Meyer Lemon Marmalade - Give-A-Way Time

My neighbor has the best Meyer lemon tree. If you've never had a Meyer lemon you've truly missed out. A Meyer is a cross between a lemon and a tangerine. They are VERY citrusy, we'll just make that a word. Just slicing one lemon open will fill your entire kitchen with a wonderful frangrance. We had a tree in our backyard when we bought our house but they can attact bees and attract them ours did. We ended up cutting it down. When I feel like cutting one up to salt and eat I just go to the fence and pick some that hang over our fence. I ran across a recipe for Meyer Lemon Marmalade and thought I'd give it a try.

I started with 5 lbs of lemons...

I halved them, taking out the seeds as I went...

I was able to pick up a bit of help for the juicing of the lemons...

5 lbs of lemons will give you way more juice than you need for the recipe so we stopped to make some lemonade with the excess. This is the best lemonade you'll ever have...

Once I sliced, boiled and simmered the pulp and peels, I canned them and added some sweet floral flannel fabric under each ring. If you've ever canned you know it's a big job. In fact, I've only given a few jars away so far and only to peeps that I love. SO...I've set one jar aside for a give-a-way this week. Leave a comment on this post and I will pick a winner on Tuesday.

This will be so delish on a hot from the oven scone and some fresh whipped cream don't you think?

Just Like Old Times

I've been wanting a bike for a while now. Not just any old bike though, I want a tri-cycle like I had when I was 12. They are SO cool. Mine was metallic olive green and I had a gigantic basket in the back, just like this one. It seems like yesterday that I would ride it to the corner store for an apple Jolly Rancher stick or a pack of Toffifay {remember those?}. Whew! Turning corners on that thing got a bit precarious when I was really jammin.

This one fits the bill and the color is "Dark Cherry", gotta love that! As I've mentioned before, my parents live one street away so I'll use it lots. The basket will come in handy when my Mom hands me the ever present bag of all the stuff my kids left behind the last time they were over.

You Only Know Me To Be...

the vintagey, recipe loving, home beautifying, crafty, lover of all things pretty but I do have another side that you might be surprised to know about. It's WAY less known but I'm also:

1. A PBR {Professional Bull Rider} fanatic. It's by far my favorite sport and I follow it the entire season. As I type I'm making a mental note to ask my Mama if she'll watch my kids so that I can go to the Fresno Invitational in March {go J.B. Mauney!}.

2. I played on a co-ed softball team for a few years and can hit a ball like there's no tomorrow. I'm scheduled to start again this spring on my brother in laws team.

3. Wanna go bowling? I'll pick up and go anytime. LOVE IT. High fives and all.

4. I love going to the gun range on my lunch hour with my boss of almost 18 years and I'm a pretty good shot.

5. I can tie my own flies for fly fishing.

I could go on but I'll stop there before you start picturing me crushing beer cans with my forehead {which I don't do by the way}.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! While I'm not big on resolutions I love the start of a new year. It holds so much promise and potential. I LOVE to have things to look forward to. I've always been this way. I enjoy looking at my calendar to see what my future holds, whether it be a concert, a play, a game night or a camping trip.

Tonight I picked up everything I needed to make Sloppy Joes on the way home from work and at the check out I saw, "What's your next chapter?", on the cover of Oprah's magazine. It got me thinking on my short drive home...what is my next chapter? What if I like the chapter I'm in? For right now I don't long to change anything major, but I'm completely open to improving what's already good.

To help me with my thoughts, checklists and goals I made a new journal. I jammed it up with tons of room to write and lots of inspiration.

A few reminders to be good...

and places to write important thoughts, dates and fun things we've planned for the future.

I hope the new year is treating you well!

Sometimes The Late Bird Gets The Worm...

I hope all of you are enjoying the last few moments of 2010. I've had a wonderful time being unplugged this past month but with the dawn of a new year I'm excited to get back into my normal routine.

What's with the boots you ask? I saw these at Anthropologie about a month ago when I was on a shopping day with my friend Carole. I wanted them so bad but at the time I hadn't yet bought one single Christmas gift for anyone so I couldn't justify it. In true Lisa fashion I waited too long before coming to terms with the fact that I had to have them. I began searching and they are GONE. Online was sold out, and I could hear the pity in the salespersons voices when I called all of my local stores. Those Anthro girls can't bear the thought of someone going without let me tell you...one of the stores called me back with a hot lead that a birdie told them there was one pair left {and in my size} at the SoHo store. I called them up and sure enough they had them. That would have been the happing ending but they made it happier when my sales girl rang me up over the phone and they ended up being $108.00 on sale instead of $278.00. Happy New Year to me!!

Yes, I know. This was a fluffy post but I'll be back next year with some recipes I tried this month that we loved as well as a few things I've been working on. Until then, enjoy your last few hi-calorie hours of 2010!

Sweet, Sweet, Sweet...

This past Saturday was my sons 10th birthday. We celebrated by taking him out to his favorite fondue restaurant and then on to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Joining us for dinner was his bestie, Tori. They have the sweetest little relationship. You see, Tori is my cousin, but let me explain that. Tori's mother, my Aunt Tina, was married to my uncle many years ago. They had 3 children together before he passed away. My Aunt Tina remarried and had 3 more children, the youngest being Tori. We were pregnant together, I had Jake one month before she had Tori. They have always held a special place in each others hearts, as is evidence of the photo above as well as the photo below on his 5th birthday...

Dinner was great, we all enjoyed it so much. There was great food and even a few stolen kisses...

Nothing new about that though...

and a few secrets too...

And since we're on the topic of love check out my younger boy and the love of his life at their Christmas program {pay special attention to their hands}...

Whoa! I don't remember when I saw him this gleeful!

Oh, I Remember You!

Wow, Thanksgiving came and went and so did a blur of activity! Between classes, Christmas trees, parties and a bit of vertigo I've really been on the run. Sound familiar? It's a great time of year, so much to do and prepare for.

The picture above is a small peek of some projects I've been working on. You'll see more of them later. Do you just love the tiny doll skate? I'm crazy about it!

Let's talk trees for a minute. What do you get, flocked or unflocked? We've always gotten an unflocked Noble Fir. This year I decided that I wanted one that was flocked but just here and there. It took me 4 tree lots but I finally found one that saw my vision. The tree carnie and I coined it, "heavy tips". So basically the tree only has clumps of flocking sporadically at the ends. It's FABULOUS! I'll have to take a photo of it when I have better light to show you. After we decorated and put the kids to bed I did what I've done for the last couple of years and moved half of the ornaments to the upper portion of the tree. I was laughing as I moved them and I realized that I'll only do this for a couple more years before they can reach up to hang them higher. Bittersweet I tell ya.