Fig Preserves

We barely finish one project before the next one is knocking on our door.  I wrote about finishing up our canning and freezing quota in my last post, and now our fig tree is weighted down with the most figs it has ever produced!

You probably can't see the figs in this picture, but trust me, it has outdone itself, just like our vegetable garden has.  You also can't hear it, but the tree sounds like it has a humming motor in the midst of it because it is working alive with bees, wasps, and hornets.  They love the sweetness of the figs just like we do!

My husband, Neil, worked out a deal with our daughter.  Heather borrowed a dehydrator from her mother-in-law and has dried several pickings of figs "on-the-halves" for her daddy.  (He loves dried figs and buys them often.)  So now, he has some healthy snacks stashed away to last a while, as does our daughter.

Now Neil is gradually collecting the rest of the figs as they ripen, and stashing them away in the freezer until we have time ~ and the want-to ~ to make Strawberry Fig Preserves. 

I thought since it is Fig season (at least it is in Alabama), that I would re-run my instructions for making the preserves.  Please come back and let me know if you make them.  I would love to know if others love the preserves as much as we do.

Making Strawberry~Fig Preserves

Our fig tree had more figs than we could eat this year so I decided to make preserves. Neil and I, both, remember the wonderful tasting strawberry fig preserves our mothers made when we were kids, so with some instructions from our County Extension Service I tried my hand at it. I'll show how I did it ~ the trials and the triumphs.

Step 1: Wash jelly jars in hot, soapy water.



Step 2: Sterilize the jars and lids.



Step 3: Wash, peel, and mash figs. Well, now that's what the instructions said to do but it didn't start out too well for me. My figs were very ripe, meaning very soft. I don't know if you've ever tried to peel a soft fig before but...



...the fig and I quickly became enemies. After working at this for about ten minutes I had about three little "blops" in the bottom of my big pot and knew at this rate it would take me all day just to peel them. I decided to just pull out the stems and forget the peeling. So, after pulling out the stems, I just mashed them up and went on with the next step.



Step 4: Measure 3 cups mashed figs into a large, thick-bottom pan and add two 3-oz. boxes of strawberry gelatin and 3 cups of sugar.



Step 5: Heat to a boil. Lower heat and boil slowly 3-5 minutes, stirring often.

Step 6: Fill hot jars immediately with fig mixture leaving a 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims and add lids.



Step 7: Process half-pints in a boiling water-bath canner 5 minutes. This makes about 6 half-pints.



Step 8: Scrape the pot and taste-test your finished product. I put a spoonful over some plain yogurt and sat down for a yummy snack.



Guess what we had for supper that night? We had hot, made from scratch, buttermilk biscuits, homemade strawberry-fig preserves with a side of bacon and a pot of coffee...Southern eating at its best!

(You may see my original post here:  Making Strawberry~Fig Preserves.)

A Trip to Bountiful







I've named our Vegetable Garden this year. 

 

Meet Bountiful.

Bountiful has outdone herself!  Who says great and mighty works can't come from small things?  Not me.  (Not especially since I am not quite 5 ' 2". But since I'm vertically challenged, I have a good excuse for not cutting the prickly, towering okra.)
  

In fact, I can't take any credit for this garden at all.  My sweet hubby:

•  tilled it
• planted it
• gathers it
• He even grew the hay that he cut to put around all the plants that worked to keep out weeds and hold in moisture. 

So what do I do, you ask?  Help eat it?  Yes!!!

But...
      I also help can and freeze it.  The two of us have spent many, many hours in our kitchen so far this summer, slicing, dicing, and peeling.  Canning and freezing. 

Today was Tomato day.  Hubby picked the tomatoes (of course).

 

This is only PART of today's picking!

Then the fun (?) started.  I worked really h~a~r~d (really I did!), until I got hungry (hear the whiny voice here?). 

This Tomato Session actually put us over our projected quota (trying to sound business-like). 

    We are now the proud owners of:

•  52 quarts of canned tomatoes
•  26 quarts of frozen tomatoes
•  many, many gallons each of battered, frozen squash and okra

And hubby has also canned several jars of jalapeño peppers. (I stayed away from those.  Do you remember my Pepper Fiasco from several years ago?)

 

So after finishing my tomato peeling part of today's process, I stopped and made lunch.  Guess what it was?  BLT's!  What else?

 

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

                                                                 ~  Lewis Grizzard

 

 

 P.S.  Guess what I put in the slow cooker for tonight's supper.....   Vegetable Soup!!!  All I have to do is cook up a pan of cornbread and supper's ready.  

 

Soup's On!!!

Happy Happy March!

It is the first mild day of March.

Each minute sweeter than before...

There is blessing in the air...

                                                                                                             ~~~ William Wordsworth

 



I love a new month.  Turning that calendar page to a fresh beginning gives me so much pleasure. 

March came in like a lamb for us here in North Alabama today. The day may go out like a lion because thunderstorms are expected later on today, but I plan on enjoying it while the beautiful sunshine lasts. 

 

 I had lots of company while I weeded around my happy-faced Pansies and pruned back some summer blooming bushes.  Cheery little leaves were dancing all around me in the spring-like breeze. 

 

The birds were twittering in the nearby trees, just waiting on me to go inside so they could visit their feeder.  Spring is trying her best to put in a showy appearance in our yard.  And she's doing a pretty good job of it.  It's hard to capture a good picture of flowers that are waving around in the breeze, but I did my best.

 

 

I have plans for March...Fun plans!

Maybe I need to tell you my plans just in case I get too busy and forget some of them.  I want you to hold me responsible.  I'll try my best to come back with pictures to prove that I did indeed follow through with them.

• fly a kite
• sew up the projects I told you about in my last post
• make more Blog posts
• sing a song every day
• smile a smile every day
• play a tune on my piano almost every day
• do something nice for someone every day

Okay, your turn.  Do you have any fun plans for this brand new month?  I'd love to hear about them!

My week in review

This has been a week of every day ~ but fun stuff!

 

Bike riding

     

 

My bike was a special birthday gift from my special hubby five years ago.

He picked it out himself and surprised me with it.

I think he did a great job.

It is so Me.

I especially love the swirlies on it.

 

 

***

I helped sweet hubby give our camper her bath.

Can you tell she doesn't have any "shoes" on?

She's getting new ones for our upcoming camping trip.

One of our sons said, "You might be a redneck if you have a camper up on blocks in your driveway."

 



***

 

I've actually done a little more cooking this week than I have in the past few weeks.

One night I cooked chicken in the slow cooker and then cooked Aldi's Chicken flavor Vermicelli & Rice and stirred them together.

 



 I steamed some veggies and baked a loaf of bread in my bread machine.

And it was a quite tasty meal, if I say so myself.

 

 

***

 

I've done a little gardening.

 

And I had such sweet help with watering my flowers.

 



Grandchildren are such a joy!

 



***

Today finds me going out for lunch with my friends.

Life is sweet when it's filled with such sweet people.

 

***

Thank you, my sweet friend, for visiting me today.

Hope you leave me a message, I enjoy comments so much!

Happiness in the Everyday

I find happiness, yes, even peace and contentment, in the every day things in life.

Cleaning my home brings me a sense of rightness.  Cooking comforts me.

That's why I'm feeling so good today because I've started the day off with some of those little comforts.

 

On Monday, after a full weekend, I like to start by throwing in a load of laundry and then vacuuming the floors.

 

The bright sun shining through the lace curtains in my little sitting area makes me smile.

 

While hanging my laundry on the line, I take the time to look around my backyard and say a "thank You" for the beauty I see all around me.

 

 

I go back inside and mix up my granola cereal.

It's worth the extra work just for the way it makes our home smell while cooking!

 

Then I mix up a batch of taco seasoning.

It's a good feeling to have a jar of it in the cabinet for days when I need to make a really quick meal.

 



 

Next, I move on to the computer to print up the camping list for hubby and me because we're planning on going camping pretty soon and I can't wait!

 

Well, that's it for my contented little morning since it's almost time for lunch now and then time to start supper.

 

I think a quote from one of my favorite all-time writers, Norman Vincent Peale, in his book The Power of Positive Thinking sums up my life's outlook pretty well:

 

To become a happy person

have a clean soul,

eyes that see romance in the commonplace,

a child's heart,

and spiritual simplicity.

 

 

I hope you have a great day and a wonderful week, my friend!

 

 

 

Soap making Day!

This beautiful Sunday afternoon finds me sitting down to make a blog post before Monday rolls around and my week gets rolling. 
Sweet hubby and I came home after an early church service to the smell of chili bubbling away in my large Crock pot and a cherry dessert in my smaller one.  I took a quick walk outside in the cheery sunshine before sitting down to a pleasing meal.

Now that we've eaten and cleaned up the kitchen, I wanted to let my blog friends know what I'm going to be up to tomorrow.  It's soap making time!

I gathered up my soap supplies while out and about yesterday and plan to get up early in the morning throw laundry into the washer and then get busy with my soap making.

I usually make my soap the old fashioned way with just lard, lye, and water, but thought I would swap out half of the lard for a blend of coconut, olive, and canola oils this time.  I'm thinking the coconut oil will add a little more lather to my soap.  We'll see.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

I've got to go out to my storage shed in a little while and get my soap making supplies down so that I can get hubby to wrap my soap mold with plastic wrap.  He does such a great job that my soaps come out wrinkle free. 

Just follow this link if you want my step-by-step instructions for making your own homemade soap.


What do you have planned for the week, anything special?
But then every day is special, isn't it?
Hope you have a great new week!

Christmas Pie

Cherry Pie

1 box Dream Whip (2 envelopes)

1 cup evaporated milk, chilled

1 - 8 ounce block cream cheese

2 cups sugar

1 can Cherry Pie filling

2 graham cracker crusts

 

Pour cold evaporated milk into a large mixing bowl.  Add 2 envelopes of Dream Whip.

Whip until stiff (about 4 minutes).

 

In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

(Scrape bowl often with a spatula while beating.)

 

Pour into Dream Whip mixture and beat until smooth.

 

Put 1/4 of mixture in each graham cracker crust. 

Put 1/2 of Cherry Pie filling on top of each pie and smooth rest of mixture on top of pie.

Chill.

 

 

 

I always looked forward to my mother making these pies at Christmas time when I was a girl.

I made two of them today, one to take to my husband's parents' house tomorrow and one to take to my mother and dad's house on Sunday.

 

Sweet hubby and I are home alone on this Christmas Eve afternoon.

Both sons are at their girlfriends families' get-togethers and our daughter and her husband and babies aren't coming in until after Christmas.

 

So, we are going with the flow, starting our own new traditions.

We're going to our church's Christmas Eve service and then out to eat.

Something totally new to us for a Christmas Eve, but I'm looking forward to it.
It's special to me any time someone else does the cooking and clean up!

 

But I think things will be pretty normal in the morning with our traditional opening of presents and then our Cinnamon Roll Breakfast.

 

 

In fact, one of our sons asked if he could invite his girlfriend for breakfast.

Maybe the other son's girlfriend can come too.

 

I have to admit that I do like tradition, but change can be good too.

 

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas whether you celebrate with old traditions or new!

 

 

 

 

 

Post linked to:  Show and Tell Friday 

                         Pink Saturday







Keeping warm, keeping busy

Just thought I'd stop with my busyness for a minute to let everyone know where I am and what I'm doing.  I'm close to the fireplace in my little crafty corner working on Christmas gifts.

 Can't show pics of the gifts yet ~  well, I might show the gift I'm making myself when I get it finished.  :)


We woke up to a white world this morning.  Not snow, just a very heavy frost and a temperature of 20 degrees. In Alabama!  I'll just have to be contented with enjoying the company of my two buddies (below) while I enjoy everyone else's snow pictures. 

 

Got snow pictures?  Share your link in my comments section.  I'd love to visit!

Picking out a new washer/dryer...Who knew it could be so complicated?!

Washing clothes should be a simple chore, right?

Just throw the clothes in the washer with a scoop of my handmade detergent,

push start and wait for the cycle to end so I can hang my fresh laundry on the line.

 

Well, that's fine and dandy until you go to replace your old washer/dryer combo because the old washer decides to start oiling your clothes and the 29 year old dryer's knob falls off.

 

Who knew there would be so many choices in the store now?

Should I get a front-loader?  A top loader with an agitator?  Top loader without an agitator?

All these decisions made my head spin.

I don't like too many choices, that's why I buy almost all my groceries at Aldi. :)

 

So, after reading all the pros/cons on online reviews, I chose....

Big surprise here...

I chose the old tried and true top loading machine with an agitator.

Mostly because I hate changes (almost as much as I hate choices).

 

I got this new Maytag Centennial set yesterday and it's been chugging away all morning cleaning all the laundry we brought home from our weekend camping trip.



So far, it seems to be doing a great job with cleaning  BUT  I must say it is sort of loud and it takes longer to run a wash load than my old GE model did.  Guess I'll just have to get used to a little change after all.

Speaking of change,  I'm still trying to get the red out...of my hair that is.  I've treated it with another dose of Vitamin C/shampoo mixture this morning.  I don't know if it's any lighter but it shouldn't get a cold this winter.  :)

Thank you for stopping by my blog today, hope you leave a comment to let me know you were here.  Traffic in Blogland has been pretty slow lately, probably due to everyone out enjoying the beautiful fall weather and I don't blame them a bit, in fact, that's what I've been doing too!

Dreaming in Full Color

Like always, when winter comes knocking on my door I'm ready to brighten up our home for hibernation.  I'm thinking of doing that with a new quilt for our bed this year.

I thought about making one similar to the table cover I made a couple of years ago, just a little bigger.

When I walk into my breakfast room the bright colors always make me happy.

I love piecing quilt tops BUT here's a little secret,

 I don't really like to quilt.

I've saved this tutorial on my Pinterest board for months now. 

I could quilt the pieces (on the machine) as I go and when the top is finished, the work is done.

TA-DA!

 

And goodness knows, I've got tons of pretty cotton scraps just waiting around to be made into something useful and cheery.

 

 



When Life Hands You Lemons

A friend gave me a HUGE bag of lemons the other day.  I love lemon in my water so I pulled out my old-fashioned juicer and started washing, slicing, and squeezing lemons.  It took quite a while!

I strained the juice, put it in ice trays and popped them into the freezer.  Later, the frozen cubes were transferred to a large zip top freezer bag and now every night I have a refreshing glass of ice water with fresh frozen lemon juice.  It's quite a treat!





 

Book Review with a Recipe

Read any good books lately?
Well, if you know me well, you know I love to read.  Mostly what I call "fluffy" books.
Books that make me smile, mostly.
Especially books that speak to my heart and that I can relate to in my career ~ homemaking.

So, how could I not love a book with a picture of a homey little cottage on the front?

The picture is from the front of the book, The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert.

 

It's book two of a series of eight from

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter.

 

They're cute little tales with a mixture of characters of humans and their animals that can speak and reason.

It took a bit of getting used to, the animals talking, but it seems sort of natural after a while.

And the great part of each book is the recipes at the end!

I just had to try this one.

 

Sarah Barwick's Lemon Bars

 

 

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

grated zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup lemon juice

2/3 cup butter

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup old-fashioned oats

candied orange peel for garnish

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9" x 13" pan.  Pour condensed milk into medium-sized bowl; stir in lemon zest and juice.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Add flour and baking powder in two additions, beating very well.  Mix in the oats.  Spread about two-thirds of this mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan, making a smooth, firm layer.  Pour milk-lemon mixture over bottom layer.  Spread remaining oat mixture evenly over lemon layer.  (This is easier if you "dot" it in place, then smooth.)  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until lightly browned.  Cool in pan; refrigerate for one hour.  Cut into 16 squares.  Decorate each square with a bit of candied orange peel.  Refrigerate.

 

 

And I must say that this is delicious!  The piece pictured above is being eaten as I type.  Yummy!

 

I'm currently reading book 3 of this series, and the more I read, the more I enjoy them.  They are very well written.  Here's a sampling of Ms. Albert's writing that I especially enjoyed (maybe because I have a little something in common with Parsley).

"Stop, Parsley!"  roared the badger, but in a kindly way, for he knew that it was Parsley's habit to talk all the way around a story or two or three times before she could manage to open the front door and step into it properly."

 

 

So, leaving you with that, I'm closing the door and stepping out of this posting.  :)

 



Oh, except to say this, the author has a wonderful website with such cute drawings, lists of her books, and even a free newsletter!  Hope you visit and enjoy it.  Now I'm stepping out again.  :)