Hey everyone! Stop by the Abingdon Farmers Market today for a Prudent Wife Live demonstration from 3-6, Tuesday, July 20! We will be making SALSA of every kind! Spicy Serrano Jalapeno Salsa, a milder Everyday Salsa, a luscious, cool Watermelon Salsa and hopefully Peach Salsa!
Tons of useful ideas on making fresh salsa and canning salsa! Terrific ideas on how to use it year round, to spice up even the dullest dishes with a new twist!
From Southern Living - the peach experts!
Peaches Year-round
Savoring the sun-kissed flavor of juicy peaches all year long is easy–simply freeze them at their peak. Freeze sliced, peeled peaches with or without a sugar syrup, depending on how you plan to serve them. Either way, add lemon juice or commercial powdered fruit preservative such as Fruit-Fresh to protect color and texture. Look for fruit preservatives in the produce or canning sections of your supermarket.
For jams and jellies or cooked dishes, such as pies and cobblers, freeze peaches without sugar, and thaw only partially prior to use. Thaw in the refrigerator about 6 hours or until peach slices can be separated but are still semi-frozen; use immediately.
As sugar syrup further helps retain color and texture, peaches frozen with syrup are the better bet for uncooked applications, such as served over pound cake or ice cream. Thaw syrup-packed peaches in the refrigerator 8 to 10 hours, and plan to use thawed peaches within 1 day.
Unsweetened peaches: Gently toss 4 cups sliced, peeled peaches with 1 Tbsp. powdered fruit preservative or a mixture of 1 tsp. lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. water. Pack into a 1-qt. zip-top plastic freezer bag, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Squeeze out excess air, and seal; freeze. Use within 3 to 6 months.
Syrup-packed peaches: Stir together 2 1/2 cups sugar, 1 Tbsp. lemon juice or 4 tsp. powdered fruit preservative, and 1 qt. water until sugar dissolves. Pour 1/2 cup sugar syrup into a 1-qt. zip-top plastic freezer bag. Add 4 cups sliced, peeled peaches and additional syrup to cover peaches (about 1 cup), leaving 1 inch of headspace. Squeeze out excess air, and seal; freeze. Use within 8 months.
On a warm, sunny, early Spring day, in March of 2009, we were rear ended sitting at a red light at the bottom of a hill. That impact forever changed our lives. This is the story of a young teenage girl who was excelling in 9th grade, a freshman taking college prep classes with a goal of being a veterinarian. After the accident, she was not able to read for 7 months. Fifteen months later, words on a page, pictures, people, all of life remains a blur and the specialists are beginning to utter the word brain injury.
What would you do if your child suffered from a concussion, a head trauma that in time seemed to become a brain injury…though no one says these things up front, and only time will tell the whole story. Where do you turn to to help your child through a concussion that drags out past a year? Where do you turn for help when the MRIs have revealed a nodule on her pituitary gland, and you are not sure if her symptoms are caused by a brain injury or that pesky little nodule?
We tell her story at The Great Brain Saga, and in the Facebook group The Great Brain Saga. We are asking our friends, family and everyone we know to donate just $10 toward the SPECT scan. By giving up 2 Starbucks trips, a movie and popcorn or a couple of Happy Meals, you can help Emily!
We have exhausted what our area has to offer medically for adolescents. Emily has gone to the ER had a CT Scan, 3 MRIs of the brain - all of which revealed a nodule (growth, adenoma) on her pituitary gland, 3 complete eye exams, seen an occupation therapist and vision therapist, not to mention MDs and neurologists. No one has been able to figure out WHY her vision has remained a blur since the accident, let alone how to fix it.
Since Emily has symptoms indicative of both head trauma and brain tumor, with evidence of both, she needs a SPECT scan and a thorough evaluation by the brain specialists at the Amen Clinic in Reston, VA. Their sophisticated SPECT scan will show blood flow patterns in the brain, which will offer clues we need to get to the bottom of this. Their goal is to find out what is happening, and offer a comprehensive treatment plan to help Emily get her life back!
You can help Emily see the specialist she needs, to get a plan to go forward. You can be a vital part of her recovery, and help her finish high school, with the ability to see.
While “thinking out loud on Facebook” as we waited for her third MRI, I put information about the Amen Clinic up and said, if all 330 of my Facebook friends just donated $10 each, we would almost have enough money to send Emily to the Amen Clinic. Within half an hour, I had a dozen friends offering to donate $10, to help, with great ideas on how to do this - all encouraging us forward! Wow….is this what the Lord wants us to do? We have prayed, researched, prayed more, researched and consulted every expert we can, tried every last open door and this remains the open door. While it is really kind of weird and truthfully, acutely UNcomfortable for us to ASK for money, we really think we are supposed to ask for $10 donations from 500 people to do this! Make it one gigantic team effort to send Emily!
Therefore, encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thess 5:11 & 17
Our goal is to raise enough money to send Emily to the Amen Clinic this summer. We need to raise $5000 to pay for the very expensive SPECT scan, visit with specialists and traveling expenses to and from the Washington DC area. This is an expensive trip and we would not take it, if we didn’t think it was her best chance to get her life back.
All we need is for each person reading this to donate $10 (or more, as the Lord leads) and Emily will be able to get the help she needs, forward this to everyone you know, and please, pray for Emily! If you could just skip two Starbucks drinks, a couple of Happy Meals, a movie ticket and popcorn, or a roll of quarters, this would be an incredible help. If we all do a little, we will hit that goal! Thank you for prayerfully considering this!
To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world. — Author Unknown
This is a post from our new website, The Great Brain Saga, as we try to help our daughter recover from a brain injury, or is it a brain tumor?? We are focusing all of our efforts on raising enough money to take her for some expensive testing, not covered by insurance. We welcome your ideas, help, prayers, and every small donation, should the Lord lead you to!
We headed out to Dick’s Sporting Goods yesterday, with a coupon and a need to buy heaver weights. We have been lifting weights at home since February, when Phyllis N, a personal trainer in our Sunday school class, generously taught us how to do it! Phyllis had us start slow, with smaller weights, and begin to learn form and gain strength. Quietly, over the last few months, we have all been steadily increasing weights. Slow and steady wins the race! Each time we up our weights - it is a huge triumph! Our whole family does it - we are absolutely WILD about strength training and wish we would have known how fantastic and STRONG it made us feel, a long time ago! Just thankful we are doing it now, and highly encourage all of YOU to try it!
Emily and I had been looking at a Bosu Ball, which retails for $109. The Bosu Ball is fantastic for developing core strength and BALANCE. Since Emily is struggling with balance, we were interested. We had also seen a segment with Bob Harper (from the Biggest Loser) where he stood on a Bosu Ball, on one leg and tossed a ball back and forth, answering questions for someone. He said not only does this develop core strength, but it keeps the brain fit. As we watched, it hit us like a ton of bricks that what he was doing was involving all of these muscle groups, while throwing a ball from right to left, crossing the midline, and answering questions - that is a DYNAMIC brain exercise! We wanted a Bosu Ball, but it was out of budget and HUGE (we have a small house).
While we were poking around the back section of the store, we saw a CLEARANCE table. Who doesn’t like a bargain? We are rank amateurs in the fitness department, but learning constantly and love experimenting with new things. We tend to research and try to use a few criteria when we evaluate stuff: Will we use it? Is it useful and practical for our fitness goals now, in the future or when we travel? Can we store it easily in LIMITED space? Can the whole family use it? Is it junk? Will it end up in a garage sale?
Well, at the top of the red tags, we saw two items that might take the place of the Bosu Ball, and slide under the couch, for only $9.99 each! SCORE! The first was a GoFit Core Stability Disk, which helps with balance, core strength and exercises glutes, legs and abdominals - what is not to love there? One of the disks was out of the package, so we stood on it. Perfect - this is a low tech, easily storable substitution for the Bosu Ball, at 1/11th of the price! Emily could learn to balance, then balance on one leg, then add tossing the ball from hand to hand while balancing, then questions! Ideal! All GoFit items come with a DVD that teaches you how to safely exercise for maximum effectiveness on each one, generally with beginner to advanced tips. We will pay attention to the form/technique, and add brain exercises in as they are mastered!
Below the Stability Disks, we saw another intriguing product, a Core Wobble and Balance Board. It reminded me of an old wooden surf board, cut into a round circle - it just seemed ideal for surfers! This board will work the same core muscles, help with balance, strength, stress (we are supposed to cut stress out of Emily’s life) and more. A second, slightly different tool, that we can work brain exercises into as well! This will be phase two, after she gets the easier Stability Disk mastered! Best of all, both GoFit pieces help reduce pain! Great solutions for The Great Brain Saga!
When you have nowhere else to turn, you design your own rehabilitative program! Read more at The Great Brain Saga! We are NOT giving up! End of story!
Praising the Lord for great deals, a fantastic coupon, cash from a great used book sale, and for showing us these tools and lighting up my brain with possibilities!
Haven’t we all seen the Topsy Turvy, upside down tomatoes and wondered how those would do in our garden! Yesterday, we picked up some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and can’t wait to plant them.
I want to try those hanging tomatoes, but consistently balk at paying the price they demand for what looks like an old tablecloth. Well, imagine my excitement when a little online research turned up some fantastic upside down resources that will help do-it-yourselfers grow a garden upside down!
I got all excited and was ready to try several of this, until I realized we have nothing to hang them from in this home, so it may have to wait until next year.
Here are the resources:
Enjoy - and let’s all grow some tomatoes this summer! We keep hearing after last years horrid tomato year, and the blight and tomato woes from coast to coast, that we should have a fantastic tomato season THIS year! To salsa!
Is your sunscreen doing the job you want it to do, or something else? A recent study is telling us that many of the sunscreens we slather on so keenly all summer, are actually accelerating cancer rates, rather than protecting us.
Caveat emptor - buyer beware - what is supposed to be keeping you safe, might just be making it worse!
When I was a growing up in
This recipe is so good, we have made it twice in less than a month! It freezes beautifully for hubby’s lunches, and was DELICIOUS the next day for our lunch. It would also be a crowd pleaser for potlucks and gatherings!
Naturally, I have experimented and made some changes to their fabulous recipe, adding extra spices in the meat mixture! It is made in two steps.
Meat Mixture
1 pound lean ground beef, turkey or chicken
2 small white onions, chopped fine
3-5 cloves of garlic
Sauté in a pan until well cooked. Drain fat and liquids, then
3 tablespoons of pre mild to medium hot chile powder
1-2 teaspoons cumin
Optional – add one can of pinto or black beans if desired (I use frozen crock cooked beans)
Cook to mix flavors through. I like to give it a bit of salt and pepper to taste at this point.Spray crock with non stick spray, and put the meat mixture in the bottom.
Cornmeal Mixture
In a separate bowl combine
¾ cup medium grind yellow cornmeal
1 ¼ cups whole milk or almond milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1 to 2 teaspoons of salt (to taste)
Pinch of ground cumin
1 16 oz can stewed tomatoes with chilies, drained and chopped
1 can corn or 2 cups frozen corn or 3 to 4 ears of corn, kernels cut off
1 14 oz can pitted ripe
Whip together cornmeal, milk, egg, salt and cumin, whisking until smooth. Dump tomatoes, corn and chopped olives in, stirring to combine all ingredients. Pour cornmeal mixture over the meat mixture in the crockpot. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours. The cornmeal on top will form a pretty cornmeal looking “crust” on top.
Topping at end (you can absolutely skip this, if it doesn’t sound appealing or you don’t want all that cheese!)
1 ½ cups sharp cheddar cheese or a combination of cheddar and Monterey Jack
1 – 2 tablespoons olive oil
Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the Tamale Pie, drizzle with oil, cover and cook on HIGH for an additional 10 minutes to melt the cheese.
Serve with Spanish rice, refried beans and a salad!
As women, we read over and over about how we need to add some sort of workout with weights into our routine to keep our bones strong and vibrant as we age.
Who has time for that?
Our family has committed to get into great physical health and shape this year. Our goal is to work with the seasons, trying new routines and exercises all year long.
February brought weights into the picture! We purchased two 5 lb weights after church yesterday. Dave went online and found an easy routine for Emily (my 15 year old daughter) and I to try, beginning with a 2-3 minute workout for the arms. We started this morning, after doing our normal stretching and breathing Oxycise routine, and we feel FANTASTIC!
Join us in a simple, BEGINNER weight routine! It feels great!
Will be adding to this post as the day goes on, so check back for more information!
Hey everyone – looks like we are preparing for ROUND TWO, what might be The Great Winter Storm of 2010!!!
So, just wanted to repost what we are doing over at Chez Baughn, http://www.theprudentwife.com/blog/?p=385 (and yes, my dear hubby made it home from the last storm and our truck survived 24 hours on the icy side of the mountain in I-26, with nary a scratch. We are still praising the Lord!)
We have done more this time, including refill the propane in the grill, grab some propane containers ( we have camping stuff that uses propane) and we boiled eggs and are cooking a big roast for “cold leftovers.”
We have been eating out of the freezer all week to work through our supply of frozen meats and decided against cooking a turkey Sat, as that will act as a giant ice cube if we lose power. We have a few ice chests ready, in case something happens and papers printed that tell us how to properly store meat (those links are on my first blog post). We had several friends lose the contents of their regular fridges and their spare freezers in the last storm. Hard thing – we work so hard to FILL them with our bargains, summer veggies, etc and then to lose them!
If I could say one thing – FILL YOUR CARS WITH GAS, and CHARGE YOUR CELL PHONES before you get on the road! Pack blankets, water, food, extra shoes, hats, etc – as this one looks like it will hit around 5pm (the drive time home for many!
Hope this helps someone! Praying you are ALL SAFE!
Love those little cookbooks they have in the check out line at grocery stores? Here is a free Betty Crocker Cookbook on Soups and Stews - some of their all time favorites! Enjoy it!