Greg's southern breakfast

I got up and made Greg a day after birthday breakfast and served it to him in bed First, I made bisquits using my trusty Farmgirl Oklahoma Pastry Cloth.We had bacon cooked in the oven. It is much less of a mess if baked - a trick I learned from Courtney.I also made tomato gravy for the bisquits. I wasn't in the mood for eggs, so I didn't make any. Pretty sorry I guess, make breakfast for Greg and cook what I want.

A day in East Texas

Today, it finally rained; I am so grateful to the Lord for that.  Hopefully, it has put out all of the forest fires.  Yesterday, I was watering our poor struggling tomato garden and noticed how the grape tomatoes grow in little clusters like grapes.  I always thought they were called grape tomatoes because of the size, but I guess it is also, because of  the way they grow.

I also picked some of the cucumbers my mother in law had planted. I was thinking, God sure has a sense of humor.  Look at the funny shapes of these cucumbers.

Bell peppers are on sale around here.  They were .50 a piece when I went shopping, yesterday.  For this area that is a good price, so today I am chopping up a bunch and putting them in the freezer.  I used to buy the frozen onions, bell peppers and celery seasoning mix in the frozen section.  The problem was there were a lot of onions and very few bell peppers.  I decided it would be a much better use of our money if I waited until the fresh went on sale and chopped and froze them myself.  I put them in separate bags so I can use as much or as little as I need.

Last but not least, these are the clouds as they began to build yesterday.  A welcomed sight.

Perfect summer day

Today, was the kind of summer day I enjoy.  I slept a little later than usual, got up and worked in the garden for an hour or so.  Once I got back home I did some laundry, read a little, took a nap, worked on getting the living room back in order and organized, and then I organized all of my farmgirl books in one place on the bookshelf.  I enjoy straightening my books and going through them.   I find ones that I forgot I had or others remind me of certain times and events in my life. 

Homemade granola

Last night I made granola from a recipe from the King Arthur Flour website.  It turned out very tasty.

Here I was mixing the ingredients to be baked.

 

Here is the finished product after adding the dried fruit.

Pickled Squash

I made pickled squash yesterday and tasted it today, it was very good. I got the recipe from www.southernfood.about.com

Making soap

I went to the health food store hoping they would have what I would need to make soap. They didn't, but the lady there had made soap before and told me I needed to get some good soap making books and decide what kind I wanted to make and then order the supplies online. I have made soap in the past, but it has been a long time ago. The type I made was with lard, lye and I guess water. I want to use maybe olive oil and some fragrance. So, I bought three books, if they are good or not I do not know. I would like to make natural soap for Courtney to use with the two grandbabies and well as for personal use. Surely, I can make it for less than $4,$5,$6,etc. a bar. We will see, this is one of my summer projects.

Countdown to London's arrival

I am getting pretty excited, grandbaby number two's arrival is only six weeks away. Next weekend we will go help Courtney and Darrell move into their new house. It is an exciting time in their lives. So many changes, little Sean isn't going to know what is going on; he will just need more Nonna and Boompa time.