And here's one of the pier at Juno Beach.

I took a short vacation...

I was able to visit our son and his family in Florida the last few days.  He and I went out to Juno Beach two mornings ago to watch the sunrise.  Here is a picture I took out there.

Couldn't help myself...

I also made a new dress for the 1 year old granddaughter's birthday.  :) I had the fabric and supplies on hand.  This fabric is cotton/polyester and very smooth and soft at the same time being a little crisp.  Perfect.  I bought it, a few years ago, from www.gehmanscountryfabrics.com

A friend for the new dollie....

I made the doll for a little granddaughter.  Her brother is having a birthday very close to hers.  I made this bear from some white terry cloth that I dyed with RIT dye.  I'm very happy with it.  Here is a link to the pattern I used.  It is free.  I was pleasantly surprised how nicely this turned out. His eyes and nose are "safety" so they are not a choking hazard, except to maybe the family dog.

http://www.eldrbarry.net/im/meg/simpbear.pdf

A new dollie....

Our youngest granddaughter will be turning 1 year old soon.  I made a doll for her.  Here she is. :)

Salsa re-post!

Just in case you are overrun with tomatoes, I thought I would re-post this:

13 years ago, August 9, 2000 I invented my own salsa recipe for canning.  I've tweaked it various ways through the years.  I call it ~

Millennial Salsa

That jar may look enormous, but actually it is only a pint jar.

Here is a picture of all of the ingredients after I mixed them together.

That is a two-gallon soup pot, and that amount filled 13 pint jars.  13 years, 13 pints jars.  I was quite surprised when I looked at the date on the recipe card and saw I had written it exactly 13 years ago.  Boring to the rest of the world, but it made me feel happy.  Here is the recipe, as I made it this year.

Millennial Salsa

About 1/3 bushel tomatoes - I had a mixture of large tomatoes and some paste - type tomatoes.

4 jalapeno peppers

4 onions

1 Tablespoon sea salt

2 cups vinegar ( I use white, distilled )

4 small cans tomato paste

4 large garlic cloves or two teaspoons garlic powder 

Wash, blanch, peel, and core the tomatoes.  Cut them into pieces and use your thumb to take out the seedy/juicy part of each one.  When they are all prepared, chop them briefly in a food processor.  Alternately, you can do it with a knife. Prepare enough to fill your pan a little over half full.

Cut the stem end off of the jalapeno peppers  and dice them finely in the food processor (including the seeds.)

Peel the onions, cut in chunks and chop them up in the processor also.

Put all the ingredients together in a heavy bottomed and stir thoroughly.  Stirring often to prevent scorching, heat to boiling.  Turn off heat.  Ladle into jars.  Clean rims.  Apply hot caps and rings.  Process in boiling water or in a steam canner for 45 minutes.

This is a "medium heat" salsa.  Do NOT eliminate the tomato paste.  Two things will happen.  One is, the salsa will be too runny.  The other thing is, it won't have enough acid to make this salsa safe to can with boiling water.

A Very Rainy Year... 2019

In case you are wondering why I've not been sharing any garden pictures this year, I thought I would mention that we have had so much rain that our garden is ruined, for the most part.  I am getting little bits of things... kale, a few carrots, and am still hoping the sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes will give us something, but other than that, we've pretty well given up.

On a happier note, and for your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of our 4-year-old grandson at the airport.  :)

And now I can make a case for always canning and/or freezing more than you need, if you have the storage space.  I cleaned and reorganized the canning shelves yesterday, and can see that in fact, I really don't need to can anything this year.  I did do some baked beans and some store-bought cabbage recently. I have plenty of everything else.  I'm amazed and grateful.

I hope that if you grow food, your weather has been better!