Friday, September 30, 2011
Red-Work in Place
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Trip to the Fair
One of the highlights of our year is taking the kids and grand kids to the fair. The grand kids look forward to it all year. I'm not so sure about their parents, but they are good sports anyway.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The grand sons are outnumbered by the grand daughters five to three. So I wanted to post a little, little guy love today. I had new pictures of all three grandsons, but my point and shoot camera got dropped and somehow replaced the pictures I took of Spidey with pictures from 2007! No joke. The weird thing is those pictures have been deleted from my camera for four years. Now just how can that be? I haven't a clue, myself. I'll have to take some more pictures of my little Spiderman soon and post them.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Cute Little Tater Picker
Monday, September 12, 2011
Vintage Blues
Aprons: It's been a craze for a while now, and I love it! I adore anything nostalgic that points back to a simpler time where for almost everyone home was the center from which life extended. Aprons seem to sing of that time. Just think of the emotions conjured up whenever you see an old apron. Some are instantly taken back to a moment of memory somewhere in their history that is grounded in home, if not your own at least one portrayed on tv. I know that everyone doesn't have those fond memories of childhood associated with Mom or Grand-mom in the kitchen and wonderful smells pouring forth, but at some point most have lived these moments vicariously through books or tv (Aunt Bea, from Andy Griffith, June Cleaver,... you know the list goes on and on). Aprons seem to bring those memories flooding back.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Favorite Things Friday, September 9th Edition
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
A New Love
I was inspired by Amanda's post on her blog Simple and Creative Living to try my hand at making Lemon Curd. I've always wondered what it tasted like, I guess the name curd put me off. Amanda calls it Lemon Butter in her post. Doesn't that sound much more appealing? Anything with butter in the name sounds good to me!
I wanted to preserve some of the new creation so I did some research and found canning curd is a pretty controversial subject. I read loads of recipes and differing opinions on the subject and almost changed my mind. When I finally came across this post on the blog A Gardener's Table I decided I was safe and I would give it a try.
I'm so glad I did! My husband and I both fell in love with Lemon Curd aka Lemon Butter instantly! There was a little left over after that wouldn't fit in the last jar so I poured it in a goblet and placed it in the refrigerator. About three in the morning I heard a rumbling in the kitchen, rather than investigate I turned over and went back to sleep. The next morning the midnight prowler confessed. "I woke up in the middle of the night and all I could think about was that lemon stuff! Where did you put it?"
I told him and his reply was, "Oh, I couldn't find it and so I figured you ate it all. Will you show me where it is? That's all I' can't get it out of my mind until I taste it again!"
I gave him the rest of the left-overs and he devoured it.
A couple of nights later while watching t.v. he said, "I've got an idea! Let's open up one of your little lemon jars and have a snack!"
My guess is I didn't make enough of this. I'm thinking of planting a lemon tree!
Here is the recipe I finally decided on, found at Cheery Observations.
She adapted this recipe from the book Put ‘em Up!
Lemon Curd
Makes 3 cups
Ingredients
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup lemon juice (from about 5 lemons)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks of butter, cut into pieces
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Directions
1. Combine all of the ingredients in the top of a double boiler.
2. Bring the water in the bottom pan to a low boil and whisk the mixture constantly until it thickens. This can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 25 minutes.
3. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve.
4. Ladle into jars and let cool. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Experimenting with Okra
The okra is producing like gangbusters. I guess that old technique really did the trick! I've pickled some, frozen some, cooked some, and when I picked a bucket full the other day again I set it aside until I got caught up on a few other things. (Actually, I never get caught up, but I was attempting to get caught up.) I was bustling about trying to get the kitchen back in order after a late breakfast. There was still some pancake batter left. I hate wasting food, but I was about to throw it out and turned around to see that bucket full of okra staring at me.
Finishing an Old Project
Friday, September 2, 2011
Gratitude
I have been so negligent of my gratitude list. It's okay to remind me. I sometimes need that. Here is my list for today:
33 Mercy, oh how I’m thankful for mercy!
34 Memories
35 Wind, Isn’t wind refreshing sometimes?
36 Really good books
37 Beautiful music
38 Acceptance that comes with age
39 Freedom
40 Choices
41 Bread
42 Sweet unexpected words of appreciation
43 Sunsets
43 That changes can be made