Broken toe???

Well, I have to tell you how clumsy I am! I ran out of gas a few days ago (I have an excuse--something is wrong with the gauge!). Momma picked me up and I put the gas in the van. I went back to her car to get my purse and my tea and when I stepping onto the pavement to get back in the van, somehow I ran into the pavement where it is raised. I FELL onto the pavement, which scared me to death because cars were flying by! After I realized I wasn't going to get hit by a car, I realized I fell right on my knees and elbows. But the worst part was my toe. I'm guessing it is fractured and now its all swollen and turning black around my toenail with a split in my nail about halfway down. Yes, I am clumsy...I got it from my Momma. ha! Anyway.....this is the chicken I baked from the recipe in my new "Prairie Girl Guide" book. I soaked it about 6 hours in salt water (1 c. salt per gallon of water). Then brushed it with butter, lots of pepper. I just made a stuffing from a box (like stovetop stuffing) and put some veggies I had on hand in the pan during the last hour of baking. (potatoes, onions, carrots, bell pepper) It was SO good! I had chicken salad for a few days which was even better. (shredded chicken, chopped seedless grapes, nuts--chopped apples would be good in it too). I'm sure I'll be using this recipe again & again.  I bought myself a fancy new Paula Deen roasting pan, so I'll have to make good use of it!

This is one of the new kitties hanging around. There are 2, both brown tabbies so I assumed they are brothers and named them Luke & Owen. This is Luke--he's really friendly now that he has decided I'm okay. Owen still isn't too sure about me. I have no idea where they came from--don't' know if they wandered down here from up the road where there are lots of cats or if someone dropped them off? One of my outside kitties, Cricket, had 3 kittens when she came here and I was never able to catch them. 2 were brown tabbies, but I really can't imagine they would be the same cats since Luke is so friendly but you never know! Wherever they came from, they look like they are planning to stay, so I guess they'll get to visit with Doc pretty soon.

 

 

Canning & Canning & Canning....

I guess today turned out pretty good! I got up early and got started on my tomato preserves, now they have to sit for 12-18 hours. Think those are really going to be good! Then I canned a bunch of crushed tomatoes and had a bowl of fresh tomato soup for lunch. Yum! In the past few weeks I've done a lot of canning, even though I didn't grow a  garden this year. Daddy has shared a lot with me, especially tomatoes! I've canned vegetable soup (my favorite in the winter), watermelon jelly, pickled watermelon rinds (better than they sound!), corn relish and some tomato and apple chutney. My watermelon jelly is more like syrup, so I'll be re-making it tomorrow when I work on the tomato preserves. I got a neat little book--The Prairie Girl's Guide to Life by Jennifer Worick. It has 50 projects and I thought it might be fun to just start at the beginning and do all the projects, or at least most of them. So first is brining an baking a turkey-since its just me and my husband, I baked a chicken. Its cooking now--will share pics and how good it turned out later on.

 Jackson is enjoying the tomatoes and other stuff out of the garden too. ha! Daddy brought me a big bag of tomatoes to the store and he loves to poke his little fingers in them and take bites out of them. I can't blame him-- you can't get much better than a fresh tomato!

Back out of Hiding...

Yep, I'm back! Its been a while--its easy for me to get side-tracked and forget to blog sometimes! I've been busy canning, working on graphics, new patterns, etc. Then I had to get sick in between and had to lie around for about a week. I guess it wasn't so bad--got a lot of reading done! I'll be filling you in on what I've done this week, but wanted to be SURE I got a kitty picture on here for you to enjoy! This is Frasier....some of you might remember that he came here a little over a year ago. He was a rescue from a shelter and we were all sure he was feral, but he has surprised us all and he's just a big baby. His new favorite sleeping spot is the empty birdbath next to my studio. I guess he likes it because he gets a belly rub every time I walk to and  from my studio! ;)