Ice in South Carolina!

 This past winter weather has been a disaster for so many people.  We pray for all those struggling in the ice and snow and power outages and burst pipes.

When we woke up Sunday morning the rain that had turned out Rubbermaid Roughneck tub on the back deck into a swimming pool for the birds had turned into a giant ice cube.  Dear One suggested I take a picture of it since it is not something that is common here.  This is the first time in three and a half years that the temperature has been this cold.

It is not much compared to Vermont ice, but it is rather impressive for here...!

Knitting Project: Spring Ice Trigger Mitts

 Dear One rides his bike every day.  Almost every day.  His hands get cold even with his merino gloves on.  I saw the patterns for Trigger Mitts in the Saltwater Knitting series from Newfoundland.  I ordered two of the books and Dear One chose a pattern he liked.  Of course, the pattern he liked was not the one needed to make mitts his size. So I got to figure out how to change the foundation pattern to work with the design pattern.  It took some thinking but in the end, it worked!

If you go to my Ravelry page you will see my notes.

The book I took the pattern from was Saltwater Mittens by Christine LeGrow and Shirley Scott.  The size we needed was for Grenfell but the design Dear One wanted was Spring Ice...a smaller pattern!  Well, I did the math and figured it out. It really was not a problem.  I just added 3 Salt and Pepper stitches to the beginning of the front  chart and 2 Salt and Pepper stitches to the end of the Spring Ice chart,.

There were multiple problems but I won't talk about them here.  They are done and I expect Dear One will use them tomorrow when he goes for his bike ride. 

Now  I am on to the next project!

Our Christmas Fireplace

 This fireplace gives me lots of joy to look at every time I walk into the living room. 

 Previous Christmases the mittens hung down in one long loop.  I thought they might look better if we put a third hook for them in the middle. I got the hook but did not get to attaching it. I came home from one day out on visits and there it was!  Dear One is such a wonderful husband.

 It makes me happy to see the fireplace lit and warming the living room. It makes me happy to see the mitten garland hanging over the fireplace.  The garland reminds me of our children and that labor of love it was to make a garland for each of them for their fireplaces or stairways six or seven years ago. 

Most of all it makes me happy to see the picture of the Savior over the fireplace and remember the awesome gift He is and was to all of us.

We hope you all have had a wonderful joyous Christmas season.

Spiced Cider Jelly and Steam Canning in the Instant Pot!

 More than a month ago I attended a class on jelly-making.  The facilitator was using apple scraps, i.e. apple peelings and cores, to make "apple tea".  She had done the same thing with peach skins and pits as well.  This was such an exciting project that I immediately began planning for next summer when I could get some peaches and make peach tea.  Of course, since I am not planning to can the peaches I will have to get a gallon ziplock pack and put the refuse in the bags then put the bag into the freezer until I have a bag-full.  This is how I make vegetable broth: put all vegetables scraps in the freezer then add water and a bay leaf to the Instant Pot then cook the heck out of the scraps.  Most people who make vegetable scrap broth only let the broth cook for 5 minutes or so. No me.  I put it on for 58 minutes and if I fail to be in the kitchen when the timer is done, I put it on again, just in case...It works fine though maybe a little darker that other broth.

Back to the Spiced Cider Jelly--

At Thanksgiving we made many apple pies and there was a TON of leavings.  My sister kindly froze them then brought the big bag to us before we left North Carolina.  I did cook up the "tea" but had put in a lot of water.  It made more than two gallons.  I made one batch of jelly which was pretty good.  I steam canned it in the Instant Pot.  Worked like a charm.

Fast forward to today:  On my list of To Do jobs for today (along with about a dozen other useful things but almost certainly impossible to accomplish in one day) was to make Spiced Cider Jelly.  I had thought of making jelly as a gift but then realized that there were so many people I wanted to give gifts to that I needed to have started months ago.  Maybe next year.

Anyway, this is what I did:

1.  Purchased 1/2 gallon apple cider from the Food Lion. Then stored it in the refrigerator for almost a week...

2.  Cleaned off the island in our kitchen so there was room to operate.

3. Got out all the ingredients so the work would go smoothly. It is a BAD idea NOT to do this.  Sometimes you are in the middle of a project and it turns out you are missing a crucial ingredient.  Not good.  We had everything.

4. Ingredients needed: 4 cups apple cider, 1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice (apple pie spice is very similar but I made a big batch of pumpkin pie spice last year and, surprisingly enough, have made not even one pumpkin pie since then. Now was the time to use it), a box Sure-Jell regular, not low sugar, 4 cups sugar, large pot, 4-5 half pint jars, lids, and rings, ladle, Instant Pot, food rack, wooden spoon, stainless steel teaspoon.

Process:

5. A. Put your glass jelly jars (without lids and rings. Put those on the counter near the rack where they will be used) into the oven on a cookie sheet at 250 degrees F. to heat up.  Leave them until the jelly is ready.

5. B.  Put 4 cups cider in large pot--I think ours in  4 quart size or maybe 6 quart size.  Over medium heat  bring the cider to a simmer.  Simmer a couple of minutes. At the same time put your teaspoon in the freezer to chill.  Yes.  Do it.

6. With the long-handled wooden spoon, stir in the whole package of Sure-Jell and stir until smooth and the Sure-Jell is dissolved.  Let simmer 2-3 minutes.

7. Add 1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie spice (or make your own spice going heavy on cinnamon, some ginger, some nutmeg, some cloves) and stir well.  **Next time I will mix the Sure-Jell and the powdered spice together before adding!

8. After the simmering of the cider and Sure-Jell, stir in the 4 cups sugar ONE CUP AT A TIME.  Bring the jelly to a  simmer again and simmer for 3-5 minutes stirring constantly.

9.  As the jelly begins to feel slightly thicker and darker, get out the freezing teaspoon and dip it into the jelly.  Lift it up and look to see if the jelly is coating the spoon a little bit.  If yes, shut off the heat and get ready to ladle the jelly into hot jars. If not, keep heating, but both batches I did were ready after about 5 minutes of simmering after adding the sugar.

10. Remove the jelly jars from the oven and put them on a cooling rack still on the cookie sheet.

11. Using a canning funnel and a ladle, carefully put the very hot jelly into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch space in the jar.  After filling each jar, using a damp cloth or paper towel carefully wipe around rim of each jar then put on the lid and ring.  Screw the lid on but only just.  Do not tighten it as tight as you can.  The smart people call it "tightening to finger tight".  I took their word for it the first time and since it worked, I did it this time, too.

12.  Put the hot filled jars into the Instant Pot which has the trivet in the bottom and 2 cups of HOT water in the Instant Pot also in the bottom.

13. Put on the lid and set to STEAM for 20 minutes.  I think you only need to steam 10 minutes but...well, I did it for 20 minutes just to be safe.

14. When the pressure goes down let the cooker reduce pressure naturally. It will probably take 20-25 minutes.  DO NOT REDUCE HEAT MANUALLY!  If you do, the change in pressure will make the jars eject all the jelly into the water and all will be lost.  DO NOT DO IT.

15.  If you have a jar lifter, use that to remove the jars from the pot and set them on the cooling rack for 12-24 hours to cool completely. That is really pretty much a crock, but do it anyway.  It will NOT take that long.

16. As the jelly and jars cool, you will hear a ping for every jar as the seals complete.  Do not help them seal. Just leave them alone.  (For 12-24 hours...!)

17. If a jar does not seal just put it in the refrigerator and eat it up.  You can also remove the ring and lid, clean off the rim of the jar and go through the whole process again but I would not do that.  There is nothing wrong with eating a little fresh jelly sooner rather than later.  This particular jelly tastes so good it is even good on Ritz crackers.

There was a little more jelly than would go in the five little jars I had so I put it into another jar and let it cool on the counter all by its little lonesome.  I told Dear One it was there.  He was not sure about it but tasted a tiny bit on a spoon THEN he made himself a piece of toast and spread it thickly with new jelly.  You can imagine my joy at this!

Knitting Project: Mini Nordic Sweaters

 Well the sweaters have been sent so I will now show (a bad picture!) them here on the blog.  These are a pattern by Arne and Carlos and were their Advent Calendar knitting for last year. I purchased the pattern in November 2021 and realized immediately these could not be gifts for Christmas 2021! Duh!

As I began the knitting I changed yarn and needle size.  The first yarn called for US size 0 and US size 2 knitting needles. I made Number 1 with those needles and directly gave up on that as it was just too taxing for my hands.  After another yarn purchase I used US size 2 and US size 4 needles and got along just fine.

While knitting these darling little sweater/gift bags I realized that there twenty-four members of our family starting with Dear One as Number One and me as Number Two SO...I made a chart as to when each person became part of our family and knit that number sweater for them. It was so sweet to be thinking about the person who was going to receive a particular sweater as I was knitting.

The actual yarn called for in the pattern is Rowan's Norwegian Wool yarn which was designed by Arne and Carlos.  It is available currently for $11.75 per ball.  If I remember correctly 18 balls are required for this knitting project.  That was a tad (well, a LOT) too rich for my budget so I chose some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport weight instead.  The two yarns have the same yardage for the same put up in the balls--137 yards in 50 grams...so they were comparable.

The colors in Knit Picks were as close as I could get to the Arne and Carlos Norwegian Wool colors.  Most of them made pretty nice little sweater bags.

The original thought was to get some very nice soft-centered chocolates and put three of them in the sweaters (you started knitting with a closed cast-on--Turkish cast-on was what I did-so the bottom was solid) but I realized that the shipping stress would have smashed the chocolates to bits and destroyed the sweaters so I put a note into the packages suggesting the families could purchase their own chocolates and insert them.

The last thing before putting the sweaters in the packaging was to insert a Christmas tree hook into the back of the neck of each sweater.

This project took me six months and gave me such joy.  I hope the recipients feel that joy and the love with which they were knitted.

This is all the sweaters laid out on the guest bed (on top of a canvas drop cloth I got to cover the table at Church when I do little Gelli printing classes with some sweet children who come to our knitting group each week). The Upper left sweater which is red on white is Number One.  It is way smaller than the rest.  I did NOT re-knit it with the larger needles though some day I might when a few other started projects are finished.

This is one of the sweaters close up.  The original pattern has colorwork on the sleeves as well but by the time I did the first seven of them I knew it would be 2024 or 2025 before they were completed so I chose to knit the sleeves plain.

Merry Christmas!

Follow the (Cooking) Rules!

 It is always good to learn new things.  

Sometimes you learn to your chagrin.

For example: I was trying out Rhodes Frozen Dinner Rolls yesterday.  I had had a long day and was exhausted but wanted to try cooking them long in advance of when I wanted them and then see if they were still good that long time later (two days or so).  I remember a dear sister cooking Rhodes Rolls for a Senior Missionary get-together when Dear One and I were on our mission.  Those rolls were wonderful.  At LEAST as good as the Sixty Minute Rolls I have made for years.

Well, this is what happens when you are tired.

The package directions say that you need to put the frozen rolls on a greased pan (I used Silpat instead) and let rise for 3-5 HOURS.  Then bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees F. 

Okay. It was 4:00 PM when I got home with the rolls in the shopping bag.  I decided in my head that 7:00 would be a reasonable time to bake them.  By the time it was 7:00 PM there was very little left of me energy-wise, SO, you guessed it, I put the rolls in the oven.  And cooked them.

They came out lightly beige, not brown but I thought the bottoms had had enough heat so I removed them from the oven.  I hacked into a couple of them, slathered them with butter, and took them upstairs to Dear One who was already into our Come, Follow Me podcasts.  He thought they were fine.  Well, how bad can hot bread out of the oven covered with butter be?!!

I happened to look at the packaging before I threw it away.  The directions actually said something like: Let rise 3-5 hours, OR UNTIL THE ROLLS HAVE DOUBLED IN BULK! They were not doubled.  Barely larger than when I put them on tha pan.

Oh, well. Maybe I will try again sometime and will take a picture of them at that time and show a comparison photo.

There is a verse in one of my favorite books of scriptures that say: "Oh be wise."  I need to be wise more often.

I would love to see photos of other people's frozen Rhodes rolls cooked properly.

Merry Christmas to all if I do not get to my computer again before the holiday!