Dog Days of Summer

No, really!

Problem solved by the fountain!

And where are these 2?  At the Farmers Market of course!  We luv the Saturday morning Farmers Market and usually make it out there to eat breakfast each week.  My favorite?  I have several.  The bar-b-q’ed chicken (they were missing this weekend) and a fresh butter croissant brought home to eat with home grown tomatoes.   A rich, chocolate croissant with a cup of coffee.  And last, a new favorite…

Wood fired breakfast pizza.  Made with sausage, bacon, onion, egg and cheese.  Made fresh in just a few minutes too.  Yum-o!

And look what else you can find here:

Artisan breads and pastries, beautiful baked goods, Cajun pralines,

Wine and honey,

Luffa’s fashioned into cat toys, tamales,

Longhorn luffa horns on my breakfast buddy,

And of course Texas grown vegetables! 

On these mornings my youngest says we eat like Kings! 

Been to the Farmers Market lately?

Sites for the goodies listed above:

cmike@fireintheholepizza.com, chezkatherine.com, www.roundrockhoney.com, Luvaluffa.com, www.jazzy-fats.biz

Jammin’

Technorati Tags: House Beautiful,Ultimate Strawberry Jam Contest,Strawberry Jam,Texas State Fair Biscuits,State Fair Yeast Biscuits,House Beautiful Magazine,Ball Jam recipe,Ball Fruit Pectin

(From cirquedusweet.com)

Just found out my Strawberry Banana Jam recipe is a finalist in the House Beautiful Ultimate Strawberry Jam Contest!!!  I’m so excited, charmed, happy, etc.!

 

Here’s some photos of how all that went down.

I spent a lot of hours making jam , remaking jam and then making more jam.  I was jam tired! 

Ever tried making your own jam?  Homemade jam is Made in the USA, nostalgic goodness.  Your reward is that nostalgia tastes good!  I’m supporting you to tie on a vintage apron and give Strawberry jam a try.

Pick up a box of fruit pectin and use the tried and true recipes inside.  Search out the best fruit and follow the directions EXACTLY.  Your house will smell so sweet. 

You’ll appreciate a strawberry huller (little metal tools amongst the berries) when preparing strawberries for jam.  I purchased these at World Market.  Purchase several and enlist the kiddos to help. 

A potato masher will  mash your berries quickly into consistently sized pieces.

Premeasure all your ingredients as you’ll need to add them quickly while cooking. Measure carefully and try not to be distracted by children, pets, or renegade cicadas that sneak in and demand attention that should be elsewhere. Too much sugar and you’ll have syrup.  Which is fine… if that’s what you wanted instead of jam.  I’m just saying.

Stir your jam constantly in a quality, heavy duty pot.

Give your jam a hot water bath! This simply means boiling in a large pot to safely preserve and seal your filled jam jars.  This is a canning pot with a wire rack that helps to safely lower your filled jars into the boiling water.  These pots are fairly inexpensive and available at hardware stores (who knew?) and your local stuff-mart.

And you gotta have biscuits!  This recipe is the yummy butter biscuits you can sample at the State Fair of Texas.  Had to use the ridged biscuit cutter because I couldn’t find my normal one.  It was kismet!  They looked extra prettified in the photo.
That’s it!  Wish me luck.  My recipe will be taste tested on Thursday, the 19th in New York City!  Yowwee kazowee!

So go get your apron on already!

Houston on the 4th

Technorati Tags: 4th of July,The Guild Shop,Houston,Niko Niko's,Montrose

Sparkler fun!

Traveled to Houston for Lovey’s mothers 80th Birthday and 4th of July fun.  What do you give at such a monumental Birthday? How about something she already has but with a little facelift.  Angie the Angel that is, not my mother in law!

Angie has been in the family a looooong time.  Dating back to Lovey’s parents 1st Christmas together.  Over the years she had become a little tired and worn.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a “before” photo to show you.  Angie is surrounded by “rays” made of spun glass.  I can see why they don’t make ornaments of this stuff anymore.  Itchy, itchy, itchy.

My goal was to stay true to the vintage look, give her an unnoticeable facelift and strengthen this fragile piece.  I used vintage lace (lightly tea stained) behind the spun glass to fill in where some of the rays were missing.  I found a similar style angel in an old calendar I had and reduced and printed it at a local print shop onto card stock for strength.  The wings, while worn, were just too pretty to replace so I just strengthened them with cardstock behind the originals.  The gold bow on the “cloud” was a piece from my vintage ornament stash.  There was glue at this spot so I assumed the original detail was lost long ago.  I also kept the original star but strengthened it with a gold star made from a vintage gold doily that extends just a little past the original.  Not shown, is the pretty and sturdy gift box I found to keep her safe for many more Christmas’ to come. 

My mother in law was touched and very happy with this “re-gifting”.  Maybe this will give you an idea for a future gift for someone special.

Also had to go thrifting while in Houston.

The Guild Shop was awesome.  Packed full of goodies big and small.  I will say that the prices were more like what you would find at an antique store than a thirft store.  Great place though if you need to fill a spot in the house.

While in Houston (Montrose area), we took advantage of the good food options and popped into Niko Niko's. Pure gold!

And look at this sweet baby.

Meet Toby, baby kitty.  She hails from the local animal shelter and agreed to come home with my sister in law.  She’s a little rascal and tuckered out from chasing the laser and basically being a little spaz.

Thanks for visiting!