Aunt Sugars Bread and Butter Pickles

Mix the following three ingredients together in a big bowl:

8 Cups thinly sliced cucumbers
2 Cups thinly sliced onions
1/4 Cup salt

Let stand 6 hours or overnight. Drain very well! Then place them in a pan.
Then add:

2 Cups vinegar (5)
3 Cups granular sugar (7 1/2)
2 Tsp. celery seeds (5)
2 Sticks cinnamon (5)
2 Tsp. white mustard seeds (5)
2 Tsp. turmeric (5)

Toss cukes to mix well. Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. DO NOT LET IT BOIL.

Add a few small pieces of lump alum to each jar before adding pickles. Seal hot.

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The above recipe was written by Aunt Sugar. I had the benefit of talking to her about it too. She said she only used pickling cucumbers when they looked great and were inexpensive. Otherwise, she just used regular cucumbers. It takes about 8 or 9 pickling cucumbers to make this recipe. I got three pint jars out of it.

The numbers in parentheses, I think, are for doubling the recipe. I remember her saying she liked it sweeter than the regular recipe called for, which leads me to this conclusion, since she asks for an extra cup and a half of sugar in the doubled version.

One final note: There is no need to water bath process these. Just seal them while they are hot with fresh, hot lids and they will seal up and the pickles will keep a better texture for you.

If anyone knows why the recipe calls for lump alum, I'd love to know. I found some and used it, but I don't know why.

Berries

Funny that we should be doing about the same thing at about the same time, hundreds of miles away from each other, but Jennie and I have been enjoying some similar pass times lately.

The most striking? We've both gone berry picking for blueberries, and we've both been canning! What fun.

This past week, the kids and I picked up Aunt Lois for a trip to a lovely farm where they grow acres and acres of delicious fruits and berries. We met Beckie with her children there and enjoyed a long, hot day in the sun, which had been hiding for several weeks. And we came home with BERRIES. Lots of berries. I'd show you pictures, but Beckie has them! *hint - hint*

It was a very enjoyable and memorable day spent with our dear Aunt Lois, who the children are sorely missing this week!

Photo Of The Day: Nothing Like Family

Photo Of The Day: At The Farm

There is a farm near us that we love to go to for fresh eggs. To make the 15 minute ride even more worth while, they have a lovely area for the children to enjoy some barnyard animals including chickens and turkeys, goats and sheep, and sometimes even baby pigs! They have this display in the center which they change every few months. It's a lovely place.

Kid Quote

Josie came to me this evening with a disgusted look on her face.

"Mommy, Katie bless-yood on me."

Katie: I love you!

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The Itsy Bitsy Spider

They all know this song very well. They spent all afternoon and most of dinner singing it together. Right before bed tonight, I grabbed our little digital camera, which happens to take video, and shot this.

The lighting isn't the greatest, and the kids get stuck on 'itsy bitsy spider' a lot, but it's too cute to keep to myself!

Enjoy!



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*** A few notes: Early on, Josie gets distracted by getting her fingers right, saying "put the pointer . . . on the thumb!" It's hard to understand her, so I figured I would translate!

Nicknames

In signing a quick note to my sister, just now, I wrote "Snando" because, for a while when we were younger, she called me that. I think at the time there was a catchy ad playing on TV all the time for an alcoholic beverage named Nando? Not sure.

So then I remembered that my sister Jennie called me Damn Spot for a short while, but with great tenacity. Yes, she had recently been required to read Shakespeare and fell in love with the idea of her little sister being a spot that just wouldn't go away . . . I guess.

Finally, there was the ever popular "Bo-Sando" I had a thing for good 'ol Sly and, for some reason, loved the Rambo movies. I'm not sure why such a young girl was watching Rambo, but hey. So my dear mother tied a bandanna around my head and called me Bo-Sando. I loved it.

Can't remember any others right now, except for some mean ones from school mates that just aren't worth mentioning.