It started out like a normal weekend.....

Really, it did.... dinner out on Friday.  A relaxing two days on the horizon.

Plans to do nothing but clean house and perhaps get a project or two finished... but somewhere along the way it became a homemade sort of weekend... an everything homemade sort of weekend.  It wasn't even planned.   I'm not sure where it got so out of my control....

On Saturday I realized it was time to get busy with some lemons I purchased.  I wanted to try a recipe for Strawberry Lemon Marmalade...

It's been on my "to do" for canning for a couple of years... and the combination of lemon and strawberry, well let's just say that the taste test didn't let me down.

Another one I've wanted to try was Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate.  All those lemons for just the zest/peel... well with all that juice I knew it was time to try it out.  I don't own an electric juicer so to squeeze 4 cups of lemon juice I relied on the Juice-o-matic.

This baby is my husband's... it was his grandmother's.  It worked pretty well, however I do believe my right bicep is now slightly larger than my left.  You have to squeeze a lot of lemons to get 4 cups of juice!

Another taste test winner.  And doesn't it look so pretty in the jars?  You just mix the concentrate with water, club soda, whatever ya like.  I think we'll be trying the club soda approach to make our own sparkling strawberry lemonade this winter!

Then, for Saturday evening, my husband invited friends over for dinner, homemade pizza was on the menu.  I've been making this for quite a few years now, so I'm kind of an expert.  Making my own dough, using my home canned tomato sauce..... hmmm, I think I'm beginning to see a theme here.
While making my pizza dough from scratch, my son called to ask if I wanted free strawberries and pineapples... what will I do with those???

Sunday morning brought more clouds and rainy skies.  Just the kind of day for a big pot of homemade soup.  So I finally made the homemade Potato-Bean Soup I'd been craving since the weather turned cooler.  This entailed a trip to the garden for potatoes, onions and carrots.  Oh, look... more ripe tomatoes....

Of course the plethora of tomatoes meant that another batch of tomato sauce was in my future.

Another passel of jars all ready for pizza making and holiday gift giving....

With the tomato sauce simmering away, I decided it was time to make pasta for dinner.  I've been meaning to try out my new Kitchenaid attachment I purchased this summer to make homemade pasta.... homemade SHAPED pasta like macaroni, rigatoni, fusilli...

My 21 year old son informed me he'd been waiting his whole life to try the "pto" out on the Kitchenaid... so at least I had a helper for that project.  And it turned out fabulous, was easy and delicious.  And what's a pto you may ask?  Well on tractors or trucks it stands for power take-off... on a Kitchenaid it's that little thing on the front of the mixer that comes off.  Of course being a tractor guy, it's a "pto".

After dinner, I remembered I'd promised to bring a baked item to work for Monday (today), so Sunday evening meant Key Lime Bars...

Well actually the recipe is Lemon Bars from here but I had Key Lime juice... which I actually like better... it gives the bars a more tart flavor then lemon.  Either way, Key Lime or Lemon... these bars are the best!

If it's starting to sound like I never left my kitchen... or perhaps have turned into "little Suzy homemaker meets little house on the prairie" well that's what it felt like by Sunday night. 

Oh, and least I forget, of course the free strawberries had to be cut up and frozen before bedtime...

And the pineapples?  I'm still working on those.