Chillin' on a Sunday Afternoon

The weather here today was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! It really feels like Fall is just around the corner, and eventhough I love Fall, I don't like what comes after that, WINTER!! Which means no more Chillin' on a Sunday afternoon on the swing, reading one of my favorite magazines, Where Women Create. No more iced tea or lemonade on the swing taking in the fresh air. So I have been loving our summer. Its been unusual here, but I'm not complaining. So I took the afternoon and read, until I had to go in and get a sweater. Yes, a sweater in August.

After relaxing on the swing, I walked around my garden and picked flowers and I made a beautiful bouquet with sweet pea, black eyed-susan, coneflower, roses, lavender, mums and one other flower that I can't remember the name of, I'm having a mind block. It'll come to me later. Isn't it pretty??

Then I came in after picking more tomatoes, to make homemade salsa. YUMMY!!

I love my food processor. I've probably mentioned this before, but its one of the best gifts given to me by my parents. I use it for almost everything. It's wonderful, I don't know what I did without it, oh yea, I chopped by hand. This is a timesaver. They bought me a bread machine one year, well, I no longer have it. I made bread so much, that I wore the poor machine out. It died!! I was devastated. So now, I have a food processor. Such a loyal companion.

Margaritas please!! Time for chips and salsa!

Getting Ready for Sewing

I received these fabrics in the mail last week and was so excited when I opened the package and saw how adorable they are in person. I love them. The top one is so much fun. I'm going to use it to make an apron out of. The colors are fun, the pattern is fun. I love the polka dots that match it perfectly. Its going to be alot of fun to make. I'm also going to make a bag with the fabric as well. Can't wait to show you the finished product.

The other fabric is one of my favorites as well. A Parisian kitty with the Eiffel tower and a bistro table. Too cute, and it makes a nice apron. I made one just like it in a light blue some time back, I wish I could find my pictures of that one, but it sold pretty quickly. So I thought I 'd try it again.

These are only a few of my fabrics. I have some also hanging over a clothes drying rack. I have some hanging on a hanger ready to cut for aprons as well. I love collecting fabrics, ribbons, buttons, trims, things I'm going to use for my projects.

Well, I've got my fabrics and liners ready for sewing. I know the craft show is in October, but its amazing how quickly it arrives. I'm still waiting for another pattern to arrive in the mail. I'm going to try a different pattern as well and see how it does at the show. Although I don't make my own bag patterns, I take others and tweak them to suit my needs and the needs of other women. Some of the bags will have cloth handles and some will have pre-made wooden or metal handles. I chose a few different ones to break up the style a bit. Its fun experimenting. So we'll see.
As I start sewing them, I'll be posting pictures. Thanks for looking. Remember, you can always purchase my bags at http://www.casabella2006.etsy.com I'll also be putting the aprons on there as well. I've sold all my other aprons so I don't have any on my Etsy store. But that'll change.

My Computer Buddies

I was sitting at our computer desk doing some researching and reading and my babies wanted to join me so as you see, they both squeezed in behind the computer and curled up together while I typed and read. So cute! As you can also see, I was having a cup of delicious Paris tea by Harney and Sons.

Our friends in Upstate NY introduced us to this tea and now I'm addicted. It is so delicious and I also love their Indian Nimbu tea as well. If you love tea, then you have to check out this site and order samples if you're afraid you may not like it. Good to the last drop!!(I know that's Maxwell House, but I thought it appropiate for tea as well..:)Their cans are pretty too. (For some reason its not adding my link to the site, so here it is http://www.harney.com

Getting Ready for Winter

I love kale, especially in soups. So I thought I'd try to grow it myself and see what happens. Well, it is beautiful. It's growing so beautifully. My mother-in-law came by sometime ago and picked some, she couldn't believe how pretty it was and that there weren't any worms on them. WORMS!!! Kale attracts WORMS??!! She told me it always did when her mom grew it. Had I known this I would not have grown kale. I'd grown broccoli once before, and I couldn't believe the worms it attracted, it grossed me out. UGH!! The white ugly fat worms that look slimy. After doing the broccoli that one summer, I swore I'd never do that again. I will buy broccoli from now on. Then she tells me Kale attracts worms, but for some reason my kale did not attract worms, thank goodness!!!!

I did some research online searching for the best way to freeze Kale. So I washed it well, let it soak, watched a few spiders appear in the water, they were small, good thing...LOL. So it said to add Kale to boiling water, let it cook for no more than two minutes.

Then add it to ice water to stop the cooking process.

The kale should have a bright green color and it did. It made the house smell good cooking it.

So before freezing it I wanted to dry it a little. So I place it on a clean towel...

And started to roll it...

I rolled all the way to the end.

And bagged it for the freezer. It made three good size bags, but I have more kale growing so I'll be doing this again.

You all saw that I made sauce a week ago, well, like I said, I may make another and I did. I had enough tomatoes to make two and a half pots this time.

As you can see, it made plenty. I counted this morning, I have 24 containers in my freezer of sauce. My husband asked me last night, "do you think we have more sauce here than we can eat?" I said" NO WAY!!", You can never have enough sauce. Last winter I ran out, so not this time.

This is my favorite Peach Pie recipe. It took me awhile to find one, and here it is. Its delicious, sweet and comforting. So this year I decided to buy local peaches and freeze them for the winter.

Aren't they pretty??

I have a friend who made and sold pies for a living and she told me I can either make up the pie, don't bake it though, and freeze it or I can make the filling and freeze that. So I chose to make the filling and prepare it so it'll be easy to thaw and then bake.

After tossing the dry ingredients in, the smell was wonderful and I didn't even bake it yet, temptation!!!

I bagged them and labeled them. I had enough peaches to make two pie fillings, thank goodness. I already have two bags in the freezer from two weeks ago, but I think I may make another batch. I'll be taking one of these with me to NYC when we leave in two weeks to visit family. We'll be going to an uncle's house for dinner, so I'll make a peach pie and either an apple pie or a cake, haven't decided. Jane's Sweets and Baking Journal blog (you can find her on the right side of my blog page) she has some yummy looking desserts on there, I may have to choose one of those to make as well. We'll see.
I have thoroughly enjoyed doing my kale, corn, sauce and peaches. It's alot of work, I was exhausted last night. On my feet all day, but I know when winter has arrived and I go into my freezer and see all my hard work, and cook all the yummy stuff and when we're sitting down eating, it will all be worth it. So satisfying.

Movies On Friday

Valerie and I went this past friday and saw Julie and Julia, LOVED IT!! Laughed out loud in some of the scenes, I got hungry during the movie watching her cook all that yummy food. It was a great movie, part of it was based on "My Life in France" by Julia Child. Great book, I could not put it down. Before we went to the movies, we stopped in at Borders, and they were having a sale, one of them was 30% off all cookbooks. We found "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" both volumes, which I have been trying to buy for weeks now, but it was too expensive, but at Borders the price for it was amazing plus the discount, I left there VERY HAPPY. If you haven't seened the movie, you must.