MISC... AND BOO'D

I have been gone for a few days,,,,, oh my.... what a difference a day can make....

What have I been doing???? really???? you are going to ask me that???????



Well, let's see....



1. been practicing to be a nurse....
taking care of u-i-l (uncle in love) 84, broken arm, broken ribs, dr. appts, needs
regular house help, food, care. Also a-i-l (aunt in love) has alzheimers, need I say more.


2. been practicing to be a domestic engineer......
Canned 15 pints of pears.



3. been practicing to be a crafter.....
Trying to get some stained glass projects started and done...Tis the season....
ya know, Christmas presents.


4. been practicing to be a chauffeur.....
elder appointments.


5. been practicing to be a counselor.......
see above #1 and #4.

I can do just about anything, kinda. What do "they" say...
"Jack of all trades, Master of none!"

I am glad that I have been able to "help" where ever necessary and that I have been blessed to be retired from my old 8-4 weekday job....

OHH, and I forgot somewhere sometime last week I was Boo'd by Cher, THE TEXAS WOMAN.
My instructions were to list 4 people that I follow and why I like to follow them.... so here it goes..

1. Pink Little Cake..... cuz I love cake and she is awesome at what she does...
2. Little Pen Pen.... cuz her blog is always light and cheery and she seems alot like me....
3. Sweet Repose.... cuz she is my sista-at-heart, she and I work for the same team...
4. Simply Iowa..... cuz she is genuine in all that she writes, she writes from her heart and love
her ambition. She does more in one day than I do in a week.


This BOO party was started by Toni at The Tattered Cottage.

Please keep the fun going by following these instructions.

1. You have 24 hours to work your spell.
2. Copy and post the Halloween Boo Poem with the instructions for playing.
3. Pick 4 blogs you enjoying visiting and tell why you enjoy visiting them, with a link to their blog and remember to link back to me
4. Go to the original BOO Party post at the Tattered Cottage and add your MckLinky.
5. Let's see how fast and far this spreads between now and Halloween.

(I WASN'T ABLE TO COMPLETE SOME OF THE ASSIGNMENT AND WILL UNDERSTAND IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ALSO. JUST BE SURE TO LET OTHERS KNOW HOW MUCH YOU LOVE THEIR BLOGS.... ENCOURAGEMENT,,,,, WE ALL COULD USE SOME.....)

N S E W....

Usually these maple tree leaves are more orange/red color, but this year the color is YELLOW.

NORTH

SOUTH

EAST

WEST

When we moved here in 1978, we planted tons of trees over 10 years. 108 in our yard and across a fence line. We also planted 300 Burr Oak and Swamp White Oak trees through a conservation program. These trees were planted along the river where the land is untillable.

Give back to the land! IT IS SOOO IMPORTANT!!!

APPLE PIE FILLING

Every Fall around September/October, I beg apples off of friends (I don't have apple trees, but know several people that do) and make apple pie filling to use throughout the year. The recipe is absolutely delicious. It is better with tart apple as opposed to a sweet eating apple. I don't know what kind I get from who, I just know they are a little tart. This year everybody got some kinda something and all the apples have black spots on them, but the inside is just as good as ever.

I hate to say it, but this is a long process (actually I should say, it is a long process for me!)

First, I clean my apples and get everything out and set up.
A large bowl for sliced apples with lemon juice in the water and a discard bowl.

(Everything is messy because by the time I took the pics, I had already made one batch of filling.)


An apple peeler/corer sure makes the job go faster and I like the size of slices.



After I have all the apples sliced, I pour them in a huge heavy pot (a heavy pot will keep them from burning)
Then I mix together the sugar, flour and spices and pour on top of apples.

Add on top, the lemon juice and stir everything together, coating all the apples.

Cook the apples until the mix starts to thicken. I let this slowly come to a low boil, stirring so apples don't stick. Maybe 20 minutes start to finish. If the mix is too dry and the apples are not producing enough juice, I will add enough water to be able to stir them; maybe 2 cups.... not too much though.

After the apple filling is cooled, I bag it in seal-a-meal bags and seal them. I think this keeps it from getting ice crystals in it. I measure out 4-5 cups in each bag. That is what my pie recipe calls for. (Recipe to follow)

I have started using a scale thanks to BUTTER YUM... I love her blog and she did a post on why using a scale is good and so I splurged and got a scale..... Go to her blog, just don't go there hungry!!!

It took me from 10am - 7:30pm, I did 4 batches. I now have enough in the freezer for 10 apple pies and it is soooo much better than store bought!

YUMMMMM-O!!!

APPLE PIE FILLING RECIPE

6 lb. apples

1 1/2 C. sugar (maybe less, depends on how tart apples are)

1/2 C. flour

1 1/2 tes. cinnamon

1/4 tes. nutmeg

2 tes. lemon juice

Mix sugar, flour and spices. Set aside.

Peel and core apples.

Add mix to apples in a big pot.

Add lemon juice.

Let sit for 30 minutes. (I don't do this step, not enough time in a day to do this. I just add some water for the juice)

Cook until begin to thicken. Cool. Freeze.

I have heard of people canning this in a hot water bath.

I have given this recipe to several people and everyone seems to just rave about it.

Try it and let me know what you think!!!!

Happy Autumn!!!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE....

WATCH THIS YOUTUBE . Please allow yourself time to watch this. It is not long...

It is important, it is what I believe, it answers questions.....

it is powerful, it is humbling, it is important for you to know....

Please allow yourself to watch the WHOLE THING.....

I have never been one to shove the subject down throats, but it is important for you to know the message here....

I ask kindly.... listen to the words.... Please let me know what you think,,, please....

NOODLE RECIPE

A few people asked me to post the recipe that goes along with the post I did on making noodles.
I agree, it would be helpful in case anyone wants to try these.

Noodles

3 Cups flour, we just use a good all purpose flour
1 Tbl. oil
2-3 tesp. water (I put a drop of yellow food coloring in the water, optional)
1 Cup large eggs (this most always ends up being 4 eggs,
but if it is more than a cup, you will probably need to kneed some extra flour into the mix)
1/4 scant tesp. salt

Just one point, if the dough is too wet, it won't go through the pasta maker very easily.

Check out MAKING NOODLES for instructions.....
or email me any questions: lrick4444@yahoo.com

HAPPY NOODLE MAKING...........

IT MUST BE FALL...THE GEESE ARE BACK

This is a resting spot for a flock of geese twice a year for the past few years. It is the marking of a season. They seem to visit here in the Spring for a couple of days and in the fall for a couple of days (after the field has been picked). They are a welcome noisy bunch. I love listening to them.

So it is officially Fall when the geese fly in...

HOW DO YOU MARK THE COMING OF FALL IN YOUR AREA???

MAKIN' NOODLES

Twice a year our church gets out all the equipment to make noodles from scratch for our Dinner Day which happens on the second Wednesday of April and October. These fundraiser days enable us to do extra necessary things for our church and parsonage.

A few posts back, entitled "Noodles", I said I would show the process of making noodles....

We usually make noodles in a one week stretch. For 4 mornings and 4 evenings, groups of people show up in our church kitchen and work through the process.

We will go through 100-110 DOZEN EGGS...
Each batch takes 1 cup= approximately 4 eggs...
We ask each family to donate 2 dozen eggs and 10 lbs. of flour...

It all begins in the mixing.... one person usually mixes.




Then the women on the right of the picture will kneed the dough and form it into flat balls.

The women, on the left of this picture, take those flat pieces and run them through a noodle maker, thinning them out into strips of very thin dough.





This takes a few times, at a few different settings to get them the right thickness.




Then the tray of strips are passed on to the next station.


After these two cut the final noodles,,,,,,
This person takes a tray full of just-cut noodles and spreads them out on tables covered with paper.

When these beauties are all dry, we bag them up and freeze them for either cooking on Dinner Day or selling at our Country Store that same day. We make thin and wide noodles.

The thin ones are the ones I cook on Dinner Day.

We have no trouble getting rid of them and have many, many people order them ahead of time.

FRESH HOMEMADE NOODLES..... YUMMMMM.... JUST LIKE GRANDMA USED TO MAKE...

Here is the new display we did at Friends Candle Shed for my stained glass pictures that I made.

I guess the next thing I will be working on are Winter scenes.

BECAUSE IT FEELS LIKE WINTER. What happened to Fall? Where was I that I missed it????

I usually have the month of October to dig in the yard, move plants, clean out the garage, winterize equipment, ya know, the Fall Stuff.....

We have moved into the 1st of December and it is only October 16th!

Sooo, today I am making myself go out there and get those mums planted.....

I only have 30 to go. Got 20 done yesterday...

PRAY FOR A WARM DAY,,,,,, PLEASE..............

NOODLES.....

Yesterday, I spent 8 hours in this kitchen cooking noodles. Our church does a Noodles with Chicken Dinner twice a year as a fundraiser for church improvements. We have been able to complete tons of projects throughout the year this way. AND I AM THE NOODLE LADY..... I inherited this job from my mother-in-love. She was the noodle lady for many, many years and when I was a new bride, she started me out that first year helping her. As the years have gone by, 32 this December, I have perfected THE NOODLE. I have been on my own for many years now, mom hasn't HELPED ME since she was in her late 60's, she's 83, but I learned from a pro.

Each holiday, I am asked to bring noodles to the dinner. I guess you could say, it is my signature dish. Nooo, I am not going to show you a picture of my noodles, frankly, I don't have one. I don't make them regularly at all. I usually am sick of noodles after feeding them to 400+ people. And I really don't have a recipe at all. I guess you could say, it is all in my head and tasting all the time. But I will tell you that one of my tricks is to boil some potatoes and use the potato water in noodles as you cook them. Understand that the noodles are made from scratch, the broth that I use is off the chickens we cook for the meat going into the noodles and the potato water is from the mashed potatoes we serve with the dinner.

There has been conversation of stopping our Dinner Days because frankly, the same people have been doing this for soooo many years and if each family would put in an extra $100 a year, we would be able to have the same amount of extra money for projects. But, the community, and people actually come from a long ways to support this, want it to continue. This is a time when they get together with old friends, eat a wonderful meal and share stories of the past; a time when they can plan on seeing each other like a reunion of sorts.

OUR CHURCH DINING ROOM

So I suppose I will be the Noodle Lady for quite a few years to come. I've been told I might as well plan on cooking noodles until THE DAY I DIE!

WICKED......

Last Sunday, a girlfriend and I boarded a Tri State bus along with 50 other people to go to the Broadway hit called Wicked. Actually, this was the nicest bus I HAVE EVER BEEN ON; clean, roomy, and an excellent driver. This was more like the luxury bus of all buses... The musical was in Des Moines, IA, a three hour drive. This is the story of the 3 witches in the Wizard of Oz BEFORE the whole Dorothy thing, based on the best-selling 1995 novel Wicked: The Live and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Winner of 20 major awards.

We stopped in Newton, IA for a bite to eat and got to the show about 45 minutes early.

They didn't let us enter the theater for 1/2 hour, but time went fast and it gave us time to stand in line for the restroom.

Then we found our seats in section 7-E. Ohhh, way up there...

It didn't matter though. I don't think there is a bad seat in the house. Just a little far from the stage.

The musical was excellent.... The voices were amazing and the story line cute, funny.

Did I mention the voices blew me away! The cast were from New York, Los Angeles, and the leads were AMAZING... many were Broadway veterans.

1 1/2 hour performance, intermission, then another 45 minutes..... Bravo, Bravo.......

(We were not allowed to take pics in the theater, so not much to show ya)

Then on to Jordan Creek Mall for a couple of hours. Shop, eat, whatever. On the bus by 6pm and back home by 8:30pm.

3 hours there, but 2 1/2 back.... hmmmmm....... well, we did stop and eat.... okay, makes more sense.

Anyway, I would do that again in a minute...

Not so expensive when I realized what we got, and I didn't have to drive!

LOOK CLOSELY!!!

This weekend was the LeClarie Market Days craft show. I was invited to go with Piper at Friends Candle Shed and her mom. So we all worked pretty hard to have enough stuff ready to take. I posted about the show on FRIENDS CANDLE SHED blog... read all about it there!!!

I was walking back to my SUV (the black one in the picture, with the hatch up) and spotted this...

LOOK CLOSELY....

There were 3 boxers in this vehicle and they were taking turns popping their bodies out of the open sun roof.... taking a look around..... hilarious!!! (you can click the pic for a better look)!!

TWO, TWO, TWO POSTS IN ONE......

SINCE I AM GOING TO BE GONE ALL WEEKEND I THOUGHT I WOULD JUST COMBINE TWO POSTS....

POST ONE

Stained Glass Pictures

I just finished another 5 pictures for this weekend's show I am participating in with Friends Candle Shed. We are going to be in LeClaire, IA at Grasshopper's, a place where Sharon has an indoor space. It is Autumn Market Days.

October 9-11 - Seasons of LeClaire, Autumn Market Days beginning at 9:00 amWhen the leaves start turning to fall colors, it's time for Autumn Market Days in LeClaire. Scarecrows line the main street as street musicians entertain. There are live demonstrations, a library book sale and fun for the whole family. Stroll back in time, dining and shopping in LeClaire's historic downtown filled our unique shops.
Activities: Sidewalk sales, kids activities, lunch venues, Left Bank Art League Art Fait, Mississippi Cottage Antiques Art Fair, QC Greyhound Adoption Meet and Greet at River Pup, and live music festival

I kinda got into the fall colors,,,, because it actually is my most favorite season and the colors of nature are screaming this year!! So I have been burning the midnight oil for the past week. Ideas are swirling so fast, the other day as I was gluing one picture, I was sketching another idea so I didn't lose it in the mental confusion....

So here are pics of the latest 5 I did.

I have been having a blast, but have had way too many late nights. I just get so busy and then I look at the clock and am amazed how fast time flys!!!

Monday, I'll have pics of the show to share,,,,

POST TWO

MUMS THE WORD...

Yesterday I got a call from Maria to come and get some mums if I wanted. SO I DID!!!! I love, love mums and asters (as you know from previous post) and these needed a home. I AM A FLOWER RESCURER! If they need a home, I have one to share. I also like passing plants/flowers on to others. I tell people that come to visit, If you see some flower or plant in my yard, and you want a start, let me know.... I'm sure a few people must think I am nuts!!

So when I got over to Maria's at Hilltop Greenhouse, I just could not help myself!!! This is what I brought home. DH (dear hubby) just smiled and shook his head.... Actually, I think he likes them too... his only words, "oh, those are nice!" He is so kind... I guess that's what 32 years does for me, he just goes along with most things...

The colors are just magnicifient!!!

Oh wait til next year!!! It is going to be colorful around here!!!

PUMPKINS FOR PUREE Part 2

This food processor has been my best friend for the past 18+ years (I really think it has been 20, but my son corrected me and he has this really odd memory that remembers things like when I got my food processor).

ANYWAY..... We have been through a lot together because I used to cook like a maniac when kids were home. I not only cooked and baked for the immediate family, but for everyone and anyone who would visit, be sick, needed a helping hand, kids' friends over, slumber parties, birthday parties and then there is the whole canning and freezing thing.

You can kinda say I loved people with food!

So this puppy really got a workout.

Well, the other day I started doing pumpkin puree and my true friend was struggling.......

I mean, it took 3 hours to do a simple job, but we hung in there together...

Sunday, when d-i-l (daughter in love) and son came over, we were going to do another batch of pumpkins that we had cooked. So we got out the ole' friend food processor and she just couldn't do it. Tired and worn, she finally gave up. I heard her whisper... I want to, I just can't. So I turned her off and told d-i-l I will have to replace fp with a new one the next day, put the pumpkin in the frig, and moved on to another project.

Monday morning bright and early, I hit town running and checked out every store that would carry a food processor and came home with this beauty.

Isn't she a beauty!!!! 14 cup capacity, 500 watt motor, 3 speeds, 3 blades, big wide mouth, a timer and a 2 year warranty..... she has everything!!!!

So I sadly put the other one by the back door, ready to recycle and fired up that new beauty. She just purred through that pumpkin like nobody's business....

20 minutes later I had the puree project done.... 20 MINUTES!!! Can you believe it...

I think we are going to get along just fine!!!

I ditched the freezing 1/2 cups in muffin tins (see previous post) and tried d-i-l's suggestion, the way her mom did it. Use freezer bags and put 1 cup of puree in each bag. IT WAS ALOT FASTER!!


I ended up with 18 cups of puree, that's 18 pies! or 12 pies and 6 loaves of bread, or ....... you get the picture!!!