Lemon and Cumquats

 

This is my lovely lone lemon.

I was given this lemon tree a couple years ago. Last winter it bloomed. 

Since it was in the house for the winter, I used a soft paint brush to pollenate the blooms.

Three small lemons set on but this one made it through the full year to maturity.

My son asked me what I was going to do with my lemon. Good question.  What can you do with a lone lemon?  Use it all. 😉

And I am.

I squeezed the juice and got 50 ml, I sliced the exterior, and I smashed the remaining interior. I will dry the peel and the interior parts to be added to a dry herbal mix for a lovely lemon mint tea.

The juice will be used to make lemon curd.

Lemon Curd

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1-1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter

Whisk lemon juice, sugar, and eggs in a saucepan

add butter and cook over medium-low heat whisking continuously until mixture reaches 170 degrees.  Remove from heat and pour curd into a pint jar and refrigerate.

This will thicken a bit more as it cools.

This is such a lovely treat.

Lemon Curd is a fresh sweet addition to scones, toast, pound cake, etc.

If you have bottled lemon juice and would like to can some Lemon Curd for the pantry HERE is the recipe.

Printable PDF for Lemon Curd HERE

Below is the last of the cumquats to be harvested.  I love having some warm weather plants that produce a small harvest that our climate just doesn't allow.  I have the lemon and cumquat trees that go out in the summer to enjoy our beautiful summer climate and then in the fall when the temperatures start to drop too low for their tender sets, I bring them in to the family room to enjoy the warmth of our house.  This sweet little tree produced 20 or so fruits.  And we have all just eaten and enjoyed them as they have ripened.  The cumquat has very sweet peel and very tart interior.  They are natures true Sweet Tarts.  So yummy and the grands have all enjoyed them.  Only four left but what fun it has been to watch them mature and then to enjoy the harvest.

~a little bird

Prayer

 

prayer

  NOUN

1. a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God.

Do you pray?

I do. 

There are times when prayer is all you can do. There are things happening in our world that we have no control over.  And sometimes we can feel frightened or overwhelmed.  The Holy Bible tells us:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6 NIV

I think that is our answer right now. We cannot control what's going on but we can share our concerns with a holy God, the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. He hears us when we talk to Him and He cares .

 

Garden Planning Time

 

It's that time of year if you have a garden in the north.  

Graden planning time - the time when you sit down with a cup of hot tea and peruse the seed catalogs.  Get out the seed you saved from last year's garden and make a plan for this year.

We have a small garden patch now.  Years ago, when the boys lived at home, we had a MUCH bigger garden.

These pictures are from an older canning book.  The newer books don't have these charts anymore. 

I don't think people garden as much as they did in the past.  But it seems that home gardening is coming back in favor. So, if you are interested, these may be fun to look at. 

 

We don't grow all our own food.  Our little garden patch supplements our purchases.  It is nice to know how the food was grown and processed. 

And home grown always tastes the very best.

DH has no plans to increase the garden size.

After the boys moved away DH decreased the garden, planted grass, and put up a fence.

He was serious about a smaller patch. 😀

As I plan the garden DH reminds me not to over plan.  I always want to plant more than we actually have room for.  I have even tried to get him to give up some of the flower beds for my vegetables. 

It worked for my pea plant area - maybe it will work again. 😉

I remember my grandmothers working in their gardens.  On hot summer afternoons sitting in the shade, snapping beans or shelling peas. Going out and returning with an apron full of tomatoes, peppers, an onion, chopping it all up for the pot, adding some sugar, spices, and vinegar for a homemade catsup.  It was the very best I've ever had.

This is the closest recipe I've ever found to Grandma's homemade chili sauce.

I don't add the horseradish - Grandma never did.

They made a true impression on me.  I loved watching them as they put together wonderful food for their families.

It was a way of life for them.

Great Information for your Home Apothecary

 

Jump to 30 seconds to skip the intro.

Jump to 30 seconds to skip the intro.

Personally, I would not take comfrey internally.  According to my herb book.

"While traditionally comfrey was also prescribed for internal use, these days such practice is strongly discouraged because comfrey contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids that have been shown to have toxic effects. "

Family Dinner

(Photos public domain)

 I love it when we all get together for family dinner night.  Our D-i-L's have February birthdays.  We had a family dinner night to honor their birthdays.  Getting together as a family is one of my favorite things.  

I love the time spent catching up, laughing, playing games, spending time with the grandchildren, and so on.  Towards the end of the evening, I normally will put a movie on for the kids.  They all gather in the living room, me too, and it's a way to bring the busy down to a calmer pace.  By the time the movie is coming to a close their parents are starting to talk about heading home.  

I am always on the lookout for clean, cute, family movies.  Last night it was Matilda. I also purchased The Wizard of Oz, but we have some young ones that I think it would be a bit scary for yet. (Five and six are still a bit young for those flying monkeys!)

Our dinner was simple home cooked fare.  

Farm cooking is my husband's favorite. His Mom is a great farm cook.  So, meat and potatoes are always a big hit with him.

Since fresh is hard to come by right now in our area, our relish tray was home canned or fermented foods.

Dilly beans, pickled onions, pickled beets, sauerkraut, cheese and crackers, etc.

Dessert was Gluten Free Bread Pudding with Lemon Sauce and Coconut Macaroons.

One of our D-i-L's is unable to have gluten, so these desserts worked out great.

I used the normal bread pudding recipe but used gluten free bread.

The lemon sauce I thickened with arrowroot powder.

Lemon Sauce

1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch

Mix all together, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

This is a tart and fresh flavored sauce.

Drizzle a little over your warm pudding and enjoy!

And the Coconut Macaroons are gluten free as well.

2 egg whites, dash salt, 1/2 t. vanilla beaten to soft peaks

slowly add 2/3 cup sugar and beat to stiff peaks

fold in 1-1/3 cups flaked coconut

Drop by the teaspoon onto your parchment lined baking sheet

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

It was a yummy dinner, and the family time was delicious!

~a little bird

Strawberry Jam

 My DH loves strawberry jam.  He chooses that before any other and although he will eat other jam on occasion.... his preference is strawberry.  We ran out of strawberry jam.  😐

When I went shopping at Costco, they didn't have Strawberry Jam either.  They had a spread that he has tried before and wasn't all that enamored with.  So today I pulled some frozen strawberries out to make some more jam.  It worked out well.

2 quarts frozen strawberries (I thawed them and blitzed in the food processor)

lemon juice - I used 1/8 to 1/4 cup

7 cups sugar (yes, that's a lot of sugar, but this is jam!)

I brought it all to a boil and cooked until it had jelled.

This yielded 4 pints of jam. 

This is warm jam on a whole wheat roll.  Pretty yummy! 

One jar went to the refrigerator for immediate use and the other three I water bathed (10 minutes for our altitude) for the future.  

~a little bird

Shortages and Empty Shelves...

 

(Above photo public domain)

Have you noticed any empty shelves at the grocery store?

My local store had one bag of dry cat food. (Which I didn't purchase in case someone else needed it.)  They did have dog food but one bag of dry cat food.

The produce section was VERY limited.  And to be honest the little that they had was priced high and didn't look fresh at all.  I bought some lettuce and made a salad.  It wasn't good at all.  I bagged it up to send home with d-i-l for the chickens.

There were other areas in the store that seemed 'normal'.  There was plenty of laundry soap and dish soap.

Yesterday I went to Costco to pick-up a few items.  The prices were up a bit, but not terrible.  They did have dry cat food though - which Louie will appreciate.

There were two areas that really stood out at Costco. One was there was no fresh chicken.  They did have canned, but no fresh.  The entire case where the fresh chicken usually is was filled with bacon.  I wish I had gotten a picture. It was such a weird sight.  The other noticeable area was the produce.  They too, had a much smaller stock of produce than I'm used to seeing there.  Items were placed further apart with more walking space to give the appearance of normal, but if you are used to shopping there you could see the changes.

I don't remember ever seeing shortages before in my lifetime.  I have to admit it is a little disconcerting.  

Are you seeing shortages in your areas?  Wishing you well.  ~a little bird

Quiet Weekend

 We are having a quiet, stay-at-home weekend.  A bit of house cleaning yesterday; the normal Saturday stuff.  

Yesterday for dinner DH asked for pancakes.  He wanted to try Cowboy Pancakes.  I am not normally a pancake person, but I really liked these.  I served them with fried ham and eggs.

Today DH wanted chili because it's just cold here! I like cornbread with chili.  So that was our lunch (both chili and cornbread are great pantry meals).

I watched a really cute movie.  I.Q. it is currently free on YouTube (with ads).   It is rated PG.

My chili recipe:

2 onions chopped

garlic

1 pound hamburger 

green pepper

celery

2 quarts stewed tomatoes

1 quart pinto beans

chili powder

salt

I fry my onions in olive oil, add the garlic when the onions are translucent, add the hamburger and brown that, add the green pepper and celery (I use fresh or dehydrated).

Add the tomatoes and pinto beans and let it all simmer for 30 minutes or so.

Then I add the chili powder and salt to taste.  Then let it simmer a bit longer.

Cornbread recipe:

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

2 to 4 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

I whisk my dry ingredients together and then add the wet.  Give it a good stir and pour into a greased 9x9 pan.  Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

~a little bird

Good News

 Have you grown tired of all the bad news lately??  There certainly seems to be more than enough.

Well, I'd like to share some Good News with you.

I realize this is a cartoon but it's still the truth.  I hope it blesses your day.

~a little bird

English Standard Version
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 

English Standard Version
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23

English Standard Version
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. John 14:6

Limes

 I really like limes!  When I saw Homesteading Family's post on fermenting limes, I wanted to give it a try.

DH wanted salad today, so I needed to go to the grocery store. 

 As long as I was there, I picked up limes.

I gave them a good scrub and placed them in a clean 2-quart jar. There are eight limes in the jar.

Then I made a brine of 2 tablespoons plain salt to one quart of water.

Above you can see my fermenting puck holding everything under the brine.

And here it is on the counter to ferment.  I have it covered to keep dust out, but the cloth allows gases to escape.

The main goal is to keep the food product under the brine.

I'll let you know how these turn out.

~a little bird