My wishes for you

May the Blessings of this season rain down upon you and your family, filling your life with Joy, Love and Peace.

Snowflakes for Sandy Hook

The national PTA is looking for snowflakes to decorate the Sandy Hook school for the children when they get back to school sometime in January.

Here is the link to the info  http://www.pta.org/parents/content.cfm?ItemNumber=3459 

Tatting, Palmetto Tatters, and Taco Johns

Our local radio station has run a morning trivia contest at 6:40 am for the past 2+ yrs so far every question has been answered but some have taken a while for someone to come up with the correct answer. Many winners have admitted to googling the answers to the questions. 
The prize is always breakfast at a local restaurant or tickets to a local event. 
I have never called in before because we live 30 miles west of the town.
This mornings question was.... "What is the Palmetto State?"
I knew that one. 
I waited and there was several long pauses the dj's had to fill and only 2 callers tried.  I called in and said " South Carolina"  the dj asked if I had googled it and I stated, "No, I have been there, to the Palmetto Tatters group"  he asked, "What's that?",  and I explained.  He was interested, so I got Tatting on the radio this a.m.

I will be interested to see what constitutes breakfast at Taco Johns.

Catching back up

Just a note to my tatting and other friends.
We are back from our trip and I am now trying to catch back up.

I did get a bit of tatting done on the drive but it was Christmas presents, so can't show anything yet.

Before & after

Last Saturday I showed you a picture of the pots of tomatoes I had set on the stove to cook down.

I figured that was about 40 quarts of cut up tomatoes cooking to soften the skins and pulp.  After a few hours, I was able to put all of them through the sieve.

I should have taken pictures of the pots of tomato pulp and juice simmering on the stove but I didn't.  I wasn't able to do all the cooking down in one session so it took longer to get to the point of canning then I would have liked.

Last evening (Tuesday) I decided it was time to get them canned.
I used quart jars this time instead of the pints from the last batch a week ago, but it still took 3 batches through the pressure canner. 

Here is what I ended up with.

20 quarts of tomato sauce.

There are still some tomatoes ripening in the basement, but no where near as many as I have already canned.  They will soon be all done I hope.

new news about our grandson... things are looking up.  some more doctors get to poke and prod tomorrow, but he may be able to go home yet this weekend.  All of your prayers, and good thoughts have been a big help. Thank you so much.

news and prayers please

Last Friday, our newest grandson was born.  His name is Scot.  Saturday night he was transfered to the nearest large hospital with a NICU.
He has some issues with his breathing. 
Please pray that the doctors can figure out just how to fix the problem.

Thank you.

In the meantime I am still tatting snowflakes, and tonight I am canning tomato sauce.  I have gotten 14 qrts of sauce through the canner, and will start the 3rd batch now.

oh, Scot makes 11 grandchildren for us, 6 girls and 5 boys

This weekend's project(s)

Remember all the tomatoes from the Hoop House?
 All those green ones we picked are starting to ripen. Of course some were bruised or damaged in some way and ended up getting fed to the cows, but last weekend, I started with about 30 qrts of cut up tomatoes and canned 20 pints of sauce and froze another 2 qrts.

Project 1
This weekend, my stove looks like this

The pot on the lower left is a 12 qrt stainless steel stock pot.  The one behind it is a 16qrt and the one on the right is either an 18 or 20 qrt. 

Once the tomatoes have cooked enough so that the skins let loose, I will run them through the sieve and then start cooking them down to sauce. It will take a few days because I can't let them cook while I am at work, but by tuesday eve, I should be able to can the sauce.  Although it might take until wednesday, because we have been invited to the neighbors to watch the football game tomorrow.  Can't leave the stove on when I am not at home.  The pots of tomatoes will go out in the garage when they are not cooking.  The temp outside is below 40 during the day and below freezing at night, so it is just like putting the pots in the fridge.

The tomato sauce I canned this past week was just tomatoes, I put in the recommended amount of citric acid, but did not add any salt or spices.  If anyone has a favorite tomato sauce recipe, I would be interested. 

Thanks

Gotta to stir the pots. 

Project 2
While at the neighbors tomorrow, I will continue tatting lessons for their 9 yr old daughter.  She has been practicing her chains all week.   Yeah! another tatter.