Morning Fix

I have been feeling a little off for awhile now and haven't been able to pin down the reason.  I'm more stressed than I have been, tightly wound, might be more how to describe it.  I was going over it in my mind today and came up with a few reasons for this.  A couple weeks ago when my daughter was home she asked how much coffee I had that morning  -  dah!!  For so long I've only had one cup in the morning and drank more water throughout the day.  Then about a month ago when I drove out to help with my grandson, I stopped and had that second cup to get me through the drive.  Once I started having that second cup there was no stopping me.  I'm sure it's not all that but combined with more sweets, less sleep with the new tv shows starting and being stuck inside canning, I'm feeling sluggish to say the least.  I haven't been exercising as regular as usual also, especially when I want to get started on the canning or travelling somewhere, but just having that second cup of coffee sets my whole game off.  I'm not even sure I need that extra caffeine when I'm driving somewhere, just sipping on the coffee might give me the right boost, so I decided I'll start having decaf and see what happens.  Maybe it'll be just the adjustment I need.

One Winner - One Redo

I made the canned pears with the white grape juice yesterday and it was awesome.  It's a lot of work peeling those pears, then coring and taking out any bad spots but it was worth it.  That juice smelled like grapes right off the vine.  I only got 6 pints but they look beautiful and taste great.  We're slowly taking care of those Bartlett pears which in my opinion are the hardest because when they start to ripen, you gotta move fast.  The other pears have a much longer standing time where they don't get too ripe too fast.  That canning was the winner, my redo wasn't something that turned out bad but rather not what I expected.  I made a batch of hot salsa or what was supposed to be hot based on the peppers I used, and it ended up being mild.  I had been asking my hubby to try it and make sure it was what he wanted and he finally did that yesterday.  Mind you not much is hot enough for this guy so when he said it wasn't hot I simply disregarded it.  Then it bothered me so much I thought I better bite the bullet and get a taste myself.  I tasted, then waited and waited for the heat to arrive and it didn't.  By golly he was right!  I used what he thought were the hottest peppers he had out there  -  hot Portugals  - but the jalapenos I used in my medium salsa were hotter.  I had to change the label to mild and I'm making a hot batch with the jalapenos today.  Even he was amazed that they weren't hotter.  So today will be that batch of hot salsa and whatever peppers are left I'll do the hot pepper rings.  That'll pretty much take care of the tomatoes for now and with some nice weather, maybe I'll have more ripe ones to do another batch of juice.  Wish me happy canning!

Time Saving Technology

I thought I better get this down now while I'm thinking about it.  I got my Whole Living magazine in the mail today and as I was leafing through it while we went out shopping, I found something quite interesting.  It was a survey asking which technology you thought was the most time saving.  The gps got 12%. online calendar got 9%, dishwasher/washing machine got 9% and smartphones got 70%.  Come on, people!!!  Maybe we've had dishwashers and washing machines so long now we've forgotten what it would be like without them.  I realize phones can be helpful but I'd rather find stuff the old-fashioned way than go back to washing dishes and doing laundry by hand any day.  I might be one of the few people who actually remembers using a wringer washer to do my clothes.  Before my mom got her new Maytag, we did our clothes in one and then hung them on the line to dry.   As I recall in the past when I bought a new washer, they even had models where you put your own water in (not automatically).  When we moved into our house we had a washer and dryer but the washer broke down soon after as it was a used one.  I borrowed my mother-in-law's wringer to do our clothes.  I had to fill the tub with water, let it agitate for awhile, put each piece of laundry through the wringer, drain the tub, fill with rinse water, let the clothes agitate for awhile to rinse, then put them through the wringer again.  As you can imagine it took a good part of the day to get a load of clothes done.  Do we really think that dishwashers and washing machines don't save us time?  Try it for a day and then let me know.

Back on the Canning Train

I've been supplied with more canning jars so I'm back on the train, despite not wanting to be.  Yesterday it was another day of salsa and preparations for pickled jalapenos and canned pears.  I have to admit the weather has been beautiful for canning.  There was a slight chance of a frost at the cabin but here, we're in for another great week.  So the last batch of salsa was a hot one but not the hubby's usual hot.  This time I made it by my recipe with sweet peppers and just an extra dose of hots.  My pears will also be a different recipe, one I found somewhere using white grape juice.  Normally I would make a thin syrup and can them with that but, for the past couple of years it's been difficult finding sugar at a reasonable price.  I realize that everything is going up but really!  The cheapest we found was Aldi's for $2.39 a 5# bag and we got 3.  Mind you I go through a lot of this when I make my candy, which I will be starting soon.  So I found the juice at Sharp Shopper for a little over a dollar for a good size bottle.  Anyway, that's the plan for this week.  One other thing that I found kind of humorous this week.  You can always tell who has extra produce to get rid of when you offer them some pears and they respond with "Do you want some apples?"  That's what I got from a friend I talked to yesterday.  It seems she is in the same place we are with the pears.  We've picked our Honeycrisp apples but that's it so far, and they are absolutely delicious!  There aren't many and because of the water going in last year, we don't have our second tree producing this year.  I have a feeling it will be an exceptionally good year for cider!!

McKean's 150th Anniversary

Well, we made it home just in time to see the parade right outside our house.  This brought back many memories for me and I'm sure for the kids, too.  They used to have this parade every year and the kids would park their chairs on the lawn and wait for the candy to be thrown.  Then we would head up to the Parish Center for rides, food, and bingo.  They also had a big tent set up for gambling games.  That was how the fire dept made most of their money but we contributed more with the food, bingo and rides.  Allison and I, and maybe Les, were in the parade for Girl Scouts, as I recall.  I mentioned to my hubby that I didn't recognize anyone in the parade this time, probably because our kids are all graduated.  How things have changed over the years.  It was nice to have something for the new people in town so they could make their own memories just like we have.

Fall Gardens and Produce

I've already informed my hubby that things will change next year with our garden as I don't want to can anymore.  I can safely say that now that I've put up 3 batches of crabapple jelly, 7 qts. of tomato juice, 7 qts. of tomato soup and 8 pts. of salsa,but what happens next summer.  It's not that I don't like canning, it's that we aren't using what I put up, therefore a shortage of jars.  Right now I'm faced with pears out the wazoo, and hating to let them go to waste, struggling with who to give them to but wanting some for myself, too.  I have been trying to cook more with the fresh produce such as a triple batch of chili, tomato basil soup and spaghetti sauce with basil.  I'm sure a big batch of Unstuffed Pepper Soup will be in the works soon and will use some.  It wasn't long ago that I made that batch of Stuffed Peppers which were oh so good.  I think what is so different with  the garden issue is that my time is dependent on when everything ripens.  I'm excited to work on stuff at first, then comes the deluge and a time frame is issued and that upsets me.  If I could do it at my leisure it would be fine.  These pears are tricky as they are hard now on the trees but as soon as 1 drops, they are ready to be picked.  They will ripen on their own but it's not good to let them do that on the tree.  So I've decided to can a few qts. of pears but use the white grape juice method this time.  It won't be long before all those apples are ripe, too.  I remember last year without any and how at first I was lost and longing for them but we were so busy last fall, I don't know how we would have managed with them all.  This year I'd like to do the cider, which may be our last time to make it (probably not).  Some of you are asking  "Why doesn't she donate them (tomatoes, pears, etc) and help others".  It's not that I don't want to but home-grown items are far from perfect and I hesitate to give others, that I don't know, stuff like that.  We work around the imperfections and are aware that it's best to cut into the fruit instead of taking a big bite.  Don't get me wrong though. My hubby takes very good care of our trees and garden and I still think we have some of the best home-grown stuff around.

Last Day of Challenge

This is the last blog challenge post and I'm so ready for it.  There will be no picture though only some good things that happened.  It certainly wasn't the most exciting of days for me but a collection of little things that, in the end, made for a nice day.

1. One of the first things that happened this morning was getting on the internet and finding a series of quilting shows that Eleanor Burns made.  I just love to watch her and see her little tricks for quilting.  She really is a remarkable person and she made me feel excited about quilting again.  I'm going to look for a beginner's book to buy sometime.  I also bookmarked the site so I could watch more.
2. Sometimes finishing things, whatever they might be, gives me such a good feeling.  I've been canning tomatoes all week and putting those tomatoes to good use was satisfying to me.  I even made a big batch of chili to use some of the old tomatoes I had and some peppers from the garden. 
3. Today, both of our orders from Amazon came in  -  a new winter cover for the pool and an inflatable for it.  I was getting a little worried about when it would come and hoped we would be here.  The neighbors are usually pretty good about keeping an eye out for stuff like that.
4. I was very excited to hear that my daughter-in-law is going to be in an exercise group with Denise Austin.  Wow, I couldn't believe it.  My first thought was to tell someone else who could appreciate the scope of this news so I texted Juanita the girl I used to exercise with.  She was just as excited as I was.  My hubby even knew who she was from TV.  That was the most fantastic news of the day!
5. The last thing I felt good about today was what I made for supper, not that it turned out all that well or that I'll ever make it again, but that it was new, different and I used up a lot of stuff.  It was called Lazy Lasagna and instead of noodles, you layer ravioli and sauce.  I had pulled what I thought was chili for my hubby out of the freezer, only to find it was meatballs and sauce.  So this was my attempt to use it anyway and as an added bonus, I used the ravioli. 

Well there you have it  -  my final blog challenge post.  I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I'm ready to move on.  I have learned things along the way such as putting pictures on my posts that don't come from the camera.  That was really major for me.  At times the memories were a bit much for me and it almost made me sad but I recovered quickly.  Some were good memories and I even got some pictures sorted through for scrapbooking.  In the end I'm glad I did it and glad it's over.