New aprons just listed....

JUST LISTED....a fun new batch of embellished, vintage aprons have just been added to my online shop.  If you've been following my blog, you may remember my recipe box project a few posts down.  These darling aprons would be a fun gift to go along with the recipe boxes, especially for a bridal shower or wedding gift...a graduation gift....or someone who just purchased a new house.  If you're the artsy type, these would be fun art aprons to wear while painting.  You can find them HERE.  

The recipe project..

For Christmas, I gave my girls a recipe box filled with blank recipe cards.  The wood recipe boxes are from One Canoe Two.  

 I purchased sets of recipe cards from Rifle Paper Company.  Great quality here and I love the designs.

 I purchased recipe box dividers and more recipe cards from One Canoe Two. More whimsical designs and great quality. I was lucky enough to purchase the recipe boxes and all of the recipe cards at 50% off during the Cyber Monday sale after Thanksgiving.

 My goal is to actually keep the recipe boxes with me until my girls move out and start cooking on their own.  I'm making an ongoing list of recipes that I want to hand write on the recipe cards and add to the recipe boxes.  I'm starting first with family favorites.  Some recipes may end up actually photocopied or printed and added to a three ring notebook. I'm using my Get To Work Book to keep track of everything.

 Then one by one I'm hand writing out some recipes X 2.  Then I place a recipe into each box.

 One of my girls is a good cook and could actually survive on her on by cooking her own meals.  One of my girls would love for Mom to cook for her forever and would probably live on take out food.  Both are always willing to give me a hand in the kitchen though and along with their dad, we sometimes bake or cook up something special together.  They're both excellent dish washers, their dad, not so much.

My hopes is to keep the hand written recipe card a "thing".  It's so easy just to grab a recipe off of Pinterest and never print it out.  I want our tried and true family recipes to be kept alive and passed down for generations.  On each hand written card, I always write who the original recipe came from or where I first tried it.  I also add serving tips and tricks to the backs of the recipe cards.  Some day the girls will have a treasured gift.  They may not think much of it now or have much of a use for it, but I know one day they'll love this gift even more.

Note:  If you have a source for printed recipe cards (not printables), I'd love to hear from you. Please leave your comments at the end of this post.

Butter Crisp Pie Crust + sweet & savory pies

This is the year that I'm trying out lots of pie recipes to find that perfect pie crust and the best sweet and savory pies around.  My Jordan has been requesting a homemade cherry pie forever so it made it to the top of the list.  

I found a cherry pie recipe and thought it sounded pretty good.  It's called The Best Cherry Pie Recipe....how could I go wrong?  The blog post with the recipe is here and the Pinterest link is here.  The pie filling did not fail.  I  did tweak it a bit to add my own special touches but the original recipe is pretty darn good.  Thick and sweet and tart.  It beats canned pie filling any day.  I started with these canned Oregon cherries.  

 I made the pie filling just as the recipe called for and it turned out beautifully.

 Now on to the pie crust.  I've tried several crusts over the past few months and just wasn't totally satisfied with them. I finally found the pie crust that my mom uses.  She makes the best pies so I was hoping this crust would be the one.  I gave it a try and filled my pie to the brim.

I even cut out a cherry shape to top my pie.

The crust baked up so nice and brown.  My mom always brushes her pies with milk and then sprinkles on sugar. This makes the pie brown nicely and it has the sweetest little crunch to it.

I'm thinking this looks pretty good and at this point we couldn't wait for the pie to cool.

Tada.  It was good, folks.  The crust was flaky but tender.  The pie filling was so thick and sweet and tart.

We all gave it two thumbs up.

I also tried the crust out in a savory pie.  This is Pioneer Woman's back and egg quiche from one of her cookbooks.  It was equally as good and the pie crust was buttery and crisp and yummy.

So I think I've found my perfect pie crust....for now anyway.  I needed about a half more of the recipe to fill my larger pie plates so I suggest doubling the recipe and keeping the leftover crust for little sugar and cinnamon roll ups, etc. I'm not sure if pie pans were smaller back in the day or what but this recipe was a little hard to get a full pie out of it. This pie crust is unlike any other recipes I've seen as it has milk in it.  I think next time I'll try the butter flavor shortening to see if that makes a difference in taste.

Here's my mama's recipe:

Butter Crisp Crust

by Michelle Wooderson

2 cups flour
2/3 shortening
3/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
3 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup milk (plus a little more for brushing the top of the pie)
Sugar for sprinkling

Mix flour, shortening and butter together until consistency of cornmeal.  Stir in the milk.  Chill dough in refrigerator for easier handling. Assemble pie and brush top with milk.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees then lower the oven temperature to 375 and add a pie crust shield to protect the outer edges of the crust from burning.  Bake for another 30-40 minutes, until the crust looks nicely browned and the juices bubble up thickly.  Remove from oven and let cool for several hours before eating.  Recipe is for a two crust pie but I suggest doubling and saving the excess for another use.

Let me know if you give it a try.  I can't wait to try more pies now!

Tray Tuesday....Strawberry Jam

Hey everyone. Welcome back to Tray Tuesday.  It's a new series here on the blog where I show you what I have my tray.  I use trays for everything & have quite the little collection going so here goes.  Today I've got homemade Strawberry Jam on a cute red, vintage tray.  

I've been canning so much this Summer that I haven't had time to make room on my shelves for more canned goods.  Until then I have jars of sweet goodness sitting around on my dining room table and everywhere.

I can't seem to grow strawberries very well where I live so I always buy them from the store when they're nice and ripe.

There's nothing like having a jar of fresh jam, bursting with ripened fruit flavor and homemade goodness.

The jars are so pretty too.  If these make it til Christmas, I think they'd make very cute gifts for neighbors and friends.  Maybe include a loaf of freshly baked bread or some scones.

Full of juicy strawberry flavor, this photo just makes my mouth water.

For all of my simple fruit jams and jellies, I typically use the recipes included in the fruit pectin boxes.  They are tested and never seem to fail me.  Here's the recipe I used for my Strawberry Jam today.  This is a canned jam using the water bath method of preservation. Enjoy!

I'd love to hear what's on your tray today.  Feel free to leave a link or comment in the comments section below.  If you follow along on Instagram (mishwooderson), feel free to use the hashtag #traytuesday to show me what's on your tray.

I've recently listed some vintage trays in my shop.  Here's just a few samples.....

These black trays are quite striking.  A little worn and chippy but would be so cute with mason jars lined up or filled with craft supplies

Aluminum trays are understated but go with about everything.  I like to place little jello molds on these to hold small bits and pieces of paper kits.

Round trays are always fun to use to serve drinks in mason jars or just grab a tray while you're working on a craft project.  Place a vintage napkin on top and pile high with homemade muffins or cookies.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day!

Sweet & Sour Pickled Peppers and Onions

Back to share my favorite new canning recipe that I discovered this Summer.  May I introduce to you Sweet & Sour Pickled Peppers and Onions.  This makes a beautiful canned presentation and it's so delicious too.  I'll definitely be making this every year now come garden season. 

If there's a few things I can grow well in my garden it's peppers, onions and jalapenos.  The colored peppers....I still have to buy those as I haven't found good varieties for these yet.  The color is very important if you care about presentation and how pretty your jars look on the shelf.  

 This recipe comes from the Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest magazine called Canning (preserving + freezing + drying).  I found my copy at Walmart and just saw them on the shelves still today while grocery shopping.  I'll share my adapted recipe at the end of the post.

The recipe calls for red, green, yellow and/or orange sweet peppers.  I also threw in a few jalapenos and some pepperoncini peppers because they were plentiful in the garden.  The colorful mix is really the key to this recipe.

I followed the recipe almost exactly as called for otherwise.  I stuffed all the peppers and onions into the jars, leaving the appropriate head space.  

You can see how beautiful the jars look already.  I like to overstuff my jars a bit because when you add the hot liquid the peppers will shrink down a little.  Otherwise when the jars are cooled the veggies float to the top and there's a lot of liquid at the bottom of the jar with no veggies. 

Here's the jars filled with the vinegar liquid mixture.  I love seeing the seeds and peppercorns in this mix.  It looks so fancy.  You can see here that I put a few jalapeno slices on the tops of these jars.  

 Here's the jars straight out of the canning pot.  So bright and crisp looking.

 Alas, that color doesn't last but the jars are still beautiful and filled with colorful veggies.

I know we will go through these like crazy so I've already made a second batch. I'll see what comes from the garden yet and may make a third batch.  These would make great Christmas gifts or be perfect to take to tailgate parties, etc.  

For some recipe ideas, so far we've tried the pickled mixture on pulled pork with coleslaw and BBQ sauce. The veggies stayed crunchy and the vinegar gave a little zip to the sandwiches. 

 Simple hotdogs take on a whole new meaning now.  My husband gave this a two thumps up so it's definitely a keeper recipe.

Here's the recipe that you can copy and paste into a word document if you want to print:

Sweet & Sour Pickled Sweet Peppers and Onions

from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Canning (preserving + freezing + drying) ...adapted by Michelle Wooderson

3 pounds red, green, yellow and/or orange sweet peppers, sliced into bite size strips ( I add jalapeno and pepperoncini too)

2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced (can add more if you like more onion)

4 cups sugar

4 cups water

3 cups white vinegar

2 cups cider vinegar

1 tablespoon celery seeds

1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

4 cloves garlic, smashed

4 bay leaves

2 teaspoons Kosher salt

Combine pepper strips and onions in large bowl.  Set aside. In cooking pot combine all other ingredients.  Bring to boiling, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt.  Reduce heat to low.  Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.  Discard garlic (I left mine in) and bay leaves.  Pack pepper-onion mixture into hot sterilized pint canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Pour hot vinegar mixture into jars, maintaining the 1/2 inch head space.  Discard any remaining vinegar mixture.  Wipe jar rims; adjust lids and screw bands.  Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (start timing when water returns to boiling).  Remove jars from canner.  Cool on wire racks.  Wait for the "ping" sound of sealed jars. Rejoice.  Enjoy.  Makes 7 pints. 

Recipe ideas:  Use as topping for hotdogs, chili dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork sandwiches, sloppy joes, roast beef or salads.  Chop and add to meatloaf, hamburgers or potato salads.  

Recipe: Peach Dumplings with Homemade Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce

I was asked to bring a dessert to my sister's July 4th celebration.  We always try to "bring it" when it comes to food in our family.  I thought something with peaches would be yummy so I found this awesome recipe for Peach Dumplings on Pinterest.  It makes for a beautiful presentation aside from being quite delicious. 

I prepared the recipe just as noted with the exception of using 2 peaches instead of one.  I just cut two slices for each crescent roll. You start by mixing the dry ingredients with melted butter. 

 I also doubled the recipe and used a 9 x 13 pan.  Here's the rolled up crescent rolls with peaches, the buttery crumb topping and a quirky ingredient, the 7 Up poured around the unbaked dumplings.

 Pop them in the oven and wait for the magic to happen.

 The dumplings bake up so pretty and browned and bubbly.  The peaches are nicely done and so juicy, with lots of cinnamon goodness all around them.

 I served each dumpling with a scoop of my mom's homemade vanilla ice cream.  It always gets raves reviews and is the best recipe I've tried for homemade ice cream.

I also drizzled on some warm caramel sauce for a pretty presentation.  The dumplings are warm and sweet and so delicious. 

You definitely get that homemade awesomeness when you serve these little yummies.  They got rave reviews at the July 4th celebration so we're adding them to the "keeper" list of recipes.  I hope you give them a try.