Just had to share.....

As I am sure you are all in the same boat as me....busy with Christmas/holiday preparations, I haven't been able to post much on the blog because it is all secret.

There's been sewing and knitting going on for Christmas presents; shopping for gifts; putting up the decorations, sending out cards, etc.  I rarely do cookies anymore because we just don't NEED them.....but......

We received some beautiful lemons from my son's in-laws, Cheryl and Bill, as they have a lemon tree in their backyard in Florida.   These things are huge, thin skinned and just packed with fresh lemon juice.  These cookies are one of the recipes that I thought I would try out with some fresh lemon zest and lemon juice.

I am going to find it very hard not to eat the whole batch at one sitting.  They are great!  

You can find the recipe for the lemon icebox cookies here.  They were super easy to make.  I have had the dough in the refrig for a few days and thought I would throw a batch in tonight since I just had a taste for something sweet.  

I may just squeeze my remaining lemons and freeze the juice in the freezer and zest up the rind and freeze that so that I can make these again at a later date.  

Anyways, I just wanted to share this wonderful recipe with you.  If you love lemon flavored foods, I think you will really like these.  

Ok.....back to wrapping gifts.  

No quilting today....

We went to Eastern Market yesterday and picked up a good 27 lbs. of asparagus and today was the day that my two daughters and I canned 23 pints of pickled, hot (spicey) asparagus.

It sure smelled good while the sauce was cooking.

We stuffed the jars and processed the pints in a hot water bath.

Now we have to wait at least five days before we can sample.

Daughter #1 has a whole schedule for us for the summer to can several things as they come into harvest.  We have done apple sauce so far, now the asparagus and in the future we will be doing pickled garlic, tomatoes, peach jam, pickled green beans, strawberry jam, some peaches and I would have to look at the schedule to remember everything else. 

I would say working with my daughters was worth missing a day of quilting though.  Never thought I would see them do things like this and I am so happy to share those days with them, too.