My adventures in honeysuckle jelly

Who knew you could take ordinary honeysuckle flowers and make such an amazing jelly? Over the weekend I did just that. I found an amazing recipe online at Lehman’s Country Life, http://countrylife.lehmans.com/2011/06/14/honeysuckle-jelly/. The most time consuming part is picking all the flowers we needed. After you get them all picked and all the green tips removed it moves along fairly quick.

Honeysuckle flowers before the green tips were removed.

 

It smells heavenly when you are steeping the flowers. I must say that it did do a number on our allergies, the flowers were covered with pollen. But it was well worth it, the jelly turned out amazing. It brings back so many wonderful memories of childhood. Picking the flowers and sucking the “honey” out of the flowers. We always looked forward to them blooming every year.

Honeysuckle Infused Water

 

Honeysuckle Jelly
Yields 7 half-pints
4 cups honeysuckle flowers
4 cups boiling water
1/4 c. lemon juice
4 cups sugar
1 package liquid pectin

First you need to make an infusion to draw the flavor out of the flowers. It’s very simple. Prepare the flowers by removing the tiny green tip at the base of the petals.

Next, bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan, turn the heat off, then add the honeysuckle flowers you’ve gathered and allow them to steep for about 45 min., stirring occasionally.

Strain the flowers from the liquid. You need two cups of the infusion for this recipe.

In the same saucepan, stir together 2 cups flower infusion, the lemon juice, and the sugar; bring to a hard boil that won’t stir down. Add the pectin and boil for 2 min; reduce heat if necessary to avoid boiling over.
Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, and screw on lids. Allow to cool for 24 hours, then test the lids to make sure the jars are properly sealed.

I ended up adding mint leaf’s to one batch that I made and it was a nice variation. You may want to try it if you like mint. I will note that the recipe says you will yield 7 half pints but in all my batches I only yielded 4. I will be making more of this for sure, it is a new family favorite!

Can I just say that I am in love with Kelly Moore Bag’s

I can not wait until I can order my first one, I have been drooling over them for over a year now. My favorite is the Libby in orange. Isn’t it stunning!

 

Kelly Moore’s photography is amazing. You should check out her work. I can only hope to be as good as her one day. She also has amazing giveaways on her blog. She is currently doing one for Valentine’s Day. http://kellymoorebag.com/blog/ She is giving away some amazing prizes. Including a Kelly Moore Bag of your choice. If you haven’t entered yet you need to head over and sign up.

You can shop for them here: http://kellymoorebag.com/?ref=1111 Check them out for yourself, you will fall in love too.

Splinter, Splinter…Drama Momma

Today my 5-year-old daughter got off the school bus and immediately told me she had fallen on the playground at school today and hurt her hand and scraped up her little nose. Her teacher was nice enough to put a Band-Aid on her hand and clean her up. We went about the rest of our day as normal. We ran some errands and did some things around the house. I had her wash her hands and her Band-Aid fell off, I told her we would replace it later with a clean one. I noticed her “boo-boo” looked dirty so I reminded myself to clean it later.

Later came this evening, I took her in over the bath tub so I could clean it out with peroxide. That is when I noticed that what I thought was dirt was in-fact a big sliver/splinter.  I knew then we were in for a fight. I laid her hand out, palm up so I could get a better look at it and told her she had a splinter and we needed to take it out. Then the screaming and tears started. You have never heard such a fit! And I hadn’t even touched it yet!

So here comes Daddy into the bathroom to save the day, asking me what I was doing. You would have thought I was beating her, and again, I hadn’t even touched it yet. So we got out the needle and the tweezers so we can begin the removal process, this was preceded by more tears and more screaming. All the while her twin brother is standing there watching covering his ears.

20 minutes later……after much screaming and crying and hiccuping, the splinter is finally out.  NEOSPORIN^®, a Dora Band-Aid and chocolate ice cream later, all is well in the world again and she says it feels so much better.

The joys of parenthood!

Is cursive writing a thing of the past?

I read an interesting article on one of my local News websites dealing with cursive writing in NC schools. Apparently cursive writing will no longer be required learning in NC . This doesn’t appear to be a new issue. My 14-year-old daughter does not know how to write in cursive and it looks like the twins will not be learning it either. With a lot of what we do moving to computers there is not a need for it any longer.

Michael Smith, a communications professor at Campbell University, said there’s more to cursive than elegance, and he fears that students’ cognitive skills will be less developed without it. ”It’s motor skills. It’s cognitive skills. It’s left to right. It’s interactive – you make those loops (and) one loop connects to another loop,” Smith said. “It leads to a higher order of thinking. One idea leads to another idea.”  Teachers say that there is simply not enough time in the day to fit it in. Their day is so jam-packed with what they are required to teach. Have you ever looked at the curriculum that your child is supposed to learn by the end of the year? It is astounding what they have to know to move to the next grade level. I never imagined my twins would have to be able to read by the end of the year, in Kindergarten, among the many other things they have to know.

There is something magical in cursive writing. The ebb and flow of it across the paper, it can be so elegant when written properly. I remember when I was small, I was so excited that I could write in cursive when I started kindergarten. I had an older sister so I picked it up early. I love my Mother’s hand writing and her signature. I wanted to be able to write just like her. Sad to see it go, hope it makes a comeback. What do you think?

See article here: http://www.wral.com/nc-schools-write-off-cursive-instruction/12035402/

I started a photography page…

So I have taken the plunge, of sorts, and started a photography website. Not that I think my skills are anywhere close to being good enough, but I take modeling photos of my kids for Boutiques to use on their websites, etc. People are always asking me who their photographer is and for links to their page. So I thought this would help me look more professional. I own Simply Posh Models on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simply-Posh-Models/192345754147823 .

I just purchased the book “Understanding Exposure 3rd Edition/Revised and Updated by Bryan Peterson”. It came highly recommended by some photographers that I admire. I am also hoping to take some classes in the near future.

The link to my photography blog is www.AngieColemanPhotography.com Be sure to check it out if you get a chance or if you have any interest and let me know what you think.

Dealing with sick kids ~ The joy of them being in school

Dealing with sick kids ~ The joy of them being in school.

Dealing with sick kids ~ The joy of them being in school

I swear my twins have been sick since they started kindergarten. They stayed home with me prior to that, so they never went to daycare. I guess we are getting hit with all the germs hard.

This past week my daughter was really sick. Coughing, fever, throwing up, runny nose, the whole nine yards. Took her to the Dr and found out she had pneumonia. UGH!! I have never seen her so sick. So antibiotics and an inhaler and she is feeling so much better. Thank you God! So now both the twins have had pneumonia this school year.

I give them the chewy vitamins and they take vitamin C. I need to find something to help keep them healthier. I guess I need to start researching and see what I can come up with.

But on to brighter things. Working on new items to sell, hope to share some pics with you soon.