buck fever...

I've been married to my sweet heart almost a year.  Deer season started yesterday.  That being said, I must tell you that that means I haven't witnessed deer hunt preparations.

plum crazy!!!

Why is it we have been so lucky to have good neighbors that give us fruit this year?  Just blessed I guess.

"Do you like plums?"

"Of course! I LOVE plums!"

"My neighbor has a plum tree and isn't going to use them..."

"I'll be right over."

six in the city...

Our next door neighbor brings us things.

hunting season is upon us...

Hunting season is coming up.  My hubby is a hunter.  His oldest daughter and he "drew out" muzzle loader deer tags this year.  I don't know exactly what that means except that they are going hunting next week for deer with guns that you have to load like the olden days.

peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches..

two full boxes to start...

 So while my hubby should be convalescing after knee surgery on his day off, he tells me he wants to help me bottle peaches.  You sure?  Well ok then.

This little piggy...

Red Rover, Red Rover

Give My Night Stand a Make Over...

$5 find at 2nd hand thrift store...

   Well I don't know who Red Rover is, but he didn't make over my night stand.  I did. :)

I have been without a night stand since we moved into this house a few months ago.  Yes, I said a few months.  I have been waiting and watching for a nice, used, cheap night stand and I finally found it!  Woot Woot!!

primer, 2 coats of paint...

 I found this nice little stand at a thrift shop. It's real wood.  It's not fake wood.  I won't bother if it's fake wood.  It didn't have a price tag on it so I was really expecting the worst, but took it up to the lady at the front, asked her how much and was pleasantly surprised ecstatic when she told me $5.00!  Should I let something like a five dollar find make me that happy?  Is that normal?

re-attach hardware...

 So whilst the children were busy cleaning their rooms, I sneaked into the garage to paint this little number so I could get my room in order. 

sanding corners...

 My nine year old daughter came into the garage while I was sanding the corners off and asked me why I like to sand all the corners off of what I paint.  I said, "because it gives it definition."  "Now get back to cleaning your room."

finished. drying.

 

 Can you believe someone would live like this for three months?  Utterly shocking!  I mean really! (I know that's what you're thinking...)

don't judge me.

why is this pic blurry?

So even though it's blurry, you "get the picture".  My little night stand has saved the day.  I feel like a human again, not like a piggy.  Now I need to go check on my little piggies and see if their pens are clean.  I mean really!  Who lives like that?!  Where do they get it?!  ;)

You might be a blogger if...

You might be a blogger if :

...it takes you three times as long to bake bread because you have to take pictures of every step along the way.

...you suddenly have energy to finish a project that has been sitting in the garage for 5 months because you can post about it.

...you only take on projects or tasks if you think they will be  great posts.

...suddenly those pesky ad's  become your friend.


...facebook becomes more than a place to say hi to friends, it becomes your marketing tool.

...your kid tells you "you needed a blog".

...you upgrade to a camera instead of just your phone to take all those post pics.


What is your "you might be a blogger if..."?

kitchen table love--Homemade Kitchen Table

OUR country kitchen table.

 I want to share with you one of my favorite things. 

 My OUR kitchen table.  

 We built it ourselves.  

Well, mostly my handy man...

...but I helped.

can I lick the beaters?

It's birthday time!!!  My beautiful step-daughter is turning the big 2-0 today.  I shed a little tear... She has left the teenage years behind.  But the best is yet to come!  At least that's what you have to tell them to look forward to getting older right?.  Oh, who am I kidding, 19 was one of the best years of my life.

She gave us brownies as one of the options for her birthday "cake".  A girl after my own heart.  She gets it from me. ;)
  This is the best brownie recipe I've found.  It's not a well kept family secret, it's just out of the BH&G cookbook.  Here is the recipe...

(un-frosted brownies, b-day girl request)

 


FUDGE BROWNIES


1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts


1. Grease an 8x8x2-inch baking pan; set aside.  In a medium saucepan melt butter and chocolate over low heat.  Remove from heat.  Stir in eggs, sugar, and vanilla.  Using wooden spoon, beat lightly just till combined.  Stir in flour and nuts.
2. Spread batter in prepared baking pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Cool in a wire rack.  Cut into bars.  Makes 24 brownies.

Editor notes:  I add a pinch of salt.  You can leave it out if you want, but trust me, it's better with a bit of salt. Also, if you don't have chocolate squares but do have cocoa powder, you can substitute 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 Tablespoon oil for one ounce chocolate.  It works.  I've used that substitute many times.
Then, as if these delicious brownies aren't enough.....drum roll please.....

Minute Fudge Frosting:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening
2 sq. unsweetened chocolate (2 oz.) cut up
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all ingredients except vanilla in saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate and shortening melt.  Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil 1 minute. (220degrees).  Remove from heat and beat until lukewarm (120 degrees). Stir in vanilla.  Beat until a smooth consistency.  Enough for two 8 or 9" layers or 13x9" oblong cake.
Or in this case, brownies.  I didn't frost the brownies today, but it is devilishly delicious.  Warning, it may put you in a sugar coma, but  it's the best.
You can thank me later...unless you're in a coma. ahem.
P.S. I licked the beaters myself. I wouldn't put my kids at risk like that...ya, that's it.

yummy batter (salmonella--shalmonella! pfft!)

peach cobbler..

I've had so many requests for the peach cobbler that here is the recipe...

Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler:

1 box cake mix (white or yellow)
ingredients cake mix asks for except for water (i.e. eggs, oil) in place of water, use peach juice from canned peaches.

1 large can sliced peaches
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar

Instructions:
Mix cake mix in separate bowl.
In dutch oven melt butter and brown sugar and stir over heat until bubbly and carmelized. Remove dutch oven from heat, layer drained peaches, and mixed cake mix.
Put lid on dutch oven, place directly over hot coals with 5-6 hot coals on dutch oven lid.  Cook approx. 15-20 minutes or until done.  Remove from heat.  Cut the sweetness with whipped, or ice cream as it is very rich.

From Hubby with love...

going dutch...

 Dutch oven dinner in the mountains over Labor Day weekend is just what the doctor ordered.  Except it was after the weekend we saw the doctor.

 sand patch.

 Kids. Pond.

 Can you see the beautiful dragon flies? Nope. Me either.  They flew off too fast.

Pretty little wild flower.

 Squash managed to make it's way into the dutch oven dinner...

 I will need to look at these lovely wild flowers come winter...

Dutch Oven dinner:
1 lb. bacon
1 lb. burger
5 lbs. red potatoes sliced
1 large onion
2 medium squash
1 head broccoli
velveeta cheese
Cook bacon and burger.Add potatoes, onion and vegetables.  The surprising ingredient in this the way my bro-in-law does it was velveeta cheese.  Now I'm not usually a fan of fake cheese, but this was delicious.  Maybe it was because he also added broccoli and who doesn't love broccoli and cheese?  I'm not the dutch oven cook in the family, so I really don't know how to tell you to cook it other than build fire, let coals form, put oven in coals and let cook until done.


It was really, really delicious and afterward we had peach cobbler that my hubby made, but I didn't manage to get pictures of that because I was helping him. brilliant.

I was a wonderful night with family eating dutch oven dinner, letting our yellow lab splash through the water, the kids play in the sand, and enjoying the splendor of the mountains.   

I hope you all have mountains near you to retreat into.
Later gator...

yesterday was "fight procrastination day"...

trivia...

My step son called me from his moms house to give me today's trivia.  So nice of him.
"A crocodile is one of the only animals that can't stick out his tongue."
Somehow that's kind of comforting...

Size does matter--Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles

Hard at it in the kitchen again today. Bread and Butter pickles this time. One batch is with squash. The other, good ole pickling cucumbers.
We've had quite a harvest of yellow crooked neck squash and zucchini.

When all the zucchini came on it came on fast and we (I) didn't get out to the garden often enough to pick it and ended up with some huge zucchs. They won't fit into the bottles sliced, so we'll probably bread and fry them or shred and freeze them for zucchini bread later.

With the normal sized ones, we decided to try pickling them. It's a good thing because as much as I love the stuff, I don't think I can eat another one for dinner...

1000 words

I really hope these are delicious, otherwise, theyre what you are getting for Christmas...;)


Recipe:

Bread and Butter Pickles

8 cups sliced squash, or cucumbers
2 medium onions
2 sweet peppers (one red, one green)
1/4 cup salt
Mix squash, onions and peppers together, sprinkle w/ salt (uniodized) mix well, cover with water and ice.
This is important to keep the veggies cold.
Let sit for 1-2 hours.
Rinse, drain and set veggies aside.

Brine ingredients:
2 1/4 cups cider vinegar
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons celery seed
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon turmeric

Mix brine ingredients in a stainless steel stock pot.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly, let boil 3 minutes.  Add vegetables and bring back to a boil for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and fill jars to within 1/2 inch of top with mixture.  (Important: liquid must cover vegetables and be within 1/2 of top.)  Place sterilized rings and lids on jars finger tight.  Process in steam canner, or boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  Adjust time accordingly for elevation.

Today's trivia

My 13 year old comes home everyday with a bit of trivia, but today he had two. Must be Friday.  Today is blueberry popsicle day, aaaaand Bologna isn't always spelled B O L O G N A.  Only Oscar Mayer spells it that way.

sausage toes...

So what do you do, when you have a toddler who has flip flops that she can't manage?  Wearing these footloose and fancy free contraptions takes some getting used to. She has had them since July and hasn't worn them much because she can't keep them on her feet.  Now, at the end of the summer, she has decided that they are her favorite.  But, alas, she still cannot keep them on her feet and ends up carrying them, walking barefoot and her feet ending up black on the store floor.
 
"Sew", I came up with a simple solution.  Elastic.  Now, her flip flops are strappy sandals.  If you have flip flops that you love, but can't, say, wear them to work because there is a "no beach attire" rule, I have the solution for you.  (I sound like a bad infomercial.)  Just sew some elastic to the flip part of the flop and you now have strappy sandals that you can wear any"wear".

 flippy flops

 elastic

 sewing elastic. (great tutorial eh?)

 

"Sew" simple!  Now look at those cute little sausage toes!
She excalimed "Thanks Mommuh!" 
You. Are. Welcome.

useless trivia...

September is Apple Month

I'm your elderberry--Homemade Elderberry Jelly

As if delicious home bottled peach jam wasn't enough, we are in the throws of making wild elderberry jelly. (Say that five times fast.)
My husband has won blue ribbons at the local county fair for his elderberry jelly. Yes. My husband. So why isn't he writing this blog you ask? He is. He just doesn't know it.
So we took a drive into the mountains. To "the orchard" as he calls it.  My hubby knows these mountains like the back of his hands (maybe better) and has picked these berries for years.  He says that they are the best he's seen in a long time.  AAaaaand that there are going to be tons more ripe for the picking next week.
These mountains.  O. M. Gosh. Beeeautiful.  I hope these pictures do justice to the majesty of these parts. Yes. I said parts.  It brings out the hillbilly in me.

 gorgeous.

 breathtaking.

 Wish you were here.

 snow line.

 wild flowers.

 spring.

 elderberry bush.

 elderberries.

 green berries.

 bear? elk?

 picked.

 How sweet is this little flower?

 Steamer-juicer.

You haven't lived as a kid until you get to ride in the back of a truck, going down a dirt road in the mountains.
So we will be finishing up the jelly today. (Entering it in the fair.) And will post the results and recipe soon.
Take care, all you wanna be hillbillies. ;)