It's Time for Perspective

Did you get your book yet?  Mine came in the mail last week and I'm so excited to read it again, this time with other people.  If you would like to request a free book and join us, go here.  If you have no earthly idea what I'm talking about (or vaguely remember), please read here.

I thought long and hard and did a lot of praying about what would be the best way to read and discuss this book together and here's what I've come up with.  I've started a new blog (heart, don't fail me now) called Perspective.  This is where we'll discuss the book and work through some faith questions, specifically my biggest questions right now, "How can God use me right now, in addition to my role as wife and mother?"

This way, those of you who aren't interested in reading this book with us and who come here instead for garden news, recipes and other random musings can still do that.  I'll post here as usual. 

Here's the (Perspective) plan.

1) I will not be posting there everyday.  I have never asked for followers, but this is a time when becoming a follower of Perspective will benefit YOU in that you'll know when a new post is up.

2) There is a post over on Perspective right now.  It's one I hesitated to post here, but I have to get it out.  It will fit in much better there.

3) Tomorrow, I'll post a plan for our readings and how this is all going to go work regarding the book.

4) I want the new blog to be a safe and holy place.  I want us to meet God there, to hear His voice through books, people, each other and His Word.  I want us to encourage one another, lift each other in prayer and be the support some of us may be lacking right now in our lives.

Please understand one thing:  I'm no expert in anything.  I don't claim to know how to do this.  I'm trusting a nudge and asking (repeatedly) for God to be involved big time.

If you're up for some possibly difficult but rewarding work, visit me on Perspective. Pin It

What You've Been Waiting For

You may not have known it, but you've been waiting for this recipe and the wait is over.

This salsa is as pleasing to the taste buds as it is to the eye.  Go round up the ingredients and get busy.

Canned Peach Salsa (adapted ever so slightly from my sister-in-law Kim's recipe)
Yields about 4 pints.
Read this post on canning if you're not familiar with the process. 

This salsa packs a pretty good punch in the heat department.  Back off on the jalapeno and/or cayenne if you don't like you're salsa to have a lot of heat.

7 cups (ripe, but not over-ripe) peaches, peeled, diced and set in a colander to drain a bit (save the juice for your mint tea)
1 1/4 cup red onion, diced
4 jalapeno peppers, diced (with seeds removed)
1 red bell pepper
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, loosely packed and chopped
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp. honey
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cayenne

Chop and prepare all the ingredients.  Combine them in a large cooking pot- set aside.  Bring your canner to a boil.  Get your hot, sterilized jars and lids close to ready.  Bring the salsa to a boil, then turn the heat back and let it simmer for 3-5 minutes- no longer.  Set your hot jars out now.  Transfer salsa to hot jars, lid and ring.  Process in a (boiling) hot water bath for 10 minutes only.  Cooking it longer (either in the pot or in the canner) will lead to a mushier (but still very yummy) salsa.

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Symptoms and A Remedy

This is a public service announcement from your neighborhood friendly blogger:  If you are experiencing many of the following symptoms, you may be suffering from canning overload disorder...

it feels as if your heart is beating in your feet.


it is difficult to see straight or think straight.

there are lists of ingredients strewn all over the counters and you mutter numbers under your breath most of the day.


your kitchen looks as if a bomb went off in a produce stand.

you're not sure if the popping noises in your head are your jars sealing or your brain coming apart.

your arms are sticky up to your elbows and your hand towel is constantly wet from the gazillion times you've had to rinse your hands to pick up your baby, answer the telephone or brush the hair out of your eyes.

your fingers burn from chopping jalapenos. 


fruit flies have moved in and are reluctant to leave.


you use paper plates at dinner time (something you abhor).


your finger nails are a reddish-peachy color and ragged. 

your lower back aches like you're 8 months pregnant.

your other chores...what other chores?


you're snippy.

your shirt looks as if you should start wearing a bib again.


it's repulsive to think of what to feed your family for dinner so you order out pizza.


you collapse into bed every night (after a cold shower) and see chopped peaches and onions when you close your eyes.


when you've canned or helped can 52 pints of tomato sauce, 60 quarts of peaches, 30 pints of peach salsa (recipe coming Monday), 13 jelly jars of peach jam and 24 pints of regular salsa in a 4 day period.

The remedy is this.  I promise it will make all things better.  As will a good night's sleep and a few days AWAY from that blasted hot canner.

Fresh Summer Salsa (adapted slightly from Simply In Season)
Serves 4-6

6 medium fresh tomatoes (any variety), chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeds removed and chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp. vinegar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine in a bowl.  Let stand 30 minutes and serve. Pin It

Saucing It

The other day we made our first batch of Basic Tomato Sauce (from Simply In Season).  Our tomatoes are doing really great.  The blossom end rot has abated and they are coming in fast.  In past years, I've made a couple different kinds of sauce.  I'm wiser this year and have decided to stick with the sauce we all like best. This one recipe is what I use for everything- pizza sauce, pasta sauce, lasagna, etc.  Here is why I love it...

1.  It's packed with veggies, so while the kids are happily eating their Friday night pizza, their mom (me) is thrilled at all the vegetables they are eating unknowingly.  Hee hee hee.

2.  I love how it can be left a chunky sauce or pureed smooth.  I like to make batches of each.  A hand blender works perfectly for this.

3.  It uses honey as it's sweetener.

4.  Get this.  You don't have to peel the tomatoes.  I'll repeat myself.  You don't have to peel the tomatoes.  Thank you, Carmen, for enlightening me last year.  Believe me, if you puree the sauce, you'll never know the skins are there.  Never.

5.  It tastes fresh and richly saucy at the same time.

If you've never canned before, PLEASE read this post for everything you need to know about the process.

Then, go here for the recipe.

I multiply the recipe by 8.  That's the most that will fit in my large (16 quart) cooking pot.  There is quite a bit of prep work involved for this sauce, but don't let that scare you.  I start chopping the ingredients in the couple days before I plan to make it and refrigerate everything.  When I'm ready, I just dump, cook down and can.  Here's a look at what this sauce looks like at each stage...

Starting with the main characters: onions (already in the pot), carrots, tomatoes, garlic, green bell peppers, basil, oregano, and parsley.

 25 pints

Two more batches like this and we're set.

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What to Do With Peaches: Part 1

It's back to the real world, folks.  No more of this cushy-long-weekend-relaxation business.  It's peach time.

Lord, have mercy.

 

In the office.

1.  Find enough surfaces throughout the house to spread the peaches (ours are Red Haven) on so they can ripen to perfection.  This "perfection" is allusive.  It's very frustrating, if you ask me.  I almost always start dealing with them when they aren't ripe enough or when they're too ripe.  It's hard to get it right the more you buy.  You would think I would have learned from this by now.

On the treadmill in our bedroom. Waking up to the smell of peaches?  Divine.

2.  Have family members on call to swoop in and help you deal with it all since you placed one large order together and it's so much more fun getting all peachy and sticky together.

Sharing our school table with tomatoes in the dining room.

3.  Make a list of everything you want to do with your peaches so that you don't inadvertently shove all of them into your mouth before you've done everything you want to do with them.  Here's my list, in order... canned peaches, peach jam, peach salsa, and chopped frozen peaches (for baked oatmeal).

I wonder when our dining room will just be our dining room again....

4.  Make another list.  This one of dishes you want to make while the peaches are in your house so you do not inadvertently (I'm digging this word today) can/jam/salsa/freeze/shove them into your mouth before you've had your chance.  Here are some suggestions...my mom's peach pie, my Grandma's Southern Style Peach Cobbler, Ginger Chicken with Peaches and Onions, and Peach Frozen Yogurt.

5.  Continue your list another day because those 4 bushels of peaches are ripe and you've got calls to make and work to do.

To be continued... Pin It

Roughing It. But, Not Really.

I apologize if my posting becomes a bit sporadic over the next few weeks.  Between day trips, weekend trips, overnight camping trips and a week long trip, we're home and then we're not.  And then we're home.  And then we're not.  When we're home we're washing eggs, picking raspberries, picking tomatoes, determining what's ready to can when, spreading what's not yet ready over every available counter/table to ripen, watering the garden, walking a 13 month old around by our fingers because (even thought we're sure she can walk on her own) she prefers the company, and doing the other hundred or so things that seem to need to be done this time of year. 

Update:  For those of you who requested your free book, I have not forgotten!  I am so excited to begin reading it with you (if you've been able to keep your curious eyes out of it:-)).  I requested one when I first posted about it and haven't gotten mine yet.  When I do, I'll ask you to vote in a poll {again} and when it looks like most of us have gotten it, we'll begin.  I'm all ready and chomping at the bit to start.  You know me.  I have a plan.

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This past long weekend we found ourselves in the mountains staying in a three-room cabin with a total of 18 family members on 400 acres in the middle of nowhere.  Yes, it was by choice. 

Many years ago, my grandfather and several other men bought some land together to hunt on.  First they tented there.  Then, they put down a concrete slab to set their tents on (comfy).  Then, they built a one room cabin.  It's in that cabin (with bunk beds lining the one wall of the only room) where my father remembers falling asleep as a boy while listening to the grown-ups stay up, talk and play cards.

 

Eventually, an upstairs room and a living room were added, but the cabin remains small.  It still has no electricity- the refrigerator, lights and stove/oven are run on gas. It still has no running water- although a nearby spring and gravity bring water to the kitchen and bathroom faucets.  If you want warm water, well, you have to heat that up for yourself on the stove.



When I was young, there was only an outhouse, a stone's throw from the cabin.  Now, it's like staying at the Hilton because there is an inside bathroom complete with a real toilet (that you have to flush with a bucket of creek water) and a shower (that you can use if you heat your own water on the stove, fill the five gallon bucket in the shower and then, using a pulley system, raise the bucket above your head, then open the fancy little shower head contraption under the bucket to get the flow going).  If you have long hair, you better move fast or else your bucket will empty before you've rinsed and you have to call someone to bring you more water. 

The upstairs is one large room with 6 beds in it (two of which are doubles) and there are a couple mattresses for the floor in the living room downstairs.  Privacy?  Not to worry.  Upstairs, there are a series of curtains that hang down the middle of the room.  Between the curtains and yelling, "I'm changing!", it's like having your own room.  If you're there in the winter, you use the two wood stoves for heat.  If you're there in the summer, you use the creek to cool off in since fans and air conditioners are things of civilization.  And who needs civilization anyway?

 

Our days at the cabin are always spent playing in the creek, taking hikes to the beaver dam or the water fall or an old ghost town (that used to be a logging town), picking wild blueberries, watching for wildlife (deer and bear), eating way too much good food and playing games late into the night while being super quiet so as not to wake the kids and babies.  We make smores, sit around the fire, look up at the stars and listen to the creek.  We talk, hold babies, watch children, make plans, and laugh.

I want to go back.

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Close Your Eyes and...

...imagine you are sitting in your warm house by the fire (if you have a fire place or stove, of course). It's wet and cold outside.  You know the stores are swarming with holiday shoppers in a hurry.  Those shops are crowded, the lines are long and parking spaces are tough to come by.  Not to worry.  You're snug at home, doing some of your Christmas shopping online with the Amazon gift cards you earned through swag bucks.

You can't help it, but you feel a little sorry for all those holiday shoppers.  Some of them are your family and friends.  Now imagine them home, snug and warm, doing their holiday shopping on line.  They'll be smiling, too, and so glad you told them about swag bucks back in those warm, summer months.

Now, open your eyes.  Oh, wait.  I guess they've been open all along if you've been reading this.  Carry on.

This past week, I hit $200 in Amazon gift cards earned through searching swag bucks.  The quickest way to earn is by sharing swag bucks with others.  When you tell your friends about swag bucks, you (not me) will earn the swag bucks they earn, making your bucks grow even faster.  I'll just be happy for you, imagining you snug in your warm house come November.

For all the basics you need to know about swag bucks (including how others can sign up with you), go here.

If you're ready to sign up yourself, go here and start earning swag bucks today:-).

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Let Me Be Direct

Make these (or buy some)...

 

so that you can make this.

I made my double batch.  It's time you made yours.  You can hug me later (since that is what folks might do to you after they've tasted this).

In addition to getting those pesto tortes in the freezer (they are perfect for taking to get-togethers- just thaw and pick up some crackers on the way), we've been tackling our rest-of-summer-to-do-list.

Jamey's been attacking all manner of tree and bush with the chain saw we have on loan from my father.  Don't feel sorry for the trees and bushes.  They've been needing to be attacked for years.

Our corn crop is less than stellar (thanks to the dry spell), so we bought 4 dozen ears at our favorite local produce stand and froze it.  We're hoping to go back for more.

We ran out, so I made another batch of pie crusts and cooked up the last two frozen chickens in our freezer to make room for all we have left to freeze.

Our tomatoes are coming, but I won't have enough to make sauce yet (I like to make huge batches versus small ones), so I've been chopping up the tomatoes and putting them in the freezer.  The recipe I use lets you keep the skins on- it's a HUGE time saver and you can't even tell the skins are in there.  I'll show you what I'm talking about next week when I make a batch.

The 8 meat birds have been moved out of the chicken tractor and in with the laying hens and roosters.  They are fairing very well.  They'll be harvested in a couple weeks (hence the need for freezer space).

Our peaches have been picked.  I love saying that- OUR peaches.  This is the first year our four peach trees produced.  We picked 52 peaches.  Of course I counted.  They are ripening on the counter.  We've already eaten one and it was fabulous.

Speaking of peaches, our four bushel of peaches will be ready for pick up next week.  I'm sharing this order with my brother and sister who will be coming to help put up canned peaches, jam and peach salsa (just wait for this recipe- you're going to want to make lots).  It's going to be a sort of peach factory here next week.  Oh, my.  I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Fall crops of lettuce, spinach and broccoli are being planted.  Jamey hacked down the Swiss chard because the bugs had gotten to it in the heat.  I cleared the debris and am hoping it will come back- without the lace look- so I can freeze some more.

Jamey installed much needed shelves in laundry room and he's working on putting real legs on this old table top (so he can have his saw horses back).  I can't wait to use this as my sewing/work table. I'm itching to piece a new quilt top this fall.  Never mind that Miriam's quilt (you can get a few peeks here) hasn't been quilted yet.  She won't be big enough for a real bed (and real-sized quilt) until next winter anyway.

Well.  I guess I just made up for no words yesterday.  Don't forget about that pesto torte.  I'm telling you.  It's worth the effort.

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July in Pictures

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