Read or Cook

                                                        Do you love to read cookbooks?

It's my favorite!

I like mystery books but cookbooks are my fav!

My husband was so sweet and turn an hutch  into a cookbook hutch!

I love it!

Island Farm House Shrimp

We love Shrimp at our house so I thought I would share a very yummy recipe.

Since it doesn't have a title I just made one up.

Island Farm House Shrimp

1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 Cloves garlic chopped up

1/2 cup fresh chopped basil or 1 tablespoon dried

1/4 cup white wine

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 Lbs shrimp ( I use same recipe for clams)

fresh ground black pepper

Heat oil when hot add garlic and saute for 1 Minute. 

Add chopped basil, wine, broth, butter and bring to a boil.

Add Shrimp and cover with lid and cook until it turns pink.

Remove shrimp to a really cute serving plate and add salt and pepper to broth  to taste.

Pour some over Shrimp to keep moist.

You can eat it like this with cocktail sauce or I also serve it over noodles with lemon and more basil.

It is so yummy so make lots its also great on salads!

Enjoy!

Hen Quilt

There are so many choices in Lori Holt's new book

"Farm Girl Vintage" it was hard to decide which one to do first.

This was a fun quilt to work on except for picking colors.

I hate picking colors.

I love the newspaper  print that is around the edge.

I love this quilt and I loved working on it.

I think I will do the lamb one next.

New Vintage

 

There is nothing more fun in decorating than to take something old

 and make it new again!

I have had this milk can kicking around forever and I knew

if I hung on to it long enough I would finally think of something to do with it.

Well... I am at least this far...

Now I just need to decide if it will get more added to the bow

or if it will become a planter.

Either way its going on the front step by my Rocker!

 

Decorating Jars

After doing my Spiced Carrots I decide to try the Free pattern that came with my copy of "Farm Girl Vintage".  You can get it free from Fat Quarter shop with your order for the book. They were so easy to make I decided I better make a several. Then I gave them away to our lastest guests around a jar of Spicy Carrots.

It makes your jars look so fancy.

Spicy Carrots

We had so much fun doing Carrots!

And it was so easy I thought I better share the recipe.

We did a few jars with onions too and they were so good we are going to do it again 

and this time add other veggies.

We used Ball electric canning pot so we followed the directions for the water bath it came with. I love this pot. I got mine from the Ball Canning website.

Spicy Pickled Carrots

Ingredients:
5 pounds of full-sized carrots, peeled and cut

4 jalapenos peppers, with seeds, halved lengthwise down the middle
14 whole cloves
2-1/3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
7 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed slightly

5 cups distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1-2/3 cups granulated sugar
5 Tbsp. pickling salt

Method:
You will need 7 pint jars (or 3 quarts and 1 pint), preferably wide-mouthed. Into each pint jar, put 1/2 a jalapeno pepper, 2 whole cloves, 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper, and one clove of crushed garlic.

Peel and trim both ends off the carrots. Cut them into carrot sticks that are one inch shorter than the pint jars. Pack the carrots sticks upright in the jars and fairly tightly. Put odd lengths and bits of carrots into one jar so the rest of them are as uniform as possible. (Or, if you have large carrots, you might like them cut into diagonal round slices.)

In a large pot, mix the vinegars, sugar and salt. Heat to boiling, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt. Carefully pour the hot vinegar into the jars over the packed carrots, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. (You might have extra vinegar if you did a nice job packing the carrots tightly.) Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp paper towel. At this point, if you aren’t canning these, add lids and put your refrigerator pickles in the refrigerator. Eat within four months.

For canning: Add lids and rings and process in the boiling water bath for 15 minutes (20 for quarts). Then, turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the bath for an additional 5 minutes before removing to the counter (onto a dish towel). Let sit un-disturbed for 24 hours. Check seals. If any jars failed to seal, store in the fridge. Otherwise, store in a cool, dark place for up at a year.

Is Your Tree Up or Down?

Is your tree up or down no that Christmas is over?

I love having Christmas trees up so I am not one to hurry and take down right after.

I enjoy the sparkle of the lights and just the fun feeling it gives to a room.

I know this maybe a an over load but here is my tree from different angles.

Oh and this one is before I hung my valance.

Look at the sparkle....

who wouldn't like to sit by a light Christmas tree.

If watching TV or stitching in the rocker the lights are just so fun.

I really enjoy putting up the tree and seeing the decorations again every year.

I even enjoy the christmas pillows and quilts we pull out each year.

I have so much fun deciding where to hang some of the quilts too!

I have a tree in my bedroom and the living room too!

Yes I did 3 trees this year and I am not ready to take down any of them.

How about you?