I'm still here!

I've just been sick sick sick! And super busy. I will post something fantastic this weekend. I promise.

Apple Butters and Sauces

Tis the season to be apple picking. If you're like me you are completely content with the idea of a cold winter and embrace the days of autumn. I like to spend my time visiting my favorite farms and orchards for the last few harvests of the year. With apples being the most common staple it is easy to get into a rut, making apple pie after apple pie after apple pie after... well you get it. And let's face it, apple pie really requires a lot of steps, time and creates a bit of a mess. The easiest and one of my favorites is Apple Butter but I shouldn't get ahead of myself because in order to make apple butter you first need to make apple sauce. I like to start making my Apple Sauce while I am carving heads to be shrunken in the dehydrator. I do this because I do not like to waste! At all!!!! And you shouldn't either. So I put all my usable scraps into a bowl and after a few heads I'll dump those scraps into a crock pot set on high. I like to start the crock pot with 4-5 peeled and sliced apples, the juice from one lemon and about 3-4 tablespoons of sugar. This will keep the smaller scraps from burning and the sugar will help draw out juice from the apples. I then continue until my crock pot is completely full and cook on high until the apples just start to break up and reduce. Keep an eye on the moisture content in the bottom of the crock. You should add water a cup at a time if there is not a lot of juice present. I like to keep liquid 1/3 of the way up the apples. Stir continuously throughout the cooking process (about ever hour or so,) turning the bottom pieces up so everything cooks evenly. Once the apples start breaking up, reduce your heat to low and continue to cook gently to your favorite consistency. I sometime prefer it chunky, light in color with soft pieces of apple suspended within and other times prefer it darker and smooth which requires a longer cooking time (usually I will leave it overnight on low.) I like my apple sauces light and mostly just flavored by the apples. I will sometimes throw in a pinch of ginger or cinnamon but nothing too spicy. On the other hand I LOVE my apple butters rich and spicy in flavor. I often go very heavy handed with cinnamon, clove and ginger with a hint of nutmeg. After the Apple Sauce is made the steps to continue to make Apple Butter are SO EASY! You just cook it longer and uncovered! See, couldn't be simpler. I would start adding spices once the apple sauce has reduced by half (it should be dark amber in color and just starting to thicken.) If you add spices too early the heat will damage their essential oils, breaking down and losing the flavor. Adding it too late will not give them enough time to mingle with apples and fully develop the flavors. Add a little at a time and tasting a few minutes later. Adjust to how you like it but remember too much of anything can destroy your finished product. The finished Apple Butter should be thick and paste like. I couldn't tell you how many times I have had Apple Butter that was basically dark apple sauce. Each should have a completely different texture from the other. Apple Butter should look more like Tomato Paste than Tomato Sauce. Make sense? After each is cooled, you can store in Ball Jar and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, you can preserve them in the Ball Jars following basic canning times, temperatures and pressures or you can bag it and free it for up to 2 years. If freezing remember to leave the bag open and do not fill completely. If not you risk the bag bursting when the sauce or butter expands during the freezing process. Remember to chill anything before freezing as it will reduce any damages that can occur when freezing. Each recipe can be altered by adding molasses or some of your other favorite spices. Also a variety of fruits can be added like cranberries, pears or pumpkin. Pair things that you like and you can't go wrong. So go forth. Pick apples. Make sauce and butter. And be happy!

A Reminder to ALL!

The beauty in a lot of items posted here are in the details and sometimes for editing purposes the pictures are smaller than one would like. So as a reminder to all, you can click on every photo for a larger image. Once there you can magnify it yet again with one more click. This will create a SUPER JUMBO GIGANTIC PICTURE! Seriously! Anyway, I know I like to use this option to see the details closer. Look for Billy Stewart on Facebook starting this week. All photos will be posted there along with daily, bi-daily, hourly(?) updates on tips, events and snapshots from my everyday life. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I must get back to homework and studying and maybe some cleaning. I still have to paint, too! Yikes, what am I doing on here? Why do I keep typing? Ok... I am done... right... now. Bye. Have a great weekend. Ok. Seriously now, bye. Lucy say's "Goodnight."

Hope you're having a great weekend

I am! I loved waking up to the rain this morning. It was so perfect and it really feels like fall now. I am looking forward to turning the heat on and pulling out the blankets and throw pillows and stashing the air conditioners and fans. Decorating is coming and I'm already looking at fog machines and cauldrons and much, much more. I wanted to share a few beautiful pictures from my garden... errr... jungle. It sure is starting to look like a jungle.
1. My Drosera is going into bloom! It sent up this long staff last week and finally the buds are starting to show off their hot pink petals. It should be quite amazing when it has fully opened. Plus I can just let them go to seed and we'll have many more Droseras in a few months.


2. My Euphorbia or Crown of Thorns are in full bloom. As I mentioned in previous posts, this is a member of the succulent family. It requires few watering, about every two or three weeks a water-through will do, and it is a constant bloomer, making it ideal as a gift or addition to a sunny spot. One of my favorite plants, currently having two in my collection but more to come... I'm sure. The blooms come in a variety of reds ranging from pink to salmon, also yellows, oranges and creams are common. It requires a 1:1 ratio of sand and compost but be careful, as its name suggests there are many, many thorns hidden beneath its long, oval foliage.

3. Last and certainly not least, one of the best additions to the garden. I stopped by Talisman Glass Studio last week to say hello to my good friend and teacher Sharon Gilbert. I have known Sharon for almost 11 years now when she first started teaching me how to blow glass. We've been great friends over the years and on this visit she gave me a little gift. It was an extra piece from a wall installation she did way back in 2001. I immediately knew where this gorgeous bulb would be placed. I wove a basket hammock for it to hang in and strung it up from the bottom of a golden pathos. It is just breath taking and looks especially stunning in the early morning when the light is shining through and the cobalt, greens and golds are illuminated. It's just awesome and I love it and cannot take my eyes from it.

Another Great Gift Idea!

I love giving little gifts for “Thank You’s,” Holidays or just because I think you're great. For the most part I like to keep my gifts simple, homemade and from the heart. One of my favorite things to give friends is a houseplant. This is one of my hobbies I enjoy the most and I absolutely love spreading the joy for gardening and plant keeping to my friends and family. You must understand though that not all people are "plant people" and will kill even the easiest of plants. That's fine and don't let it discourage you from giving them one anyway. Pick out a beautiful flowering plant for them but keeping in mind that the care should be generally easy. I like to choose from moisture loving plants like Cyclamen (as seen in these photos) or the lovers of dryness like cacti and other succulents. One great choice is the Crown of Thorns (also known as the Jesus Plant.) This is a desert, tree-like shrub that is a constant bloomer and does belong to the succulent family. It can go weeks without watering and grows in medium to high light. It's mostly available from late winter to mid-summer at most nurseries. Picking out a plant from either side will ensure that it will survive for a month at least. And who cares if it dies? It lasted longer than a bouquet of cut flowers will and there is a chance it will survive and be enjoyed for years to come... especially with a little guidance from you. Stay away from hard to keep plants like African Violets whose picky disposition will make it frustrating for the recipient. Houseplants make a wonderful and inexpensive gift. Wrap decorative paper around the pot it came in, set it in a designer pot of your choice or make your own container as I have done here from a roll of raffle tickets (a how-to to come.) Be creative, make it your own and make someone’s day just a little brighter with an unexpected gift of a flowering houseplant.

Birthday!

We celebrated my youngest sister's 24th birthday this evening at my parents' house. We ate a lot, laughed until we couldn't and toasted Jacqui, wishing her the best. It was a blast. It was so good to see Jacqui and Jerrad whom I haven't seen since our vacation together in Wisconsin. Because that was such a special and spectacular trip, I wanted to incorporate it into Jacqui's gift this year. Remembering all the fun we had swimming, tubing, hiking and hanging out, I knew the options for inspiration were limitless. One event, however, stood out above all the rest. I touched briefly on it a few posts ago; The Geocaching Trip. This may sound innocent enough but it wasn't. We set out that afternoon with a weak signal on our cellphone's GPS. Thinking that this wouldn't be too problematic we followed Jacqui's suggestion of "taking the next thing that looks kind of like a trail." Convincing ourselves we were on the right path we climbed deeper and deeper into the woods spotting mushrooms and looking under every rock we came across for the geocache. After an hour or so of hiking we found the lake where it was most likely located. We spent the next minutes surveying the area for any place a small army box could hide. No luck! We weren't discouraged and continued searching until someone finally said it was time to give up. So the four of us started back in the direction we had arrived until we came upon a larger graveled road. Surely this wouldn't steer us off course... Fast forward 2 hours... We've finally found signs of life, a house and a real street, following the tire tracks out we headed west. After 2+ hours of searching we found a road we knew and headed home. Now, I don't mean to make this sound miserable, sure we didn't bring water, sure we saw lots of fresh bear and coyote scat, sure I was preparing to figure out shelter for the night BUT it was so much fun. We laughed most of the way and really had a fantastic adventure together.
Back to the gift... with this great journey still fresh in my memory the obvious gift choice was our own Faux Geocache. Using a shadowbox (I bought on sale from Hobby Lobby years ago. I like to keep things like this on hand for these types of situations...) anyway, using the shadowbox I cut out strips of forest themed craft paper to perfectly fit sides and front of the frame. It is important to line up your patterns and images to make the finished product look neat and professional. Naturally there will be one section that will not meet up but if you pay enough attention while you are placing your templates, you can make this seam almost unnoticeable.

After I had carefully attached these panels with craft glue, I set out to collect the items that would adorn the interior. Using carefully selected pea gravel that I use in my terrariums (I pick out the most perfect and beautiful stones when I wash a new bag of pebbles. OCD? Maybe but it saves so much time in the end) I used this as the "ground covering." In my hiking pack I keep a fairly large, old book for pressing flowers. I am always picking and pressing flowers year round and find it extremely helpful to always have a book on hand while out in the woods. On the geocaching hunt I managed to pick several flowers and pulled a few out and set them in a base of hot glue. I also pressed ferns from one of the houseplants between regular computer papers with my iron set on high/dry. When pressing with this technique it is important to constantly flip and switch out the paper so the moisture can evaporate quickly, reducing any oxidation. These were set next to a dried morel the same way as the pressed flowers. For the scroll I simply made 1 1/2" strips of computer paper, soaked them in a hot cup of tea to give them their weathered appearance, let dry and wrote on it. I then secured the curls of the scroll with hot glue and mounted it to the background. Overall this is an easy project but with all the extra thought and care, it was a truly personal and thoughtful gift... if I do say so myself. So the next time you're out with friends or just out doing something fun yourself, take pictures and keep little souvenirs because you too can make something special and heartfelt.

The forest has officially moved inside!

Remember the terrariums we made back in the Spring? I was so inspired by these neat little ecosystems captured inside of sleek glass jars that I decided to redecorate our apartment around the terrariums. I quickly began designing a wall of terrariums that would surround our entertainment center. I also customized bookshelves bought from a thrift store. They were just two cases from a school library with an open top. All I did was cut a piece of pine to fit on top and screwed it down. It still needs to be painted the same chocolate color as our molding but for now it works. I then used this as a room divider, separating our open floor plan into two areas: the den/entertainment room and the library and kitchen. As you probably know by now, I am a huge outdoors person, always getting out for a hike or foray whenever I can. Naturally it made the most sense to try and capture the serenity of the woods in my everyday life. With this in mind I quickly started building upon my plant collection, taking it from 14 to 75 in just a couple months. I did my research and found plants that I would love and that would fit where I needed them. Using hanging baskets,I created even more of a division by planting two Golden Pothos and a giant Australian Sword fern above the bookcase. On top of the shelf I added many moderate to highlight houseplants ranging from Begonia Rex all the way to the desert's Crown of Thorns. This installation creates enough of a false wall effect to give the feel for separate rooms but still leaves enough openness so I can chat with guests on the couch while preparing drinks or dinner or keep up with my favorite television program while washing dishes. Happy but not completely satisfied with the spread of my plants I am still researching, looking to fill in dark spots with other potbound housemates. I also have passiflora being trained to crawl up a hanging grid system that will eventually create a beautiful canopy draped from the ceiling. These wonderful vines which produce passionfruit, branch out 15-30 feet and have the most unusual and fragrant flowers. I hope that by next spring our entire library will be shaded by this glorious vine.

Other than being used as a design element, plants have other fantastic benefits for their owners. NASA recommends that each home have at least 10 houseplants to purify air. Studies have shown that children who grew up with houseplants are healthier, smarter and lived longer. Besides this, many plants produce fruits and vegetables or edible leaves and flowers. If you have the right amount of sun why not grow your own citrus, herbs and other yummy treats. Many houseplants also produce fragrant flowers which will eliminate the use of those terrible deodorizing sprays like Fabreeze and Lysol. These are not only bad for the earth but also horrible for people and pets. Another benefit is that plants neutralize the homes atmosphere. Now what does that mean? Well they will keep the humidity up in the winter, keep the temperatures more regular (reducing the need for constant heating or cooling) and they absorb sound. All great things! If you have children who are nagging you for a doggy or a hamster, get them a plant first. Make sure they are able to take care of something without a heartbeat before getting them their first pet. I encourage everyone to head out and pick up a few green buddies for your home. Do the proper research for the area you want to add to. What kind of light exposure can this spot provide? Are you willing to make sure that it is watered regularly or would you do better with a more forgiving plant? These are all good questions to ask yourself before heading to your favorite nursery with your credit card out and ready. Take advantage of the employees too. They will be more than happy to help you and most (even at places like Home Depot and Loews) are quite knowledgeable. Don't go for the expensive, decorative pots either! These are often glazed and make plant keeping much harder. Certain moisture loving plants could potentially thrive in them but most will perish. I always use terracotta or another natural, unglazed clay pot. The only exception I make is when the plants will be put out in the summer heat, where the moisture will evaporate more quickly. If you have to have that gorgeous $200 container, buy a terracotta pot that fits easily inside it with a few inches of pea gravel in the bottom. This way the soil can still breath and moisture will disperse more quickly. I will tell you about all the different varieties I have, with pictures and care instructions soon. For now here's a picture of a large portion of my collection. The first is looking into the kitchen and the second is looking out from the kitchen. The longer hanging basket was achieved simply by removing the original chain with needle-nosed pliers and replacing it with 3 foot long pieces of chain I bought for few bucks at Home Depot.