Recipes

I posted on my Facebook page that I had made pepper jelly. Barbara asked for the recipe – so here it is!

Hot Pepper Jelly

2 ½ c. ground peppers (I use mostly bell peppers with 6-8 jalapeños thrown in)

6 ½ c. sugar

1 ½ c. cider vinegar

1 pouch of Certo (liquid fruit pectin)

¼ tsp green food coloring (opt.)

Bring sugar, vinegar and peppers to a rolling boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add Certo and food coloring. Pour into sterilized jars. Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 6 to 7 half pints. *The cider vinegar adds to the taste, so don’t use white vinegar. ** I grind my peppers in a food processor. ***For hot jelly, throw in the whole jalapeño – seeds and all! I usually wimp out and seed mine – jelly is still good, but not very hot!

Barbara, here’s another one that I’m going to try later this week. It sounds wonderful!

Jalapeño Peach Jelly

2 pounds peaches, peeled, pitted, and chopped

1 cup cider vinegar

3 to 4 fresh jalapeno chili peppers, seeded (if desired) and coarsely chopped

5 cups sugar

1 pouch of Certo (liquid fruit pectin)

Crush peaches with potato masher. Add vinegar and peppers. Bring to boiling over high heat; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until peaches and peppers are very soft. Using a jelly bag or a colander lined with several layers of 100-percent-cotton cheesecloth, strain the mixture. You should have about 2 cups strained liquid. Discard solids. In same large saucepan, combine the 2 cups liquid and sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in pectin. Return to a full rolling boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off foam with a metal spoon. Ladle hot jelly into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving a ¼-inch headspace. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when water returns to boiling) Let stand 2 to 3 days before using. Makes 5 half-pints.

Easy, easy recipe for pickled okra –

Dill Pickled Okra

3 ½ lbs small okra pods

1.3 cup canning salt

2 tsp dill seed

3 c. water

3 c. vinegar

4 cloves garlic

2 hot red peppers, cut in half

Ball Pickle Crisp (optional)

Trim stems of okra, being careful not to cut pods; set aside. Combine salt, dill seed, water and vinegar in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Pack okra into hot jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Put 1 clove garlic and one-half pepper in each jar. Add pickle Crisp to each jar, if desired. Ladle hot liquid over okra, leaving ½-inch headspace. Process 15 minutes in boiling-water bath.

AND while I’m sharing recipes – here’s one that you have to try when the pears come in. I don’t bother to make chowchow anymore, because we like this much better. It’s good with beans, or even on a hot dog!

Pear Relish

1 peck hard pears (2 gallons)

10 bell peppers

10 medium onions

6 red peppers

4 hot peppers

5 c. vinegar

4 c. sugar

1 tbs. salt

1 tbs. turmeric

2 tbs. celery seed

2 tbs. mustard seed

Grind and drain pears. Grind peppers and onions. Mix sugar, salt, turmeric, celery seed and mustard seed and vinegar. Then add pears, onions, peppers. Bring to a rolling boil and cook 5 minutes. Pack in sterilized jars. Process 10 minutes in hot water bath. Makes about 12 pints

*Kathy’s Note: I got this recipe from Troy’s cousin Edna and have typed it in as she wrote it. If you don’t have a food grinder, use your food processor. For the red peppers, I have used red bell peppers, sweet red peppers or red hot peppers. Every batch I’ve made is a little different because I just use whatever peppers I have in the garden. It’s important to use the old fashioned hard pears (the kind you use for pear preserves). Other pears make it way too juicy!

And finally, one last recipe that Debbie Boggs requested.

Squash Salad

6 small squash (sliced thin)

(I use half yellow squash and half zucchini)

1 ½ qt. cold water

1/3 c. salt

1 c. sugar

1 c vinegar

1 tbs. mustard seed

1 c. onion (sliced into thin rings)

1 c. bell pepper (sliced into thin rings)

Dissolve salt in water. Soak squash in salt water for 30 minutes or more. Drain squash. Bring sugar, vinegar and mustard seed to a boil. Mix drained squash, onion, and peppers. Pour hot vinegar mixture over vegetables. Toss. Marinate 24 hours in refrigerator. Drain and serve.

Briana's quilt

We are still struggling along with dial-up internet back in SC. I'll take advantage of the speed of the library's wi-fi while we are in Florida to post a couple of pictures. Most of the quilts I've pictured so far have been quilts made for grandchildren. My most ambitious quilt so far was made for my teen-aged granddaughter. I started with a Bali kit for a lap quilt, but quickly decided that it was too small to be usable. So, I shopped for batiks to expand the quilt top. I found a really neat light blue extra-wide batik to use for the backing. One of the batiks on the quilt top had a dragon-fly design. I decided to use scraps to applique dragon-flys on the back. When it came time to quilt, I quilted from the back by outlining the dragon-flies and doing a watery meandering on the rest of the quilt. My granddaughter loved the effect!

Baking again!

I shared some of my baking secrets with Deilia this weekend - we baked cinnamon raisin bread. The whole house smells wonderful! (It's been years since I did any 'from scratch' baking - will probably do more since my bread maker bit the dust.) The bread recipe was one that I included in the family cookbook that I compiled for my daughter-in-laws for Christmas. (When Mother heard what I was doing, she wanted a copy,too.) Last summer I started typing all of my 'old standby' recipes from my card file, added my favorite recipes from different cookbooks in my collection, threw in specialties from different family members, and ended up with a pretty decent cookbook! I printed it on cardstock so it would be more durable and put it in the half-sized three-ring binders. I saved my page template, so, I can easily print pages for us when we find recipes that we want to add.

John Buckman's Map Quilt

Finally, here's a picture of the map quilt that I made for Troy's grandson, John Buckman.

Roland's Quilt

I finally finished a quilt for Roland. It was another whole cloth quilt - I used "Thomas" train prints for front and back. On the front, I stitched around the large pictures. I got to practice using my BSR and meandered in the background. It was a small drag-around and nap quilt, but he loved it. I used leftover backing material to cover a small pillow to go with it. Next, I'll have to make a quilt for Briana. She's 13, so it will be a challenge!

New Project

I finally started a new project. Troy's youngest grandson saw me working on Grace's map quilt and let me know in no uncertain terms that he wanted one too. (He actually wanted the one I was doing for Grace, but I told him he would get one for his birthday.) His birthday is coming up in October, and hopefully I'll have his quilt finished by then. I hand appliqued the North/South/East/West portions of the border and the rest of the border is piano keys. I will machine this one (Grace's was hand quilted). I've also started a small wall hanging using fall prints and an idea that I got from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting TV show. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Five Good Things:
1) The inflamation in my shoulder and arm has finally gone down (with the help of a cortisone injection in my shoulder) and the constant pain has gone with it!
2) We had a wonderful time at the family reunion today - loads of food and fun!
3) Safe travel to and from the reunion - it was in Laurens, which is 90 miles from here.
4) I'm finally able to use my new Bernina - it sews like a dream!
5) Cooler temperatures!

No more excuses . . .

There will be no more excuses for not being able to machine quilt my projects. I have finally bought a new sewing machine. I took advantage of Bernina's 75th Anniversary sale and bought an Aurora 430 Limited Edition. This one came with a Bernina Stitch Regulator. I had to buy a walking foot and the store threw in a quarter-inch foot. I should have everything I need for now. If I decide to add embroidery later on, I can add that module to this machine.

Five Good Things:
1) The obvious - my new sewing machine.
2) Fresh cherries - even on sale they are priced dearly, but worth it!
3) Drought resistant perennials - pretty flowers despite having no rain!
4) Those little "pings" that you get when you discover all over again how much you love your husband!
5) My baby brother is now a grandfather - a healthy grandson born in California this week!

Map quilt finished - everything else on hold for a while!

I bought a printed world map panel about five years ago (after Grace was born). Jonathan was always fascinated with maps as a child and I thought it would be nice to make a map quilt for his first child. Soon after buying the panel, I sandwiched the panel/batting/backing and basted it. I had every intention of machine quilting it, but never got around to it. I have since come to realize that I can't machine quilt with my old Brother sewing machine. Last fall I pulled out the quilt and began hand quilting it. After I finished quilting the panel, I realized that it just didn't look right without a border. So I bought material in bright primary colors and finally decided on this. To make it easier to make the border fit, I started at the corners and adjusted it to fit at the center strip. Each center strip is a solid piece with the dark red letters appliqued on with a blanket stitch. I chose a simple geometric print in primary colors for the border backing and to bind the quilt. The panel is quilted along the longitude and latitude lines. The border diamonds are quilted in the ditch. The direction blocks are quilted with a stippled design. The quilt was finally finished in May of 2007 for Grace's fifth birthday.

Right after I finished the quilt, Troy and I were in an automobile accident. A seventeen year-old, just out of school for summer vacation, turned directly in front of us at a traffic light near our home. It jammed Troy's left hand and left if bruised and swollen for a week or two, and he got a scrape on forehead. I fared a lot worse. My left kneecap was broken, I got a cut above my left eye that required 3 stitches, and my right shoulder was broken. That break was in the ball part of the joint (distal humerus). I was in the hospital for 3 days. The doctor put the left leg in a brace and the right arm was immobilized. When I visited the orthopedist 10 days later, more xrays showed that several pieces in the shoulder break were displaced. So I had to have surgery. It was scheduled as out-patient and my surgery was one of the last ones of the day. I was barely awake and the nerve block on my arm and shoulder were still in effect when I was "shoved" out of the hospital. The doctor had put in a plate and eleven screws, so needless to say, when the feeling came back the pain was horrendous. No one in the house was able to sleep that night and early the next morning I called the doctor on call. He was familiar with the case since he was in the operating room during my surgery. He told me to go straight to the hospital, they would be waiting to admit me. I was hooked up to a demerol pump for the next two days until the paid subsided enough to make it bearable.

It has now been 5 weeks since the accident and I only have another week in the leg brace. It will be good to get rid of that hot thing! Am not sure what's in store as far as recovery time on the shoulder.

Needless to say, there will not be much quilting getting done until I regain more mobility in my arm.

Five Good Things:

1) Good health - blood pressure is now under control. I consider the injuries just temporary inconviences.

2) A wonderful husband - he's been an absolute angel during this ordeal. Thank heavens he's an adequate cook, and a very good housecleaner!

3) Pillow therapy - what my oldest sister calls the nest that I have to make for myself in bed each night to TRY to get comfortable.

4) The one night of uninterupted sleep that I've gotten since the accident.

5) The five pounds that I've apparently lost so far during my recovery period. I'm trying to keep from gaining it back.