Stayin' Cool

It has been really really hot lately.
This is the temperature gauge in our truck. Yeah.. it says 124*... the truck don't lie. It be hot!

So yesterday to try and stay cool we went to the res!

Mark on his red wheeler

Allie and Estefan started swimming lessons on Monday. They are showing us how they
"kick kick kick kick kick!"
Mark was more into playing in the mud than the water
Estefan kickin
Funny Little Girl
I need a pedi... like now!
Dad and Bud practicing swimming
Dad working with Allie on her kicks
Happy Swimmers
Love the reservoir mud
Allie getting ready to dive
Estefan thinks he's a pirate ;)
Muddy face kids How ya'll handlin' the heat??

lovin' the rain

I love the smell of rain on cement

I love hearing the rain in the trees
I love this funny face
I love bouncing on a wet trampoline
I love this funny face too
I love watching the rain fall from the roof
I love dancing in the rain
I love {hate} the smell of wet dog
Love,

Freezing Spaghetti Sauce (Small Recipe)

Spaghetti Sauce

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbs cooking oil

2 lbs tomatoes, peeled and cup up

or 1 28 oz can of tomatoes

1 6 ounce can tomato paste

2 tsp instant beef bouillon granules

1 tsp dried oregano, crushed

1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 1/2 cup water

1 large bay leaf

****This recipe is super easy. There is no canning or straining involved. The only time consuming part is the scalding and peeling of the tomatoes.****

The recipe calls for 2 lbs of tomatoes but I had about 9 lbs so I had to times the recipe by four. But in my directions I'll stick to the regular amounts. If you have more than 2 lbs of tomatoes just add to the recipe as needed!

1. Prepare tomatoes- scald and peel.

2. In a 3 quart saucepan cook onion and garlic in oil

I suffer sooooooo badly when I cut up onions.. so mine aren't finely chopped... It just makes for chunkier sauce.

3. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, bouillon granules, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt, pepper and stir in water.

4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1 1/4 hour. Stirring occasionally.

5. Remove Bay leaf and simmer for 15 more minutes.
Your sauce should look something like this...

Since the sauce doesn't need to be canned you can just used quart size freezer bags!

6. Label your bags with the date and contents before you pour in the sauce.

7. Pour 3 cups of sauce into each bag and remove excess air.

8. Lay bags flat on a cookie sheet and tick em in the freezer while still on the cookie sheet so they'll freeze flat for easier storage!

Now you are done!! You can enjoy your sauce immediately or put it in the freezer for later use!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Extra stuff:

**Mark being a good helper!! **
**A bonus recipe for meatballs to go with your spaghetti! **I made this 3x5 card in photoshop. Just right click it and copy it into a word document and print. Then ta-da a recipe card just for you, from me!!!

my little secret...

After posting all my canning tutorials and recipes, I've had soooooo many people leave comments asking, "How do you have time to do all that?" or " You are a busy woman!"
or they'll say I'm amazing or my personal favorite a "domestic Diva!"

But the truth is simple. I have a little secret...

I




am





a






WIZARD!
(ok I'm a girl so technically I'd be a witch but I like the sound of wizard better!)

That's right you heard me correctly. I am a wizard! See for yourself...

I have a magic wand and it really does all the work for me. I just sit back, kick my feet up and swish and flick my wand! Magic gets the canning and crafting done in half the time. Its really cool, you should try it sometime!

Ok, you caught me. I'm not a wizard or a witch but I am excited to see Harry flippin Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 23 days!! I'm even gonna get a HP t-shirt so I can be cool like all the other crazys that'll be there! I'm thinkin this one....

or this one...

{cuz I'm pretty much in love with Ronald Wesley.}

What do you think?

Should I just get em both???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok now for some more garden friendly stuff...

If you don't use all your onions or peppers in the salsa, soup or spaghetti sauce you can freeze em!

How you ask?

Here's how my friends...

Onions

Clean you onion like you would for eating

scald it for 3-7 minutes or until the center is heated

cool, drain and freeze!

Peppers (sweet)

Wash, cut out stems and remove seeds

freeze whole, as halves, strips or diced!

Then you can save them for next year or use them in other recipes through out the year!

Easy as pie, enjoy! :)

Spicy Carrots

Saturday morning Dustin picked ALL of our carrots. See this bushy thing in our kids' swimming pool. Its not a bush its the carrot tops! That is a whole lotta carrots!!!

So with all these babies we bottled Spicy Carrots ALL DAY Saturday!

What you'll need: (makes 4 pint jars)
4 hot peppers
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp rosemary
2 pounds carrots, cut 3" long
2 cups water
2 cups white vinegar
3 tbs sugar
3 tbs salt

This recipe says it makes a total of four pints.
So I tripled it about eight times to get all of our carrots done.
Unless you have an enormous amount of carrots like we did you should be fine to follow the recipe as is.

Other stuff you are gonna need:
Steam Canner
Bottling Tools
Jars
Lids
Rings


1. Wash your carrots really good outside and get all the mud and gunk off.
Dustin givin' the carrots a bath

2. Just like with the tomatoes fill one side of your sink with water for the carrots to soak.

3. Peel the carrots with a potato peeler and cut them in three inch pieces
4. Put the peeled carrots in the other side of the sink to soak some more, just to make sure they are extra clean and to keep them from drying out.

5. Halve peppers lengthwise
6. In each jar put in 1 pepper, 1 garlic clove and 1/4 teaspoon rosemary
7. Pack jars full of carrots.
(Dustin really likes unions, so we put in some onions too, but that is totally optional!)

8. In a regular sized cooking pot combine water, vinegar, sugar and salt bring to a boil

9. Pour vinegar brine over carrots in the jars

10. Get all the air bubbles out of your jars. Use a butter knife and work it up and down all along the side until you don't see any more bubbles rise.
(I made Dustin do that part, cuz it is no fun.)

11. Adjust your lids and rings and process in steam canner for 20-25 minutes
12. Use your handy dandy tools and be careful of the steam, its HOT! Don't get burned!!

When we were all finished up we had 22 quarts and 8 pints!
Here's a glance into my pantry. The jars are full 6 deep. We are building up our food storage a little at a time!

****IMPORTANT!!!****
*Carrots always seem like they take a long time to seal. To ensure that you have a tight seal ALWAYS wait until you see steam coming out of the side of your canner before you start timing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now some other stuff....

Markie Mark
I don't know how it always happens but he always seems to be half dressed or only in his diaper...

My primary lesson was on Ammon and missionary work so I made these little cards and future missionary tags for all my kids! Aren't they cute?!
The tutorial for the shirt is found here!!

and
Happy Father's Day!!!

Hope you spoiled all your daddies!
Have a happy Monday :)