Water Bottle Upcycle

I have some of the most creative family members on the planet I am sure!  Recently, there was a gathering of family quilters - we call it quilt retreat - and these lovely bouquets were on all of the tables.  They are simply an up-cycled water bottle with a scrap of fabric tied into a lovely bow around the middle!

It makes a lovely centerpiece, and is especially useful where a glass vase is not an option - at the cabin, or in a room that has a high traffic area of small children!

It uses that water bottle that you hate to throw out or send to recycle if it hasn't outlived it's usefulness, and you can use different sized bottles to make an arrangement or put Christmas, Thanksgiving, or even Halloween fabric around it to fit it to a theme!  Simply beautiful!

Thank you Cranberry Cottage girls for the awesome idea!

A little tea and some great company!

My mother has given me many things; life itself, good parenting and home making skills, the freedom and the confidence to pursue my own religious beliefs, and the ability to see beauty in others, even other women, without feeling self-conscious, to name a few.  She has walked 60 miles to raise money for cancer, she raised three healthy children, and one husband, gave me knowledge and a love of learning, reading, writing, gardening and nature.  She hosted a tea party for 250 people in her yard and did NOT use paper dishes.  One of the crown jewel of gifts from my mother is this – TEA PARTY!

She loaned me a tea set, so I might host a tea party for my 3 best girl friends.  How could a tea party even be in the top ten items that my mother gave me?  My mother, by simply loaning some dishes, opened up my eyes to the friendship and sisterhood of other women, and the importance of being and allowing ourselves to be with those women.  She supported and encouraged those friendships.  Silly?  No.  Those dishes, antiques by the way, gave me “permission” in a way to take the time out, to do something frivolous maybe, something for myself, while at the same time doing something for others.  Tea party is not just for the hostess; it is also for the guests.

Now, once a month, (lately we haven't made time - but we need to) those friends and I, take turns hosting tea party.  The hostess makes lunch, be it simple or fancy.  We exchange small gifts; a candle, a pen, a book, a bookmark, but mostly we nurture our friendship.  We mother one another.  Sometimes tea party is our place to vent our frustration with the rest of the world, our home life, our job, or even our husbands.  It lasts only about four hours, but it is some of the most important time we spend during that month.  It is just for us, women.  We share sorrows, hopes, dreams, and good fortunes.  We are able to give one another the kind of support that one does not get from a spouse, or even our children’s hearts.  We are better wives, sisters, friends, and mothers for it.  My incredible mother gave me this, tea party.

Recently, the daughters in our family hosted a Mothers Day Tea for all of us, including my mother in law, and other Mothers who were somehow family to our group!  We dressed up, and the youngest of the girls helped to cook the treats, and made menu's, and dressed the tables, and hosted a beautiful party!  It was wonderful!  And even the youngest of us learned the value of a tea party!

I met a woman during school registration recently, and while we worked one of the registration booths, we chatted about family.  This woman, this beautiful soul, had fostered 15 (I think she said) children throughout her life and currently has two boys of her own at home.  She was having a hard time because her youngest child (an eight year old Aries) is very difficult for her.  She is in her forties, and she is tired.  Tired to her soul.  Her spirit was tired that day as well.  She was remembering some of the kids she had fostered, and one of her comments was “I don’t think it made a difference”!  I let her know that it had to have made a difference because she had already told me that some of her kids had come back and told her so.  But…some were lost, she told me.  Lost to drugs, alcohol, or abuse from other families, or returned to an abuse situation in their home.  Things completely outside of her control. This woman needed a tea party.  She needed to relax, have a sip, and be a friend.  She had been only a mother for too long.  She needed the support and mothering of other women to see all the great things she has done, and the things still within her yet to do.  The things that had been feeding her soul, but had stopped doing so now, because she has had no time with other supportive women.  Women who can say to her, “Even if you made a difference in one of those children, you have made a big difference.”  Other mothers who can give advice on raising an Aries (I have one – it is difficult).  That’s what tea party does.

My mother might be sad that I think one of her top ten gifts to me is tea party, but I hope not!  I hope that she recognizes that she made a difference – not just in one life but in many lives- by teaching the joy and grace of a tea party!   Party on Ladies!

A little Wicked Home Cookin'

It is absolutely fall (really close to winter) here at Wicked Raven Farm, and the proof is not necessarily in the frost on the pumpkins!  Every year about this time I get really fired up to preserve the harvest, or really, to just preserve for the winter months!

I love to make up my own recipes as well and a favorite of my whole family is baked beans Alaska style.  The recipe is adapted from a recipe in the Ball Blue Book of Canning which I recommend for everyone - new cooks/caners especially!  Its a great wedding or housewarming gift too!

I always try to rotate my stock of dry goods in the fall and beans are no exception.  I am a lover of all types of bean but my very favorite are the black beans and the small red beans.  To make a batch of baked beans for canning you will want to soak a pound of dry black and a pound of dry small red beans overnight.  Make sure they are completely covered with water the whole time.

Then in the morning put them in a big stock pot and simmer in clean fresh water for two hours or until skins begin to crack.  Then do the following:

Start with some good white onion and some pepper bacon - about a pound of each.  

Dice them both.

And fry in a pan until both are smelling wonderful and the onions are translucent.

Then mix together in a bowl (I use a large shallow storage container) the following ingredients;

1 can tomato sauce

3 large sprigs fresh sage - finely diced

1 tsp. liquid smoke

1 Tbsp Cumin

1/4 C prepared mustard

1/3 C Molasses

1/2 C. Brown Sugar

2 Tsp dry Mustard

1/2 C. Stubbs spicy barbeque sauce (or your favorite)

2 Tsp Salt (this seems low but remember your bacon brings some to the recipe)

Mix the whole caboodle into the beans on the stove and add the bacon and onions.

Stir together and bring to a boil - simmer for one hour.  Ladle the product into the size jar you want to use (I like the tall large mouth jars for this).  Put the lids on and place in your pressure cooker.

For pints process 1 hour and 20 minutes and for quarts 1 hour and 35 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

For baking the beans to use right away - simmer the original beans 3 hours, pour into a baking dish (I like a deep cast iron pot) and then pour the sauce mixture over the top and bake for two more hours or until the desired consistency is reached.  These are great for potlucks or as a side dish for a quick meal.   Great with anything!  Enjoy!

Gifts from the past

My husbands people are from Pennsylvania.  He comes from an area that reminds me of tales from the deep South - not so much the slavery and Amityville horror aspects - but from the food aspects.  Food is love and I can relate to that!  I do NOT look like a woman who is not a little bit about the food!  My mothers people are also food people.  They are from the South.  Food is love.

One of our favorite gifts has been a mandolin that Chads Gradmother (Meemaw) gave to us not very long after we got married.  It sat on a shelf as a decoration for a few years, cherished for its message of stability and usefulness, but not really used.  Until we started growing potatoes (you knew I wouldn't be able to resist a potato reference).  Once we started growing spuds and harvesting them of course we had to start cooking them.  The best way to slice potatoes is on an old fashioned mandolin.

Im not sure how old our mandolin is, but I think Meemaw said it is from the 30's.  We tried a new mandolin and it was ok but didnt have the sturdy feel and consistent slice time after time with out any adjustment that the old heirloom did.

My husband wasn't excited about us using it at first - he though it would break or wear out, but after using the new plastic model (our old one is wood and steel of course) he decided that the old one had held up for this long and it took a beating that it could probably handle a few more slices.  We now use it almost weekly to slice anything from potatoes for chips, scalloped, and grilled to cabbage for sauerkraut and slaws.  It is awesome!  Using it gives a glimpse into the past while we are standing in our fairly modern kitchen.  It is a connection with our ancestors.

 Now for the cook book.  I know you were wondering what that ratty old book next to the mandolin was!  A second and wonderful gift from the past!  It is a handwritten cookbook that was also given to us by my husbands grandmother.  It belonged to her mother and it is 84 single pages of handwritten recipes!  They are so much fun and such a glimpse into the lives of our people!  She did not abbreviate teaspoon and tablespoon but she did abbreviate cup. Meemaw said when she (Gramma Millie) was first married that was how people saved recipes - there were not many Betty Crocker cookbooks to be had then apparently!  One recipe is for an "Orange 5 day cleanse" and there  is a note written in and it says "(name we can't quite read) gave up after the first day"!  There are also some recipes that were obviously written (as most were) before anyone knew the health disadvantages of Saccharin.  There is a recipe for Saccharin cake!  Other than the Saccharin it looks really good!  Most of the recipes look delish.  We cant wait to try some of them, like the "Dream Bars"  (like a creamsicle it looks like), and a recipe for potato cake that looks like it might turn out like a brownie.  Yum!  And it uses potatoes - how would I not love that?  There are also the little cut outs from the newspaper - I think that must be a family tradition that we cut stuff out of the newspaper and save it!  Or maybe all families do that and keep the recipes forever!

This cookbook was well used.  The front cover was gone and the back cover was no longer attached.  Some of the pages were so worn that they are barely hanging on by the threads that bind the book - yes - it is bound with what appears to be yellowed dental type floss.  No wax though. It is beautiful!  I have an old fashioned copier and I was able to gently lay the book page by page and copy it.  My plan is to turn it into newly bound cookbooks and put covers on them as gifts for the family girls!  I haven't designed the covers yet but am mulling that over and Im excited to see the reactions I get when they realize what they have in their hands.  The original is tucked safely away now in my cedar chest to be gently brought out and perused on special occasions and when I need to feel that ancestral connection.  I hope that you too have an ancestral connection like these to use and remember your people.  Look around your space - Ill bet you do.

Blessed (and connected) Be!