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This week's Skywatch Friday Photos were taken at Dusk...
Can you guess where..??

Gettysburg Battle Field
Pennsylvania

Skywatch Friday

For more SkyWatch Friday, click on the following link:

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This weeks photos were taken early Thursday morning as the Sun was creeping up from the East......What beautiful Sunrises God gives us and I have the blessings of witnessing these creations from my kitchen window as I prepare my early morning cup of Joe...

Vegetables At Their Best......

Vegetables this time of year are best when thrown into a large stewing pot and a delicious creation of vegetable soup is born.....
My mother always had a pot of soup cooking on the stove top year round. In the summer months she made Chicken Corn Rival with freshly picked corn. She would actually know which farmers were picking corn on which days and at what time so she could time it just right to be at the farm as the corn was being brought in from the fields..
The Fall and Winter months she made Ham and Bean with Rivals. It was Vegetable Soup in which she made through the year.

Starting with a Beef Soup Bone, you want to place the beef bone in a large stewing pot and fill with cold water 2 inches from the top. The soup bone can be purchased from a local butcher shop. Some butchers have soup bones on hand. If your not able to find one on display, ask the butcher if one could be put aside for
you when they do their butchering. I usually stock up on soup bones when they are available with my local butcher and freeze them in my deep freezer, this is a convenient way for me to have the necessary items available.
Let the beef bone cook at a good simmer for about two hours, adding more cold water if necessary with half of a chopped medium sized onion. You want a good rich broth for a soup base as shown below, which is the key to a good soup. After your broth is dark and the meat is very tender, remove the beef bone and drain the broth through a colander into a clean pot or very large bowl. This will remove the onion pieces and give you a clear broth as pictured below. I usually reserve about 4 cups of the broth in case I need to add more broth during the cooking process. I then clean my large stewing pot and place the drained broth back into the pot and again bring the broth to a simmer.

Next I chop a medium size head of cabbage, as seen below and place that in the simmering broth along with the remainder of the chopped onion.

Then Adding 4 large potatoes and (not pictured), I add 1 pound of fresh Beef Cubes. Again you can get these at your local butcher shop or favorite grocery store where they sell fresh cuts of beef. I let the cabbage, potatoes and beef cubes simmer until the cabbage starts to have a soft texture.

This is what your soup should look like after adding the cabbage, potatoes and beef cubes.

Sweet Corn, Carrots, Cut Green Beans, Lima Beans and Peas are the frozen vegetables I use. You can use fresh raw vegetables if you like, but keep in mind if your using fresh raw vegetables, add the raw vegetables at the same time as your cabbage and potatoes. Raw vegetables need a longer cook time than frozen vegetables. I do not recommend you use any canned vegetables.....canned vegetables to me are just..nasty.

For the tomatoes, I first cut them in halves or quarters placing them skin side down on a baking sheet or stone. Spray them with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. After the frozen vegetables have been simmer for 15 minutes, add 64 ounces of tomato juice and then add tomatoes including the juice from the tomatoes.
Continue to simmer until the vegetables are tender.

This will be your end result after all ingredients are added.

My son was lurking while this soup was simmering and was the first to taste..He approved!

This pot of soup would be one my grandmother and mother would be proud of, too...!!

Skywatch Friday

http://www.skyley.blogspot.com/

Click on the Link above to view more skywatch PicturesThis weeks Skywatch pictures are smoke filled clouds of a Controlled Burning near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Certain times of the year, controlled burning is necessary so the fire does not spontaneously start and quickly become out of control.....

The Pictures were taken with my cell phone, so I apologize for the size..

This picture is one of my favorite. You can see the contrast of the smoke as it is rising up into clear skies....

Wednesday Flower

This exquisite flower is the Parrot Flower (Impatiends Psittacina) located only in Thailand. The plant was identified at the Royal Botanical Garden Kew in 1901 and was discovered in 1899 in the Shaw States of Burma.
It is only found
in portions of Burma and Northern Thailand and is quite rare. The flower is very difficult to cultivate and requires a local natural pollinator to produce seeds. It also requires very specific soil pH in order to prosper and produce the "Blue" coloration that is so beautiful....

More information can be found at www.ExoticRainforest.com.

Ladies Tea

I was invited to attend a Ladies Tea this past Sunday Afternoon with a very dear and old friend, Laurie.
The Tea was a benefit for the American Cancer Society, in Lancaster, PA.
We had a very nice time and I was reacquainted with some women from my past and adventurous life.

The Tea served Finger Sandwiches, Scones with a Orange Dip, Cream Burlee and of course, Tea.

The basket is filled with homemade Scones and the side dish is a heavenly Orange Dip that just tasted oh so good with those scones....

Our guest speaker was a woman and her many different hats...
The hats dated from 1900-1960's, the demonstration and history proved to be very interesting and informative.

Skywatch Friday

Sunset After The Storm.....

My pictures this week were taking after a thunderstorm. As I was taking the shots, a light drizzle was still present. You can see the roadway has a shine from the recent storm.
Notice the difference in the sky color within a very short amount of time.

I have the most beautiful Sunsets directly in front of my home....

For more Skywatch photos around the world....click on the Title at top of page.

~~The Season Is Fall~~

What Fall Means To Me........

Freshly Baked Cookies

Cold Feet

Extra Blankets

Comfort Food Dishes

Hot Dogs with Sauerkraut At A Football Game

Closing Windows Soon After Opening

Thinking A Cup Of Coffee Would Taste Good In The Mid Afternoon

Bonfires

The Sound Of Farm Machinery Late Into The Night

Taking Inventory Of My Knitting Bag

Placing My Flannel PJ's On The Top