Making Muscadine Jelly

Before you get the wrong idea, I'm not exactly known for my domestic skills.  However, when we bought our house many years ago, we were blessed to have a rather large muscadine vine right in our backyard.  It has grown progressively bigger and bigger each year.

 
Two years ago I had the bright idea to make muscadine jelly.  That's about as far as I got...thinking about it.  So, this year after watching the muscadine's once again turn from tiny green berries into large, plump dark purple grapes, and smelling them day after day from pretty much anywhere in my back yard, I decided to finally give it my best.  Saturday morning, Glen, the boys and I went out and picked as many of the ripened grapes as we could find.  For some reason Haley had no interest whatsoever in our muscadine project.

We ended up with about 3 1/2 pounds of muscadines.  There are still tons of them on the vine that aren't quite ripe yet. Here's our haul all nice and clean and ready to be turned into jelly.

Adam and Ryan wanted to do all the mashing themselves.  Ryan got to do more because Adam accidentally squished a grape too hard, spewing boiling hot grape juice on his finger.  Can I just say that my house smelled heavenly while these babies were cooking.  While the boys were stirring and mashing, I was sterilizing jars and lids.

Here's what you get after cooking and squishing for about 15 minutes or so.  The boys decided it looked like barf.  Nice...  Regardless, we strained the mucadines through a sieve to remove the skins and seeds, and ended up with a nice juice that looked and smelled similar to grape juice.

Next it was back on the stove for more cooking, adding the sugar and pectin, and finally, putting the finished jelly into jars.  We ended up with 8 jars total.  You should have seen the boys licking the pan and spoons.  YUMMY!!  Can you guess what we had for breakfast Sunday morning?

 If you'd like to try this yourself, I highly recommend it.  It wasn't all that difficult and the finished product is really good.  My jelly isn't as jelled as a commercial jelly, but very similar to all the other homemade jellies I've eaten.  Search the internet for recipes and you're sure to find plenty of inspiration.   Best of all, this jelly takes only 3 basic ingredients...the muscadine juice, sugar and pectin. 

WFMW - Freezer Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Who doesn't love fresh baked cookies?  I know everyone in my family enjoys them a little too much.  However, being a homeschool mom of three active kids, and being involved in a few too many outside activities, I rarely find the time to bake them.  So...what's the solution you ask?  Freezer cookies!  You've heard of freezer meals, so why not do it for desserts as well?  What I like best about these cookies is that they are semi healthy due to the addition of oatmeal and whole wheat flour, but also they're not so overly sweet.  Don't get me wrong, they are yummy, but not as sweet as a regular chocolate chip cookie.  They do however satisfy my chocolate craving.  Want the recipe?

Freezer Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups quick rolled oats
1 6 oz. package semisweet chocolate chips

Combine both types of flour and add in baking soda.  Add butter and shortening and beat for 30 seconds.  Add both sugars, beat until fluffy.  Stir in oats and chocolate chips.  Combine well and roll into one inch balls.
Makes approximately 72 cookies.  Place on waxed paper lined cookie sheets and flash freeze.  When frozen, transfer to a ziploc freezer bag and store in freezer.

To bake, simply pull as many as you'd like out of the freezer, heat your oven to 375 degrees, place frozen cookie balls on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes. 

 Voila!  Its that simple.  Yummy fresh baked goodness without the hassle.  These really work for our family!  To see more great Works For Me Wednesday tips be sure to visit We Are That Family.

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

We sang this song at Mass yesterday and the words touched me.  The whole sermon was awesome, but this song in particular really speaks to me.  The words are truly words to live by.




I'm sorry that I'm finally getting to posting today. It was just one of those super busy days. Running here, running there...  As much as I absolutely love the cooler temperatures, it makes it difficult to find something for the kids to wear.  Haley has obviously grown several inches over the summer because all of her pants are at least an inch too short.  Besides the pants, almost none of their shoes fit.  I always wonder how parents with large families manage to keep all of their children in clothes and shoes.

Over the weekend I tried something new.  I baked homemade bread!  I am a huge fan of bread, and the yeastier the better.  I found this recipe for potato bread on Smockity Frocks blog.  What I like best about it is that its super easy to make.  Plus, you can make just about anything with it.  We stuck to loaves of bread and rolls.  This one recipe made five loaves of bread and one pan of rolls.  We froze all but one loaf immediately after putting them in their respective pans.  Tonight we had speghetti and I used the pan of rolls.  I took them out of the freezer and let them thaw and rise again.  Then I popped them in the over and voila...fresh from the oven yummy yeast rolls!  Move over Sister Shubert!  This is one recipe that I know we will be using often.

Today Haley had her weekly choir class, and the boys and I went shopping for new shoes.  Haley doesn't have any dress shoes that still fit her.  Then it was back to pick up Haley and one of her friends.  Rush home, make dinner and then back out to practice for A Christmas Story.  The good news is that my house is relatively clean, I have several loaves of bread frozen and just waiting to be baked into yummy goodness, and Haley now has shoes to wear to church this week.  All in all, a good day.  How was your Monday?

Surprise Snowstorm!

Nothing like snow in the South! Today, we had almost 3 inches of snow fall in a very short period of time. I'm so thankful that my children are homeschooled and were able to enjoy it this morning. By this afternoon when the school kids were finally sent home early, a lot of it had already melted. The kids built their biggest snowman ever, went sledding, and then came inside for some hot chocolate to warm up. Later in the morning we made snow cream for the first time. It was YUMMY and super simple!

Snow Cream recipe according to Paula Dean

8 cups clean, freshly fallen snow
1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix thoroughly and enjoy immediately as it doesn't freeze well.