Sunday, August 28, 2011

Just Peachy...Part Two

ok...so we left off from Part One with our Peach Stores looking like this:

So we decided to make some Barbecue Sauce...Zesty PEACH Barbecue Sauce!  And this is where I realized how much the mind overestimates quantities.  Started out getting the peaches peeled and pitted and then into the food processor to get a fine chop on them:

That's about 2-3 peaches...and once chopped up...it was a good 1/3 of what I needed for the recipe...definitely not going to use near as many peaches as I thought to get this sauce made!

And then they went into the pot with some other veggies and garlic to get the base of the sauce going:

Got it all cooked down and it was time to can:

And after processing...I now have 7 lovely jars of sauce!

and after a batch of Peach Butter and now a batch of Sauce....here is what the peaches remaining looks like:

Egads!  It almost looks like we haven't touched them!  Off to get to work on the next!  See you later for Part 3!

Zesty Peach barbecue Sauce Recipe from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Just Peachy...Part One

Hope ya'll have had a great weekend...and I sincerely hope those of you affected by Hurricane Irene are doing well this morning!

Just wanted to share with you a hobby I recently picked up...not sure if it's actually a "hobby"...but that title will have to do for now!  A few weeks ago I decided to try my hand at canning (you know...food??).  Not sure where the motivation came from exactly...but I wanted to give it a go...and let me tell you...I really enjoy the whole process!  And it's getting me out and about a little more...spent the past two weekends visiting the Farmer's Market perusing all the lovely fresh, local produce!  It's led to a few weekends worth of canning, but lots of goodies to enjoy both know and later!

This weekend we picked up some peaches:

(quite a bit of peaches huh?  more on that later).

We got home and quickly got to work on a batch of Peach Butter...thankfully hubby is very helpful in the kitchen peeling and fetching and such...here is the Peach Butter in the early stages:

(YUM!)

and an hour or two and a trip through the food processor later:

and it went back on the stove for another 45 minutes or so...

and now...

TA-DA!  (and there are actually like 7 jars of peach butter...I didn't do all that work for just 1 jar!  LOL!)

and now back to this pic:

that's how many peaches are left over AFTER the batch of Peach Butter was made!  So we will be canning a bit more stuff today...I'll share those with you in Part Two!

Peach Butter Recipe from Well Preserved : Third Edition: Small Batch Preserving for the New Cook by Mary Anne Dragan

Friday, August 19, 2011

FF#89...Welcome to the JUNGLE!

Happy Friday!  Life has taken a few interesting turns this week...but thankfully silly season has just about ended...well it has actually come to an end...all that's left is the post-silly season clean up and closeout...that...is not going to be fun!  OH WELL!  I'm just so happy we've moved into the post-season!  Anywho!  Post today is to share my sample for this week's Fashionista Friday (FF#89) challenge...and this week we've gone wild...with a JUNGLE theme!  Here is my card:


It came together quick and easy (and yes...I know the twine is crooked...but...it's TWINE!  does not lend itself to easy adherance!).  heehee!

Have a great Friday evening!

Supplies: Image and sentiment - Close to My Heart; paper - Papertrey Ink; Cardstock - papertrey Ink; Ink - Ranger Archival in Coffee, Copic; Twine - The Twinery

Saturday, August 6, 2011

FF#88...shades of GREEN!

So, it's been awhile since I posted something creative...and man it feels good to be doing so!  Doing much better than I was a week or so ago.  Life is good!

Today's post is to let you know about this week's Fashionista Friday challenge at the Shoe!  For FF#88...we want to see your Green!  For this challenge we also have a sponsor, Layers of Color.  I was lucky this week to be able to play with their Silk Moth image.  Let me tell you...GORGEOUS!  Here is what I created:

Had a lot of fun digging out the inks and some grunge...and playing with some Clearly for Art!  Off to get creative with the sewing machine!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Supplies: Base - grungebook; Image - Layers of Color Silk Moth; Clearly for Art; alphas - Maya Road; Distress ink - Broken China, Shabby Shutters, Rusty Hinge, Tumbled Glass, Brushed Corduroy; Distress Stains - Peeled Paint, Broken China, Vintage Photo; Adirondack Paint Dabber - Gold; Pearfect Pearls Mists - Heirloom Gold; bling and flowers - Prima