hot pepper jelly! YUM!!!

This was a great recipe! I used most of Paula Deen's recipe except for the part where I did put the cleaned and seeded peppers in the food processor. So slick!! Don't let it go too long or you will have pepper juice, but otherwise it was easy! Recipe: 2 green peppers, 4 Hungarian hot peppers, 1 1/2 cups of cider vinegar, 6 cups of sugar, 1 packet of Certo, and some drops of green coloring. Process the peppers and place peppers, sugar and vinegar in 6 qt sauce pan or soup pot(as I made the mistake of walking away and having a spillage, sticky stove), so watch this till it boils, turn off heat and add the Certo and food coloring! I put this mixture in Ball plastic jars, and then in the freezer. It made 5 jelly size jars of goodness! We tasted some on crackers and it was delicious!

Blessings!

peppers

We have peppers! Gordon and I went shopping at the greenhouse in May and bought a bunch of pepper plants, but he never saves the little sticks that have the names of the plants, so we have no clue until we see the peppers what he planted and how to preserve them! So, it's time to make pepper jelly and I'm going to try Paula Deens recipe that I found online! Blessings!!

preserving

I was reading a really neat article in "Country Woman" magazine tonight. It was about canning and preserving your fruits and veggies from the garden or farmer's markets. I enjoyed going to both websites, foodinjars.com and sweetpreservation.com. I do think I will use foodinjars.com more as there are many more recipes and ideas, than the other one. The magazine talks about having a canning party(Wow), now that sounds like more work than I'm up too, but if I was younger I would consider it! Canning can take up your life. It did when I was younger and canning 100 quarts of green beans, salsa, and pickles was always on my mind for days!

Now, it's a few quarts here and there, maybe this will motivate me to do more! Especially with Gordon's garden looking like, "oh my, where to start with the canning!!" Blessings!

garden time

Gordon's garden is looking very lovely these hot days in northern Wisconsin! It has been stinkin' July HOT!!!! Humidity has been partners with the temp. One day it was(humidity) 91% and temp was 95, WOW!! Anyway, the garden looks great because of it! So with that in mind, I'm dreaming of Caprese salad, which is so simple and when it's hot you want simple! Recipe: sliced tomatoes, sliced fresh Mozzerlla cheese, basil leaves, some vinegar and oil drizzled over the slices! Maybe add some capers, YUM! This can be presented so pretty with the slices alternating, the red and the white! Blessings!

birthday cakes

Saturday, our twin granddaughters celebrated their 8th birthday! What a day!! We had fun, they had a beach/park party with family and a few friends! Kari, their pastor's wife made their cakes and they were so cute!! The kitty cake was Olivia's and the bunny/kitty (hugging) cake was Lily's. Thanks, Kari!! You do a fantastic job in baking and decorating!! Blessings!

corn salad

When we do demos at work, I do try very hard to pay attention to the comments! So, with that in mind we did a redo of a salad I made last year, it was such a big hit, that people wanted a reminder what it tastes like and they got it! It's Paula Deen's Corn salad: 2 cans of whole corn- drained, 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese, 1 cup of mayo( it has to be mayo), 1/2 red onion diced, 1 green pepper- diced, and 1 bag of Frito Lays Chili cheese chips. Mix all together except for the chips and chill for at least 2 hours before serving, add the chips just before you serve(I break up the bag pretty good). It's really good! Blessings!

new dessert

I saw on threemanycooks.com today a very interesting dessert and decided to make it, yes it's not on my diet, but a little is okay! They called it Banoffee Pie, I call it evil! I changed it up, not making it a pie. I used graham crackers that were placed in a 8x8 pan, then sliced up 3 bananas, I took a can of sweetened condense milk, opened it and put the contents in a microwave safe dish. Microwave it for 6-10 minutes, but watch it very carefully as it can run over very quickly! This turns out a caramel like mixture which I poured over the bananas, then topped it with Cool whip Free. Yum, Gordon said it's a winner! Blessings!

rodeo

This is Rodeo weekend here in Spooner, Wi. This is a BIG deal for the northern people!!! In tribute to cowboys, I made "Cowboy Caviar" for yesterday's demo. Recipe follows: 1 can of black beans - drained, 1 can of black-eyed peas - drained, 1/2 onion chopped, 1 can of Rotel, and 2 cans of corn. Mix together and add 1/2 cup of Italian dressing, cover and chill, serve with corn chips. To make it spicy, add 1 pickled jalapeno- chopped finely. YUM!!!!! Blessings!! Picture is of our twin granddaughter, we were fishing!

July 4th

With today being the 4th of July, I would like to take a moment and remember the things that are so important to our country! The freedom to live where we want, the freedom to love whom we want and the freedom that was fought so hard for us on many battlefields! United States of America means freedom to many far and wide, I pray that it means that to everyone! Freedom, it seems to ring out everywhere today and I do worry at times where our country is going, but I know that God the Father created it

and has carrried us through many tough times! When we acknowledge where our freedom comes from, it is pricelesss! Let freedom ring and God bless America!! Blessings!