Sunday, July 27, 2008

Jammin' (and Jellyin')

One of the things I really love to do is make jelly and jam. A couple of weeks ago I saw that peaches were priced low at the store, so I made two batches of peach jam and one batch of spiced peach jam, which is so heavenly, its like spreading cobbler on your toast. E1 is responsible for the artistic arrangement above. Maybe we can go into the food styling business when she gets older, huh?

Over the 4th of July weekend I made black raspberry jelly. We ate a little, and now I've hidden the rest of it until the first snowfall this winter. Which is why I made so much peach jam - to keep us out of the b r jelly . . .


This summer I'm also hoping to jelly some blackberries, and we also have som
e grapes coming. From those I will make jelly and at least one batch of spiced grape jelly, which is a bit different but very good. I'm toying with the idea of making some jalapeƱo jelly also. That would be good over some of our chevre to serve with crackers, I think. Then later this summer and into fall we will have quite a few apples, so I will make apple butter in the crock pot and put that up into jars as well. And I'm always praying for someone to say, 'we have extra (whatever kind of fruit) , could you use some?' Well my goodness, yes, and I'll start jammin'.



Thursday, July 17, 2008

Uncle Frenchy

We had to say goodbye again today. My uncle lost his battle to lung cancer; today his family laid him to rest.

He was very well loved, and many, many friends and family turned out to honor him and love and support his family. I remember staying with my cousin in the summertime as a younger gal, and how welcome he always made me feel. Like my dad was of me and my brother, he was demanding of excellence in his kids, and their biggest supporter, and their biggest fan. They made him so proud, I know.

Well, I have hope that it wasn't necessarily goodbye, more of a 'see you later.' But we miss him here, and the loneliness is painful. I feel for my cousins, losing their dad, and I didn't want to have to see anyone else go through losing their dad, let alone at so young an age.

So we cling to hope, and move on the best we can. My aunt and my cousins are in my prayers. I was always so grateful for the love and support and prayers of all my loved ones when my dad passed away, and I know that's what carries us through. Another encouragement I have is that Jesus doesn't require us to endure anything that He wasn't willing to endure, and even experienced grief at the death of His dear friend Lazarus. There's a promise in there, too: just like Lazarus, there will come a day when our loved ones are raised up again, and we'll all be together again, with Jesus. Now that's something to look forward to!

This photo is sort of unrelated, but I like it so I'm putting it in tonight. Next time there are fireworks, Frenchy gets to see them from above.




Friday, July 4, 2008

Go ahead and drool . . .



The black raspberries are a bit late this year, but what they lack in punctuality, they make up for in abundance.

This morning I made an Independence Day brunch for the six of us, and Mom and Pop in law stopped by to show us their take of black raspberries. Just in time, as it turns out, to join us in our brunch, and so they contributed some black raspberries to have on the whole wheat waffles I made.

Last night Andy and I picked just over six
quarts, so I got two quarts of juice from them for making some jelly! One of my most favorite things to do . . .

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

We gave peas a chance . . .


The other day I picked peas. I planted a bunch in an earthbox on the deck, and then as an afterthought, we stuck in a couple short rows in the garden, in between cucumber plants. So the other day I got maybe a pint, which only seemed like a couple of mouthfuls, so I stored them in the fridge.
So today I picked peas, and got just over another pint, so altogether a generous quart, and we had fresh peas with our spaghetti for supper. Very, very tasty. I'm hoping to get a fall crop in, and plan on planting many, many more rows. Perhaps we can put them in where the green beans are now, and plant them when the beans are done . . . if not, I will FIND SOMEWHERE to plant them.
We have tons of blossoms on our cucumber plants, and our tomato plants are huge. The green beans are setting blossoms and are starting to form teeny little beans. Our potato plants are doing well, and are onions are pretty decent. The spinach is done, and tomorrow I'm going to see if the beets are pickling size.