Bookmarked: 8.20.08

*I love these cute clipboards! (The Shabby Nest)

*Check out this road trip gear, the sleeping masks look like a great idea. (Maya Made...hat tip to The Crafty Crow)

*I never would've thought of using wallpaper for to wrap gifts. (The Nesting Place)

*Taggy Blanket Tutorial, great for baby shower gifts! (The Creative Homemaker)

Favorite Things:: Digital Picture Frame

I would've never thought I would enjoy something like this or think of purchasing one for ourselves, but we received this as a gift and I really love it!

Our fram is Kodak and you can watch video or listen to MP3's on it. It also can connect to your wireless internet to pull pictures off your computer.

The pictures roll through like a slideshow...imagine the possibilities...

Christmas pictures during Christmas time, pictures of the kids growing during birthday times, etc. etc.

This is one of my favorites. Check out Fiddledeedee for more.

Tomato Soup for Canning

Hold on...you're getting a recipe on Monday! I've been overwhelmed with going gluten free and have been trying to find new alternatives for breads and grains, I'll share when I find some that I enjoy--just in case you find yourself in a similar situation.

But for now tomatoes are coming into full swing and I've begun canning. Woo hoo! I'm trying to be very purposeful about canning this year. We have soup every Sunday through the winter-my goal is to can 20 quarts (or as close as I can get) of soup for our Sunday meals.

I made and canned some tomato soup this weekend from some freshly picked garden tomatoes! Yum!

I adapted this recipe, from Stop the Ride!

I changed the spices slightly and used real maple syrup instead of the sugar. I also used the food processor to puree the soup before straining it, that way I used as much of it as possible. I added 2 T. of lemon juice per quart, I don't know if this is needed or not. I was reading a little about the Ph level of canning tomatoes and decided to go ahead just in case. If anyone has information on this that would be great!

Normally you can use a water bath canner for canning tomatoes, however my canner isn't big enough to do that with quart jars so I used the pressure canning method and did 6 lbs. for 20 minutes, as instructed by my canning manual.

Olympic Feast

Last week in honor of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics we had a grand Chinese feast. Let me tell you it was delicious!


We had stir fry with rice.


Awesome Egg Rolls

These were delicious! I broiled them as recommended by some who commented on the recipe so I didn't need to fry them. I will admit at first I missed the fried taste, but after we were done I really enjoyed these better. I froze the leftovers and have been able to pull them out for lunches!

I made these with chicken, cabbage, carrots, Bragg's Liquid Aminos (instead of soy sauce), onion, garlic powder and ginger. These can be pretty versatile as far as what you put into them.

and to end the evening...


Fortune Cookies!


Fun to make! Little G helped me make the 'fortunes' to put inside of them. We wrote things we were thankful for about others in our family.

If you make these make sure you work fast or start with only 2-3 on a pan. I had some harden on me before we folded them.


Enjoy!

When life gives you lemons...

make lemonade.

It's a long story but we're needing to go gluten free.

I wasn't prepared for this but we believe Sweet Boo has a gluten intolerance. Her and I will be starting a gluten free diet next week.

We are in the midst of research and trying to figure out how to adapt recipes it's taking some of my blogging time. I'll still be around and posting some but can't gaurantee I'll be as consistent in the next couple weeks while we figure all this out.

I'm so thankful for all the great blogs that I've encountered over the last several days of those who have been sharing about living gluten free. I'll be passing them along to you as I continue learning more.

Bookmarked: 8.13.08

*Oh how these bring back memories. These were my favorite-est cookies ever! (Remember mom?!) I don't dare make them though. (Vanilla Joy...hat tip to The Crafty Crow)

*Check out this great idea for personalized coloring pages! (PreSchool Mama)

*Ways to use up all that zucchini. (Owlhaven)

*I love these alphabet cards...imagine the possibilities! (The Homespun Heart)

Favorite Things: Willow Tree Figurines

I don't really collect anything, but I do love these Willow Tree figurines. I love them even more because they commemorate something. I have one from when Mud-man and I were married, both children and we also have one from Mud-man's first Father's day.

To see more Favorite Things check out Fiddledeedee.