Hot Orange (Cider?)

It is getting chilly in Belize. And then I am reminded that a cup of hot apple cider would be great. Well, I could do that, but it would cost a pretty penny, so I decided to make do with orange juice. Those we get at 10 cents a piece whereas a big apple is 2 dollars. No can do apples! I found out I liked the mulled orange juice just swell, although my little Canadian/Americans would have preferred apple cider.

Take: one quart orange juice

Add: 3 cinnamon sticks

some whole cloves, about 6 pieces or to taste

some orange peel

a tablespoon or two of brown sugar, as the juice tends to sour a little from heating

Bring to a boil, simmer on low for about 10 minutes, turn off and let sit for a bit to mix flavors. Serve warm in some pretty tea cups!

This time I am linking up to these parties:
 Artful Affirmations
Sweetology

A Day Out

Last Saturday we went out for the day with the crew that is associated with the light plant where Daniel works part time. The kids sure enjoyed it; I did too, but wasn't able to do the things most others did because of my blessed situation. It was ok; this way I was able to focus all attention on Timothy and had fun with him.

We went on a bus with the other folks together to Cave's Branch where most enjoyed some zip lining and cave tubing. I enjoyed watching where I could. A shame I couldn't zipline, as from a kid I have always dreamed of doing it. Hopefully some day!

 Getting all saddles up for the journey through space.

 

 What's this? Not my baby! Yes, my baby too! Guess what this mother prayed as she saw her helpless little 3 year old fly down that line hanging on for dear life! (Why don't they enforce any age rules around here...???)

 O well; you want them to grow up sometime.

 

 There she goes! It's pretty hard to get a good photo of this sport. Everything goes too fast!

 And this is the only proof I have that my baby made it across the first line. For whatever reason I or my camera couldn't operate when he was in the air...wonder why...

 After one zip he was done! Ah what a relief on my part...although I think he enjoyed it; with him it is hard to tell...

Joseph had no problem zipping along like a pro. I enjoy seeing him being such a brave tough little man.

 The next fun thing was tubing through the cave. I walked as far as the river but stopped there. Timothy had fun at the water for a while and after that we looked at a small cave.

 I tried to teach him to take a photo of me. Not too bad for a three year old after several tries!

 

 

Katie's Kisses

Today I am in the mood to share a story some of you might or might not have heard. It touches my heart so deeply that it creates in me a longing to do more, but I don't know if it is God's will that I do more at this point, so I will be thankful for my "little family" and what I can do for them!

Imagine adopting 14 daughters. Now imagine you are a single mom. Not only are you a single mom, but you are only 21. You do it because you love God, and this is what His will is for you. That is the story of Katie Davis, a young woman who has gone to Uganda and opened her heart and life up to become a mother to many homeless motherless children, besides helping along many mothers and even men who need help. I hope you will find some encouragement like I did. If you think you have your hands full, think again after reading her blog and hearing her story! 

Here is her blog:

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

She has written a book that would be a great buy...

Kisses from Katie

Another Yard Sale, another good find...

This week was my aunt and uncle's retirement auction. I went there, hoping to snatch something of value to me. I was not disappointed. I found this oval shaped enamelware dish that used to belong to my Grandmother who passed away years ago. O, was I happy! Since I already collect enamelware, this was precious.

The next thing I looked at buying was an old blanket of some sort, used to put under a mattress or possibly on the floor. It was very heavy and I would have no use for it. The only thing that attracted me to it was the fabric cover which looked very vintage. I walked away and later came back and it was still there! My aunt saw me fingering it and said, "That is made of feed sacks". I asked what was in the inside, because I had some sort of hunch it might be valuable to me, and she said an old quilt. That did it! I picked it up and was very happy to pay 5 Bze for it. I couldn't wait to rip open the cover to find out just what was hidden inside. I wondered, if the outside cover is made of old sacks long ago, then how old is the quilt that's inside???

This was the outside cover. I want to open the seams so I can use the pieces individually.

 
 This was on the inside. A stitched together heavy piece of quilt...or as I would discover, quilts!

 

After removing the cover I undid the stitches that held together the inside piece. As I opened it, I discovered layer upon layer of an old quilt made with colorful fabric pieces. To my glad surprise, not just one quilt was used, but another one that looked even older, and another piece of something with an interesting shape that I do not know what it would have been used for!

 This baffles my mind. What do you think it could have been used for??? I will be sure to try and find out...

The nicest quilt. Ain't she a beauty? A shame to cover it up for so many years, but on the other hand, good for me as this way it stayed preserved to a certain extent. I will try to fix the damage of the cut off strip somehow which you cannot see in the photo. Some blocks are quite torn but most are intact. I think I even see fabric in it that could have my mother's dresses when she was young, as she has saved up a small square of every piece of fabric that was ever used to sew her a dress when she was a girl.  How neat is that! She even wrote down what year the dresses were made, so I can see how many she got in one year. Not all that many, and many were made from feed sacks...The good old days that we know so little about. How times have changed!

 A few blocks from up close.

Wow, wow, wow.

Here is the next quilt, the older looking one. It had been patched over in the worst places which I tore off because I wanted to see the quilt in its entirety. This one is worn worse than the other one, so I might just cut some patterns from around the outside and make myself a small quilt or wallhanging out of it. First, I want to know the history before I go ahead and do something like that though.

 here are some closeups of the blocks used on the quilt. Very neat.

 This would have made a gorgeous dress for any little girl. It is my favorite color in this quilt.

I considered myself very lucky. It was well worth 5 dollars to me! The only sad part is the quilts have both been cut to fit into the cover, so now I need to find a way to restore old quilts. I have been thinking about gluing the pieces together, or sewing them together; I am not sure which I will decide to do.

I plan to make another visit to my aunt. My guess is she will be very surprised to see all the old pieces. I have so many questions to ask. Hopefully her memory floodgate will open wide!

Who made the quilts?

Who used them?

Are they all made of feed sack fabric or other fabric?

Would my Grandmother or even my Great-grandmother have used any of the fabrics?

Were they wedding gifts or other special gifts?

I wonder if the women that quilted these quilts came together with horse and buggies for the quilting? These old quilts would have so many stories to tell if they could talk, and I hope to be able to get a hold of some of them before they are lost.

Here is the update!!!

Turkey Nuggets recipe

I like to bake a big turkey for Thanksgiving, because I sure don't mind the leftovers. Here is the way our family prefers to use up leftover turkey. It works well for chicken too. This is one way I can cook turkey for a second meal but it does not taste so obviously leftover. People usually agree when I serve them this meal. When I made these nuggets the night after our dinner, my husband looked at the bowl full and said, "This looks like it will taste better than it did yesterday." As much as I like turkey dinners, I might have to agree with him on this one.

When I have leftover cranberry, I like to make that into a sweet and sour dipping sauce.This time I did not, so I just made my regular sweet and sour sauce which is really good too.

Turkey Nuggets Batter:

1 cup flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2/3 cup milk


Mix together thoroughly, and dip turkey pieces in it. (Pieces should be about 1 inch wide). Deep fry on both sides till golden brown, then place on paper towel. Serve with the following sauce.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

1/2 cup ketchup (or cranberry sauce)
1/4 cup vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1 tsp corn starch
pinch of salt

Bring ingredients to a boil to thicken. Serve with the turkey or chicken nuggets.

And please let me know what you think!

Linking to:
This Chick Cooks
The Shabby Nest 
Funky Junk Interiors

The Dinner

The Thanksgiving dinner came and went, going as planned. Everyone had a wonderful time, even if it rained a little in between. Here are some photos I got in between trying to run the whole show of  getting dinner on. 

Thanksgiving day in Belize is not a holiday. Hopefully it will be someday, but as it isn't, it makes no sense having the dinner on what is a work day. We decided the best day would be to do it on  a Sunday.

 Before dinner the children and men were enjoying outdoor games of archery, croquet and king's base.

 The young girls playing dishes and dolls.

All the married men enjoying a game of croquet. 

 The youngest family member that got a little overwhelmed at times. Naomi won't be the youngest for long though!

 I am sorry my camera didn't seem to cooperate well yesterday. But you can sort of see what's going on. This is king's base.

 Here is Miss Photo expert. I would have liked to put her photos on my blog...

 A fancy dinner deserved fancy table setting. We had four tables set up in this small house and everyone was able to sit down (relatively) comfortably to enjoy the meal.  Following are closeups of the food served.

 Stuffing, made from scratch by Doris. It was a hit. So original and tasty. 

 The turkey. I will not buy a 22 lb turkey again, even though we had sawed it in half to bake it faster. It was all right for this time though.

 Cranberry jelly.

 Sweet corn brought by Lupita.

 Sweet potato casserole that is a must for a thanksgiving dinner planned by me. The recipe called for pecans in the topping, but I decided to put a Belizean twist to it and added coconut instead. It worked just as well and tasted great, not to mention a huge saving.

 Sparkling cider drinks bought by Delia and Jacob. Non-alcoholic, don't worry!

 Mashed potatoes by Lizzie. Also made from scratch with cream cheese. So good.

 Gravy. Some said it was the best part of the dinner! 

 The young boys got this neat little table. Joseph, Joshua, Josiah and Timothy.

 We fashioned a table for all the princesses. Starting from left bottom corner: Amorette, Ashely, Jasmine, Sienna, Jessica and Mirielle. Boy, I mean girl, do I feel rich when it comes to nieces! About the only thing I forgot to do was light their floating candles! It might have been just as well, as this way there were no burned fingertips.

 Yeah, dinner was that much fun! I have such a great family. Lupita and Tim, Doris and Franco.

 More nephews and nieces. Delroy, Tracey, Samuel and Delaney.

 Carl and Lizzy, Henry and Linda.

 Jacob and Delia.

 And this is you know who.

 Hmm yumm; that pumpkin pie was the first thing this boy was asking for when dinner time came.

 That bucket of whipped topping was a real treat! My sister had made too much but it was ok. My brothers had fun all right. It was eaten by itself, on pie, and put in coffee.

 Sweet Amorette.

 Delaney had the idea to bake cookies which she brought and then helped the young ones decorate. They had a blast.

 After the dishes there were indoor games of boggle and blokus. Does anyone see a fan of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers? Hehe.

This one's especially for Grandma. A memory game played by most of the younger ones. I enjoyed seeing how well they all cooperated.

 

That was our thanksgiving dinner and celebration. I hope you all enjoyed the photos.  We sure enjoyed the evening. It was well worth all the effort I spent into getting ready for it.

I thank everyone for participating and making it an enjoyable evening!