Sunday, October 25, 2009

Little Witches

I made these cute little skirts and embroidered the shirts for the 4 little girls. I think they turned out so cute. I am anxiously awaiting pictures of little bodies in the skirts to show them off :o) I think the pattern can be made for bigger girls too, so next time I will have to try to make one for Sydney too so all 5 can match....even though they are all in different places :o( I will post pictures as I get them.

Adventures in Steam Juicing

Last weekend , Gordon and I tried our hand at making apple juice. We had made some grape juice this summer using the grapes from our garden. It took two days and it wasn't easy at all! We knew there had to be an easier way. I saw this in the flyer we got about a month ago. I hadn't ever seen or heard of one before. I happened to mention it to a friend and she said she had one that she loved it! She explained how it worked and just how easy it was to use. That sold me on it and we ordered one from Amazon I think. Any way - here are some pictures of our adventure into apples!

We started with a bushel of apples. (these were seconds and were much cheaper)
You start by washing and quartering your apples and putting them into the steamer basket.
This is the middle section of the Steam Juicer. The steam comes up from the bottom to through the funnel and the juice is collected here.

The steamer juicer together on the stove top. (There's a lid that goes on top, but you couldn't see the apples if I put the lid on!)
After collecting the juice through the tube into a collection pitcher and poured into hot jars and canned, we scooped the mushy apples from the top and put them (skin and all) through a food mill that we had for the kitchen aid. The sauce you can see coming through the strainer part in the middle and down into the bowl, and the skin and seeds out the end into another bowl.
The end products!
We ended up with 12 quarts of juice, 16 pints of applesauce and a quart of apple butter that we put into smaller jars. It was amazing and very easy. I am so anxious to share.....where are the kids at when you want them around??

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Tomatoes and Basil

We didn't get as many tomatoes this year as we have in the past. So we didn't do any canning with the tomatoes, but we did freeze some of the tomatoes with fresh basil and garlic to make fresh tomato sauce for spaghetti this winter. I found the recipe in the newspaper and thought I would try it.A happy shot of me during canning!

Smile!!

We had a wedding shower here...

We had a wedding shower here for Stacey Brosenne. She is getting married at the church on October 24. She won a reception at a beautiful reception hall in Fells Piont (Baltimore)! She was so lucky and surprised! I'm excited to go and see this place. Will tell you about it after the reception! Here are a couple of pictures from the shower.Kayla and Jennifer and Stacey's fiance's mother.
Sister Stephen's with her prize :o)Stacey with the winner of the 'dress the bride'!



Stacey with one of her gifts.The table by the front door. I love Halloween decorations!