As if they weren't already pretty!

While getting ready for my Jam Session photo shoot today, for the look book for the class in two weeks, I decided the jars of jam needed to be a little prettier.  This is the simplest thing to do when you want to give your accomplishments away to the most prestigious of friends.  Prestigious because they are worthy of your home canned products!  Always make sure you have more on hand for just these sort of people when they pop over.

Here's how to dress them up a bit, as if they weren't pretty already!

Skim through your scrap fabric and pick something pretty.  If you don't have scrap fabric you can easily, quickly and cheaply get remnants (scrap pieces) at any place that sells fabric.  They want to get rid of the scraps and for this ... you want them to... it's a win/win!

Using a round bowl, trace the circumference of the bowl onto the inside of the fabric with a pencil.

Cut out the circle with scissors (like you didn't know that!)  Use a rubber band to hold the fabric on the top of the jar of canned goodness.  Tie a piece of ribbon, rickrack, dental floss, or whatever you want to keep the material in place and look purdy.

You can even tie on a label of what the contents of your jar is if you want.  Which I did not do here.  Just thought I'd tell ya.

Canned beauty!

Happy Easter

When I colored my Easter eggs a couple of weeks ago, my intent was to grow grass in a planter and for it to hold my eggs and look pretty as can be at the center of my table on Easter.  Didn't happen.  Truthfully the eggs have been sitting on my kitchen counter in the egg carton that they were placed in the minute I got done coloring them.  So with Easter being tomorrow and 18-20 guests coming over for dinner I figured I'd better do something with them.

I changed my centerpiece from being on the kitchen table to hovering above the table.  I only lost one egg in the making of this brill idea.  I wound up gluing multi-colored pastel yarn to the bottom, bringing the yarn up to the top of each egg and tying a bow.  Then hanging them from our antler chandelier.  It actually turned out pretty classy I think and the yarn gives it a bit of softness.  See what you think. 





I apologize for the crookedness, or then again no... I meant to do that :). 

So I have been meaning to tell something that I learned this year.  Back in March, or maybe just because everyone kept saying how late it seemed like Easter was this year.  Well, while planning a blog I came across the reason why Easter seemed so late this year.  I found it in the dictionary of all places. 

Gee whiz.. I feel like I've typed this before... deja-blog!  OK  Easter seems so late this year because... Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21st.  This year the moon was full on March 19th which was a Saturday and not again until April 17th - Palm Sunday.  Making Easter fall on April 24th.  I never knew how Easter was scheduled.  Maybe there was a full moon when they discovered the stone had been rolled away from Jesus' tomb.  So that's how they remembered when it was?  Happy Easter everybody.  He is risen! 

Beginners Canning Class... Taught By Me

Afternoon all! I have decided to teach my first canning class. I am so excited! If you live in this area and are truly interested in learning how to can this summer I would love to show you how and hand out tips, recipes and basically instruct "hands on."

In my first class you will learn how to make strawberry preserves or strawberry jam. On Thursday, before the class on Saturday, I am going to Crossplains, TN to pick the strawberries that will be used in class. I will show you each step of the jam making and preserving process from chopping the strawberries to the lids popping, which is music to my ears!

If you would like to sign up, or know someone else interested please email me or call. This is my first class ever to teach outside of teaching a friend or two, one on one. I can't wait and am enjoying my lesson planning and preparing.  Home canned produce is just part of our pantry and with a lesson or two on how it's all done your very own jam could be part of your pantry too!

LLLLUCKY MEEEE!

I am so excitedly tore up!  After several attempts and help from others, I have finally found my own Morel Mushrooms!!!!!!!  I have combed these woods on our farm for weeks, not constantly.. geez I have to work, looking for mushrooms and finally today it paid off in a big way!

Last Sunday, we went down to our friend's farm to mushroom hunt.  They already knew of a couple of patches of mushrooms and so nicely showed them to me so that I would know what exactly I was looking for and what type of environment you can find them in.  I think it's sort of luck of the draw on the area to find them because one of the patches that they had was by a creek and the other on a hill.  I had heard and read already that they can most likely be found in the woods (of course), close to water, around rotten stumps, poking up through the leaves. 

Today, I got off work early and totally meant to spend at least an hour on the Christmas Corner of our attic, but when I got home and heard the attic fans on which come on automatically when the temp in the attic reaches 100 degrees, I decided to find something else to do.  I woke Miss Pepper up from her nap, got my rain boots on (cause I can tromp anywhere in them), put my bug spray on and headed into the woods.  For a long time we didn't find much except for a box turtle that Pepper tried to become friends with.  Then after a while Pepper headed back up to the house and I kept traipsing down a different path. 

I was mid talking-to-the-woods, pleading for it to show me where they were hiding.  "Just one!"  I said out loud.  Then to the right of my path I spotted a mushroom.  I thought I was imagining.  I blinked my eyes real fast like it was going to run or disappear. I seriously could not believe my eyes.  I reached down, after snapping a few camera shots, gently broke the stem and put the mushroom in my bag.  This was a hot spot because right after I found that one I looked around the same area and wound up finding eight Morel mushrooms.  One of them was right on the trail by a big tree.  Nothing hiding it at all.

After Shaun came down to check out the mushroom hot spot, we hunted mushrooms for about another hour in different areas but wound up coming out of the woods with the eight mushrooms that I had found there. 

Another lucky thing for me was that Sally's Mom had shown me how to fry the mushrooms on Sunday so after soaking and rinsing them for a while I fried them up like a pro.  They were wonderful and I got to share them with Shaun, Jody and Stevie.  It's always nice to get to share something special.  It makes for an extra lucky day!