Post Sweet Post

The front porch project may not be finished, but if you ask me the most important part looks fabulous. Thanks to the Pres for an early Valentine present! It's going to make checking the mail all the sweeter.

Jelly Doughnuts!

 

The Pres is off today, persevering on our front porch project. 

It was the perfect day to get up and make jelly doughnuts.

I have no idea where I got this recipe 20 years ago. Now that I remember how delicious they are I'll make them more often. But it takes almost 3 hours and makes about 20 doughnuts at a time, so it's not something for every day unless you've got a bigger family than ours. You want to share these with some special people.

After their second rising, they get deep fried for about 2 minutes.

After draining them on paper towels they get rolled in sugar.

 It is tempting to eat them just like this. 

But don't skip the jelly step.

 Even if, like me, you make a botch of the jelly part. It would be nice to have a pastry bag or an injector to get the jelly in without making a mess, but who minds a little bit of jelly on the sides?

Even Fidget, the notorious jelly-hater, liked the one I gave her with raspberry preserves in it. But her favorite one had honey inside instead. 

 Jelly Doughnuts

with apologies to whoever developed this delicious recipe. If I knew your name I'd put it here.

makes 14-18 

1 pkg yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup warm water

1/3 cup room temperature butter

3 TB sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk, scalded

2 eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups flour (it took me 3 1/2 cups so don't be alarmed if it takes you that much too)

jelly- I used Polaner All Fruit Raspberry seedless, Market Pantry Blackberry Seedless jam and Smucker's Orchard's Finest Northewest Triple Berry Preserves

sugar

frying oil

In a large bowl combine yeast, 1 tsp sugar and water. Let stand  until foamy, 5-10 minutes. In a small bowl combine butter, 3 TB sugar, salt and milk; cool to room temperature. Stir milk mix into yeast mix. Add eggs and 1 3/4 cup flour; beat vigorously. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Turn dough out and knead 8-10 minutes. Clean and grease bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to grease all sides. Cover and let rise til double, about an hour. Place parchment paper on cookie sheets. Punch dough down, roll out to 1/2" thick. Cut dough with a floured 2 1/2" biscuit cutter. Place dough circles on the baking sheets. Cover and let rise til double, less than an hour this time. Fry risen circles of dough at 350 in a deep fryer approximately 2 minutes or until brown. Fry 5 at a time. Once drained onto paper towels, roll doughnuts in sugar. Then cut a deep slice in the doughnuts and fill with 2 tsp jelly. Enjoy!

For more inspiration visit the fabulous showcase of yeast breads and sweet goodies at Yeast Spotting's blog,  www.wildyeastblog.com

Shaker Pickles

We got some beautiful cucumbers at the farmers' market two Saturdays ago and made these bread and butter pickles. They sit out on the counter and are ready after a week. We had some of the most simple and delicious sandwiches imaginable last Sunday after church, with these pickles. The best part is that they are sliced much thinner than store-bought pickles. Thanks to Mumsy and sister in law Traci for sharing their recipe and wisdom.

Shaker Pickles

4 sliced onions
sliced cucumbers to fill a gallon jar
3 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups vinegar
1/3 cup salt
1 1/2 tsp powdered alum
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp mustard seed
1 1/2 tsp turmeric

Mix onions with cucumbers and place in gallon jar. Mix remaining ingredients well and pour over jar contents. Cover and shake vigorously. Shake once daily for 6 days, and they will be ready to eat on day 7. After they are ready you can put them in smaller jars and keep them in the refrigerator. You can also blanch carrots or cauliflower and add.

Summer Projects

I haven't been writing many letters lately and I miss it. 

The past few weeks, the Pres has been out of the country. That is prime time for writing letters. But I caught my sandal running up our brick front steps and fell, crushing my pinky, rendering my writing hand pretty useless. So my hand stayed wrapped most of the time and I sat around reading while Fidget was in a lovely camp called Latin Summer put on by these folks near Williamsburg.


In spite of the pile-up at my desk, we've had some encouraging progress around here. The Pres returned last week, was promoted on Fidget's 9th birthday, and then with Grandaddy's help he put up the porch ceiling boards. It was so lovely to have a week with the grand-folk. We got to do lots of celebrating. And then we put Grandaddy to work.
 

Those are the boards we've been sanding all summer and I was coating with 3 layers of polyurethane while the Pres was gone. Once we get a fresh coat of paint on everything else up front, I think the ceiling will really gleam. 

Because the porch has one stage complete we moved on to a sort of tree house for Fig. Yesterday we finished the platform and are going to think about what to do next.

Looks like Fig likes it already.

And...

Here are some shots from the Pres' trip. He even got to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef! Lucky duck.

What a blessing to have a week of family time before he has to go back to work. As usual, math work is waiting for Fig. 

I think it may always be waiting for her. But for now, surf's up!

Golden

Savoring these days. Fidget will soon be 9 and the Pres is always off on another trip. These are the golden moments.

Surf Days

I know I haven't made many posts lately but we're out in the yard and the shed, working on porch ceiling boards and swimming with Fidget. We've made such good progress that we've allowed ourselves some time off. What a blessing to live in a free country.  And God is so good to give us this time together as a family. These memories get us through the times apart. 

Surf's up!

Sweet Daddy-O

For Father's Day I made the Pres these divine cookies. Homemade Nutter Butters! What better way to tell him we're nuts about him?

 
When we were first married and had almost no money, it was a big deal when he would get Nutter Butters from the grocery. We just didn't have a lot of money for extras like chips or cookies. God has blessed us so much in the following years. Not just monetarily, but with a relationship growing closer to Him and each other. 

Now that we have a bit more, we could buy cookies but don't, as I like to bake and generally keep sweet things coming out of the oven. I think it was worth it to try these, even though they are softer, the filling sweeter, than the packaged kind. They're better than the package, but as the Pres pointed out, they're sweet enough you can't just sit down and eat 30 in one sitting like you could with the package...Not that we would. :) Here's the recipe for Homemade Nutter Butters, thanks to Cookies and Cups blog. 

Notice I forgot to take photos once they were baked and made into sandwiches with the sweet confectioners sugar and peanut butter icing. We were too busy eating!

Appetizers in Abundance

We're already one week past our family's 3rd Annual Appetizer Weekend. What fun we had! That week I'd spent a lot of time in the kitchen making brownies ( here's the recipe from the Hershey's website), blondies and breads. Several friends earned their black belts in karate so I made them goodies to celebrate.

One of the moms gave me a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Even after a week these were still so pretty and cheerful in the dining room. I wish I'd gotten a picture with all the roses in it when they first arrived. 

On to appetizer weekend!It was our annual family party and I had such a good time planning for it. Here's what I made:  Friday night we had Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps, Rotel cheese dip and chips, mini crab cakes and broccoli and cauliflower in dip. 
Saturday breakfast was French toast dipping sticks and syrup and strawberries.
At lunch I made Asiago cheese dip and glazed chicken wings, and Fidget's friend Sky came to sample the goodies.

Sunday at lunch we had a few spring rolls and steamed dumplings. Sunday night we had potato skins, more spring rolls and everything else that was left over. Somewhere in there I also made bacon crescents for the first time, which were a bit hit. They were tiny fiddly things made out of refrigerated crescent rolls smeared with a creamy spread made with fresh-cooked bacon. Somehow I never found time for the avacado-stuffed cherry tomatoes, spinach-parmesan dip, or the sweet fruity dip I was going to make. But the list gets more ambitious every year.

It is such a joy to plan this special weekend celebrating my family every year. God is good to us to give us loving family relationships. No matter what our struggles or differences we can celebrate the family God gave us.

Mother's Day

There's nothing like your own kid for making you feel special. I wrestled with myself long and hard before saying I'd start up at Fidget's karate dojo. And half the time I still feel like a geek out on the mat. But it looks like she doesn't see that at all. I like that  in the card she's made me look slightly malicious, as if I could really put the hurtin' to a bad guy. Maybe I could by now! After all I've been in karate for about 6 months now. But karate kickin' mama or no, it looks like Fidget loves me anyway. I think getting her perspective of me now and then is refreshing. How much better if I saw myself as Jesus sees me, every day. 

I am so blessed to be my little kid's mama, but I was blessed way before that: Jesus saved me from countless hurtful things and dangerous situations when I was young, just so He could bring me to a saving faith. Then He gave me a husband and a whole new life. Being a mom is just the icing on the cake. But the icing is oh so good!

Thanks, Lord Jesus, for making me a new creation, set apart to be conformed to your likeness, no matter how long it takes.

Joy

A happy day in the kitchen baking bread, as well as in studio using watercolors while Fidget did too and the Pres piddled with his Harley. I made some sketches, painted a post card, and one little canvas board for the church art auction. I am using scenes from all the postcards my pen pals have sent me in the past 6 months. Painting= joy!

Blessings

Birthday blessings to the Pres this week, and some current projects, which I hope will bless their recipients. This is the day the Lord has made. Enjoy!

Veterans' Day

It was a glorious weekend for us. The Pres got home from his trip and had four days off. Especially after receiving him home safely it was a sobering time to observe Veterans' Day, knowing there are multitudes of faithful Americans who have given their lives for our freedom.

 We went to the aquarium twice this weekend. The first time we saw the ocean life building. The second time we got to see the new exhibit about the giant extinct shark Megalodon as well as the Marsh Pavilion.

The weather was gorgeous and warm for November. Along the nature walk we took advantage of the several boardwalks along Owls Creek, and an observation tower.

Fig didn't stick around long enough to see much through these viewers but the Pres spotted a kingfisher as it swooped down on a fish and brought it back to a tree to eat it.

I had felt troubled this week but still at peace. It was so good for the soul to get out into God's creation and feel Him near, and know He is faithful, no matter what is going on in politics. Our land is beautiful, we are blessed, and there is still hope for the people of God. 
 

 

It was a triumph to remain at peace in the past week, after struggling a couple of years with anxiety. Lately I have been comforted by Bible reading, God's closeness in prayer, and the counsel of good friends.

 
If there's one thing we know, it's that the enemy wants to rob us of our joy. But it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. And we know the end of the story: Jesus wins.

So we enjoyed our freedom, taking in the sunshine, watching a red tail hawk devouring a squirrel;

following the juvenile otter all around his tank;

and a screech owl hidden in a bush in the outdoor aviary was fascinating to watch.

Here was a quiet tank with a few little fish and hermit crabs. It was meditative to watch them go about their watery day.

We love the harbor seals. You can lose yourself in just enjoying these animals frolic. Fig chased them up and down the tank.

Living free, enjoying simple pleasures with family, I feel more than ever how short our time here on earth is and how precious these times are. I never want to take them for granted. God is good.