Happy Thanksgiving

I wanted to take this time to wish you all a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving. I know I just started blogging very recently but the people I've met so far are the greatest. I have learned so much from you and you have helped me to grow spiritually . I hope to get to know more of you as time goes by and to be able to share life's ups and downs together. Thank you for coming into my life, and letting me into yours.
Hugs and God Bless,
Brenda

Sunday, November 23, 2008

It's a beautiful, warm 45º afternoon. I was just sitting here going through some of my recipes and listening to a Mozart CD. I love classical music! Thanks to mom I also like Big Band....Glen Miller, the Dorsey Brothers, Gene Kruppa, Buddy Rich,and many more..they rock!!! It's quiet in here right now, Kevin is taking a nap and the cat is sleeping in her bed next to the computer and I'm enjoying the music and visiting with you all.

I'm just trying to have a quiet peaceful day today and not move around too much. I kind of over did things yesterday and when I was getting dressed this morning I pulled all of the muscles in my back.. again.. I can't even take a deep breath yet...heating pad isn't even helping.

I did have my sewing machine and everything that goes with it set up in the walk-in closet (6'x6') kind of cramped. Well I got tired of being shut in a closet!soooo, I moved a couple of small shelving units and made enough room for my sewing table and 1(4ft. high) stack of plastic drawers behind my computer desk. A 5' board across 2 filing cabinets..it works for me!! I have just enough room between the sewing machine and the computer desk to swivel my office chair. I can go back and forth between the 2 of them now. I have so much more light..I am right next to a window. I hope I will get a lot more sewing done now since I'm not in the closet. I still have 1 whole side and the top of both shelves full of my stash of fabric and other crafting supplies.

We can now put our clothes in the walk-in instead of having them in the office closet! Nice feeling!!

I just changed music. I'm now listening to Yanni, Mozart was putting me to sleep, it was a tranquility CD.

I think I will see if I can find what I have have finished in the ways of crafts, sewing etc. and post pics of that. I will also see if I can find some pics of other things I've done in the past to post also.

I will also try to tell you the story behind the Eagle that I made. The picture is posted under the Simple Woman's Daybook.

Blessing and hugs,
Brenda

Mom's Sour Cream Cookies

3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. soft butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. dairy sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

TOPPING
1/2 c. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon mixed.

Mix flour, baking powder, soda and salt, set aside.
In large bowl on med. speed mix butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy.
At low speed beat in sour cream and vanilla until smooth.
Gradually beat in flour mixture until well combined.
Refrigerate 1 hour.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 375º.
Lightly grease cookie sheets, drop batter by slightly rounded tbsp., 2" apart.
Sprinkle topping on unbaked cookies.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown, cool.

yield 6 Dozen

Mom made these quite often. Reading this and seeing her hand writing really brings back a flood of memories. She had written in the corner... Brenda very good!

Great-Grandma's Coffee Cake

1 c. mashed potatoes
1 pt. liquid (use potato water)
3/4 c. melted lard
1 c.sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 cake yeast in 1/4 c. lukewarm water & 1 tsp sugar
Flour enough to knead.
Bake in moderate oven.

* My grandmother wrote her recipes down with the assumption you knew what you were doing LOL!!

Roscoe's Leather Bread

2 1/2 c. sifted flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Milk to moisten about 1/2 c.

Mix together with hands.
Knead until smooth.
Roll out to about 1/2"-1" thick.
Cut with biscuit cutter.
Fry in hot bacon fryings until done and lightly browned. ( Doesn't take long to fry).

Serve warm

Roscoe was my Step-dad and had been a cook in the Navy. Leather Bread was one of the favorites he was asked to make. It is so good!!

Friday, November 21,2008

I can't believe it's Friday! The week has gone by just way too fast to get everything done that I had planned....or maybe I'm just getting slower at doing things LOL!!

It's been a beautiful, but cold day here, I don't think it ever made 30º today.

I just wanted to post a short note for now. I have some mending I need to catch up on. It's been piling up for way to long. I want to get somethings made for Christmas so I better get busy or it will be next Christmas before they are finished!

Lea, from Farmhouse Blessings, thank you so much for all your help. I can now post pictures sooooo look out! I will be adding pics as time goes on... I have a bunch!

I will be able to post the pics of the craft and sewing things I have finished now, they will be coming next week too.

The picture of the eagle in my Daybook has a special story behind it. I will be telling about that in the Alzheimers posts later.

Last night I fixed a huge pot of pasta sauce and added meat to 1/2 of it. We had supper out of it and I had enough left to freeze 9 pints----5 w/meat and 4 w/o meat.It's nice to know we have the start for 9 more meals in the freezer. I like to do OAMC in small batches. My back and legs won't let me do it all in 1 or 2 days. I just double or triple recipes and freeze or can what is left for later.

Tonight is going to be pancakes and eggs!!

I'm off here for now, and on to the sewing machine.
Have a great evening!!

God Bless,
Brenda

The Simple Woman's Daybook, Nov.21

FOR TODAY

Outside my window... I see a brilliant blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

I am thinking...I need to be finishing up a lot of projects that have been left un-finished

I am thankful for...A warm place to live.

From the kitchen... I just finished filling 9 jars with pasta sauce and put them in the freezer. good feeling knowing that 9 more meals have a start.

I am wearing... an old pair of knit pants and tee shirt, I like to be comfortable.

I am creating...Kevin's ( DH) Christmas present in my mind so I will have everything ready to do the actual work on it. I can't say what it is because he reads my blog.

I am going... to straighten up my sewing space so I can get some work done in there.

I am reading...my way through a stack of old family recipes and sorting them out.

I am hoping...The rest of the day is peaceful here and that my back pain will let up .

I am hearing... old soft rock and roll music playing on the radio.

Around the house... I'm trying to gather up things that have been in our family for years so that I can pass them on to younger members of the family.

One of my favorite things... Watching Missy my cat sleeping peacefully next to me.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Clear out my filing drawers of old papers, finish up a big stack of mending.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...



You can create your own Daybook by visiting The Simple Woman.

http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com

Wednesday , November 19

We awoke this morning to a cold 17ºF here in south-central Ohio. A little colder than normal for this time of year! Brrrrr

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving, my first one without mom. I miss her so much. She was in a nursing home but I was still able to visit her. She wasn't able to speak for the last 3+ years and I'm not sure if she knew me or not but she knew someone was there. Alzheimer's is so devastating.
Enough of that for right now or I will be in tears. Thanksgiving will be a quiet day just Kevin and I as we have no other family near. I do have a cousin in southern KY. but that is too far to visit. I would love to move there, Kentucky and Tennessee are 2 of my favorite states.

I posted a recipe today for my great-grandmothers cream puffs.....they are soooo good. I hope you enjoy them if you try the recipe! I hope to try and post a recipe a day if I can decipher her writing. The recipes are written in pencil and a lot of them have faded, torn or are smudged. Her cookbook has been around for many years and I am so glad to have it. She lived with our family so everything was passed on to mom and then to me. I hope to start passing her things onto my cousins kids while I'm still around to see who gets what! It's time for the younger ones to enjoy the family things what there is of them, not really that many. I'm just glad her kids have a love of antiques and family!

I'm off to the kitchen now to get those chocolate chip cookies baked that I keep putting off. I know I won't be able to bake them without eating a few and I don't really need the extra weight...but it is almost the holidays....right!!!! hmmmmm sounds like a good excuse to me to sample some!! I'm going to put on a big pot of spaghetti sauce on to cook too for tonights dinner and I will freeze the rest for other meals.

Have a great day and keep warm,
God Bless,
Brenda

Great-Grandma's Cream Puffs and Custard Filling

Cream Puffs
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. melted shortening
1 c. water
3 eggs unbeaten

Sift flour and salt into bowl. Melt shortening in a pan with the water and boil. When this reaches a rapid boil pour into flour and stir well. Add 1 egg at a time and beat well. Drop by tsp. on ungreased baking sheet and bake in pre-heated oven 450º for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350º and bake an additional 30 minutes.
Cool and fill with custard filling.

Custard Filling
1 pint milk
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 or 2 eggs beaten ( I use 2)
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla.

Stir all ingredients together and boil to a thick cream,
Stir very often.

Agnes Farrenkopf McFarland 1888-1974

I usually double the custard...it is delicious!!

Old Family Recipes

I've been gathering up all of the old family recipes. It's amazing how many places that I have found recipes that were tucked here and there into books, boxes. anyplace you can imagine.

I want to put them all together into a family cookbook the hardest part will be trying to read the recipes. The recipes were hand written by my great-grandmother and were done in pencil.....I have her old cookbook!!!! A lot of them are fading away or have been torn or erased. I'm going to do my best to copy them into a cookbook form. I want to copy all of them into the computer and save them on a CD. I can then make copies for anyone else in the family who wants them.

I have mom's recipes and some of my own that were family favorites too.

I will share some of them here with all of you as I go through them all.

God Bless,

Brenda

Mom's battle with Alzheimers

I want to devote a section of my blog to Alzheimers. It is such a devastating disease. My mother suffered for 17 years from it. She had a long hard battle. It finally overtook her Dec.8,2007. I will go into more details later and if anyone has any questions or comments I would love to hear from you.

God bless,

Brenda

Sewing

Pictures of the craft and sewing items I have made will hopefully be posted by then end of the week. Some of the items will be for sale, just in time for Christmas!!

I used to do craft shows but gave it up for a while when I was caring for my mother who had Alzheimers.. she will be gone from this earth to a better place 1 year on Dec. 8. I miss her so much. I will talk more about this later.

Brenda

Monday, November 17

We woke up this morning to find the ground covered with a light dusting of snow, it looked beautiful. It melted away within a couple of hours though. We've had a mix of snow flurries and sleet off and on all day.

I had wanted to post on here everyday but the last couple of days I've been a little under the weather...fighting that virus that's going around. I hope I've won this round with it LOL. I did play around on the blog some yesterday, trying to figure out how to add music. I figured out how to get a playlist made but couldn't figure out how to put it on the site. I gave it a try today and got it figured out. Lea , from Farmhouse Blessing's, I hope you don't mind but I loved the music you have on your site so that's what I started out with. I need to look through my cd's and pick out some other music to add.

I hope to add pics of some of the things I've made and have for sale. I need to get a lot more made ! I have quite a stash of fabric and odds and ends that need to be used up before I allow myself to get anything else. All of you crafters and sewers know how that is!!

The kitchen seems to be calling me I want to do a little baking this afternoon ssems like a good way to warmup the apartment. It's been a long time since I've done any baking..time to get back into it.

A little more to do on here then I'm off to the kitchen until tomorrow..

Have a good afternoon and may God Bless you,

Brenda

Friday, November 14

I can't believe this week is almost over, The time is really flying by and I feel like I am not getting as much done as I wanted. I did get this site up and running this week so that made me happy. I still have so much I want to add to it but that will all come in time and with a little more experience on doing a blog.

I spent most of the day deleting emails and dropping the sites they were coming from, they sure do accumulate fast! and take up a lot of time that I want to spend here on this site.

I hope to get a start on scanning old family photos into the computer next week to save. I will then pass the albums and loose photos onto my cousins' family so they will be kept in the family. I have a lot of old family recipes I want to do that with also. I will share some of the photos and old recipes with you all on here.

Next week I also need to get busy sewing. I have a few things I want to make for Kevin for Christmas and the time is creeping up on me!!!! We usually make each other something instead of buying gifts. We are on a very limited income , besides it means more when it's made by hand and from the heart. We have no other immediate family so it's just the 2 of us. I'm glad we have each other.

I hope to start a section on here of crafts and sewing that I've done and that are for sale. I just need to figure out how to do that... I guess that means more researching.....hmmmm.....

I hope you all have a good evening and God Bless,

Brenda

Wednesday Nov. 12,

It's already noon, I can't believe how fast the morning has gone. I have been messing around with this site trying to get it the way I want it to be. I'll be adding a lot of other things in days to come. It will just take me a while to learn all of this, and fit it in to my real life schedule!



It's chilly here in south central Ohio, even saw a few snowflakes the other day. I am so not ready for snow yet! I think the rest of my day will be spent doing some mending and possibly a little baking. Kevin, DH, has been wanting me to bake some chocolate chip cookies. It seems like just the right kind of a day to be doing some baking!!



I just wanted to get something posted on here to get this started. I hope anyone that might stop by to read this will like what they see here and stop back often. I love to make new friends!!



Have a great day and God Bless, Brenda