I have been a busy bee! Now I'm pooped!

Here I'm smiling and trying to show off the new watch and earrings that the "kids" gifted me with for Christmas (among other goodies I'm not showing, but I don't have to rush to do laundry for more than a couple of weeks :o) you girls know what I mean) Men , mind your business.
First cousin was a big help shopping with me..She even shared some of her % cards so I made out like a bandit :o)  Plus I got a favorite watch repaired..boy! they don't mind charging you almost the cost of the watch :o(.  but they did a good job...I can at least wear it now..

At first i was put out with Kodak, I had so much trouble with it showing "paper Jam", but this morning they made it good with a replacement..First cousin saved the day, she was patient waiting on the phone when i couldn't deal with push this and hold for that...good thing she was here ...Next day my warranty would have been done...Now I have to wait for it to decide if it's going to print color for me..took four pages before it wanted to print black and white. :o( Can you see all the junk I have :o) I need to clean up I'm losing work space :o)

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas !

Compliments from Another Blog

While visiting "Counting My Blessings"  I saw this tasty dish and the blog it was from. I thought someone else would like it too, this is the link.


http://southernhospitalityblog.com/sweet-treats-crockpot-chocolate-candy/

A Hearty Breakfast for a farmer's wife!!

Didn't want to start working on the rest of those sweet potatoes this morning without putting something solid in my tummy.. Cecil had to do some errands for me so he needed to be fed also...So, grits were in order this morning with cheese to stick to our ribs :o) and a large patty of Neeses sausage and eggs fried...
Now to get to working on those sweet potatoes...after breakfast and a few minutes in the "Chair Bed" .(we love those chairs). I'll give an update on the proceeding today.:o) 
Update: 

I've been busy all day ..with Sweet Potatoes peeling, slicing and preparing two large pans to cook them in..It's surprising how you can take a lot of food and whittle it down to look like nothing much! We all know how much work is involved in each dish and we all know the satisfaction we get seeing "look what I did :o)"  I had two pans but couldn't get them both in the same spot...Guess I was cockeyed tired.

This is pan #2 , both were filled pretty good. and of course Cecil had to taste them to make sure they "were on the money" < he says that when something taste good ..or he will mark my Son in law who says "That's a Ten" :o) no matter I thought they both tasted good :o) I was going to use my new vacuum bags, but the juice was too darn good to get lost..and I wanted them to "soak" in it :o) 


So I dug out my old Rubber maid containers from 1964..and put them into them and storage in the almost full freezer was easy enough, I just had to take out a loaf of bread that we will need for tomorrow's sandwich's  ( that ham again, < it taste better than the first time. Each container holds what I call a "Sunday meal", more than enough for one day ..even with company, and enough for two days.

Rubbermaid Containers from 1964 loaded with Candied Sweet Potatoes :o)

There is no end to the Harvest!

There is no end to the "Harvest" weather it's from your fields or someone else's :o) I've always been told "Strike while the iron is Hot" and "Make Hay while the Sun Shines". A couple of my Mothers sayings I find true. Last time (Thanksgiving) sweet potato's were on sale, ($.27 lb)  and i got a few which I baked and put into the freezer..I had a couple of very large ones left and made french fries out of them..one potato was more than enough..so I put some in the food saver bags and just put them into the fridge..they were there since Thanksgiving..but opening them was like I prepared them yesterday..I tell you Penny is saving me a lot of time and money..Today Cecil found them on sale ($.29 lb,) couple of pennies more, still good enough to "Harvest" :o)...I'm so frugal it's working me to pieces, there just is no rest. Went to the garden and plucked a meal of Rutabaga leaves for dinner..We will have some of the small Sweet potato's baked and that's dinner..I made Ham sandwiches for lunch out of that beautiful ham from Thanksgiving. (that I froze in those vacuum bags) I'm loving it.Guess I don't feel right if I'm not doing something and tiring myself out. Plus I'm working at the Loom, nothing worth showing as yet..I have to get into the swing of "Pattern, tabby" :o(  those that weave know a newbies plight.

Cecil went back for more of these bargain potato's ...he loves French Fries, especially Sweet potato french fries :o) Keeping him happy through his stomach :o) wish he were a rich man :o) I'd have two staircases :o) one going up and one going down :o)..I must need a nap ;o).

Now to rest a bit..then dry these up in a towel, put them into the foodsaver bags and vacuum them up. That will be after supper..which will be those fresh picked greens and baked sweet potato's ( the little small ones Cecil picked out first because he likes them sweet.. :o)
Now I have one more pan that I will do tomorrow...I may just dice and cook them before I freeze them..there isn't much room in that freezer :o( should have bought a bigger one like I thought in the first place. :o(
Update: All the fries have been vacuumed packed and put away into the fridge. I  had put away some fries like this during the Thanksgiving time..and they were just as fresh the other day when I deep fried them.. So I'm going to put one bag in the freezer just to "test" it. So I can see if I need to blanch before I freeze or if the vacuuming is good enough to save and for how long.  Your looking at 12 pounds of what we call Cub potato's (big ones #2-3) sliced for frying. now tomorrow I'll finish up the rest..How, I don't know yet :o). I forgot to tell you that I made sure the potato's were drained and towel dried before I put them into the bags,this way no water was left in the bags...Neat trick :o)

Today is Another Day and Another Blessing!

First thing today I get a call from another old Weaver friend besides "Teacher" wanting to know if I still needed help with that loom..before I knew it ..."Dr. Fix it" was here and slapped that loom a couple of places and before I knew it the loom tention was fixed :o) and now there is no excuse for me to finish up this project and get on to the next one. Sure feels good to know there are a few people still willing to give you a hand up.  I can tell I've lost some of my skills :o(  it's like anything else.."If you don't use it , you lose it" I definitly need to put more time into my weaving, to bring my skills back to a decent level..and it better be before Spring..that's when planting starts up again..Harvesting hasn't stopped yet!..ugh! umma one busy lady..:o)

"Waste Not Want Not"

Ham bone Ham bone where you been!..hiding in the Liquid up to my chin chin chin :o)

I didn't have to wait too long to use this Ham bone :o)  today in NC it was dreary and rainy the perfect day to make a soup for dinner.. and the Ham bone was the perfect solution ...I tell you there is nothing like the feeling knowing your being so frugal :o). All I had to do was add a couple of biscuits and I would be home free :o) I could have played on the loom all day,BUT "Teacher" forbid it until she checked it out again...(I'm afraid to 
"sneak" touching it, it ain't like taking candy from a baby either. 

We both enjoyed the soup very much, I used a lot of harvest tomatoes from my garden, and other veggies I already had and some large Zite type macaroni. The ham bone and tomatoes gave it a good stock. As you can see there is enough for lunch or dinner tomorrow. I still cook like there are more of us to eat..We had french fried sweet potatoes for lunch, so I didn't feel like peeling more potatoes for the soup...macaroni worked well :o)

Thanksgiving Dinner X's 2 :o)

Yesterday I was too lazy to take a photo of dinner (leftover thanksgiving only with ham).
Just goes to show i cooked way too much,We  had dinner from it again tonight..this time Cecil helped me out by getting the camera before i ate up my plate :o) Tonight it seemed everything tasted way better, the Cabbage/Collards were tastier tonight than last night and the dressing still tasted good with cranberry sauce, that's the last of the candied yams..and the greens..and the cranberry sauce..plenty more Ham :o) half is in the freezer (sliced) and the other half we ate part of tonight..I think that's the best darn ham I've bought in a long time and I cut the bone out just right and folded it over so it would gel itself together ..and be sliced from the whole one piece..tomorrow for lunch I think I'll have a ham sandwich with mayonnaise :o)  and I'll make some other meat to finish off the dressing and mac and cheese (which I didn't eat tonight). Boy! it seemed we enjoyed dinner more tonight than last night..Maybe I worked up a sweat on the loom (it's still giving me trouble :o(  the break still isn't holding like it should, and I have to position it again after two or three picks :o( I've got to do or have something done about it.. Cecil tries so hard to help , but that's not his forte, fixing these kinds of things.His appetite was also ready, today was his volunteer day at the ministry helping to serve, So he was ready for dinner after resting a bit in his "Chair bed":o)
Just in case you want it ..here's Pat and Gina Neely's recipe for the Ham (6 lbs) Glaze.I doubled it because my ham was almost twice the size..10 lbs).
1/3 cup Brown sugar
1/3 cup Honey
2 teaspoons corn starch
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cayanne Pepper
mix and brush on ham..bake at 300 and baste q 20 minutes or more. Enjoy

A Thankgiving Repeat without the Turkey :o)

Here it is Sunday all over again!  Time just seems to fly sometimes and things have a way of repeating themselves before you know it...I had so much left overs from Thanksgiving..I did a "bag it for later" number ..so today I made a nice Ham and took out some of those leftovers :o)  The ham was really too big for two people, but I thought of how much I liked a Ham sandwich with a slab of mayonnaise on the bread:o) (Plus it was on sale) and the new bags and the way Penny vacuums the air out to keep it from frost in the freezer etc. I couldn't resist cooking this one..I used a recipe from" Pat and Gina Neely glazed ham"It came out looking so lovely, wish I had company to see it  :o) and it tasted just as good :o)

it was so big and lean it was surprising. I took my trusty Electric knife and sliced it in half..Then I had more control of how thick I wanted the slices to be. It was a piece of work but I got it done..
You should have seen our plates :o) we were greedy!

 

I did pretty good on that first cut..I took the half without the bone and made some pretty slices out of it, wrapped two slices one for me and one for hubby in Saran wrap and then stuck them into my vacuum bags..I had four bags of big juicy slices for sandwich's or added as meat to a meal :o). I'm so frugal :o) don't you just love it. The mac and cheese,dressing and cranberry sauce. 
This morning I decided to "test" out those "Cabbage /Collard" greens..they were pretty good, I couldn't really taste much cabbage, but I did taste a familiar Collard to them.
Tomorrow I rest...

No Rest for the Weary

Today all I had planned to do, was sit in my "chair bed" and take it easy until I felt like playing with the loom later..yesterday we Food shopped until we dropped, and we were still tired this morning...Cecil went to the barber and I looked in the fridge to find something to eat..what did I do that for! Those carrots were growing whiskers ;o(  after my bowl of oatmeal I went right into them...I like adding carrots and onions sauteed into cooking my rice, it makes such a big difference in the taste :o). Being the frugal person that I am..there was my Mother with that saying again..."Waste Not, Want Not" :o( So I got my butt into gear and started with the peeling,mincing ,bagging,and vacuuming Carrots into little bundles ...I ended up with quite a  few, maybe enough for six months or more..from one bag of carrots :o

I'm happy that I have this food processor it makes short work of mincing food..

Carrots all minced up nice and neat..it didn't take the machine but a minute to do it where it would have taken me an hour or more and my Arthritic  hands would have been sore by now..this gadget is a great invention. Too bad Grandma didn't have one.

I put a large serving spoonful into some Saran wrap and fold it tightly..and then into a "Penny" bag :o) and vacuum the air out..I put them into the freezer. I put five or six into a bag and left room so I could re seal the bag when I take one out..that's going to be working out pretty good.

December and still there's a harvest to Can

I walked to the "Side Garden" to see how the cabbage/collards and Red cabbage was growing and was surprised that I had "Broccoli" growing so well :o)  I had forgotten I just planted a six pack to see how they'd do..I've eaten broccoli many times and even make broccoli soup..but I've never grown it! The leaves looked so nice and green I had to snap a few leaves and test them out...they look a lot like collards and take about just as long to cook..too bad I didn't have any cornbread ready :o)  (there is still time , I'm just lazy).

Dont' they look like Collards!  I like growing the broccoli, but the heads aren't large enough yet..(they are about  the size of tennis ball (not big enough yet to pick).

I don't think the canning season ever ends until January! I'm looking at greens I need to harvest and put away..I'm also waiting to make more chicken stock, but I need my jars for my greens..boy! this canning is a budget saver and you feel guilty if you don't save what you've been blessed with..with the new heater being installed the gas company is going to "sock it to me" so i try to save where I can, and thank goodness I have something to put away, and that I know how.. 

Update:  The leaves cooked up pretty tender..and they didn't taste like the Broccoli flowers..they weren't bad at all..it was like eating any of the other greens..they weren't bitter like mustards or Broccoli Rabe...they were a little milder and maybe a little more bland< nothing a little Chow Chow wouldn't fix , or more Country ham included in the cooking. I'll do it again, that's another gift from mother nature :o)