Switcheroo

The old dining room was painted this week. It will become the new living room.

I have been contemplating this switch for quite some time now. It just took convincing some that it was a tremendously smart move. More wonderful people will be able to fit around our dining table, and in this case, more is better.

This chandelier will have to go, but I plan to keep the medallion on the ceiling and add a formal light fixture more appropriate for a living room setting.

I will keep you posted on my progress.

time at home

Lunch outside.

sweet partings

Summer, you sang your last song,

 Labor Day is in our rearview window.

Yet we were able to officially close summer our own way, in style... at the lake...on a boat.  Delft blue skies with puffs of white clouds, lukewarm water to tube in, sunshine to lightly toast our bare arms and legs, and an affable breeze to blow our sun-kissed hair, picnic baskets and coolers filled with pimiento cheese for sandwiches or celery, pickles, watermelon, key lime pie, and brownies.

And pleasing to some taste buds, a cracker spread with basil pesto, cream cheese, goat cheese and garlic...yummy!

I measure my years by summers.


Good-bye sweet summer... until next year.

The less packed into my day, the better.

This is not a reality, however, I aspire to maintain the premise that it is. I find time to brew tea, even if it is cold brewed in only three to five minutes. Quite tasty, and gives me a pick me up so I am able to  keep going... since my days are packed.

Bread and Butter Pickles

Hello September.

Now that you have arrived, contentment reigns. It was only the getting over the steep hill that caused a slight stumble.

School and the various extra activities are crossing over into my days at full throttle.

But first things first, I must make pickles. Bread and butter are my "pickle ala resistance" this year!

I was inspired by a jar of such pickles that were offhandedly passed on to me a couple of weeks ago.

Bread and Butter Pickles

1 gallon cucumbers
2 large white onions
2 peppers, I used 1 red and  1orange
1/2 cup salt
5 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1-1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon whole cloves
5 cups apple cider vinegar

Thinly slice cucumbers, onions and peppers. Place in crock with salt, cover with 1 quart of ice and let stand for 3 hours. For syrup, combine sugar, tumeric, cloves, celery seed, mustard seed and vinegar.  Mix and cook, stirring occasionally, to boiling, and then add cucumbers. Return to boiling temperature and ladle into sterilized jars. Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I took an old recipe and tweaked it to my taste.  Both ground and whole cloves were added for extra spice, and what's bread and butter pickles without mustard seeds floating around in the syrup I must ask?

Side note: Witt happened to be here as I was ladling them into the jars, he taste tested them and requested a jar. Need I say more?

miscellany

It's Friday. And my post is one full of a variety of things...

Liriope should never have abided taking on the name of monkey grass. While it might be somewhat bossy and overbearing at times, it does give spiky purple bubble blooms every August to snip and bring inside; I like to add pink zinnias and set them on the kitchen table.

 To my way of thinking lately, everyone should take their daughters along when they go shopping. Both girls insisted that this dress was beautiful. "Please Mama, buy it, you look soooo good in it!" With their insistence and the tempting sale price, I brought it home and wore it out on a date last night with my husband. His first remark, "You are wearing something very young looking." To which I replied," Of course I am, the girls helped me pick it out. Hopefully, people will not think you are out with your daughter." After we recovered from our laughing fit, we headed out the door. Other than the 60% off sale price, I believe the colors in the fabric of this dress are what pushed me over the edge. However, I am happy to report the first thing the lady at the restaurant said to me was, " I like your dress."

A new door was hung between my kitchen and dining room. This was an acquisition I have been desiring for quite some time. Now it is waiting for several coats of paint...Wonder who will  be the designated one to do that?

 Charlotte had a favorite friend spend the night and two pink duckies joined them in the bathtub. The more the merrier certainly rang true in this case.

These are only a sprinkling of the things which make me thankful to embrace family and home on this Friday.

A country wedding

One of the groomsmen from Witt's wedding was married Saturday. In a wide opened field, with accompanying sunshine and curious grasshoppers, the bride and groom made their sacred vows.

Then everyone walked back down the freshly mown path to a pole barn for the dinner, the dancing and the merriment that was to follow.

 (Claire waiting for the merriment to begin.)

Hayrides were offered for those willing to sit upon bales of hay in their wedding attire.

  A dinner of Greek food was served on different patterned plates and set on tablecloths of either pale wheat, honeydew green, misty rose or antique white. (I seem to take note of such things as plates and tablecloths.)

The band  loaded their equipment onto a trailer decorated with sunflowers.

 I know this is a horrible photo, but I loved seeing Witt and Claire dancing on the sawdust ground.

We watched as the shadows played their silent game and the sky hit a shade of deep midnight blue,  while the mini-lights twinkled and the flickering candles seemed to dance too.

 Too soon, everyone gathered outside to see fireworks explode into the sky with bursts of color and light.  Then the newly wedded couple said their goodbyes, got into the old, white sedan and drove off through the field, the car's headlights illuminating the darkness to give them a way out...and off.

I loved this wedding event, it fit this precious couple to a tee.

turquoise bishop

When I first started smocking dresses for Charlotte, the pattern of choice was one designed by Ellen McCarn; a very traditional bishop pattern made to span over several years of growth in your child.

I know Charlotte will be reaching the age soon that she will not desire to wear a bishop. She will opt for the "older" girl look. But I knew there just had to be another bishop yet to be sewn for her before she crosses over into the land from little girl to big girl.

This summer while I sat under an umbrella by the pool, or traveled  in a car to visit my mother, pink floss was smocked on a turquoise bishop. Then five pink bullion roses were added in the center front.

And I knew I could count on my girl,  just as I thought, she loved it!

morning has broken

August begins to have other fascinations, and you do not have to look very far to enjoy their simple delights. The early morning light begins to change as the sun has a later rising time.

My most standards my vegetable garden is, well, pitiful. But the morning's harvest was gathered with appreciation and thoughts of BLT sandwiches later on.

What I consider very agreeable visitors joined me on the back porch.

Seventeen year old Penny even decided this delightful August morning was not to be missed. This is an exception to her rule, because as she ages she has become more reclusive, preferring the safety of my bedroom for the most part. Penny was given to my son, Alan, by my mother when he was five years old. She has been a pet member of our family for a long time. Somewhere through the years she "adopted" me as her owner, upon which I did not protest, since I fancy her.

weeding

August is an overgrown month. Many things in my life have become crowded and untidy.

My garden is a  living testimony to the month of August. The extremely hot temperatures make weeding  not as fun as it was at the beginning of the summer. The messiness began with the cleomes taking over, the knowledge that their seeds will abundantly fall to make next year's production in my garden even more intrusive stirs me to keep a heavy hand on pulling them up. The monarda, while it brought such lovely visitors of hummingbirds, has a reputation of spreading far and wide creating a canopy over the lower lying herbs and stunting their growth. Yesterday, I spent a brief  bit of the morning, making  the herb garden tidy. Now my uncovered parsley can flourish, allowing the swallowtail butterflies to stop by and lay their minuscule eggs. Very soon I will seek for the munching caterpillars during the still hot days of September to watch them grow plump in  preparation to cocoon themselves for the cycle to continue.

And we can not forego grieving the passing on of summer. Every year, the story repeats itself. My heels are dug in. Maybe I should consider weeding these thoughts too and move on.

Rustic Apple Tart

Appley goodness visited my kitchen yesterday.

My husband braved the ladder as we picked apples on Witt's trees once again. This time the apples were not being culled due to the overabundance as they were before, but were ripe for the picking, tart and delicious.

The thoughts of tarts have been bouncing around in my mind as of late, and since apples were aplenty in my kitchen, I thought they were the best choice for the moment. The recipe was found here, however, I did not use the apricot preserves in my tart. The use of so much butter was somewhat disconcerting, but  the recipe called for a small amount of sugar, so the taste is definitely in the buttery crust and the apples.

 Cinnamon and nuts would be good additions, and I might add them in future apple tarts.  I am thinking this tart crust recipe would also be good with peaches and raspberries, or maybe even plums.

Definitely rustic, as in simple

I just took one out of the oven for Sunday's dinner. My husband expects a scoop of ice cream on the side will take it to even higher levels of delicious. He is probably right, but I can not imagine it being any better than it already is.