MIA and Pickles

Well I have been a bit MIA lately.  We had a bit of sickness in our extended family (all is ok now) and then went on vacation.  I am swamped at work now (summer and fall are my busy seasons) but I have been able to do a bit around the house and managed to document making some pickles!  I am sorry for the crappy pictures- no excuse today for it!

Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles

1) Clean and sterilize your jars and lids- I don't have a picture of this step because as I was finishing up the thought hit me that I should post this on the blog... sorry about that!

2) Cut up your pickling cucumbers and lay them on a double layer of paper towel and sprinkle with pickling salt.   Regular salt will cause the cucumbers to discolor. Let them sit for about 20 minutes or so.

3) In the meantime, place your vinegar, sugar, pickling spices and pepper flakes in a pan.  Bring to a boil and then a quick simmer for about 20 minutes.  I tied mine up in a piece of cheese cloth.

4) Additionally, place your lids in simmering water so they stay hot.  Your bands can hang out to the side.

5)Cut your onion in this slices and set aside.

6) When your vinegar mixture is ready, take your hot jars, pace your cucumbers in with a few slices on onion, a hot pepper and a pinch of pickling crisp.  Pickling crisp helps to keep your pickles crisp - duh :)

7) Leaving about a 1/2 inch head space ladle in your vinegar mixture.  Use this handy dandy tool to get rid of any air bubbles and to measure your head space.  Head space is very important because as things expand and contract in canning, you want to make sure you always have room.  Check your recipe to see how much head space you should have.

8) Wipe the top of the jar with a moist rag to ensure a good seal.  Put on the lid and screw on the band.  Leave on your counter until cool then put in to fridge.  Wait a few days for the cucumbers to "pickle" then eat within the next few months.  These must be kept in the refrigerator as they have not been properly processed and could grow all kinds of things that might upset your tummy.

A few hints and tips-
Pickleing crips really helps, but not biggie if you can't find any- I got mine at Wally World
Keep everything (jars, lids and liquid) crazy hot!
Try and slice your cucumbers in 1/4 inch slices
Use only pickling cucumbers and make sure to scrub any waxy substance off if you get them from a store
Wipe the top of the jars off so you get a good seal!
Make sure to use vinegar with at least a 5% acity.  It will read like this fancy lable

That is it... leave a comment if you have any questions!  I have peaches to do next!
I am linking to Skip to my Lou...

Thanks and things I have learned today

Today I learned a bit more about using a program called statcounter.  I have been WAY under using it to track just the number of hits to this website and the geographical region that the hits originated from.  I spent a few extra minutes in it today and learned that I have gotten quiet a few referring links from a website called Holiday Snobs.  I went over there to check it out and it turns out that they did a little post on my Easter eggs that I mailed to some nieces and nephews.  It totally inspired her to send a gift card in and altoid tin to her MIL.  It is nice to have actually been part of someone's inspiration!  You should go on over there and check out her site.  It has lots of neat things that make me want to jump up from behind my work desk (Yes you are right, I should be working and I should not be posting now) and make some cool stuff!!!
So THANK YOU Holiday Snobs for not only sending people my way, but for also reinforcing my use of web stats!  I hope my one follower will go over to your side to check it out.

And just because it shows the joy of childhood, swings and playing with friends in the park, here is one of my favorite photos of LM.

New Baby

I was blessed the other week with the opportunity to take some baby pictures for LM's friend's new baby brother.  He was such a sweet little thing.  When you look at the pictures, you can just smell that new baby smell. 

Little heads with tiny swirls of hair.

Cute little fingers and toes..... ahhh sooo cute and sweet.  This baby is surely a sweetie.

This is what LM looked like.... quiet a difference huh?

Potty! and Strawberries!

It was a BIG day here in our house today! LM and I were hacking around in the morning and all of the sudden, he looked at me and said, "Potty NOW", so off we went. He sat there for hours- so long that I had to get some new books for his book basket as per his request.

Finally, we got our pee!

After a phone call to TH to celebrate with a round of pee, pee in the potty (if you don't know the song, I am sure you can imagine it), we got dressed for the day and loaded up in Mama's Truck, to go pick some strawberries.

I can't tell you how unbelievably well behaved my son was. It must be in his blood to pick strawberries. My Mother took us kids (5 of us plus what ever neighborhood kids were around) to go picking every year. We would spend hours picking flats of strawberries to make into jam for eating throughout the year and for giving as gifts. Such a simple thing, but I have been excited about passing this tradition onto my son. He stayed near me as I picked like crazy thinking I was on limited time. He spent his time helping me pick the red ones and pointing out the no-no ones (green or rotten). As I left each bucket or flat behind, he got concerned about it and would go back to check on it. He also would drag the small backpack along the ground to me. (Yes, I now use a small backpack as a diaper bad so my son can wear it and carry it around like a Sherpa.)

 Also it helped that Mama let him eat as many strawberries as he wanted. A wonderful time was had by all and I now have new memories in my memory bank.  Especially this one!

easter egg fun

I know this post is a bit late, but I still wanted to share with you what I did for all of my nieces and nephews for Easter. This idea is not original. I found it here.  I filled up my eggs with all kinds of goodies from jelly beans (placed in little plastic bags) to stretchy lizards. I also made sure to tape the egg shut.  I then slapped my labels on them and trotted off to the post office on my lunch break with a co-worker.  I though for sure I would get the evil eye from the post worker, but she didn't bat and eye at the eggs.  When I asked her about it, she said that she has processed a ton of unusual stuff.  She said that one lady came in with a flip flop with a thank you note written on it!  Totally funny and cool as get out.  Any who, my next challenge is to come up with something tiny to send for the 4th of July.  Do you have any ideas?

**** update!   I heard today that the first of my eggs made it to the mailbox.  A super sweet friend of LM's was happy to find this surprise in her mailbox.  Her parents were also super surprised to find this treat in the mailbox.

Part 2 of 2

Wrapped Candy Treats Part 2 of 2

Ok here we go for Part 2.  This is really short and sweet.

To recap, you have created your label template, added your background and circle.  You also should have grouped your background and circle together so that they don’t slip and slide around.  We are now going to draw the dotted line and then add the text.

Dotted Line

If you don’t want to add the line in the center, then go to the next section for adding text.

1.    Under your same drawing or object pallet that you used to draw your circle, you should be able to select a line style.  I selected the plain line, but if you want and arrow or what ever then go for it!
2.    Go ahead and draw your line on your label. It will show up in the default color and style. 3.    Double click on the line to see this formatting window. 4.    Pick the style you like.  I picked a black line, dashed and a 2.0 thickness, but go with what you like.
5.    Move the line to the center of the circle. Here is what it should look like.   6.    Your last step here is to select your rectangle (already grouped with your circle) and your line at the same time and right click to group them together so they don’t slip and slide!

Adding your Text

The text is added by using a text box.  I used two text boxes, one for each initial.  Obviously, you could use one text box, like I did for the date or for the “thanks” Here is how you do it- remember it might be slightly different for each version of word.  If you are unsure of where the feature is on your version then use your handy dandy search button.

1.    Under the “Insert” menu (at the top of your menu bar), select textbox.

2.    Go ahead and draw your box to be about the size you want it

3.    Add your letter.  Your letter is not going to be on it’s side like the one here.  To do this, you need to either go back to your tool pallet or right click on the textbox to format it.  There will be an item for changing the direction of the text.  If you don’t see this, then search in your help area for “changing text direction”
4.    Select everything and right click to group again. 5.    Add your bottom letter and format again for text direction. 6.    If you only want to have one thing written such as the date or a little message, then you would only need one text box.

 Making copies of one label

Ok, last step here.  Lets make copies of the one label we have into the sheet.

Select your label and copy it using what ever command you want (right click, or keyboard command or what ever) go to the next label area and paste, making sure it all pastes correctly.  Also, you want to make sure they are all lined up in a nice neat row.

It should look like this!

 Peel and stick to a Hershey Nugget candy and you are crazy ready to go!

Have fun and feel free to drop a comment or email if you have any questions!

Wrapped Candy Treats Part 1 of 2

Hey you people.  I didn't see any comments so perhaps I will tease you with only part 1 of the tutorial.  If you like it please let me know!
 

Supplies

·      Hershey Nuggets (any flavor)

·      Avery Labels 5160

·      Printer

Creating your label

Creating your labels is pretty simple.  The directions for your version of MS Office might be slightly different depending on where the commands are located, but you should be able to figure it out.

1.    In Office, start up a fresh document.

2.    Go to the “Tools” menu

3.    Select “Labels”

·      You should make sure to have 8160 listed as your label, if not, select the “Options” button and search for it. ·      Make sure you have “Full page of the same label” selected under the number of labels. ·      Leave everything else blank and select the “OK” button.

4.    Office will now create a blank template of your labels.  You will notice that there are some gray lines.  These are your guidelines for you labels and you don’t want to mess with them!

Creating the background

In the first box, you are going to draw a box so here we go!

1.    Go to your drawing tool and make a box 1” for height and 2.5 for the width or you can just draw it the size of the box.  Don’t cover the grid lines between the big boxes, these are the empty spaces between your labels.

2.    Double click on the box to format the properties of the box.  You should get a similar window as below.

To make labels like mine: ·      Under colors and lines select the drop down for “Fill Color” ·      Select  “Fill Effects”
·      Under “Fill Effects” select the “Pattern” tab. ·      Pick your pattern and colors- be creative! Click “OK” to exit out of these formatting windows

Draw your circles

Now you are going to draw your circle on top of the rectangle.

1.    Go to your drawing pallet again and this time you are going to draw a circle.

2.    Double click on the circle to get to the formatting window again.  This time you are going to change the fill color to white and change the line size and style to what ever you want.

3.    When you exit out, your circle should be on top of the rectangle you have drawn.  If you don’t see it, then right click on the box to the “Arrange” menu.  Select “send to back”.  Your circle should now be on top.  You might have to goof around with this some to see it correctly.

4.    Make sure your circle is in the center of your rectangle.

5.    The last step here is to select your square and your rectangle at the same time, and then right click to select the “Group” menu.  Select “Group”.  This will hold your rectangle and circle together so they don’t slip and slide!
 And that my friends is the end of Part 1