Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Air-drying flowers is a simple, fun hobby that can save you money by providing free material to make dried flower decorations for your home or to give as gifts. It's very simple to air-dry flowers. All you need is a place to hang them out of direct light, rubber bands and either paperclips or florist wire. I have used wooden pegged coffee cup hangers and pieces of lattice attached to the kitchen wall as places to air-dry flowers. You can also insert cup hooks into a wall and use those.

Once you have a place to hang them set up, you can begin to find flowers to dry. Hopefully you have a variety of flowers growing in your yard to experiment with. If not, you can find wildflowers growing alongside roads or in forests. If you are using these flowers, be sure to take care of the plants you take the flowers from. This ensures that there is plenty of plant growth for insects, birds and other wildlife to use.

Some flowers that have air-dried well for me are: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), pompon Dahlias (Dahlia hortensis), Poppy seed heads (Papaver somniferum), Roses (Rosa), Marjoram (Origanum vulgare), Delphinium, Larkspur (Consolida ambigua), Lavender (Lavandula Augustifolia), African Marigold (Tagetes erecta), Strawflower (Helichrysum bracteatum), Globe Thistle (echinops ritro), Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), Statice (Limonium sinuatum), Globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa), and Love-in-amist (Nigella damascena) seed heads.

To find flowers that air-dry well, it's good practice to experiment. If it doesn't dry well, you gain the knowledge not to use it next time. Sometimes, an air-dried flower that doesn't look good to one person may look pleasing to another.

With most flowers, the best stage to dry them is when they are just beginning to open. Depending on the flower, if you hang it too late, the petals will fall off. You will learn this as you experiment. Others, you will want to wait until the seed head is developed because this is the decorative part.

The best time to cut flowers for drying is late morning after the due has dried and on a dry day. I like to take a wicker basket with a handle and my scissors with me and take a walk around the yard snipping what looks appealing.

Once you have your flowers picked, you can prepare them for air-drying. To do this, bundle eight to ten stems with a rubber band at the cut end of the flowers. The rubber band works especially well because as the flowers dry, the stems will shrink and the rubber band will shrink to the appropriate size of the bunch. Now you can insert an unraveled paper clip or florist wire inside the rubber band and bend it to form a hook that the bunch can hang over a peg, piece of lattice or hook. Hang the bunch of flowers upside down and depending on the weather, they will probably take anywhere from one to three weeks to dry completely. You can tell they are dry completely when they feel crisp to the touch.

Air-drying flowers make a fabulous decoration by themselves, but when they are dry, you can take them down and make dried flower arrangements, Christmas ornaments, dried flower wreaths and more.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

STANDARD STYLE

1. TO REMOVE LEG (thigh or second joint and drumstick). Hold the drumstick firmly with fingers, pulling gently away from turkey body. At the same time cut through skin between leg and body. Continue as follows:

2. PRESS LEG AWAY FROM BODY WITH FLAT SIDE OF KNIFE. Then cut through joint joining leg to backbone and skin on the back. If the "oyster", a choice oyster-shaped piece lying in the spoon-shaped section of the backbone was not removed with the thigh, remove it at this point. Hold leg on service plate with drumstick at a convenient angle to plate. Separate drumstick and thigh by cutting down through the joint to the plate.

3. SLICE DRUMSTICK MEAT. Hold drumstick upright at a convenient angle to plate and cut down, turning drumstick to get uniform slices. Chicken drumsticks and thighs are usually served without slicing.

4. SLICE THIGH MEAT. Hold thigh firmly on plate with a fork. Cut slices of meat parallel to the bone.

5. CUT INTO WHITE MEAT PARALLEL TO WING. Make a cut deep into the breast to the body frame parallel to and as close to the wing as possible.

6. SLICE WHITE MEAT. Beginning at front, starting halfway up the breast, cut thin slices of white meat down to the cut made parallel to the wing. The slices will fall away from the turkey as they are cut to this line. Continue carving until enough meat has been carved for first servings. Additional turkey may be carved as needed.

Remove individual servings of stuffing from an opening cut into side of the turkey where leg has been removed.

SIDE STYLE

1. REMOVE THE WING TIP AND FIRST JOINT. Grasp the wing tip firmly with fingers, lift up, and sever between the first and second joint. Place the wing tip and first joint portion on the side of the platter. This part is not customarily served. Leave the second joint attached to the bird.

2. REMOVE THE DRUMSTICK. Grasp the end of the drumstick and lift it up and away from the body, disjointing it from the thigh or second joint of leg. The latter is left attached to the bird. Place the drumstick on the side platter for slicing the meat. Hold the drumstick upright at a convenient angle and cut down toward the plate, parallel with the bone, turning the drumstick to make uniform slices.

A variation (not illustrated) is: Grasp end of drumstick to steady the leg, then cut thin slices across the entire length of leg until the bone of drumstick and thigh and the joint connecting them are exposed. Disjoint drumstick as suggested and finish slicing remaining meat. Proceed with Step 3, "run the point, etc."

3. REMOVING THE THIGH BONE. Anchoring the fork where it is most convenient to steady the bird, cut slices of thigh meat parallel to the body until the bone is reached. Run the point of the knife around the thigh bone, lift up with the fork, and use fork or fingers to remove the bone. Then slice the remaining thigh meat.

The choice dark meat above the thigh in the spoon-shaped section of the backbone is called the "oyster". Use the point of the knife to lift it out.

4. SLICING WHITE MEAT. Begin at the front end of the turkey and slice until the wing socket is exposed. Remove the second joint of the wing. Continue slicing white meat until enough slices have been provided, or until the breastbone is reached.

5. REMOVING STUFFING FROM HOLE CUT INTO CAVITY UNDER THIGH. Slit the thin tissue in the thigh region with the tip of the knife and make an opening large enough for a serving spoon. The stuffing in the breast end may be served by laying the skin back onto the platter. (Use this method also for carving Half and Quarter turkeys)