Mom and Me Corn Relish

I am so blessed with the time I've been able to spend with my Mom this summer.  What a pleasure she is to have around!

I always like trying new things and getting Mom involved makes it even better!  This visit we made Corn Relish.  Not only did we make it but we did a little research on what "relish" really means.  Is it a dip, a spread, a condiment?  Of course we are most familiar with hot dog relish but surely it must be more than that. The best description we found was that it is something between a sauce and syrup that adds flavor to a dish. It usually has vegetables chopped up but could include fruit as well so it's usually chunky. 

Did you know "relish" is the French word for "salsa".  This relish/salsa was an absolute perfect match with the honey-lime chicken we made together.  Oh my gosh!  Glad we made 7 pints of it! 

I think it's not fair to the publisher to just post the recipe here.  You'll have to either buy the book or call me up! There you go, a good reason to call Bernadine!  Oh, the flowers came from our gardens.  Zinnias and a Teddy Bear Sunflower.  What a summer!

That's my nephew Ben.  He was here too!  He wants to be a meteorologist.  He is great help around the inn especially serving breakfast. 

Master Knitter Wannabe

So of course now that I've heard about the Master Knitters program on my favorite podcast, Knit Misadventures, Ihave to give it a try.


My Spinning Wheel


I ordered the level one course and it showed up in the mail just three days afterwards.  I thought I'd have a month to warm up to the idea more!

So, it feels pretty intimidating but I'm gonna give it my best shot!  So, some accountability would be nice! 
 

Some inspiration

This course is offered by "The Kniters Guild Assocation" (TKGA) if you would like to reserach it for yourself.  I think this progam will help me to fine tune my knitting skills.  I've been knitting, crocheting, tatting, macrameing, rug hooking, etc. since I can remember.  I don't even remember the moment I actually learned to knit but I do enjoy it.  It wasn't fashionable to knit when I started and certainly not in my teens.  There were very few patterns or books at the time.  Most patterns were for babies.  Now, oh my goodness, the variety of books and supplies never ends and it is considered way cool if you knit. 

So, off we go.  I'll get my little notebook together and look through my stash for some yarn that qualifies for the projects and BAM!

Liliana

Ladies and Gentlemen
Drum roll please
Grandma Fabulous proudly presents - Granddaughter #2
Princess Liliana!


Born 7/14/11 - 7'14oz  20" Lots of hair!



Aint She Somethin!  As beautiful as my daughter Becca for sure! 
Becca did a great job delivering her without an epidural.  A strong and mighty and powerful woman she is.  I've never seen her look more beautiful than when she was delivering Liliana. 

Becca, you are my inspiration! I love you so much. You are going to be a fabulous Mom!

Love, Mom

The Dark Side

Oh yes, she has finally gone over to the dark side. Her friends kept insisting that she needed to learn to knit. Crocheting since she was ten is fine but she needs to broaden her horizons, be more creative. She needs to be able to "speak" in knitting terms so she can understand her friends when they talk about knitting two together or passing over a slip stitch or using the million different ways to cast on.

So, she started on a pretty scarf pattern. She cast on, stitched till she was blue in the face and still had to tear it out several times! Did she persevere - yes, because her friends love her and would not steer her wrong - but not with that pattern! She looked over a variety of repeat knit patterns and decided to just do a scarf out of that - a simple lace to make a small scarf. It worked!!! She is actually knitting, the stitches are coming out evenly, she has not had to tear it out and the scarf is looking pretty good!

Does she still favor crochet - of-course! It is easy, fast and has so many options for a variety of fabrics that it will continue to be her top choice. But, now that she can knit a little, she can indeed broaden her horizons and be more creative and enter into knitting conversations with her friends:-) The dark side is not as dim as she thought it would be!

Todays Jam

I found a recipe for Peach Lavender Jam.  Since I'm into Lavender right now I thought this would be perfect AND the peaches looked great.

I had a few problems so if you have any ideas please share!


The recipe came from "The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving" by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard..  In a canning magazine I have it suggested boiling the peaches until the skin broke (approx 30-60 seconds).  I boiled for several minutes and the skin never "broke".  Then I was to dump them in a bowl of ice water for 1-2 minutes.  The did not peel easily at all.  I know I tried this once before and it worked, don't know what went wrong this time.





Peach Lavender Jam
2 tbsp dried lavender flowers
1/2 cup boiling water
4 cups finely chopped peaches (5-6 medium)
2 tbsp lemon juice
6 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch liquid fruit pectin

Place Lavender flowers in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over flowers and steep for 20 minutes. Strain and discard flowers.  (Later I added Lavender extract)

Combine lavender liquid, peaches, lemon juice and sugar in a very large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a full boil over high heat and boil hard for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in pectin. (I did this and it never thickened. I re/boiled the finished jam the next day until it geled so the liquid pectin was in it while I boiled this time)

Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes.

Makes 6 cups

So, it sounded easy but as you see in the red it didn't work for me until I reboiled the fruit with the pectin in it. 

Now it looks and acts like it should!!!!:)

Comments?

Well, I have been baking bread for a long time - over 35 years - and have never come close to baking the beautiful loaves that came out of the oven recently. That's because I recently got a copy of "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day" and used their awesome recipe. Bernadine mentioned it to me and gave me a copy of an article about the bread. However, when I used the recipe in the magazine, it did not work. I found out after reading the book that the article was flawed. Oh, well, you gotta try stuff to learn. Anyway, the book has an amazing process for rising and baking that does not require kneading!!! Be sure to check it out - not only is the basic loaf delicious but the alternative recipes are yummy as well and it is the easiest raised bread I've ever made.

By the way, I made lamb chops the other day so had to make more hollandaise sauce, which then left me with two egg whites. Of-course, I made more Angel Food cupcakes, only this time, I replaced one tablespoon of flour with cocoa powder and added banana extract - they were so good! They were a little more dense since the cocoa powder has fat in it but who the heck cares - a little fat in an Angel Food cupcake never hurt anybody!! I dipped the tops in chocolate ganache - scrumptious!

Does anyone have any good recipes that include gnats? Maybe we could catch them and put them in cake - they would just look like poppy seeds! I've sprayed vanilla scent on myself and that seemed to ward them off!

Fun, Fun, Fun

This has been the best summer here at the Stillman Inn so far! 

Creativity is flowing everywhere you look!

I bought this at the local Wild Bird Feed Store downtown.  It is filled with nesting material and you can see the birds love it.  You can also fill it with peanuts for the squirrels.  It's a great place to stuff my extra wool after spinning!



Here is the lovely "Fairy Garden" I splurged on this  year.  Purchased at Valley Perennials in Galena.  You can just sit and dream all day long looking at this beautiful mix.








 


And what can beat watching my sweet Grandbaby out in the cement mixing tray?  Yes, a turtle swimming pool is on the list to buy but she really loves playing around in our small ponds.  So for now, it works.









Currently working on "romantisizing" our little well in the back yard.  We have a turtle spitter in it, some plastic "chandeleir" mini lights with rose garland around the roof and we're growing a potatoe vine plant and parsley in front of the little pond.  There were marigolds too but my baby squirrels ate them up.  There are also morning glories sprouting.  That should be terrific.





Ahhh, the square foot gardens.  Love, love, love talking to the guests about them.  Many of the guests know right away the type of garden it is!  What fun to hear their gardening stories!

I've had my struggles with it, baby squirrels, hot weather, but mostly it is going just great.  Glad to be gardening again!  Already had sandwiches with homegrown lettuce.  Toooooo coooool!  Hope you are also enjoying this summer!