New Favorite Blog(ger)

Victoria Elizabeth Barnes

I'm abdolutely loving this blog(ger). She's so intelligent, self-effacing, funny... In love with her handiest-man husband.

Every post us a delight. Read,nread,nread!

Monkeys

 

 

This was somewhere on the Internet recently. Just seems to be a quote to remember.

 

How Does My Garden Grow?

 

The Mouse Ears Hosta is holding its own for a second year. For some reason one has tripled in size while the second is healthy, but just a tiny bit larger than springtime.

 

The Colimbine Leaf Miner disease, or powdery mildew, persists. And, I persist in dead-heading the affected leaves.

Jacob's Ladder. A new perennial this year. We had a large plant at our old house. In honor of my maiden name: Jacobs.

The Caladium thrives in a favorite pot. The leaves are more faded--I guess due to a bit much sun. Still, I like it there.

 

In a Jam

 

 

Yep! We made jam today. Lots of jam, and 9 quarts of sliced and frozen peaches. We tossed the slices with lemon juice, a bit of Fruit Fresh, and a splash of orange juice. If these turn brown, I give up.

 

We're replacing the 6 quarts we lost when one of the Fun Kids (we think) left the freezer door ajar. Our fault. The door locks, but we never thought to secure it.

 

And, we made 8 1/2 pints (8 oz. jars) of blackberry-blueberry jam thanks to my brother PJ's generosity. He wants his jam runny. I decided he can microwave it a few seconds as I have scruples against deliberately making runny jam.

 

We followed the Sure Jell recipe for cooked jams. For the blackberry-blueberry, we compromised between the sugar allotment for blackberry and the variant amount (much less) for blueberry, leaning more toward the blackberry amount as there was a 3:2 or 5:3 ratio between the two berries. Blackberries need way more sugar. Tastes divine!

 

Peach Ice Cream, A William's Sonoma Recipe

 

 

 

Since we had such delicious peaches, we borrowed LL's ice creamer maker, a Kitchenaid mixer attachment, and made two batches of William's Sonoma Fresh Peach Ice Cream.

 

A great, rich recipe. It comes out a bit soft-serve, so we pressed some plastic wrap right onto the ice cream, them sealed the freezer container. Kept it fresh and non-icey for days.

 

For the very last serving of the first batch, I crumbled some French butter cookies (Sablés) into the ice cream. Delicious!