Saintly Sewing

I was looking for a quick sewing project to keep myself occupied on a recent trip to Dallas.  I came across some adorable saint patterns on Waltzing Matilda's blog.  Kyle re-worked the St.Clare pattern into a St.Faustina image and voila:

I was embroidering this sweet little saint in no time!

I pondered whether to sew the image into a pillow or quilt but finally decided Mary Grace would enjoy her more as a doll.  So I found a scrap of material and stitched a small quote from our beloved saint...

Mary Grace loved it right away!

I was so happy because you never know with toddlers.

I see many more of these sweet saints in her future, maybe in the form of a quilt next time.

St. Faustina, pray for us!

If you'd like to download one of her many patterns, 

check out Waltzing Matilda's blog HERE.

Some quick summer sewing

Y'all know I love quick, simple, easy patterns,

 especially when they're FREE!

That's just what you get when you download the

Oliver and S Popover Sundress.

(sizes 2-8)

It is the perfect little dress for girls on the GO!

(and for busy mamas who can only sew during naptime)

I love the little bias ties at the shoulders, very girly, indeed.

The pattern also gives you tips for adding embellishments, like placing a strip of rick-rack or lace underneath the front yoke.

These little dresses are so simple that I'm able to cut and sew 

about three of them in an hour.

Which only fuels my obsession that Mary Grace needs new dresses for holidays, family get togethers, outings with friends....

...or just Tuesdays.

Candy Roaster Pie

We finally harvested some of the candy roaster squash that I blogged about HERE. 

These squash are HUGE as you can see!

I sliced one in half, scooped out the seeds, and roasted it in the oven for about an hour.  The flesh was gorgeous, sweet, and not as stringy as pumpkin.  One squash gave me six cups of puree which I promptly made into pies.  
I also saved the seeds so I can grow these again next year!

The pie was a big hit!

Who says you need a fork?

This is a girl after my own heart!

Candy Roaster Squash Pie

2 cups candy roaster squash puree

 1/2 cup sugar 

2 eggs 

2 Tbsp. flour 

1/2 cup evaporated milk 

1 tsp. vanilla 

3 Tbsp. melted butter 

Your favorite pie crust

 Stir all ingredients together, then beat at medium speed of electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Pour mixture into unbaked pie crust. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 - 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

 

The best (and easiest) homemade tomato sauce EVAH!

For years I have made tomato sauce the same way. I spent the greater part of a day blanching, peeling, seeding, chopping, and laboriously stirring over a hot pot so the sauce wouldn't scorch.

By the time it was time to eat, I was exhausted.

 NEVER AGAIN!

Thanks to Pinterest, I've found the easiest and most flavorful sauce to use with my homegrown tomatoes that requires little effort at all!

First start with your tomatoes. 

I used some of my homegrown sauce tomatoes combined with some gorgeous slicing tomatoes that my in-laws grew.  You really can use any type of tomato, even little cherry varieties.  Cut up enough tomatoes to almost fill a 9x13 baking dish or pan.

Add one large rough cut onion, about 10 cloves of garlic, and some torn basil leaves.  Sprinkle generously with sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.  

Mix thoroughly with your hands.

Place pan in a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour.  

What you will get is perfectly softened, caramelized goodness!

Plus, your house is going to smell amazing.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the tomato mixture to a food processor or blender.  

Add one can of tomato paste and one tablespoon,

 or more, of balsamic vinegar.

  

Pulse to desired consistency.  

Add some of the juices from the baking dish if you'd like your sauce a little thinner.  

Pour sauce into a crock pot and cook on low the rest of the day.  The longer you let the sauce cook, the sweeter the tomato paste becomes.  Season with additional salt, pepper, and herbs to taste.

  

Here I added one pound each of ground beef and sweet Italian sausage.  I also added a generous pinch of oregano and chili flakes.  

I didn't even break a sweat making this wonderful sauce,

and did I mention that it makes your house smell amazing?

Candy Roaster Squash

This year I ordered some Candy Roaster Squash seeds. This large squash is a bit of a cross between a sweet potato and a pumpkin. Fruits can grow to well over 10 pounds,

 enough to feed this motley crew!

I planted exactly FOUR seeds to grow up a chicken wire trellis.
They've grown up, over, around, and seem hell bent on world domination at this point.

Somewhere under that mass of leaves is a grill 
and my husband is not happy about that.

I used to have a small bed on the side of our back porch that was growing black eyed peas, tomatoes, and is home to a rosemary bush...

The candy roaster has decided to take over that bed as well.

I wouldn't mind pruning it back a bit, but there are more than a dozen of these beauties growing all over and I can almost taste that
candy roaster squash pie!

I know my blog posts have been sporadic, but if you don't hear from me again in a week, send in reinforcements...

The candy roaster may have overtaken us!

(I'll be the one laying on the couch with pie crumbs on my chin.)

Elephant garlic harvest

The other day I noticed that my elephant garlic greens had turned brown and wilted.  So I asked Doug to dig up the garlic patch to see what we could find.

THIS is what we found!

14 baseball sized elephant garlic!

The cloves were bigger than my thumb, and the smell was divine.  Elephant garlic is supposed to be much milder than traditional garlic and I cannot wait to cook with it.  I might even try pickling some.

Here are some of the "babies" the bulbs left behind.  You can bet they are going right back into the garden, or out to a few friends.  Because you don't want to be the ONLY one eating garlic, am I right?

And from the size of these monsters, 

we're going to be eating LOTS of garlic

(and probably lots of Tic-Tacs, too!).

Sewing for summer

I've been spending time this past week sewing up Mary Grace's summer wardrobe.  I've settled on  precious little peasant dresses and lazy days skirts with matching tanks.

Both of these are super simple patterns that go from cutting to ribbon encased hem in 30 minutes or less.

 (Depending if I'm fueled by sweet tea or not!)

They are the perfect light summer outfit for helping in the garden, playing around the house, 

Or watching big brother's baseball games!

Links to patterns here:

Peasant Dress

Oliver+S Lazy Days Skirt

Lucky boy!

Our church bazaar was this past Sunday.  

Doug handed John Paul a ticket and he won a cake.  

Doug gave him another ticket and he won a plant.

We are kicking ourselves for not letting him pick Powerball numbers and are currently thinking of taking him to Vegas.

(He did the exact same thing last year!)

Lemon Verbena Jelly

I love lemons ~

 the scent, the flavor, that happy yellow color, 

EVERYTHING! 

 I won't have lemons to harvest for a few more months

 but I will have the next best thing, 

lemon verbena.

My lemon verbena plant got a little crazy in the herb garden, so I decided to giver her a trim and make some jelly with the fragrant leaves (thank you PINTEREST for the idea!).

I used the exact same recipe to make this jelly 

that I did for my rose petal jelly :

2 cups of packed lemon verbena leaves

3 cups of water

juice of one lemon

1 box of powdered pectin

4 cups of sugar

Start by gathering and rinsing your leaves.  

Place the leaves in a saucepan and add 3 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Allow this tea to steep for 10 minutes then strain into a large measuring cup.  If you don't have exactly three cups of liquid when you're done, add water.

Add the juice of one lemon and dissolve 

the powdered pectin into the mixture.

Return this mixture to the saucepan, and on the highest heat possible, bring to a rolling boil while stirring continuously.  Add the sugar all at once and bring back to a rolling boil.  When you get to the rolling boil, stir constantly for two minutes.  Remove from heat and ladle into hot, sterilized jars.  Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes six half pints.

I have to be honest, 

I thought this would taste like lemon Pledge!

I was wrong.

This is the lovliest, lightest flavored jelly.  

It has just a hint of floral taste, 

and then deeper tones of honey and lemon.

  

IT IS DIVINE!

Now to go search Pinterest 

to find a scone recipe!

DIY Hummingbird feeders

You know I'm all about the PINTEREST!

So when I happened to see wine bottle hummingbird feeders, 

I had to give them a try.

They are extremely simple to make.  All you need is a wine bottle, some heavy gauge copper wire, wire cutters, and some stopper/feeder tubes (I got mine off of Amazon:  HERE)

It's a simple as wrapping the wire around the wine bottle and making a hanger at the top.  You can make swirls, curls, or just criss cross like I did.

Then fill your clean wine bottle with a sugar and water solution.  Use one part sugar to four parts water and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  No need for any of that red dye stuff.

Hang your feeder and you're good to go!

This feeder is right outside my kitchen window.  I love to watch the little guys while I'm cooking and doing dishes.  It may take up to a week for the hummers to find your feeder if this is the first time you're putting one up.

I made three feeders from old bottles I had stashed.  I'd love to make some for friends and family, so you know what that means.....I better get to drinking some wine!

You know, for the hummingbirds, 
'cause I'm a giver!

And while I'm sipping on that wine,
enjoy this little video we made of our hummer feeding frenzy!