Orchids by Hausermann

Today we were out doing a little geocaching in Villa Park, IL. and we came across an Orchid Farm so we decided to go in and take a look around.  WOW!!  This place was amazing.  I have never seen orchids in such a wide variety of sizes and colors.

We learned that orchids are started out in these small glass bottles and that each bottle holds up to 35 baby orchids.

Then they are transplanted and nurtured in the greenhouses.

Hold onto your hats, because you are going to oohhhh and awwww over the colors of these orchids.

And how about these....

And my personal favorite.....

Can you BELIEVE that blue?  Isn't that WILD??  I am SO sorry I didn't buy one and I might have to make a trip back there.  It was just about the prettiest flower I have ever seen.

I honestly have never paid much attention to orchids before, but I now have a real appreciation for them.  Which color did you like best?

Between the north and south

I am a girl who has one foot firmly planted in both the north and the south.  My speech patterns switch between “Hey” and “Y’all”  as smoothly as a good Kentucky bourbon.  You see, I was born and raised in Chicago, but I have spent most of my summers and vacation time in either Missouri or Kentucky.  And while Missouri may not technically be as “southern” as Kentucky or Tennessee, it was still close enough that by August of each year I would return home with a southern drawl that took until late September to lose.

I believe that I have grown up blessed by a little of both worlds.  Winters in Chicago were spent tobogganing, ice skating and sledding.  Each summer down south I was occupied with fishing, swimming and canoeing.  I can still clearly remember the first time I ever caught a fish.  I was sitting on the dock at Lake of the Ozarks, fishing with a minnow strung onto the end of a pole with a bobber as big as a beach ball.  I will never forget the thrill of landing that first crappie and I can still remember the smirk I got on my face when my dad called it a crappie, pronouncing it like crap.  Hmmm….  Dad said a swear word and I could get away with it every time I went fishing.  I don’t know which was the bigger draw for me – saying a swear word or watching my dad fillet up that one tiny morsel for my mom to dredge in flour and fry in a pan.  Either way, I was hooked on fishing for the rest of my life.

When we were down south, we were each given a dime on Tuesday's and Thursday's.  We would stand in front of the pop machine, wavering between Orange or Black Cherry Crush in the bottle.  Being up north meant drinking only RC and only on a Saturday night.  Being down south meant we took baths in the lake and ran around shoeless.  Chicago meant daily showers and patent leather shoes and socks.

Summer days were spent rowing my sisters across the lake to The Patio for a hamburger and a thick chocolate shake. 

We skipped rocks and had nighttime campfires where we roasted hotdogs on sticks and then made S’mores with gooey marshmallows for dessert.  But by the beginning of August I was craving Chicago beef sandwiches drowned in gravy with hot peppers or thick crust pizza topped with sausage, green peppers and onions, or hot chocolate with a peppermint stick. 

The south gave me my love of Johnny Cash, Porter Waggoner, Lee Mace’s Ozark Opry, beautiful Bridal Caves and walking down a dusty road everywhere.  The north gave me The Monkees, The Fifth Dimension, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Museum of Science and Industry, pavement and taking a bus anywhere I wanted to go. 

By the time I hit my teens I was spending the dog days of summer dangling my feet from the lower level of the bridge spanning the lake, sneaking Marlboro’s and listening to The Allman Brothers or Lynerd Skynerd.   Winter weekends found me waitressing and drinking Boonesfarm and Ripple while dancing to Neil Diamond, The Moody Blues and Elton John.

When I met my husband, we gradually drifted over the border to Kentucky, but we still split our time between the north and the south.  On frigid, winter nights when I’m out plowing snow, my thoughts turn to summer days that will be spent on the lake, campfires and S’mores.   Those are the thoughts that keep me going, hour after snowy hour.  And when the end of summer rolls around and the intense heat has taken its toll, I find myself once again longing for Chicago, and the cold north wind that howls in across Lake Michigan. 

Some things have changed a little – like the cigarettes I gave up and the wine drinking that switched to Margarita’s.  But some things never change, like kicking off my shoes on May 1^st and having naked toes until Labor Day or slipping on my bathing suit before breakfast while at the lake.  And I still like to make snowmen in the dark after the first good snowfall.  Sometimes even while drinking a margarita and listening to The Moody Blues!

I have come to the conclusion that I have a gypsy soul and a restless spirit.  I was blessed enough to be steeped in the rituals of 2 distinct regions of the country and I love them both.  Each pulls at my heart when I am away and I return to both with happiness and leave each with a tinge of sad.  It’s strange how I feel at home in both places.

Until next time - Night y’all!

Hot Pepper Jelly

Have you ever had hot pepper jelly? If you haven’t, then you don’t know what you're missing.  If you are a fan of hot peppers, then you would probably like it.  I love hot pepper jelly with cream cheese, spread on crackers.  I also like it on a ham and turkey sandwich, instead of mayo or butter.  I have a hard time finding good hot pepper jelly, so a couple of years ago I decided to learn how to make it myself.  This is the method I use...

First you need 6 (8 oz. each) mason jars, with screw caps and NEW lids.  Do NOT use old lids.  Go to the store and buy new lids unless you don’t care if they seal properly and everyone will get sick from botulism.  Wash everything with hot, soapy water.  Then put on a HUGE pot of water. 

I used to use my spaghetti pot until my girlfriend discovered she had an old canning pot on a shelf in her garage and gave it to me.  A large pot will work just fine if you don’t have a canning pot. You are going to use this pot of water for 2 things.  First, you are going to bring it to a boil and put the jars and screw lids into the pot to scald for 10 minutes.  Take them out and put them on a paper towel until you’re ready to use them.  Keep the water boiling.

Now grab a small plate and stick it in the freezer.  You’ll need this later.

OK, now on to the jelly part.

First you need 3 regular peppers. 

You can use green peppers, but I usually use yellow or red peppers because I think they taste better and I like the way they look in the jelly.  Then you need 7 jalapeño peppers. Leave the seeds in them.   And cut 1 nice slice of onion.  Take all of that and throw it into your food processor and chop it all up.  Put it into a strainer and really press out ALL the liquid. 

Then take 4 cups of sugar, 1 cup of white wine vinegar and ½ cup of lemon juice and put it into another pot on your stove.  Add the peppers and onions.  Bring it all to a boil for 1 minute.  Then add 2 (3 oz. each) pouches of liquid pectin.  Bring it to a rolling boil. 

You are going to let this low boil for about 15-20 minutes and you want to stand there and slowly stir it the entire time. 

First of all because you don’t want the jelly to burn.  But second, because if you don’t, sure as shit, it will boil over.  I walked away from the stove today just long enough to pour myself a cup of coffee and that is EXACTLY when that sucker decided to boil over.  Believe me when I tell you it made a mess.  I had to take everything off the stove and clean it all up before I could go any farther.  I do not have to tell you how pissed off I was.  

So after about 15-20 min. the jelly is going to start to thicken up and turn a gorgeous rust color. 

Go take that plate out of the freezer and drop a nickel size dollop of the jelly on it.  Wait about 1 minute and push the jelly with your finger. 

If the jelly “set” and kind of bunches up as you push it, then it’s done.  If your finger just runs right thru it and it’s loose, then keep boiling for another minute or so and try again.  As soon as it “sets” you are done cooking it.

Grab your clean jars and fill them with the jelly, most of the way full.  Leave ½” or so from the top of the jar.  Then take a damp paper towel and run it around the rim of each jar.  This is important because you want to be sure that no jelly is on the top of the rim.  If there is, it will prevent the seal from sealing properly.  Put a lid on each jar and screw on the screw lid. 

Use a pair of tongs and place each jar into the huge pot of boiling water.  Bring it to a boil again.  You can cover the pot if you like.  I usually do. 

Once it comes up to a full boil, leave it boil for 10 full minutes.  Then turn off the heat and remove each jar from the pot, using your tongs.  Place them on a paper towel.  Listen carefully and you should hear each jar make a POP sound.  It will be very faint to hear.  You want to make sure it does that, because that tells you the lid has sealed properly.

You are done!  You have just made your first batch of pepper jelly.  Wasn’t that easy?  It usually takes me about an hour from start to finish to make them. 

Here is the basic recipe if you want it:

4 cups sugar

1 ½ cup sweet green peppers (usually 3 large ones)

1 cup, unseeded, jalapeno peppers (usually 7 of them)

1 cup white wine vinegar (NOT regular vinegar)

1/2 cup lemon juice (I use real lemon in the bottle)

2 (3 oz. each) pouches liquid pectin (6 oz. total)

1 slice onion

Recipe taken from “The Jamlady Cookbook.”

If you are thinking about making the hot pepper jelly, I strongly advise you to buy a canning book and read up on it a little.  I bought “The Jamlady Cookbook” and “Canning for Dummies” and read both of them before trying to make any jelly.

Now I make Hot Pepper Jelly, Mango Hot Pepper Jelly, Cranberry Jelly, Peach Jam and Peach/Mango Jam.

I usually make them in the fall but I just ate my last jar of Hot Pepper, so I was forced to make some more.  I hope you enjoyed seeing how to make jelly, which I think is kind of a lost art.  I remember my mom and my grandma making regular jelly in the 60's, when I was a kid.  I don't know too many people who do it anymore.

Well, I have to go e-mail a picture of my new jelly to both my sisters.  They both love it and I like to make them jealous!

 

 

Linking up with....

 

The Thankful Homeacre Hop 11-20-14

Lake Michigan Caching

One of my favorite places to go is the beach on Lake Michigan.  We live close enough to hit several different areas within about half an hour's drive.  The water temperature in July usually averages around 70 degrees.  Personally I prefer warmer water, so I don't swim there too often.  But I do like to visit the lake at different times of the year.  Here are some pictures taken last winter.

We have some beautiful lighthouses dotting the lakefront.

Last summer we went caching at a wonderful park down on the lakefront.  It's called Millard Park and it's in Evanston, IL.  The park is built on land that once belonged to the Robert Schaffner Estate.  This was also the location of a multi-stage geocache and had us hiking all over this vast estate.  On the property were beautiful gardens, a gazebo, an old abandoned building, ravines and gorgeous lakefront beaches.  We had to visit 5 separate areas and find clues to tell us where the final cache was hidden.  The geocaches have been hidden by permission of the park.

The gazebo...

Here we are at the abandoned building.  I could just imagine how beautiful this building once was, with its floor to ceiling windows.  I think they must have held parties out here.  What a fantastic view of the lake!

Hiking to the gardens, where they often hold wedding ceremonies.  There was a clue written on the bottom of this rubber snake, which we found in the garden.

3 hardy souls in our group stripped down to shorts and tee shirts and braved the cold water to swim to the end of this breakwater wall.  I was not one of them.  A clue was attached to a metal wire on the end of the wall.

After 4 stages we had collected 4 clue cards.  We had to figure out how to line them up properly in order to figure out the co-ordinates for the final stage.

It took us about 3 hours, but we finished it and it was a lot of fun.  Here's a photo of part of the happy group!

We ventured further down the beach afterwards.  Lake Michigan is lined with huge boulders.  We had a lot of fun climbing all over them.

I even found some beautiful sea glass and a geode on the beach.

All in all, Lake Michigan is a wonderful place to spend the day.  The next time you're near the lake, be sure to take the time to stop and explore.

Land between the Lakes

If you are looking for someplace new to visit, let me suggest the Land between the Lakes area.  

Ky. Dam backs up the Tennessee River and creates the largest manmade lake in the eastern US.  Construction of the Dam began in 1938 and took 6 years to complete.  Many area residents were asked to relocate and sell their land to the Tennessee Valley Authority in order to make way for the Lake project.  Cleo Griffin of Model, Tn., was the only person who refused to leave his home.  He remained there until 1990.  You can read about his strong spirit and determination here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_fam_pics/2556390844/

The house is still standing and we visited it last year.  It was in pretty bad shape but I love to poke around inside old buildings and think about the people who used to occupy them.

Kentucky Lake alone has over 2300 miles of shoreline.   Kentucky Lake is part of the Land between the Lakes (LBL) recreational area that covers 170,000 acres stretching over Kentucky and Tennessee.   It was created by President Kennedy. 

There is so much to see and do in this area:

·         Swimming

·         Boating

·         Fishing ( Bass, Crappie, Blue Gill, Catfish, Perch)

·         Water skiing

·         Tubing

·         Jet skis

If your personal tastes run more to the on-shore activities, check this out:

·         Hiking (over 200 miles of trails ranging from easy to strenuous)

·         Biking (easy to advanced, as well as 2 mountain bike trails)

·         Camping (16 different camping locations to choose from)

·         OTV Trails (over 100 miles of off-highway trails)

·         Hunting (deer, duck & turkey)

·         Golf

You can also camp, rent a cabin or a cottage, stay at a B&B, or a resort.  Visit The Homeplace to see a working farm from the 1850’s.  Drive through the Elk and Bison prairie and see herds of bison wallowing in the water holes.  Pull off to the side of the road and watch the elk feed.  Visit the Nature Center and see owls, turkey, wolves, possums and many other animals indigenous to the area.  Visit the Planetarium and look at stars through the telescopes they have there.  Be sure to stop and check out the Great Iron Furnaces.  Read about their history by visiting this site:   http://www.explorekentuckylake.com/lbl/iron.htm

Or just kick back and watch the sun set....

There is a world of options that appeal to just about anyone.  So if you are looking for someplace new to explore this summer, consider the Land between the Lakes area and discover it for yourself!  Here is a link if you want to investigate the area further.  http://www.kentuckylake.com/