A Lazy Weekend -- Maybe

My dad and mom have a pear tree  that usually produces quite a bit of fruit. When I visited on Monday, my brother had a bucket of pears picked and ready for me. So this morning, I made pear sauce. This is my second batch for the season. I made 5 1/2 pints.

I put away quit a few jars of applesauce also. I will use most of it when making applesauce cake. I also put quite a few bags of sliced apples in the freezer.

My mom had a recipe for applesauce cake that has always been a big hit. We grew up with it so we were used to it. But it became a favorite of several of the Grandkids.  For some reason, mine doesn't seem to taste near as good.

As always the weekend was busy. I spent Saturday and Sunday morning cleaning some. Didn't get as much done as I needed to.  We attended Mass in Fort Smith (about 40 miles away) Sunday evening, then had a nice dinner with the kids at the Outback Steak House.

I still haven't made it to the sewing room.

What did you do this weekend?

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

A busy day planned

I tried my hand at canning some tomatoes. My mom always made tomato juice. I don't think I ever remember seeing her make whole or diced tomatoes. We really don't use tomato juice. We do use diced tomatoes when we make Gnocchi, Tomato Florentine and chili, etc.

So, I searched the internet and found I don't know how many ways to do it. Some say, "Raw pack!" Others say, "No, hot pack." So many different opinions and ways to do things. I finally got out my Ball Canning Book and used it. I did use the pressure canner instead of the boiling water pack.

They look pretty good. I have more to do today. I would really like to try my hand at spaghetti sauce. If I had a garden and could grow all of my tomatoes, I would make all kinds of things. Salsa, juice, sauce.

I also have about 1/2 bushel of peaches to do something with. I would love to jar them but they are not freestone and they were seconds so I got a really good price on them. So, I'm not sure if I could get a pretty jar of fruit. We will just have to see when I get them started today. I will probably just put them in the freezer and see if I can locate some Freestone peaches later on. I absolutely love cottage cheese and peaches and eat it for lunch quite a bit during the school year.

I think this method is interesting and I think I will try it and use the peaches to make smoothies.

I finished my last block last night. Now on to the border.

Well, going to get an early start. Peaches and tomatoes are calling.

Happy snipping, stitching, and sewing.

A New Form of Exercise

Yep, a new self propelled lawn mower. I decided that since I walk almost every day, I cold mow the lawn at the same time.  I mowed for over an hour this morning starting at 7 a.m. I started to go out at 6 am and then realized the neighbors were home and probably wouldn't appreciate that. But, I can't believe how hot it was at that hour.  Once again, we seemed to have skipped spring.

What else did I accomplish today? I canned 9 pints of Orange Chicken.

I used this recipe from Creative Canning Blog.  Yesterday, I canned 3 pints and tasted one today. I decided it was good, so I tripled the recipe today. I think tomorrow I am going to try some Cranberry Chicken.  But I also see a Marsala Chicken that looks pretty good.  I still have 10 pounds of chicken breast to put up.

Hopefully, I'll make it back to the sewing room for a little bit tomorrow.  Working in the sun wears me out. I don't know how my dad did it for so many years. And at this age. I do believer our parents are way tougher than we are.


Happy snipping, stiching, and quilting. And now canning.

Chicken and Brownies

I have a friend who is able to purchase 20 pounds of boneless chicken breast for $1 per pound. I had him get me 40 pounds (2 boxes). Not all of the chicken is large breasts. Most of it is in smaller pieces like chicken strips. But Larry likes grilling that size because it is faster and it is easier to can smaller pieces.

Today I spent the afternoon packaging up half of the chicken. I put 13 packages in the freezer. Each package has a serving of 4 because we like to have leftovers for lunch the next day. I also canned 6 pints.

 I ran across a recipe for Black Bean Brownies. Don't they look yummy.




The black beans take the place of flour and splenda or stevia takes the place of sugar. These are totally diabetic friendly.  They are in the oven now. I sure hope they are good and don't disappoint us. I am trying to find desserts that Larry can eat. And we both are trying to have less flour in our diets.

One more day of school, then I have all summer free. We don't have a vacation planned. I think maybe we will visit a few places in Arkansas that we haven't been.  Blanchard Springs Caverns. Clinton Library. Go back to Crystal Bridges and eat in the restaurant. I think I will check to see the concert lineup for Magic Springs. I'm thinking some day trips would be fun.

Well, I took the brownies out and I was disappointed. They are not sweet at all. I used splenda instead of stevia and don't think I used the correct conversion. I also think I left them in the oven too long. They seem to be kind of dry. But if I put some strawberry jam on them, they will be edible. And I do believe I will make them again using a different recipe.  I have run across 3 or 4 of them. I think I'll also taste the batter to tweak it a little before I bake them.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Strawberry Caramel Sauce

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try to can some strawberry caramel sauce.  Well, I made it and it is very good. It was my first experience in caramelizing sugar and I don't think I let it get quite as browned as I would have liked. But, I will definitely try to make some more with other fruits just to see what happens if I cook it a little longer.

The directions say cook the sugar water for 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat. I had to cook it much longer to reach the desired temperature and the browning color. I think I have my heat a little too low.

Marisa suggests using the caramel sauce over ice cream or a slice of pound cake. I'm thinking over pancakes or waffles, as an apple dipping sauce, lightly drizzled over cheese cake. Or a chocolate cupcake. Hungry yet?

As I was looking through her list of recipes, I came upon one for Pear and Chocolate Jam.

My very favorite pie is caramel pie that my mom used to make. I would always request it on my birthday. It was delicious straight from the oven, only cooled enough for it to hold its' shape. And it was delicious cold after it sat in the refrigerator for a day or two. My sister made us some a few weeks ago; but, it just wasn't the same.

And I almost picked up the phone to call mom when I was canning strawberry jam because I failed to take the foam off the top of the jam before jarring it.  I am sure I will do that many more times in my life.

Larry and I drove about 23 miles to a little town to the north of us for dinner. Rivertown BBQ. On the way home, a beautiful rainbow appeared.  I'm a little disappointed that we couldn't get a better picture.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting!

Three-day Weekends . .

are always great. I really expected to get a lot of sewing done, but I never made it to the sewing room.

Saturday morning, I walked and cleaned a little bit. Saturday afternoon I canned 6 pints of boneless chicken breasts. I like to have some ready for quick meals.

Sunday I visited with my dad and brothers and sisters. We enjoyed grilled burgers with all the fixings.

On Monday, Larry and I went to pick strawberries. I was hoping to pick 3 or 4 gallons. We were lucky to be able to pick 2 gallons. When we arrived, 20 minutes after they opened, there was already 30 or so people picking. I was afraid what we picked were not very ripe and really small. But once we got them home and laid out on newspaper, they didn't look so bad.

We stopped back by my dad's on the way home and I decided to stay and help my sister weed the vegetable garden.

Monday evening, I washed and sliced the strawberries. I canned 6 pints of strawberry pie filling. Don't they look good. Then after they were washed, I realized that we had found really good berries.

This is the first time I made a pie filling so I am interested to find out what we think about it. I am trying to make everything I can low or no sugar so Larry can enjoy it too.

Tonight I am going to try some Strawberry Caramel Sauce with the strawberries I have left. I absolutely love caramel but don't have it very often. I try to stay away from sweets.

So anyway, I'll let you know how that goes.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Around the house . . .

I went to a local orchard on Saturday and picked 2 gallons of strawberries.  I made ten 4 oz. jars of no-sugar strawberry jam for Larry. I actually eat it also. We all know we don't need all of the sugars we eat. I used low sugar/no sugar pectin and Stevia.

Yesterday evening, I dehydrated three trays of sliced strawberries. I didn't want to do very many until I tasted them to see if we would like them. I also made 5 half pints and 3 4oz. jars of sugar sweetened strawberry jam with the rest of the strawberries. 

I think I will go back to the orchard and pick some more before they are gone. I want to can some strawberry pie filling but I need to order some clear jel to make it. Just got that ordered.  Then I would like to make some fruit leather (fruit roll-ups) also.

I did not make it to the sewing room at all. I finally got finished with the dishes and cleaning the kitchen at 9 o'clock and decided it was time to sit down. I turned on the Cardinal's ballgame and took it easy.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.

Taking a break, I guess.

Kelsey thinks I am missing in action. I guess I am. Missing action, that is. I haven't done anything in the past couple of weeks on the quilting front.

I have actually been researching foods and home canning foods. Anything processed is bad for my acid reflux. I should really only eat fresh produce and meats. We all know how hard that is. Living in a small town with one grocery store and a small Walmart with only limited foods, means high prices in the grocery store.

I have definitely decided that I need to home can foods to eat more healthily. That means either growing a garden next spring and/or buying at the local farmer's market or local orchards. Unfortunately, the ground here is not conducive to growing anything. I live on top of a ridge. Very little soil on top of solid rock.

We made a raised bed a couple of years ago to try growing a few things.

At first, everything was eaten as soon as it popped out of the ground. We figured out a groundhog was the culprit. So we added an electric fence. That worked to keep out varmint, but we figured out we couldn't keep the ground moist. The ground will not hold water. We tried two years and decided to give up.

To get a feel for canning, I have canned some french onion soup and various dried beans. I found that I actually enjoy it.

So, I have spent the past couple of weeks researching gardening, canning, and food storage.  So much information is available.

This is how the skies will be looking for the next few days around here. Rain is in the future.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.