Mr President

Hi Everyone,  I am excited to share a biggy in our family.  Our youngest grandson was elected Class President today.  We are so proud we are about busting our buttons.  This is the card I made for Ryan.  Let me tell you the story behind what's on here.  I have a whiteboard on my fridge and when Ryan was quite a bit younger, I used to put messages for the kids on there.  For a long time I had "Ryan for President" on the board.  He didn't like that, so one day I explained that it didn't necessarily mean President of the United States, but that it could be president of a corporation or even class president.  That calmed him down and this week he took me up on it.  I am so proud.

The sign - as close as I could get to his class colors - is there because when Ryan checked out a couple colleges last month, he had an appointment at one and when they drove in there was a special parking place with a sign - in lights - with his name.  He was bigtime impressed.

The inside of the card says, "Follow your dreams and expect them to come true".  We look forward to new exciting things for you.  We couldn't be more proud!!

More Mushrooms

Mushroom Soup!

Hi Everyone,  Today this is what's keeping me from making more cards.  My friendly neighbor up the road called last night to ask if I wanted some Puffball Mushrooms.  I don't think I have found one for about 5 years, so I was very excited and went to pick up three of them this morning.  This one is at least basketball sized.

Tonight when we walked the dog, we went through the woods and what do you think!  We found a couple small ones in our woods.  I make mushroom soup to freeze.  I don't add the milk until I am ready to use the soup, as I am not sure milk freezes well.  My recipe is below.
1 qt chicken stock
1/2 c onions - chopped
1/2 c celery - chopped

Peel and cut/dice mushroom and add to chicken stock with onion and celery.  Simmer for about 20 minutes, or longer. (I used half a mushroom this size for two batches)

Melt 1/2 stick butter or a bit more.
Add to 1/2 c flour 

Add some of the 'soup' to the flour mixture in a separate bowl and mix till smooth.  Then pour it into the soup and stir.  Careful.  It's hot.

Add milk and half and half to taste when you are ready to eat it.

I love it.  I love it, but mostly I think I am so excited because I conquered a mushroom.

Radically Grateful

Good Morning Everyone,  I just subscribed to a new blog called Transforming Common Days which you can find here.  I absolutely LOVE the first thought today and that's to be Radically Grateful.  What a super idea.  Susan started with "the sound of insects at night" and compares it to God's first deep breath.  Awesome.  I think we could all use some Radical Gratefulness and I will start by listing a couple of things I am grateful to God for today.

1. The ability to make greeting cards
2. The resources to make them with
3. Friends to send them to and that they give a lift.
4. The strength to do all the crazy canning I have done this summer
5. The 'beauty' of all the jars on my basement shelf
6. The GOOD feeling I get looking at all those jars - knowing God is providing and always will.

Have a wonderful day and You be thankful too.

Sauerkraut! Yes!

Good Morning.  Now that I have the cabbage all cleaned off the counters, table and floor, I will show you what I have been doing this morning.

                      Making Sauerkraut
I have done this once before and for a year the jars sat on a shelf in the basement.  I was afraid to eat them.  My friendly neighbor heard my story, asked how I made it and told me to eat it as sauerkraut was almost impossible to spoil.  I believed her and lived to tell the story.  :)  So here is the start of another batch.

       I start by cutting off the cabbage and slicing it in my food processor.  Easy, but messy.  I LOVE chewing on the cores.  They are so yummy and good for you too.  All you see here is going in the compost pile though.  And that's another story.  I made one when we moved here and my guy didn't like where it was so he tore it out.  Sigh.  Today he said he's making me one.  I think he got tired of all the "stuff" I kept putting in his Worm Bed, as he informed me this morning that it was a worm bed, not a garbage dump.  Fancy that.

Next picture is after I had the cabbage shredded and weighed.  I am trying to follow a couple recipes.  I really think I should stick to one at a time, but the easiest one that I really wanted to use, was a bit scary for me.  I needed more than "it spits and sputters for six weeks and then seals itself".  I think I would again be afraid to eat it.  So I asked my friendly neighbor up the road some more questions.

She told me that I could put a bag of water on top of the cabbage, tucked in all good and no air would get in and there would be no scum.  Woopie!  I have wasted a lot of cabbage after looking at that scum, so I'm hoping for the best here.  I don't have a crock without a crack, so I have this in three gallon jars and right now it's hiding in the basement stairwall in the dark.  My cousin told me that if you leave it in the light, it turns a yucky yellow color.  Hmm.  So that's what happened last time.

So next on my list is pizza sauce.  I found a recipe to can some on cooks.com and am working on it today.  I need to get down and get it on the stove and put the spices in.  Wish me luck.