Latest happenings in the kitchen

Princess is heading off to 'school'. She asked Grandma for a pillow, a cat pillow case and a princess crib sheet for her nap time space.   Pillow measures 12" x 18"......made from muslin and stuffed with fiber fill. Princess sheet  fits a standard size crib mattress.....found the pattern here . Pillow covering made with Shannon cuddle cats. Also sent a 'blankie' that was created from a 72" x width of fabric Shannon embrace fabric. Grandma is wrapping her princess in fabric love while she is settling down in a new place!  

I love citrus flavors.......I love colors of citrus..........I saw beautiful bags of lemons and limes at the market. Visions of fresh citrus water and summer deserts flooded my senses......those bags of citrus came home with me.  Fast forward........Those bags of citrus are still with me, pretty much untouched 2 weeks later.  Imagine my delight when I saw lime zest in the salsa recipe!!! (Oh, did I forget to say that I saw this ingredient added on another website recipe for salsa? It definitely added to the flavor of the salsa).  So...........I used the rind of the lime-should I throw the rest away? My mantra is 'waste not, want not'.  I love fresh lime juice in my water.........Hey, wait, I have a citrus juicer. Light bulb moment!!!! Juice the rest of the lime, freeze it into 'lime cubes' and use that in my water! Ahhhhhh, summer time just made easier! Once the lime cubes are frozen, I will repeat this using my lemons. Note: Juice from one lime filled 2 of the ice cube

Baby brother and I have planted a garden in the dirt strip at the shop. 4 grape tomato plants, 4 early girl tomato plants. Not too much, right? This summer has provided a BUMPER CROP of tomatoes ......OMG what do I do with all the grape tomatoes????? I thought I could just have a couple every day for lunch.......HA!!!! Came home with a bag full of those juicy red treats.  I found this recipe for Crockpot Canning Salsa  .This recipe uses 7 cups of any kind of tomatoes, skin and all .You throw the ingredients into the crock pot for 4 hours and go do your thing. I had 2 crock pots going at once. Made 2 more crock pots full before all those grape tomatoes were used up. (that's 28 cups of tomatoes!!!!) 11 pints of yummy goodness Some hints..........go light on the salt and cilantro. I heated all my batches of salsa together until it came to a boil and then proceeded with the normal canning routine.