Easy Man Pleasin' Appetizers

First, you'll need a jar of these Sweet Yellow Peppers
Pepperoni
Mozzerella Cheese

On a baking sheet lay out peppers inside side up.
Place a few pieces of pepperoni on top, and a wedge of mozzerella on top of that.
Broil in the oven for just a few minutes, until warm & cheese is melted.

And there you go...Easy Man Pleasin' Appetizers, or supper if you make him the whole jar.

Canning Sweet Yellow Peppers

This is my grandma's recipe for Sweet Yellow Peppers - They turn out perfectly, and my husband could eat an entire jar. In fact, when we did our first batch last week, we opened a jar at 10pm and ended up finishing it.

You can also make these Man Pleasin' Appetizers with them.

I planted 3 rows of Medium Hot Block and Sweet Yellow Peppers for these, because I wanted to can a lot, but you can make a small batch by just buying a basket full from a Farmers Market.

Get everything ready, because once you start, you won't want to stop,

the cut peppers can turn brown.

You'll need Peppers, of course
2 quarts of water
1 quart of white vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 clove of garlic for each jar

The above measurements make about 4 quarts.

Be sure to wear gloves when handling peppers - you may think you'll be fine, but then you're fingers will start to tingle...and your eyes will start to itch so you scratch them. Next thing you know you'll be burning ALL over. :)

Anyway, where were we?
The peppers... Lop off the tops, cut in half longways, scrape out the seeds and pull out the ribs. Cut in half again, so you have four nice long strips of pepper.
You're going to pack the peppers into the jars as tightly as you possibly can. I like to start out by making bouquet of about 8 pieces, putting them in, then one at a time after that, working all around the jar, laying it on it's side to work. Pack them in till it's way up to the top 1/2 inch down. You'll be surprised just how any peppers you can fit into one jar.
Place 1 clove of garlic into each.

Combine the vinegar, water, salt and sugar in a large pot, heat till good and hot, almost boiling.

Ladle the hot liquid over the peppers and use a butter knife to slide down the side to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the top of the jar rim clean, place on HOT lids and HOT rims. (see here for directions on heating rims and lids) Screw on tightly. Jars will "pop" seal within about 30 minutes.
Don't forget to label the jars with the date.

How to can Fresh Salsa

Every time I think of Salsa, I think of that Seinfeld episode..."Salsaaaaaa"

Here's my recipe for the salsa I made today -
It made 6 pints, and is pretty darn hot, you can adjust the heat by adding less hot sauce or jalapenos.

20 assorted tomatoes-Roma's, hillbillies, better boys -about 10 cups chopped, squeezed and drained)
6 jalapenos (about 1/2 cup chopped)
3 small green peppers (1 cup chopped
1 large medium hot yellow pepper (1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped)
1 cup chopped white onion
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
10 shakes of Franks Red Hot

Peel the tomatoes by scoring the skin with a sharp knife, and submerging in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove from boiling water and dip in bowl of cold water. Peel, cut in half, squeeze the majority of the seeds out and most of the juice. Save just the meaty tomato. Roughly chop.
Too much juice will leave salsa too watery.
Throw everything into a large pot and cook over medium high heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

***Ladle into HOT pint jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe rim clean, quickly & tightly screw on HOT lids & HOT rims. Jars should seal rather quickly...pop-pop-pop.

Any jars that do not seal, refrigerate and use within a week.

***To heat the jars, I place them in a clean sink, fill each one with HOT tap water, then fill the sink with HOT water. Put the jar rings in there also to heat up. Heat the Lids by filling a small saucepan with water, seperate the lids and put them in. Simmer until needed.

A Poem

Mother Earth

I learn from the river how to keep flowing.
The trees teach me to bend and sway
with whatever comes my way.
I learn from the sky to keep my heart and mind open
The snow teaches me to fall with grace.
I learn from the sun to shine bright,
to trust with out fear or fright.
The mountains teach me to be patient and humble,
to stand strong when I want to crumble.
I learn from the moon to let go, to embrace change,
let her guide my way to a new day
Mother Earch helps us grow and flow
So take it slow with that radient glow
and learn
to just
be.

Traci Haselhuhn

Merry-Go-Round Quilt

I've started this quilt, technically my first quilt, and it's much easier than I thought. I've made patchwork quilts, no pattern, just sewing squares together. I'm not much of a neat, precise seamstress, I'm more of a Fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-lets-see-how-fast-I-can-whip-this-out-kinda-girl. But I'm trying! The great thing about this pattern is you just use a Jelly Roll. A Jelly Roll is a collection of 2.5" x 44" strips of fabric. The one I chose was called Look & Learn. I've admired these gorgeous swirls of fabric forever and wanted to get a stack of them and admire them without unrolling them and actually sewing the pieces together.

I chose fabric that looks vintage, old worn florals and childlike prints. I want it to look like one of the old quilts layered on one of my Great Aunt Bess's beds.

You can get American Jane patterns HERE

And Moda Jelly Rolls HERE

The Baby Shower

My Lovely Sister-In-Law is having a baby,

so we gave her a baby shower at the farm.

We've had such a hot & humid August, but on the hill with the breeze and the shade of the trees, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

The Menu.

Assorted Salads
Cheese, Crackers & Olive Spread
Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

Tiramisu

Fresh Fruit Pies

The Cradle.

It has been passed down in our family for the past 102 years. It was built for my Grandpa's father in 1907. I've had it in our home for our sleeping babies since 2000, and now my brother and his wife will continue the tradition.

Games.

You can't have a baby shower without games...so we played a bit of Stroller Derby:

The unsuspecting guests diapered & dressed the baby, strapped it in a stroller, and raced while holding a cell phone to their ear.

That's my other lovely sister-in-law recklessly crashing that stroller trying to win.

The Dirty Diaper Game...which was a hit...#1 and I opened up 10 regular diapers, labeled each one 1-10, and melted a different candy bar in each one. The guests had to guess what kind of candy bar was in each diaper.

Looks pretty authentic, Aye? Forgive me.

A clothes line tent for the kids to play in.

My sister being silly.

I love that girl.

P.S.

My manly husband, who loves to climb, hung the Pom Poms

from the trees in the garden.

I'm still alive

Honestly, I am. I've just been busy demolishing the kitchen for our mini remodel, potty training THE ANIMAL (don't even ask how that's going), I started a quilt, going to soccer scrimages, listening to nit picky moms yell at their 8 year old kids for not being aggressive enough at soccer scrimages, had a baby shower for my lovely sister-in-law, canning peppers, picking tomatoes and realizing I have 875 ripe red tomatoes that I have to figure out what to do with, catching up on laundry from our basement that sorta kinda flooded a little bit when it monsooned AND did I mention I've been addicted to FarmVille? If you've never heard of it, good for you, if it someone tries to get you hooked by sending you a pig, or a lemon tree, don't accept it. Just move on with your life. Which reminds me, I have to go harvest my strawberries before they rot. I'll get back to you tomorrow with pictures of the baby shower and the recipe for the tiramisu that we made!

More stuff I love...

oliver + s
I love their clothing patterns for little ones - basic, sweet & simple

Oh, these plates! Be still my heart. I've been on a mission for melamine - these are just a bit out of my price range though, at $54 for a set of 4



This top, from anthropologie - saw it in NY, love, love, love it.

Can you believe this was made to be a diaper bag?

Posh Tots

I love this Umbrella

Isn't it beautiful?

It comes in black, brown, white, pink & green. You can also pick what color handle you'd like.

It's by Jodell Egbert of Signature Bella in Seattle. She designed this pagoda umbrella after starting Bella Umbrella, her company that rents vintage umbrellas.

If you're getting married or having some sort of outdoor event and worried about the rain or hot sun on your guests, you can give them each a beautiful umbrella to hold.

I think this is such a great idea.

Which one of these things is not like the other?

Which one of these things just doesn't belong?

Lets go inside and see...

Oh Moonie,

It's just you!

Silly horse, she thinks she's a cow.

Somebody had better tell her,

but not me, I don't want to hurt her little feelings.

Cause I'm nice & caring like that,

and if sweet Moonie wants to be a cow,

well then she should go right ahead and be one.

Princess Tent Tutorial

How to make a dreamy, girly Princess Tent

Ever since I saw the movie The Holiday, I've wanted to make one of beautiful, girly tents. Here is my interpretation over a little bed that is in my little girls playroom. You could also do this over the head of a bed, or just in the middle of a room, which would be so amazing! I wish we had a room big enough for one this size!  

What you will need:

*A large lampshade (I get crazy sometimes, I just took it off the Living Room Lamp!)

*Various fabrics and lace...

{I used 2 long lacy recycled curtain swags, vintage bed sheets, crochet lace, and an old wedding dress from a thrift store

*heavy cotton cord

*sewing needles

*screw eye hooks

And to gussy it up:

*twinkly white lights

*ornaments to hang down from the center, glittery stars and hearts, silk flowers, check your Christmas ornaments for some great things to hang!

1. Fold over edge of short end of swags (or other fabric yardage) and run a gathering stitch. Gather up and stitch it around the bottom edge of the shade, one for each side.  Gather up the short end of sheet and stitch around the back of the shade.

2. You can get old wedding dresses from thrift stores, very inexpensive, and take them apart. Use the train, lace, beads, this tent would be beautiful made out of a long satin beaded train. Gather up 80's style puffy sleeves into rosettes and sew them around the lamp shade. I used lace from the bottom of the train to swoop around the inside of the back and around the bottom rim of the shade. Vintage flowery sheets will also work great.

3. To Hang: I used 3 eye hooks screwed into the ceiling. You will need to make sure you hit a stud in the ceiling so it's nice and sturdy and will not fall down on your children!!!
{It will be heavy once you get all your material sewn on.}
I used heavy twine looped around the top of the shade and through the eye hooks. To make the sides sort of swoop up, I just used 1 more eye hook on each side and used clear fishing line to pull up some of the swag.


4. Embellish - Now for the fun part! It's easier to embellish after you have the tent hung up.  Gathered up some scraps of floral fabric into flowers and stitch them around the shade. Take old lace and sew it to the back of the inside. I also hung white lights around the top which look really cute at night to read under.

The girls helped with glittering hearts and stars to hang down from the center to look up at.  Make it your own with what you have ~ let me know if you have any questions!

~Boy Version~
How to make a Rocket Ship Tent

I think a boy version made into a rocket ship with painted Styrofoam balls for planets would look so cool!  OR for a vintage style "Cowboys and Indians" theme, make it into a Tepee...


Linking to............

Projectile Vomit and Glitter

I cleaned up both of these today within seconds of each other.

The baby hasn't been feeling her best the last two days, so I've been doing lots of nursing, holding, mollycoddling. She doesn't seem to mind this extra attention, but my other girls are starting to feel a bit neglected. They've been picking fights with each other all day, so I sent #1 and #2 out to pick green beans and cucumbers. Ah, all I needed was just 15 minutes of calm...just me Me, The Animal (#3) and The Baby.


I finished my "practice" Tiramisu for my lovely sister-in-law's baby shower, danced the babies around the kitchen and sang to my new favorite song People are Crazy. I didn't notice The Animal escape my sight. I really don't freak out when she's not in view, our house is small and I usually can hear where she is and determine what she's doing. Our household cleaners & medicines are up high or child safety locked, she was probably playing on the porch with her big sister's Barbies since they weren't around.


I cleaned up the kitchen, checked on the Big Girls and picked up the baby. When I called The Animal, she answered, "Ya Good!" I could tell she was in her bedroom playing.


As I was going up the stairs to check on her, The Baby Projectile Vomited all over me, the stairs, herself. We rushed to the bathroom, where I found it was coated in 3 shades of Martha Stewart Glitter. We're not talking a light dusting here, we're talking a good old fashioned dousing of sparkle. It was on the tub, the toilet, the sink, floor and in her hair. The Big Girls came in for a potty break, eyes big with surprize at seeing the glistening wonder that was our bathroom. The Animal quickly dumped the remaining Glitter on their heads in delight.


Now, the Big Girls are showering, the bathroom is clean, The Animal is down for a much needed nap, 4 hard wood steps are shiny clean, The Baby is cleaned up & is happily smiling and I'm currently topless because I haven't had time to put a new shirt on. It's 12:34 p.m.

Maine to Washington, on Horseback.

Last week we had an unexpected visitor at the farm, a woman riding horseback across the country looking for a nice place to take a rest. She and her horses Mercury & Wolf stayed two days before they continued on west to Washington state.

Here she is, showing her horses to water at the creek.



She was a very nice woman, I imagine it would take a lot of strength & a lot of good old fashioned guts to do what she's doing. I'm not sure everyone is as trusting or as hospitable as we'd like to think either.



There's no way I could do it. Bugs. Heat. Rain. Peeing in the bushes. Bird poop. Strangers. Sunburn. Bugs.



I'm sorry, I was looking at the negative wasn't I?



Let me rephrase that. Sunshine. Misty morning fog. Sweet little bugs. Embracing nature by relieving yourself in a bush. Talking to the birds. Hospitable people.



***I remember when I was little, waiting out in the front yard to watch the 1984 Olympic Torch Relay Runner, running past my house. It was the most amazing sight, I don't remember if it was a man or woman, but I remember how strong & sure they were.



But he (or she) had about 3,000+ other runners on their team, this woman has two trusty steeds, a tent, power bar and an atlas. Wow. I wonder if she packed alot of Charmin?