A Change

I'm thinking of discontinuing this particular blog. I started a blog at slatersathome.com through Word Press and am an affiliate for Amazon. I have been posting at that blog Monday through Friday since the year started. It has a lot of the things I blog about here and I feel it seems a little redundant for me to have two blogs that are fairly similar.
Granted, the other blog has a certain topic for each day, but a lot of it has the different projects I work on that I include here.
For now, this blog will still be up, but please feel free to visit the slatersathome.com to see what that blog is all about!

Pie

So, with our little boy's recovery, I seem to be lacking energy even more than usual.

Yesterday was national pie day, so to celebrate, I made a crust-less dutch apple pie. In other words, I made apple crisp. It was very yummy!

I used the apple pie filling my mom canned this fall. She used Ida Rose apples and they were still nice and crisp when I opened the jar.

I'm hoping to be able to can my own apple pie filling this fall. Our son will be a little older, so maybe he can be a helper! Or, maybe I can give him his own apple and that will entertain him long enough to do some canning!

Baby Food and Quilts

Diagonal pattern.


Diamond pattern.

As promised, here are some pictures of the quilt I am working on for my mother-in-law. As of today, I have sewn three rows of blocks together. One-third of the way done with that part of the quilt. Then I get to sew the rows together and it really starts to feel like a quilt.

I took some leftover blocks from a different quilt and am sewing up a small quilt to practice my hand quilting. I'll probably end up selling the small quilt, but we'll see what happens.

I also made some sweet potatoes for our little one today. I decided to thin it a little with apple prune juice. He didn't like it. He ate about half of what I dished up for him and then became very interested in his Cheerios and water. I think I'm going to thin the rest of it with some water or formula. Hopefully he'll like it better that way.

Workin' On It

I'm very proud of myself. I have gotten all of the squares cut for my mother-in-law's quilt. I now need to put them into a pattern that she likes. Of course that means some picture taking!

Once I get the pattern of the squares, I can begin sewing rows together. I think the quilting process goes fairly fast after that. I think the cutting takes forever. It's not something that's easy to do while trying to watch a little one.

I have been hand quilting with the church's quilting group. I have learned a lot, not just about hand quilting itself, but about how different people make their quilts and decide their patterns. It's given me some ideas about what I would like to attempt.

Baby Food

Since I have been making our own baby food, I've been impressed in what my child will eat. Not to mention the texture is not as nice as store bought. I have found making baby food is fun and a great way to save some money. (I use food that I would buy for ourselves anyway.) I will not make my own meat baby food. I just don't think the consistency that I would make would be smooth enough for our little boy to handle. Here are some pictures of the peas and applesauce I made.

Finally...Kringla

I finally had time to make kringla. I would like to thank my Mom for helping with the second batch. The day after making the first batch I was really sore. It was nice to have someone else to roll and shape the second batch.

Combining sugar and butter.


All of the wet ingredients.


Kringla dough.


Kneaded dough.

I have learned when you make multiple batches of kringla, you need to make them on consecutive days as opposed to one day. It's very hard on your body to roll, shape, and bake more than 6 dozen in one day.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas is almost here! There is so much to do yet! There's presents to wrap, kringla to make, suitcases to pack, and carols to sing. It's been a busy week so far. I've been working on just cleaning up some of the house. It seems that since we got decorations out, there is no room for some of the stuff we have accumulated!
The plan is to bake tomorrow. We need to get our holiday treats sent before the holidays are over! I'm hoping to make some krumkake as well (another Norwegian treat). It's pretty easy and quick to make, I just have to have the ambition.
I still have some Christmas movies to watch, too. Maybe next year it will be easier to keep on top of all the Christmas stuff!

Kringla

I'm getting ready to make kringla. The plan was to make a batch of dough today so I could roll and bake them tomorrow while my hubby is home. I spent today running errands with my son most of the late morning and afternoon. Of course, that means most of my house chores didn't get done so now I'm somewhat behind. I feel a lack of energy today, most likely from the weather and having to haul around our cute son. I'm sure the weather isn't helping either. I'm hoping I'll be able to get it made after supper. It's a great time of year for this wonderful little Norwegian treat. It's one of our families favorites, even our little guy!

Suggestions

So, no pictures for this week. We haven't put up our Christmas decorations which means no holiday baking yet. I have baked some store cookie mixes because sometimes, you just need a cookie! And with a little one, it's been difficult to have enough time to make them from scratch. Since my husband has tomorrow off, I'm hoping to get some decorating done and possibly some baking. Of course he goes to the dentist in the morning, so it may be difficult getting everything done.

I would also like to hear what people would like me to blog about. How can I make this blog better for you? What do you want me to do more of? What do you not want me to do? I'm taking any and all suggestions. Just leave a comment! Thanks for your input!

(Make sure to check out the recipe for December! It would make a great breakfast for Christmas!)

Gettin' My Sewing On

I've been planning on working on some of my sewing projects this week. I started this week by fixing some clothes that were overly due for fixing. I also made a couple of baby toys that my sister-in-law gave me the pattern for. It's my sons favorite toy and in order to wash the original, I needed to make at least another one. I figured it's as easy to make two as it is one, so I will make duplicates to donate to our church's charity fund.
Tomorrow is our church's quilting circle meeting, which I usually go to in the afternoon. I'm hoping to make some new sheets for our son's crib tomorrow as well. We'll see how well my sewing talents extend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As it was a holiday week with working at a craft fair last weekend, I have not had time to post a blog. So, welcome to the Thanksgiving edition!

We did well at our first craft fair. We sold several items including, but not limited to, caramel corn, popcorn, Christmas wreaths, baby toys, hair accessories, cookbooks and peanut brittle. There are a few changes we decided to make for next year, but we have decided to work at it again. I believe there is another craft fair which our stuff will be sold at next weekend, but I will not be able to attend.

I made Chipotle Sweet Pretzels and took pictures of each step as I made them.

Here I am adding the water to the egg whites.


Adding the rest of the coating ingredients.


Coating the pretzels.


The finished product after baking.
They aren't too spicy, but have a very nice flavor.

Hopefully I'll start making more holiday fare and post pictures during the holiday season!

Food Galore

I took the weekend and made our next six weeks meals. It was a little more difficult to plan since there are two holidays to plan for. (We usually travel for both holidays, but with the weather always being iffy here, it's hard to plan which days we'll be gone for sure. Last year we ended up staying home an extra day because of the snow.) I made eight meals, leaving the last one for tonight. It didn't make much sense to me to freeze a meal to take it out the next day. Most of the recipes for this menu are from the different Taste of Home magazines. I did take pictures of a couple of the menu items I made, however, I didn't have time to upload them to my computer. Hopefully I'll be able to post them sometime this week.
I have also been working on items to sell for the craft fair I'm attending with my in-laws on Saturday. I've been making mixes and rice heating pads. I will also be making some flavored pretzels and caramel corn. I will be more than happy to post pictures of making one of these items and the recipe! This will be my first craft fair, some I'm excited to see what will sell and what won't and how much will.

Adventures in Baby Food

*I had a migraine yesterday, so this post is one day late. My apologies!*

Our son has started eating solid foods. Instead of paying for baby food, we have opted to try to make our own. I did all right with the butternut squash, which he started to like. The green beans and carrots have been a different story, although he does like both of them. The carrots need a little more pureeing, so do the green beans, but I'm not sure I can puree the green beans anymore without completely watering it down. It's still experimental, but we're working on it. I think we're trying peas next which will hopefully be much easier!

Apples Galore

I didn't get all of my list done from last week. I did get some of the apples dehydrated and I cut up one of the butternut squashes. I am having somewhat of a hard time not eating the apple chips that I've made. Sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before drying and they are really tasty! I still have quite a few apples left, but I'm hoping to finish them up this week.

To Do

This week:
Dehydrate apples
Make room in freezer
Freeze pumpkin
Freeze butternut squash
Wash laundry
Finish unpacking

Apples

This week my son and I are visiting family. Today we are at my parents. We went to a local apple orchard where we picked up apples for baking, drying, saucing and, of course, eating. My in-laws have already made applesauce and have saved some for us, so I will be getting to take some of the drying apples home. We are going to try to make and can apple pie filling before my son and I leave Wednesday for my in-laws. I did have one of the eating apples, Jonagold, and it was delicious!

Quilting Fun

This post is a little late (trying for every Monday), but I am posting. I have been practicing hand quilting. I have started going to a quilting group through the church we've been attending and the ladies were more than happy to teach me how to hand quilt. I'm very excited to work on this new skill and hope to be able to help them quilt soon!
This week I'm going to try to work on my mother-in-laws quilt. I need to cut squares but have limited space to cut right now and it seems fairly limited time. It's hard to keep the little one entertained long enough to get a good amount of anything done some days.

Freezer Cooking

This past weekend I spent cooking for our freezer. I cooked nine recipes total and have one more to do. The last recipe I have to make is a soup recipe. Seeing as it has once again warmed up, and I'm running low on freezer space, I've decided to wait until the menu says to have the soup, then make a big batch to freeze. It's hard to make soup while it's warm outside!
Here are some pictures of the hard work I did:





I picked ten recipes and did triple batches. My menu is for 42 days, so there are some days for roasts, leftovers, pasta with sauce and pizza. Our son was very good for me on Friday while I did the first batch of baking. My husband watched him on Sunday and also picked up supper for us. (I completely recommend not cooking supper the day you do the most of the cooking. It really wipes you out!)
I'm still washing some of the dishes, but I run out of strainer space quickly when I use the big bowls, skillets and pots. I'm sure I'll see the end of the dishes soon!

Culinary Delight

Last week I made ham and cheese calzones (picture to be posted later). This weeks culinary experiment is muffins. I have two recipes I'd like to try, Pumpkin Oat Bran and Chocolate Almond. The recipes sound like they'll taste really yummy, and the best part is I can freeze them for later! I made ham and bean soup Sunday night and made some yummy pasta tonight. I've been playing with different flavors and coming up with new ideas to keep our menu a little less boring.

Pretzels

This last week I tried my had at a recipe I found in one of the magazines I subscribe to. It is called "Sweet Chipotle Pretzels" and they are really good! I made two double batches and bagged some for my mother-in-law to sell at the farmer's market. Each batch makes four cups of pretzels, so there isn't a whole lot to share, but it's a nice change from some of the snack food I've made, and one I will be sure to make again.