table settings

About 2 weeks ago we went for a ride on a Sunday afternoon to get some local pumpkins to decorate with The family who is selling the pumpkins, squash and little gourds are a great family! The kids are sponsoring a child in Nicargua with this money and saving for a fun trip, so we were excited to help and get some beautiful pumpkins!!! Thanks and blesings!!

cookbook magazine

I went to the twin cities a few weeks back and had the privilege of going to Barnes and Noble for about 1 hour!!! It was so great to spent that time wondering and reading a few books that I had wanted to read, but didn't like the review on Amazon. So, I am a junkie for magazines and found this one called "Where Woman Cook". It is a good magazine and some really creative women partake of the writing! I would encourage you all to get a copy or borrow mine!! Blessings!

bits and pieces

Hey, isn't that an oldies song??? From Paul Revere and the Raiders???? NO, that's not who sang that, but goll darnit I can't remember who did!!! I do digress, sorry!!! We went to the twins birthday party back in July and I didn't post all the pics from the party and thought it would fun to see 2 pics of my men! 1. is of Gordon

Now, really look at the photo, the girls had so much fun putting all of this on Grandpa. His hair is in a ponytail holder on the top of his head(I don't think you can see that), plus the feather mask, necklace beads and bracelet. He put his foot down when Kora wanted to do makeup!!!LOL!!! We were laughing so hard, I was crying!!! Poor Grandpa, he was a good sport. Then there's photo 2 of Daddy!!

Daddy gets an A for going along with this!!!! WE laughed and had so much fun that day! Just what families should do!!! Blessings!! I did google who sang the song "Bits and pieces", it was the Dave Clark Five. Just a little trivia!!

pepper jelly

Last years hit from the garden was hot pepper jelly! So, I decided I would make some more, but do red! Last years was green! The hot hungarian peppers turned a beautiful red and I added a few cayenne into the mix. Please note when working with hot peppers, either put on gloves or remember not to touch any place on your body that is sensitive, such as eyes, nose, or your bottoms! So, with all that said, I cut up peppers bare handed and removed the stems, seeds and threw them into the food processor to take a twirl around the container. Please watch this so it doesn't become slurry!! Also, please be careful as the fumes from the peppers can sting your eyes, when you take the lid off the food processor!! Also, this is from experience! The hot peppers in the jars were so beautiful. I think I will serve some tomorrow night for Bible study with cream cheese and crackers! Blessings!

Is it soup or chowder??

I bought some leeks at the farmers market and needed to make something with them, so Gordon dug up some potatoes for me. I started out with the taters and diced them up. Then I got going on the leeks, as you need to soak them in water to get the dirt out from the rings of the leeks. So, I sliced them up and threw them in some warm water, separated them, took them out of the water and threw them in the soup pot!! I used evaporated milk and flour as a thickner for the soup. Seems there is alot of throwing of things around!!:) The I got some spicy meatballs I made a few months ago and threw them in the pot. It got nice and thick, so it became more chowder than soup for our supper! We got new smartphones, I hope eventually we will figure them out!! Technology is passing us by I'm afraid! Anyway, please don't get mad at us if we don't answer the phone right away, we are trying to figure out how too!!!! Blessings!

cleaning

Awhile back I wrote about having too much and cleaning! Well, dear friends I now have a plan for more cleaning! I have clear direction and need to start a monthly calendar to keep me on task! In 2 yrs. I would like to have sized down the "crap" or more ladylike the "stuff" that seems at times to overtake the house! There are so many more things I would like to do besides this task, but I want to move in 2 yrs to a smaller house! That's the endgame for me. Gordon and I don't need to move further into old age with all of this! It would drive our children crazy if we died and left this mess to them to clean up. I would be ashamed to leave it! So, with that said where to start??? Well, I read a blog the other day and she said that every spring she goes from room to room, looks over the room with notebook in hand, writes down everything that room needs done. The clutter cleaned up and hauled away, painting, carpets cleaned, wallpaper stripped off, closets looking like you can find soemthing! I thought this was a great idea! So, I did it and it wasn't as painful as I expected, but now the work begins! Pray that I can do this without getting too sentimental about stuff, pray that it doesn't overwhelm me to the point I give up, pray that Gordon and I don't argue about stuff, pray that I don't lose sleep over this, pray that I can be brutal about tossing items that don't mean a hill of beans in the realm of eternity! So, this year we need "according to my notebook" to paint 2 rooms only, so that's not too bad! 3 carpets need to be cleaned and 4 closets need to be decluttered! Then there's the basement, oh boy what a chore that will be!!!!!! Don't go buy anything until you check with me and see if I have it!! I'm not kidding, I would love to bless you if I have it, whatever it is!!!LOL!!!!!Blesings!

Relish

So, I'm finally back with the relish recipe! Recipe: 10 cups of finely chopped zucchini, 4 cups of finely chopped onion(sweet), 1 green bell pepper finely chopped, 1 red pepper finely chopped, 1 hot pepper finely chopped, put in an non-reactive bowl(not metal), and cover with 5 tablespoons of pickling salt. Let this set overnight or in my case for 13 hours. Drain the vegetables and rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse them! Put the veggies in a large pot. Meanwhile, dissolve 1 tablespoon of corn starch in 2 1/2 cups of vinegar, pour that over veggies, add 4 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 tablespoon of nutmeg, 2 teaspoons of celery salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Let all this come to a boil, then turn down heat to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes-45 minutes. This will be thick and pack into clean, sterile jars. I put this into pint jars for easy handling. Water bath this for 10 minutes and let it cool on the counter for 12 hours before moving to a cool, dry place. It's really good on hot dogs!!! Also, you can use your food processor to chop the veggies, but I didn't! This will make great gifts!! Blessings!!