Pears, Apple Cider MIx & Molasses Cookies

So we sort of started schooling again this week.  Last week I bought 80 lbs. of pears.  (At .35/lb it seemed crazy not to!)  They were very green and hard.  Wouldn't you know that Monday morning they were perfectly ripe and wanting my attention.  I couldn't tend to them on Monday.  Hannah is part of a group at our church called, Daughters of the King.  It's part book study and part homemaking skills.  Betcha can't guess the homemaking skill that was covered...yep canning.  They made a wonderful tomato, pepper and onion sauce.  I've done a lot of canning, but never a tomato sauce.  (Can't wait to try it because it smelled divine while cooking!) Tuesday was full of art lessons and piano lessons and a trip to the grocery store, but my pears were calling me!  They would say, " You MUST pay attention to us TODAY!".  So, Tuesday night we had a date those pears and me! (Usually the kids help, but this time it was too late.) I was able to get 21 quarts of quartered pears in a light organic sugar juice canned as well as 7 quarts of pear sauce.  I still have more pear sauce in my Thatsa Bowl to be canned, but I just plum ran out of steam.  I flopped into bed about 2:45 am!  This year I used the attachment for the KitchenAid.  That's the way to go if you are going to make applesauce or pear sauce (and you have a KitchenAid).  As is tradition for these big canning projects.  We set up a little t.v. and a dvd player and pick a season of some old show to watch while cooking, peeling, coring, smashing.  This year it was Perry Mason.  I used to watch these in the days when I only had one child and she was napping in the afternoon.  I really like old, black and white, classic shows.
I found something on another blog hop( The Blessed Hearth. ) She had this cute little idea for an apple cider mix that you add to apple cider to spice it up and make it so yummy.  I'm posting it for you here. 

HOMEMADE CIDER MIX

2 T. turbinado sugar

2 T. dried cranberries

1 tsp. whole allspice

1 tsp. whole cloves

1/2 of a whole nutmeg

1/2 of a long cinnamon stick

Layer the ingredients into a small mason jar with these instructions..

Add contents to 8 cups of cider and keep on low heat for 30 minutes.

And lastly, what would an autumn day be without a fabulous cookie recipe.  These molasses cookies are my favorite cookie!  They are so yummy.

Carol's FAVORITE molasses cookies!

3/4 c. shortening (I use non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening by Spectrum) 

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. molasses

1 egg

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

Melt shortening in a pot on low heat.  Let cool.  To the pot, add sugar, molasses, and egg.  Beat well.  Mix together flour, baking soda, cloves, and ginger, cinnamon and salt.  Chill 1 hour. Every good cook should taste test the dough!  :-) Once it is chilled, form into 1" balls and roll in sugar.  Place on cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.   YUM. 
Best enjoyed with a cold glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee...and there is only 1 pot to clean up. :-)

A touch of Paris in my own backyard

OH MY! OH MY!  My husband is the sweetest!!  Look what he brought home for me!  We sat at this darling bistro set just this morning.  I sipped  my hot latte and he his steamed goat's milk.  (Did you know he gave up coffee almost a year ago?!)  The little girls were so excited to see us out there, that when we came in they went out to sit and pretend they were having coffee too.  Ooooooo, I just LOVE this bistro set and the man who gave it to me.

Fall Corn Roast

Some friends of ours have an annual corn roast.  It's so fun!  Kevin roasts the corn outside on a huge grate that is  on top of a drum which has a big fire in it.  After the corn is roasted, he pulls the husks down with gloves and dips the ear in a can filled with melted butter.  OH MY!  It's just heavenly!  Everyone who comes brings a side dish or salad to share.  We brought goat cheese and crackers, what else? ;-) And then, there are the pies.  Lisa and her daughters make delicious homemade pies!  It's such fun to enjoy their little family farm, the chilly autumn weather, great fellowship and yummy corn and pie.

the corn roasting

the garden, an apple tree and the hen house

Matt

delicious pie!

Graphic Design, Drawing and Calligraphy



Art Class at our home

How cool is that...our art teacher makes house calls!!  Arden Peters is versed in many areas of art, but graphic design and drawing are his specialties.  Caleb is taking graphic design from him.  He'll be coming up with an entire product package.  Matthew is taking beginning drawing and Hannah is learning calligraphy.  We are keeping him hopping moving from one student to the next each with a different focus, but hey, welcome to my world. 



Hannah learning calligraphy from Mr. Peters

Grandparents

Sunday is Grandparents Day.  I'm glad a day was created to honor them.  They add so much to our lives!
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't remember my "gramma" in some way. (that's how I said it, so that's how I spelled it.)  I spent a lot of my childhood with my mom's mom, Elaine.  We had a lot of fun and laughs.  I think it was her love of God's amazing creation that gave me my love for the sea and the sunset.  We would chase sunsets.  She would drive like a mad woman to the 4th story of the Robinson's department store parking structure in Glendale or even the top level of the Burbank Airport parking structure just to see the sun sink below the horizon in all its orange glow and glory.  We spent lots of summer days at Redondo Beach.  As we got close we could smell the salty, sea air.  When we would crest over the hill and be able to get that first glimpse of the ocean she would say, "There it is."  with such glee like a kid in a candy shop!  Then there was my East Coast Gramma, Lyndell.  She was amazing in a completely different way.  She knew how to do every kind of handwork perfectly.  She could knit, crochet, tat, embroider, quilt, hand and machine sew.  She knew it all and did it with such skill!  They both knew how to love and nurture!   My memories of my grandfathers are less.  I didn't know them very well.  The one vivid memory I have of my dad's dad, Kenneth is of visiting him on his ship.  He was ship captain and he was in port.  I got to board that enormous freighter and have a tour.  WOW. I do remember that he had a deep voice with a thick New England accent.  My mom's dad, Kepler "Kep"  loved Arizona and the car races.  All four of them were loving and generous in their own ways. 
Eric was very close with his maternal grandparents.  Until his grandpa, Peter died at age 90, he used to speak with him on the phone every week.  He had a crazy sense of humor and very special spot in his heart for Eric.  As a boy, Eric was often too little to do the things that his brothers were doing so he spent lots of time in the kitchen with his "Big Grammy" (great, great grandmother), his "Little Grammy" (great grandmother), Grammy and mom making huge amounts of Varenyky at holiday time.  He is a far better cook than I am and I owe it all to those fabulous women who loved and served their families!  His favorite memory of his paternal grandma, Germain is that she always had spearmint gum in her bread box.  His grandfather, Romeo helped him build a life-size cannon for the deck of a ship.   We both have such good memories of time spent with these special people! 
Now we have children and our own special parents are the grandparents.  They impart wisdom, lend a listening ear, joke and laugh and play when they visit.  Since all their grandparents live in other parts of the United States - they often will speak of the fun memories they have with them like when Grammy Maria just showed up on our doorstep to surprise us with a visit (all the way from Connecticut!) or when they woke up their Grampa Roger and Gramma Jodi at 5 am to go fishing and with one blurry eye open looking back at these small faces, they said, "Ok, we're gettin' up, let's go fishing.", or when Grammy Barbara and Uncle Bill visit and always bring animal crackers.  It's tradition!
I hope that when Eric and I become grandparents that we will be just as fun and just as supportive and loving as all the grandparents in our lives have been.
We are much of who we are because of them!!

Labor Day

The menfolk have a been a bit busy with getting our fire wood set for this winter.  Right now we are finally enjoying summer weather.  The forcast for the next 10 days is sunny and warm  and in the high 80's.  NICE!  But, soon  enough it will look like this...

and so that's why they've been working so hard!  Thankfully, we own a piece of property that is very wooded.  The downed trees are from when we cleared to put up our barn two years ago.  That pile will supply this year's fire wood and probably next year's too.  We'll be warm and cozy when the weather outside is frightful.

Look What I Won!

Anderson Family Farm Goat Milk Lotion Bar and Lavender Goat Milk Lotion

Who knew that when I posted about the Anderson Family Farm Giveaway that I'd actually be a winner?  Usually it's Eric who wins stuff, but this time it was me.  :-)  What a fun surprise!

Another First in our Family

Matt caught his first fish today!  WOOT WOOT!
He and Caleb went salmon fishing with their best buddy, Jesse and his dad. They all caught one.  Matt and Caleb will make their Grandpa proud!

The one that didn't get away!

Haircuts and Avocado

So here I take a ton of photos of Hannah for her school pictures and THEN she got a haircut. Got a haircut indeed - 16". She donated it to Locks of love We have known so many people who have struggled with cancer and hair loss from the treatments. Donating hair is an easy way to help. I never seem to have quite enough to donate. The minimum is 10". Both Sarah and Hannah have donated before.  Hannah has super -thick hair and is happy to have it shorter for a while. 

Hannah - Before

16" later

Hannah - After

Ellie went along too - it was her first haircut. Yep - she is 5 and just had a haircut. It was below her bottom. Everyone used to call her "Repunzel" - even strangers who might see us at the store. Since it was her first cut, we kept the golden, curly locks. We didn't cut 10" either. Next time we'll cut enough off to donate.

Ellie - "Repunzel"

Ellie - Before

Lots of good conditioner in there - so no tangles!

It was so long that she had to stand to have it cut.

Ellie - After

And on the same note of "firsts"..... Babe Mary had her first taste of solid food....delicious avocado.  It's the perfect first food for a baby.  They are an excellent source of unsaturated fatty acids and have a higher proportion of this "good" fat than any other fruit except the olive.  If you have babies in the house you might want to read the book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  It's an amazing book - and offers advice that's a little different than the standard advice you might get from your pediatrician. I highly recommend this book.

Mary enjoying some avocado