Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Marmalade up date.

The marmalade I made before has set at least a little bit now. I won't be able to tell for sure until we actually open a jar.

I made more marmalade today, this time I didn't use the peel and did use pectin. According to the recipe it could take two weeks to set, so this time I won't worry so much. LOL It's a much lighter color, more yellow than orange. It really tastes good, even in it's runny state. I got 10 half pints out of the recipe, I couldn't fit one of them in the canner so it's just going to go into the refrigerator until we are ready to eat it. I don't have pictures yet, but maybe tomorrow.

I used some of the other marmalade, the ones in unsealed jars, to make a really nice orange sauce for chicken. I added some garlic powder, ginger powder, and red pepper flakes to about a pint and a half of orange marmalade. I cooked it in a small pot for several minutes. I made chicken nuggets. Cut boneless/skinless chicken breasts cut into approximately one inch cubes, shook it up in a bag of flour with garlic, salt, and black pepper in it. Then I used the deep fryer to cook them and served the sauce as a dipping sauce. The kids loved it, and so did I. Messed Up Daddy wasn't home so he didn't get any. The Boy and I ate it with fried chicken a couple of days later.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My first try at orange marmalade

I'm not sure it's going to set up, but I've read that it can take a couple of days so I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It tastes fairly good, for marmalade. I'm going to make a second batch, one with less orange peel so it'll be sweeter.


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I ended up with 11 half pints and 1 pint



I lit a candle behind them.



Monday, September 13, 2010

Aprons

I finally got the Christmas apron finished. I bought the fabric for it about a year ago, so I was feeling frustrated with myself. I'll have to get some pictures of it one of these days. (This will be kind of hard since I don't like having my picture taken and Messed Up Daddy won't model it for me. LOL)

I also tried to make another apron from some fabric I salvaged from kitchen curtains that I knew I'd never use. It is a green and white stripe fabric with a trim that has ivy printed on it. The curtains were pretty but they were cafe style and I prefer plain old straight curtains, even in the kitchen. So I used one panel from the lower part of the curtains, it had the ivy trim with some eyelet lace about half way down. I separated the top section, which had been sewn on to make a curtain rod casing, that let me have almost double the length for the apron skirt. I used the casing for a waist band, I also took apart another panel so I had a long enough waist band to have ties as well. I didn't get the skirt gathered quite right, I thought I needed it to be wider than I actually needed. So I'll re-do it eventually.

I had a lot of congestion and pressure in my head all week end, so that's all the sewing I got done. Maybe next week end I'll get the green one redone and make another. I still need to get the towels for the apron I want to make that is like the one I have that's my favorite one for washing dishes in since it keeps more of the water away from my cloths..

Thursday, September 02, 2010

What I did during my Summer Vacation.

I had a very nice time during my vacation. It started on the 21st of August, my Mom with my Son and Grandson came down to pick The Boy and me up to take us up to her house. We went to visit my niece and her family, my brother/her Dad and his son came over too. We had such a great time visiting that we ended up staying in town for another night. Messed Up Daddy was surprised to find us at home when he got in from work. Sunday, the 22nd, Mom came and we were able to get out of here with little trouble.

It was kind of a surprise when, a couple of hours after we got to Mom's, a couple of friends of mine showed up with their girls. The little girls, there were 3 of them, picked black berries, played in the dirt, built interesting structures with pieces of branches and sticks they found in the yard, and had great conversations with the boys. The older girls helped pick berries, visited with Mom, Son #2 and me. (My Dad wasn't home for most of their visit)

We had hamburgers and chips. The Vegetarian Boy had a vegi-burger and chips. The Older Girls made a very tasty black berry crisp/cobbler/crumble that we ate with old fashioned vanilla ice cream. My Mom loved that they didn't seem to mind pitching in and just doing things. She would like for them to come back for a visit some time.

They left a little later than they had planned, hoping that the girls would fall asleep on the way home, but I got a text that they were awake the whole way home.

The rest of the week wasn't as full as I'd planned, the garden is running late and isn't putting out as much as it usually does so there wasn't much to can while I was there. We did get some peaches and blueberries. Canned the peaches and froze the blueberries. I brought peaches home with me that I tried to make jam out of and got syrup instead, and then I froze the rest because I ran out of lids. I plan to get lids soon so I can try to get the peach syrup to jell, and I'll see how it works out to make jam from frozen fruit.

We sorted through some of Mom's craft stuff, I brought home quite a bit of yarn, and two pieces of fabric I plan to make aprons with. We went through some of my Grandmother's things and other stuff my Mom had in storage. I brought home some vintage table cloths, and a few other things.

I came home on Sunday, the 29th. My last day off was September 1st. My vacation ended with a Pampered Chef party at my Niece's house.

For the most part, The Boy and I just spent time with Grandson, Son #2 and my Parents. It was a very nice, calm, fun vacation, even if it wasn't very productive.