Trying to catch up with the season

My youngest son and nephew working on pie!

Good tidings!! I have been holed up in the basement quilting as madly as I can to get all the quilts finished for Christmas gifts, none of them mine, only for others.  The only one getting a quilt from me is my two year old nephew, but he only got half a top in his box (our family celebrated last week), and I had to bring it home to finish!!The pictures here show the top half of the quilt minus the side borders. 
 
                       I did, just last night, make some homemade mustard. Not sure what it will taste like, as the first recipe I wanted to use, was called Oktoberfest Beer Mustard, and it called to cook it down at the end. Then, while looking a bit for other recipes,  I found one from America's Test Kitchen, and it said that the heat causes a reaction that diminishes the mustard taste!! So, I went on and made the second batch, and mixed the two!! I also wanted to mix them as I used all brown mustard seeds in the first, and wanted the color differences to show. It does smell good, though, can't wait to try it, the recipes say to let it sit and let the flavors develop for a couple weeks at least before trying.  So, we'll see!

And below, in the pretty bottle, is some blueberry liquer that I made from our blueberries, gorgeous, isn't it? I am a little afraid to taste it, as it smells a bit strong, but we'll find something to put it in and sample! I also made raspberry and blackberry liquers, all from our berries. I can attest to the fact that the raspberry one is awesome (As we have drank most of it)!   I made "summer beer" with the raspberry liquer and it went down waaay too easy.

Summer Beer: 1  - 12 ounce can of frozen lemonade concentrate,  use that can and add one can of vodka (we have found that about 3/4 of a can is plenty, but use your taste), add one bottle of beer, I like a light one such as Corona light, Bud Lite, Busch Lite, etc. And add one can of clear soda, such as Sierra mist, or Sprite, or Seven-up.  To make it raspberry, I substituted half of the raspberry for half the vodka. Yumm-yumm. Oh, we also made this with limeade concentrate and it was just as delicious.   Ahhh, makes me miss summer.....