Make Your Own Ketchup and Barbeque Sauce

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Date Paste (Date Paste) and how much I enjoyed it as a nutritious sweetener.

With the paste I made ketchup, which I mentioned but I didn't provide the recipe.  I also made Barbeque sauce.  Here are both recipes from the chicagohealthygirl blog.

Homemade Ketchup

3 cups tomato paste
1 cup date paste
2 cups white vinegar
1 large white onion
4 garlic cloves
Optional add ins: 1 red, yellow, or green bell pepper, 5 sweet peppers, 1/2 jalapeno, 1/2 chili pepper, 1/4 - 1/2 cup honey, increase garlic cloves up to 10 cloves

Directions: Place the tomato paste in a large sauce pan. Set aside. Add all other ingredients to the blender and blend until completely smooth. Add this mixture to the sauce pan and stir well. Heat over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.   It is important to stir frequently.  I just went to the sink for a couple seconds and this is what happened.  Oops!

Ketchup splatters on the ceiling.  It's like bubbling lava.

Place into a container of your choice and store it in the refrigerator.

Ketchup, it's very thick.

Barbeque Sauce

1 1/4 cups ketchup (use homemade ketchup...or this will not be nearly as good)
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup date paste
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup mustard
1 red bell pepper, stem removed
1 large white onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper (freshly ground is best)
1/2 chili pepper (optional)
Directions: Place all of the ingredients in the blender and blend until liquified. You can use this sauce immediately, but it tastes better to let it sit overnight in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to mix.

BBQ sauce

Woodchuck In Our Yard

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Hopefully not much or I might wake up some day in a pile of sawdust.

Woodchuck or Groundhog

This little guy has been showing up around our yard the last few days.  I don't know where he lives, but I probably should figure it out.  He was even up on our porch yesterday until I chased him away.  Notice our grass or lack of it.  Last year we had a terrible drought, and our grass burned up.  It doesn't look like it will recover this year.  Clearly this animal isn't here for the lush green grass.

Legend of the Cross

One summer day a few years ago my oldest daughter wanted to go for a canoe ride on the river.  The Fox River flows north so we usually canoe with the current.  It is much easier to paddle without fighting the current.  We usually put in the canoe near a downtown Princeton boat landing and then someone will drive the truck to another landing and either wait, or we bring two cars and leave one of them at the ending point.

We had an enjoyable trip seeing herons, eagles, fish jumping and turtles.  It is amazing how different everything looks from the river.  When we got to the final destination, there was a man standing looking out at the river.  After we docked, we started chatting with him.  As it turns out he is a local 4H leader and  his family has lived in the area for many generations.  He knew so much local history.




One of the stories he told was about Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet plus five other men.  They traveled in two birch bark canoes to explore unknown lands.  Father Marquette thought if he found the Mississippi River, it would probably take him west to California and then to the Orient.  It didn't work out that way.   As he and the others traveled up the Fox River, they came across a major Indian encampment.  There were Miami and Kickapoo Indians as well as the Mascoutin's.  They all spoke the Algonquin language.  Father Marquette had an advantage because he knew six Native American dialects.  This was a place where French trappers, missionaries and Native Americans were all on friendly terms.  This place had mineral water and natural springs.  The springs are still there but we couldn't find them today.  The entire area is still flooded from this years flooding.

Before Marquette and Jolliet moved on, they also placed a large Cross to the area.  For many generations the Native Americans spoke of the great meeting of the man who wore the black robe.  Catholics and other religious groups would make pilgrimages to this site.  The original arrival to this location was June 7, 1673.  Throughout the years a cross of some sort has remained at this location.  The man who showed us around and his friends and family installed a new one.  It is on private property now, but if you look real hard,  it is visible from the river. 

As everyone knows Marquette and Jolliet continued to explore finding the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien.  They had traveled 2500 miles by canoe.  There is some controversy about the Mascoutin Indians and when they left Wisconsin and what happened to these people.  The Mascoutin name lives on in the area.  It is used in the name of some establishments including the Mascoutin Golf Club in Berlin, WI.  If it hadn't been for this unplanned meeting at the boat landing, we would not have known about this Legend of the Cross.  This gentleman also showed us a lost cemetery and the site of the Village of St. Marie.  This village was directly across the river and does not exist any longer.  Maybe I will write about that in the future.  He also invited my husband and I to speak at one of their 4H meetings about geocaching. 

Amish Greenhouses

Today was another cold and rainy day in Princeton WI.  We were looking for something to do.  Dad was feeling some better, and we felt he would be alright for a couple hours.  I needed to go out for bananas, eggs and butter anyway.  We decided to drive over to a couple of the Amish greenhouses.  We live very close to Amish country and there are many greenhouses to visit as well as other Amish shops of all kinds.  I will put a map at the end of this blog with a list for many of the Amish shops in this area.  I was looking for a fuschia plant.  I always get one because the hummingbirds really like them.  The first place we stopped was the Pine Grove Greenhouse.  This is the closest to our house but it doesn't show on the map below.  The map doesn't show all the shops but there are signs and a lot of places to stop and shop. 

Pine Grove Greenhouse

The first thing you see when approaching this greenhouse is a porta-potty, a hitching post and a bathtub holding up the Pine Grove Greenhouse sign.  Maybe they use the bathtub late at night, who knows.  This store had a lot of flower and vegetable plants, but they didn't have what I was looking for.

The next stop was called the Sloping Acres Greenhouse.   This greenhouse had fuschia plants and I also found some very nice coleus plants.  Every retired citizen in the county was out in the rain today buying plants.  Everyone is hopeful that planting season will be here soon.

Sloping Acres Greenhouse

We thought we has time to visit one more greenhouse.  This one was called the Grand River Greenhouse.  They had remodeled and built on since last year.  Much to my surprise they also had fushia plants and they were $6 cheaper.  Everything was less expensive here.  Usually all the greenhouses have the same pricing, but not this time.   I bought another one because it was so nice and a different color.

Grand River Greenhouse

 

Then we headed home.  On the same road as the Grand River Greenhouse, we saw this store.  It had no electricity and was very dark inside.  They use manual adding machines and didn't have any heat on today.  They did have Wal Mart brand coffee for sale though.   I also see Aldi products on the shelves in some of these stores. 

A & E Grocery Store

Before going home I stopped at Kwik Trip for bananas, eggs and butter.  Then we stopped by the river to see if we could see any sturgeon.  The sturgeon had been sighted this week.  They come into the Fox river to spawn. We didn't see any but we could see our house across the water.

Our house in the distance through the rain.

. . .and this unfamiliar bird.  I think it's a Yellow Rumped Warbler.

Here is the map I promised.  Or go here:http://www.travelcolumbiacounty.net/ccvbamish.html

My Favorite Birds Have Returned

This will be a quick little post for today.  It was a kind of overcast dreary day.  Quite the contrast from the warm weather on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The good news is that the the birds that migrate are coming back right on schedule.  Every May 1, give or take a day, the Baltimore Orioles, the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, the Catbirds, the Rufous Sided Towhee and the Hummingbirds all return.  I thought with the late spring this year, the birds would be delayed.  It is so exciting to see their return.  I will be photographing them and others more later, but I just want to report that they are back along with the Tree Swallows, Bluebirds and many others. 

Rose breasted Grosbeak

Catbird

Baltimore Oriole

A Very Special Afghan

My mom would have been eighty nine years old a couple weeks ago.  On her birthday my dad received a letter from one of mom's very best friends. She just wanted to keep in touch even though it has been fifteen months since my mom passed away.

Mom on the right and her friend Janice on the left.

 Mom had a rough childhood.  She had to grow up fast because her mother died when she was only thirteen and had been sick for many years before that.  She was the second youngest of ten children.  Her dad worked on the railroad from morning to night leaving the children left at home to take care of themselves.  Then when she was a freshman in high school she was sent to town to live in a boarding house.  They valued education and this is how they could get a high school education.  Can you imagine sending a child of that age away from home with $5 to live on for the week and pretty much take care of themselves?  Mom would buy day old donuts and bread so she could save some money to go roller skating.  She would come home some weekends and for the summer.  Otherwise, she was on her own.  During her school days she became best friends with a local girl who lived in town.  They remained friends until the day she died.  This girls mother became mom's surrogate mom and treated her just like one of her own.  This family was a lifeline for my mom.  When the mom would make her daughter a skirt, she would make my mom one too.  Mom's friend had a brother and he was friends with my dad.  They introduced my parents.

My sister was named after mom's friend.  She married a little later so my sister and I were special to her.  She knit and sewed for us.  She was the crafty one and that is why I was so surprised when this afghan came in the mail a few years ago.  Apparently my mom had made this for her friend and she thought we should have it back.  I knew my mom crocheted a little when we were very little.  There was no TV to watch and I heard mom say that she would crochet and dad would read books.

I know this was a long story to get to the point, but here is the afghan my mom made.  It is probably over 60 years old.  It's very special.