July 15, 2013 1

Wednesday

I thought I would share this picture of Katie that Dave posted on facebook. She certainly is growing. Thanks Grace for helping me do this.

Things have been moving along rapidly here. Friday we went down to Jessica’s to fix a railing on her porch. Saturday, Jess and the kids came up to us for a visit. Dave is down to the wire on finishing his book. She thought he might get more done on it if they were out of the house. It was a really nice visit. It had been a while since they had been up.

Jess and I went in halves on a 50 lb bag of soft white wheat. This is totally different from what I am used to using. I have always used Prairie Gold wheat. Supposedly, soft white wheat is for things that use baking powder not yeast. I have had a hard time learning how to bake with it. I made chocolate chip cookies Saturday that were FLAT and I do mean flat. Anyway Daniel said they were delicious! Gotta love that boy!! So I think I have finally cured the problem. Because I freshly grind the wheat kernels, they are “fluffy”. I need to add 1/4 cup more flour for every 1 cup the recipe calls for. I did that this morning with some more cookies and they turned out fine. Next trial-pie crusts. Our rhubarb is up and I think there is enough to make a pie. I want to try this recipe http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com/2013/04/theres-nothing-so-sweet-as.html

We are moving right along with school. I think we will be finished by the end of May if all goes as planned. We are looking forward to summer break this year. Lots of fun stuff going on.

Well, I guess that’s about all that’s going on here. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 1, 2013 5

More Snow Pictures

I thought I would show you all a few more snow pictures. This picture is of our road.

Icicles hanging from the front porch. I love the blue of the sky!

Floyd is full of old barns.

Papa Goose standing guard. Mama Goose is already nesting! Hopefully, we will soon have lots of goslings swimming around. We are not sure of Mama Duck is nesting or not. I guess time will tell.

I am trying a new recipe for hamburger buns. I got the recipe from here. http://penniesandpancakes.blogspot.ca/ I’ll let you all know how they turn out. I am making them using all whole wheat flour. I’m not sure how that will go over with everyone. I usually do half whole wheat and half all purpose but I am hoping to move us over to more all whole wheat. We are having hamburgers (on the homemade buns), french fries and cole slaw for supper.

I also wanted to tell you all how much we like the new yogurt recipe I have been making. I have the recipe here vanilla yogurt. I am making another batch today for us and will be making one tomorrow to take down to Jessica when we go. This yogurt is kinda sweet and flavored. It is delicious served with fresh fruit. We like that much better than plain yogurt. I think I will substitute strawberry flavoring for the vanilla next time and see how that turns out.

Well, time for lunch. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 26, 2013 1

Snow

We are experiencing typical March weather. One minute snow the next minute sun.

Very pretty to look at, however it is already almost all gone. I did want to tell you all that yesterday I made chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. At first, I was very hesitant as I have never made noodles before. These were very easy to make and everyone (to my surprise) loved them. I will definitely be making them again. I got the recipe from a new to me blog-penniesandpancakes.blogspot. I have made several of her recipes this week and have been impressed with all of them. Definitely keepers!

Well, I better get busy. We are trying a new recipe out tonight. It must be my week for new recipes. Do any of you get the magazine Kraft Food & Family? It comes out every 3 months. My spring copy came in the mail yesterday. My darling daughter, Jess, gets herself and me a subscription. Thanks Jess! I really love the magazine. It is full of easy, good recipes. Tonights new recipe comes from this magazine. It is called spaghetti with shrimp and broccoli. I’ll let you all know how it turns out.

Update on how it turned out-DELICIOUS! Another keeper.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 13, 2013 5

Monday

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was very nice. Not much going on. We didn’t have church yesterday as there was no power at church. Lots of people here in Floyd have been without power since the storm. I spoke to a lady at our local supermarket this morning and she is still without power. I certainly pray everyone gets power restored before tonight. We are supposed to get really cold-single digits with wind chills at zero or below. So many people have electric heat. It would be hard for them to stay warm without electricity.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day cutting out quilt pieces. I have been inspired by my blogging friends, Blessings and Cheryl. I am doing a simple block quilt. The block pieces are 5″ X 5″. Then hopefully I will sew them all together (using the sewing machine). We’ll see how it goes. I have made quilts before but always using panels not something I have to cut out and sew together. I thought this would be the simplest to do. If I calculated correctly it will take 216 5″ X 5″ blocks to make a twin size quilt. Okay, so maybe I am already overwhelmed. I think it will be a fun project though-something different for me.

Well, that’s about it for us. School is finished for the day, the outside chores are done and the girls are going for a walk on the tractor road. Two dogs and several cats are walking with them. The geese are swimming happily on the pond, the sun is shining. I am SO blessed. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 21, 2013 5

Dandelion Jelly

I heard about this jelly for the first time last year however I did not get to try making it. Our dandelions are popping up everywhere so yesterday the girls and I gathered some blossoms. We picked all the green off however I forgot to get a picture of that. We then poured boiling water over the petals and let it steep overnight.

It isn’t very attractive at this stage. I must admit this was a time consuming jelly. It took a while to get the green off the bloom. The end result though is beautiful in the jar.

This picture doesn’t really show how pretty it is. Every thing I have read about this jelly says it tastes like honey. We tasted it when it was hot and it DID taste like honey. Amazing! You can read more about dandelion jelly here http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com/2011/06/another-jelly-recipe.html She also has a recipe for apple blossom jelly that I am thinking about trying.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

March 30, 2012 4