BLUEBERRY LOVE and RECIPE

It's Blueberry Picking Time

#1 Husband and I picked 6 gallons of Blueberries Monday evening

 

This is only ONE Bucket!

Don't WASH!  Spread single layer on a cookie sheet...FREEZE

Place in freezer bags...Enjoy this winter!

Here is a super easy and Fantastic Blueberry Recipe

Blueberry Buckle

Streusel Topping:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 t. ground cinnamon

3 T. butter, cut into pieces

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 t. vanilla extract

3 cups (about 2 pints) blueberries

1.  Prepare streusel topping: In medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. With a pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2.  Prepare cake: Preheat oven to 375.  Grease and flour 13" x 9" baking pan.  In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

3.  In a large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat butter and sugar together until blended, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula.  Increase speed to medium-high; beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce speed to low; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, occasionally scraping bowl.

4.  In cup, combine milk and vanilla.  To egg mixture, add flour mixture with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  Beat just until blended, occasionally scraping bowl.  Gently fold in blueberries.

5.  Spoon batter into prepared baking dish and spread evenly.  Sprinkle with topping.

Blueberry Cobbler

Blueberry Cheesecake

My Daughter LOVED 

Blueberry Muffin 

 Back in the 80's

 Mr. Blueberry

I wish I knew where this is!!??

Baby w/ Blueberry Bow!

How cute is this?

Courtesy of Lighthouse Photography

Premier Children and Family Photography

http://lighthouselifeinpictures.com/

Grandmama & PaPaw Potato Head

Grandmama and PaPaw Potato Head

May I  introduce you to

my youngest Grandson's

depiction of #1 Husband and the Gmama!!

Gmama, PaPaw, and Scott

Scott proudly worked on these for over 30 minutes

while the family

ate BLT's

for

Sunday Night Supper!

Crime Scene?

Nah...just what my family room looks like after a Grandson Sleep-over

THIS MESS CALLS for A VACUUM CLEANER

Good Idea...IF I HAD A DECENT VACUUM

May I introduce you to my Brand New

as well as

The Worlds' WORST Vacuum Cleaner

A Grandmama without proper Cleaning tools

is like a Painter

without a 

Paintbrush!

Dirt Devil...sounds like a jet engine taking off 

AND

It has no suction after only a few operations

I have tried UNSUCCESSFULLY to get the company

to make good on this product...

I haven't given up but I'm spreading the word.

They have messed with the wrong GMAMA!!

OH WELL

If I don't get a new Vacuum Cleaner...SOON

I may have to move in with my neighbors on the

FRONT PORCH!

Any Vacuum Recommendations?

Summer Color on the Farm

SUMMER COLOR 

is

EVERYWHERE ON THE FARM

Zinnia's from my Garden

WEDNESDAY'S HARVEST

My WAVE PETUNIA

APRON FABRIC

FRUIT FAT QUARTER  $2  !!!

Vintage Linen Napkin with Crochet Border...Lovely

Strawberry, Baby Spinach, Almonds, Feta Cheese, 

with

Poppyseed Dressing (I've started using Kraft's)

SUMMER TOMATOES

Butterfly on Geraniums by My Front Sidewalk

 New Fabric for Grandson Scott's Quilt

Thanks to Marlene http://stitchinbythelake.blogspot.com/
for sending me the pattern she used for HER Grandson's Quilt
Bulldozers and Brights

                                                   Cars, Trucks, Construction Vehicles,
                                              Fire Engines, Police Cars, Rescue Vehicles

On the Clothesline!  Do You Have a Clothesline??
I LOVE to AIR Out my Quilts on a Windy Day

Quilts for Hugs Donation...Thanks Marlene!!

 Thanks Charity

A Quilt I'm working on
"AFTER THE STORMS"
I cut this quilt out during our power outage 
after the 
April 27th F5 Tornado

FLEA MARKET LINENS

LADIES HANDKERCHIEFS

Local Flea Market Find

Growing up my mother always made sure I had a clean handkerchief 

in my pocket or purse.

It was the Mark of a Lady!

Child's Handkerchief

These are not as common

If you look closely, the words say 

Find the Cow

A child has tried to write their name with marker

which gives it character in my opinion.

Why do I LOVE these little hankies, and vintage kitchen linens?  

Perhaps it brings back memories of growing up in the 50's & 60"s.

JUNE CLEAVER WAS my mother!

I remember receiving hankies as gifts for Christmas embroidered with, say, the days of the weeks, and I remember how they made me feel so much like a grown-up lady! My Great Grandmother embroidered every little girl in the family a hankie and apron for Christmas.  It was her way of expressing herself through her choice of fabric, color, thread, and her needle art.  Perhaps that's why I'm drawn to them.  I can envision the women who embroidered them fifty, sixty, or more years ago and it makes them come alive for me.

I can see using this print in a quilt block, can't you?

TABLECLOTH OR TABLE SCARF

I love all the little details in this cloth and even though there is a slight stain, it certainly won't keep me from using this on top of a chest, side table, or even layered with other table linens.

Stains only prove these cloths were well loved.

TWO DOLLARS$$$$$$$!!!!

5 1/2 YARDS!!

I found this bolt of material as I was walking by a Fabric table of various 

Hideous looking fabrics and out of the corner of my eye...I was actually PAST the vendor...when I saw this Fabric sticking up in a tub.

I know, it's not REAL vintage fabric, only Reproduction but I still LOVE IT!!

I will make a HUGE Tablecloth for my Dining room table and/or my 

my NEW KITCHEN TABLE that I'm going shopping for next week. Yippeee!!!

I ate off a Tablecloth with this same pattern as a child...lots of good memories of Mama

cooking in the kitchen and sitting at the table watching her prepare our meal.

IN FACT............

I have a funny story to tell about the day I invited the town "HOBO" (as we called Mr. Claude) to lunch.

Mama had recently given me one of her  "lessons" on good manners concerning how to treat people who may act or look different from us.  She even used Mr.Claude's name as an example of practicing Christian Charity.  Claude in real life was the heir to a large family fortune but had spiraled downward into a fog of mental illness.  He roamed the streets wearing a burly black wool coat regardless of the season and on his back he carried a HUGE sack of glass bottles he picked up all over town.  Remember, this was the 50's and soda's only came in glass bottles that you collected and returned for a deposit.

One day, while playing outside, I saw Mr. Claude ambling down the sidewalk in front of my house.  I immediately knew what I had to do...knowing Mama would be so proud...I invited him in for lunch.  Mr. Claude followed me to the back porch where I proudly announced Mr. Claude was going to have lunch with us!  I never doubted for one minute that Mama would be thrilled to have us BOTH for lunch!  Mama was peeling apples at the kitchen sink and I will never forget the "deer in the headlight" look in her eyes when she looked up and saw Claude standing on her porch with his sack full of glass bottles and me standing there  full of pride and smiling with my bottom two teeth missing!

  Mama later told me she knew in an instant where I had gotten the idea and to have refused Mr. Claude lunch would have undone any lessons she had ever taught me.

SO...on that hot summer morning, Claude and I had a lunch together of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at my kitchen table covered with a clean tablecloth matching the pattern in the fabric shown above.  I can still hear the Klink of the bottles as he shoved the bag under the table.  Once lunch was finished, Claude dutifully got up, gathered his bag, and left.  He never removed his coat and I can't remember if he thanked my Mama or not. I remember him mumbling during lunch and not understanding a word he said but it didn't matter.  I was too excited to be sharing my lunch with Claude.

I will NEVER forget that summer lunch, the kindness and wisdom of my sweet Mama, the lesson learned,and my pride in "doing lunch" with Mr. Claude, the Town HOBO.  It was a memory my mother and I often reminisced about over the years and even during her long decline into Alzheimer's, the memory remained.

I hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me.  Vintage linens and prints do that for me.  They trigger memories, sounds, smells, and long ago days of childhood.  I think my youngest daughter will be the only child to appreciate my collections from the Linen Closet.  Anna Laura loves old things and has what I like to call an "old soul".  She will give them a good home one day.

MEMORIES of a CHILDHOOD HOME

MEMORIES 

come in the strangest of packages and often when least expected!

Today, I received a package from UPS..a battered and torn package even though it was clearly labeled

PHOTOS

A Water color painting of my childhood home!  I was speechless as I tried to explain it's value to my UPS delivery man.  I know...I'm friends with the UPS man...hey it's the south...everybody knows everybody.  To his credit, he was disturbed over the condition of the package and wanted to know if any severe damage had been done to the contents.  Other than a little crease, all was well.

But Oh My Goodness!...how many times do you open a package and look at a beautifully drawn watercolor painting of your childhood home???

My High School Art Class. "painted" my house every spring right after the tulips bloomed.  MY Dad had a major Green Thumb and he planted special tulips purchased directly from a grower in Holland.  He even had a BLACK Tulip. It was pretty spectacular and colorful on a street of Victorian and Georgian Architectural Homes.  Don't think my home was anything special because most all the homes in my small hometown were old with tons of character.  My Dad simply had a way with growing things that made our yard a year round sight for Sunday Drivers and High School Art classes.

Karen was a star art student back in High School (1969-1971)and when we reconnected on FB a few years back, I happened to think that she MIGHT still have one of the drawings taken of my home.  

Disappointed when she told me NO, I forgot about it. 

Then, a few months ago she messaged me that while looking through her "stuff" she had found a watercolor painting of my home.  

Being an accomplished artist and art teacher in her own right, she apologized for the simplicity of her High School drawing.  

Again, I forgot about it 

UNTIL TODAY!!

The Painting is BEAUTIFUL

I plan to have it framed and hung in a place of honor!

Thank you 

Karen

HOMEMADE VS. FAST FOOD

HOMEMADE vs. FAST FOOD

This post began Wednesday night with # 1 Grandson (9 1/2 yrs. old)spending the night.  Earlier that afternoon, I had put a spiral sliced ham, glazed with my Mama's concoction from the 50's, into the oven to warm.  The day before, I had made some potato salad with those special touches that make my potato salad taste like...well...MINE.  I use only red potatoes and my newest secret ingredient is "Creamy Peppercorn Salad Dressing" from Kraft.  Shhh...don't tell!  I mix it in with my Hellman's mayo and sweet pickle juice.  For a 5lb. bag of red potatoes (boiled in heavily salted water), I boil 4-6 eggs, Vidalia onion to taste, sweet pickles chopped fine.  You see, I'm not the kind of cook that measures...I just start putting ingredients in and taste as I go.  That's how my Mama did it and that's how I roll too!

GMAMA's Red Potato Salad

I don't like ANY store bought potato salad and very few if any made in a restaurant.  I've often wished I could pick up some potato salad from a local deli and be on my way...yack!!  Neither me nor #1 husband will eat it.  

So...I digress...

#1 GS arrived about the same time I took the ham out of the oven to cool and later slice for dinner.  

GMAMA's Glazed Spiral Sliced Ham

 

 I must admit, the smell was pretty intoxicating!

My GS is not a big sweets eater and to be so skinny, he can put away some food!

He liked *helping* me slice the ham, take a bite, slice, slice, bite, slice, bite,...you get the picture??

The Food Police would lock me up forever but I wasn't going to be the one to tell him he couldn't eat Grandmama's ham straight from the pan!  

It's so much BETTER that way, don't you know??? Ask me for my Glaze recipe!

ABOUT THIS TIME...PAPAW rolls in from the garden and asks #1GS to go Blackberry picking with him.

In a FLASH, and I do mean FLASH...both of the boys had a bucket and were off.  Luckily, we live on a farm and the Blackberry bushes are plentiful. BTW, where do wild Blackberry bushes come from???  I promise you,we have a ton of new bushes where none grew last year, or the year before that.  I guess the Birds of the air carry the seeds and with God's goodness, delicious Blackberries grow in abundance around here.

Blackberries are just beginning to ripen so the boys picked JUST enough for me to make a Blackberry cobbler.  TIP:  wear long sleeves, long pants, and sturdy shoes,( preferably boots), when Blackberry picking.  Why?? Blackberry bushes have some major THORNS and for some reason snakes LOVE to hang around a Blackberry thicket!

READY FOR THE OVEN

HOWEVER, the conversation that occurred while the cobbler browned and dinner was being plated is at the heart of why I wrote this post.  My precious Grandson asked me a question that warmed this Grandmama's heart and started me thinking.  I'll try to recount our conversation as best I can.

GS: "Grandmama, how come you're always in the kitchen?"

Gmama: "Well, I'm usually cooking for all my hungry guests, invited or uninvited"  Giggle

GS:  You make everything Homemade and that's why it's so good.  It's *gooder* than fast food!"

Gmama: " Thank You sweetheart, Gmama's glad you like her cooking.  That makes me feel so good"

GS:  "Oh I DO LIKE your cooking.  You're about the only person I know that makes everything Homemade.  I really appreciate how hard you work to make us good food.  I think you make nice quilts too!  When is mine going to be finished?"

Gmama:  "I cook homemade because that's how I learned to cook from my Mama.  We didn't have    restaurants to go to for dinner.  Everyone ate at home and once in awhile we would get Hot Dogs from the local DQ".  And...I'm almost finished quilting your quilt.

GS:  " I want to watch you sew while I go to sleep tonight" (Wiping Ham Glaze from his mouth)

 Gmama:  Gives GS a BIG OL HUG with TEARS in her eyes.

I haven't stopped thinking since this conversation with my grandson occurred about what has been lost in our current culture where dinner consists of whatever Fast Food line is the shortest.  I would have hated missing out on all those *kitchen conversations* as I call them.  Those times when one of my Three children would hop up on the counter and start talking while I was peeling potatoes for REAL mashed potatoes or taste testing my homemade deviled eggs. It was their job to tell me if I needed more pickle juice! 

I always watched Andy Griffith and the NEWS while cooking which provided more than ample occasions to laugh over Barney Fiffe shooting himself in the foot with that famous ONE Bullet or watching the news feed when we began bombing in Desert Storm 1990.  I would have missed one of the most historic times with my son who happened to be the child on the kitchen counter on that particular evening. 

Memorizing multiplication tables happened over making the cheese sauce for HOMEMADE Mac n Cheese or licking the beaters after mixing a chocolate cake mix.

Everyone sitting down together at the dinner table, talking, laughing, storytelling, and 

sometimes disagreeing.  

We weren't perfect!  

Nope, sometimes a child pouted over their mashed potatoes or refused to eat and regretted it later once they were "over their mad" as I used to call it.

HOMEMADE vs. FAST FOOD...NO Contest! 

Of course, I ordered Pizza and bought my share of KFC chicken but it wasn't the Norm...it was a treat for the kids as well as for me!  As they got older, even the kids helped with the cooking.  In fact, #1 Daughter had a crash course in cooking when her Daddy and I contracted Mono at the same time!  She was in 6th Grade and ended up cooking dinner for an entire month while I slept.  But that's a story for another day!

I wouldn't take anything for all those *kitchen conversations* that were allowed to *marinate and simmer* rather than *unwrap and throw away*

I'm Now Grateful my Grandchildren notice that Grandmama cooks good food and has all the time in the world for another Generation of KITCHEN CONVERSATIONS..the HOMEMADE KIND!

Easy Peasy Cobbler

1 stick Butter

1 cup SR Flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup Milk

1 1/2 cup fruit (Blackberries, peaches, etc..)

Melt Butter in 8x8 pan.  Mix dry ingredients with whisk.

 I sprinkle about 1/2 c. extra sugar on blackberries due to their tartness.  If I use can peaches I don't drain the peaches but allow a lot of the juice to remain on the peaches.  Makes the cobbler juicier to use some of the liquid from the fruit.  Mix dry ingredients while butter melts.  Pre-heat oven to 400*.  Add milk to dry mixture and pour over melted butter.  DO NOT MIX!  Add fruit over top of batter.  Bake for approx. 30 min. until golden brown and edges look done. Time will vary due to ovens. Mixture will appear undone in center (edges should be dry and crispy)but will thicken after taken out of oven and left to cool.  Serve plain or with mild, ice cream or Cool Whip.

 

BLESSINGS

GMAMA JANE

Playgrounds, Grandchildren, Vintage Quilts

PLAYSTATION

Here it is!!! 

I feel like I have birthed my 4th child but 

after 18 months of 

FUND RAISING, FUND RAISER PROJECTS, MEETINGS, RED TAPE, PLEADING, CAJOLING, DESIGNING, COLLABORATING, CRYING, LAUGHING, and most of all, SWEATING for the FIVE DAYS it took to BUILD the PLAYGROUND...

PLAYSTATION, 

(an ALL Accessible Playground)

IS A

REALITY

DIL and Youngest Grandchild, Mr. Grumpy

and...Here's My Inspiration for helping Build the Playground!!  

My awesome Mr. Happy who LOVES to SWING!!

One fall afternoon, MY DD and I took Mr. Happy to a local park/playground.  He was approx. 2 yrs. old and I was shocked and dismayed to realize for the first time since Happy was born that his Cerebral Palsy prevented him from being able to play with any of the playground features.  I went home that afternoon and cried my heart out!  My grief was palpable and for the first time I worried about what the future held for my precious little Mr. Happy.  Before that moment, I didn't see his disability as being that big of a Deal.  At that moment I went through the stages of grief in a matter of a few hours.  I went from

Total Stunned Denial 

to ANGER

to DEEP SADNESS/HOPELESSNESS,

to ACCEPTANCE 

and finally 

to ACTION!!

MY thought was..."WOW... wouldn't it be great to be in on the ground floor of building a playground?".  However, I didn't have any hopes of that happening so I decided to start a campaign to at least get ONE handicapped swing in each local park.  While working on that idea, my DD found a plea on Facebook for volunteers interested in helping raise funds and build a playground in the Northeastern part of our county!

God, You really do listen to me don't you??????

Cutting the Ribbon

I even helped name the Park!!  That's why I get BIG SCISSORS!!

Fishing with PaPaw

After playing on the playground, all the grandchildren walked down to the small stocked lake with #1 Husband AKA...#1 Super PaPaw!!  PaPaw came with fishing rods and bait (weiners!  yep...best bait to catch brim and catfish)  Here are THREE of the FIVE taking turns fishing with the three rods.  Miss EG caught Three Fish all by herself...ONE catfish, TWO Brim)

Before I sign off let me leave you with my TWO great finds!!  These two quilts were Given to me from the estate of a precious lady who died several years ago and left a trunkful of Quilt Tops!  The DIL didn't want the quilts and asked if I would like to be their new owner.  DUH???  These are Classic Patterns/Colors and I'm delighted to own them.  Any suggestions on the the preferred quilting process?

 Can I just say, I LOVE MY LIFE!!!

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 (NIV)

Be joyful always, Pray continually, Give Thanks in all Circumstances, 

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

BLESSINGS