Homemaking Thoughts

I am good at this...

and this...

and this...

and this, but not this...

No, I am not good at this.  This took me about a month of hard practice and many times trying to get just one quilt square.  This was last year, and I just want to say I was so thankful when garden season rolled around and I had other things to be creative with on a daily basis.  The goal was that I would come back to this someday, but not today or even this year. 

This year my daughter is learning to knit.  She took to it very easily, much like she took to quilting class.  I was the absolute failure there.  I personally think she took to quilting class because the teacher felt sorry for her having a mother like me. The teacher played favorites and spent a lot of time helping Hope.  I had a plan to show that teacher that I wasn't inept in the homemaking department.  I was going to make several loaves of bread and a homemade pie and give it to her.  I may not be able to quilt, but I would show her I could at least cook.  Instead, I just quit the class because it was garden season.  I should have taken her a huge basket of produce! I chickened out in the end because I never did master anything in the class! 

I digressed...this year Hope learned to knit.  She had lots of extra time during ballet rehearsals, and one of the older girls taught her.  She has spent much of her time these past few months knitting.  She enjoys it so I decided that she could teach me to knit.  She spent about an hour with me.  She wasn't a very patient teacher.  She tried, but in the end she decided that I was unable to knit.  I would have to find some other poor teacher other than her because she wasn't cut out to teach me.  I have found a girl willing to help me learn to knit.  She seems very patient and kind.  She even smiled when I told her of my lack of abilities in this part of homemaking.  I think this might just work.  I am looking forward to spending some time with her soon.  But just in case it doesn't go so well, I at least have this excuse to get me out of it...

grace and peace,
julie

Date Night

We have missed her.  She usually spends Friday and Saturday evenings at our house.  Her new college schedule and work schedule and weather issues have kept her from us for the last several weeks.  It just doesn't seem the same.  My kids have complained.  My husband has complained about her absence.  The other evening he was saying, "We have enough kids, why should I miss one that isn't even ours!"  However, we do miss her, and we are all looking forward to her coming out to spend our Friday evening with us.  It goes without saying that our oldest son is always happy to spend time with her, but he does get to see her at school.  This evening will find us eating a hearty supper around the dinner table, and sitting together talking over the happenings of the last few weeks.  I am sure that a competitive game of cards will also be on the docket for tonight, and perhaps a funny movie.  I sure have missed my son's date nights and his girlfriend!  I am glad that we are back on track!!!

grace and peace,
julie

I Am Ready

Last night I finished my seed inventory.  I was shocked at just how many seeds I still had from the last few growing seasons.  I will be able to save a lot of money by using what we have.  I have kept the seeds in the basement refrigerator so they should be fine.  I may not get as good of yield as if they were brand new, but I have plenty to plant extra. Every year I try to grow something different.  This year I really want to grow sweet potatoes.  I was going to do that last year, but in our area the plants were extremely expensive for some reason.  The man at the feed store was confused by the cost as well, and I decided it wasn't worth it.  Perhaps this year will be different.  I have taken the time to find a supplier of my parent's favorite tomato, Jet Star.  I am going to order a packet of those along with Super Sweet 100 Tomato Seeds.  These are the only two hybrid tomatoes that I plant.   I have never tried to grow Jet Star since we have been in Tennessee, but I remember the flavor of my dad's!  I also love the flavor of Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.  They are like eating candy!  The other hybrid plant that I grow is Ambrosia Cantaloupe.  I have tried heirloom cantaloupes, and we don't like them.  Ambrosia is a wonderful cantaloupe that is well worth the effort of finding the seeds.  One year that we grew them, they were so prolific that we were eating them for breakfast!  The last several years they haven't grown that well for us.  I am hoping that this year will break that bad streak. 

Sometime over the next few days, I will place my seed order. I have all of my seeds that need to be started now: (Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, lettuce, and spinach). Michael will also be assembling my grow cart, and as soon as I can I will post pictures of it.  I should be back in the seed growing business in no time!

grace and peace,

julie

Strawberry Cake Roll Recipe

For our Christmas day dessert, I made this delightful Strawberry Cake Roll.  It had a lighter taste to it than the  rich Black Tie Mousse Cake that I also made.  I had never made this cake before, but it sounded good.  I was trying to recreate a cake that my mom used to purchase from the Amish.  It was a sponge cake roll, just like this one, but the filling was totally different. It was made with strawberry jam.  My next attempt at this cake will be to omit the whip cream filling (although it was wonderful), and try it with just a homemade strawberry freezer jam filling.  One thing that surprised me about this cake was the fact that it stayed nice over several days in the refrigerator.  I made it the day before Christmas Eve.  We started eating it on Christmas day, and we ate on it for several days thereafter.  I would have thought that the whip cream filling would have separated, but it was still great.  This would be a lovely Valentine's dessert or it would grace the table of a baby shower beautifully.  Hope you like it!

Strawberry Cake Roll

4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sifted cake flour  (I didn't have that so I used regular All purpose flour sifted several times)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Powder Sugar
1 cup whipping cream
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 (10 oz) package frozen sliced strawberries, thawed and drained
1/4 cup strawberry jam
1/4 cup light corn syrup

Grease a 15x10 inch jelly roll pan, and line with wax paper. Grease and flour wax paper; Set aside.
Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored.  Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, beating well.  Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating just until blended.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Stir gently into combined flour and sugar mixture.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.  Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. 

Sift powder sugar in a 15x10 inch rectangle on a tea towel.  When cake is done, immediately loosen from sides of pan and turn out onto sugar tea towel.  Peel off waxed paper.  Starting at narrow end, roll up cake and towel together; cool on a wire rack, seam side down.

After the cake cools, beat whipping cream until foamy; gradually add 3 Tablespoons sugar, beating until soft peaks form.  Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla; beat until mixed.  Fold in strawberries.  Unroll cake, and remove towel.  Spread cake with strawberry filling, and reroll.  Place on serving plate seam side down.  (I cut my roll in half and placed side by side on my serving plate). 

Combine jam and corn syrup in a small pan.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Remove from heat; brush mixture over cake roll.  Chill until time to serve.  Best if left for several hours before serving.  Right before serving, I sprinkled mine with a bit of powder sugar for garnish.

grace and peace,
julie

The Many Beds of the English Mastiff

Come into our home and you will see this often.  It isn't just the littlest of the family that curls up with the English Mastiff. 

No, you will also find her curled up with the oldest and the youngest at the same time.  My question is how can a 200 pound dog, a 180 pound man child, and a 45 pound kid fit in a twin size trundle bed?

You might even find her curled up by herself on the end of the recliner.

But the one person you won't find Missy curled up with is Hope.  Hope isn't that fond of Missy.  She gives her the evil eye and a loud shriek.  She calls her things like, "Dog, Mutt, and Beast".  Missy is smarter than Hope.  Missy waits until Hope leaves for school.  Then Missy crawls into her bed and lounges about for the whole day enjoying the room of a princess.  She enjoys the feather mattress and the soft purple comforter.  She loves to lay her head on the matching pillows.  I think she even drools on them intentionally.  Then when she hears Hope walk back through the front door after a long day at school, Missy quickly gets out of her room.  She leaves the impression that she has just been laying in the hall all day.  Hope asked me one day, "Mom, why is there always dog hair in my bed?"  I only smiled because I wasn't about to give away the secrets of the English Mastiff.

grace and peace,
julie

The Gardening Time is Coming!!!!

I am gearing up for our spring garden NOW.  I have sounded the alarm, and if you live close to our zone and you want to garden... you better start getting your seeds in a row! Of course, I am a little behind my own garden goal starting point.  Last  year my husband disassembled my grow center.  He needed the space for his shop.  The seed growing center was made out of scrap material and it was only intended to get us through one growing season until he could do something different.  Now that he took it all apart, he will HAVE to do something different.  He found grow carts at garden supply companies, but the cheapest we found cost $229 without the lights.  Basically it was a $229 shelf with nice trays to hold the plants.  That doesn't fit into our budget so we needed an alternative.  He decided to get a metal shelf from Lowe's.  It cost $70 for the shelf unit.  I will be looking for disposable cookie trays with a lip so I can water the plants from the bottom.  We still have some of our light fixtures that we used in the  past, but he will have to buy some more because this shelf will hold so many more plants than my other little grow area.  For about $150, we should have a very nice growing station including the full spectrum lights that make the plants grow!!!  Due to the wind in our area, we cannot have a greenhouse.  This is our way of taking some lemons and making some lemonade!!

He asked me just a few days ago if I would rather spend the money on the shelf  and lights or just buy our plants this year.  I told him I would love to just buy our plants from a local nursery.  We started adding up the amount of plants that I plant every year, and the cost of the plants were enormous.  (I plant over a hundred tomato plants)!  We decided that it was much more feasible for us to grow the plants from seeds than it  was to buy them from a local nursery.  (If I were growing a small garden, I probably would buy my plants from the local nursery).  A little money spent now yields a whole lot of produce in the spring and summer months.  I think that is a good investment!

grace and peace,
julie

Sunday Scripture

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."  Isaiah 26:3