Beautiful Calling

I enjoy pickled beets so this year when I saw a whole bushel for $8.00 how could I resist buying them? I’m in the canning zone and though I’d never made beets before, I was up for the challenge! A fast way to add veggies to the plate, and they’re so pretty in their jars. [...]

My preserves so far. Or part of them anyway. They fill the cupboard Last year was the first year I attempted to preserve food for my family. I don’t have any sort of talent in that area but I purchased the Ball Blue Book of Preserving off eBay and have had great success. If I [...]

Yes, we arrived home from camping; no, I haven’t had a moment to post. My husband shared a post yesterday with a delicious recipe so I’ll borrow a piece of that for today. Though we only have 5 zucchini plants in the garden, they are yielding a ton of huge zucchinis!! Wow! “My wife and [...]

This is what they looked like before I put the icing on them. I forgot about the final picture.  Makes 36 cupcakes Ingredients: 3 3/4 cups cake flour 3 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 2 1/4 cups sugar 2 1/4 cups vegetable oil 3 large eggs (room temperature) 1 teaspoon red gel-paste food [...]

We arrived home from the Congo safely. The time difference is wreaking havoc on our systems; Chloe especially since she woke up from her 3 hour afternoon nap the other day went to go potty and went back to sleep on the bathroom floor. Poor baby. This week we’re sticking close to home, working to [...]

Source Confession Time: I don’t sift ingredients together when baking! Not even when the recipe calls for you to sift the ingredients together.  I do try and follow {most} recipes as directed but was never sold on the extra step of sifting. Did you know that using a whisk to quickly whisk your dry ingredients [...]

View Full Album It’s 1:15pm. I have just put my littles down to bed. I breathe {a small sigh} and contemplate what to do next. A nap, a bath, bible time, tackle that kitchen then laundry then ironing? I rolled out of bed tired. I was up a lot through the night. Last night I [...]

  John is still working on the whole concept of on the tray, then bake, then eat; priceless!   A tip that works for me? Double or triple the recipe for shortbread or sugar cookies. Roll the extra dough into a cylinder, wrap well with cling wrap and freeze. When you want fresh baked cookies [...]

View Full Album It’s Friday night. We just put the littles to bed. We’re going to watch a movie but we’re feeling munchy. We don’t have anything snacky; then DH said, “Let’s make chips”. We (DH) sliced the potatoes super thin (using a mandolin), gave them a pat dry, fried them in about 2” of [...]

Today I had the privilege of doing an Epicure party with my sister as the Hostess. We had a chocolate themed party and it was a lot of fun (and tasty!!). But would you believe I burned the chocolate dips for the fruit? Talk about a disaster! Thankfully we had cookies and brownies to fall [...]