How 'Bout Them Apples?

After lunch today, our daughter (otherwise known as Chicken Mama to some) and I attacked two and a half 5-gallon pickle buckets full of apples in an attempt to turn them into applesauce.  I'm happy to report the mission was accomplished.

We used my new Victorio Johnny Apple Peeler for the first time.  Turned out to be a great little tool.

It did a jam-dandy job of peeling and coring the apples, no matter whether they were big, medium or small.

It also sliced the apple at the same time.

We got a little carried away trying to think of ways we could use the long lengths of apple peelings.  Chicken Mama suggested we dry them and use them as garlands on next year's Christmas tree.  I said we should just drape them outside on the trees as they are and the birds would love them.  (Or not, and they would start looking really bad really fast.) In reality, the peelings and cores went out to our poultry yard and a full bucketful went home with Chicken Mama for her chickens.

Okay, here's something for you to ponder.  How long is the continuous peeling from one medium sized apple, the peel being 1/4" wide?  Yep, we measured so we know.  How long would you guess?

As I was bottling up the first of the two batches of applesauce to go into the canner, I commented I'd always wanted to make homemade apple jelly, but had never done it.  Chicken Mama was still game for playing with more apples so I suggested she look up a recipe that appealed to her and go for it.

Unfortunately, we ran short of time before completing the jelly (pot of the simmering apple chunks above) but she got it to the point of draining the cooked apples in cheesecloth overnight to extract the juice.  Fortunately, tomorrow she's coming back, the juice gets reduced, and jelly gets made.  I can hardly wait to sample it on some toasted bread!

A New Apron Thanks to Sandy in California

After my post of January 12th, one of my readers, Saundra (Sandy) in California, sent me a note saying she had used the same "Winter Birds" fabric along with some of the companion fabric in the line.  She said she had leftovers of the companion fabric and didn't wish to keep it.  Would I like it?  If so, she would send it to me.

What a kind and generous offer!  I told her I'd be delighted to have it and a short time later, yards (yes, yards) of the companion fabric arrived here in Minnesota.

Last Saturday I spent several hours in my quilt room making an apron using some of Sandy's fabric and a pattern I'd been wanting to make.

The apron is reversible so I searched in my stash and found a brown that perfectly matched the brown stems in the berry fabric.

The idea of this apron with no strings, ties, buttons or snaps appealed to me, but I have to admit while attempting to try it on a couple of times to check for strap length, etc. during construction, I found myself feeling like I was tied in a straight jacket.  I was home alone and feared I was going to have to lie down on my quilt room floor trussed up like a turkey ready for the oven until someone came home and rescued me.  Truth to tell, once I figured out where my arms and head should be inserted, it was an easy on and off.  (Some of us are slower learners than others.)

Here's the front of the finished apron.  I didn't notice that those two straight branches down the front of the apron would stand out as they do until I saw this picture.  I should have centered them.  My bad.  Darn.

This is the reverse side of the brown fabric.  Looks kind of muddy in this picture . . . but then mud brown is one of my best colors.

And here's the back with the crisscrossing straps.

So, many, many thanks, Sandy, for your generosity in sharing this fabric with me.  I still have plenty of it left.  Hmmmmm, potholders?  Lots of potholders??

Wanna See My (Belated) Christmas Present?

My dear, sweet, kind husband made me a quilt rack for Christmas.  He mounted it on the wall yesterday.  Okay, so it was a tad bit late.  He really, really wanted to have it done by Christmas, but so much was going on at that time (anybody relate to that?) that I talked him out of pushing himself to get it done.

For a long time I've wanted some kind of a rack on which to hang a quilt on this (what was a) bare wall at the bottom of the stairs from Papa Pea's second story office.

It isn't a large space so we were limited as to what would fit there.  After designing a couple/few racks that were too large (and could possibly inflict head wounds or whole body splats from tripping), we came up with this.

View of space where rack is from the living room.  Stairway to upstairs is to the left, doorway to my quilt room is straight ahead.

The view from my quilt room into the living room.

I am happy with it.  Very, very happy!  Thank you, Santa! 

Always New Things To Learn

I've been experimenting with einkorn flour in order to get a bread that holds together better and doesn't crumble as much as the Two-Hour Dairy-Free Sandwich Loaf on the label of the einkorn flour bag and also printed in the "Einkorn" book by Carla Bartolucci.  (See picture of cover below.)

But a little background.  We got turned on to einkorn wheat because it's touted as the most ancient wheat, and the only wheat that's never been hybridized.  It has more nutrients, vitamins and dietary minerals than the commonly available regular wheat.  Having 30% more protein and 15% less starch ranked it high in our quest for the best nutrition we can put in our bodies.  It also has a low gluten content which makes it desirable for those with a wheat intolerance.  (Just ask Susan and she will verify that fact.)  Although there isn't a gluten intolerance in our family, the other attributes of einkorn make it a grain I'm trying to incorporate into our diet.

Last night I made my favorite white bread recipe substituting half of the unbleached white flour with einkorn.  It rose well and came out of the oven looking good.

This morning we sliced it for breakfast.  The texture was as good as that made with all "regular" wheat flour.  (But, of course, I used only half einkorn flour in it.)  You can see by looking at the loaf (too much glare on the slices to show their true color) that the bread is more golden in color than white, and that's because the einkorn wheat berries are a lovely golden color producing a flour with a pleasant yellow/gold tint to it.

The flavor was great.  Einkorn flour is very rich and "buttery" tasting in everything I've made with it.

I was successful in making my pie crust using all einkorn flour last week.  My usual recipe, using all unbleached white flour, is flaky and tender.  The einkorn crusts when baked into a pie were very tender, but I wouldn't call them flaky.  They had more of a "solid" texture (lacking a better word to describe it) while still being tender and quite acceptable.

I need to keep experimenting, and if I learned all that is presented in this very informative book, I'd be a success.  I might even maybe be able to learn to make and bake bread with an einkorn sourdough starter which would make my husband very, very happy.

Addicted to Making Potholders (Could Be Worse!)

What can I say?  I love making them.  They're quick, useful and eat up small scraps of fabric.

I made two sets using bits of the fabric I had left over from the material I used in making the valances for our entry porch.

The fronts.

The backs.

I like this fabric so much!

The birds on bare branches in a wintery scene brighten up our old, gray, melting snow, ice and puddles.  And yes, navigating out there, whether on foot or in a vehicle, is treacherous at the present time.

Hey, Mother Nature!  This is January in northern Minnesota.  What's with this 30+ degree melty, rainy weather??

How Depressing!

I went into our organic co-op (full-sized grocery store, really) this afternoon to pick up a few things along with a special order that had come in for me.

Strolling up and down the aisles, I saw something on a very bottom shelf that I wanted to check out.  Because I need a new prescription in my "up close" glasses (which I have been very neglectful about obtaining in a timely manner), I knelt down on the floor so I could check out the fine print and pricing of the item in which I was interest.

There I was trying to do some figuring in my head, and I suppose I must have had a concerned look on my face (thinking, you know) when a sweet gal who works in the produce section came scurrying down the aisle and said, "Mama Pea (she used my given name, of course), do you need some help?"

"Huh?" I looked up at her and rather stupidly replied.

"Can I, um--uh, help you . . . do you . . . need some help?" the dear girl asked. 

"Oh!  Did you think I needed help getting up?"

Now I could tell she was a bit embarrassed.  "Well . . . I mean, oh no, I just thought . . . " she mumbled.

For the record, although there are those who may think a portion of my brain cells are no longer firing reliably, I'm still in good shape physically and don't yet have any trouble getting up off the floor.  Or ground.  Or from peering onto the bottom shelf of a grocery store.

This whole little incident has convinced me that, vain though you may label it, I'm immediately starting a GoFundMe website so I can get a face lift.  And perhaps some body shaping in the lift and tuck and rearrangement departments.  Maybe even . . . a new prescription for my glasses.