Sunday Canning Links

Since I am gone with the family today, I thought that I should share some very kewl links.

Stout Beer Jelly

Five Simple, Natural Recipes for Homemade Pancake Syrup

Grenadine

Grape Jelly

Pear and Strawberry Bits Jam

How to make baking extracts

Skittles Vodka Tutorial

Gotta Run,

Yart

Link Love

I had a little bit of time on my hands today. Grim was at work and the monsters were with Nana. So I had some time to play on the net! I stumbled across this cute as button blog called Life's a Lasagna, Christine has a great site set up... She shares a ton of great canning recipes and well, you just go on over and have a look for yourself.

Grim installed Mouthy's fan. Yep, we had to buy a new one. The other one when we took it down, the blade holder broke and we couldn't find a replacement, so a new fan had to by bought. It is all white, so I took the blades and painted them. Two are purple and two are pink. I got those installed today. 

The chive vinegar that I made the other day got strained and jarred. Outside there were more blooms so I cut those and got them into a quart container with vinegar. So in a few days that one will be done also. The sourdough is growing. I'm looking forward to making bread or muffins.

Gotta Run,

Yart

Sourdough

Important note.... If your going to start a project at night make sure your up for the job. I decided that it was time once again to try and make sourdough. The temps are right for it. I get a recipe and it calls for white and whole wheat flour. I have the white (lots of it) and wheat berries that need to be ground up. So I pull everything out, the grinder, the wheat berries, the measuring cup, the 2 quart jar. I measure the berries and start to grind. Why did I buy a manual grinder? Does anyone remember why? LOL! Let me say that it was way more work then I thought... Plus, I am tired from cleaning today.

Once again I am in the world of fermenting. I can't wait to make lots of goodies with this living thing.... YUM!

The stores around here all are having the Memorial day sales. I picked up 12 packs of hot dogs and 20 containers of Kool-aid just add water canisters. The hot dogs went to the freezer for summer time consumption and the kool-aid goes into storage. I don't generally buy it as it is high in sugar... But I figure that the monsters would want something like this, if there was an emergency.

When I was down stairs I realized that I need to get down there and go through jars. Time is up for some of them and they are taking up space. With the season right around the corner I think its time to put some elbow grease to work... anybody got some to lend me... LOL! This canning thing has been a learning experience. I have learned that just because they will eat the store bought, doesn't mean they will eat the home canned. We have had a lot of that. This year I have the steam juicer which will make doing things oh so much easier. No more days cooking down tomatoes.

Gotta Run,

Yart

Raining again

Yesterday I didn't buy what the weather man was selling. He said that we were going to get rain. But when I went out it wasn't to bad so I got a load of laundry out on the line. Came in and did some cleaning in the basement... (dungeon).... Brought in the first load and did a second. While that was drying I headed out to the store to pick up some pet supplies and a couple of box fans.... With all the rain and the water seeping in the basement it is very humid down there. So with that task done... I got the second load in.... I had some time before the monsters needed to be picked up so I decided that it was time to make the chive vinegar.

I got out my pretties jar... Good thing it was a 12oz because that is all the vinegar I had... Need to put that on the list. I cut a good amount of flowers, brought them in the house and cleaned them.... *NOTE* make sure to clean them as I had piss ants crawling on mine.... Then I added them to the jar and poured vinegar over top. Today the flowers have shrunk and are floating. The vinegar is a very pretty pinky purple. I will strain the flowers out in a couple of days. I hope to get more flowers later this week. I would like to give this as Christmas presents.

Since I could only find two of my inserts for the dehydrator I was only able to do a small. But I did get broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes done. I did green peppers to but they seemed to burn.... So off to the trash they went. I still have some more stuff in the fridge to get through. I get another box on Saturday... so my dehydrating days are far from over... LOL!


The season of puttin' up has begun once again!


I was able to get the grass in the front yard cut. It was starting to look rag-ged. After the ugliness of the last time I cut it I wanted it to look better. Now it could be the talk of the town. Before we got going this year I reseeded and fertilized. So now the grass is like frankengrass, it has an abby-normal speedy growth with all this rain. It sure looks prudy, though!


Today, Grim was home so we got some errands done. After a filling dinner of spaghetti, he had to go to work and I got back into the dungeon. Picky and I got the one half almost decent, almost. The other half is going to be a work in progress.


Gotta Run,
Yart

Storms

Here are some pictures of the passing of the storm today.

Yep as it was raining the sun was shining.

Now the sky is a rosy color...

Pink sky's at night Sailors delight

Pink sky's in the mornin' Sailor's take warnin'

There is a nice breeze so it should be great for sleeping. I just hope the storms have passed and we don't get hit again later tonight.

Gotta Run,

Yart

Cleaning House

Yep, I have played around enough. The house needs to be cleaned. But the sun is shining and I would rather be outside. The rain will come soon enough. At least that is what I keep telling my self. I trudge through the ordeals of housework... LOL! So far the dining room has been cleaned top to bottom and I have the dehydrator running, drying green peppers and broccoli. I would have done more but I can't find the jelly trays. Only two of them were inside the dehydrator. Hmmmmm! Now where are they? That's ok, I will be running it for the next few days anyways. Lots of stuff needs to be put up from the CSA boxes. We were doing really good keeping up other then with the potatoes and onions. But now we seem to be eating less, so I don't want to have to throw anything out it will get processed. Tomorrow will be zucchini chips and cauliflower and maybe radishes? I will have to look into dehyrated radishes. Be right back! Yep, they can be dehydrated... And if I want then can be ground into a powder to use as a spice.... I wonder if I could make a dip or use instead of horseradish, milder flavor maybe? This is so great to know, because I have a ton of radishes planted. Watermelon, icicle and french breakfast!

Since I have been talking about the CSA, it is only fair that I show you what I have been getting. These pictures are from a box a couple weeks ago. I know lazy blogger.... LOL!

See what I mean by all the potatoes... LOL! Not a bad haul for $27. This week we got asparagus and corn on the cob. Yummy! I will be cooking it up tomorrow night. Honestly, I never ate asparagus until it came in the box. Now I love it and I have to fight Teenage monster for it... Who knew?!?

I need to admit something.... I am a magazine hoarder.... I usually do very well. I just keep to the few homesteading ones and the occasional woman's world. But over the past year I have been bring more and more into the house. So for the past couple days I have been going through them and pulling out any ideas (decorating), recipes or coupons and then sending them off to Mouthy's school. They cut them apart to use in projects. I still have along way to go but I'll get there. I just wish the covers weren't so appealing. LOL!

Grim and I went to the living history muesum last week. We got to see the cutes lambs. Here are two ram lambs.

Aren't they just adorable! This muesum use to be more about the living history part. I'm not sure why they don't do more now. The other living history muesum in the state is 4 hours away. They are offering classes on Fingerweaving, wildcrafting and cooking. But I'm to far away to go. That's ok, once the monsters are out of school and Grim has two days off in a row. We will be taking a road trip. The monsters love going to these places.

Well, I guess this house ain't going to clean itself... LOL!

Gotta Run,
Yart

Reflections 5-22

 

Outside My Window...

is a bright sunshiney day
I am thinking...

how kewl it is that I not only found out that my husband's family goes back to 1560 but that I found one of the cousins as well

I am thankful for...

for the time to put 300 miles on the bike this weekend for the break in period
From the learning rooms...

I learned that if you take calcium you need to take magnesium also. It helps the calcium to absorb better

From the kitchen...

any kind of Smoothies
I am wearing...

knit shorts and an oversized tank top
I am creating...

life within the garden. Everything is in the ground that I have room for.
I am going...

to play zombie lane on facebook later
I am reading...

new issues of Rare Breeds, Woman's World and a companion guide to a backyard homesteader (can't remember the name)
On my mind...

I just want to relax today
Around the house...

grass that needs to be cut yet again & laundry
One of my favorite things...

yard saling
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:

cutting the grass, making bread, figuring out a new workout routine

Gotta Run,
Yart