Elderberry Jelly

I just made a couple of batches of elderberry jelly last week.  We love how it tastes and it turns out it's good for you too! 

Elderberry Jelly

Makes 6 half-pints

3 cup elderberry juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 box powdered pectin


4 1/2 cups of sugar
 
 

Sterilize your jars in simmering water.  Put your lids in a small saucepan and pour boiling water over them off the heat. 
Meanwhile, begin heating your water bath canner to a boil.  Have a teapot with boiling water ready as well.
 
In a tall stockpot, mix the elderberry juice, lemon juice and pectin.  Heat until at a rolling boil (which cannot be stirred down).  Add the sugar and bring back to a hard boil for 1 minute.  Watch carefully, as it foams a lot.
 
Ladle the jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4" headspace.  Wipe the rims of the jars clean with a soft towel.  Place lids and rings, and process in water bath canner for 5 minutes.  Remove and let cool.  You should hear a "ping" as the jars cool and seal.  Leave undisturbed for 24 hours.

Check for a good seal.  Remove rings and gently wash and dry the jars.  Label and store in a cool, dark place.

Enjoy!

Traveling Woman

After putting my knitting needles down for a couple of months, I've finally cast on for a new project.  It's the Traveling Woman shawl by Liz Abinante.  The yarn is Neighborhood Fiber Company Studio Sock in colorway Old Town.  I actually bought this yarn in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia when we went to DC back in January of this year.  It's a beautiful, rich (but not too dark) red.  (My photo does not do it justice.)

I enjoy knitting lace a lot, and this will be my third shawl.  I've enjoyed taking some time away from knitting.  Now I think I'm coming back to it refreshed and ready for the fall knitting.

For those of you on Ravelry, here are a few things I'm planning to cast on this year:

Princess Mitts

Drops Yoke Cardigan

Chevron Market Bag

And if you're not on Ravelry (and you knit), why not!?  It's a great place.

Milk Bottles

We recently found a couple of old half-gallon glass milk bottles at a local shop (for only $5 each!).  I don't know what it is, but the milk just tastes better in a glass bottle.  The glass definitely holds the cold better.

However, they didn't have any kind of lid...so, I've been thinking of how to make a lid that would fit.  I'd thought of some sort of fabric/vinyl circle with an elastic edge.  Sort of like a very small shower cap, but that was a bust.  I just couldn't get it small enough and snug enough at the same time.  So right now, it's just a little dust cap of a lid.  Does anyone know of any resources for milk bottle caps (new ones)?

Summer Garden

We've been gettting produce from the garden for about 6 weeks now, and our tomato harvest this year is just wonderful.  This is our best year for tomatoes since we began having a garden (about 4 years ago).  They are everywhere!  We're getting beans and cucumbers as well.  We planted zucchini, but they haven't produced a single actual zucchini yet.  Lots of pretty leaves and male flowers, but every female that shoots up withers away a few days later.

But, let's celebrate tomatoes!

Recipe: Lemon-Herb Chicken

We've enjoyed this recipe a lot this summer, so I thought I would share it.

Lemon Herb Chicken
Serves 2

2 chicken breasts
Linguine pasta
1 lemon
Real Salt
4 yellow squash
1 cup fresh green beans
Rosemary, Thyme, Sage & Basil (fresh or dried), Chopped

Cook the pasta in a medium saucepan until tender.  Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and saute in a cast-iron or non-stick skillet with a tsp. of coconut oil.  Squeeze 1/2 of the lemon over the breasts when they are about half way done.  Sprinkle some herbs over the chicken.

Cook the squash and green beans in a non-stick skillet with a dab of butter until tender.

To serve, plate the pasta with the chicken on top and sprinkle the vegetables around.  Squeeze the other 1/2 lemon over the plates and sprinkle with the rest of the herbs.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

This is fast, easy and delish!

Farm Day

One of our local farms at the farmer's market had an open farm day a couple of weeks ago.  So we went.  JV Farms in Bismarck, Arkansas has a wonderful small farm where they raise cows, hogs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, bees and a couple of old dogs.  They also had berries, vegetables, and flowers.  I got a chance to see the potato patch where my potatoes come from.  What a great thing!

We took lots of pictures and got a lot of inspiration for our own backyard garden.  They let us sample the blueberries and blackberries right off the bush...and they were wonderful!

We eat the eggs from these chickens...

We had a great time and got to know some of our local farmers a little better.

Making Homemade Yogurt

One word - delicious!  If you've never tried homemade yogurt, you don't know what you're missing.

I've made a few batches now and it's really a simple process:

1 quart whole milk (you can use pasteurized or raw, but not ultra pasteurized)
1 tablespoon organic yogurt (from the store) or 1 packet of yogurt culture starter
1 teaspoon gelatin
1/2 cup white sugar, sucanat, or honey (your choice)

Heat the milk to 180 degrees on the stove in a stainless steel pan.  Use a candy thermometer to watch the temperature.  Stir frequently.
When it reaches 180, remove from the heat and let it cool back down to 105 degrees.  Tip:  Place your pan in a sink of cold water.  This speeds up the cooling process a LOT. 

Add the gelatin and whisk in vigorously.  Make sure the gelatin is completely dissolved.  Add 2 tablespoons of organic plain yogurt (or 1 packet of yogurt starter) and gently stir.  (You want to be less vigorous with the cultures).  Add the sugar, sucanat or honey and stir well.

I strain this mixture through a sieve into a large measuring cup and then pour into 6 half-pint jars.  Cap the jars and place in your dehydrator.  (Preheat the dehydrator a few minutes at 115 degrees). 

Six hours in the dehydrator seems to be the perfect time for my yogurt.  Remove from dehydrator and refridgerate.  Enjoy!

Food Journey, Part Two

We have a good farmer's market in our area that's open 3 days a week.  We've been pretty regular customers for the past few weeks.  We've found the prices on vegetables and fruits to be very reasonable, and we've tried a few new recipes as a result of our shopping.  I'll admit it does take a bit more thought and planning to eat more seasonally and locally, but I can say we've enjoyed it so far!  Several things are becoming more of a habit and not so "new." 

Eliminate Processed Foods -
So right now we're still cutting out more and more processed foods.  I'm planning to have a go at making my own mayonnaise.  I'm really trying to eliminate the high fructose corn syrup.

We've been eating our own homemade yogurt!  (More about that in another post.)  Snacks are usually fruit and/or granola.

Switch to Whole Grains -
Haven't gotten very far on this one.  I'd love to work on my own bread making, because let me tell you, it needs help.  Every batch of bread dough I've made so far is so sticky it's not even funny.  Must have more practice!

Switch to Raw Dairy -
We're making some progress here.  I bought some raw cheese a couple of weeks ago.  So far, no raw milk.  We do have a local dairy that sells pasteurized milk from grass-fed, pastured cows.  And you can buy raw goat's milk here in Arkansas (directly from the farmer) but I haven't gotten up the nerve to try that yet.  Who knows....we may love it!  Raw cow's milk is sold as "pet milk" here. 

Making Granola

Homemade granola can't be beat.  I found this recipe on Homestead Revival.  And for the past couple of months, we haven't been without it.  I usually make a batch about every two weeks, changing it up a little each time.  Most of the time I use walnuts, but occasionally it may be pecans.  This last batch was macadamia nuts.  I change the dried fruits as well - usually there are raisins & cranberries, but I've also added blueberries, cherries, apricots and banana chips.  Since we have our dehydrator, I'm anxious to dry more fruits myself and add them to the granola.  I'm planning to do some apple slices this week.

Try some!

Yes, we have no microwave

We got rid of our microwave a couple of months ago.  We haven't missed it.  About all we ever did with it was melt butter or heat up leftovers.  After reading a few blogs about them, we decided it wasn't used enough around here to worry about.  So, out it went (currently in the tool shed).  We both grew up without microwaves in our house, so it's not as though we don't remember life without one.  I remember very clearly when we got our first microwave, because it was a gift from my mom's boss.  It was a monster, an Amana RadarRange.  It took up half the countertop.  But it was so cool.  Nowadays, not so much.

I love not having the microwave sitting on the counter.  I love heating up leftovers on the stove or in the oven.  The food actually gets hot all the way through and stays hot.  What a novel idea.  And guess what, it only takes a couple of minutes to warm up leftovers, with no cold spots.

If you're interesting in reading what others have said about doing without a microwave, here are a few links:


Naturally Knocked Up

Homestead Revival

Keeper of the Home

Of course, I'm the girl with no cell phone, no facebook, no TV...and lovin' it!

Dog Days of Summer

This is Shepherd.  He rules the roost around here.  Most of the year, he's a very energetic, frisky 10 year old.  But when the heat of summer hits, he becomes best friends with air conditioning vents all over the house.  Usually, it's about July before the heat gets HOT around here.  I remember June last year had a lot of "cooler" days (cooler in Arkansas = under 90).  Not so this year.  The heat came and boy, has it stayed.

That's why we call it "air you can wear."

Yes, it does look like he takes up the whole bed, doesn't it?

Porch Sitting

Spending a little time each evening on the front porch has become one of our favorite things to do lately.  We live on a very quiet and small street, and each evening our yard is full, and I mean FULL, of fireflies (or "lightnin' bugs") as we grew up calling them...and still do.  (I tried to take some pictures.  It's really hard to take pictures of fireflies.  Enjoy some petunias instead!)

You'll forget you have a care in the world watching something so incredibly beautiful.  And you'll remember to say "thank you" to a creative Creator.

Food Dehydrator

We just got a food dehydrator in our house.  I'd been reading about all the things you can do with one, not just drying herbs and whatnot.  You can, of course, dry your own herbs.  But you can also dry vegetables, fruit, beef jerky.  You can dry soaked grains and nuts.  You can make yogurt.  It's great for letting bread dough rise, and I'm sure there are lots of other things I'm not aware of.

We gave ours a test run with some banana chips.  They don't need any pre-treatment, other than a little spritz of lemon juice to keep them from discoloring.  And even that's not necessary, it's just for looks.

I got my bananas with some green on them.  I sliced up 4 bananas, which filled about 3 trays in the dehydrator.  They dried for about 8 hours, and they were done.  About 2/3 of a quart jar.  And yum!  Very concentrated flavor.

I can't wait to try some yogurt!

I'm a Sewer

I've been sewing for most of my adult life.  When I was in my twenties, I sewed a lot of my own clothing.  I got very good at it - even making a pantsuit (that I was happy to wear)!  Then came quilting, and with quilting comes....fabric collecting!  Yowser, do I have a lot of fabric.  Now, probably to a lot of people (quilters), my stash is fairly small.  But to me, it's more fabric than I need to, or want to, have on hand.  So.  It's time to dust off the old garment sewing skills and start making some clothes!

I just made an apron, which showed me just how rusty I was.  It turned out okay, other than the fact that it doesn't fit well, is ugly, and makes me look 20 pounds heavier.  Hmm, well.  That won't do.  Fact is, I need a few good aprons, because I cook a lot.  So, let's find a better pattern.  Maybe this one.  And some skirts.  I think this pattern will make some great summer skirts.

Now, which fabric?  Choices, choices.

Have Some Real Food

Below is an excerpt from Dr. Mercola's blog.  This is so true:

The world is rife with evidence that the non-pharmacological approach can accomplish as much, and in many cases more than pills. This concept also makes perfect logical sense, if you remove the thrill of scientific discovery long enough to think that far.


Your body is exquisitely equipped for self-healing, as long as its systems are in good working order.

So how do you ensure that?

With man-made chemicals in doses your body has never encountered or dealt with before?

Were you to ponder this logically, you’d quickly realize the inherent fallacy of the promise of health from using many prescription drugs.

You simply cannot achieve optimal health through drugs. It’s impossible.

You can use drugs as band-aids, temporarily suspending a symptom or two, but then there are side effects… Your body tries to compensate and heal, but the more chemicals you throw down your gullet, the more off-kilter your body gets and the more ill you become. Conventional medical doctors typically respond to this by prescribing you yet another drug, and another, and another…

This is why the average American senior now gets 30 drug prescriptions!

Meanwhile, adverse drug reactions from “properly prescribed drugs” are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. And overdoses from prescription drugs rank second only to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of accidental death.

Additionally, many medications create life-long dependency upon the drug, despite the damage and suffering they’re inflicting, since drug withdrawal exacerbates your symptoms until the drug is completely out of your system.

The current medical paradigm, with its focus on a drug for every symptom creates a mind-boggling amount of needless suffering and premature death.

Optimal health requires optimal FOOD, not more drugs.

It really is that simple.

Once you feed your body the nutrients it needs instead of chemicals, “health” becomes the norm rather than the exception.

I'm always amazed at how many people run to the doctor for every little thing.  And, of course, the are given drugs (usually antibiotics) which wipe out the beneficial bacteria in their gut, which makes them susceptible to every germ that comes down the pike, which makes them go to the doctor, and on and on. 

The article has a lot of good information, check it out.  And then go eat an apple.