The Silence is Broken

      It's been almost a whole year since I've posted. Maybe if I blog today I will get inspired and continue. It's not that I haven't had good ideas to blog about- I've read some great books, gotten into fermenting food and sprouting, and moved into a 94 year old farm house... oh, yes, maybe that's why I haven't had to energy to blog. We moved in December and besides the usual projects that go along with owning a house full of character we are still trying to sell our old house.
        It's been a stressful year, but good. God has been teaching us to wait on him. Waiting on Him for our house to sell. Waiting on Him for our family to grow. E and I have grown closer together. We've been enjoying our sweet boy so much (who is now 3!). I'm learning to trust God more completely. He really knows what is good for me and has planned out my days perfectly.
         Here is to a new start at blogging. My prayer for you and myself in the next year is from Romans 15:13-
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. "

Strawberry Princess

In July my husband told me I was his Strawberry Princess. Why you may ask? Because I had just finished putting up just over 3 gallons worth of strawberry jam.To be precise- 12 half pints and 20 pints.  A few years ago we made the switch from full sugar jam to jam with some honey. I use Ball's no-sugar/low sugar pectin.  I played around with the amount of honey in each batch and this is the recipe we liked (It is slightly modified from the package directions)-

  7 cups strawberries, hulled and mashed

 (I did this when I picked them and put the bags of strawberry mush in the freezer. This makes the process so much easier and you can make jam at your convinience.)

1  2/3 cup apple juice

7  1/2 Tbl no/low sugar pectin

1  1/3 cup honey

 ---------------------------

Place strawberry mush in large pot. Stir in apple juice and pectin. Bring to a rolling boil high heat ( I love rolling boils). Add honey. Bring back to a full rolling boil, then continue to cook for 1 min, stirring constantly. Take off the heat, skim off the pink foam  (the impurities) and place in an small container to taste later ( I've always loved eating it). Ladle your jam into clean, hot mason jars. Place new lids on, and screw on rings.  Process in water bath 10 min. Enjoy!

This yields about 4-5 Quarts Strawberry jam

Farina (aka. Cream of Wheat)

I have always loved Farina. Nice bowls of steaming hot cereal sprinkled with brown sugar and topped with creamy milk. Reminds me of winter mornings in my childhood.  This year I finally realized that you don't have to buy the boxes of Farina (or Cream of Wheat) you can make it from freshly ground flour!

I found this recipe in More-With-Less cookbook (It's a great cookbook)

Ground Wheat Breakfast Cereal

Bring to a boil

3 cups Water

Combine seperately and add:

1 cup cold water

1 cup ground wheat

2 tsp salt

Stir constantly while thickening to prevent lumps. Heat and cook 15-20 min. Serve with milk and sugar, honey or molasses.

Grace Geiser, Apple Creek Ohio

But I love the lumps. So I boil all the water, add the salt and then add the ground wheat and I minimally stir.  So good. Today I am having it with brown sugar, blueberries, a handful of almonds and milk. Yum!

Ps. I couldn't find my camera so no pictures today :(

S'wonderful Sourdough

My Husband loves sourdough. So I finally figured out how to make it.

This is an awesome tutorial on how to make Sourdough Bread-

http://www.instructables.com/id/Sourdough-Bread/

I do 2 things differently. I use 100% whole wheat (freshly ground) and I don't add the yeast ( I find it still rises fine).

Enjoy!

You say Tomato, I say Tomahto

Our tomato harvest has officially begun.  Yay! Finally! Tuesday I made my first batch of tomato sauce- 2 quarts worth. I think I am going to start prepping my tomatoes for sauce (ie. blanching, removing skin, removing seeds and excess liquid, and chopping) and then throwing them in a ziplock in the freezer until I can make a really, really large batch of sauce. 2 quarts is rather anti-climactic. 

Eucerin + Hair = Disaster

While he was playing in his room my little boy got a hold of his Eucerin cream and proceeded to smear it all over his hair and his big truck. Once this was discovered said boy and his truck where plopped into the tub. Three shampoos later my little one's hair is extremely textured... we will see what it  looks like when it dries. What can you do but laugh? I love having a boy. 

My Spring Garden

I've wanted to start a blog for at least six months now, probably longer, but it never happened. I started playing around with WordPress but  never got to the point of posting.  I wanted my blog to be perfect before I started and I had a hard time figuring out how to use WordPress. Blogger seems so much easier to me. A good friend suggested the other week that we become Blogger buddies and use Blogger instead- brilliant!

So, I've decided I need to start posting even if it's not perfect. In my mind I had this first post planned out. I would have a picture of a teacup and talk about why I picked the name Cup of Earl Grey Tea for my blog. That will be another post. Right now I am going to give you pictures of my garden from this spring.

 I planted green bib lettuce and romaine. They did really well. I was especially pleased with the romaine.

 I love how these look like giant purple roses.

 Home grown broccoli tastes amazing!

Did you know that onions can grow flowers?

Hopefully this gets the creative juices flowing and you start hearing from me regularly. I have lots of ideas of what to share with you.  Thanks for letting me share!