Pancakes

Saturday mornings are usually the only day that I get to "make" breakfast for my family.  During the week and on Sundays we are are in such a hurry to get out of the house it's usually just oatmeal, cereal, bagels, etc.  But Saturdays are the one day I get to cook in the morning.   Each week is different, sometimes eggs (only poached for my family), waffles, pancakes or a breakfast casserole.  But when I do make pancakes I have always used a mix, such as Bisquick.  Seriously, I thought that was the only way you could make pancakes.  My mother was an avid baker, making wedding cakes as a business, and she always used Bisquick.  One day I was watching Alton Brown and he was make pancakes...FROM SCRATCH.  What a concept.   So a few weeks ago I was out of bisquick, so I ventured out and made them from scratch.  Holy cow, I will never go back.  They don't even taste the same.  And since I've decided to try and not buy anything with high fructose corn syrup any longer, I only buy real maple syrup.  Yes, it does cost a bit more, but I feel I've saving by not buying the mix. Plus, it is SO much better.  Seriously, I'm going on a fake syrup/Bisquick boycott.  You should too!

Jelly Day

So I haven't blogged in months, but I thought today's blog lived true to the name of my blog...making jelly. (You know, the country girl wannabe part). I came home Saturday to two 5 gallon pails of freshly picked grapes and two 5 gallon pails of oranges. Dan had been at his moms all morning harvesting. Aren't they pretty?
First we squeezed 8 quarts of orange juice. Seriously, fresh squeezed oj can't compare to the stuff you buy in the carton.

Next, it was time to clean and separate the grapes. This takes quite a while because you have to pick every grape off of the vine.
Next, you mash the grapes, then cook them down to release the juice. Pretty huh?

You have to strain the juice to get all of the pulp out. No more pictures because this part is so messy I couldn't pick up the camera. Then it's time to cook the juice with the pectin and sugar. Stirring constantly, so again, no camera. But I wish I had taken pictures of the windows. We had so many pans boiling my kitchen looked like a sauna.

But after hours of work, here was our reward.

Scipture challenge

I am participating in a scripture challenge you can find here. Here is my first one. The word we were given was Hope. The challenge is to find a scripture using that word and then scrapbook it.
When I think of the word hope, there are so many things that I hope for. I hope I can buy a new pair of shoes, I hope my kids will turn out to be good people, I hope that my dinner doesn't burn, I hope we can move to the country some day. But hoping for all of these things really doesn't matter. The only thing we truly need to put our hope in is God's unfailing love. Then everything else will come together.

Pizza Night

Friday night has been pizza night at our house for years. It used to be Little Caesars or Papa Johns, or whoever had a special going. But for about the last year we have been making homemade pizza on Friday night. One of our favorites is Spinach & Artichoke with feta. Tonight was not much different, but I did make a new sauce. I found it here on one of my new favorite websites. It was the best sauce I've ever had. Better than any take out by far. I also made a Canadian bacon/pineapple pizza, and thanks to the little one, we have pics to share. She's been taking pictures of all of our meals lately.

Looking forward to 2010

I closed down my blog last year since I never seemed to have anything to say, but I'm starting it back up since I'm joining a scrapbook challenge and I want to post my pages somewhere. I'll also be posting some new Weight Watcher recipes! We got the Wii fit for Christmas and have all set weight loss goals for this year!