Spring! I should be planting! But...

Procrastination... or is it because I got a cold and felt MISERABLE that I didn't want to do anything for a few days? I spent time outside today emptying a sopping wet bag of manure composted dirt into some empty pots. How do they get that wet? My lettuce and cabbage is starting to come up and I hate myself for planting them next to one another since apparently they stunt each others growth. WHY can't they just get along for pete's sake? Anyhow, trying to garden with the moon signs is TOUGH when it rains and throws a big ole monkey wrench in the plans. Hopefully I will get some bedding plants on sale at the local farm store tomorrow when they are on sale so I can get stuff in the ground and not wait for them to pop up.

My list of things I want:

tomatoes - roma and some nice sized maters just perfect for canning I want a couple full garden rows of them
green peppers - need something to actually grow this year instead of pretending to put out fruit. Pfft!

green beans - maybe someone will quit donating tin cans of the things they do not want so I will actually eat my own canned beans.

peas - need lots of these and it's been too wet to plant. The toddler likes to eat them straight from the garden.

cantaloupe - these went nuts last year, so I may need to stagger plants so I'm not overwhelmed. They suck when defrosting as they got soggier than hell. :-(
strawberries - I should have covered mine so they wouldn't have died in the pot they were in. DANG IT!

cucumbers - must have some this year that actually grow. I bought some pickling stuff last year and couldn't use it cuz the blasted things burned up in the sun. :-(


So... thinking I need to re-arrange my mums that have come back up and move them somewhere else to slide some edibles in their place. Not quite sure what or how I'm going about it. So here I am at that lovely DUH crossroads and trying to make the most of my little city plot of land. Wish me luck!

Recipe Test Tuesdays - Wild Violet Jelly

Never made it before but so far so good.

Gathered my wild violets out of the yard then rinsed them under cold water. I'm surprised I got 2 heaping cups of these bad boys for the recipe I found. Took a while to get them picked. Who knows what people thought I was doing out in the yard.

So I boiled water and poured it over the top of the violets in a pyrex bowl to steep. I'll put them in the fridge and pull this out in the morning and make my jelly from the violet tea I made.


So I took the violets in their 'tea' and poured them through a strainer into a glass measuring cup. I added 1/4 C of lemon juice and it turned a purple color from this sick looking greenish color that it was. Poured it into a non-reactive pot. I set aside another bowl and put the 4 Cups of Sugar and 1 box of Sure Jel pectin and stirred it up. Poured it into the pot with the Violets and warmed it up to medium high and stirred it up. When it tried to foam I cut back the temperature to medium.

When I got done making it, I ended up with 3 1/2 pints of jelly. Mine turned a pinkish color at the end. Next to try a dandelion jelly.

Making a Kitchen Towel Hanger with Potholder

I decided to follow the lead after seeing a video on how to make these things. Of course we all know what one person does well... might end up as a fail if we do it. So needless to say, I had one of those experiences while making this for the first time.

Okay so with this project you'll need 1 potholder with the thingy you can hang it with and a matching or coordinating kitchen towel folded in thirds lengthwise.

You will place the Potholder pretty side up. Then... take your towel and lay it on the potholder pretty side down. This will be totally centered over the potholder as the line straight in the middle of the potholder. You will spread the towel to cover to the sides of the potholder. Pin in place and stitch a straight stitch size 4 length across the towel with the potholder under it. Flip the potholder in half and place a button on the side opposite the hanging loop. Then loop to close. This can hang from an oven door handle or towel bar. I didn't have buttons so I substituted the plastic snaps you see people make diaper covers with. I used size 20.

I first tried this on the thinking that you gather the towel in the middle with the basting stitch. WRONG! It didn't look good at all to me. I like how these lay better and when you hang them from the towel bar. I'll be making more now that I have this method DOWN! Just make sure that you choose patterns on the pot holder that won't be upside down when coordinating. It's really fun to make and can be made for as little as $2.00 each like these were from Dollar General. 

Happy Good Friday to All!

It's been pretty quiet on the blog for the past few days. I pulled a near all nighter with a sick kid and couldn't function yesterday enough to spend time writing anything semi-intelligent. LOL! Got much rest last night and darn near caught up.

Today will be a fun day of making things for Sunday dinner and hoping the kids stay out of it so it can make it to Sunday. So my dream list of fun things?

• making easter eggs from Jell-O - I have the molds I picked up at a thrift store for CHEAP so why not? Recipe for Jello Jiggler Eggs 
• dying the eggs - I still haven't gotten around to it. Anyone have a favorite method for dying your own?
• making dinner rolls
• make a couple loaves of bread
• can some hamburger before it goes south

So with the list from above and the need to still throw seeds at the dirt to plant something. I better get off here and get motivated. Feel free to share your favorite recipes, links, or stories of Good Friday things you do with your family & friends in preparing for Easter in the comments.

How to beat the Cake Mix Companies at their own game!

It is frustrating to buy a cake mix at the store and pay some really HIGH prices for them to only make a 1" thick cake when it is all said and done. I can't afford name brand so knowing that they also come in generic kind of helps but they are also too expensive for what they give you. So for this blog posting today I will help you get the cake back to the original box size they used to give us and your cake WILL be a little bit taller.

Boxed Cake Mix Stretcher

1 egg
2 Tbsp oil
1/3 C Water
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 C flour (all-purpose is perfectly fine)
1/2 C granulated sugar

Prepare your cake with the ingredients stated on your package. Then add the above ingredients to the recipe. Mix according to the package instructions. Baking time and temperature will be the same as what the box says.

So when you make this in a 9x13 cake pan.... it will turn out nice and thick and YUMMY!

Sorry we got into it already, but it was GOOD! Here's my funky artwork using the left over colored sugar from my cookies I baked yesterday and used the melon baller to make the swirlies. The recipe for the frosting follows!

Buttercream Wedding Cake Icing: 
2 C Powdered Sugar
3/4 C shortening
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and beat for 8-10 minutes. Recipe taken from: Family Favorites - From the Kitchen of the Brenneman Family Mennonite cookbook. Page 148

Vinegar Sugar Cookies for Easter or Spring

This is my favorite SOFT sugar cookie recipe. It might sound gross, but they are VERY tasty. You will need to follow this recipe in the steps given for them to work the best for you. I also made my own colored sugar from some dye I had hanging around in the spice cabinet.

Vinegar Sugar Cookies

1 egg
2 tsp white vinegar
2 1/2 C All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C butter/margarine
1/2 C shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 C granulated sugar

1. In a cereal bowl put the egg and vinegar together and mix until the egg yolk is fully mixed into the vinegar. Set this bowl aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl put flour, salt and baking soda and stir with fork. Set this bowl aside.
3. In a larger bowl add the remaining ingredients. Cream or mix them all together with the mixer on low.
4. Pour one half of the egg mixture into the sugar mixture and mix well on low.
5. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and mix well on low.
6. Pour rest of the egg mixture into the sugar mixture and mix well on low.
7. Pour rest of the flour mixture into the dough and mix well on low.
8. Roll the batter into small balls and dip in sugar. Then use a fork to press down the cookie on an ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. 
10. Remove from oven and let sit for a minute or two before taking them off the cookie sheet and put them on a wire rack to cool. 

To make colored sugar you will take about 1/4 C of sugar and put in a small container that you can put a lid on to shake it with 1-3 drops of food coloring of your choice color. Half-pint sized canning jars are awesome for this task. :-)

Making the Perfect Hard Boiled Egg - A Tutorial

It's getting close to Easter and everyone knows that the dreaded coloring of mass quantities of eggs is in their immediate future. Why not get those eggs cooked properly the first time so you can use them for various recipes that are totally DELICIOUS!

Put your clean eggs into a pot and cover with water.

Bring to a full rolling boil and cover with lid and remove from heat.

Let sit for 15-20 minutes and then drain hot water from the pot. Rinse the eggs with cold tap water and then put in egg cartons to chill in the fridge to prepare later. Make sure you mark your egg containers if you also have raw eggs in the fridge or you might end up with a surprise when you try to crack an egg open to eat.

Now that you know how to make hard boiled eggs, you can make devilled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, or even color Easter Eggs. 

Chicken Whisperer & More

Sunday we headed to the Tractor Supply Co in Columbia, MO to see The Chicken Whisperer who was giving a mini-clinic on Backyard Chicken keeping.

We had a great time and would suggest that you check out his Facebook page to see his next stop so you can learn a little about the backyard chicken movement. Learn how to get started and really what NOT to do that you see folks do all the time on some of the larger followed webpages.

At TSC I was able to finally get a wheelbarrow for my gardening escapades. Clearanced for $30. YES! It came in handy yesterday for getting all the straw and mess from the garden plot all rounded up and put into a mulch pile.

After the trip to TSC we headed for Jo-Anns to get more plastic snaps for my training pants making addiction. (why do I subject myself to this torture?) Of course with a vehicle full of boys, they see a Goodwill Store and wanted me to stop there so they could check it out. Glad they suckered me into it as I landed a score with a Little Tikes basketball goal for Jake for $6.

I'll be busy for the next few days preparing the garden for planting and all fun things that make muscles you forgot you had ACHE. So the blog posts will be few.

A Newbie Review of the Babyville Boutique stuff

It's been pretty quite this week so far on the blog, but on Sunday we took a trip to Jo-Anns in Columbia, MO and got some of the Babyville Boutique things that were on sale for 50% off. I got some PUL fabric, some dry weave fabric, snaps, snap clamp, Fold Over Elastic, and a little training pants pattern book. Let's just say I'm not too thrilled with the lack of REAL instructions on this product line. I LOVE to sew with the directions that are the start to finish type of things. Not a SURPRISE! Guess what other crap you needed to buy, but didn't because our pattern book was sealed in the store and couldn't read the items needed. So after staring at this book and wondering WTH am I doing... I hit the internet to see if anyone else did anything on this subject or not. Some have, but most have not. I found some people boycotting this little business as well. Seriously, this crap is just plain OVERPRICED. Please write up great instructions from a newbie point of view as some of us have NEVER made this stuff before. Please make your products AFFORDABLE to those on limited incomes. Some of us searching this out are too broke to buy disposables and not necessarily greenies by any stretch of the imagination. BTW, so far I'm thinking of using a FREE pattern I found on the internet to make a POCKETED training pant that I can add a folded up pre-fold diaper in it when the toddler is headed for bed. The snaps on the sides look easy enough.

The plus side to the Babyville Boutique fabrics:

• Very cute patterns or solid colors
• Handy 3 packs that can make about 6 diapers

The not so plus side to the fabric:

• Price is too much for yard goods. $15.00 a yard is NUTS.

So... with the first project being cute and all, it was too big. It was the back snap training pant. The snaps would work just fine on the sides instead of the back. It was too confusing for the toddler to put them on by himself and put them on backwards. The snaps are still quite stiff and hard to separate for now. So maybe in time they will get a little easier to open as time goes by. I'm thinking 'meh' on the item and looking around for other ideas. 

Here's the page I found that I'm looking through links: CD Sewing 101. I'm putting it on this page as well because you never know when internet gremlins will steal your bookmarks away from you and spit them out into cyberspace hell to be lost forever.

Off for now to find time to unwind for the evening. Feel free to post your favorite crafting websites to go to or even your tales of woe for making something that looked so awesome, but turned out 'meh.'