So Sweet Beets!

This is what I was up to this morning. Pickling Beets! My Dad gave these to me yesterday straight from his garden. He has had a garden for as long as I can remember. I remember working in it every Saturday. Forget watching American Bandstand on Saturday's. The only time I got to watch it was when it rained. But that's another story for another day.

Anyway, I thought I would share with you the process. The picture below is cleaned beets ready to boil until tender. Cover with water and boil (do not peel first, the red color will leak out into the water and your beets will be a light pink color. They still taste the same but they are not as pretty). After they are fork tender the skins slip right off. I love this part. It is fun to hold one of the beets and slip the skins right off. Very textural. I know, I'm goofy!

Next you get the jars sterilized and ready with the lids and rings. I usually put them in my dishwasher and run them through a cycle but this morning I put them in the canning pot with water and boiled them.

After I slipped the skins off then I slice them into the jars. Isn't that color just delicious? I got seven pint jars full.

Now it is time to fix the pickling juices. Remember this is pickling, which you can do in a water bath, if we were just canning them, without vinegar, then they would have to be finished in a steam pressure canner. In a small pot on the stove I have the lids soaking in hot water (not boiling) they will be ready when I am.
For four pints (I doubled it today because I had 7 pts.) you put:
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 cups vinegar
1/2 cup water
Bring to a boil in a medium saucepot and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and fill jars. Remove air bubbles by sliding a knife (plastic is better than metal) inside the jar along the sides. Add more juice up to about 1/2 inch from the top of the jar and make sure all the beets are covered.

Wipe the top of the jars clean. Place lids and rings on top and hand tighten. Place in canning pot that is filled with hot water. Make sure the jars are covered by about 1-1/2 inches of water. Bring to a boil. This takes a while on my electric stove. After it comes to a boil, lower the heat to simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Remove from water bath and place on towel to cool. Make sure there is no drafts in room (like a ceiling fan right above the jars that is on, speaking from experience here). The jars can cool too quickly and break.
Aren't they lovely. I really love looking at them when they are finished. Anything I can from the garden, I love the look of them. I told you I was goofy. I put them in my canning cabinet when they are cooled off. I will take a picture of this later when I have time. It was built by my husband. I told him I wanted it built like a pie safe. It has screen on the doors in the front.



Isn't that color spectacular! (Did I say that already?) Anyway, just beautiful. And yummy too!

Hope you enjoyed my journey through Pickled Beets. Come on over and I'll share!

These are pics I took last week ago. Every winter we have an abundance of birds that fly in. Whenever we see a large flock like this all over the yard and fields we know there is cold weather to come. At least that is how it always seemed to me since I was little. We have a cold front come in this weekend as expected.

I love watching them. At the slightest noise the go flying off. One following the others. It is wonderful to watch.

I of course could not get them all in one shot but, here they are just starting to fly off. A car went down the road and they started off only to land in the yard of the neighbors behind us. Fascinating!

Today I am off to my best friend's house. We will look at quilting books, current projects and just hang out and talk. It is the most fun! Later tonight I have a "Woolie" meeting here. I need to go and bake a fig cake for refreshments. Yesterday I got my teaching quilt basted and tomorrow I will start to quilt it. Things are coming together. I love the feeling of getting things accomplished. Me and my friend leave in 11 days for a quilting retreat! Yeah! I can't wait. Lots of fun! Bye for now.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Saturday we decorated cookies with my nieces and nephews. They will go home with the ones they decorate. They look forward to it every year but this year they tired of it only after about a dozen cookies. My husband and I had to decorate the rest. I had baked a lot of them this year.

Here is my niece decorating her cookies. She is concentrating very hard to get it just right. Her cookies look wonderful!

This is her brother with the sprinkles. Can you tell he loved them? He did a great job on his cookies and was even trying to tell the others how to do it like him. So funny!

This is another nephew. He liked drawing faces on his cookies. I told him is cookies would not be as sweet because they didn't have a lot of icing on them. He didn't seem to mind. He also did a great job!

Even hubby got in on the act. He did most of the gingerbread men. And that is my son(on the right) trying to keep up with him.

He has a way with the knife to get it just right. I tried but could not do it as well as him.

These are some of the cookies after they were done.

These are of the ones that I did. I used a toothpick to spread the icing in the center.

The counters were full. They were all over the place. The table also had a bunch on it. I had to let them dry out so I could put them stacked in there tins.

That is all for today. I have several things to do this morning. We are going next door to my sister's later today.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Baking...

Yesterday I baked Gingerbread men and Sugar Cookies. Every year my niece and nephews look forward to decorating the cookies for Christmas. It started with my own children when they were younger and they still like doing it if they are around. They make a mess and it is a lot of work for me (easier is I would just do it myself) but they are making memories. And they remember every year and ask about it. This is the first year that I make the cookies ahead of time. I usually do it all in one day, the baking and they decorate, but this year I thought I would get a head start. That way I can sit with them and help them out. Usually I'm cleaning the kitchen after all the baking to make room for the decorating.

I didn't get any photos of the sugar cookies. I will take some pics on Saturday after they are done. Today I have an MRI scheduled for 11:45am. They are looking at my head/brain and pituitary to see if they can find out why I still have a full feeling in my ear. The fluid is all drained out because of the tube that was put in. The doctor has done a couple of hearing test on me and my hearing is 100%. He is not sure why I still have a full feeling in my ear. So I have to have an MRI to look inside. Pray that all will be fine and everything is in it's place and there is nothing in there that is not supposed to be there. I will probably not get the results until after Christmas. I'm not a very patient person but in this case I have no choice. I will trust God will take care of everything. Hope everyone is having a non-stressed holiday.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Opps!

Sorry couldn't wait for a picture. The ones in the large pan have pecans and raisins rolled in. The small pan is just cinnamon and sugar. And there was another pan just like that was already eaten. Boy were they good! (Sorry I can't help myself) There was also another loaf of bread but it is all wrapped up to bring to my Dad later is afternoon. I still have the 18 hour dough rising. It will be good tomorrow. Totally different taste than the loaf of bread in the picture. The long rest time develops the tangy flavor. It's a good thing I don't do this more often. The scale would not be my friend (not that we are on friendly terms anyway).
Wish we had taste O' computer. I would love to share. I'll put on the tea this afternoon, c'mon over (or if you prefer coffee I have that too).
Time to get to sewing.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Ummm homemade bread...

This is what I am up to this morning, sourdough bread. I has been a long time since I baked some up and the cooler weather has me feeling like baking. It does it every year (I also feel like cooking casseroles and other types of winter food). The large bowl to the right will be 2 large loaves of white sourdough. The bowl in the back left is a white wheat sourdough that takes 18 hours to rise and will have a very tangy sourdough flavor, we will have this tomorrow. The front left will be cinnamon rolls for later this morning (I use the same sourdough starter as the rest but add some yeast in it so it will not take as long to rise).

I am also going to get some sewing done today. I machine appliqued 24 hearts of the 1930's prints yesterday and will try to do at least that today. I also need to load my quilt frame with a Home of the Brave quilt to be quilted for my friend, who is in charge for the state of Louisiana.

If I remember and before the family tears into all the bread, I will try to get a picture to post for later. Hope everyone has a blessed day.

Quilt til your arm falls off...