Category Archives: Summer

Gingerbread Men for Tea

Gingerbread Men

It’s Summer and it’s hot, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a few gingerbread men over for tea.  And when I say gingerbread, I actually mean

gingerBREAD!

This is a really easy, fun way to take your tea and entertain the children all without heating up the kitchen!

All you do is take any cookie cutter you have on hand (we just happened to have gingerbread men) and cut out the center of bread slices,

add toppings of your choice

Pour a little “tea” from your finest china teapot

and enjoy a breezy summer morning snack!

{oh, and with the right amount of cinnamon & sugar, they’ll eat the crusts too!}

She Wears Skirts – Footwear

{To read all the posts in this series, click on the She Wears Skirts button.}

This little piggy went to market…

This little piggy stayed home…

This little piggy ate roast beef…

And this little piggy couldn’t find anything to wear with a skirt!

And from the comments I hear around the marketplace, I’m not alone!

We all know what to wear in summer…

Sandals

or

Free little piggies (aka BARE FEET)

But, what in the world do we wear when our little piggies are freezing?

Here are a few suggestions and links and then a real treat…MY footwear via video tour!  I know you are all at the edge of your seat wondering what’s on Amy’s feet, but I have to tell you, my shoes are pretty personal.  I like what I like and I am all about comfort!  I am also all about CHEAP FRUGAL.

The links and pictures I am going to share below are not all inexpensive, but that doesn’t mean a knock-off version doesn’t exist or that you can’t find expensive shoes for cheap at places like thrift stores and consignment shops.  I also realize many women MUST buy high quality shoes because of foot problems.  I’m simply trying to offer you an idea of what to look for.  Take note, personalize it, and be on the look out! (all pictures are clickable so you can see more information about the shoes)

*Mary Janes

There are a million and one Mary Janes out there.  Just take a look at this page from Amazon.  I personally LOVE Mary Janes and particularly this Sketchers style:

{I own a Payless knock off that is comfortable-enough, but not incredibly supportive}

Mary Janes are shoes that look definitively feminine.  There’s no question about it, these are girl shoes.

2. Mules

Not the most feminine name, but these are another favorite of mine.  The ones above have a funky flair that would be great for dressing down an outfit.  To dress it up, choose ones with a bit of a heel or a sheen.

One word of caution…some mules are backless.  For anyone who does not have a lot of strength in their feet and ankles (like my mom who had polio as a child), backless shoes are NOT a good option.  Your toes have to work to keep the shoes on.  Sometimes there is enough of a lip at the back or a strap to help with this, but it still doesn’t make for a good shoe for someone with weak feet.  {The mules above DO have a decent amount of lip at the back that would keep the shoe on.}

3. Boots

Think outside the boot box on this one.  As I was searching through boots on Amazon for ones that conveyed what I wanted to say here, I found the boot above and smiled.  They just LOOK warm!

I prefer boots that have give in the leg portion (like the one above) because as a busy mom, you are not going to want anything that will hinder you from easily getting up and down with little ones.  You also might look at a lower cut boot like this one that can serve for dressed up or dressed down:

I also found these fun insulated shoes that look quite comfy and useful:

And if you are weird like me, you’ll wear Rope Sandals with socks in the winter.  As long as it isn’t snowing! ;)

Now, as promised…

Amy’s shoes (disclaimer: I really do NEED every single pair shown here…really…)

Footwear from Raising Arrows on Vimeo.

Now, it’s your turn!  What are your favorite shoes to wear with skirts and why?

And please, be in prayer for Caroline from The Modest Mom as she is not feeling well and was unable to join us this week. Head over to her blog and leave her a little note of encouragement!

She Wears Skirts series:

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Sandhill Plum Jelly Hits the Pantry Shelves!

This time of year I get a ton of hits on my post on sandhill plum jelly.  That post is rather sad, but for some reason Google likes it.  For those of you who land on that post and find your way here, I’m hoping this post does a little better justice to this lovely roadside fruit.

Earlier in the year, I noticed how beautifully the sandhill plums were blooming.  Well, when I went out scavenging this past weekend, I was not disappointed!

Many of them weren't quite ready, but the ones that were were absolutely stunning!

Here’s a run down of how the plums got from the thicket to my pantry…

1. We picked half a small cooler full. This requires you to get past the fact that sandhill plums are thorny and grow where the grass is tall.

2. I laid them out on the counter for about 2 days to let the almost ripe ones ripen fully. This requires you to get past the fact that small children are naturally attracted to the color red and sandhill plums are naturally sour which causes small children to take one bite and spit them out…on the floor.

3. I washed them, de-stemmed them, and cooked them down in a large stock pot. This takes about an hour.  You don’t need to pit them beforehand.  That is taken care of in the next step…

4. I ladled the cooked down berries into a mesh strainer and pushed the pulp through with the back of a metal spoon. Somewhere in my home is a strainer with an attached blade that you turn to push the pulp through.  However, I couldn’t find it.  This half-cooler full of plums yielded just at 6 cups of pulp.

5. Put the pulp in the refrigerator until you can find the time to make jelly. Ok, so this isn’t a necessary step; however, I wanted you to know you CAN save it for later.  You can even freeze it for later.  Don’t feel like you have to carve out a whole day to make sandhill plum jelly.  It can be done in bits and pieces.

6. Put the pulp in a large stockpot and added 6 TBSP (equiv of one box) of pectin. Stir this in well.  Use a whisk if you have to.

7. Get your sugar ready – 8½ cups to be exact. This step is the hardest for me to remember; however, you have to add your sugar all at once, so measure it out into a bowl beforehand so you can just dump the bowl in when it’s time.  And remember, this 8½ cups of sugar is for 6 cups of pulp.

8. Get pulp and pectin to a rolling boiling and then add the sugar. Once again, stir well, then bring it back to a boil.

9. Boil another 4 minutes, stirring constantly. It will scorch if you don’t!

10. Scrap off the foam. I just take a metal spoon and gently glide it over the surface of the jelly.  This scrapes off the foam so you can see the pretty jelly beneath.  The foam goes into a bowl from which the entire family takes fingerfulls the rest of the day.

11. Ladle jelly (I use a canning funnel too) into the jelly jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace at the top. Prior to making jelly, I wash up my jars and lids (this recipe took 9 jelly jars) in hot, soapy water.  I dry them and put them on a cookie sheet in the oven on warm.  When it is time to fill the jars I just pull out the cookie sheet.

12. Add lids and rings and screw on finger-tight. Now, at some point here, you need to start your water bath to process the jars; however, I only have one big burner, so that is a trick considering I need that burner to boil the jelly.  Once you have a rolling boiler in your canner…

13. Add jars to canner and process 6 minutes. Getting the water height right is quite a trick, so overdo it rather than underdo it when you fill your canner with water.  Also, make sure you have one of those handy jar lifters.  It grabs just below the lids and makes pulling the jars from the water so much easier.

14. Set jars out on counter to cool and listen for lid popping. The lids popping is music to my ears!  It means the jars are sealed and can stay on the shelves safely.

And now, these lovely jars reside in my pantry just waiting to be pried open and eaten!  Yum!

This post is linked to:
Tasty Tuesday
Nature Study Tuesday

By the way, I had a reader ask for a sandhill plum pie recipe.  I don’t have one, but thought I’d give a shout out to the rest of you.  Anyone?

Watermelon & Rull Kuka

As a child, every August meant there would be one meal consisting only of watermelon and rull kuka. Yummy!

I imagine all of you know what watermelon is, but most of you are probably scratching your heads at the rull kuka? Well, my German mother, of Mennonite background, managed to fill my stomach with many dishes that no one else I knew ate. In fact, I was sitting down to a school lunch of pancakes when I realized that these fat, round things on my plate were what everyone else considered pancakes, while I knew only thin, rolled-up-crepe-like delicacies. I’m still not real fond of those thick things the rest of you eat.

So, back to the rull kuka. Many people put salt on their watermelon, for some unknown reason. My family eats these salty, fried rectangles of bread instead. In case you feel daring and have some watermelon nearby, here is the recipe…

6 eggs
1/4 c. melted butter
2/3 c. milk
5 c. flour
2 tsp salt

Beat eggs, butter and milk in a bowl. Add in flour and salt and mix well. Roll out onto a floured board. Cut into 3″x6″ rectangles and cut a small slit lengthwise down the center of each.

Fry in 1″ of fat until light brown.


Serve with watermelon.

Sandhill Plum Jelly

Find more information and a much better jelly tutorial in these two posts:
The Sandhill Plums are Blooming
Sandhill Plum Jelly Hits My Pantry Shelves

I grew up picking sandhill plums in late July. They are tart cherry-sized berries that grow on thickets in sandy areas like the countryside near my hometown. I don’t actually remember helping my mother process them or make them into jelly, but I do remember eating the jelly and giving it away as gifts to teachers and family members at Christmas.

A few years into my marriage, I became very interested in sustainable living. I started sewing, baking my own bread, and canning. It was at this time I began picking sandhill plums once again. They are pretty much free for the taking because they grow wild along roadsides. All a person needs to do is brave the tall weeds, deep ditches, and thorns.

Once you’ve picked a bucket load (one year I picked a cooler load!), you take them home and lay them out to fully ripen. Once they are fully ripe, you process them. I won’t go into all the details here, but suffice it to say, you cook them down w/ a bit of water, remove the seeds and then pulverize them and strain them. This gives you what is called “pulp.”

From here, you are ready to make jelly.

Now, here comes my disclaimer:
If you have never made jelly before, do not start here. First off, sandhill plums don’t grow everywhere, and secondly, these instructions are not that great. lol

If you are an avid jelly maker, I would highly suggest going to your local bulk food store and buying your pectin in a bulk quantity. A box of pectin contains approximately 6 TBSP. 1 batch of jelly takes 1 box of pectin. You are also going to need a massive amount of sugar…so much sugar, it will almost make you nauseous to see how much is going into it. (yes, I know there are sugar-free ways of doing this, but this entry will not be addressing that) You also need jelly jars…size and style depends on your family size and preferences. And I do a water bath, so I have a huge canning pot and the lifter tongs (I’m sure there is some technical name for them…but no matter, their job is to lift the jars from the boiling water bath.)

I do highly suggest buying 1 box of pectin. The only reason I say this is because the little insert of instructions in that box is invaluable. For sandhill plums, I use the sour plum recipe.

So, after 4.5 cups of pulp, 6 TBSP of pectin, 7 c. of sugar, and 2 minutes at a rolling boil, I pour the almost-jelly into my jars (this is where that metal funnel comes in handy!), and throw the lids on. Water bath those little guys and spend the rest of the day listening to the lids pop as they seal, only to have your children and husband beg you to pry the lid back off so they can eat some!

Mmmm! Mmmmm! And just for your information, this jelly still retains a nice tart taste to it.

So, what if you don’t have sandhill plums in your area? I would encourage you to buy a box of pectin and check out that little insert. It is utterly amazing the amount of fruit and vegetables that can be made into jelly or jam or preserves. Try something different…jalapeno jelly for instance or guava or tomato preserves. Does something grow wild in your area that you could make into something yummy for the family? I still stand amazed at all God provides that never requires a trip to the supermarket!

You can now find much better instructions in my Sandhill Plum Jelly Hits the Shelves post!
You can also read my tutorial for Cranberry Walnut Jelly!