Market Snaps and Pepper jelly

Gentle friends, we stopped by the Farmers Market again on Sunday and here's some snaps.....

... it was an overcast cool day, with temps in the upper 50's, a typical Summer day here by the Bay..... loving the cool weather!!

... this is the "corn guy" we got more corn from him and have been enjoying it the last couple of days.

... we also picked up some mushrooms from Mushroom Adventures from Marysville......

... a nice bright spot on a grey day...... 

 I also wanted to pick up some peppers, I saw lots of different kinds the week before and really got a hankering to make some of my Dad's Pepper Jelly.  He used to make dozens of jars of the stuff yearly to give away around Christmas.  It was some good stuff!! 

 I've tried many different brands of Pepper Jelly over the years and none really compares to the sweet/hot stuff my dad made.  I think one of the reasons is that he used quite a few more peppers than most recipes call for and that really makes all the difference - with his recipe in hand, I set out to make some myself......

... gathered up the fixins' and wham bam, about an hour later I was pulling these from their water bath.....

... there was actually a ladle or so left after filling the jars that I poured into one of the extra jars and put in the fridge, so we could get a taste.  I had forgotten that my dad's recipe made a stiffer jelly than I like, so the batch I make tonight I'll cut back some on the pectin and see how that goes - you know I can never leave a recipe alone and always tweak things as I go along........

... it tasted perfect and was great on this onion bagel last night!!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!!

Take care,

edgar

Weekend Stuff

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends - once again the short weekend is over and the long week is here. Now why is it that two days speed by and the long 5 day week seems to drag??

Oh well, that's how it goes. This past weekend we didn't do much, just the usual stuff.

On Saturday Dale and I ran around to a few sales and thrift shops - and I pick up a few things - including a bunch of books. Here is a snap -

Along with the books I got a couple of DVD's and a Bundt Pan - I didn't have a Bundt pan and this one needed a new home. While running around we visited a favorite thrift shop on Valencia Street in the Mission - and I have been meaning to take a snap of the new tree grates the city put out along this street when they renovated the sidewalks a few months back -


Aren't they great - I love the Day of the Dead theme. The purchase of the Bundt pan motivated me to make this....

and here is this pecan butter Bundt all hacked up and ready -


I used so many pecans that it turned the cake a little dark, there are pecans on the top making the vanilla glaze a bit bumpy. It is a super moist and tasty cake that turned out rather well.

We went to lunch at and a new place - or at least it was new to me -

Park Gyro is at the entrance to Golden Gate Park - Lincoln and 9th Avenue - and of course I had a lamb Gyro - I love the combination of lamb and tzatziki used in these "sandwiches."

Instead of the usual Pita bread they use Lavash or cracker bread for their wraps - and I really enjoyed this change!!

The last of the peaches are just beautiful this year... so I picked up a few pounds.... skinned 'em, chopped 'em.......

a made some more.....

.... jam. I think that this will be all I can get done this season. On Sunday Rico and I got over to the little farmers market. I picked up some....

...gorgeous blackberries. I was only going to get 3 baskets as they where 3 for $5, but the girl running the berry tent offered - another 3 baskets for only a $1 more - so I got 6 for $6. I flash froze most of them, but last night we had some on vanilla ice cream, and they were just perfect!! The frozen ones will be super in pies this winter.

I did a lot of stitching, but it was for either an exchange piece of a Christmas gift so I have no snaps of any of that.

I think that about wraps it up for today. Thanks for stopping by - do come again!!

Take care,
edgar

Summer House Arrives in SF and some snaps

GR&DF - Thank you so much for you kind comments yesterday about my earliest attempt at x-stitch. I don't remember much about the making of the piece but it was the the little bite that has now become a feast of fun!!!

Yesterday the mail brought me my Summer House Exchange piece from Irmeli who lives in Finland. Here is a snap of the cutest pillow....


Irmeli included some treats as a surprise - she explained that since I was the organizer of the exchange and knew who would be sending to me - that I should get a surprise treat!! I just love this darling piece!! So perfectly stitched and finished - she used a 28 ct linen and DMC floss - but I forgot the card at home so can't tell you the title of the piece.

I also got some snaps of the jamming from the weekend....


and I got a snap of my "new" bowl....


AND I forgot about my new pair of scissors.
We stopped into Joannes and these were 1/2 price -

...how could I pass!! Now, I am not a mess about scissors - in fact I reach for the same pair over and over again - but I really like the colour of these!!

I did want to let you know about the two new pidges - we lost one of them over the weekend - so now Mama stink eye is only looking after one new baby pidge.... and the older two from the first nest are still hanging around. We often see them crowded into the single window box together - and wonder if that had anything to do with what happened.

Last night TV just bit the big one all over the place so I popped a DVD in -
"Four Jill's in a Jeep" - 1944 - a great WWII feel good movie I hadn't seen in a while.

There you go - Thanks for stopping by and once again I do appreciate the nice comments!!!

Take care,
edgar

Weekend Stuff

I am getting a late start this morning - It just seems that Mondays are so filled with things that I get to the blog a little later than usual.

Saturday was a fun day of mostly estate sales with a garage sale of two thrown in. It was a perfect day breezy and comfortable all day long. Here is a snap of a great older basket I picked up ....

I have consolidated many of the flatter stitchy treasures together and they look great. I also picked up a few other things....


Here is a snap of the haul - an older frame that looks 100% better now the odd print that was in it has been removed, a cow creamer with little chintz flowers on her, a great little Victorian Christmas plate. Last but not least an over sized Christmas mug from Pottery Barn, you can't beat that for .50 cents!! .... feeding my on going obsession with linen tea towels continues... I got a set of three with tea leaf types printed on them and an over sized Australian Fauna one - all four for $3 and they had never been used - so now they are laundered, ironed and ready for use. I also made some plum preserve -

as you can see we popped one open and it is pretty tasty - we put some of this preserve on...


.... these popovers. I picked the popover pan up at a house sale on Saturday and they turned out great. They do not need 30 mins in the oven as this is only about 22 and they were getting a bit "done" on the edges! I remember my sister making these when we where younger and all at home but I think she used either muffin tins or custard cups.

Riding around Saturday we stopped at the Holy Virgin Cathedral - the Church itself was locked up so we went into the bookstore - and it was just filled with beautiful icons from floor to ceiling.


If you click the link that should take you to a snap of the inside space and it looks just beautiful.

Lastly a little stitchy report. I worked on some secret stitching and I made a start on something I have wanted to do for a long time. Here is a snap...

It is the "This is the Day" sampler from JCS. I shifted out some colours to ones I liked better. No rush at all on this as I have quite a few other commitments along the way - but I wanted to get this going as I really like the finished ones I have seen around blog land. I did want to thank you all for the kind comments about the piece I made for Carol.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Take care,
edgar

Midweek Babbles......

Gentle readers... we have once again reached our mid-week!!! Woo Hoo!! Life goes on ......

Last night we ran out to the mall and I picked up a copy of Majesty - a magazine about the English Royal family, one of my many interests as you well know. We stopped by Micky D's for dinner - you just need some junque food every now and then. :) Then is was on to a small shopping stop a Trader Joes. We really enjoy shopping ther as they have some super great stuff. One of the things we always pick up when we go are these flat pizza things - a thin crispy cracker like crust with just some cheese and ham bits on it. I should have taken a snap as I can't seem to find one on the net or even remember then name of the dang thing - one will be here tomorrow. They seem to be very popular - every time we stop in to get some the spot for them in the freezer section is often either very low or they are restocking an empty spot. Yesterday we took three of the last five that where there. Such an easy dinner with a big salad!!

The flicker for last night was "Tonight we Raid Calais" - 1943 - starring Anabella and John Sutton. Now, we all know how I enjoy WWII flicks - this falls into that genre - however - this very low budget B picture is so contrived and wooden and VERY hard to believe - that at times is laughable. At 70 mins it moves right along, but this ain't no masterpiece!! Be warned!!

I am still stitching away at exchange pieces - the snaps of stitchity stuff are so rare these days you would think my camera is broken!!

I had a couple of questions recently - one was about the linen I choose for my Halloween RR - My memory which is so very sieve like at times came through - It is a piece of Birds of a Feather "Meadowlark" and is 32 ct not 36 ct. I think the BoF linen is so pretty and the splotchy areas a great. I still have to hand it to Mary from NiaH for helping me pick this out!!

I also got some questions about the recipes I used for the jam/preserve making last Saturday. What I did was read a bunch of recipes online last week to see what the similarities where in each version I found. For the cherry jam I took a basic recipe that started out with the title "No Recipe Cherry Jam" by David Lebovitz. I used his basic technique for mine. The only change I made was I used less sugar ... as the cherries I had were very sweet. The recipe was easy and straight forward - and if I can do it any one can!

For the Peach Preserve I cobbled together a few recipes and ended up with an edgar recipe - Start off with 4-6 pounds of peaches. Bring a pot of water to boil. Put a few peaches at a time in this for a minute or so then take them out and plunge them into cold water. This lets you take the skin off easily. Remove the pits and slice up the peaches. Put the sliced peaches in a large heavy bottomed pot. Pour sugar over the peaches. At this point I also added the juice of two medium lemons. Now the amount of sugar you use depends on the sweetness of the peaches you are using. These where quite sweet so the ratio of 1lb of sugar to 1lb of peaches (remember 1lb of sugar equals just 2 cups) I did not use. What I used was more like 1 1/4 cups sugar to each lb more or less - remember its your preserve you decide. Bring the sugar/peach mixture to a boil. Continue to boil this while stirring frequently so that it does not burn or boil over. While it was boiling away at about 20 minutes I took a potato masher and squished the mix to the point there where only a few big pieces. I wanted this to be spreadable and not be some sort of lumpy bumpy mess. Most recipes state that the mixture should start to get there at about 45 minutes. I noticed it was getting there at 25 mins or so. I only boiled it for about 30 or so mins. I didn't want it to be too thick. I read over and over again this mantra "The faster you cook the jam the brighter the color will be." I really believe that quickly cooking this and just under cooking made this stuff just the consistency and color I wanted. Rico popped one open and we have had it on vanilla ice cream the last couple of nights - and it is really good!!! Once again I made all of this stuff in the morning on Saturday spending about 3 or so hours total - these preserves should hold for about a year, but I don't see them making it that long.

I used a water bath canning method - after the jam/preserve was ready I took a clean jar and poured the stuff into them wiping off the rim before putting the lid and rim on. Once the lid and rim where on I carefully put them two at a time into my water bath of boiling water for about 10 or so minutes. After the water bath I left them on the counter an waited till all of them made the plunk sound of sealing. They all plunked so that worked really well. I found both of these recipes easy to make and would recommend anyone take the plunge a try to make some of their own. If you have a question or the above is not too clear feel free to ask.

There you go - Thanks for stopping by!!

Take care,
edgar