What's Been a Happin'

With coming back from the trip to see my family, summer kicking in and misplacing my camera for a week we've managed to stay pretty busy.  Here's a few photos to show you what we've been up to...

Canning cherries from our tree

Checkin on the piggies

Gooseberries from our bush

Future Lawn Mower of America

Hayin' the field

Berry smoothie mishap

Pickin' some berries

Someone is tired of watching the picking!

Our wealth of berries (round 1)

1st batch of raspberry jam

Cookie clean-up

Simple Sinful Cinnamon Muffins

These muffins are simply delish and can become slightly addictive!  A while back Gumbo Lily mentioned in a post about these muffins and of course I had to try it.  She had found the recipe on King Arthur Flour's website. Well, for Mother's Day I decided to give them a try and Oh my they are so good!  Everybody loved them! The second time that I made them I had to put a limit on how many could be had in one day because somebody had about 4 in one afternoon. I'll admit I actually hid the last one because they were getting eaten so quickly and I barely got any!  Hmm maybe I'll make another batch this week! :)

A Twist on the Twists!

Friday night we had breakfast for dinner and I was having a hankering to make some cinnamon rolls.  My dilemma was whether to make them from my original cinn. roll recipe or to go with the the twist recipe since everyone LOVES that recipe.  I decided on the twist recipe. 

And here you have it...Twists gone Rolls!

They rose so beautifully!

Oh they were so delicious!

Do not be deceived that was only part of the first helping you see missing!  :)

Pears, Prunes, and a Sippy cup

Someone gave this little food processor
to us for a wedding gift and it works perfect
for making baby food!

Pears, yummy good!

Little Miss Prune face

She sure liked them!

"So Mom what kindof toy is this?" 

"I think I'm suppose to put this part in my mouth!"

Yes, we have entered a new phase in life, the exploration of new foods!

And on a side note Liesel had her 6 month check up today and she now weighs 17lbs. 2oz and is 26 inches long.  She's right in the 75th percentile!

Rice Cereal

On Saturday Liesel had her first solid meal-rice cereal.

The yummy cereal mixed with mommy's milk

She's ready to eat!

Looks good

Hmm

Oh

Yum, yum

What a cute messy face!

All cleaned up and ready to play!

Iced Coffee

While my sister was out visiting she made a batch of iced coffee and I have to say after that I had the bug make some more. Well I did a little searching and I found a great Iced Mocha recipe at allrecipes.com . My DH really likes this and I have made it quite a few times since finding this recipe.

Iced Mocha
1 1/2 c. strong coffee
2 c. milk
1/4 c. chocolate syrup
1/4 c. sugar

Freeze coffee in ice cube trays then blend ingredients in the blender.

I don't freeze the coffee instead I just add 3-4 ice cubes. I also recommend that you don't use all the sugar as I found it to be a bit to sweet.

Enjoy!

Grape Juice

This last week I've been working on grape juice. Our dear neighbor allowed us to pick his grapes and with the help of my mother-in-law we have canned quite a good amount and there are still green grapes that aren't quite ripe yet.

Oh, and we did finish painting the carport/shop. The only picture I have of it painted was taken through a rainy window but it at least gives you an idea of what it looks like.

From Our Garden

After taking this picture I felt like I had my own produce stand! We had apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, potatoes and our first cantaloupes of the season! It sure is exciting to see the garden growing.

So what did we do with all the garden goodies...my sis and I made applesauce, pico de gallo, dill pickles, dried apple rings, fried potatoes, and of course ate the yummy cantaloupe!

Pickling

Here's a quick peep at one of the things I've been doing...pickling. I've never done it before but the other day I tried my hand at it.



I used 18 cucumbers from the garden, cut them into spears, soaked them in ice water to make them more crispy, than packed, seasoned, and canned.



I have to say they sure look good but, the real test will come when we open them up to eat. It will be about 4-6 weeks before we can even think about taste testing them.

I tried the Twists

There were 4 very happy men (DH, JB and my two bros-in-law) at my house this afternoon. They all managed to arrive just as the Twists were coming out of the oven and boy did we enjoy these yummy treats along with a cold glass of milk! I had to restrain myself from having seconds as we have yet to have dinner. The Twists were just a late afternoon snack and probably will be dessert and if there are any leftovers, a delicious breakfast pastry! Plain Ol' Vanilla has the recipe on her blog. I highly recommend trying it!

Our Trip to the Coast

My DH had the week of Thanksgiving off so we decided to take a little trip to the coast. One of the places we decided to stop along the way was the Tillamok cheese factory. We both found it absolutely fascinating. Upstairs is a viewing window that allows visitors to view the entire cutting and packaging process of their cheddar cheese.

These are the big blocks of cheddar cheese that have been in another warehouse where they are aged. The longer they age the sharper the cheeses.

Here you can see more of the assembly line. The lady right in front is making sure all the cut cheese blocks weigh the same amount and if not she pulls them off the line and adds a thin slice of cheese to make it meet its weight.

In the middle you can see the finished packaging of the Tillamok Cheddar Cheese Baby loaf. After view all this we went downstairs to their store and sampling counter. Might I also mention that they make their own ice cream! My DH had French Silk and I had Coffee Mocha. They were delicious!!!

We then headed to the coast and it wasn't until the next day that we really got a good view of the ocean.

We walked along a seawall and when we looked back that was the view.

It sure was a beautifully sunny day!

We had a lovely time driving along the coast and stopping to get out and take pictures! We definitely plan on going back for another visit!

Time flies

How can it be almost a month since I last posted?!?! Where has the time gone and what in the world have I been during. Well, I will say I haven't been sitting around eating bonbons so if that not the case what have I been doing....


Canning-I have been trying my hands at that new skill and since my last post I have canned 6 half-pints of raspberries jam, 8 half-pints of blackberries jam, 7 half-pints of pear jam, 8 pints of plum jam, 9 quarts of halved pears, plus lots of jars of stewed plums. Our larder is becoming pleasantly full!!




Juicing-Our neighbor let us borrow his 100 year old apple press so we have been picking, pressing and canning/freezing apple juice. We have pressed over 20 gallons of juice and my DH and I have canned 17 gallons, froze 2 gallons, and shared many with family and friends. There still are a lot more apples to press so we will probably get a few more gallons before the fall is over.




Freezing- I was also given a recipe for freezing fresh corn from my DH's grandma. You just cut the raw corn off the cob mix it in a water, sugar, and salt mixture and freeze it. I managed to freeze 18 cups of corn.


Cows-Yes, I spent a day with my DH and some friends from church working their cows. All the calves were rounded up, tagged, giving shots and dehorned and castrated as needed. (Hmm sounds a lot like what our friends in MT do! :) It was quite an experience not to mention my DH also pregnancy tested 3 cows. My job was to hold the shots until my DH was ready to give it to the calves.



During the past month we have also had guests for a week, celebrated my DH's birthday, gone on several hikes, had dinner with friends and family, worked on a septic project, visited my DH's job site and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. So with all that said it sure has been a busy last month. No wonder I haven't had time to post. I really do want to try and do better and now that the weather is getting cooler it should make it easier!!!