Ball Jam and Jelly Maker

I purchased a new toy this past week and I used it for the first time last evening.  It is a jam and jelly maker by Ball, the jar people.  It makes small batches of jam in 21 minutes.  I do mean small batches.  After you make the jam, you can freeze, refrigerate, or can it.  I decided to make an unusual kind using blackberries and plums, along with spice and golden sherry.  I was impressed with how easy it was to make a batch of jam.  I made a batch when I was doing dishes and cleaning up after a meal.  21 minutes goes real fast!

First you place pectin in the gadget, then you add (2 2/3 cups) prepared fruit.  After 4 minutes it will beep and you add the sugar at that time.  After cooking  21 minutes, it will let you know when it is done. The jam maker has automatic arms and it stirs the jam as it is cooking.  I found that the jam to be less thick as I like it to be.  The flavor of the jam was excellent!  Did I say excellent!  It may have been the liquor flavor I enjoyed.  LOL

I will show pictures of my canned jam and give you a better recipe after I experiment a while.  What a fun way to play!

Blessings to you and yours!  Dawnie

SOAPING EVENING

This past weekend, I was able to persuade my son and his fiance to help me make soap.  We made 3 small batches of soap.  For one of the batches I used a mold which made roses on the bottom of the soap.  The bottom of the soap becomes the top of the soap when you unmold the soap.  All three batches had calendula infused tallow in the soap.  Two batches also contained calerndula petals in the soap.  One batch was beautified with calendula petals on  top of the soap also.  Of course, I used glitter to top two batches of soap.  You need a little sparkle in life now and then.   I used a fragrance in one batch called antique lace.  I love that fragrance!  It does turn the soap brownish, so the lovely antique lavender color will change color.  The second fragrance I used was honeysuckle and the last one I used was blackberry.  I tested the soap and it lathers very nicely and smells glorious!

Thank you for viewing my blog!  Blessings to you and yours!  Dawnie

Easy Baked Custard Recipe

Since we have plenty of eggs from our girls, I have been working on recipes for easy custard and coconut custard pie. I really have not had custard since I was a kid.  I think it is an acquired taste.  LOL  I tried an easy coconut custard pie recipe from the Internet, and there was too little coconut on the bottom, and too much on the top.  The recipe also called for butter and I prefer to have less milk fats since I do not digest them well.  I am still working on the coconut custard pie recipe, but I have a handle on easy plain custard, after a little trial and error.   I try to make our food nutritious and as low in fat and added calories as I can be without our food tasting like cardboard.  Two of my kids put ranch dressing and catchup on most anything, so it wouldn't matter how the food really tastes.  LOL  I personally like the custard to be chilled and served with a fruit sauce.  The custard I made this morning was served with a cranberry sauce I made around Christmas time.  The cranberry sauce has a little liquor kick so I really enjoyed my custard!

Ingredients:
8 eggs
3 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg 
1/2 cup raisins (optional, they will mostly lay on the bottom of the pan)  

Mix everything in a mixing bowl, (a blender would also work).   Place the items into the mixing bowl in the order I have listed.  If using an electric mixer, place the mixer on a low speed and make sure the eggs mix well.  Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan and bake in a 350 degree oven.  The pan I use is an odd size, but a standard 9" X 13" pan would would work as well.

Note:  I don't place my custard in a water bath like traditional custard is made. 
 

Once the custard bakes about 30 min., becomes darker on the top, starts to pulling away from the sides, and has a couple of cracks on the top, turn off the oven and leave the pan in the oven for an additional 15 minutes.   I like the flavor when the custard is cold, but it can equally be enjoyed when served warm.  

I ordered a small magnet for my car.  It arrived this week and here it is unpacked.  What do you think?

Some blogs have picture days that only show farm pictures.  I thought I would show you some of my pictures too.

Do you wonder where I found the corners, frames, fonts, etc. for my pictures?  I use PicMonkey to do most of the work.  I prefer downloading pictures to Microsoft Picture Manager first and toss out any that are fuzzy.  Then I crop using Microsoft.  From there I go to PicMonkey. The only problem is that PicMonkey is very slow.  Sometimes I give up and open another window to start over.   

We were talking at work a couple of days ago about blogs.  We were opposed to most blogs just 6 or 7 years ago.  Who wanted to read about what other people who have a life are doing?   Who wanted to see others going on vacations and read about his or child loosing a tooth or what they ate for dinner?  Well, it seems that most of us do.  I have tried to make my blog a little more educational.  I am not a journalist, as anyone reading this knows.  My spelling and grammar are not as good as I would like, but I try.  I hope it is not too difficult to follow my writing.  You are all welcome to contact me if you wish.  I do enjoy reading comments and you can also follow me by clicking on the button that says follow.  

I hope you find this recipe to work well for you.  I enjoy cooking when using my urban back yard farm.  Blessings to you and yours!  Dawnie

Simple Domestic Bliss

At times find simple joy while doing domestic chores.  It is more joyous for me to do chores when I am surrounded by beauty.  Of course, we all find beauty in different things.  One of my domestic pleasures is a beautiful pot holder.  One that shows some wear and has served its purpose is more beautiful to me than a new pot holder.

Since I have plenty of fresh eggs from my hen house,  I tried a new recipe from an Amish cookbook.  It was a simple recipe for a Dutch Pancake.  The ingredients were simple and they serve the pancake with lemon wedges and sprinkled with powdered sugar.  I used blood orange wedges instead.  The ingredients are 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of flour, 3 eggs beaten, salt---I usually skip this ingredient, I added 1/4 cup of sugar.  The recipe request the pan be buttered and the ingredients mixed in the pan.  When mixing the pancake in the cooking pan, it removes part of the butter off the bottom and allows the pancake to stick, so I suggest to mix the ingredients in a separate bowl and pour it into a buttered pan to cook. Cook about 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven or what ever works for you.  The eggs help the pancakes to rise.  

Thank you for viewing my blog.  I hope you enjoy it.  If you do, please sign up as a follower.  Blessings to all of you and yours!  Dawnie

Who do you relate to?

Out of all of the actors, which one do you relate to the most and why?  I think the person I relate to the most is Aunt Bee.  She has lace on her dresses and wears a string of purls.  I wear lace on many of my outfits too.  She is content doing domestic engineering.  I would love to be at home and cook for my family.  She is nice to everyone and smiles all of the time.  I work in the public eye and I am nice to most of the people I meet and I usually greet most people with a smile.  She is a little bit of a prude, and who knows what her background is or what she does when she is not in the public eye?  I think I let my hair down a little when I am not in the public.  Aunt Bee knits and so do I.  I am nearly the same age of Aunt Bee when she started on the Andy Griffith show.  She is concerned about others and so am I---friends and strangers alike.  If you haven't noticed she is a little extra fluffy and has a double chin.   I too carry extra weight and a double chin.  Most of all, she is someone most people would like to know and could place their trust in.  I think we could be great friends.

 

Blessing to you and yours!  Dawnie

Prom 2013

I had to share these pictures.  Some make one or the other look silly, or scared, or just happy and in love.

Would you want to be young and in love again?

Blessings to you and yours!  Dawnie

Custer Cottage Egg Stamps

I recently purchased 2 stamps for the eggs from our chickens. One of the stamps is an outline of a hen.  The other stamp has my company name on it, (Custer Cottage).  The pre-inked stamp uses regular food coloring.  I purchased the stamp from: 

Premier Sheep Supplies Ltd.
2031 300th St
Washington, IA  52353
Phone: 319-653-9624
http://www.premier1supplies.com/list.php?mode=list&species_id=ALL&criteria=egg+stamps&submit.x=12&submit.y=7

Obviously they do have items for farm animals other than sheep.  

I could use the words organic, natural, or free range, but everyone has a different idea of what these words mean, so I find it best to just use my company name.  My family and I do not allow our chickens to free range very often.  We do a modified free range due to neighbor dogs that dig under the fence.  Modified Free Range would not look too good as an egg stamp.  LOL 

This is a hint for what we will be doing next.  LOL  Be prepared.  The red item(s) is a pair of socks.

We have a dog run which is 4 times the size of a regular dog run.  We added this run to the hen house.  There are 2 rooms in the hen house.  One of the rooms is full of nest boxes and of course food and water.  The other room is screened in and it has an opening in the center of the floor for taking dust baths and this room also has more food and water.