Sunday Hymn..Great is Thy Faithfulness

Thomas Chisholm was born in 1866 in the state of Kentucky. He wrote over 1200 hymns, such as: "Living For Jesus," and "O, to be Like Thee." But the hymn we remember the most is "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." Chisholm did not write this hymn because something great and miraculous had taken place in his life. No, he wrote this because over his entire life he had learned to see the greatness of God. At the age of 75, he wrote:

"My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness."

Growing up in the Methodist church, this is one of my favorite hymns...I like Fernando Ortega's version.....

We woke up to much cooler temperatures..in the 60s this morning....what a wonderful fall change after the last week with triple digits....I sure hope the hot weather is over but am not counting on it......maybe I'll get motivated to  bake and work in the garden again...been too hot to do either..

Last night I stitched up 3 little Halloween fabric tags...they were fun to stitch and a simple design

I listed these in Yardsellr

This morning, I watched the Restoring Honor rally in Washington D.C. on Facebook....just wonderfully inspiring speakers and music.....there were almost 1 million people gathered around the Lincoln Memorial..and Washington monument......very loving and peaceful, .....it ended with a bagpipe Amazing Grace and over 200 spiritual leaders in prayer...it was wonderful..
here is a video

Down to the River

Thought I'd post this wonderful Alison Krauss video....so much of our heritage has been forgotten...American was once a very Christian country..not perfect for sure, lots of problems but better... people had a sense of decency and humanity in most places .these photos of baptism are outstanding. My mama said even though she's have to walk to the bus stop at night during the Depression with the days earnings in her purse in the bad part of town...no one ever bothered her and in fact, the homeless men watched out so she was safe...would that happen now? I doubt it.

Piccalilli and Rummage Pickles

Here are the other two recipes I promised to post...I well remember being served Piccalilli at my grandmas....it is a prized recipe..

Best Ever Piccalilli

32 medium sized green tomatoes, quartered
1 pt. small onions
6 green peppers, quartered lengthwise
6 sweet red peppers, quartered lengthwise
1 1/2 qts. vinegar
3 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. salt
1 1/2 t. allspice
1 12/ t. cinnamon
4 ts. celery seed
1.2 c. mustard seeds

Wash vegetables, put through food chopper (food processor now) using a medium blade. Drain.
Place vegetables in a large kettle, add 1 qt. vinegar. Boil for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Drain and discard liquid. Return vegetables to pot and add remaining vinegar, sugar,salt and spices. Simmer 3 minutes. Keep mixture simmering while packing hot sterilized jars. Pack into one hot jar at a time. Fill to 1/8th from top of jar. Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Makes 6 to 7 pints.
This is so good on hamburgers, and served with meats.....

The other recipe is called Rummage Pickles..in the old days, you used every thing that was left..all the odds and ends........nothing was wasted....

Rummage Pickles

2 qts. green tomatoes
1 small head cabbage
3 sweet green peppers
3 sweet red peppers
1 large cucumber
3 onions
1 qt. red tomatoes
6 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. salt
1 1/2 c. vinegar
1 1/2 c. water
4 c. sugar
1 t. dry mustard

Chop all vegetables first, discarding pepper seeds, and peeling onions. Add salt and let stand overnight. In morning,drain and discard liquid. Add vinegar, water, sugar and mustard to vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer an hour or until clear.
Pack into hot sterilized jars and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes. This makes 14 pints.

My grandma would always serve different pickles and relishes at every dinner..she had pretty little depression glass plates to serve them in....sometimes the plates were divided for the different types of relishes and pickles.....I've collected a few of these..often see them at estate sales...
they are usually very inexpensive...the footed one in the middle was one of my grandma's....

. I loved her bread and butter pickles....my mother in law years later make a wonderful sweet pickle called Crystal Pickles..we begged for it whenever we went back to Iowa for vacation...just wonderful..crisp and sweet...she gave me the recipe and I tried several times to make them but it just wasn't the same.....

Harvest and Hot, Hot, Hot

Alan got up early and harvested the rest of the tomatoes....mostly green....our garden is officially over for the summer...I plan on making some Green Tomato Pickles or perhaps Indian Pickles..There are many recipes to choose from, others are  the old fashioned Piccalilli and Rummage Pickle....
here are the recipes for the first two and tomorrow the second  two.......

Green Tomato Pickles

2 qts. sliced green tomatoes
3 T. salt
2 c. vinegar
2/3 c. dark brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
3 T. mustard seed
1/2 t. celery seed
1 t. tumeric
3 c. sliced onions
2 large sweet red peppers, chopped
1 hot green or red pepper, chopped

Mix tomatoes and salt. Let stand about 12 hours. Drain. Heat vinegar, sugars and spices in a large pot to boil; add the sliced onions and boil for 5 minutes. Then add the drained tomatoes and peppers bring slow to the boil again. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
Pack in hot sterilized jars. Be sure the syrup covers the vegetables. Seal at once.
Process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Makes 9 half pints.

Here is the other recipe..this is called Indian Pickle

4 lbs. green tomatoes
4 lbs. ripe tomatoes
3 medium onions, peeled
3 medium sweet red peppers, seeded
3 medium green peppers, seeded
1 large cucumber
7 c. chopped celery
2/3 t. salt
3 pts. vinegar
3 lbs. brown sugar
1 t. dry mustard
1 t. white pepper

Chop coarsely all the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for 12 hours or overnight. In the morning, drain well and discard liquid, add remaining ingredients.
Bring to a boil and simmer slowly for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour into hot sterilized jars, seal at once and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Makes 6 pints.




The last few days have been really warm here....yesterday it got up to 108 in the shade on our patio...I hated to go out to hang up the clothes and then again to take them down (although the clothes dried in record time)...our poor Mrs. Quack was in distress and trying to stay cool in shade of our African sumac tree...I took pity and put out a sprinkler for her where she sat in the cool water.....she is moulting and doesn't look very good right now so no photo....poor girl...no eggs either..its just too hot! She has a small wading pool she takes a dip in occasionally...
We do live in a hot climate..the inland Californian valleys can get quite warm. This hot weather isn't unusual but we haven't had it like this for several summers....last year, I think we only had to put the air conditioner on for a week...its on daily now and even though we set it at a rather high temperature (81) it runs constantly. We are also coming into fire season....no major ones yet but with weather like this, its only a matter of time.

I was browsing through my dashboards favorite blogs when I came across Faithfulness Farm's post today about individual serving dishes...Paula Deen had an article in her magazine, Best Dishes.....something old has become new again!...I've always like the little individual dishes also....but enjoy the vintage ones as not only do they have the same  features as the new ones but were made right here in the good old USA. From freezer, to oven or microwave...great for individual casseroles or desserts...can I hear apple crisp?These were made back in the 70s and you can usually find them at garage sales and at thrift shops for a fraction of the new ones.....I've had these 3 in my shop for a time but decided to keep them...they are so useful....

On Sunday, our son bought his first car! As I said, he's really growing up and has been saving his money for quite some time......Its a 1997 Oldsmobile..very clean and low mileage.....bought it from the original owners.He spent yesterday cleaning and cleaning it..even had the carpets shampooed..It has new tires and rims too.Happy Boy!

Making Peach Ice Cream

One of the items that was destroyed by our garage fire was our Cuisinart Ice Cream maker... it was an oldie but a goodie.....so we looked around for a replacement. The new Cuisinart is even better! Yesterday we made peach ice cream..sugarfree of course!..and it only takes about 25 minutes...this is a Google image as I forgot to take a photo...

Peach Ice Cream
3 cups sliced ripe peaches, skins removed
4 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sugar, or Splenda, divided
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 3/4 c. cream (can use half and half)
1 1/2 t. vanilla

In a small bowl, put sliced peaches with the lemon juice and half the sweetener. Let this sit for about 2  hours. Stir gently occasionally. then strain the fruit and save the juices..mash half  the fruit in the blender or by hand.

In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer at low speed (I just used a wire whisk) mix milk and remaining sweetener until all dissolved about 2 minutes or so.  Stir in the cream, reserved juice, and vanilla.Turn the machine on and pour in the mixture. Mix until thickened about 20 minutes and at the last 5 minutes, add the reserved fruit and mix completely. This can be eaten right away but we like to put it in a freezer container and put it in the freezer for a few hours. I didn't have quite enough cream  (Alan had made a smoothie with some of it so used additional milk and it was fine)....This makes about 2 pints which is plenty for us. Its fun to try different flavors..he wants to put some of his plum conserve in vanilla ice cream and see how that is......should be yummy!
The next thing I want to try is making our own vanilla....trying to find vanilla beans is proving a little difficult at least here in our neck of the woods...so far no grocery stores carry vanilla beans. I have found some online sources but will preserver and look further before I go that route.......Vodka is easy to get which is the other ingredient.....

I recently listed some stitchery on Yardseller
this is a new site  through Facebook and seems to be very popular..I already sold one item and have gotten tons of hits....they also are looking for writers and after submitting a 8 word paragraph was chosen along with 9 others for a job as a writer. I was asked  to write a 800 word essay which I did  this morning and submitted. They will be hiring 2 to 3 writers so my fingers are crossed. The good thing about Yardseller is listing is free!

A Kitty Needs Our Help

This is Mia..her owner is Nellie who lives in Chicago and is Nancy's daughter (Inside Nana's Head)
Mia is very sick and is at the vets right now......you can read more of her story by clicking on the above link
I know how much vet bills cost having 4 cats of our own and hope all my blog readers can help out, even if its  just a small amount......and I will give 50% of any sales in my shop towards Mia's care also.....together we can make a difference.....for Mia and for Nellie....

Halloween Table Mat

Here is the fall/Halloween table mat I made..sewed it up yesterday...I really like it although looking at it, I can see the border fabric pattern is not quite even....most of our fall/Halloween decorating items were torched so I think I will just keep it and use it this October with a large candle.....the pattern is from Primitive Stitches.....
I've gotten alot of her epatterns and just love them..easy to stitch..and reasonably priced...you can also order them on cardstock if you don't like epatterns which I love..instant satisfaction! She treats the fabric with a primitive tea dying mix so hers look more country..I kinda like them less prim but that's just me....I know primitive is very popular...I also completed the other tag and have this set in my shop..if anyone is interested...the holidays are coming!

Yesterday it was hot hot hot..our outside thermometer registered 102 although the official temperature was "only" 92. The backyard tends to be both hotter and colder than most of Menifee..I think its because we are in a little low area..the road behind our house is at least 15 ft. higher. that our backyard....I had mentioned the road was being worked on and the noise level is much better now, which surprised us.....when we moved in, there was 8 telephone poles behind the wall we had to look at while in the backyard..I asked the Lord to remove them...not really thinking too much about it..it was really in jest..a week later, the poles were all taken down...Thank you! Amazing how He surprises us sometimes, huh?

Tuesday Tags

Just had to show you these new tags, I have almost completed....I am quite pleased on how they came out..these is a new pattern for me...I will be listing them when finished in my shop....I decided to do alot more beading on them which sparkle and I think they came out really nice....there is one more in the set of 3 to do.....
A good friend asked about Santa tags..sadly the one set I had from last year got "smoked" in the fire so I made another set..

a rather old world Saint Nickolas....I listed these yesterday...right now there is free shipping on everything....

Can't believe how fast this year is going....fall is in the air, even though we had hot weather over the weekend..it was over 100 yesterday....Alan made more fig conserve over the weekend...plus I made 5 pints of pickled figs...we also  dried peaches..I think I might dry some orange slices today...would be nice for fall decorating...we put all the jars in boxes and stacked  them in our big walk in closet. A dark cool place...