Dana Marie's Country Living Blog

I cannot wait for canning season! If you haven't already, it's time to get your seeds in or start searching your local nurseries for plants. I have to tell you all - nothing is more satisfying than preserving your own food that you have grown yourself! Most of us who "can" are growing our own fruits and vegetables, but I want to mention that if you can't have a garden, remember your local farmers market. They should have a large amount of fresh produce ready for canning later this summer. I go to mine often, to find items that I don't have growing in my garden. Strawberry Jam, just out of a hot water bath canner If you don't know how to can, I urge you to learn how it's done. I think it is time again for us all to start growing our own food, for a couple of reasons. There may come a time in our economies in which there is a food shortage. And we surely do not know what chemicals are on our produce bought at the grocery stores. If we grow our own food, ...

Homemade ice cream sundaes from scratch!  I have had a hankering for ice cream lately. I really enjoy making it at home with ingredients I can pronounce. No fancy machine needed! I like to embellish my sundaes a bit with homemade chocolate ganache sauce or strawberry sauce. You can stick a chocolate caramel turtle on your chocolate sundae as well. Yum!  Am I eating them all myself? No! I always share with my family, of course!  I made them just in time too because I started to get a sore throat last night. This ice cream really feels soothing going down. It's so creamy and smooth.  With the recipe for the vanilla ice cream below, you can use it as a base for whatever kind of ice cream you want to make. Just add fruits and sauces to change the flavor. You can add peanut butter too. The sky's the limit. To freeze, I put the ice cream in Glad® plastic containers. They come with lids and keep the ice cream fresh. You can find them next to the freezer bag aisle at your gr...

Exciting news! The updated version of my Christmas Desserts cookbook is available as an ebook on Amazon ® for only $9.99! It contains many of the old traditional recipes that have passed down through generations in my family. Baking has always been an important part of Christmas for me. There is nothing better than to see loved ones delighted to receive special home baked goods made with love by you!  Margaret Meier I dedicated this cookbook to my Grandma Meier because she was the one who taught me my love of baking. Included in this book are some of her vintage recipes compiled while she was in a baking club in the 1950's. Many have her handwritten notes on them. They are so special to me. In the book I also share memories of my grandma at Christmastime.  A big huge thank you to my editor Amanda Steves for all her hard work helping me get this done. Couldn't have done it without her! Here's a sample recipe from the ebook. My Olde Country Home: Olde Fashioned Christmas Des...

I made these adorable Spring planters out of my dogs' food cans, some paint, some instant coffee and cinnamon to make them look rusted and old, Mod Podge® and some printables I found on the Internet. I placed rocks in the bottoms of the cans for drainage, dug up some pansies from my garden, then added potting soil to plant the pansies in. Now I have these sweet little planters for just pennies. Once the cans are made, you can use them for whatever you wish. I made mine Spring themed because of what time of year it is, but you can make them for all the seasons. My next project is to come up with some herb labels and plant herbs to go on my kitchen window sill.     Tin Can Planters Supplies used tin cans acrylic paint sandpaper (optional) Elmer's® glue instant coffee powder ground cinnamon vintage labels Mod Podge® pebbles potting soil Instructions 1 . First, remove the original labels from the cans and wash them thoroughly. Dog food cans are a nice size, but you can use whateve...

Last month I started an experiment. I studied-up, and found out that you can actually grow tomato plants by planting tomato slices. So I went and bought the best organic, heirloom tomatoes I could find and planted them after making a delicious bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. It's important to get heirloom tomatoes because many of the newer varieties of tomato are hybridized and their seeds won't sprout plants that yield the same fruit as the original tomato.  I planted them in pots to start with, added just enough soil to cover them, and then watered them. That's it!   Keep watering a little every day until the seedlings start poking through the soil. This might take about a month. Let them grow a couple of inches, and then thin them out by taking the strongest seedlings and transplanting them. Hopefully, fingers crossed, you'll end up with lots and lots of tomatoes!! There are videos on YouTube to study if you are interested to see how it works.  Planting Tomato Sl...

This month I made some beautiful Butterscotch Candies from scratch. Butterscotch is my favorite hard candy. These taste even better than the famous yellow disk candies from Brach's®. This recipe makes a lot so you will be in business for a while. The great thing about these is that there is no artificial coloring. Make some for yourself or as a gift for a friend. This is the LorAnn® butterscotch flavoring I use. You can find it at your local crafts stores or online. I order it from Amazon®. Here is the silicone candy mold I use. The cavities are .78" wide and .43" deep. I got them from Amazon®. Printed waxed wrapping papers are available online from Amazon® and other sellers. Butterscotch Hard Candies Ingredients 2 cups white granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup water 2/3 cup light corn syrup 1/2 cup butter (1 stick cut into 8 pieces) 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 teaspoon of LorAnn® butterscotch flavor Instructions  1 . Bring to a boil on medium heat the sugars, w...