While perusing candy recipes for when my friend comes on Wednesday, I came across what I think has to be the 'ultimate' buckeye candy recipe.

The recipe makes approximately 160 candies.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Mix 2lb smooth peanut butter with 1lb butter (yikes! and yum!) until smooth. 
Slowly beat in 3lb confectioner's sugar.

Refrigerate this mix until firm, about 90 minutes.

When firm enough to handle, form into balls about one inch across. Insert a toothpick into each ball, and set on the cookie sheet.

Fill the bottom of a double boiler with water, and place 24 oz of chocolate 'almond bark' into the top of the double boiler. (24oz chocolate chips and 1/2 bar of paraffin wax can be substituted for the almond bark.)

When the chocolate has melted and is smooth, use the toothpicks to dip the cold balls into the chocolate until 2/3 - 3/4 covered. Allow excess chocolate to drip off, then place on the cookie sheet. Remove toothpick and use your finger to smooth over the hole it leaves.

Allow chocolate to set completely before storing.

I figure I am going to make the centers and freeze them. Firstly, this means I can finish the candies at my own convenience. Secondly, the fact that the centers are frozen when dipped into the chocolate should make the chocolate set quicker.

I'm also going to experiment with making a variation that is cocoa and butter mixed with the powdered sugar, and dipped in white almond bark...  Hmmm...

My internationally famous fudge just 'may' have some competition this winter...

As I was making the bed the other night, the hem ripped off the side of one of the flannel sheets. I'd bought these sheets at a yard sale for $2 about 5 years ago; they didn't owe me anything.

"Don't worry about it," I commented to Homer, "When we next change the bedding I'll just throw these away. We have plenty of others."

Now, what does that have to do with quilting, you might wonder. Well, let me change tracks here.

I  have a friend who is obsessed with quilting. She has these computerized sewing machines that she programs, and they embroider and sew while she runs the sweeper. She has this contraption on which she places the sandwich of quilt top, wadding, and quilt bottom, and it does all the intricate quilting patterns while she watches a movie.

She loves to quilt.

She collects the fabrics that the manufacturers produce, and follows their kit patterns, and gathers with others who do the same thing.

And the whole thing confuses me.

See, I have a 96 year old cousin (yes, really) who still quilts by hand. Her dining room table is a quilt frame with a piece of plywood on it. She pieces everything together by hand, she quilts the tops to the bottoms by hand.

She loves to quilt.

And I've seen the PBS documentary The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, and been fascinated by the story of these resourceful and strong women.

They loved to quilt.

However, they didn't have Thimbleberries or Mary Maxim or Alexander Henry. If they did, I'm pretty sure they could never have afforded the price of these fabrics! They had resources, and determination, and wisdom, and soul.

So what does this have to do with my torn bed sheet?

Well, there is a lot of talk about scarcity these days. Scarcity and shortage. My torn bed sheet took my thoughts to when I lived on the farm. My mother-in-law would take a torn double bed sheet, remove the torn bits, turn the weak sides to the outside and the strong sides to the inside, and make a single bed sheet. When that got worn, She would keep the good pieces for mending and use the worn pieces as rags. When she made a quilt -- usually from my father-in-law's old work shirts -- she would use two layers of the old sheeting scraps for the wadding, and the larger pieces of old sheeting for the backing.

She loved to quilt.

My mother-in-law was also very good at reusing sweaters. She would knit a sweater, and when the cuffs and elbows went, she would unpick it all, and knit the good yarn into a vest. When that got worn, she would unpick that, add some other reclaimed yarn, and make a different vest, or an afghan, or gloves and hats and scarves.

Most of us take so very much for granted these days. Rip the sheet? Never mind. Throw it away. I've got another one here somewhere. Yet there is still good fabric in that sheet! It can be used for a myriad of things!

I still maintain that if we have enough to throw away, there is no shortage...   although I know many will disagree with me. 

I've had more peppers than ever in my garden this year. I've eaten, given, frozen, and canned, and I still have peppers. And zucchini and kale. The Brussels sprouts are taking over the homestead at the moment. This is not a shortage.

When the local thrift stores have signs outside saying that they are no longer accepting goods in large quantities, this is not a shortage.

It makes me wonder if we have been presented with the illusion of shortage, in order to get us back to being the strong and resourceful people we're supposed to be -- although I'm sure many will disagree with that, too. That's fine. You're allowed your opinion. I'm allowed mine.

And that bedsheet? Cut up for the wadding for one of the "kiss-me-quilts" that ysabetwordsmith  and I have so often discussed.

Thus endeth my rant for today...

My latest kitchen invention is homemade 'Pam".

My husband has been buying 'Pam' to spray on the frying pans ever since they started making it in an organic version. This always rather bothered me, because not only was it expensive at over $3 a can, but he was going through one every two or three weeks, and I it always pained me when I chucked another empty can in the bin.

No more.

I bought a 50c spray bottle, the kind that is used to mist houseplants, with the adjustable nozzle. I bought some good quality olive oil. Hey presto, home made 'Pam'.

Does it work as well as the spray? Not quite. But for what I paid for one can of the spray I have a pint of my home made version, and when it is finished I just wash, rinse, reuse. Easier on the budget. Easier on the environment.

Off to play in the yarden now. I've had the neighbor (who has a big tractor and mows a big meadow) to till me a strip of the lawn measuring 5ft x 25ft, and after I've hung out the dog beds on the washing line I'm going to go play with my seeds.