MARCH COMES IN LIKE A LAMB

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  ~Charles Dickens~

 Hurray!  March is here!  The snow is starting to recede  and today I found tiny buds beginning to form on the miniature lilacs on the south side of the house.  Time to put  the pussy willow wreath on the door as a nice welcome to spring.

Yesterday I canned.  This old Mother Hubbard went to her cupboard and found that it was bare of kidney beans.  Had to buy some at 75 cents a can and that was the cheap store brand.  So I canned up two pounds that were purchased from local growers at $2.29.  It ended up costing a little over 33 cents a jar.  I also canned up four and a half pound of ham  from the deli end pieces that we can buy at the little grocery store down the street.  At $2.29 for one and a half pounds it came to $1.53 a pound.  And it was all meat, no bones!  I just cubed it up, saving some for Jamie's sandwiches, boiled it 10 minutes, then packed it and processed it for 75 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.  Now I'll be able to make up a quick soup for friends and neighbors.

Remember when I mentioned that I bought a 100% linen blouse at the thrift store to make a pillow?  Decided to make this cute tea cozy instead.  I've been carrying around the picture from the old McCall's Needlework  magazine for decades.  Finally got around to it.  All the crewel  yarn came from crewel kits that I picked up at garage sales through the years.  I've come to the realization that I will probably never complete them, but I can never resist those pretty Jacobean designs. By the way, I tried that blouse on and all I can say is that  while Mandarin collars look chic on Katherine Hepburn, on me they look like I'm a member of Mao's army!

Lastly, here's what I did with some of the sprouts.  I made chop suey.  Just sauteed up onions, garlic, and mushrooms.  Added that to some brown rice. Added some carrots (mine were canned, but if you use fresh, you might want to parboil them a bit) and a can of drained water chestnuts.  Stirred in about  a cup of bottled teryiaki  sauce and a dash of soy sauce and topped them with some chow mein noodles. Oh!  And stirred in the sprouts!