pickled garlic and bbq sauce

We've been on a hunt for good hfcs free bbq sauce for a long time so I just made some. I got the recipe from allrecipes and modified it a little. It called for melted butter and since that is a big canning no-no, I left it out. It's just as good though. It also called for way more worcestershire and liquid smoke than I used.

We love to use garlic but it always seems to go bad sitting on the counter. So when I came across a recipe for pickled garlic in the ball home preserving book, I figured I'd give it a shot.

the recipes are:

pickled garlic (makes 5 8 oz jars.)
2 1/2 c white vinegar
1 c dry white wine (I don't know anything about wine so I just used what we had.)
1 T pickling salt (I used sea salt.)
1 T sugar
1 T dried oregano
12 large heads garlic, separated and peeled
5 whole hot peppers

BBQ sauce (I made 4 recipes and it made 3 16oz jars worth.)
1 c ketchup (I used organic. Not only is it hfcs-free, it tastes SO much better.)
1/4 water
1 1/2 T brown sugar
1/2 t celery salt (I used celery seed instead.)
1 1/2 t mustard powder (I used mustard seed.)
1 T liquid smoke (I used 2 1/2 T total.)
2 T worcestershire (I used about 3 T total because it was all I had.)
3 T melted butter (I left this out entirely.)
salt and pepper to taste


ok! Let's start!

First, peel the garlic. You will probably want to employ some help. This part takes for-ev-er.

We peel garlic one day and did the rest the next morning. I like canning in the morning anyway because it's not so hot.

ok, so first thing, get out everything you need so you know you have it and you don't have to go searching later.

Yes, that is a gallon jug of wine. Yes, it's fancy.

Now, prepare your jars and lids. Fill the pot with tap water until it's full to 1 inch above the jars. Turn on high. Just before the water starts to boil, turn it off. This will take a while because the pot is so huge. *See note about pots at the bottom.


A purple ring is what happens when your husband uses your canning pot as a tie dye bucket...

Put the lids in a small pot. Alternate the lids right side up and upside down so they don't stick together. You don't have to prep the rings but I like to.

Turn the stove on high. Just before the water starts to boil, turn it off.


Dump all the BBQ sauce stuff in a pot and stir it up. Set the stove to medium and forget about it for a while (except for the occasional stir).


Get the pickle brine ready. Put vinegar, wine, salt, sugar and oregano in a pot. (everything except garlic and hot peppers) Turn the burner to medium high.

Get your tongs, funnels, rings, etc. ready. I lost my jar grabber in the move. So far, it's the only thing I can't find, so it's ok. :P


Let the brine boil for 1 minute. Then dump in the garlic.

Take the jars out of the pot.

Using a funnel, pour the BBQ sauce in the jars with out getting any anywhere but inside the jars. This is difficult. :P Drop the lids on and screw on the bands. Put the jars back in the big pot.

Put 1 dried pepper in jar.

The using tongs (and a wide mouth funnel if you have one, I don't) pack ONLY the garlic cloves in the jars. THEN add the brine. Drop on the lids and screw on rings.


Put the jars back in the pot.

Put the lid on the pot and turn the stove on high. When the water starts to boil, turn the timer on for 10 minutes.

When the 10 minutes is up, turn the stove off and wait 5-10 minutes.

Some notes on the pot:
I have a pressure canner. You DO NOT need one for this project. You can use a water bath canner. They are significantly cheaper and you can can a lot of things with them. It is basically a huge pot with a lid and a rack inside for the jars to sit on. You do not want the jars to sit on the bottom of the pot.



Take the jars out carefully. The liquid inside might still be boiling. Set them on the counter and wait for the lids to pop. If one doesn't pop, use it first.

After they cool, take the rings off. They can be really really hard to take off later if you leave them on now.


Enjoy!!

denim basket

OK, I'm going to start by saying that this is definitely not a project for a perfectionist. There is a lot of fudging to make things fit, but it's worth it. Once you make the first one, you will want to make more. They are super handy.

First, get an old pair of jeans.






















Fold the jeans in half and cut around the knee-ish area. No need to measure. Jeans that have a more narrow leg I usually make a little shorter.

Cut off the bottom hem too.























Lay the 2 leg pieces end to end and sew together with a zig zag. Lay one side about an inch over and sew down. Flip it over and sew down the little flap that you made.

Make sure you sew short end to short end.



















Then sew the other side so you have a tube.

















When you have your tube, you are going to zig zag lines through the whole thing. This is for 2 reasons 1.) it holds the 2 sides together and 2.) all the extra thread makes the fabric really stiff.

Sew in a continuous line so there isn't any starting and stopping. It will go a lot quicker this way.



















When you start to get to the outside it might get a little tough to maneuver so just fold the inside to make it a little easier.


















This is what it should look like when it's done.



















Now take your tube and lay it on some of the left over jean.



















Cut it out through both sides. It doesn't have to be perfect. You could trace and cut it out but I don't. Make it a little bigger than you need. You are going to trim off the extra later.


















Zig zag in a circle starting in the center and working your way out.


















Sew the bottom to the tube. Only sew half of it though.

Now turn it right side up and trim off what you don't need. leave about a half inch around the bottom.
















Here's what it should look like.

















Zig zag around the bottom one more time so the seam is extra strong.


















Turn it inside out. You will probably need to get your finger in the seam and press it out pretty hard. Once it's turned though, it will stay.

















Cut off the back of the waist band and cut it in half. There are the handles. You don't have to sew these at all, just cut them off.

















Sew the handles on either side. Go back and for 5 or 6 times to make sure they are really secure.





















Fill your basket with things like little children. :P

carseat toy hanger chain

materials:

scrap wool (I'm using worsted weight in this but I've used a little lighter weight too and it turned out just as well.)
size tiny hook




chain 30, join, ch 2 (somehow, for the example I only did 20. it turned out ok, just smaller than I like.)





DC in each ch, join, ch 2.

*only dc in one loop from the chain though. so you hook through one and leave 2, we will need them later.





dc in each st, join.





now, fold the tube in half and use a sl st to join. sl st through both st from the dc's and both from the beginning ch.





Here is the top...





and the bottom.





To do the next loop in the chain, join the beginning chain through the first one you made, then continue with the instructions as though the others weren't even there. (I put it through that one and some I already had done.)





6 of them all joined together.

(I wouldn't join any more then this together to prevent strangulation. That would be bad.)

Fleece diaper cover

Choose 2 colors of fleece (or one, your choice). The tie dye one is going to be the outside and the blue, the inside.



















Using a diaper you already have, measure and trace onto your outside color. Add about an inch or so around all the sides. If you are using a disposable diaper to measure, add about 2 inches.


















Make sure you stretch out the cover you are tracing from side to side and front to back.





















After you have the outside cut out, lay it on top of the inside color. Cut it out, adding about an inch or so around all the sides.

















Using a long straight stitch, sew the outside to the inside as close to the edge as you can. You can pin it first but the fleece tends to want to stick together for me and I haven't had to.



















Then, roll the outside forward and medium zigzag down.



















This is what it should look like.




















A close up of the corner. You don't have to do it like I do, as long as it gets stitched down.














Velcro:
The hook part should always be on the front. zigzag down with a medium stitch.

small cover:
the front is 8" long. the sides are 3" each.

big cover:
the fronts are 4" each. the sides are also 4" each





















Elastic:

Clip holes here-ish

















To measure how long you need it, stretch the elastic from one hole to the other. Cut it about half an inch longer.

















Use a safety pin and guide the elastic through the casing until just a little bit it peeking out.























Use a tiny zigzag and stitch it down. Go over 4 times or so.






















Finish guiding the elastic through and hold it down with 2 fingers.





















Zigzag down with a tiny stitch. Watch your fingers! Clip the safety pin off.



















Repeat for the other 2 sides.














All done!


Matching covers for Nicky and New Baby!

dying yarn with food coloring!

I started with regular Lion Brand Winter White Wool Yarn. You can use any natural fiber for this project. You can even do tie-dyed t-shirts this way. As long as the fibers come from a plant or animal, you can do it this way.


To start, you need to unwind the yarn ball. Wrap it around something big. I used Oscar the Curious Ostrich.

After you wind it, tie a slip knot in the front to hold it all together.



Put 3 tall drinking glasses worth of water in the bottom of a big pot.

Then, in the sink, (I don't have pics of this) WASH your yarn. It's super easy.
1.) Fill the sink with about 2" of room temp water. Room temp is very important.
2.) Squeeze in about 1 tsp of baby shampoo.
3.) Put the yarn in and slosh it around.
4.) SQUEEZE the water out. Don't wring!
5.) Let out the soapy water.
6.) Rinse with room temp water until it's not soapy anymore.
7.) Squeeze the rinse water out.

Okay, now that we have squeaky clean yarn, comes the fun part. Put the wet yarn in a METAL colander. Put the colander in the pot.

Make your dyes:
1.) Get enough small cups for all your colors. (I recommend 2 or 3 so the colors don't get muddy.)
2.) Put a little water in each cup (I used a double shot glass to measure.)
3.) Drop the food coloring in. More drops for light colors like yellow and less for dark colors like red.


I used neon food coloring: 5 drops of blue, 5 drops of purple and 10 drops of yellow (that ended up being green). I used a big spoon and ladled it the dye on. You can use an eyedropper or whatever else you have handy. As long as the dye gets on the yarn.



The purple turned out pinker than I liked so I made a second cup of blue.

Now, put a lid on top of the colander in the pot. Steam on med high for 20 minutes. (Make sure you do this on the back burner, especially if you have little curious hands around the house.)

After it steams, move it to another burner and let it sit in the pot for at least an hour. It needs to cool. It doesn't need to be room temp, just cool enough to handle.

After it cools, you have to rinse. Get your faucet running and try to match up the temp of the water with the temp of the yarn as closely as you can. To rinse, kind of fill up the yarn with water and squeeze it out over and over. Make sure the yarn stays horizontal the whole time. If you hold the yarn by one end and let the water run down, the dye will get places you don't want it.

You can stop here if you want but I always loop it around the back of 2 chairs set apart. It takes about an hour to dry like this. Leaving it the other way will take a couple days.

When it's dry, ball it up and have fun!

I will post a pic of what I make with it when it's done. :)