New Canner and Homemade Deodorant

This is my new canner. I stopped at a yard sale a few weeks ago and the lady had this canner for sale. One of the handles was missing so she sold it to me for $5.00. Yesterday, I stopped at Farmers Supply here in Floyd to see if they could order new handles. I had no idea if they could or not as the canner appears to be old. Well, they could and they only cost me $8.00. I then went to the extension office and had them calibrate the guage. It was off 1 and 1/2 pounds so I thought I probably should get a new guage too. This cost $l8.00. Amazing. These parts will be in by Friday. So for roughly $30.00 I got a new canner. This one is much taller than my other ones. It will hold 1/2 gallon jars which I plan to use for our juice that we can.

Then we went on over to Vicki’s and had a great visit. We ate lunch together and then Vicki and I made homemade deodorant.

We used tea tree oil in the solid deodorant and lavender in the powder. I really like it. It smells so fresh and clean. I am impressed. I definitely will be making it again.

Today the girls and I are making spaghetti sauce. This will be our last batch of spaghetti sauce. I think the rest of the tomatoes will just be used to make tomato juice. Our tomatoes are doing very well this year. I think this isthe best ours have done in a long time.

I better go stir the spaghetti sauce as I do not have Mrs. Sally’s good kettle any longer. I took it back to her Sunday. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 21, 2012 3

Thursday

I thought I would share with you all this picture of a beautiful hawk we saw the other day on one of our rides in the bumpy truck. I know the picture is a little blurred but you can still see how pretty he is.

Yesterday, the girls and I made 13 pts of pizza sauce. The Horn’s came over for a visit. We had 15 bean soup, sourdough biscuits and molasses cookies for dessert. It was a fun visit. We had planned on picking apples but when we got up to the tree, we discovered a huge hornets nest on one of the limbs. We decided to wait to pick apples.

Today we are making salsa. I hope to make either ketchup or spaghetti sauce tomorrow. We will pick tomatoes this evening and see how many we get. I mentioned we had sourdough biscuits with our soup yesterday evening. Well, I think I have finally found a biscuit recipe that we like. I am not very good at making biscuits but these turned out really well. I made them again this morning and they were really good with sausage gravy. (But then almost everything is good with sausage gravy).

I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

August 16, 2012 3

Tuesday

This picture was taken on the back side of the farm. If you look in the right hand corner, you will see the little white house Dave and Jess lived in for a while.

Today we have to go to Rocky Mount to get Grace’s nose piece put back on her glasses. She has not had these glasses very long. I hope this is not an indication of how they are going to hold up. Yesterday, we picked the last of our beans and got about half of them worked up. We hope to finish them today when we get back. We also pulled the last of our corn and got all of it put into the freezer. We picked about 1/2 bushel of tomatoes. I am borrowing Mrs. Sally’s kettle for this week as well. I am definitely on the lookout for one of those kettles. I really liked it. I hope to make salsa and another batch of spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes we picked yesterday.

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

August 14, 2012 4

Spaghetti Sauce

Scald and peel half a bushel of tomatoes (we used our food strainer instead), 6 cups chopped onions, 4 chopped green peppers, 1 clove of garlic. Cook for 1 and a half hours, stirring frequently. Add 1 pt olive oil, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp crushed basil leaves, 1 tbsp italian seasoning, 1 tbsp parsley, 5-12 oz cans tomato paste, 4 jalopeno peppers. Cook another 45 min stirring frequently. Put in jars. Heat lids and seals to boiling. Put lids and seals on jars. Process 15 min. in water bath canner.

August 14, 2012 1

A Beautiful Sunset

For the last few days, we have been enjoying beautiful sunsets. We thought this one was exceptionally pretty. My thanks to Grace for taking the picture. It looked like a highway and it stretched almost all the way across the sky. God certainly is awesome.

We have been doing the usual around here. Cleaning, canning etc. Tuesday evening we visited with the Horn’s. Vicki made her delicious potato soup. Madison made a tomato pie, with fresh tomatoes and herbs she had raised and dried herself. It was delicious. It tasted amazingly like pizza. We all loved it.

Today, I am meeting Mrs. Sally in “little town”. She has a stock pot she is going to let me borrow for making spaghetti sauce. I think the brand name is Calphalon. She says it is wonderful and that her sauce never sticks. I am excited about giving it a try and grateful to her for letting us use it. Mrs. Faye from our church will also meet us there in town. I picked up an outdoor canner for her yesterday and she wants to get started using it as soon as possible.

Well, I thinks that’s it for now. I have lots to get done so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 9, 2012 4

How Many Snows?

There is an old saying that if you count the number of fogs you have in August, that’s how many snows you will have that winter.

I’m not sure how true that is but so far this month we had have 3 mornings with fog.

The geese don’t seem to mind though.

The girls and I picked a bushel of corn this morning. We put 40 ears in the freezer, keep out enough for supper, and had a few bags of corn cut off the cob for the freezer. We also picked almost 1/2 bushel of tomatoes. We will be using these to make spaghetti sauce one day this week. I am also trying a recipe for sourdough bread using my bread machine to work the dough. I’ll let you all know how it turned out.

We had a great weekend with the grandkids. Chuck brought these scooters for everyone to ride.

And a toy for him to play with.

We then went for a ride in the bumpy truck. Irma had never ridden in the back of a truck before. (I know, I just couldn’t believe it either). Sunday we had our church breakfast at Smart View Park. David and Jess came up. They had Katie dressed in the little dress and hat the girls had made her. She looked so cute in it. Later in the afternoon, we all went for another ride in the bumpy truck. Daniel so loves riding in “his” bumpy truck.

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

August 6, 2012 5

Spaghetti Sauce

Today, we worked on making spaghetti sauce. I got this recipe from Sally, our pastor’s wife. We really like it.

Spaghetti Sauce

The sauce simmering in the pot. Can anyone guess what we are having for supper?

Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 7, 2011 6

More Spaghetti Sauce

Yesterday we had 12 more quarts of spaghetti sauce. I think this will be all the spaghetti sauce we make unless we have lots more tomatoes. I want to make salsa and maybe try our hand at ketchup. We also usually just can tomatoes and tomato sauce for use in soup and chili. Temperatures here have been hot and humid. Low to mid 90’s.

Jess talked to her mother-in-law yesterday and she said the name of this apple is Scarlett Apple. She thinks she ordered the tree from Stark Bros. I typed it in on Google and found all kinds of information about it. Very interesting.

Today is bible study day so I better get busy. We have decided to do it at Barbara’s house. It is so hot here and Barbara has air conditioning. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 23, 2010 4

Spaghetti Sauce

Our spaghetti sauce turned out really good. We got 12 qts from a half bushel of tomatoes. Today we will do the other half bushel. The recipe we used:

Scald and peel half a bushel of tomatoes (we used our food strainer instead), 6 cups chopped onions, 4 chopped green peppers, 1 clove of garlic. Cook for 1 and a half hours, stirring frequently. Add 1 pt crisco oil, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp crushed basil leaves, 1 tbsp italian seasoning, 1 tbsp parsley, 5-12 oz cans tomato paste, 4 jalopeno peppers. Cook another 45 min stirring frequently. Put in jars. Heat lids and seals to boiling. Put lids and seals on jars. Cover jars with towel and let sit overnight.

This recipe does not call for processing as the liquid is so hot when you put it into the jars. However, if you are uncomfortable with this method you can process in a hot water bath canner or freeze the sauce.

We better get busy. Lots to do today. We need to get busy on the other spaghetti sauce and on cleaning house. The ladies will come tomorrow for bible study. Take care and God bless.

July 22, 2010 2

Pumpkin Cake

I guess this is why I always gain weight in the winter. There’s just something about winter that makes me want to bake and try out new recipes. This pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting recipe came from my (and Jessica’s) favorite cookbook. Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and Kitchen Secrets. If you get an opportunity to own the cookbook, it is fantastic. I don’t think I’ve made anything from it that was bad. All has been good. I made 15 bean soup for church last night. It turned out really good. I basically follow the instructions on the bag except I add some browned sausage and hamburger to the recipe. Also instead of canned tomatoes, I use spaghetti sauce. It is a very affordable soup. If I didn’t miss count anything, it will feed about 20 people for about .50 cents a serving. Pretty good huh. I’m always looking for ways to feed my family inexpensively but healthy. Sometimes these two words do not go together. You know, like at Wendys. Do we buy the $1.00 chicken sandwich or the $5.00 salad? Depends on the cash flow this week. Honestly though we very seldom eat out, so the $1.00 chicken sandwich is a big treat for us all. Well speaking of eating, time for me to cook supper. Tonights menu-sauteed (fried) cabbage with hamburger, potatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, and spinach. It’s a one dish meal, inexpensive, healthy and delicious. Of course a meal like this has to have cornbread with it. Remember I grind my own corn to make the cornmeal, and of course for the dessert, the pumpkin cake. Gotta go, I’m getting hungry. God Bless.

January 18, 2010 0