduce everything you planted on purpose.

It means okra blossoms - which I happen to love.

It means getting the opportunity to watch a tomato go from a bloom...

...to a baby...

...and then to a delicious tomato.

This is a purple calabash. You can see the progression from the uniquely shaped flower, to the fluted tomato.

Summer means you get the chance to see that progression frequently.

It means canning the wonderful abundance of tomatoes God has blessed you with.

For my brother, who isn't allowed to plant,

it means getting creative in order to find more room to help produce some of his own food.

Unfortunately, summer can also mean excessive heat, which limits what we are willing to do outside to just the bare necessities. I've spent the last several days in the air conditioning, creating my own sunflowers.

These are the dresden plates for Ri's quilt. Once I laid out all the little piles of petals I didn't want to keep moving them, so I settled in and got them all finished in just a few days. Finished sewing that is. The top six have been ironed, the 32 at the bottom haven't - and they're much easier to move around than all those stacks of petals, so the ironing may be longer in coming than the sewing.

As with all the seasons, there are parts to like and parts to dislike. Our job is to focus on the parts we like, and try not to grumble about the parts we don't like. Grumbling won't keep them from happening, it'll just make us more conscience of the miserable moments and allow them to steal some of our joy.

*Most of these photos (certainly the good ones - like the sunflowers) are the property of my sweet daughter, Ri.

Mouse Pad Re-make

2011-07-27T11:43:00.000-04:00

My mouse pad was looking, well, blah. Actually it looked pretty blah right from the beginning, but now it was looking dingy, diry, and blah. I've seen some really pretty mouse pads for sell, with toile or calico prints, but a new mouse pad was always way down on my list of things we needed for the house.

What can I say?

It was a freebie they gave us when they came to hook up our internet access.

I started by pulling off the old cover.

I tore apart a paper shopping bag so I could protect my work surface, then I sprayed the back of the fabric and the top of the mouse pad with a heavyweight spray adhesive. I waited 2 minutes and then sprayed a second coat. After 2 more minutes I flipped the mouse pad over on the fabric, turned it over and smoothed it out, pressing firmly. You can't reposition the pad once initial contact is made, so you have to make sure any pattern you have in the fabric is turned the way you want it when you lay the pad down.

When I first picked the mouse pad up to turn it over, I folded the bag so I wouldn't lay the pad back down on any adhesive. After I'd smoothed it out and pressed it firmly for a few minutes I used the rotary cutter I use only for crafting to cut away the excess fabric. As you can see, the paper bag is sitting on top of my cutting mat.

I took a second to clean any adhesive off my rotary cutter and then I applied fray check to the edges of the mouse pad.

Voila!! A beautiful 'new' mouse pad.

By pressing the pad firmly as I was laying it down, I was able to drastically minimize the bubble/ripple that was along one edge of the pad. You can see it clearly in the second photo, and not so clearly along the top of the mouse pad in this photo.

I let the mouse pad sit for an hour or so before we used it. You can kind of feel the difference in the surface once the adhesive is set and the fray check is dry. All in all, I'm quite satisfied with the results. Even if you have to go buy a can of spray adhesive it's cheaper than one of the decorative mouse pads which can run from $10 to $16. And then you have the spray adhesive on hand for all kinds of other crafty things. It's great stuff. Everyone should keep some around.

Raised (Overnight) Waffles

2011-07-25T16:21:00.003-04:00

This is my favorite waffle recipe for a couple of reasons. The waffles are crisp on the outside, without having to separate your eggs, then beat and fold in the egg whites, and you mix this batter the night before so it's ready to go as soon as you walk in the kitchen the next morning. I've used this recipe the most for the past several years. I have a sourdough recipe I also like, but you have to keep up with the starter for that one, so this is a little easier. I can't remember where I first got this recipe, but I've only made a couple of small changes to the original.

Raised Waffles

1 stick butter (do not subsitute margarine in this - it won't cook the same)
1 & 3/4 c. milk
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour*
1 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour*
1 Tbls. sugar
2 & 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

*You can use regular whole wheat instead of whole wheat pastry flour, or if you like you can use all-purpose for both cups of flour. I use half and half because the whole wheat is better for you, but I don't like the texture of the waffles if I use whole wheat for all the flour in this recipe. Half and half is a compromise between healthy and taste, or in this case texture. I doesn't do any good to make ultra healthy food if nobody will eat it.

Whisk together the flour(s), sugar (ours is raw, so it's light brown), salt, and yeast.

Use a large bowl because it will rise overnight.

Melt your butter in a small saucepan.

In the interest of time, you can melt the butter while you're mixing the dry ingredients.

Once the butter is melted add the milk and heat just until it's warm to the touch.

Slowly pour the milk and butter into the dry mixture while whisking.

Beat together the eggs and vanilla.

To minimize dirty dishes I do this in the measuring cup I used for the milk.

Then whisk the egg mixture into the batter.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat your waffle iron and pull out your batter; it will have poofed quite a bit.

There was more batter than this - I had already started cooking before I remembered the camera.

I usually only have to spray my iron before cooking the first set of waffles. There is enough butter in the waffles to keep the iron greased during cooking.

Pour on the batter...

...and cook 'til they're a nice golden brown.

They are so good.

One of the changes I made to the original recipe was that it told you to stir the batter before cooking the next morning. The waffles still taste the same, but they are more dense when you do that, and not as crisp. Since I like my waffles to be crispy on the outside and light and airy on the inside, I try to disturb the batter as little as possible when I'm scooping it out to pour on the waffle iron, but you can do as you please.

This works well for us on Sunday mornings because I don't have to spend the time to mix anything up. I just preheat the waffle iron while I finish getting ready for church, then walk in the kitchen and start cooking. I'll heat the syrup while the first batch of waffles is cooking and call the girls to set the table. Waffles only come out a few at a time, so it works well since everyone is taking turns through the bathrooms. I know, not the kind of thing you'd normally want to talk about when sharing a recipe, but it's one of the real-life problems you have to work through in a larger-than-average familiy.

Leftover waffles can be frozen and reheated under the broiler in the oven. This will warm them and allow them get crisp again. Just keep a close eye because they will burn quickly.

Yaaayyy!!!!

2011-07-23T19:58:00.004-04:00

I finished sewing together the blocks for Beenie's quilt.

I know - not the best picture. What can I say? Yours truly was too impatient to wait on someone else, who would have done a much better job. 'Someone' (hint, hint, Ri) can take a photo once it's finished.

I'd like to contine the smaller pinwheels into the border, but I'll have to see if I have enough of the brighter blue fabric left to do that. I sure hope so; I think it would be adorable with the little pinwheels overhanging into the border.

In other sewing, all three of the younger girls have decided to make homemade gifts for Ri's hope chest. Despite claims by Bree that hope chest items are taking over their room, and repeated objections to Ri bringing in more things, Bree's contribution was one of the first. T.Lynn made the very first; a nylon pot holder she made from a loom she received as a gift, but she also plans on making a decorative pillow for Ri's bed. We're still deciding on what Beenie will make.

The clothespins holder Bree made turned out very well. The project was a little more detailed than it appears because we had to re-invent the hanger. I like to use small hangers that swivel at the hook, but the only one we had that was the right size was a skirt/pants hanger; the type with the clips on the ends. To keep the clips from making the bag hang funny, or possibly (because of the weight of the pins) poke through the fabric, I wrapped the hanger in quilt batting and Bree sewed fabric around it. After that it was ready for the bag. Bree sewed across the corners of the bag so that they would be squared off, allowing the bag to fit perfectly across the padded hanger. The fabric is some that was leftover after making the petals for Ri's quilt, embelllished with a bit of leftover lace.

I plan on posting my favorite waffle recipe tomorrow or Monday. I love to make these for breakfast on Sunday.

Until then, have a blessed Lord's Day!

Still sewing

2011-07-21T14:01:00.003-04:00

Maybe I should just say, always sewing.

My sewing "in box" is officially empty.

See it sitting there, perfectly empty?

Yeah - that doesn't really mean much of anything. It simply means I have no projects (other than quilting, which has it's own basket and box) currently cut out, waiting for me to sew up.

I often cut out several projects at once so that I can just sit down and start sewing on things as I find the time. But I also cut out as I go, and I've done quite a bit of that recently.

I've finished sewing all the blocks for Beenie's quilt.

Now I just have to finish pressing the last two seams on the blocks and then I can start sewing the blocks together. The quilt will be a little on the large side for a twin sized bed, but I think I've mentioned before my distaste for having to tuck the sides of the sheets in, so this should hang down far enough to avoid that. I'm playing around with what I may do for the border around the blocks. I've got a cute idea in mind, but I want to see the finished size of the top first.

Hanging towels were one of the assignments I gave my sewing class. These were a couple of the last things to finish up in my in box.

Ri and I each made one of these pincushions as gifts recently.

And then there's Ri's quilt that I'm also working on.

I stacked several pieces of fabric together each time I drew the wedges, so everytime I cut I was actually cutting out several wedges.

The wedges were folded, right sides together and stitched across the top. Then they were turned and I used an old knitting needle to poke the little point out. The last step is to press them. Bree helped turn them and poke out the point and T.Lynn helped me lay them out to press.

Beenie, with a little help from T.Lynn, finished sorting them all out.

About 800 wedges (they're not all in the photo) - all finished and ready to sew together.

This is a rough preview of what each flower will look like.

Of course there will be a brown center in each one, but those aren't cut out yet.

There have been many other things that have been sewn - several skirts, including some that we made from blue jeans we bought at the second hand store for about $4.00, a painting apron for Bree and a couple of over the shoulder bags. And I do get around to mending things from time to time. :D

There's always something to sew.

Just what I've always wanted to do.

2011-07-18T14:42:00.000-04:00

Yeah, right.

I have to admit that I was secretly hoping that caulk was really viscous and difficult to squeeze out of the caulk gun. Then I would have ~~begged~~ asked Superman, or maybe one of my brothers to come do it for me. But alas, it's really easy to squeeze it out, so the girls and I removed and replaced all the caulk in the kitchen last week. Other parts of the job, like scraping off the old caulk, getting the hang of putting enough, but not too much caulk on, and smoothing it all out evenly, were not quite as easy.

If you're not exactly tall, reaching into the corners proves a little of a challenge as well. Ri opted for just laying on the counters. She was wiping any excess caulk off the countertop and backspash. Kay had taken over the scraping after I finished the first side, so with her scraping, me applying and smoothing the caulk, and Ri cleaning up, it didn't really take all that long to complete the job.

Pretty good for first timers, if I do say so myself. I do wish the caulk were a little darker. It appeared so at the store, but it isn't white so it will do. Plus, I don't plan on redoing it just because it's a little lighter than I thought it would be. With all the stuff back on the counters you don't really pay that much attention to it anyway.

The thing Ri and I disliked the most about the whole job was the feel of the caulking. We used a silicone for water resistance and because it also resists shrinking (which was why we were having to replace it), and it kind of had a greasy, sticky feel to it. Yuck!! I really hate for my hands to be/feel dirty in any way. Stickiness, in particular is something I have a hard time with, so I REALLY disliked the feel of it. Hence being unwilling to redo it just because the caulk was a little lighter than I would have liked. That stuff will just have to stay right there until it's absolutely necessary to replace it. And even then I might have to ~~beg~~ ask someone else to do it for me next time. It really does feel gross. Give me scales and fish guts any day - at least they're easier to wash off.

Dr. Pepper Pork Chops

2011-07-16T10:02:00.001-04:00

Another non-crock pot recipe, but we don't use the slow cooker as much in the summer. Perhaps I'll have more of those recipes later on. Until then I thought I'd still post a recipe on Saturdays. This week's is...

Dr. Pepper Pork Chops
Pork chops (bone-less, bone-in, it doesn't really matter)
Dr. Pepper - 1-2, 8oz bottles
Salt and pepper, or seasoning blend of your choice

Put your pork chops in a bowl and cover with Dr. Pepper.

I was preparing 12 and it took 1 & 1/2, 8oz. bottles of Dr. Pepper.

Marinate 4 - 6 hours.

Drain off liquid, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and/or seasoning salt (I use a little Tony Chachere's), and then proceed to grill (personal favorite), pan fry, or coat in bread crumbs and bake at 375 'til done. I can't say how long that will take because it will depend on how thick your pork chops are. Just try not to overcook them. The Dr. Pepper helps to tenderize them, but nothing will save them from being cooked to death.

Let them rest for several minutes before cutting into them.

I was in a hurry last night so I just pan fried them. Tender, juicy - yummm.

The zuchinni (sauteed with onion, in butter and soy sauce), cucumbers, and tomatoes were all from our garden. There is something so satisfying about serving food you were responsible for growing.

I was told once by my father-in-law that you could do this with Pepsi too (probably with any dark cola), and if I remember correctly we gave it a try and it was good too. You'll have to give it a shot. There is a little sweetness to it, but not much. We don't keep soda at the house since we rarely drink it, but it's worth the effort to pick up a bottle or two every once in awhile just to change up the menu a bit.

Vacation's Over

2011-07-11T15:17:00.000-04:00

Kind of.

We aren't doing school right now, so things are still pretty relaxed. We sleep late and take things at a much more leisurely pace. Like today. I didn't get up 'til about 9:00, which I appreciated greatly since I was unable to sleep in while the girls were gone. The neighbors were also going to be gone, so I had to get up each morning and see to their cat.

I'm glad the kids are back because someone has to help eat all the zuchinni and cucumber that are coming out of the garden. If you'll go back a few posts you'll see one I posted on a gardener's prayer. Boy, have I revamped part of that prayer. Specifically the part that askes for it to rain for a couple of hours every night. Trust me - that is a gardener's nightmare. We had rain every night last week and it's caused numerous problems. Of course I knew that much rain was too much, especially since most of those nights it wasn't a nice gentle rain, but nasty storms, with lots of wind, heavy rain, and lightening. We are now battling problems with rot, fungus, and powdery mildew. The tomatoes really aren't liking it. Some of the fruit is rotting on the plants and the plants themselves are starting to look a little poorly. My thyme has died of root rot, and part of my oregano, which was looking so nice before last week, has also died.

It's all okay though. As gardeners we expect this sort of thing. Some things will produce like crazy under the same circumstances that make other plants fail. We just do the best we can, and eat a lot of whatever it is we can manage to coax from the dirt each year. I may end up having to buy more tomatoes for my canning than I would have wanted, or hoped to this year, but it's not the end of the world. And until something else starts producing a little better, we'll just eat a lot of zuchinni and cucumber.

Vacation

2011-07-05T19:06:00.000-04:00

School's out - well, it's been done for a couple of weeks now, and the girls are spending the week with my mom, so I'm on vacation. Needless to say, I'll not be doing a crock pot meal this week because I'm going to try and do as little cooking as possible. Okay, if I'm being honest, I'm going to try and do as little of everything as possible.
Now if I could just hit a pause buttton on all the zuchinni coming out of the garden. :D
I offered to send some along with the girls, but mom chastised me for, "...using that four letter word." You know the one - it starts with a C, ends with a K, and it's why most people have a kitchen. Mom's kitchen is for storing all her take out menus, so as you may expect, I sill have 6 zuchinni in my kitchen and the plants are threatening more in the immediate future. It's a good thing frozen, shredded zuchinni has many uses.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer and I'll be back next week.

Crockpot Cooking: Apple Butter

2011-07-03T00:22:00.003-04:00

I know. We're up to our eyeballs in zuchinni, the cukes are coming in at an alarming rate, and soon we'll be knee deep in diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Who can think of canning apple stuff at a time like that. Well, I can. The apples will start ripening around here in another 2-3 weeks. That is, the sweet ones - the ones you want to turn into apple sauce and apple butter. I usually just wait and get whatever still happens to be picking when the Granny Smith's come in, but I'd like to try some of the sweeter ones this year.

All that being said, on to...

Apple Butter
Applesauce                Brown sugar
Cinnamon                   Allspice
Cloves                        Nutmeg

Pour your crock pot nearly full of applesauce. Add some brown sugar - I usually start with 1c. and then add more later if I think it needs a little more sweetener. Add your spices - start with about 2tsp. cinnamon and 1/2tsp each of the other spices. Then turn your crock pot on low. Some books or web sites suggest letting the lid rest on wooden spoons in order to allow the steam to escape, but I just put a splatter guard over the top instead. I find the moisture evaporates even quicker that way. You'll cook this down about half and then add more apple sauce. When it has cooked down about a third more you can taste it and see if you think it needs anymore sugar or spices. Keep adjusting things and cooking until you're satisfied with the taste and thickness. I like mine very thick, so I cook it down a lot. If you like it runnier, you just don't cook it as long, or if it already thickened too much you could add more applesauce or apple juice. It usually takes most of a day for it to cook down completely. You'll want to stir it on occasions as most crock pots have a hot spot or two that will tend to burn during very long cooking. In addition to that, you'll want to scrape down the sides as it cooks to keep them clean so there won't be any residue to burn. This may sound like a lot of work but it's not really - and it certainly beats the stove top method that requires constant stirring. After that, all you have to do is can it. Prepare your jars, rings, and lids and let the water in your canner get hot. Fill the jars and process in the water bath, after it comes to a full boil; 5 min for pint or half pint, or 10 min. for quart. Personally, I like the little 4oz. jars and I process them 5 min. If you're not familiar with canning, please look it up - these are not detailed instructions and are only helpful if you're already familiar with all the other necessary steps.

Some of the apple butter we canned in 2009 (the small, dark jars) - I didn't have as many 4oz jars then. I made sure I had plenty of them last year.

Sometimes I make apple juice for apple jelly by cooking peeled, cored apple slices and allowing them to drain in a jelly bag. When I do it that way, I use the leftover apple pulp(pureed with a stick blender) for my apple butter. There's no sense in letting it go to waste and a bonus is that it doesn't take as long to cook it down since quite a bit of the moisture has already been removed from it.

Nineteen

2011-06-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

Nineteen years (and one day) ago I was busy getting to know my brand new daughter, and marveling at everything my mother (who'd had a ring-side seat during the delivery) was telling me about her birth, and what happen immediately afterward in the NICU (I had asked her to go with them when they took Ri). The Dr.'s and nurses were still scratching their heads over how she had come through completely well after such a long, difficult, and dangerous delivery; they certainly hadn't expected her to. They could not explain how it was that she was fine. So many things went wrong during that delivery, but she was perfectly healthy. I believe she was a gift from a merciful God. I wasn't saved at the time, but later on Ri was part of the reason I did get saved.

Yesterday we celebrated her birth with a day full of some of her favorite foods. I fixed pizza sticks for lunch, chicken and dumplings for supper, and chocolate pie for dessert. Right after I served her pie it started raining hard. She jumped up from the table with an, "Eeeeeeeppp!!", ran in the sunroom, slung open the sliding glass door, and threw herself prostrate on the floor in order to get pictures of the rain spashing on the deck with the camera she had gotten for her birthday. Family, Superman, and her best friend had all pitched in for the ridiculously expensive thing, but that's okay. She's worth it.

Nineteen years ago I felt lucky to be holding my daughter. Today I know I'm incredibly blessed to have her. She's such a wonderful, beautiful, exceptional person. I'll have to give her over to her new husband in a year, but I'll hold on with all I have and enjoy every minute I can with her until then.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!

The way we pray.

2011-06-28T13:43:00.002-04:00

Gardener's Prayer
-by Karel Capek

O Lord, grant that in some way it may rain every day,
Say from about midnight until three o'clock in the morning,
But, You see, it must be gentle and warm so that it can soak in;
Grant that at the same time it would not rain on campion, alyssum, helianthus, lavendar, and others which You in Your infinite wisdom know are drought-loving plants-
I will write their names on a bit of paper if you like-
And grant that the sun may shine the whole day long,
But not everywhere (not, for instance, on the gentian, plantain lily, and rhododendron) and not too much;
That there may be plenty of dew and lttle wind,
enough worms, no lice and snails, or mildew, and that once a week thin liquid manure and juano may fall from heaven. *hopefully, only on the garden - added by me :D*
Amen.

Boy, that's some prayer. It get it though. I want it to rain often enough that my cukes stay sweet and my tomatoes never split, but not so often on my rosemary since it doesn't like wet feet. But why stop there? I also want it sunny on the sun loving plants and shady on the shade loving plants. Of course, I want that without having to worry about where I should plant them in the yard in order to best achieve those results. And the best thing of all would be if God would allow my garden to have different temperature zones. You know, so I could grow cool loving plants like lettuce and sugar snap peas at the same time I'm growing the heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers. Just imagine the salad you could make, right out of your garden, just any time you want.

Ridiculous - no?

Well, it is a little silly, but the thing that came across to me the most when I read this little prayer earlier today is that, for many of us, that is how we approach prayers in general. I'm not condemning anyone - I'm too guilty of this particular habit myself. We start praying, asking God for every little thing we want, often not even noticing the contradictions in our prayers. There are times that praying for what we want, followed by praying that His will be done, is a contradiction. I've often caught myself praying like that, and try now to pray instead that __(insert prayer request here)__ be done, if it be in His will, and if it's not, to help me, or whoever it is I'm praying for to accept it. And too, just like in the Gardener's Prayer where she suggests the list for God, we think we need to tell/remind Him of everything He already knows. It's interesting, and perhaps a bit telling, that this tends to happen the most (at least with me) when things are actually going along pretty well. There have been many times when life's pressures are at their greatest that I don't even have words when I pray. I'm too physically or emotionally spent to be articulate. Or maybe it's during those times that I'm all too aware of the fact that I don't have the answers, so I don't know what to pray for anyway. In either case, I'm sure God does His best work when I get out of the way.
On another note about prayer - my husband's maternal grandmother once told me that the biggest problem she had with turning things over to God was that she would get impatient, snatch those things back, and try to solve them herself. Hummm.That sounds vaguely familiar.

Crockpot Cooking: Cheese Dip

2011-06-25T20:59:00.001-04:00

I love this cheese dip. So does everyone else in my family, extended family included. We rarely have a family function (only Thanksgiving) for my mom's side of the family where this dip isn't on hand. I made the mistake of not making it for one of the birthday partys one year and nearly didn't hear the end of it, so it's now a staple item. Some of them even want it for Thanksgiving, but I put my foot down about that one.
There are many recipes similar to this floating around, some with Velveeta and salsa, some very close to mine but using ground beef...this is the way we like it.

Cheese Dip
1 large box Velveeta
1 lb sausage - regular or hot, depending on how spicy you like it
1 can original Ro*tel (diced tomatoes and chilies)
chips - your preference

This easily doubles (that's how much I ususally make), or even triples if you have a large enough crock pot.

Cube your Velveeta and put it in the crock pot.

While you're working on this, start cooking the sausage, breaking it apart as you go.

Drain the fat off the sausage and add it to the pot.

Next, pour in your Ro*tel.

Give everything a good stir and turn your pot on low until everything's melted, about 2 1/2-3 hours.

You can turn it on high and it should melt in about 1 1/2 hours(depending on your pot), but you need to check it more often because the cheese will burn on the sides of the pot.

Once it's done, keep it on your warm setting, if you have one.

The cheese does burn on the edges if left too long, but it will last through a typical buffet dinner, or even longer, especially if you remember to go back and stir it once or twice.

We like to use the hot sausage with this and have even added extra peppers when we felt it wasn't spicy enough. If there will be a lot of small children I will use regular sausage, or mix it half and half with hot. I use the homemade diced chilies and peppers that we canned, so mine is a bit more spicy than the original Ro*tel. I think they make a hot version if you really want it spicy.

This is great on regular potato chips, tortilla chips, Fritos (the Scoops work great), or just about anything else. My older brother and my nephew put it, along with almost every other condiment available, on their hotdogs, and many in my family like to top a taco salad with it. They tell me it's good on hamburgers and baked potatoes too. I'm with them on the potatoes, and may try it one day, but I think I'll do without it on my burger.

Crockpot Cooking: Hotdog Chili

2011-06-18T21:16:00.002-04:00

The first time I ever found out how absurdly easy it was to make hotdog chili, I decided that I would start making it instead of buying it. Now, since we try to eat less pre-processed foods, I'm glad I learned how to make it.

Hotdog Chili
5 lbs Ground Beef           1 Large Onion
Tomato Juice                  Chili Seasoning mix (optional-I used 2)
Chili Powder                   Salt (also optional)

I don't bother making this in small amounts, although you can if you want. I typically make it when we're having company and freeze anything that's left, in meal sized portions, for our own use later. We're not really big hotdog eaters, so that seems to work fine for us. You can make this with nothing but salt and some chili powder, but I really prefer to use a couple of envelopes of the chili seasoning mix. It probably has cumin in it, so you could just add some of that instead, if you happen to keep it on hand - which I don't. You could also use more of the packets and not use any additional chili powder or salt if you like, but I like to taste and adjust as I go.

While you brown your ground beef, finely chop the onion.

Drain off as much of the fat as you can and throw in the onion for a few minutes, just until it begins to turn translucent.

Next, pour in your tomato juice. How much you use will depend on how runny, or thick you want your chili.

And finally, add your seasoning packets and two teaspoons of chili powder. Turn it on low and cook at least 8 hours.

A couple of times during cooking I use a potato masher to make sure any large chunks of ground beef get broken up. I also take a second or two to taste it and add more chili powder, or add a little salt if I think it needs it. You probably won't need to add salt at all if you use just the seasoning mixes (the general rule of thumb for them is one packet per pound of ground beef), but if you use only chili powder, or less of the mixes, you may need to add salt. The reason I don't add everything at the begining is beacase it takes awhile for the full flavor of the peppers to develop and any heat will increase during cooking.

All finished!

Mine is a little runnier than I usually make it, but I knew I would have to make this on Friday, and then heat it in a regular pot on Saturday. It would (and did) lose quite a bit of moisture during the reheating (and while waiting on my procrastinating relatives to show up).

Try it out. You can make it as spicy or as mild as you and your family like it.

This year's garden

2011-06-16T13:33:00.000-04:00

"When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant." -Author Unknown

So true!

We spent part of the morning weeding (a hateful chore when referring to the front flower beds), checking on the plants and trying to keep the zuchinni from overtaking the entire bed it's planted in.

In the bed we have along the right side of the back of our house(we had zuchinni there last year), we have okra and a couple of tomatoes (which I forgot to put the tower around this morning - argh). The sage is to the left, with one of my pinapple sage just beyond that (out of the picture). I have several other pinapple sage in the front flower bed. I didn't bother with pictures of the entire corner bed, because with execption of the holly hock, everything else is just comming up - that bed doesn't get a whole lot of sun.

On this side of the deck we have asian cukes, another tomato and some sunflowers.

Working our way around the back, we have chives (far right - which you can't really see although they are coming up), peppers, and another variety of cuke.

Down the rest of the length we have beans.

On the corner we have the parsley that is in flower. It's huge - as you can tell since it's taller than T.Lynn. We couldn't get a picture of the activity, but it seems like the whole thing is constantly in motion with the different insects that are always around it, pollinating it for us. Anyone for parsley seed? It looks like we'll have plenty.

Then there's the lemon balm.

T.Lynn again helps with understanding how big this things is. Almost as tall as she is, it's recently started flowering.

We put in two more raised beds this year. This one has herbs, tomatoes, carrots, and peppers, though the tomatoes keep you from seeing some of it. I just love those compact basils. I like the intensity of their flavor, and besides, they're cute. T.Lynn is partially hiding the oregano, which is doing much better this year.

The other bed has zuchinni...

...and more peppers and tomatoes.

We had to pull the zuchinni back from the peppers. I told you they were taking over.

I know. It seems like a lot of pepers and tomatoes, but there were several different types of each that we planted, and I wanted to raise more tomatoes this year, in the hope that I wouldn't have to buy quite so many for what we plan on canning. I get a good price for them, but still, a dollar fifty for a packet of seeds is even cheaper.

After much debate, we decided to use concrete block to form our beds this year. One reason is because the concrete won't eventually rot like untreated wood will. We decided to try planting a few things in the openings just to see how that would go. When researching it, we found mixed reviews on how well things grow in the openings. These dwarf marigolds seems to be doing well.

As is the elfin thyme.

Some of the other stuff is not doing so well, or didn't come up at all, so I would say that it just depends on what you plant in them. I've heard of putting alpine strawberries in them and we may try that next year.

I will have to try and get a bit earlier start next year, especially on my peppers. One variety in particular has been especially slow growing and I wish I had started it much sooner. We also have one pepper and a patio tomato, along with some rosemary growing in pots on the deck.

"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides." - W.E. Jones

I'm feeling that now. The patio tomato has several green tomatoes on it, some of them already getting big. Several more tomatoes have blooms and the zuchinni is just starting to form flowers. Yummm!! I can hardly wait!

Preparing a Hope Chest

2011-06-14T14:34:00.003-04:00

Ri was never very interested in doing much about a hope chest...until Superman. Then she began to panic. Her older sister and one of her friends had been working on theirs awhile, but she had very little, and I do mean very little for hers. At the time she didn't even have a hope chest, she just kept her few things in a box, but once we got past the first few months of courting she began to get concerned that she would not have the things she would need once she got married. So we got busy, and she started asking for hope chest items for her birthday and Christmas. Occasionally she still has a little panic attack, but I've done my best to assure her everything will be fine. Between my mom, step-mom, and hubby and me (hubby doesn't actually do the shopping, he's more of a financial backer to our plans :D), she's amassed a rather decent supply of (mostly) kitchen items. My mother and I each got her 4 place settings of the nice dishes she wanted last Christmas, and, among other things, she also has a set of glasses, several pans, casserole dishes, and serving dishes, as well as numerous kitchen linens (she thinks it's a lot, but she'll learn), and plenty of the odds and ends, like spatulas, graters, serving spoons, etc. Thanks to my step-mother, she even has a real chest to put it all in now. For Christmas she passed on to Ri a very nice blanket chest she had, already partially filled with some of the wedgewood dishes Ri had always admired when at her and my father's house, and some everyday dishes. I have made a point of picking her up a few things once a month, or taking her to pick out a few things herself once a month. Plus, I've reminded her that she has a bridal shower to look forward to. Considering the fact that's she's already more than filled the chest and has started having to use the attic accesses to store her items, I'm sure she'll at least have all the basics covered by the time she gets married.

I've also been working on some other things for her hope chest. In times past, young girls worked on their hope chests for years, with mothers, sisters, grandmothers and friends helping to fill it with items they would make. I've read that sometimes the girls would work on quilt tops that would later be quilted by all the women in the community at a quilting bee once the girl became engaged., and at her shower friends and family would give her other linens they had made for her. Those chests were filled with items lovingly sewn for her and her future family. Today most of the items a young woman accumulates will have been purchased, but I wanted to try and capture just a bit of what was so common all those years ago. With that in mind I have been sewing things to add to her hope chest. I have several things finished and several more in mind. It all kind of started when I decided that I could better use some of my chaperone time actually making things Ri could one day use, so I started knitting washcloths during the time Superman would be over if I didn't have some other type of work I had to to at the time. Here are some of the things that I've made for her.

The wash cloths, from my favorite pattern. These work up pretty quickly.

I've already finished one more and have another started. I want to give her a dozen, so I'm almost there.

Nothing glamorous here. Just rags I made from scraps that were leftover from a hooded baby towel, but no new bride wants to use her nice, new kitchen towles and washcloths to clean up a really grubby mess. This is the second set I've made. Maybe her nice towels will stay that way for a little while.

Hanging towels for the kitchen. This is also the second set I've made. The other two were made from sunflower patterned towels and pot holders. I plan on making her a few potholders from the fabric I used for the top of these. I just need to order some Insul Brite. The local fabric store didn't have it.

I just finished these embroidered pillow cases this weekend. Ri saw the pre-printed cases in a fabric store in Gastonia and I just had to get it for her since the quilt I'm making her is a sunflower pattern. I promptly lost the instructions right after I copied down the list of floss colors I'd need from the store, so I just winged it. Since I was doing it on my own I decided to make the butterflies different on each one. I think I like it better that way. Superman says he sould have the one with the big blue butterfly and Ri can have the one where the large butterfly is pink. Ri told him it didn't matter because he wouldn't be sleeping on them anyway - they were just for looks, and only to be used when making the bed. He didn't get it.

I fully lined the interior so the embroidery threads wouldn't get pulled as much when taking it off and on. After that, I finished the edge with a yellow shell border.

I finally finshed cutting out all the wedges I'll need for the petals on Ri's quilt.

All 720, plus extra - just in case.

I've also started sewing them. There are a couple finished ones to the left.

I think making items for a bride to include in her house will make setting up her own home all the more special for her. I want Ri to look at these later and know how much I love her and want the best for her and her family.

*Oh - I nearly forgot to mention that she has a sweet friend that she met through blogging that surprised her with several things, both for the kitchen and for her sewing supplies, along with a beautiful little handmade table runner. It was a wonderful gift.*

Just call me a slacker.

2011-06-11T17:48:00.000-04:00

Well I haven't really been slacking off in general. I've been very busy, too busy even for crock pot cooking. Actually, just too busy to go grocery shopping, which is pretty necessary even for crock pot cooking. Also, there were several evenings (including last night) where at least half of us weren't home. This makes a difference because I buy meat in bulk and separate it into packages with at least enough to feed 7, more often with enough to feed 9. It's just a waste to make all that food when only 4 people are there.

All that being said - there's no crock pot recipe this week either. But I do promise to have one next week. I'll be using the slow cooker to help with food for our summer birthday party.

But, I have a consolation gift - of sorts. One of the things that kept me hopping this week was wedding plans (yes, they have a tenative date of next June - I may have said that before, but I can't remember), more specifically, shopping for Ri's wedding dress. Ri's best friend, and maid of honor spent almost a week with us and we used part of that time for dress shopping and other wedding plans. My procrastination prone family thinks we're a little nuts, but I plan on making this as stress free as possible by taking everything slow and easy, a little at a time, and with plenty of time for corrections if things go wrong, and they always do. So what's the consolation gift you ask? Well, Lys took pictures of most of the dresses Ri tried on and they posted a couple of them to a new photography blog they just opened. If you go check out December Roses you can get a peak of Ri in two of the dresses - not the one she picked of course, not even one of the ones in the final running (can't give Superman any glimpses), but a couple of them that she liked. The bridal dress photos are the last two in the post. Just so you don't think you're crazy, yes, the jacket and dress in the second photo are different colors. They didn't have an ivory jacket in stock to try on.
So go see my baby trying on wedding dresses, and for the record, no, I didn't cry. I didn't even sniffle. Buttoning up the hundreds of buttons on the back of the first one she tried on would have rid me of that desire had it ever been there to begin with. Thankfully, the one she picked has a zipper.

Homemade Croutons

2011-06-06T17:08:00.000-04:00

Okay - so it isn't Saturday, and this wasn't cooked in a crock pot, but it is a recipe, and one my family and assorted friends love.
I know I told you about the vultures devouring my homemade bread, and how I was concerned about having enough left to make croutons. My concerns were well founded. I did have to make another four loaves of bread before I could make croutons, but I finally managed to get some set aside for a day or two so it would dry a bit before I started. That's what you need; day old bread, or preferably bread that's two days old. I'll give you the standard size recipe, but as you'll probably be able to tell from the pictures, my batch was more than double the standard recipe. Have no fear - I will actually give you measured amounts for this recipe. Wohoo!!

Croutons
8 slices homemade bread          4Tbls. parmesan cheese
5Tbls. olive oil (I mix mine 3Tbls oil to 2Tbls melted butter)
1/2tsp. onion salt                       1/2tsp. celery salt
1/2tsp. garlic powder                 1/2tsp. oregano
1/2tsp. parsley

I managed to save a loaf and a half to use for croutons. My bread is made from Kamut so it almost looks like white bread. Given the number of people who typically eat at my house, making croutons (or most anything else) in small quantities is just a waste of time. The oil looks weird because I melted the butter first and then poured in the olive oil, but didn't think to stir it before the picture.

Cube your bread and put it in a large mixing bowl.

Then mix together the rest of the dry ingredients.

Drizzle the oil and butter mixture on the bread, a little at a time, stirring between additions to coat the bread evenly.

You should try pouring and taking a photo sometime - it's interesting.

All of the bread should be fairly evenly coated.

Next, add the dry ingredients the in the same manner, adding a bit at a time, stirring in between additions.

Spread the croutons in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake at 300 degrees, stirring often to promote even browning.

They're done when they are lightly browned and crispy.

I cooked mine in 15 minute increments, stirring in between until they started browning, then I checked every 5 minutes until they were done to my liking. I think I think they cooked about 50 minutes.

My family eats them on soups as well as salads, and for the occasional snack.

Fish anyone??

2011-05-30T22:13:00.001-04:00

Superman loves to fish. Up 'til now, he has pretty much been a catch and release fisherman. He loves it for the sport, but never kept anything because he hadn't been shown how to clean them and no one would cook them for him. When I found out I put my foot down; he could no longer throw any keeper size fish back. We were going to have fish - and a lesson.

This weekend he, hubby, and one of hubby's cousins went fishing and brought back some bream and shellcrackers.

Lesson time.

First, I showed him how to clean them. Various parts of this grossed some of the girls out. You should read Ri's post from today. She had a problem with, of all things, the scales. Not the scaling so much as the actual scales. She found them completely gross. Her blog post is funny - perhaps more for me given the fact that I've seen her near panic attacks. Superman has been informed that he will clean ALL fish before they enter the house, preferably in an area of the yard she can't see too well from the house. :) Cutting off the heads was another part that some of them disliked (that part didn't bother Ri though), but I was told they found the sound of it worse than watching it. Then, of course, there's the gutting. Some of them should probably never watch someone dressing out a deer.

Next, I showed Ri and Bree how to cook them. In this case, I choose the classic pan frying method - one of the best ways to eat small fish.

And last, but not least, I showed them all how to pull them apart so that it would be easy to find and remove the bones as they were eating them. When I held the skeleton up by the tail fin, in order to show them what it should look like when they were done, T.Lynn just about lost it. She said it was just plain gross to see the bones being pulled out right there at the table. I think we need to try and work on that whole weak stomach thing.

It's been a long time since we've had freshwater fish in the house, so I didn't push the issue of tasting it.......this time. Superman liked them. Of the girls, Bree and Kay ate it, and Ri tried it, although she may be permanently scarred (emotionally speaking) because her's was the only one in which a scale had been missed and she bit into it. She was gracious enough to admit that it tasted good, but I am, as of yet, unable to envision her eating anymore small, freshwater fish. Maybe the ones that are big enough to filet, but not the littler ones - which in my opinion, taste much better.

Delicious!!

In progress

2011-05-30T19:34:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the mess, I am currently installing Mom's new design!

-Ri

Crockpot Cooking: Pizza Casserole

2011-05-28T09:00:00.103-04:00

As promised, here is the recipe for pizza casserole. This is another one we do in advance and take to church for lunch. We cook it on high for about an hour Sunday morning, then plug it in when we get to church, turn it on high, and go in during the greeting time (after singing) to turn down on low.

Pizza Casserole
Ground Beef                Pasta (your choice)
Pizza Sauce                 Milk
Motzerella Cheese       Pepperoni (or pizza toppings of your choice)
Onions                        Garlic
Italian Seasoning          Fennel Seed
Parmesan Cheese

Begin by browning your ground beef and cooking your pasta. We like rotini, but just about any pasta will work. I don't know how you like yours, but we boil ours with olive oil and kosher or garlic salt. Remember not to cook this all the way. It will turn to mush if you don't leave it kind of firm. I think ours cooked for about 7 minutes.

When the ground beef is just about finished, add in your onion.

The onion doesn't cook long, just 'til it starts to turn translucent, then add a couple of cloves of garlic, minced. Cook for a couple more minutes, then remove from the heat.

Go ahead and crush about 1/2 tsp of fennel seed.

I have a morter and pestel, but I used it for Grandma's medicine, and I just have issues about using it for herbs and spices again. So, I resorted to my pre-morter and pestel method - I put it in a ziploc bag, and bashed it with a rolling pin. Not on the towel, by the way; I just put that under the bag so you could see it, otherwise the fennel blended in with the countertop.

Everyone in the pool! We're going to mix this right in the pot.

As you can see, we were out of rotini, so we used macaroni this time.

Ground beef, with the onions and garlic, 1 teaspoon italian seasoning, and the crushed fennel seed.

Add your pizza toppings. I cut my pepperoni into fourths; it makes it easier for little people to eat, and then I separate it since it tends to clump together.

Next, add your pizza sauce. How much you add will depend on how much of the other ingredients you used. I ended up using most of two jars of sauce(15.5oz each) to approx. 4c. macaroni, 1 & 1/2 pounds ground beef, 1/2 of a large onion, and 2 &1/2 ounces of pepperoni. See?!? Measurments - most of which are fairly accurate. The pepperoni was precise - I weighed it for you on my kitchen scale. Pepperoni can overpower everything else if you use to much.

Then fill your jar about half-way with milk. Maybe 1c?

Shake it up to get the rest of the sauce out and pour it into the pot.

Give everything a good stir (it looks good already) and...

...stir in most of your cheese. I used a 4c. bag of pre-shredded motzerella.

Put the last of the motzerella on top, sprinkle with parmesan and cook on low.

I would not cook this all day, as the motzerella tends to burn easily, but this does work fine when put in at lunch, or in the morning if your going to eat it for lunch.

Excuse the less than professional plating technique. One of the girls took this for me while I was out for one of Beenie's guitar lessons this evening. Those extra, group lessons have been great, but I'll be glad when the evening lessons are over - I much prefer the morning ones.

This recipe can also be done in the oven. In fact, this was another oven recipe I converted to my crockpot so I would have additional options for Sunday fellowship lunches. The original recipe called for egg noodles, and they are fine when you do this in an oven, but turn to mush in the crock pot. Just prepare everything, except for the noodles*, the same way as listed above, and pop in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

*Since they won't cook as long in the oven, you should completely cook your pasta before assembling the casserole. If using egg noodles, cook according to package directions.

Let the kids choose what toppings they want in the pizza casserole and they'll be happy to eat it. :)

And then the vultures descended.

2011-05-23T17:16:00.000-04:00

I made bread today. It's not exactly earth shattering news since we make bread quite often, but today I made extra bread because I wanted to be able to turn a loaf of bread into croutons. The vultures devoured my last batch at an astonishing rate, so I wanted an entire loaf just to set aside and make into croutons. I wasn't exactly measuring (I know you're shocked) and only two of my loaf pans are standard size, the others are slightly smaller, so I actually ended up with four loaves of bread. That's okay - I was perfectly happy. There would be plenty of bread for everyone to enjoy, and I'd be able to make a big 'ol batch of croutons. It was perfectly timed too. The bread came out of the oven when most of the girls were outside. It would be safe while cooling on the counter, so I was perfectly content to go check my e-mails.

Rookie mistake. I should know better. I mean, come on, my oldest is 21!! How much more expirence do I need at this? I went back to check on the bread, pulled back the oversized flour sack towel, and discovered three beautiful loaves of bread and one heel. The vultures had been at work again, and I hadn't even heard them all come in the house. Actually, all of them never did come in the house; some are still outside. I did hear the door once or twice, during cooking and then after, so I think what happened was that they formulated a recon team to let them know when it was done, and then slip out with some of the booty once it was. Within a few more minutes we were down by another half loaf, and currently only 2 loaves grace my kitchen counter. At this rate I'll have to lock one of the loaves in a closet somewhere if I want to make it into croutons on Wednesday.

"Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts." - James Beard

I think my daughters would agree with Mr. Beard.

Sorry

2011-05-21T19:12:00.000-04:00

I apologize. There won't be a crock pot recipe today. We worked in the yard all day and I'm exhausted, and sunburned. In fact, the only reason I'm on the computer was because they didn't have the Domino's that delivers to us listed in the phone book.

So this is it for today. I'll be back next week with a recipe for crock pot pizza casserole - a real hit with the kids.

For now, I'll return to my chair, put my feet up, wait for the delivery man and possibly rub some more aloe lotion on my face, arms, and neck.

Happy Birthday!!!

2011-05-17T16:49:00.000-04:00

10 years ago today we were blessed with our last little one. T.Lynn is very much the baby of the family. Everyone dotes on her; from her sisters, and her PawPaw (my father), to Superman and even my step-brothers. She is still small for her size and everyone is super-protective of her. I can hardly believe she's 10.

We spent the afternoon at the mall (I must have failed somehow - she loves the mall). We went to Build-A-Bear and she built a bunny, named Cinnamon. We now have to take pictures of it and send them to Grandma (my mother) so she can see what Cinnamon looks like. I think T. should be in the pics too, since Grandma would like that almost as much as seeing Cinnamon. :D T. said they were very silly about the heart they put in the bear. Not that the heart was silly, but kissing it and everything else was. At 10, we're just too big for that. After building Cinnamon, we went to our favorite pretzel place (one that makes their pretzels with organic, whole wheat flour - can you beat that?) for a snack before heading back home.

We'll round out the day with one of her favorite suppers, followed by ice cream and cake that her sisters made for her while she and I were out today.

Happy Birthday honey!!

Gardening

2011-05-16T17:33:00.001-04:00

I love to see things growning. Particularly if they are beautiful volunteers. Don't ask what they all are. I can't remember what all I planted last year.

This may be bachelor's button? There are only a few of these.

A good part of the front bed is full of these.

Some are very light pink, but others, like this one, are somewhat darker.

They have this neat little x coming out of the center.

These are on the far right side of the same bed.

*I've done some checking and I think this is coreopsis. I did plant that last year.

Beautiful

I know this one. I love hollyhock.

They're biennals, so I've waited quite awhile to see them bloom, unfortunately they have contracted hollyhock rust and will need to be removed. You can see some of the spots on the leaf to the left.

Such promise, but I'm afraid if I don't remove the ones in the front yard it will spread to the ones in the backyard. These are single blooms, which I prefer; the ones in the back are double blooms. I'm sure they'll be beautiful too. I just have to wait a bit longer for them to bloom because they are in a spot that gets more shade.

The lemon balm thrived last year after I moved it to the shady side of the deck. It overwintered well and it looks as though I'll have to keep my eye on it this year if I don't want it to take over the bed on that side.

The sage did fine over the winter as well and is now starting to bloom.

And finally, the parsley. We used it several times during the course of the winter, but have stopped since it has bolted and is beginning to flower.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the beginning of several umbrells.

Here's one of the larger ones. By the looks of all the clusters that are already starting to form, we will have a lot of parsley seed.

As you can see, I'm a bit of a lazy gardener. My somewhat indolent attitude is due in part to the long growing season. Once the hot sets in, it's here forever. So for me, I never seem to feel a rush to get the things in the ground. I know I'll regret that one day when we have freak freeze in September, but it can't be helped this year since nothing is planted yet. We'll probably get around to it later this week. I would like to wait and put one of the beds of green beans in much later though. I've heard from someone I know that they have successfully done late plantings of green beans as far out as July, but it probably depends on the type of bean.