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A non-traditional, but absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!
We had our scrumptious “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner last Sunday so today Mom and I decided to get busy making some homemade Christmas gifts! We had so much fun!
I suppose we did enjoy a few of our favorite traditions as well…the Macy’s Day Parade, annual dog show and mom made two amazing pumpkin pies! Dad and I have a tradition of fighting over the pumpkin pie! Ha ha!
For my sweet hubby, I whipped up his grandmother’s sour cream sugar cookies! These are one of his favorite holiday desserts…
Dad and Hubby made the rounds checking cattle, tagged a calf and discussed farm business while Mom made a family favorite for lunch….Cheeseburger Soup! You can find the recipe HERE (through one of our previous posts). This soup is truly hard to beat! Being the beef eaters we are, we like to use 2 lbs of hamburger…extra protein and extra yummy!
Once we wrapped up lunch and saw the dog show winners prance their way around the show ring one last time, we began to tackle our homemade Christmas gifts…Southern Mustard and Cinnamon Beeswax Candles!
Side story: I’m not sure if I told you or not, but earlier this fall we discovered the unthinkable and unimaginable….honey bees in our chimney! We noticed an odor seeping through the fireplace and upon further investigation (and a bee sting) we found out what all the buzz was about! We can’t even begin to guess how much honey was being made just beyond our living room wall! They were truly busy bees! Here’s a very quick pic my hubby took on his phone the day they found them…
For various reasons we were unable to harvest the honey, however, we have some beautiful combs now and the whole experience inspired Mom and I to research how to make candles and other items from beeswax. After an exciting trip to Micheal’s yesterday, we returned with all of the necessary ingredients.
- 4 lbs beeswax
- wax scent oil
- craft thermometer
- wax dye
- wicks
At home, Mom and I had the following on hand…
- double broiler
- wooden spoon
- jars
Did you know that beeswax candles are low burning and smoke free? That’s what we read! We haven’t lit ours yet, but we’ll keep you posted! Also, we may have a deal worked out with a local bee keeper to have bee hives on our farm! We will keep you posted on that development as well! Anyway, back to the candle making…
First, you hot glue the wick to the bottom of the jar.
Next, simply melt the beeswax in the double-broiler and add the dye (according to the specifications on the package). I made some yellow (to look more natural) and some red (for Christmas…although they turned out to be more of a pink…should have used more dye!)
Once the wax has reached 175 degrees (melting point is like 143 so wait a little longer!) then you can add the fragrant oil. We chose a cinnamon scent for Christmas! Stir with a wooden spoon and then pour into your jars. Only pour 3/4 of the amount you would like into each jar and let it sit for 20 minutes or until thickened.
Next, slide the wick back to center position and poke a few holes in the wax with a toothpick to relieve any tension. Now you can pour more melted wax into the jar, reaching your desired candle height.
We used 4 lbs of beeswax and it made 12 candles (jelly jar size). They are cooling overnight and then we plan to trim the wicks and add the final touches! (Final pic to be posted at a later date!)
While I was focused on my 12 candles….Mom made 5 HUGE batches of homemade Southern Mustard! Here’s the fun part….I can show you the pictures I took while she was diligently stirring and scooping, but I cannot share this recipe with you. It is a secret family recipe given to my mother by my Aunt Rhonda. I can give you Aunt Rhonda’s address, but not the recipe…actually I can’t do that either. Hee hee! However, because we love to give gifts and we are so thankful for each one of you, if you post a comment below sharing with us what you did this year for Thanksgiving, then we would love to send you a jar of homemade Southern Mustard as a gift from our family! We will send out as many as we can (until supplies last)! It is the perfect combination of sweet and tangy….YUM!
To those of you out shopping all night – have fun and be safe! Grab an extra good deal for me…. I am going to bed!
Good night and blessings to you and yours,
Kara
One Comment on “A non-traditional, but absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving!”
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Our Farm Blog
Sounds like such a fun day! We are in Arkansas spending family time at Dan & Catherine’s. We watched some parade, played checkers and chess, had a feast at noon, played football, took lots of pictures, watched football, took a nap, and went to the movies.