Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Camping and Surprise

So much fun and good things going on.  Let's start with Rhubarb.  I like baking with rhubarb.  My husband loves eating it straight from the garden, not something I really care for but when it come to baking it I enjoy finding good recipes.  I thought I would pinterest and see if I could find a rhubarb muffin recipe.  I sure did, several.  The one I made had sour cream and cinnamon and was amazing.  While I was there, I saw a recipe for rhubarb coffee cake with nutmeg, why not, I gave it a try.  That was amazing!  We had some left, froze it,  and were able to take it on our camping trip with us.  Of course I had to make some strawberry/rhubarb jam and some strawberry rhubarb crisp.  We have been blessed with an abundance of rhubarb and I have really enjoyed making fun things with it.

Rhubarb is easy to transplant.  I had a very healthy plant but wanted more.  So, I took my shovel and dug into the middle of my rhubarb plant and split that in two and planted the two pieces.  They both made new plants and now I have an abundance of rhubarb.  Such fun, I just wanted to share.

As I mentioned above, we took a lovely camping trip, the first of the season for us.  Brent, Latisha and August decided to take a trip the same weekend.  They wanted to go on their first solo trip.   The weather outlook was not good, so we had a limited area we felt might be nice for the weekend.  We packed up, headed out, met my parents at the campground, signed in, and guess who happened to be there already set up, Brent, Latisha and August.  The first place they went to was already full so they headed down a little farther to where Brent's Bachelor party was held, and it just happened to be where we went.  It was so funny, they did try to have their own trip but it was fun to see them and we talked them into joining us for a sight seeing trip.  So surprise,  but that is not the surprise I am excited to share with you soon.  We have some very exciting news that I am looking forward to sharing, just a little teaser for now.  I will be posting more soon.  Have a great day and God bless.
Alicia

My parents getting a warm fire going

The kids enjoying the playground

ah, dinner

Aidric loved roasting hotdogs and marshmallows

How many kids can a swing hold

We went to a fish hatchery and saw pelicans

The kids enjoyed feeding the fish

Such f

Thousand springs park

lots of beautiful waterfalls, here, Cassandra and her cousin pose

At the park there was a neat old barn

from the top of the barn we had a great view of the some of the falls

Danika, Sierra and I went on the trail to even more falls

worth the short walk

The water literally comes right out of the mountain

the rhubarb muffins

rhubarb coffee cake

strawberry rhubarb jam

Recipes

About a year and half ago I decided to work on my recipes.  The tops and sides of my recipe cards were getting frayed and hard to read.  I have many recipes in different books that I use and could spend far too long looking for a certain recipe.  I decided it was time to make my own book.  First I went through all my cards and typed them up on my computer.  I tried to put them in catagories that made since to me and arrange them in alphabetical order.  I now have a new appreciation for all those cookbooks the different churches have made through the years.  I skipped past recipes I didn't use and updated the rest to the way I actually make it.

Then I went through all my cookbooks and typed in the recipes that I use.  It took me well over a year to finish.  I did a quick edit and sent it to the printers.  There are around 300 recipes.   I planned on giving all the kids a copy.  David suggested I surprise them and give it to them at Christmas, which inspired me to get them done.  I put the pages in page protectors and had page dividers to separate the sections.  

The kids knew I had been working on it for myself, so I finished mine and began using it.  This was very good because it gave me a chance to find several errors.  (Once again another moment of appreciation to all the women who made church cookbooks).  I found that half my recipes for casseroles disappeared.  I must have not saved it that day or something so I had to type out the missed recipes and add them in.  Then I found recipes here and there that I had forgotten so I typed them up and added them at the end of their section, totally out of order.  I found that I couldn't remember where I had put certain recipes, so I added an index at the end of the book.  

After breakfast Christmas morning, I realized I never saw anyone open their recipe books.  I forgot I had hid them in a separate room.  This project has definitely been a  trying one.  Later that day when we were all together again I finally gave them their presents.  I had to add a disclaimer to all the spelling errors and encouraged them to let me know of mistakes so we can pass the word around.  It was fun, the kids were happy and so was I.  I am very happy with my book and use it almost every day.  It is so nice to have all my recipes in one book, and it was fun to get done.  

The finished book

Inside

The index

Apples, Apples, Apples

I was so excited the other day to find out my friend had got a huge amount of apples for 19 cents a pound!  Of course she had to drive a ways out and buy an amazing quantity, but she did and decided to sell the rest.  I went over and got 90 pounds of apples from her and didn't even make much of a dent in what she had.  So, as you may already know, I can't let thinks sit very long.  I had the opportunity and energy so we began canning that evening.  If I'm going to make a mess anyway, might get as much done as possible.  There is no way I could have accomplished all we got done that evening without the families help.  Everyone jumped in and in someway helped.  We canned 26 quarts of cooked cinnamon apples, 7 quarts of applesauce, 4 apples pies and an apple crisp all that evening.  The apples are very large so we couldn't use the apple peeler slicer, we had to hand peel most them for the sauce, pies, and crisp.  It was so worth it.  Our house smelled amazing.  I actually kept 20 pounds for our own eating and they are so yummy.  Here are some pictures and recipes for how I did things.  Thank you so much Amy and my family.  Have a great day and God bless.

Alicia

beautiful, yummy apples.

the fruit of our labor

Can you tell how big the apples are?  Only took three apples to fill a pie.

My recipes are all approximates based on how many apples and how sweet the apples are.

Canned Cinnamon Apples
fill pan 1/4  with water,  add 1/2 as much sugar, and a few tablespoons cinnamon.  Bring to a boil to dissolve sugar.  Add cubed apple pieces (seeds removed) and simmer 15 to 30 minutes, until it reaches the tenderness you prefer.  Place in clean jars.  Push apples down then top with juice from the mixture to bottom of rim.  Seal with scalded lids and rims.  Hot water bath for 20 minutes.  Let cool, enjoy throughout the year.

Applesauce
Fill bottom of pan with 1 inch water and half as much sugar.  Add a few tablespoons cinnamon.  Boil to dissolve.  Add peeled, cored, and sliced apples.  Reduce heat and let simmer for at least an hour.  Stirring off and on.   Add more sugar or cinnamon to taste.  Once to a soft consistency smash with a masher or place in blender.   Fill jars, place lids on, and turn upside down for 10 minutes, turn back up and let sit until cooled and sealed.

Apple Crisp

Place 8 cups peeled, sliced, cored apples in cake pan.  Mix 2 cups brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 2 cups oatmeal, and 1 Tblsp cinnamon.  Add 1/2 cup soften butter.  Mix with fork.  Pat down on top of apples and bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Apples Pie
Make pie crust.  Place bottom crust in pan.  Mix 3/4 cup sugar, 2 Tblsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, dash nutmeg, and dash of salt.  Add to 6 cups peeled, sliced, cored apples.  Place in pan.  Top with 2 Tblsp butter and top pie crust.  Back 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

Enjoy.

Warning

 Aren't four year old great.  Cassandra wanted to help dad mow the yard.  So cute.

The other day I decided to can some homemade salsa.  I did it last year and it was fun having in the pantry.  So this year I grew most of the ingredients in my garden.  I was so excited to see all the tomato's, green peppers, onions, and jalapeños growing and being so fruitful.  After getting all the ingredients together I began the process of cutting up all the ingredients and mixing them up.  My hands began to feel a little weird and I thought that was probably because I had been cutting up ingredients for a couple hours.  Then they started to sting a little.  I remember watching a show once that said always wear gloves when cutting up jalapeños.  I had never had a problem in the past but I thought I better wash my hands real good.  Well, it got worse and worse.  My hand felt like they were on fire.  I have burned a spot on my hand in the past and had to keep that spot in ice water for a while but this was worse and all over both my hands.  I googled looking for solutions to the pain between soaking my hands in ice water.  I tried several of the solutions even one that recommended running your hands under hot water to open the pours and release the toxins.  I couldn't stand the pain so that did not work for me.  All night long I had to soak my hands in ice until they were numb, wrap them in a cold rag, sleep for a bit and wake up to my hands on fire again.  I then would have to go get some new ice and start the process all over again.  It was a very long night but finally by morning I was better.  I'm sharing this in hopes that no one will make that mistake.  I highly encourage you to use gloves when cutting up jalapeños.  For most of you this is common knowledge and some may be like me and have never had a problem in the past, but my advise is wear some gloves when cutting up those spicy little things.  :)  I am happy with the salsa, although it always taste better when fresh.  So, I have some extra ingredients waiting for the right meal, and you better believe I will be wearing gloves when cutting up the jalapeños.  Lesson learned.

 One of the problems in our area right now is forest fires.  Our air quality is horrible and our sun and moon are orange because of the smoke.  I am grateful to the firefighters who are risking their lives and some have even died fighting these fires.  This morning when I woke up the sky was grey and the sun a orange/red color.  I am disappointed my camera couldn't get the true colors, but it was erie to see this morning.

I hope you are all having a blessed day enjoying the cooling weather and the leaves starting to change colors.  God is good.  Have a great day.

Alicia

Baking Day

    

What a fun busy day we had.  I declared it baking day and planned on getting up and starting early so we could be done at a good time and take some goodies to a few friends.   Well, as always, I over planned, and before I know it, it is almost dinner time and I still hadn't delivered any plates.  But we persevered and were able to drop off a few plates and get home to dinner.  I love taking goodies to people.  It is just so fun to bless others and say "Merry Christmas."  The girls enjoyed it too.  Some years we don't get to deliver any and some years I go overboard.  This was a small year but fun.  Here are some pictures of our sugar cookie making.  We also made divinity (still perfecting that one), fudge, butterscotch fudge, rolls, coconut dream bars, Baby Ruth and a cheese ball.  Lots of fun, lots of mess, but lots of fun.   God Bless.    Alicia

Autumn Has Arrived

What a lovely brisk day we are having.  I guess I had missed the arrival of fall.  The weather has been nice and I hadn't noticed much color in the landscape, but here it is, so beautiful.  The girls and I went to an open house at the local fire station.  We got to climb the tower and look around.  There was a little show of changing colors and it was so nice.  This weekend we were able to skype with one of our dear friends who is doing missionary work in Africa, she spoke of the warm weather where she is and I started noticing, yep, it is starting to turn to fall here.  After our conversation David and I got to jump in the car and head up to the mountains to one of my favorite places in the world.  We stayed at Shore Lodge on the lake and it was so beautiful.  In the evening we found a cute little lantern in our room and got to go out on the beach.  The lodge had a bonfire going.  I jumped at the chance to make a smore and enjoyed the peacefulness of this area.  The next morning, while David was gone, I opened our hotel window which looks out over the lake.  The mountains were majestic, even with the clouds settling on them here and there.   It was just perfect to sit there, sip my tea, read my Bible, and enjoy God time with the creator of all this beauty.   We drove home refreshed and amazed at the show of red, yellow, orange and green decorating the mountain road.  There were pine trees that turn yellow in the autumn.  I had just found out about them a couple weeks ago and was so delighted to take note of them as we drove.  I wish I had had my camera with me. Then when I got home I was thrilled to see my Purple Ash that we planted a couple months ago had just turned it's purple fall color.

Today is another exciting day.  Latisha has finished her driving time.  So, today she took and passed her driving test.  She is now taking her written test.  Where does the time go? Well, off we go.  If it really is autumn it must be time to make some caramel apples.  Hope you are all having a lovely day.

PS  Latisha passed her test

PPS  Here are our caramel apples and recipe:

4 cups sugar
2 cups Karo
1/2 tsp salt
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 quart 1/2 and 1/2
1 Tblsp vanilla  -add at end
Wash apples and but stick in them.  Combine in large sauce pan sugar, syrup, salt, 1/2 and 1/2,  and milk.  Bring to boil, stir constantly until comes to firm ball stage.  I just test with an apple to see if the Caramel will stick ok.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Cassandra helping

Sierra stirring

Danika preparing apples

The girls swirling the apples to keep the caramel on

enjoying the fruits of their labor.

Daily Life

Things have been quite busy around here.  Most of it is good and exciting, some is challenging, some is just life, and some is funny.  A couple weeks ago we finished the camping season with a lovely trip with our church friends.  The place we camped at has no running water and no flushing toilets.  This requires us to use water sparingly.  One of my greatest joys of camping is coming home to running water.  We all enjoyed our trip, except maybe Isabella.  Camping with a one year old is not one of my favorite things to do.  She is not able to walk in shoes yet, still puts everything in her mouth, and was expressing her dislike for things.  I'm afraid she just might not be a camper.  Hopefully next year will be better. 

we hiked up to a waterfall

A couple things the kids enjoyed were catching lots of frogs and boating in the canoe

Once again Alex was unable to join us camping.  It is a new time of life for him and he is quite busy.  He got invited to be on the college traveling choir.  There are only 16 people on it and he is the only freshman.  We were so excited and proud.  It brought a tear to my eye.  I love to see my children excelling in the gifts God has given them.  He loves it and feels he has already learned so much.  They leave in a couple weeks for their first trip where they will be ministering at a church in Colorado. 

I finally got Isabella in for a check up.  Not one of our better check ups.  I have had a terrible time finding a doctor here I like.  In our previous city I loved my family practitioner, my dentist, ob, and my optometrist.  Here, I loved my ob with Cassandra but then he retired and since I have been unhappy with all the other doctors I have tried.  Am I really that difficult to please?  My first optometrist here gave me a totally wrong prescription, my family practitioner gave Cassandra the wrong shot, and my dentist wanted to do surgery on Sierra when she was 5 because she bit her when she gave her a shot in her mouth.  Seriously, maybe I need to pray about this more.  :) 

baking and canning peaches.

freezing beans.

Anyway, today was a productive day.  I got some shopping done, canned some peaches and froze 17 bags of beans.  We have been so blessed by one of our friends who has supplied us with so many home grown goodies.  So far I haven't even needed to buy any of the food that I have canned.  Yeah.  Oh, I must share a funny.  Last night my mom and I took my sister out to dinner for her birthday.  We went to a very nice restaurant by the river and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.  At the end of dinner the mosquitoes came out in full force.  One was circling my mothers face.  My sister reached out to shoo it away and reached a little too far and slapped my mom across the face.  I don't know who was more shocked, my mom or sister and it was so funny that I couldn't hold it in.  Unfortunately, I had just taken a drink of water and sprayed it across the table.  We just couldn't stop laughing.  A merry heart does good like medicine.  Well, have a great day.

me and my sister years ago.

Alicia

Politics and Canning

Ok, I have become very behind in keeping up with the news lately.  I catch things here and there but have found most of it to be too annoying to listen to.  I know we need to be informed and am grateful that my husband keeps me updated on the necessary.  This whole "he said she said" thing drives me crazy.  It is so amazing to see Congress trying so hard to push their own agenda that they can't get anything accomplished.  I really believe if they would use the Bible as their guide our world would be such a better place.  I've heard this before but recently heard it again so thought it worth repeating.  As the family goes so goes the church, as the church goes so goes our nation.  God help our families to follow You then maybe everything else will fall in line.  There is so much in life that can bring us down I want to encourage you to make Philippians 4:8 to direct your thoughts...

   "Whatsoever things are true,
      Whatsoever things are honest,
      Whatsoever things are just,
      Whatsoever things are pure,
      Whatsoever things are lovely,
      Whatsoever things are of good report;
      If there be any virtue,
      and if there be any praise,
      Think on these things."

I try to test my thoughts to see if they match up.  When my thoughts match up then I am so much more content and my stress level is less.

Now what a busy couple of days we have had.  I love watching my canning shelf fill up.  Lately I have been quite busy with making jam or preserves or syrup, matters who you talk to.  I have decided to quit using pectin in my jam making.  I feel it is such of waste of money.  Fruit has pectin already in it and if I cook it a bit longer it makes wonderful jam.  I so prefer home made jam over store bought so now I have several jars.  My friend told be how making jam without pectin saves money both because you don't have to buy the pectin and the jam is a bit runny so you don't use as much on your sandwich.  :)

We have also made 10 loaves of zucchini bread (and ate 3), zucchini cookies, chocolate zucchini cake, and strawberry rhubarb pie in addition to our strawberry rhubarb, apricot, and apricot/pineapple "jam." I really enjoy cooking. The clean up not so fun but worth it. 

  Have a great day and if you ever wondered what to do with rhubarb I included a recipe for the pie.

Rhubarb pie for Davids birthday party, with the left over dough we roll it out, spread butter over it, and sprinkle Cinnamon and sugar.  Then bake it with the pies. 
Strawberry Rhubarb pie:  mix 1 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.  Add 2 1/2 cups rhubarb and 2 1/2 cups strawberries.   Mix all together then let set while you prepare the crust.  Pour into crust and top with dots of Butter around top of pie.  Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. 

here are 6 of our zucchini bread loaves ready to freeze

made strawberry rhubarb jam with remaining strawberries and rhubarb and for fun added some raspberries.  Can't hurt, right?

Here are the apricots.

and here is my poor sick little Cassie girl.  She is better today but hasn't been doing much but sleeping lately.