Little Southern Belle

I can't understand how a little sister of mine could be so "girly".  I was more of a tom-boy growing up, but that may be because I only had an older brother.  Since she has three older sisters, all of that accumulated "girly-ness" has been transferred to her.  And she loves it!

Fabulous Friday Find

Simply put, this is one of the best kitchen tools ever!

photo credit-www.williams-sonoma.com

We purchased ours just in time for strawberry season, and it came in very handy when we made Strawberry Jam.

Available at Williams-Sonoma & Sur la Table

Two of my all time favorite places to shop!

New use for Mason Jars: Crayons

Well we have been eating our Peach and Strawberry Jam at a very fast rate. And now we have more than a dozen empty jars. So I started thinking, what could we do with all of those jars? So I have been enjoying coming up with

"New Uses for Mason Jars".

First up: Crayons

We have three young artists in the house and LOTS of art supplies. So we decided to combine all of the half full crayon boxes into one place.

This little system, made up of 2 8oz. jars and a 4oz. jar works great! They all fit nicely in this basket (available here) and make art time much easier. Each of the girls has their own jar and they can see all of the colors instead of emptying the boxes on the table. 

An 8oz. jar fits regular crayons

While a 4oz. holds thicker crayons for little ones

My blogging assistent

 

She has quite the expressive face. That runs in the family (see other sister here)

"The heavens declare the glory of God"

Psalm 19:1

Fabulous Friday Find

Today I am writing from "Sick Bay". One child with a simple cold has snowballed into 5 down with colds, sore throats etc (prayers greatly appreciated). 

One question, how can you get a "cold" when it's over 100 degrees outside?

I just wanted to give y'all more info on the paring knife I mentioned in yesterdays post.

It was the Khun Rikon Switzerland Nonstick Paring Knife.

5 reasons I love these knives:

1-They come with a protective sleeve (great with little ones in the house)
2-They cut extremely well
3-They feel really good in your hand
4-They are reasonably priced

5-They come in LOTS of bright colors!

Mom recently started collecting some for my Hope Chest.

I think they would look adorable in a large Mason jar on the counter.

Have a great (healthy) weekend!

Peach Jam

You may remember that we went to the Peach Orchard awhile back. Well those peaches didn't last very long! We enjoyed Breakfast Parfaits with Homemade Granola, Peach Cake and Peach Jam.

This recipe is almost identical to the Strawberry Jam recipe. 

Peach Jam in 3 Steps

5 cups peaches, pitted, peeled and crushed

6 Tbsp Ball RealFruit Instant Pectin

2 cups sugar

3 Tbsp lemon juice

Stir peaches, sugar and lemon juice in bowl. Let stand for 10 mins. 

Add pectin gradually to prevent clumping. Stir for 3 mins.

Ladle jam into 6 clean half-pint jars and let stand for 30 mins.

Jam can be stored in the fridge for 3 weeks or in the freezer for 1 year.

(Note: If you don't want to make 6 jars, use this great tool from Ball to get the right measurements.)

Probably the best paring knife ever!

Peaches, Peaches, Peaches

I love canning jars

Particularly these quilted ones

Ready for the freezer

Homemade Granola

Hello everyone!

Thank you for your patience on a slow blogging week. We have had 4 funerals and a wedding (sounds like a movie title) in the last week, so needless to say blogging had to take the back seat temporarily.

But now I'm back and ready to go! During the giveaway two weeks ago I asked y'all what kind of posts you would like to see. So per Tami's request today I have a recipe post.

First some background: Our family LOVES granola! Sometimes we go through 2 or 3 boxes a week. Even though we buy an organic granola we really wanted to make our own. We tried several recipes before finding this one on the Raising Homemakers link-up. It is our new family favorite.

Homemade Granola

3 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

3 Tb packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup honey

2 TB vegtable oil

Optional:

1 cup dried fruit              

1 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees-Place parchment paper on baking sheet. Mix together first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir honey and oil together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat; until smooth. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture and toss. Spread on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 30-40 mins. stirring every 10 mins. Cool on rack; stir granola-cool and mix in dried fruit and almonds.

Note-we don't put in any fruit or almonds. Instead we just make a basic granola and let people add their own fruit, nuts etc.

These pictures show us making our weekly triple batch.

Our wonderful XXL bowl, with Mom and yours truly in the reflection

For extra credit, what sign am I making?

Preparing the triple batch

I love texture!

more texture

The finished product!

Photographer in-training

Some people just prefer being behind the camera I guess.

We have a winner!

                                          We have a winner in our giveaway!

All of the entries

Drawing the winning name

Drumroll please....

Congratulations Tabitha of A Restful Place

Please send your mailing address to southernhomemaking@gmail.com and I will send your towel out right away.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered. I enjoyed reading your comments and suggestions. 

This was so much fun maybe we should have another giveaway soon. 

What do you think?