Showing posts with label cucumbers. Show all posts

I Need to Be Cloned

Seriously.  I need at least another me to get caught up on all my self-imposed deadlines and things that need to get done around the house.

I've actually been fairly productive, but I have so many things that are part way done or not even started yet.  It makes me a bit anxious.

I finished two quilts for my client Amber.  Both were quilted with freehand loopy meander.  Amber is super prolific and plans in advance.  I am jealous.

Didn't she do a great job?

I went shopping online and bought fabric for two quilts.  Thankfully everything looked good together in real life.  The first set of fabrics is for the Morewood Mystery Quilt by Meadow Mist Designs.  It's not too late to join in.  July was fabric selection and August will be cutting, so there's plenty of time to catch up.  Plus, there are lots of great prizes.  You may even win quilting done by me.  😉
The second set of fabric is for a secret project.  What might I be making?  Stay tuned.  Also, my picture does not reflect how pretty these fabrics are together.  I took the picture in poor lighting. 😞
I am super pleased that I finally finished my Frolic mystery top. I'm especially pleased because this is my July One Monthly Goal.  I got up and started sewing at the crack of dawn this morning to get the last few borders on there.  I can't wait for my new, upgraded robotics system to show up so that I can get this thing quilted.


Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - July Finish Link-up
I'm also working on two other secret projects right now.  They will make their debuts over the next month.

I've been busy in the kitchen too.  After being careless with my diet and making poor choices for several months, I'm back to my healthier ways.  I'm down two pounds for the week, which leaves eight more to go, or 18 more to my stretch goal.  Anyway, we ate a Lebanese-inspired meal last week that was quite filling and tasty.  I made Mujadarra, which is essentially brown rice and lentils.  Very tasty, very filling, very easy.  We will definitely have it again.  One note--I couldn't find short grain brown rice, so I just used regular brown rice.  One other note--be careful with the onions.  I nearly burned mine.  My onions went bad, so we harvested some from the garden, but there weren't enough, and they ended up being like burnt french fried onions rather than caramelized. We still ate them.

My daughter and I also tried to make from-scratch pita.  We didn't do very well and it took way longer than the recipe said.  The first six did not quite turn out.  They didn't puff up and tasted more like Naan bread.  The last two did turn out.  I don't know what we did differently.  We will probably try again.  The two on the left are the puffed up ones.

I used five cucumbers from the garden to make nine half-pints of sweet relish.
sweet relish cooking on stove

picture of canned sweet relish

What am I going to make with the other gazillion cucumbers?  Well, I am planning to make at least one batch of freezer pickles.  I was able to buy the last few packages of freezer containers at the store the other day, so I have enough containers to do two batches.  I have been eating some of the cucumbers.  I'm the only one who eats them raw in my household.  

I found the last package of half-pint canning jars at the store as well, so I could make another batch of relish.  After that--who knows?  In the spring it was very difficult to find flour and yeast locally.  Now it is difficult to find canning supplies.  Actually, it has been very difficult this year in general to find canning supplies, even online.

Here are my two cucumber plants.  They escaped the garden and are growing all over the outside of the fence.



We were gearing up for my son to start school online next week. We watched the online orientation Monday afternoon.  Tuesday the school board decided to move the start date a week later and everyone in the district will be online for at least the first month of school.  I'm happy that we won't be putting teachers, kids, and families at risk by having some of the kids in school.  I'm happy that the teachers will be able to focus on one set of classes rather than needing to split their attention.  My son is happy he gets another week of summer. 

My daughter will be starting her college experience in an online environment too.  We live in a college town with both a university and a community college.  As far as I know, the university is still planning some in-person classes.  It will be interesting and a bit scary with the big influx of people.

 Linking with My Quilt Infatuation.
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Baby Steps This Week

Well, it's been another week.  I've done a few things, though certainly not anywhere near the amount of things I should have been doing.  It seems like every year I'm like, "Wow, I've reached a new low," in terms of letting things slide.  My gardens are disastrous.  My house needs to be cleaned.  I haven't exercised enough. I'm letting my kids sit around on technology way too much.  I'm not sewing enough.  I'm not dedicating enough time to working on business.  I have these slumps a few times every year.  It just seems like everything piles on at once so that small things become outsized. Eventually I just decide, enough self pity. Let's do at least something.

 I'd been pretty bad about exercising the over the last week or so.  So I walked on the treadmill and made the kids go on a short walk last night.  Exercising, no matter how much I may dread it, always makes me feel better.  The house I'll probably let ride for another two weeks until school starts.  It's much easier to clean when no one is home.  The gardens can wait until it's a little cooler out I guess. If anyone local wants any, I have loads of Lamb's Ear and Iris to share.  Both of these are really easy to grow and care for.

 As far as sewing, I'm working on a few more Quilts for Kids tops.  Those don't take a lot of mental energy and I feel that I am sewing for a good cause.  
I Spy, in progress
I have the guild quilt to work on as well.  It will be finished within the next three weeks, right after I quilt the donation quilts.  They get first crack at the frame simply because it's already set up for them and I will need to adjust some things before I do the guild one.

 I am slowly working at the business end.  I'm having someone design logos for me since I lack any Photoshop/Illustrator skills and software.  In fact, I've wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how I'm going to set up the new website for the quilting and agonizing over the logo proofs. It's amazing how many hours can slip by while you are looking at stuff online.  So although it doesn't seem like progress, some is actually being made, although not at the rate of progress that I would have preferred.

 We're in the midst of a lot of changes around here.  We're getting new neighbors across the street today.  I realized last night that of the fourteen nearest houses to us, only three families have been there since we moved in a little more than six years ago.  I hope the new people are quiet.

 We had the Andersen window rep out Monday afternoon and we are going to repair/replace all the remaining windows on the house--minus the three in the basement that were already replaced.  This is going to be a huge amount of work since siding has to be removed on the outside and the trim will need to be removed on the inside.  We will be (okay, my husband will be) doing the replacement work ourselves, so it will be slow going. 

 I'm about to have a small milestone birthday where I jump an age bracket.  For my gift, I chose and purchased a handheld vacuum for my sewing room.  I find it's a lot easier to sweep up a mess and then vacuum the crumbs instead of trying to get them into a dustpan.  I have a similar vacuum in the laundry room upstairs and it works great.  No affiliation, I just went with one that was available locally right away and at a somewhat reasonable price.
I tried making a different type of sweet pickle with some of my overripe cucumbers.  The recipe I used was dead on on the amount of yield, which was nice.  I made a half batch since this is a new recipe and we don't eat a ton of pickles anyway.  They are supposed to sit for three weeks before opening, so it will be a while before we can try them.  I probably overcooked them a tad, but since they are supposed to be "soft" hopefully this will be okay.
While most of my gardens look overgrown, in need of weeding, chewed, etc., these Phlox are looking quite nice.  If you look closely, you may see a giant bumble bee in here.

Well, that's about all I care to share this week.  I hope you are doing well and not in a summer slump like me.  :)

 Linking with Sew Fresh Quilts, For the love of geese, and My Quilt Infatuation.




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Let's Talk Canning and Preserving

Over the last week I was busy with canning some pineapple and pears.  I also made a batch of freezer pickles.  I'll probably make some applesauce this year once apples are available to pick.

 I haven't made canned pineapple before.  I used four large pineapples from the grocery store at $2.49 each.  I canned them in ultra light syrup using the recipe in the current edition of the Ball canning guide.  My yield was eight and a half pints (could have probably squeezed them into 8 pints), putting them at about the same cost as canned pineapple from the grocery store.  We'll see if the taste is good enough to recommend home canning over purchasing, because let's be honest: canning is a ton of work.
I bought eight and a half pounds of Bartlett pears from the grocery store at 99 cents/pound.  I used the Honey Vanilla Pear recipe from Simply Canning.  I made this same recipe a few years ago and these are the best pears.  I could eat an entire jar by myself per day if I had them!  Anyway, the first time I made these I used the sugar syrup recipe as directed in the recipe (not the honey version).  This time I used the light syrup ratio in the Ball canning guide.  My yield was eight pints. These are worth the time, effort, and cost for me.  They are so delicious.  That being said, I love grocery store canned pears too.  I'm maybe a bit unusual in that I far prefer canned pears of any type over fresh. 

As a side note, my Bartlett pear tree has a handful of tiny, walnut sized pears on it.  I'm not sure they will be edible.  This is the second year we've had the tree and the first year that it has born fruit.

 I also made a batch of freezer pickles.  Most of the cucumbers I used for this came from my in-laws.  I think I added two whoppers from my garden to get up to 12 cups, or 3/4 of the recipe.  My yield was five-8 ounce Ball freezer containers.  They are best when eaten within a day of thawing.

We harvested the rest of our potato crop too.  They didn't do very well this year.  The red ones had scab and many were super tiny, as you can see in the photo.
I also tried a new recipe, pecan pie muffins.  They are pretty good the first day.  Second day, okay, third day, dry.  They are easy to make, but very high in calories.  Be careful not to over-bake them.  The recipe said eight muffins; I got 12.  I noticed the recipe I used referenced an original that used half the amount of pecans.  I may try the original too as a comparison.  Regardless, they are definitely a dessert due to the amount of sugar and calories.
I've basically finished up my guild swap projects.  I'll share those next week after she's received her things.

 We've also been moving forward on sewing room prep.  We're going to have to level the floor before we can do anything else.  That is not a fun process.  We had to do that in the bathroom area that we just finished and the sewing room is much larger.

 We're also finally getting to the point of refinishing/repainting the vanity table my daughter inherited from my grandmother 12 years ago.  We've done many rounds of stripping on it and my husband has been sanding and gluing and patching. My daughter is super excited and has cleared out the alcove in her room where we had always intended to place the table.  We work slowly. 

 Today is the first day of school for my kids, so I'm hoping to become a little more productive during the days again.

 Do you can?  What are your favorite canning recipes?  


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It's the First Day of School and...

I ended up catching a milder version of my son's illness and spent several days in bed resting.  I'm recovered now, but I'm still behind on life.  I did get one of my quilt guild's Pulse quilts completely done and am hoping to finish the second one today so we can get those out in the mail.  My guild meets Friday night and we are exchanging minis so I will share those next week.
I finished all of my The Aqua Umbrella QAL blocks and top.  I'm trying to decide if I want to add more blocks to make it larger or just quilt it as it is.  It's currently 58 x 60".

 I am a week behind on the 365 blocks and I have yet to add all the 6" blocks to the top.  I also need to do this month's Fig Tree blocks, make some shirts for my daughter and me, finish piecing a bunch of tops, quilt and bind a bunch of tops, make more doll clothes patterns (especially since the quilt shop I've been working in is closing and I'm out of work again), and make more Sew Powerful purses and maybe some charity quilts too.  I have caught up on mending however!

 I made 6 pints of freezer pickles and gave away the last few cucumbers from our plants, which have mercifully died back.  We got another small harvest of green beans, enough for dinner tonight.  The beans still look okay, but I am unsure as to whether they'll produce more or not.  

 This has been kinda an odd summer weather-wise.  It seems like we go from pouring rain to hot, humid, and parched, although not as hot as some summers.  The plants look really scraggly and weeds seem to be going mad.  This morning I went to the bus stop with my younger child and there were mosquitos the size of sweat bees!  Creepy for sure. We usually go out and walk at night and haven't had the mosquitos.  We have had up to six tom turkeys wandering the neighborhood but I haven't seen any females or babies this year--also odd.  The rabbits are thriving and doing some damage.





Here's hoping I get it all together and get super-productive! 
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Super Mega Post

Lots of things to share today.  First, here are my The Aqua Umbrella quilt along blocks so far.  I'm using various Bonnie & Camille fabrics.  I bought a few specific prints to use, but I've been adding some others as I'm going along.
Week 1
Week 2 
Week 3
Next, here is the bag that my daughter made using the fabric she got at the AQS show.  We used a free tutorial and got what we paid for on that one.  She's happy with it though.  It's pretty massive.  We added some pockets inside.  The last picture is the best representation of the colors.


My garden is suddenly out of control.  It's like a jungle.  It looks like I should have a ton of cucumbers (maybe literally).  I harvested our second and, I think, last batch of lettuce last night. We must have planted it way too late.  Last year we had tons of lettuce.  Of course, most of my lettuce didn't even come up this year, but still.  I'll try again in the fall when it's cooler.  My dill and chives didn't come up either.  Not sure what's going on with those.  

I made some more Quilts for Pulse blocks, bringing my total to 14.  I will pool these with blocks my fellow guild members have made.
I actually had a paying sewing job this week.  I machine embroidered this shirt for one of my husband's co-worker's kids.
While my daughter was at camp last week I taught my son to sew.  He made two pillowcases using the hot dog/burrito method.  He's pretty good!  He did learn that you have to be super careful of brushing against the iron while you're working.  You can see his burn near his wrist in the photo below.


I also finished up my B&C barn quilt swap and will mail that today.  No sharing until she receives it though.  As a reminder, I will be posting a tutorial for how to make it at that point as well.

I've gathered quite a few more funny photos, so look for one of those on Friday.

Today I am hoping to finally figure out the block I'm stuck on for my Fig Tree Mystery BOM.  Once I figure that out, I can move on to last month's blocks and hopefully get caught up before the next group arrives within the week.




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Apples and Cucumbers and Pickles, OH MY!

Being a Michigan native, I'm accustomed to having lots of u-pick orchards offering many different fruits and berries.  I no longer live in Michigan, and it's much harder to find places in my current location.  Two falls ago we did find a u-pick apple orchard about an hour from us (thanks to a Girl Scouts program).  We picked lots of apples and ate them.

 Last fall I got it into my head that I wanted to pick a bunch of apples and try my hand at canning applesauce.  I thought maybe my picky eater son would eat it.  His only fruits are cinnamon (never plain) applesauce and bananas.  (NOPE!  Thought wrong.) I've made applesauce plenty of times, but never to can.  I have frozen it, but I really don't care for the texture once it's thawed out.  So, anyway, I gathered some canning supplies (including a pot that would work on my induction cooktop) and we went off to the orchard to pick apples.
Here's my nice pot from Meijer on my GE induction cooktop.

It was only-mid September, but that was apparently late in the orchard's season last year. There wasn't much left to choose from, but we did get about a half-bushel.  I quickly found that that is A LOT of apples!!  I tried not peeling the apples and then running the cooked apples through a food mill.  I tried peeling the apples.  Either way, it is a ton of work and not cheap.  After a week or two, I ended up with 12 quarts of applesauce.  Nothing added but a little cinnamon (no sugar).  Some of the batches ended up really yummy and others were just okay.  I guess we did better mixing the varieties in some batches versus others.  If I recall correctly, we only had two or three types of apples.  Like I said, slim pickings.  I was unsure if I did the canning correctly, but they seem to have turned out and I was pretty proud of myself!  I'm seriously considering making more this year.  One tip:  Use an immersion blender to quickly knock down any extra lumps in your applesauce.  Works great!  I just saw an apple peeling attachment for the KitchenAid mixer that I'm very interested in.  Too bad it's pretty pricy.  Maybe next year.
My first canning batch EVER!
Second batch of applesauce, 9/2014

This year we decided to plant a garden.  We made a special one using an animal watering tank with drain tile in the bottom.  It is supposed to be self-watering.  We planted carrots, four broccoli plants, green beans, lettuce, one tomato, and a bunch of climbing pickling cucumbers.  The broccoli never produced anything edible and worms had pretty much eaten all the leaves, so we pulled that out this week.  The deer got the bean plants, the lettuce--thankfully we'd already been harvesting it for a month at that point, and part of the carrots.  We do have a ton of cucumbers though!  Oh, and I picked ONE green bean this week!  Ha!  

 I brought my first harvest of about 10 cucumbers to my parents in Michigan at the beginning of July.  I made some refrigerator pickles with my next harvest.  They were okay, but I'd use a different recipe next time--too vinegary and not enough dill for our taste--have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE dill?  Next I tried making sweet pickles.  I made four pints plus a bit left over for the fridge.  Those came out really well, but I'm thinking I was probably not supposed to put all the seasonings in the jar.  Maybe those should have been filtered out??  It's kinda gross to bite into a hard chunk of clove attached to the pickle.  The other thing I would do differently is slice my cucumbers a little thicker.
Sweet pickles, 7/22/2015

My husband wanted me to make dill pickles next, so I made three pints of those with my next harvest.  We haven't tried any of those yet, but I did read a tip that really was a game-changer.  The recipe I used was from Simply Canning and the author suggests making the brine in a stainless tea kettle.  Wow!  That was such an amazing tip.  You just pour the brine right in--no mess like when I did the sweet pickles!  

 {Update 9-2-15:  we opened a jar of dill pickles this week and they were pretty awful!  :(  The predominant flavor was SALT!  Like, so much salt you didn't even have to get the pickle to your mouth to taste the salt!!!  Either the author of the recipe really likes uber-salty things or the recipe needs to be clarified.  I suppose it's possible I did something wrong, but man, what a disappointment.}
Dill pickles, 8/6/15


We had a little rain last week and we had an explosion of cucumbers!  We also found one we'd missed for several harvests.  I called her Big Bertha.  She was 1.5 pounds!!  I decided to try sweet pickle relish next and I used Big Bertha (with the seeds removed, of course)!  I'm a little confused by things I'm reading on the Internet as to whether or not recipes not in certain guides are safe to use.  So even though I found a recipe that looked intriguing on a blog, I ended up using a recipe out of my Ball canning guide.  
Big Bertha, the 1.5 lb pickling cucumber!
I made eight half pints plus a little left over.  I tried a bit of the leftover and it seemed really vinegary, not sweet at all.  I'm the only one in the house who eats relish (and tomatoes and avocados), so I was really disappointed.  My husband took the leftovers plus one of the canned jars to his work cookout today.  He didn't try any, but he said everyone liked it and thought it tasted sweet.  I'm going to let it sit for a few weeks and then try it again.
Sweet pickle relish, 8/10/15

So, how do you know who to trust as to whether or not a canning recipe is safe and in the correct proportions to avoid food-borne illness?  Do you have a favorite canning recipe?  I'd love to hear from you.
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