Grandma canned tomatoes like it was going out of style. The shelves in the cellar house were brimming with home canned goodies to savor over the winter. Tomatoes, green beans, corn, big chunks of tender beef, pickles, picalilly, pickled beets, peaches, applesauce, apple butter, preserves, jams and jellies shone like jewels and were EVER so welcome on the dark nights of January and February. Bins of potatoes and apples as well as braids of onions would be divvied up to last till the first harvest in late spring. 

One of my favorite meals Grandma fixed was Creamed Tomato Gravy over Buttermilk Biscuits. I’ve never replenished my canning supplies after they were stolen from my storage area in Colorado, so I haven’t canned anything in quite some time. I did take the last of the ripe tomatoes in late summer and stewed them then froze two batches in the freezer. I’ve been promising Mr. FixIt this yummy comfort food for weeks now, but this is the first chance I’ve had to slow down and bake some biscuits.

Mr. FixIt had to leave his truck with the mechanic Monday, so we are down to one vehicle this week. This means we get to spend the week together uninterrupted! We threw ourselves into cleaning house yesterday in preparation for company coming for Thanksgiving Dinner. We are still catching up with laundry as well as pulling blankets out for winter. It was a lovely, relaxing day nesting, cooking, and watching it try to snow. This tomato gravy over hot biscuits fresh from the oven were just what the doctor ordered! For dessert, we buttered a couple more and slathered on a healthy portion of Mixed Berry Jelly by the gal at In a Jam. My lifelong family/friend, Judith, gifted us six jars as a late wedding gifts which she swears is not a gift….just a “thinking of you”. She had the Chief Jam Maker at In a Jam make labels with our wedding picture on it. Actually, the one I’m using as a profile picture. Such a thoughtful person she is!

The peace of days like this is not lost on me. Relaxing, puttering, cooking, knitting, writing, throwing in a couple loads of laundry and hanging out at home with my new husband is so delicious. You never know how much something hurts till the pain goes away, do you? ❤️

“She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:”  Proverbs 31:27-28 NIV