Sews2Reap

We made these sweet treats to give away this year.  Ingredients: Almond bark, mini pretzels, crushed peppermint candy, and 1-2 drops Vitality Peppermint oil from Young Living. If you want to know more about cooking with essential oils click here! I started with half the package of almond bark broken into chunks in my 2 cup pyrex measuring cup. Set the measuring cup into a small pot of water on the stove on low-medium heat (double boiler). Stir occasionally. Once fully melted remove the measuring cup from the water. Now is the time to drop just one to two drops of your Young Living Peppermint Vitality Essential Oil in.  Drop in a few pretzels at a time to coat. My favorite tool for dipping pretzels is a stainless steel chopstick! Lay the coated pretzels on parchment paper and sprinkle with the crushed peppermint candy.  Once cool, I packaged them in cellophane cones and tied with a cute curling ribbon. These were sim...

This is a versatile, fun, sweet bread that is great for giving in the starter or  finished form. If no one has given you a starter, no worries it is easy to start your own. Follow the recipe below. On the daily chart, it will be day one.  If you forget to stir one day or don't add on day 5, it won't ruin the starter. As long as you do stir fairly regularly and feed in once a week it will live.               Amish Friendship Bread NOTE: Do not refrigerate starter. It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment. If air builds up, let it out (we called this burping). Do not use metal bowl or spoons until you are ready to bake your starter. The fermentation process and metal do not mix. Day 1: Do nothing. Day 2: Stir. Day 3: Stir. Day 4: Stir. Day 5: Stir. Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Stir. Day 7: Stir. Day 8: Stir. Day 9: Stir. Day 10: Follow the directions below: 1.    ...

Homemade pickles! I grew up on them and love canning my own. Here are my jars in their water bath, the lids and rings are in there too. Simmering is perfect. Cucumbers and dill from my garden  plus garlic, salt and mustard seed. I poured the water out of the simmering jars and stuffed it with the ingredients. Each jar contains 1 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp mustard seed, a head of dill weed, 1-2 tsp diced garlic.  Next, I pour the brine in. My brine is equal parts hot water and vinegar. Some like plain white vinegar others cider vinegar. You should try a few options. Mark what you put in the jar so you know what is your favorite. Leave a little air space in the neck of the jar and cap with a lid and ring. Set your filled jars back in the simmering (low boiling) water for 10 minutes. Remove and let sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours. You should hear the lids seal during this time. It will be a very satisfying pop sound.  My finis...