Where has the Summer Gone

Here it is the middle of August already and before we know it winter will be here. I spent the last several days cleaning out the small bedroom so we can put the new queen size adjustable bed in there. In case we should get overnight company they now have a place to sleep. The bed will be delivered Friday.


I dried apricots and with a second batch I made apricot jam. The jam is really good. If I'd known it would come out that good I would have made some sooner.

 I ended up with 12 8oz jars of jam and 4 baggies of dried fruit.
I'm hoping to get all my "have to finish chores" done so I can sew on Friday and the weekend. I am the program for the quilt guild this month. They asked me to demo the Accuquilt Go cutter so I will be putting a program together. I'm also doing the quilt block for August and providing the drinks (fruit juice) for after the meeting. DH has been traveling and should make it home Friday night which is his birthday. So there will be pinto beans and cornbread for dinner.


Have been learning my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. So far I've, made pinto beans, rice, popcorn and this morning I made steel cut oats for breakfast in it. Next I am going to try yogurt and cheese cake. I used the new Electric Water Bath canner to do the Jam and it worked like a charm. It has a spigot on the side so you set it up by the sink and when you are done canning it drains almost all the way right into the sink.

The other news around here is Mama Cat (stray who adopted us) has 3 new kittens. I was only able to get a good picture of one of them this afternoon the other two are black and white. Will show you pictures when I'm able to get some they move so fast it is  hard to get a clear one. Can't get outside to take one they scatter when the door opens.

Well that about covers the last two weeks around here what have you been doing in your neck of the woods?

Latest on Canning

The last time I canned anything was about 28 years ago when we moved to Washington and the kids and I went to Bainbridge Island to pick strawberries with which we made strawberry jelly. Here in the Magic Valley of Idaho we have been blessed with an abundance of fruits and vegetables. This year I have put up 4 pints of applesauce, two pints of apple butter, 9 pints of pear butter and 7 pints of plum jelly plus all the corn and pepper relish that DH did. I know those aren't huge amounts of product. It is enough for this year to get back into the swing of things. Also I have been trying to lose weight and consume less food so I'm trying to only put up what we can consume in a reasonable amout of time so I don't end up throwing anything out later.

Fall has finally arrived with a cold front which came through here on Monday night. We've had temps in the low 40's the last couple of days, but the next few days we will be back up to high 50's and low 60's. Our trees have been looking very nice in all their fall color.

Canning Season and a Question

It's been 30 years since I canned anything. This summer I have picked some apples and made some applesauce, some apricots which I have added some peaches to and I am in the process of making apricot peach butter in the slow cooker. A friend told me about doing it this way shefound it on Foodinjars.com
Now my question is how do I make food in jars a link so you could just click on it and go there? I'm not sure how to do this and I sure would like to be able to do it as I often find things I would like to share.
Okay, back to the quilt room to get some more work done.