Jelly

Just a quick note about the jelly I made last weekend....yum! I made four pints of apple and four half-pints of jalapeno pepper jelly (first time I had even tasted pepper jelly and I love it). I cannot wait to try the pepper jelly over some cream cheese with crackers this fall and winter......I am going to try and make more this week as I have a "boatload" still on the plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green jalapeno pepper, red jalapeno pepper, and apple.....all made without food coloring.

 

Hot Red Jalapeno Pepper Sauce

Yesterday, the auction was a bust so I left and went to a nearby outlet mall. I bought some of my favorite Estee Lauder perfume and some of hubs' favorite Starbuck's K-cups. Then I went home and started on canning some red jalapeno hot sauce. We had a bumper crop of peppers this year from all of the varieties of peppers that were planted, and I'm trying new ways to preserve them. (Later this week I'll post how I made the Christmas pepper jelly.)

The original recipe was for "red hot sauce" and it came from a Ball Canning book. I double it and made sauce a little runnier.....the recipe says to cook it to the consistency of ketchup, which didn't sound appealing too me.

Washing the pepper mix from the garden. I removed all of the red jalapenos for this recipe.

I cut off the stem end, split lengthwise, and scrape out seeds/membrane. I then chopped them up in my new Ninja mini chopper

Finished product! It is probably twice as much as I need but, I will have to find more ways to use it.

Back to Work

Summer is over for me....I headed back to work this week and will now start longing for my next long break. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my job but I love being home to "work" on my projects.......someday :) I plan on going to an auction tomorrow morning in the next town (well, it's really a village) over to the NE. When I get home, I plan on making some hot sauce and red pepper jelly with all of my now-red jalapeno peppers. I think I have enough tomatoes to make up some soup as well. Hubs has promised to get up on the ladder and pick some of the "good" apples that weren't discovered by any insects or other creatures. I would love to try and make some jelly and/or applesauce on Sunday.  Until then ......

Auction Goodies

The library is done except still waiting on the electric sconces.....should be here any day now. Hopefully, they'll be here by Saturday, so I can install them. While I am waiting, I am slowly trying to "find" things to put in the room that I already have. The following are a few auctions goodie's I got in the past month (except for the McGuffey spelling bookr, I got that last summer).

antique cherry drop leaf table

Pewter candle holder and McGuffey spelling book

Antique (minus the pulls) walnut chest of drawers, lamp, & more pewter

Pewter vase/candle holder

Old books, ironstone platter, and more pewter

Barn Quilts

A long-time friend of mine, Jerrie, from my home town is a very gifted "barn quilter." Today, I'd like to show you some of her designs. She sent me a little history behind these quilts below.She lives in southern Ohio, so if you really like them and need more info you can email me at ameliesfarmhouse@yahoo.com. Enjoy!

Barn Quilts - The story.

The history of the American Barn Quilt can be traced back almost 300 years to the arrival of immigrants from the central regions of Europe; Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. It is widely believed that barn painting/quilting originated in Pennsylvania with these immigrants and then spread too much of the New England and Midwestern states. Paint was very expensive in those days and painting a decorative and distinctive quilt pattern on their barns was a wonderful way of allowing for decoration. It also became an excellent way for travelers to find particular families or cross roads as towns people would just tell them which pattern to look for. Paint became less costly around the 1830 to 1840’s and at this point barn painting/decorating became an actual trade with specialized artisans. These artists combined many folk designs as well as specific geometric patterns from quilt squares: Snail trail, Bear claw, Mariners compass and Drunkards path.Decorating barns with colorful designs and quilt squares peaked by the beginning of the 20th century and slowly gave way to a more pragmatic form of barn painting; advertisement. Gone were the colorful quilts and in their place came the paid ads for Red Man Chewing Tobacco, Ceresota Flour, and Mail Pouch: A nostalgic part of the history of American barns in their own right. Today barn quilts have become popular again with more and more becoming visible. Quilt trails have been developed in many states. After a number of barn quilts have been displayed in an area, a map is developed that guides the viewers to the location. The map will have an address, maybe a picture of the square and a name or explanation of its meaning. A few of the states that have developed quilt trails include, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa and of course, Michigan.The quilts can be put on any type of building, from houses, garages, sheds or just mounted on two posts and displayed in the yard or a park.

 

Shutter Shutdown

Well, poop! I cannot use the shutters on my library windows because I need about three more inches of wall between the left window and the outside door. I'll have to save them for the man cave makeover, I guess. Anyway, here is a pic of them after I cleaned them up a bit.

Shutters

Not feeling very motivated today.....back to work every day starting Monday :(

I did start working on the shutters to hang on the inside of the library windows. Before I started, I was surfing a little and came across a cool site for repurposing shutters.
Shutters