Crock Pot Orange Marmalade

We were given several bags of oranges this week and since I have a few favorite recipes that call for orange marmalade,  I decided to make some.   As I was looking for recipes I came across one that was made in the crock pot. 

If you know anything about me, it is that almost everything I cook is in the crock pot as it is so easy and much less mess!  Because it said that it could be left overnight I started it last night at about 8 o'clock.

First I took four large oranges and quartered them, peeled them and removed any seeds.

I cut the pulp into pieces and put them in the crockpot. 

(Next time I do this recipe I will actually put them through the food processor.)

I then sliced the rinds into thin ribbons. 

(I found out later that I should have cut them thinner!)

I then added 4 cups of sugar, 4 cups of water and some lemon juice.

I stirred it all together and cooked on High for 2 hours. 

After 2 hours I stirred the mixture, turned it on Low and headed to bed.

When I got up at 5:30 it looked like this.  It tasted wonderful but did not look like marmalade.  I separated the orange pieces out and put them in the blender and also took all the orange peel and sliced them thinner.

After blending and slicing it looked much better.  I then took the lid off the crockpot and let it cook for a couple more hours on Low so it could reduce and become the right consistency.

The recipe made 6 beautiful pints which I'll tuck away in the pantry to use this winter in Orange Chicken and Orange Marmalade cake.  Yummy!



Zucchini Pickles

I was overjoyed this week when we received bunch of small zucchini.  Right away my husband asked me to make him some zucchini pickles.
 

First I sliced all the onions and zucchini. 

Saraina let me use her mandolin and I totally fell in love with it.  It only took me a few minutes to slice all the veggies perfectly.

Because my husband loves zucchini pickles so much, I just make

 a big jar and put it in the fridge instead of canning and processing several smaller, individual jars. After the zucchini pickles are eaten then I will use the leftover juice in the jar to make a batch of pickled eggs. 

For the pickle brine I used 2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. mustard seeds, 1 1/2 tsp. dry mustard and 1 tsp. turmeric. 

(I actually tripled the recipe to make enough brine for the jar.) 

 Bring the brine to a boil and then reduce heat and let simmer.

 

My husband was so excited to come home and see that I had made these today he wanted to dig right in and start eating but it's best if they sit in the fridge for a day or two so they can develop their flavor.  I still have a little zucchini left so this weekend I'll also make some zucchini bread, and some fried zucchini cakes and maybe try out a new zucchini recipe or two.  Definitely going to be a zucchini weekend!



Gone Fishing

It's time for another year of Bible Adventures and I am so excited

 as I have so much planned for the kids this year!

 

 

I was so sad to paint over my mural of Heaven and the "Great Race"

as it was one of my favorite murals I've done.

 

This year we will be studying Acts so we drew a map

of Paul's Missionary journey's on the wall.

 

Mason and Chandler took so much time and carefully drew and painted the map and all the cities we would be visiting in Bible Adventures this year.

 

I think the wall turned out great and will help the kids visualize

and see exactly where each weeks story takes place. 

On the other wall we drew a full size fishing pond where the kids will each have a fish that will keep track of their progress through the year.

 

 

Each kid gets a book this year with verses from each weeks story and various activities they can do as they learn about missionaries and how to share the gospel.  The teens leaders that are helping also have a book that they need to finish each week that also has the same verses the kid are learning and a reading from Acts and questions from the reading.

 

We have a few new puppets this year, Grandpa Leo who loves fishing

and his grandchildren, Zoey and Gavin, who Grandpa Leo is teaching to fish.  Last night they learned that fishing takes a lot of waiting and patience!  When Gavin complained and said he didn't like to wait,

Grandpa Leo told him that the apostles had to wait too when Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Ghost came. 

 It was a great story to start our study on Acts on.

 

Instead of Lawrence this year, we have two monsters that love to cause trouble!  SA and TAN (Do you get their names?) were scaring all the fish and hoping the kids wouldn't have enough patience to keep waiting to catch fish. The kids loved them but wanted to know where Lawrence was!

 

 

When the kids say their weekly verses, they then get to go fishing and try to get a fish.  Each fish has a number on it that coincides with a prize bucket.  Although we didn't say any verses last night, all the kids got to try to catch a fish and get a prize.

 

 

The first night of Bible Adventures went great and we had a lot of fun and the kids are so excited to come back next week and find out if Zoey and Gavin ever did catch a fish!  "Gone Fishing" is going  be a great year!

Relaxing at the Creek

One of our favorite places in Idaho to camp and fish at is Birch Creek. 

It is in the middle of the desert and is surrounded by mountains. It is so beautiful and peaceful there and we have been planning for several months to go camping there with my brother. 

As soon as we got there and unpacked, Chep went right into the stream and started fishing. He said it was the most relaxing thing he has done all summer. He was catch and releasing but did keep a couple for dinner. 

Patrick was so happy to find a tent in our dads house so he and Amy got to work putting it up. Come to find out the tent did not have the tent stakes in it and no rain cover but by throwing all their stuff in the tent, the tent was unmovable. 

I fished for a little while but felt God calling to me to spend some time soaking up the sun and His Word. It was so peaceful and I just sat there mesmerized by the Word and listening to God speak to my heart. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my Lord and Savior and got some chunks of meat I am still mulling over today. 

My brother cooked us homemade bread in cast iron and it smelt so good. As he was getting ready to make us beans it started raining. As it never rains hard or long in Idaho, we went to the tent to wait it out. What we thought was going to be a light sprinkle turned into an hour downpour!  Since the tent did not have a rain cover it was raining as hard in the tent as it was outside. Since Patrick and Amy had put all their stuff in the tent to hold it down we sat in the tent watching rivers of water flow through all their suitcases, clothes and food. It was actually comical as Amy and I sat in the tent trying to use a sleeping bag as an umbrella and Chep and Patrick were holding the tent packing bag over their heads. 

Patrick did not want the weather to stop us from camping as he had flown across the United States to show his girlfriend a bit of Idaho. Starting the fire again with soaked firewood was a definite challenge but we used my expired coupons and got it started!  We finished dinner, had s'mores and laughed and laughed and then spent several hours trying to dry out the sleeping bags and tent.

After a cold night, everyone got up early to watch the sunrise and have bacon and eggs over the fire. We packed up and headed back into town to get hot showers!  Amy said camping was definitely an interesting and she would be willing to go and try it again!  I told my brother she is definitely a keeper!

Best Fair Ever!

Sunday night we left right after church to start a few days of vacation time. We drive all night and made it to Idaho by 5 in the morning and slept for a few hours before meeting up with my brother and his girlfriend. They flew in from Maryland last weekend so his girlfriend could meet the family and also get a taste of Idaho.

And what better way to get a taste of Idaho than by going to the Eastern Idaho State Fair!  Although this is our home fair and we are partial to it, we have traveled to many other fairs and none come close to compare to this one. 

Amy wasn't raised around animals and totally loved the livestock barns and was able to pet and feed many of them. 

The 4-H barns were fun to see the veggies, quilts, pictures and all the other stuff that people worked so hard on as they competed for those coveted Blue Ribbons. 

Of course there was a ton of food and we definitely broke our diets to eat all the sugary, greasy treats. Some of our favorites this year were the Tiger Ears, Grilled Cheese Donuts, Torntadors and fudge!

Of course we spent some time on the Midway and screamed and laughed as we rode some rides. 

To top off the night we headed to the grandstands to watch the Gem State Classic Rodeo. It was an amazing rodeo and we so enjoyed it so much. Amy had never been to a rodeo before so it was so much fun to watch her face and see her excitement!

We had a wonderful time at the fair and it was a great way to meet Amy. She is so fun and happy and so sweet. We are so excited fort brother and praying for him as he continues to court Amy. 

We Are So Excited!

We are so excited to welcome the Allen family to our church. Brother Allen moved his family here from Michigan to be our new youth Pastor!  This is such a blessing because as our church continues to grow and grow, we have fallen short in ministering to the teens. This morning was Brother Allen's first morning teaching the teen Sunday School class and all the teens loved it and are already talking about next week! We are so excited to see what the Lord will do with our youth group through the Allen family!