Queen's Edge Farm: Thursday....

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Thursday....

The past two days have been busy. Against my better judgement the girls and I drove to Houston on Wednesday. I picked up my candle making supplies from Lunamom, and we then attended the Houston Natural Science Museum. I bought us a yearly membership, as I'd like to go back and look through it a little slower. We rushed through it in 2 hours yesterday. We also went through the "Lucy" exhibit (see www.hmns.org). Pretty interesting, but in no way believable. I am an intelligent design/creation science sort of gal, but I do like old things and reading how the scientific community in general is trying to pull the wool over people's eyes with this "millions of years ago" nonsense. But if you over look that part of the museum, it was great! The gemstone exhibit was one of my favorites. Lauren liked the gems and Lucy. Hannah liked the dinosaurs and the butterflys.

Tonight we (me, Lauren, Hannah and Mary - Candi's daughter) attended The Nutcracker Ballet in town. We got all dressed up "fancy like" LOL, and ate dinner before hand. It was a beautiful night, and the city was decorated with lights. We parked right across the street in the yard of a historic old home that was white and decorated with greenery and red bows for Christmas. It was a little pricey to park, but I knew I'd be tired afterwards and not wanting to walk too far. Smart move, if I do say so myself. (My feet HURT right now. Man, I feel really old.)

The Moscow Classical Ballet Company performed the ballet accompanied by the San Antonio Symphony. It was wonderful, though next time I'd leave Hannah home. She had a little meltdown after intermission, around 9:30 p.m. She was EXTREMELY tired. After dropping Mary at home, we made it home ourselves a little after 11:00 pm. Once I get pictures developed, I will post on here for everyone to see how beautiful the girls looked.

1 comment:

Brea in Texas said...: Amy, just love the gem room at Houston MNS. My best friend used to work there when we were in high school, and we'd go all the time. The butterfly pyramid is great, and the MOFA (fine arts) is wonderful, too. We're planning a family trip in February when John takes vacation and we go visit all our family.

Sorry I didn't get back to you about Candi ... I'm not going to be able to do anything right now. John hurt his back, and has been mostly on the couch when he hasn't been at work. It's been a treat, let me tell you. :)

Glad y'all enjoyed The Nutcracker; it's one of my all-time favs!!

~Brea; December 8, 2007 at 10:07 AM

Grandma's Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

2 pkgs active dry yeast or 5 tsps if using bulk yeast
1/2 cup warm water (not too hot)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening, butter, margarine
2 tsps salt
2 cups milk, scalded
1 1/2 cups cold water
10 to 12 cups flour (white or whole wheat)

Yield: 4 loaves

Soften yeast in warm water, springkle in a tsp of the sugar
In LARGE mixing bowl blend sugar, shortening, salt and milk until shortening is melted. Add cold water, cool to luke-warm. Stir in yeast. Gradually add flour to form a stiff dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and satiny, 5 to 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover with foil or damp towel. Let rise in warm place (85 to 90 deg) until light and doubled in volume about two hours. Punch dough down by plunging fist in center. Knead dough for about 5 minutes.

Roll out one fourth of dough to a 16 X 12 inch rectangle. Brush with 2 TBSP of melted butter. Combine 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or more to taste). Sprinkle mixture over dough. Starting with 16 inch side, roll jellyroll fashion. Either cut into 16 1 inch slices or leave as a whole loaf. Place on a greased pan, cover and let rise in warm place until light, about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix one box 10X sugar with 2 tbsps water. If too stiff, add more water until icing consistency, add a drop of vanilla too. Spread on baked bread while bread is still warm.

2010 Homestead Stats

Laundry Soap

Homemade Laundry Soap:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, as listed above
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder
~You will also need a small washpan or bowl that holds about 2 gallons.

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the washpan. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Transfer soap (using a funnel if necessary) into empty plastic laundry holders, milk containers (I use my empty glass milk bottles and old Fab containers) Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

5 cups grape juice (about 3 1/2 pounds of ripe grapes)1 (1 3/4 ounce) box of sure-jel pectin7 cups sugarBefore getting started it is best to clean the entire kitchen, making sure the sink is empty. Bleach the sink and all utensils used in making jelly (I do this as I sell my grape jelly as part of my homesteading business.)

Wash the canning jars in warm soapy water, and rinse well. Set off to side.

Place a large pan of water on the stove to heat. Once it starts steaming, place lids and rings in the bottom, and 2-3 jars (depending on if you use actual jelly jars or pints) to sterilize.

Next make the grape juice using clean washed grapes (make sure you use rubber gloves when picking or washing wild grapes)To 3 1/2 pounds of clean grapes (6 cups of grapes) add 1 1/2 cups water.Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 10 minutes.Strain and squeeze out all of the juice with cheese cloth (see paragraph below)
I didn't have cheese cloth, so I poured the grape mixture into a large spaghetti strainer with a large pan underneath. I had to stir it around some as the skins and seeds would sink to the bottom, and clog the colander up. Stirring allowed the liquid to drain out. I then used a large metal spoon and squished it some to get more of the juice out.

In a very big pan, put 5 cups of the juice (it’s okay to add no more than ½ cup water to even out amount)Add the fruit pectin to the juice.Mix well.On high heat, bring to a full rolling boil, and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.Stir in sugar all at once, and bring back to a full rolling boil, again boil hard for 1 minute stirring constantly.
Remove jelly from heat, skim off foam
Use a large spoon inserted inside the jar to lift CAREFULLY out of the water. DO NOT TOUCH THE INSIDE OF THE JAR OR THE RIM WITH YOUR HANDS.
Ladle jelly into hot jars, place a lid and ring onto jar (do not tighten yet).
Set jars to the side. After a while you should start hearing “pings” as the jar seals.
When jars are completely cool, tighten rings and store on pantry shelf.**SIDE NOTE: Wild Mustang Grapes are normally ready the end of June, so be prepared. Keep an eye open for vines on the side of the road, or any that friends and family may have growing in their yard. Many people just let them grow and don’t do anything with them, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a good supply. Also, the more you pick off the vine, the more the vine produces new grapes, so you probably won’t EVER run out of grapes to use until the vine dies or you get sick of making jelly. Good luck and feel free to contact me at queensedgefarm@yahoo.com for questions.