December creativity and cooking

Since I wasn't blogging, I must have been busy in December. Right?

Well, partially right. David and I spent the week before Christmas sick as dogs with the flu. Since David's job makes them get a flu shot, he had it in November. I cannot get a flu shot because I am allergic to eggs, so I get to "wing it" every year.

We were not lucky this year. The week before Christmas, the day after Felicity and Gregory went to spend their every-other week visit with their Dad, David and I both went down-hill with the flu. David was in good shape after 4 days because he had his flu shot. Me....twice I though I was nearly out of the woods just to relapse. It took me 9 days to feel somewhat like myself again.

On a better note, I did spend some time doing things I enjoy. Creating and cooking!

I finished my crochet rug that I started back in the summer. I don't have a pattern for this, but plan to do a separate post with my own rendition of a pattern, coming up soon.

I also made some oh so cute scarfs to sell in my Etsy store. I have plans for a tutorial on this, too.

Fresh bread! FINALLY, after many attempts over the past couple of years, I had two loaves turn out PERFECTLY! I used Judy's recipe. Here's the link!

I found new love in knit cotton dishcloths, too! I have made crochet ones in the past, and wasn't so crazy about them. BUT until now, I had never used the cotton yarn from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE THIS COTTON is the name and boy do I love it! The Hobby Lobby brand cotton yarn is a bit lighter texture than Peaches & Cream and Sugar & Cream brands that I had always used in the past. Now, I even like the crochet ones I have made, but the knit ones are AWESOME!

I used Sandra's pattern here. However, I found I like mine a bit on the small-ish side and I go up to 36-38 on the needle instead of 40. This pattern is also here (free on Ravelry), called Grandmother's favorite, calling for 44 on the needle, if you like your dish cloths a bit on the larger side.

Oh and in late October, I designed an adorable little hat for my grand-babies. Here is Maddie modeling hers. I just love those grand-babies so much!

In October/November, I whipped up a few quilt table runners. A couple are still in my Etsy store, the others were made for my sister and donations for a raffle.

And finally, on Christmas day.....fresh homemade doughnuts! Found it on Pinterest, of course! Recipe is here. All I can say is: Crazy easy, crazy fast and crazy good!

Now I am off to do more creating! I have a quilt I started nearly 4 years ago that I hope to finish this weekend. Have a wonderful weekend all!

Colorful Candied Popcorn

This was time consuming and messy to make, but well worth it! This stuff is delicious!

Popped my popcorn.

Mixed my sweetened condensed milk and jell-o together. I used Berry Blue flavor in the photos. I made a second batch, using Lemon jell-o. I wasn't sure how it would taste but I love it! The jell-o flavors do not stay very strong on the popcorn, but the Lemon was outstanding. Doesn't taste lemon-y at all!

Lightly butter the foil to spread out the coated popcorn.

After coating all the popcorn, turn it out onto the buttered foil and spread out to dry.

Now, the finished product!

I found out about this recipe in a blog post here.

The recipe comes from the Eagle Brand Milk website and can be found here, or click the link below.

Candied Popcorn

12 cups popped popcorn
1-14oz can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1-3oz box of jell-o or other sweetened gelatin

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Line shallow roasting pan with heavy foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Butter foil. (I used a 13x9 pan and regular weight foil. Worked just fine).

Remove all un-popped kernels. Pour popcorn into pan. Keep warm in the oven.

Combine sweetened condensed milk and jell-o in a saucepan. Heat and stir over low heat until this starts to thicken slightly and gets bubbly, 4-5 minutes.

Pour over popcorn. Using a wooden spoon, stir gently to coat. Bake 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

Carefully turn out onto buttered foil. Cool. Break into pieces or clusters.

Enjoy!

Two Fall and Pumpkin Cookbooks - FREE

I stumbled upon these two FREE Kindle cookbooks this morning and wanted to share.


   
What a fantastic time to find these! Enjoy! I'm off to whip up a few goodies myself.

It's that time again

Canning season has begun at our little homestead.

Yesterday I made 8 half-pints of apricot jam. I found this recipe online. I used it as a guide, along side the recipe in the No sugar/low sugar Sure-Jell. I used the 1/2c. lemon juice from the online recipe in place of the 3/4c of water that the Sure-Jell calls for. I also used the online recipe tip of using 20% extra Sure Jell. I had 3.5 pounds of apricots and used 4.5 cups of sugar. It made 8 half-pints of gorgeous jam!

Then, last night, I made salsa! Two years ago I purchased a mix to make kosher dill pickles, by Mrs. Wages, at the Supercenter. Those pickles were AMAZING! So I tried the salsa mix by the same company. I haven't tried any yet, but it looks and smells yummy!

This batch I made with canned, petite diced tomatoes. This was an option on the package of mix. Six cans, 1/2c vinegar and 1 packet of mix. Fresh salsa!

Over the course of the next few days, I will be making Strawberry jam, Peach jam and Grape jam. I'm loving it!

Lemony kind of day

Ah fresh squeezed lemon juice. Beautiful! This juice is for fresh homemade lemonade. The juicer...it belonged to my mother and has been around for as long as I can remember. It is likely at least 50 years old. I love the thing!

Lemon peels. These will be made into lemon infused vinegar for household cleaning.

"King of the lemon peels"!!! Well actually, this cute little 4oz jelly car of fresh squeezed lemon juice will go into jam tomorrow.

Fresh squeezed, freshly made lemonade. Yum! How do ya like that neat glass pitcher? Under 5 bucks at everyone's favorite (or not) Supercenter. 1/2 cup of lemon juice, 1/2 cup of sugar and 7 cups of water. So easy!

This, my dear friends, will be some of the most awesome household cleaner known to women(or whomever cleans house). I just dug all of the fleshy part out and cut the peels up in half or so. Put them into a pint jelly jar and filled it to the top with vinegar. It will sit for a couple of weeks and voila! See the lemon seeds? Ima gonna see if they will grow. Likely not, but hey, can't blame a gal for trying.

Heck, I even had on a lemon yellow t-shirt. I just love this shirt! It came from one of my most favorite stores, Tractor Supply. Oh and I didn't plan all of this lemon-y goodness around my shirt....it's just what I picked to put on this morning.

Lemon blossoms SMELL.SO.GOOD! I bought myself a Meyer lemon tree about a month ago. I have often been curious about Meyer lemons. I know they have a distinct shape, are much larger than typical lemons and are quite spendy.

Baby lemon!!! The tree has likely around 15 little tiny babies on it! So...on with the story about Meyer lemons. So since I was curious, I put a post on Facebook and lo and behold...got all the scoop on Meyer lemons: "Meyers Lemons are have a slightly higher sugar content (because they are a cross between an orange and a lemon), are more spherical and have thinner peels. They are a hybrid so if looking for "heirloom" - go the other route. Meyer's also get a lot taller than regular lemon trees (15' vs. 8-10'). I like Meyer's for lemonade, but not as much for baking."

So there you have it. A lemony kind of day.

Tomorrow's agenda: Apricot Jam

Sourdough starter - here I go again

My dear friend, Sandra has found another recipe for sourdough starter. I started mine today. She has already made bread and cinnamon rolls with hers.

You can join in the fun and get the recipes that Sandra is using over on her blog, Full Bellies Makes Happy Kids. They will be posted soon.