southwest retreat.

 

My daughters and I recently flew from our home and below freezing weather to a week away at my parent's house in Arizona. We did leave their house and enjoy many other things, but I want to highlight the amazing job my parents do with their yard. As my photos illustrate, you can spend all hours of the day in their backyard. We enjoyed garden gazing, sunbathing, pedicures by the pool, using the indoor/outdoor kitchen, eating the fruits of our labor and finally a cozy backyard fire and family game night.  They are so inspiring!

for the love of pyrex.

I have been collecting vintage Pyrex for a few years now.  I have accumulated about 100 pieces and my family has contributed in helping me find pieces to expand my collection.  My kids and husband enjoy "the hunt" for them at antique stores, estate sales and thrift shops.  Parents and grandparents pitch in and many occasions for me involve gifts of the Pyrex genre.  I fell in love with these beauties because I quickly found that each person selling one had a story about how many meals they had prepared in these dishes and how many decades ago they were a wedding gift to them.  They remind me of a "suzy homemaker" lifestyle of decades ago that I enjoy keeping alive in my home.  These are the perfect dishes to prepare family recipes in and bring to meals with family and friends.  I mix and match pieces to decorate for birthdays, holidays and meals at home.  They are perfect for a fancy Thanksgiving dinner and a Monday morning cereal bowl.  I hope my children continue to help me collect these dishes over the years, attribute memories of mom's cooking to each one, disperse between their families, and cook for their children in.  I am sure I have over-thought each piece of Pyrex I have in my cupboard, but to me they symbolize so much about my goals as a wife, mother and homemaker.  

canning season 2012.

Canning season has come to a close in the Fulton household as the weather changes and a new babies' arrival is near.  The whole family and great grandma pitched in this year.  The results include 58 quarts of carrots, 80 quarts of tomatoes/goulash, 10 quarts of pickled cauliflower, 12 pints of pickled spicy peppers and about 24 pints of salsa.  My husband is in the thick of hunting season now and between his meat and all the canning we can be proud of all the homemade goodness we can share with our family this winter.  Thanks to all of our extended family who has shared and carried on all these recipes and traditions that we can now teach and share with our children. 

jackson james turns 5...farm style.

My son loved tractors from the time he could first express a preference in toys! One of my son's favorite places to hang is my grandparent's hobby farm just a few miles from our home.  For his fifth birthday we combined those two things with a few great friends and family, snacks, bandanas, crawdads, rainboots, a hay ride, smores by the campfire and old fashion cane pole fishin' to throw one heck of a bash to celebrate our little boy.  He had a blast!  Happy Birthday, BooBoo.

a few of my favorite kitchen accessories.

I just wanted to share a few of my favorite accessories and spots in my kitchen. My kitchen is mostly black, white and teal but I have a few small accents of other colors and I think they are unexpected and compliment the overall feel of the kitchen and the rest of the house.
This small area of butcher block countertop and white painted brick is my favorite spot in the kitchen. Eventually my husband is going to have this backsplash of brick go throughout the whole kitchen for me. For now it highlights this small, clean splash of yellow and makes the baking center of my household stand out.

The black backsplash that goes around most of my kitchen is not my favorite and in an especially visible spot I propped this beautiful white, glass breakfast tray to draw the eye elsewhere. Also, my mom gave me that green ceramic bird a few years ago and I love how it is so prominently displayed in the kitchen in front of the breakfast tray.

valentine's toast for breakfast.

Happy Valentine's Day! This morning I woke to find a beautiful display of flowers from my husband (thank you honey) and the kids and I shuffled downstairs to make breakfast. We decided in the spirit of Valentine's Day we would make cinnamon and sugar toast, dyed red and cut into hearts...it sure was a treat and a fun start to a special day. The kids loved it and it was very quick and easy. Now I am off to spend the day with my lovebugs!

new cookware.

My grandma surprised me early in the morning a few weeks ago. She rang my doorbell about 9 a.m. and told me to go open the back door. When I opened the door she had a large box of Paula Deen cookware there in a beautiful turquoise shade. I have really enjoyed the cookware and I love the look and luxury of having a nice new set in my clean, white kitchen. Many more good meals to come...yum! And grandma, you're the best!

canning tomatoes with grandma.

Leaving to collect our 4 bushels of tomatoes from a local Amish farm

Boiling tomatoes to peel them

Jackson showing off the whole production

Boiling all the ingredients together

Cooked and ready to transfer to the Ball (American Made for 125 years) Jars!

It is an annual tradition for my grandma and I to can jars of tomatoes, celery, onions, jalapenos, and green peppers to kick off the fall/close summer. This year we canned these ingredients "open kettle style." This is the same technique my grandma's mother-in-law (Taggett) originally taught my grandma over 50 years ago. It is quite a tedious and hot process, but I love doing this. It makes me feel like I am continuing a family tradition, my family Loves the end product, it makes my grandma happy and I support the local farmers by using only their products. This whole process is so special to me, I look forward to it every year. We were able to store over 80 quarts this year which we will use to make goulash, chili, salsa and more throughout the year!

pure michigan dinner.

This past week, Emilia and mommy prepared a meal that consisted of all fresh Michigan produce and food. We scored potatoes from the Amish locals. Peppers and tomatoes from a local family friend's farm. Green beans and watermelon from our Saturday morning Farmer's Market. The pan-fryed walleye we made was caught in our local Great Lakes by my husband, son and father-in-law. I was proud to make my family such a healthy dinner grown right here in our home state:)

the breakfast nook.

Our new home has a breakfast nook. This is such a charming little spot in our house and we have already spent quite a bit of time here. This area in the house has also become the "organizational heart of the house." It sits between the kitchen and dining room and has lots of storage nearby. The calender, house phone, computer and "junk drawer" are all nearby. The kids and I find ourselves here most days for breakfast and lunch. I fix the kids a meal and sit to organize coupons, pay bills, or jump online.

The world map under the glass of the table was left by the previous owner and has sparked a lot of conversation-so we are leaving it. The paint colors and wallpaper are also from the previous owner. We have added our own personal touches but enjoy the banquette as we bought it.

Except-as I look at these picture I realize that the base of the nook table needs to be painted white...don't you think?

towel aprons.

This summer my mom, sister and I were in the local antique store and saw some vintage aprons on sale that were a terry cloth fabric like a towel. We thought this was a really great idea because we ourselves are often using our aprons to "dry" our hands during cooking. That week my mom found a huge beach towel at TJ Maxx for $12 and we bought the waistband fabric for about $6. The cost of our materials and great cutting skills of my mother left us with a total of 6 aprons like the one pictured above. We found this project to be very simple and we love having a "towel apron" to use in the kitchen. We gave the remaining 3 as gifts to ladies in our family and they loved them as well.

recipe journal

I received this journal as a gift from my mother in law and I have been working on filling it up for my children. I really love to cook and I am always remembering recipes family members have made that I would now love to make for my family. Because of this I have decided it would be beneficial for me to document all of my own recipes as well as ones I love from family and friends. This way when my children start their own families they can look back at their favorite meals as kids and recreate them for their families. I also know how special it is to have a family recipe written in that person's handwriting so I think this adds a personal touch to having family recipes. As I wrote in the front of the book, "this book is intended for my children...enjoy and say grace before your meals. love, mom"