Home's Cool!

Blessings of Habit, Good ol' days, Homemaking, Inspiring, Recipes, Who's the mom here?, Womanhood

You CAN Can – Six Tricks More!

Posted on July 20, 2011July 21, 2011 by Katharine

To continue the tricky list from yesterday’s post:

7. To rinse the spines off cucumbers without cutting your hands, use a washcloth, which protects you and is faster and gets them cleaner.

8. In an emergency, apples, bell peppers, and tomatoes may be frozen whole and raw (untreated). They must be perfectly spotless, unwashed, and in an airtight bag or container. They must be used within six months and they should be used for cooking only. Thaw tomatoes one at a time under running water for a few seconds. Skin should slip off easily, then core and pop it into your chili or whatever. For apples, thaw slightly at room temperature, peel or not, slice off of the core for pies, sauce, etc. Open, clean and chop bell peppers, frozen, or stuff and bake.

9. If you have plums galore, try freezing them whole and unwashed. Teach your children to love “plum-sicles” (and to wash them before they eat them.)

10. If you end up with more fruit juice than you have sugar or time, boil it, cool it, and freeze it in clean milk jugs, ¾ full. The jugs should have securely fitting lids. I made jelly with juice that had been frozen for a couple years and it was absolutely as wonderful as fresh. Allow about 24 hours for a gallon jug to thaw at room temperature.

11. To tell if apples and pears are ripe, cut one open. If the seeds are white, it is too early. If they are black, the fruit is ready.

12. The eensy fruits off your flowering crab apple tree make wonderful apple jelly and incredible, rosy, tart applesauce. I love it to serve with meat instead of cranberry sauce.

Tomorrow: Gardening, Canning, and Children!

Blessings of Habit, Homemaking, Inspiring, Recipes, Womanhood

You CAN Can – Six Tricks!

Posted on July 19, 2011July 19, 2011 by Katharine

Six Tricks

In case you face canning–or freezing or drying–with more dread than cheer, here are some tips that will brighten your day and lighten your load:

1. Greens can be washed in the washing machine. Do not overload it, use the gentle cycle, cold water, NO SOAP. They will tear a little, but we’re going to cook and chew them, right? you needn’t spin them; they float. And the sand sinks. Yea!
2. To keep fruit from darkening, try using a Vitamin C tablet crushed into the holding water instead of expensive fruit preserving preparations from the store. One 500 mg tablet is enough for one gallon of water. It keeps pears, apples, peaches, etc., just as pale and fresh as the moment they were first sliced. For hours.
3. When cutting the core from quartered fruit, start at the bottom end of the slice (blossom end) and cut toward the top. You will have significantly fewer broken quarters.
4. To separate halves of drupes (plums, peaches, etc.) slice to the pit along the naturally occurring crease all the way around the fruit. Then twist the two halves in opposite directions. Voila!
5. Chop fruit for jam in the blender. Briefly. It is so much faster.
6. For quicker sun-drying, place fruit between two framed screens and set on top of the luggage rack of your car, parked in the hot, hot sun.

Tomorrow: Six MORE Tricks!

Blessings of Habit, Good ol' days, Health, Homemaking, Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Womanhood

You CAN Can!

Posted on July 18, 2011April 8, 2016 by Katharine

Rotel, carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, beets, tomato soup, pickles, and green beans — Rotel, carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, beets, tomato soup, pickles, green beans, and more pickles.

I remember canning.

Mama had jars, lids, rings, spoons and pans all over her huge kitchen. She let me hand her the “rings” (screw bands) which I wore like bracelets up and down my then skinny arms. The temperature in there had to be at least 100 degrees, but I do not remember that. I remember her praise when I managed to stay focused on my job and hand her the ring on time. I felt so grown up.

I also remember disappointments, especially the cherry jelly that turned out like taffy. MY we loved that. I remember our neighbor, Eula, tanned and in flip-flops, who made her own catsup. And dear old Mrs. Secrest, who always gave me hand-pumped cold drinks from the well inside her dark, quiet house.

For some reason I’ve kept those memories fondly. I’ve tried to resurrect them in my own adult life. I do canning. I make jelly and catsup. We have a well. I want this for my children’s heritage. I wonder why.

It’s not just that the food is better. It’s not only that it is more healthful. And it is not simply that I grew up with it.

It is the soil–the harvest–the glorious, breath-taking heat–the oceans of perspiration replenished by oceans of teas and juices. It’s working together, sharing . . .

Oh! I know what it is! It is the fellowship with those who have gone before and those who are to come, stepping into my place in a long, long line of real people living a real life, marching to the rhythm of summer.

So all my children and I would march down to the garden to harvest God’s blessing for each day.

I hope you will join us. Then together we will all put back something for those special winter days when only that which is straight from the garden will do.

Tomorrow: Six Tricks to Get You out of the Canning Kitchen Faster!

Good ol' days, Home School, Inspiring, Scripture, Wisdom

What Are We Doing?

Posted on July 18, 2011July 18, 2011 by Katharine

Enjoy this, the first published article I ever wrote, over sixteen years ago, for An Encouraging Word magazine, published out of Oklahoma. I got $20 for it, back then!

It is taken from Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 7, and John 12.

Once there was a woman who loved Jesus so much, that she did something so radical, that she incurred such unreasonable wrath from those around her, that the Lord Jesus was pleased to publicly defend her.

What she did was not illegal. She had not stolen anything, nor lied, nor killed anyone in the process of her actions. So why was she censored?

I believe it was because what she did was something that should only be done to God. It was an act of unadulterated adoration, totally unfitting to be performed for a mere human, however good that person might be.

This is what she did: She took something of hers that was worth around $50,000.00 and destroyed it at this man’s feet, all the while crying and kissing him. (He was not her husband.) She did this in public. In fact, it was before a large gathering of his friends and acquaintances.

“But He was God,” you say.

“He IS God,” you add.

True; how easy for us to have such excellent hindsight! But this woman had the gift of faith, Scripture tells us, to know Jesus as Messiah (before that telling moment of resurrection) and the crowd around her did not. Her actions were proper,but her critics simply were unable to agree.

In fact, her critics were embarrassed to the point of making up some fumbling arguments about the poor people in some poor place somewhere. Dollar amounts were rumored around. People were generally appalled.

Do you wonder how this relates to us?

I propose that most home educating parents are doing the same thing. Those of us who realize our children are the most precious things we have, are investing their entire lives at the feet of Jesus.

It is not illegal, but it has caused quite an embarrassed public stir. We hear all the traditional fumbling arguments about cost, socializing, college, etc. They say our children have been wasted and they cannot understand why. We have incurred wrath; we have critics who would love to censor us.

But you are right. He IS God.

By faith, somehow, we are able to know that our actions are proper. The telling moment of high ACT scores is upon us.

Rejoice with great joy! He is pleased to defend us!

Inspiring, Sayings, Scripture, Wisdom

Sunday Scriptures — Hot

Posted on July 17, 2011July 16, 2011 by Katharine

“But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.” –Job 6:15-17

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” –Revelation 3:15-16