Finally, a better night's sleep (I cheated and took a melatonin tablet!).  5 AM and 28°.

I let our nice weather pass and never did get any outside yard work done.....somehow when winter hits and the trees loose their leaves, I am done outside and it is very hard for me to get motivated to garden again.

I will milk this morning. 

Yesterday I made pumpkin bread using my frozen butternut squash from a few years ago.  I put raisins and nuts in two loaves and left one plain.  My family never wants anything added.  This is a recipe I have been using for a very long time and makes three loaves. 

Pumpkin Bread

Preheat Over to 350°

(I originally got this recipe from MIL)
3-1/3 cup flour
2 teas. baking soda
1-1/2 teas. salt
1 teas. cinnamon
1 teas. nutmeg
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 can pumpkin
3 cups sugar
1 cup nuts, optional

Sift dry ingredients together, including sugar into mixing bowl.  Make a well in center and add other ingredients.  Mix well.  Add nuts if desired.

Pour into three medium sized, greased and floured loaf pans or two large ones or 5 very small foil pans (for the holidays as gifts).

Bake for l hour or until done.  Check with straw or bamboo skewers ( I love these).  For the smaller pans I  figure about 45 minutes.

Remove from pans and cool on rack.

Note: I rarely sift anything.  I just fluff it with a wire whisk and then measure.

I just put all this into the mixing bowl and blend the dry ingredients first then add everything else and just mix until blended....don’t overdo it.



We will be butchering in about a month so I am trying to empty  out the meat freezer.  I found two very large bread bags filled with Jonathon apple cores and peelings and brought them down to the house.  I dumped all in my maslin pan (it filled it to the top and I had to press down to get the lid one) added some water and apple juice (I keep in the freezer for adding to various apple things for extra flavor) and cooked it until soft.  I then strained it into a bowl for apple jelly and then ran the rest through my Foley Food Mill and got enough pulp to make 2- 1/2 pints of apple butter.  I have a quart of juice for making jelly which I hope to get done today.

Just a note about the maslin  pan.  If you do a lot of food processing, you will love this pan!  I don't know how I got by without it all these years.  They are expensive but worth it.  I have used it for apples, for cheese making, boiling large amounts of sweet corn, canning tomatoes, cooking down anything.  The bottom is very thick and heavy and if I place the pan on my lowest burner, I can simmer all day without anything scorching.  I did have to stir the apple butter often because of the sugar content.....it never scorched though.

I hope the Kindle comes today.....I have been using my Kindle PC app and reading at my desk.  My sis and daughter have 'loaned' me 3 or 4 books and I have purchased two .99 ones from Amazon.  This technology just amazes me! 

Note:  I had a question about tallow making the soap 'greasy'.  No, it does not.  I run all ingredients through Soapcalc9 before making. 

Storing Vanilla Beans - Apple Jelly and butter

It is much warmer here this morning, 54° compared to 43° yesterday.  The high is supposed to be around 70°.

Yesterday turned out to be a very long day.

First I researched and found that the vanilla beans store the longest in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.

I realized that the came in a vacuum sealed bag so I did the same thing.  I used the Food Saver and froze 12 beans to a pack.  I bought so many because of the price break and the fact that I had points on my Amazon credit card that paid for the entire order.  I didn't even know I was accumulating points....what fun!

The question now is what on earth was I thinking........way too many beans.

After cooking the cores and peelings until they were soft, I drained all the juice from them using my hands to gently press in the colander.  I ended up with 7 cups of juice, exactly what the jelly recipe calls for.
I did use some old pectin just because I had it, but I don't think I would have needed it.  It sure speeds up the process though.

I pressed the remaining mass through my food mill and got 48 oz. of nice sauce or pulp.  I used an equal amount of sugar and added some cinnamon and cloves and began cooking it down in the much used maslin pan.  I probably reduced it by half. 

I decided to make the jelly  even though it was getting pretty late in the day. 

Here is what I ended up with from the 'waste' of the peels apples:

Right in the middle of the jelly-making, our new neighbor stopped by to see if a stray cat that had wandered to their place and stayed was one of ours.We invited her in and she followed me into the kitchen.  I wish you could have seen the mess!  If you have ever canned or make jelly, you know what I mean.  

She sat down and stayed for two hours....she's a talker and so am I and sometimes DH, so we enjoyed it.

I didn't even care about me mess but it was distracting trying to finish the jelly! I ened up with not sealing a few jars and will store it in the extra fridge.

It was 8 PM when she left.  Her husband actually drove up looking for her!  She is maybe a little younger than our daughter and has the charm of the South.  I didn't notice an accent though.  Maybe not far enough south.

They are from Raleigh, NC. but she grew up in Maryland.

I did a cursory cleanup and quit for the day.