making salsa

I started with all my bell peppers I grew in the garden. And I added hot peppers also from the garden.

Tomatoes from the garden, and look what you get! Oh I love salsa! And I even added salt. Larry will be happy. But I am bummed out as I thought the yellow and purple peppers would keep their color and it would give my salsa a neat coloring. Nope they all cook to green.

My helper all afternoon. As it has been an all day affair here. I forgot to take Stephen to his volenteer work tonight. I swear my mind is gone. But with a helper like Mini you know the salsa is good!

Making Salsa

We made up a batch of salsa the other day. Dennis says it is my best batch yet. The neighbors seem to agree. I thought it was good but I could not say if it was best or not.

But considering we had been out since Christmas. It is nice to have fresh canned salsa back in the house.

More chocolate for school

So the school had their bake sale. I got volunteered to make stuff. God I love my kids! And since I was making treats for school. I made them up for Dennis and the boys at work to. Yea I am that nice sometimes.

When asked what color he wanted for the tops he picked blue. So the work ones were blue. I ran out of blue while making the school ones so some of those ended up being purple. It all worked out just fine.

And the school ones missed out on the sprinkles because really. Way too much work and way to big of a mess to sprinkle that on after each one I dipped. Now if I had a helper, well then that would be a new story but I had no one who volunteered to help me make any of these. And the kids were in bed. So after one tray of sprinkles the sprinkles went to the shelf far out of sight so no one asked again!

the lollipops came out just cute as all get out!

Here were the trays of mini cupcakes waiting for me to dip. Some had to wait till the next morning I got tired.

I made 9 dozen just that night and the next morning. Add to that the 7 dozen from the week before and it got to be a lot of work and mess and chocolate!

Dennis took 2 dozen lollipops to work the next morning and 2 dozen mini cupcakes. the boys are happy now. Though I may just make cookies this week ad send some in. It is always good to keep the boys happy and well fed. They seem to work much nicer then! or play nice anyway!

More favorites

Carrots yea who knew? We have gone through 10 pounds this week. And I just bought 10 more pounds. As long as I keep a bowl out we eat a ton of them!

Blueberry pancakes were on the menu this week. Sunday and Monday I made batch after batch and froze them individually and now they are in the freezer for kids who are hungry in the morning. They just warm them up and eat. Or in the case of the younger 2 they pull them out frozen and eat away.

A new favorite

A new favorite of the kids is a salad! yea go figure! We have been making my big stainless steel bowl up 2-3 times a week! The kids take it for cold lunches to school. And eat it for snack! I just cut up romaine lettuce, spring onions, green bell pepper, carrots, and cucumbers. Toss it together and there you have it. And the kids put a fat free Italian dressing on it! The only one who hates it is Mini but really does that surprise you? And Matthew wishes the onions would go away. He says they are way to spicy but other then that the bowl disappears all the time.

Makes a Mom proud if she thought it was something she did to get them to like it but not so much.; I love this salad to but I just got lucky to find something the kids will go for anytime of day.

Cub Scout Cake Auction

so yes it was that time of year again. And of course I thought I would make some great thing for Stephen to bring for cake auction to be judged and then sold. I saw these cake balls and cake lollipops on Pioneer Woman's site and loved the thought of them. I mean really how neat are they and they can be used for so many different designs!



Yea so I did not really think how much work these little things would be! I mean to make a few dozen lollipops and 4 dozen mini cupcakes took one whole night and 1 whole day. And then it was time to decorate for the nights auction!

But it came out great and Stephen in his last year of cake auction took most beautiful and grand champion at the cake auction. He has 2 ribbons for this one. The other cake I made was the mini muffins dipped in chocolate. But I just set them on a platter and served it up. I just ran out of time.

But these things are very good. And I love to eat them so I am glad to get them out of my house. Everyone who has tried them have liked them. But I am glad cake auctions are behind us for a full year. really close to 2 years before Matthew comes up to cub scouts.

Homemade carmels

I made these on the 30th and the 31st. They came out great! I have a few blisters on my hand form it splattering me but they came out great. Dennis took some to work and I left some for Mom and Dad and I gave some to Lisa and Allen. I sent some to friends and I plan on sending some to Joseph in a box to. I also sent a whole sheet of them to Tia. Since she helped make the first batch with me.

We have plenty left here at home but I have to get them out of my house since I am eating way to many of them for my own good!

Lunch with family

Sunday I made tacos and burritos and had Mom and Dad over and Lisa and Allen and the kids and Ernie got in. We had a great lunch and we sat and chatted after lunch. Dad even liked the tacos. He made a salad. With lots of topping choices it made for good eating here. And we had lots of people to sit around the table. Just the way I like it!

Baking for Christmas

My sister Lisa flew in from Michigan last Monday and since the road were so bad she stayed with me till Thur morning. So we baked here instead of at mom's house. We baked 7 flavors of rock candy, we baked 3 batches of angel candy and we made 4 batches of peanut brittle that came out. And of the 7 flovors of rock candy they were 11 batches we did. So to say we were busy with that was an understatement. The next day we made choc dipped long pretzels and choc dipped reg pretzels and we dipped the angel candy. And then Thur morning we headed to watkins. The kids did really good the time and played nice. Mini played with her ltitle animals and couted to us. She also got in on the sampling of things. She loved that part!

Peppermint Coffee

So Christmas to me is peppermint coffee that they only have out once a year. This year we seen it once did not buy it and it was out the next day and we have yet to see it again. Till last night after we got the new toilet we stopped by Walmart to see if was in yet and it was! Oh yea it was a sweet sweet moment for me and I own me peppermint coffee now. And I drank a pot of it last night while we watched TV and rocked a little girl who had a tummy ache form all the food she ate. She has also picked up a cold so that is not helping. She has been asleep for 3 hours now and shows no signs of waking. I sure hope this helps make her feel better!

But this coffee is so worth the wait as I drink it I can taste candycanes and Christmas. Maybe I will get in the mood for Christmas now that birthday parties are over and Christmas is around the corner. Now to get our tree up!

Oh the tears!

Making salsa makes the kids cry! Yes the peppers were that strong the other day and just having snack in the same area made the kids cry and theirs eyes hurt! Yikes!

Making Salsa

Yea the salsa has gone away so we made more the other day. 18 pints to be exact. And we are going to watkins to get more tomatoes to make some more this week. Yea keep busy will be my goal. I have lots of things to do and I plan to get a lot of them done.

Thursday a busy day here

thur I sewed and I hung out with Lisa all day. She came in the morning and brought us pizza for lunch and then we sewed and then we made 2 apple pies to go to the cabin with me. Yes grandpa was in heaven when we got there!

The kids got to play and then we took her oldest son with us to the cabin. And she got to be 1 kid short for a few days. Though I guess the other boys really missed him. Till he got home that was! LOL

But oh the pies got rave reviews at the cabin and both were gone when I left Sat evening.

Salsa Recipe

Zesty Salsa for Canning

I found this off line by doing a search in google. So it is not my recipe. I did leave the seeds in the hot peppers and if you want it mild I would had only 2/3 the hot peppers. It said it made 6 pints per batch. I got 15 pints per batch.


Ingredients
10 cups roughly chopped tomatoes
5 cups chopped and seeded bell peppers
5 cups chopped onions
2 1/2 cups hot peppers, chopped, seeded
1 1/4 cups cider vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons cilantro, minced
3 teaspoons salt
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
Directions
1 Combine all ingredients except tomato paste in large sauce pot.
2 Simmer until desired thickness.
3 Stir in tomato paste.
4 Ladle hot salsa into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head-space.
5 Process 15 minutes in a hot water bath.
6 Note: use more hot peppers for a very hot salsa or less for mild.