Beauty In A Jar...

These tomatoes were so tasty! I turned nine pounds of them, along with half a pound of green peppers and six ounces of sweet onion into these three gorgeous quarts and one pint of stewed tomatoes. 

The jars all sealed, are cleaned, labeled and in the pantry already. I'm looking forward to more tomatoes when they're ready to make more of this scarlet-colored goodness. 

Today is my first day of my new early morning shift. I'll be done by 10:30 am and will have the rest of the day ahead of me. It's going to be interesting to see how this night owl adjusts. We'll see. 

Enjoying Life...

 

I'd love to think this could be me, but who am I kidding? In case you're curious, yesterday morning began with me in the kitchen making two dozen homemade stuffed oreos to take to the physical therapy staff. (They were a huge hit, too!)

When I opened the little fridge to put the dough in to chill for an hour, I saw the venison loin I put in there to thaw on Saturday...and completely forgot. Soooo, once the dough was in the fridge, I had at least an hour to deal with the venison.

I sliced it into medallions and then browned it with onions and placed them in jars. I didn't have time to run the canner before PT, but I wouldn't have lit up the canner for three pints. I put the lids and rings on them and put them in the fridge until I can properly can them after work today.

After PT, I ran to the grocery store. I needed a few things for something else I'm going to can so the pressure canner gets filled. I'll tell you about it tomorrow. 

Instead, I made a batch of cinnamon rolls last night. Two 2-packs are going to my coworkers, another 2-pack to Andy and Shelly, and a 2-pack for Handsome and me. It was a good day (and night).

I work until 4:30 today, and then I'm going to do my batch of canning. I can't wait to tell you what I'm making to fill up my pressure canner! See you tomorrow.

Oh, and maybe this image will be my life next year. For now, busy suits me just fine. 

Sweetness...

My Kilner™ Pot Filled With Hickory Nut Pie Filling

It was a perfect day to preserve some hickory nut pie filling for the pantry. This stuff is so delicious, and I can use it to make pies, tarts, or simply use it as a topping for homemade vanilla or butter pecan ice cream. In fact, last time I did this (it's been a few years now), I made four pints and it was all used as ice cream topping!

First Batch Out Of The Canner

I had more than enough nut meats to make two double batches of pie filling. Each batch took seven cups of nuts. When all was said and done, there were a total of 15 full pints, and two half pints of these gifts  from our trees last year. Don't worry, I let the squirrels have most of this year's harvest. We share.

Lined Up Like Soldiers On The Shelf

 

By late afternoon, all the jars were sealed and cooled, and I could put them on the "pie filling" shelf in the pantry. Usually I preserve these fillings in quart jars, which are pie sized, however, because not all the jars will go toward pies or tarts, putting the hickory nut filling in pint jars was more prudent. 

 

The two smaller jars are going to Teresa and Kim at work to try. I can always share larger jars if they love it, and I have more nuts to be able to make more filling if needed. It's almost time to make hickory syrup again, too! Maybe next week, if I get my sewing done. For now, I'm just going to enjoy looking at more farmhouse goodness on our pantry shelves.

Baking Day...

Baking Day at Hickory Hill Farm

It was a very productive day. Handsome took this photograph before the cinnamon rolls were cool. I frosted them about a half hour later.

No. We won't eat all this ourselves. We share bread with Andy and Shelly next door, and the rest of the loaves freeze well until we need it. We'll only keep four of the cinnamon rolls. One batch goes up the hill with bread, and the two trays in front are sold. The rolls are for a couple burgers tonight, and the rest will freeze, too.

We did get a lot of blowing snow yesterday, so it really was nice to stay indoors and warm. The "barn" girls (yeah. Not so much anymore.) didn't want a thing to do with the white stuff. They chose to stay indoors, but as we have no Labrador litter box, the big girls went outside. Bella greeted the snow like an old friend. She ran around like a puppersnapper. Carly, on the other paw, just wanted to do her business and get back inside. That's okay. Handsome didn't want to hang around outside either.

I'm delivering cinnamon rolls to Fond du Lac this morning, doing a little grocery shopping, and dropping off baked treats for our dear neighbors. Once back home, I'll stitch some more on the bluebirds until it's time to put in my three hours at work. I'm not going to share my needlework until I get more done than I have so far. Probably Monday.

Happy Friday, y'all!

Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam...

Mother Nature is still serving up beautiful tomatoes for us, so I put up a beautiful batch of Smoky Paprika Tomato Jam yesterday. The result was ten jars of goodness and it only took about three hours, start to finish.

This recipe came from Marisa McClellan's cookbook, Preserving By The Pint. I purposely kept the jam slightly on the liquid side, because we use it as barbeque sauce. It's smoky, sweet, full a flavor, with just a touch of heat. Marisa's recipe calls for cherry tomatoes, but we used regular tomatoes and cooked them longer to reduce the liquid. It was perfect.

She also has a great recipe for green tomato salsa, so I know what I'll be doing with any of my tomatoes the fail to ripen before the weather turns.

If you do canning, Marisa caters to people who live in small spaces, or who don't have a lot of storage area. Sometimes you just want a pint or two, and her recipes are geared to small batch canning. HERE's a link in case you're interested in getting your own copy, (or you can click on the book title above to get to the same page).

Handsome let me know it's time to bake bread again. He's really helpful these days, lifting my big flour container so I can measure out a batch, and then helping lift the big proofing bowl in and out of the oven. He also dumps the dough onto the island so I can turn and fold, and then he puts it back into the oven until the timer signals it's ready to repeat. Once I get the dough into the bread pans, he can go on break, but I really couldn't bake bread in the usual quantities without him.

I'm also working on a new embroidery that I'll share tomorrow, and I'll debut the giveaway information on Saturday, so be sure to come back so you can enter.