Wednesday, August 26, 2009

I got Sure Cuts A Lot for my Cricut!!!

Due to the borrowing of Matt and his laptop I was able up re-update my firmware on my Cricut in order for me to purchase and download Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software. Now I shouldn't have to buy anymore font Cricut Cartridges. Yea!! or too many shape Cartridges since I can find most SVG files for FREE online. double YEA! YEA! (if you don't know or care what that is bear with me.)

I did some scrapping tonight since I feel caught up with the garden harvest for the most part. Although I think I heard the Sweet Corn calling me earlier this evening saying we need to get picked lady. At least some more of them do.. That is another day.

I have been dying to find anything wrestling for Lucas' wrestling photos. So Em and I went to Endless Creations on Saturday and found some paper and stickers and in the team colors too!

Nothing fancy just printed journaling on my PC and used matting and stickers. I think it is a good one.
This one I love too. More Stickers and I did a rub-on for the "Pin'Em" embellishment.

This is the one I use SCAL on for the First Time, pause for a moment with me..... The balloons I downloaded an svg. file and same for the font on the 1 yr. I outlined the balloons with my Prisma black pencil to try and give it more depth, (I need to get better at that.) There isn't too much on this one but it coordinates with her other 1st birthday layout. I think it turned out nice and you can shadow any font in SCAL. Cool Huh!?!
Let me know what you think.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Annie's Salsa Recipe- The Best Yet

Hi I made 9 pints of salsa on Sunday with my tomatoes and peppers and onions from the garden. I found Annie's Salsa recipe on Harvest Forum (iVillage GardenWeb). It is the best I have ever tried. I thought I'd share. It is a little time consuming but so worth it. I used my food processor to chop peppers and onions to make it go a little quicker.

ANNIE’S SALSA

8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 ½ cups chopped onion
1 ½ cups chopped green pepper
3 – 5 chopped jalapenos
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (you can leave it out it doesn't really add flavor)
1/3 cup sugar

1 cup vinegar 5% acidty

16 oz. tomato sauce
16 oz tomato paste
Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process in a Boil Water Bath 15 min leaving 1" head space

Makes 6 pints

If you choose to vary this recipe it may not be considered "safe"

Enjoy!!!


Saturday, August 22, 2009

Dinner Tonight
























Look what we had for dinner tonight!! YUM-O
(saying courtesy of Rachael Ray) Sweet Corn from the Garden. It was very good. We had enough for about 14 cobs to eat. Nick had 3 all by himself.
See the tomatoes? Remember when I was waiting for them? They have arrived in full force. I am going to have to can tomorrow.
Lucas picked a huge zucchini, (that must have snuck by me.) I am looking for some new recipes to try.
I made some Jalapeno Strawberry Jam this week and I am looking forward to eating that. I already snuck a taste when I made it and it was SO good. The kids even ate it. Look for that recipe on Allrecipes.com.
I am off to watch the Pack play on T.V. tonight. Go Pack!






Sunday, August 16, 2009

A couple of Scrap Layouts














I managed to squeak in a couple of layouts too on Friday.

One is of Emillie's First Thanksgiving. I cut the turkey out with my Cricut using the Doodlecharms cart and the font is Lyrical letters with my Cricut. The second one is of Emillie's first Christmas. I used We R Memory Keepers stickers and Lyrical Letter Cart with my Cricut. I think they turned out nice. Let me know what you think.
:o)

Oh Happy Day in the Garden!!!

Here is our smiley face we made! We sure did pick a ton of veggies on Friday! Look at all our treasures...
1 bucket of Broccoli.
1 bucket of Sugar Snap Peas.
We dug out all our red potatoes. The plants were pretty much dead and they were ready.
Not too bad considering we had about 3 meals already with them.

Here is the big one! We dug out our carrots. As you can see they are quite big and I think were totally ready. I still have a row of baby carrots yet. Our purple Kohlrabi's are almost done too. I got some more tomatoes and cucumbers and a 3 gallon bucket of Green Beans. LOTS and LOTS of Beans. It seems half of the garden is almost done already. I can hardly believe it. I guess it is a good thing since school starts in 10 days.
Have a good one!
Shell

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Tuesday Picking's - Holy Cow!!!

Hi- I haven't been able to pick really since last Thursday. We did the rummage sale at my SIL's house. It turned out pretty good, even knowing it was going to rain this past weekend. I know my Hubby Joe and Lucas picked some beans Saturday and I pulled out a few Kohlrabi Sunday but with our major showers and few T-Storms I knew there would be tons of stuff out in the garden. Monday Lucas had a test and we did back to school shopping for new duds so there wasn't time on Monday.

On Tuesday morning I rounded up the troops, Em, Luke and Nick and we started out a little after 8 AM. We were finished around 11:30AM. The kids picked four gallon buckets of Green Beans, I was re-staking the Cherry tomato TREES. The wet ground and wind had almost knocked them over and at nearly 7ft tall that was no easy task. I picked some cherry tomatoes. Nick and I picked the Broccoli, 5 Cucumbers, 3 Green Bell peppers (one was enormous), and some really nice Banana peppers. We all picked over a gallon of Sugar Snap Peas. I pulled out 4 MORE Huge Kohlrabi's, and I pulled out some Spanish Onions and a few of the Red Ones. The red onions didn't get as big as my sweet Spanish. But who cares they are still good. Oops I almost forgot 3 more zucchini's too.
Here are some pictures:

above are my onions!! I diced & froze all but 2. I am going to try curing those.
Here are my green bell peppers, the one on the right is the huge one.
Above are my nice Banana peppers. I diced some for my turkey sandwich yesterday for lunch.
Here are some cherry tomatoes. I have some yellow pear and sweet 100 cherry plants. And 1 more early girl regular tomato. How could I forget that.
It is supposed to be hot this week so I am hoping to get those tomatoes ripening.

Happy Gardening!!(now I just need to squeek in some scrap time.)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

"Mock" Apple (Zucchini) Cobbler

I survived the rummage sale. We did have rain but for the most part we all did pretty well. Before we had the rummage sale I needed to pick the garden since I would be too busy over the weekend. I picked Thursday this week and ended up with 2 buckets of beans and a bucket of sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes and lots of zucchini.
I remembered that my SIL gave me a recipe for Mock Apple Cobbler made with 8 cups of zucchini. It really tastes like apple and the kids don't have a clue! (and you can use up some zucchini) Seriously it is so good I had to make 2 right away and I brought 1 to the rummage sale for family and friends to eat. No one knew any better. (until I told them)
Here is the recipe:

"Mock" Apple Cobbler preheat oven to 350

Filling:
8 C of Zucchini peeled and sliced
3/4 C of lemon juice
Cook lemon juice and zucchini in large pan that you can cover until zucchini is tender about 15 min or so.
1 C Sugar
1 tsp. of Cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Mix altogether in pan.
Do not drain liquid off at all.
Cool. ( I put my whole pan in the refrigerator)

Crust and Topping:
4 C Flour
1 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Sugar
3 Sticks of Butter softened

Mix until crumbly.


In a 9x13" pan put half of crust mixture in bottom of pan; press together lightly to form a crust on the bottom. When zucchini is cooled dump in and spread evenly. Crumble remaining crust mixture on top.

Bake at 350 for 1 Hour

Let me know what you think!!!


Monday, August 3, 2009

The First Hallowed Tomato!!!!

The enormous cherry tomato plant is hovering at 6 feet! WOWZERS.

Here is my picking recruits. They are hot today.


Today I picked our 1st Early Girl tomato. Now it probably could have been on 1 day or so longer but who can wait!!! We picked Sugar Snap Peas, Green Beans, Green Bell Peppers, Banana Peppers, and a Cucumber and more Broccoli, along with some more Zucchini. What a day. I need to soak the Broccoli in salt water to get rid of the cutworms that seem to be relentless. I heard that is supposed to work. I am going to soak for about 1/2 hour to make sure they are gone and then blanch them.
I made an awesome zucchini lasagna last night for supper using my swiss chard, zucchini, tomatoes all fresh basil and parsley, and oregano. It sure was good. Look for it on Allrecipies.com
Now off to freeze the veggies.