Yummy Dinners

Yesterday we had a family dinner night.  (With my oldest sister, her husband, and my two nephews)  Mom and I made a Pinterest inspired dinner. Or well, that's what it looked like.
We had a veggie salad, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, lemon rosemary asparagus, and for dessert, I made gooey white chocolate blondes.

The Salad

~green leaf lettuce
~yellow and red peppers

~1 roma tomato 

Asparagus

~dried (or fresh) rosemary
~lemon juice (& lemon slices)

~salt & pepper
~ extra virgin olive oil

Potatoes

~rice milk

~salt & pepper 

~ cheddar cheese (optional)

Meatloaf

Gooey White Chocolate Blondes

recipe here

Joyfully in Him,

   Diana<3 

Snow Day!!!

Winter is finally here!  The snow is falling, I am wearing my warm socks and moccasins, and it is 30 degrees outside!!  In two hours it went from this:

to this 

 

The next canning project we worked was canning salsa! A few years ago, I would never have thought that I would be making my own salsa! Mom put little green chilies in there to give it a little spice! 

Joyfully in Him,

    Diana<3

Preparing Food for the Winter

Autumn is the season for preparing and getting ready for Winter.  So, we have been canning so much lately.  First we did sweet and sour pickles.  They were so good that my family ate a whole jar in about two hours!!! My mom actually but them in the freezer instead of canning them.  But they were really good!!

 Then Mom and Kelle made peach jam with out sugar!! It took them all night to do it.  I was the photographer. =] 

Last Thursday, My brother-in-law and my Dad climbed our apple tree and they picked so many apples. They were lowering the baskets and I was emptying the apples and sending them right back up! They must have picked about 50 pounds of apples!  So I made apple crisp and then Mom and I canned apple sauce.  One of our batches of apple sauce was tinted pink because the skin was so red!!

 

 I made Chocolate Chip cookies for my Dad and I think this is my best recipe for cookies!! I will defenetly make these again! 

Joyfully in Him,

     Diana<3

A Happy Thought to Think About

This is my very first time canning, and I really enjoyed it!!  Mom, Kelle, and I canned dill pickles with some dill weed, yellow and orange bell peppers, fresh cloves of garlic, little white onions from our garden, and last of all, small cucumbers that Mom and Kelle bought at a french market.
We boiled poured a vinegar, water, and salt mixture into the prepared mason jars filled almost to the brim with delicious looking vegetables!
I got to use all of the fun gadgets! Like for instance, the lid wand. (It is a long stick with a magnet on the bottom so you don't burn yourself trying to get the lids from the boiling water!) 
I love how everything has to be done in order.  If you do one step out of order, the whole process gets messed up!  Now every time I eat one of these pickles, I will think about this ::oh so happy:: memory!! =] <3 =]

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3

A Victorian Low Tea

A Victorian Low Tea.  Also known as a really fancy tea party with food that Queen Victoria would eat sitting down. The reason I call it low tea is because you are sitting close to the ground or at a table or in someone's sitting room. On the other hand, there is something called a high tea that originated when farmer's would come and eat supper on really high tables and chairs. 
I thought that it was very interesting!  But we girls had the pleasure of putting on a low tea for some dear friends of ours; and we got to do it Victorian style! It always reminds me of the movie The Young Victoria. 

 The Menu. We had Earl Grey tea and lavender lemonade to drink. Then we had egg salad, chicken salad, and cucumber cress and chive butter sandwiches. And, for dessert, there was buttermilk scones with lemon curd and clotted cream, meringues,  and last of all Queen Victoria's favorite dessert-- Cherries Jubilee Sponge Cake.

 Mom even got out her china tea cups and dishes!

 

 After a lovely evening, I was happily surprised to see that my pink lilies finally bloomed!!

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3

July 1st.

This year, I will be doing a post a day for the fun and happy things I do on my birthday week. My birthday is on July 5th. So by that day I should have 5 blog posts. 

Happy things done on Monday:  merrily made crescent rolls  [number 11]  (they looked so cheery in the oven! =] ), sipped tea and sampled a roll in my little house, (even though it was just with myself), participated in a game of mini bowling, felt the long awaited joy of seeing one's garden look so colorful, created a dinner meal for my dear family, and practiced my photography on a tea cup from a dear friend!

Joyfully in Him,
   Diana<3