Winter Time – Merry Heart Crafts

I thought I would show you all Hubby’s latest project. He has been working on making a bed for Chuck. It is almost finished. The headboard and footboard used to be our dining table benches. When we first made our dining table we made benches to go with it. Years later I decided I was tired of the benches and wanted chairs. So he made me chairs. (He’s so good about things like that!) Anyway the benches moved up to the building for a while and now they are being remade into a bed. I like that.

We have been busy with our garden here. Canning is in full swing. I love it!!! Lots of good food being saved for winter time. Our cucumbers are just about gone. I thought about planting some more seeds but I don’t think they would have time to do anything. We have been blessed with lots of cucumbers this year so we have made several batches of pickles. I put the recipe for the Christmas pickles over into my recipe file under canning if any of you are interested. We had our first taste of fresh corn this past week. YUM! I love fresh garden corn. When I was younger and it was time to put up the corn, my mom would always cook corn on the cob for breakfast. She said it put us in the right frame of mind.

We had our annual Sunday School Breakfast this morning. We usually have it at SmartView Park here on the Blue Ridge Parkway. For some reason (that I will never understand) the Parkway has decided not to open many of the picnic areas this year. So we couldn’t have our breakfast there. The road is still washed out going down to the river so we had our breakfast at the Coon Hunters Club. Yes, ladies, coon hunting IS a sport here. We have never participated in it but many people do. Anyway, we had tons of good food!! It was a really nice way to start off the service.

Tomorrow, I will be helping Hubby texture a ceiling. After that we have some tomatoes to can. I think we will make spaghetti sauce with them. In the meantime, I have a new book from the library, a cup of tea and a green swing that is calling my name. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

Tired of buying this out of the store? Well, today Jess and I came across a recipe to make our own. We found it in our Mennonite cookbook. I needed to make sausage balls for our thanksgiving meal and of course my store bought bisquick mix was out of date. I will be making this mix today but I felt confident enough in Mrs. Shank’s recipe to post it without trying it first. I very seldom do that but every recipe I have tried from this cookbook has been excellent. I feel confident this one will be also. The recipe is:

8 cups all purpose flour, 1/3 cup baking powder, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, 3 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp salt, 1 1/2 cups dry milk powder. Mix together thoroughly. 2 cups vegetable shortening. Cut in until mixture is fine uniform crumbs. Store in airtight container in cool dry place. Yield 13 cups mix which makes 45-50 biscuits. To make biscuits, blend together 3 1/2 cups mix and 2/3 cup water. Stir just until liquid is mixed into the dough. Form into a ball and knead slightly. Pat or roll out to 1/2″ thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter. Place on greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 min. Makes 12 large biscuits.

Temperatures are nice here today but the clouds are moving in. I have clothes on the line, hoping they will dry. Yesterday was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. I certainly am enjoying these warm temperatures. I was looking on our calendar. Last year on Dec. 5th we had our first snow and it snowed all winter. It was a beautiful but hard winter. I wonder what the Lord has in mind for this winter.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

Tag: Winter Time

Chuck’s Bed

Biscuit Mix