Betty doesn' like this one bit. "Let me in, can't you see there is some of this white stuff gettin in my hair, and my feet are cold!"

What a differnt kind of day! Whats with all this white stuff?

It hasn't even melted from the top of the greenhouse. Maybe that is a good thing. Those double walled glass panels are doing their job, I guess. It is 55 degrees inside and feels nice.

And this is what kind of day we had on Christmas Day at Lois' house. Sunny, blue sky, 45 degrees, lots of good company and good food.

We thought we would give our egg customers and a couple of special neighbors, a small treat this year. So today I made 6 pans of cinnamon rolls. When we take them their eggs tomorrow they can have fresh cinnamon rolls with their coffee! We usually go to town to deliver their eggs about 9:30 in the morning so maybe it will be time for a late breakfast and a second cup of coffee? Who doesn't like cinnamon rolls?

Green and Growing!

We finally got all the piping and all that conglomeration figured out. Turned on the water and had a couple of big water leaks, so had to turn it off and wait until we could get some new connections.

Looks like a jumble of pipes to me! Glad I didn't have to make sense of all those hoses by myself!

We eventually got all the bugs worked out with only a tiny little leak, (that we will fix). Ed had to replace the thermostat as it wouldn't work properly. Then we turned the water back on, set the thermostat, and went into the house. I had put the digital thermometer unit in there so I could moniter the temperature from inside the house. As you can see, it was 52 degrees inside the greenhouse and it was 16 degrees outside! It only varied about 3 degrees.

After a couple of days to make sure the temperature was stable, where ever I set it, on Monday, I put most of my house plants in the greenhouse. They were really suffering, in the house. Way too dark to grow nice houseplants. Today is Wednesday and I can already see a difference in them! They have more color in their leaves and are just perkier! Still have to add shelves to the right side of it, above the radiator and heating unit. Love it, love it!

Last night I woke up during the night, with Cinnamon Rolls on my mind! I wondered if that same Pan Roll recipe would work for these. After I came in from the morning feeding I mixed these up, using the mixer again. I substituted some White Whole Wheat flour for part of the white and rolled it out, spread it with softer butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. Rolled it into a log, sliced it, put it into the pan, let it raise for 30 minutes and we had hot Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast! How is that for making a dream come true? Crazy isn't it?

Things to Do On a Rainy Day

Rain, rain, rain! It rained all day yesterday, all last night and  all day today! Mud is the name of the game! So what to do on such an icky day? Make soup! I made a big pot of Hamburger Vegetable Soup, and fresh homemade rolls to go with it!

I used a recipe called Buttermilk Pan Rolls that was in my Best of Country Cooking 2003 cookbook. Since the recipe said they can be made very quickly, I thought I would give them a try for supper. They only have one rise, for 30 minutes and they were very easy to make and quick too! I would highly recommend these tasty, tender rolls. As you can see, I used my Kitchenaid Mixer, but they were hand mixed in the recipe. One other thing I did was use instant yeast instead of the Active Dry that the recipe called for, because I wanted to dump everything in at once and not have to use another bowl to soften yeast!

Rising and almost ready to bake!

These were absolutely delicious! And they went perfectly with the hot soup! By the way, I made these yesterday and this morning I made something even more tasty! And it paired perfectly with a good cup of hot coffee!

Hot dogs and homemade potato salad! These were the new 'dogs' with no preservatives in them. They don't make me thirsty like the others always did.

So, how do you like your hotdogs? I had a hankering for a hot dog, with pickled onions and the whole works! But I didn't have any hotdog buns, so I made some! These were tasty, too. They were even good three days later. And do you know what made them so easy? They were made in the bread machine! These I will be making again!

Shattered!

I walked out onto the porch a couple of days ago and as I stepped off of the front step, I looked toward the greenhouse and noticed that something didn't appear 'right'. With closer inspection, this is what I saw. And it nearly made me feel ill! The top left  pane of glass was shattered into 27 million pieces! Oh, NO!

We had been having high winds, up to 35 and 45 MPH wind gusts. After seeing this, I wondered what had happened. Then I saw it, that nasty thing! A three foot long dead branch, about one inch thick, laying on the ground near the back of the greenhouse. It wasn't there earlier, when I had walked by to check the temperature inside.(It was 110 degrees, even though it was only about 48 degrees outside)! Hopefully, all the dead stuff has already fallen out of the surrounding trees, with all the strong winds we have had lately.

This is only the top pane of a double paned door panel, but we will have to replace it. We haven't figured out a way to keep it from happening a second time. This area is the only place we have to put it, near enough to the stove to heat the greenhouse, and still get some sunshine for the plants. We need to come up with something to let in the sunshine, but to still protect the glass. It will take some more thought, I guess. Yes, we will replace it, and try again.

And A Good Time Was Had By All

Saturday morning the sunrise was very pretty, mostly blues, orange and pink. I thought the view was extra special.

                  The silhouettes of the dark trees, reflected on the water was spectacular. I think someone said it was 34 degrees outside.

I soon went inside and found breakfast well underway. A good cup of coffee tasted so good!

Bacon, eggs, home made bread toasted, Rachel's tasty Blueberry and Cranberry cones, shoo-fly pie, fresh grapes and coffee.

It was a very busy kitchen!

Sharon, Mom, and Rachel, enjoying the unusually warm November afternoon.

It was a VERY big 'fish tale'!

Sisters, good friends, Rachel and Ruth.

Granny and grand daughter, Sarah Beth.

The day was made for long walks down country lanes.

Later it was time to mess up the kitchen again, for supper. Sarah is preparing to bake chicken for supper. With mashed potatoes, gravy and frozen corn from Lois and Kenny's garden. Also had persimmon pudding for dessert. It was the first time I have ever eaten any that I liked! It was so good I had three pieces!

The cabin, taken from the boat, while out on the lake.

Dad catching up on his reading, while enjoying the heat from the little stove.

Granny enjoying a magazine while guarding the persimmon pudding!

Yummo, s'mores! Sticky, sweet, gooey but sooo good!

Timmy and the catfish that he caught while we were eating those s'mores!

The cabin, in the dark, photo taken from the dock.

Sitting around the campfire, talking and enjoying the evening. OH, and the s'mores! I think everyone had a good time, and I know I enjoyed having everyone to reconnect with. Would love to do it again.

This is what kept me busy today. Golden Crunchy Pickled Onion Rings. I made 12 pints so there will be some to share. Recipe says they are good as soon as you make them, but if you can wait for 2 weeks for them to mellow, they are 'sublime'! Don't know if I can wait that long, as I haven't tasted them yet. Just licked the spoon that I stirred them with, when it was all finished. Tasted yummy!

This is our first transplant into the new greenhouse! It was about 56 degrees and quite windy outside but was 80 and toasty inside. Gypsy loved it and stayed inside for a long time, watching us.

Ditch dug and hot water pipes installed!

Getting it all hooked up!

 Woo hoo! Slowly but surely, it is coming along! I can hardly wait!

We finally got the tin roof on, and yesterday we put all the hay equipment under the roof. Sure makes ya feel good to know it is all under cover for the winter. Now, let it snow! (No, not really, don't care if I ever see snow again)!

                                                Kisses!

Secrets!     

Hot and Spicy Jalepeno Jam

                                                Sam

I Have a Greenhouse!

I was given this greenhouse by my father-in-law several months ago, maybe a year ago. He built it and used it for a year or so, starting seeds, growing onions and radishes, and a few other things. He asked me if wanted it and of course I told him yes! Ed and I went up and hauled it home, in pieces of course. I really never expected it to get put back together, as it was a jumble of this and that! Almost every time E talked to his dad, he would ask if it was set up yet. Finally, E told him he would set it up if he his dad would come and help. Last Sunday, this is what they did, in the rain too! It rained the entire time they worked on it, then of course it quit raining and the sun came out just when they were done! It is 5 ft. 8 inches wide and 8 ft. 6 inches long. It was over 120 degress today with the sun shining on it. E is going to hook it up to our outside furnace so we can heat it this winter. He said he will use a radiator from a small car or something like that.
The glass panels are double paned door panels. This will be an adventure! I will have to see what works and what doesn't, as far as heat and light on freezing nights. His dad told me to fill it up with plants!

Any one for Wild Grape Syrup on your pancakes?

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah, Mom and I picked a 4 gallon bucket of wild grapes that were hanging from a tree, out over the roof of the horses run-in shed. Like a monkey, Sarah went up on the ladder to the roof and actually picked them for me! I spent the whole next morning picking the grapes, (they were tiny!) off of the stems. This is the yummy result. It made six,  8 oz jars of jelly, and two of these of syrup. It really smelled good while cooking and tastes wonderful, much better than store bought jelly. It is more grapey, I think. Now, if I could just find more wild grapes!

Last week, I went to Mom and Dads and came home with a couple of five gallon buckets of winter pears. I wrapped the best ones to ripen just for  eating, but the rest of them are slowly being made into Pear Conserve, thanks to Granny Sue at:
http://grannysu.blogspot.com/2008/12/spiced-pear-conserve.html

This isn't as thick as jam, maybe like a thick syrup, but it is soooo good. I can see why she hoards it for special occasions! It would sure taste good on pancakes or biscuits! Have made two batches, and will make more as the pears ripen.

This is a test. I have not been able to post photos, for a months. So this is to see if anything is different on here.