A Neat Blessing

We had quite a lot of trouble with our garden this year. In the first place we planted a lot of things late, and some things not at all. Then, with the cool, wet summer, things grew very slowly. There were still scads of green peppers on the plants when the frost killed them. A lot of our winter squashes were very small still when the frost came. Then, too, we had a white mold attack our squashes and melons at the end of summer, killing a number of plants and seriously stunting others. Out of my three "Fairytale" pumpkin plants, sprawling in all their pumpkin vine extravagance over a huge section of garden space, I ended up with one pumpkin. We've had trouble in the past with poor pollination of these and I need to have my act together next year and plant more pollinator attracting flowers in the garden. Or something. Take up beekeeping maybe.

Anyway, I watched that pumpkin get bigger and bigger. The frost came nearer and nearer. It was still green. The skin got darker green after a while, but never turned the deep brown-orange I was waiting for. I had prayed for that pumpkin a lot. I bought a little pie pumpkin when I needed to make spicy pumpkin soup for a party. I kept telling myself I needed to stop at a particular store this week and buy a couple more pie pumpkins because the one was so good.

I got my honey to bring the big, heavy green pumpkin inside. I thought I'd at least try making a mock apple pie with some of it. Nate cut it open for me. Imagine my surprise to see this:

And it smelled delicious too! One of the things I love about this particular pumpkin is that it smells like melon. I'm not a fan of the squashy winter squash smell:) We cooked up some of it and it tasted great. So, I spent two days cooking and pureeing pumpkin. I've got quarts and quarts of it in the freezer! So, hurray for pumpkin pies, and cupcakes and bars and soup and whatever else we come up with.

I also discovered, by trying it, that pumpkin works great as a substitute for the ketchup or tomato sauce in meatloaf, yum:)

We're Back :)

Now for lots of "boring" mundane news of what we've been up to...

On the garden front: I have one large, green pumpkin sitting out in the garden. I don't think there's any hope of it turning orange before the first frost kills the vine. I hope there are some good recipes for green pumpkin out there :) I always kind of wanted to try making pie with it like in Little House on the Prairie. Remember when Ma makes the pie out of green pumpkin and Pa thinks it's apple pie?

I also have heaps of green Serrano chiles. Nate was going to make salsa and never got around to it. I'll have to get him to slice them for me (I Don't like handling hot peppers) and I'll pickle them for him. Though, he hasn't eaten his jalapeno slices from last year. I think he forgot about them.

We missed the fall crop of raspberries. Such a short window compared to spring. And only made two blackberry pies and one jar of syrup. No jam, or anything else. I made one pot of pear butter and froze it in small containers. I started to make applesauce one day and decided to make pie instead. I have six jars of tomato sauce in the freezer and one jar of dried tomatoes. And that's it on the preservation front. I really planned to do much better this year. Oh well.

We tried our first crop of meat chickens this year. I have to say, the processing is not my favorite thing to do (obviously.) But it's worth it to have meat in the freezer. We have lots more to do and will be doing a few each weekend until it's done.

Our "keeper" flock has grown as well. We now have six roosters and eighteen hens. So many pretty and fun boys we have trouble getting rid of them all. So, we need six more hens for the four-to-one ratio that's supposed to be best for them :) Nate really wants some more mille fleur booted bantams (if you find a picture of "Little Red on here that's the breed and color) so we'll probably try to get some eggs from our friends who have them and fill our quota that way. The boys each picked two laying hens to order when we got the meat chicks. Brannon chose "Easter Eggers" which are mixed breed Auracanas, Joshua chose Barred Rocks. I find it fascinating that they both chose the same breeds as last year (I guess I expected them to change their minds :) Sadly their previous hens met sad ends, presumably in predators stomachs. Brannon named his girls "Owl" and "Agmes". Joshua originally named his "Black Eagle" and "Agnes".  Then he switched to "Agmes" and "Agnes". Now the two girls are unnamed because he can't decide what he wants to call them. Now if we can just keep the girls alive through the deadly months of April and May we'll be doing good. I think these must be the "baby months" and the predator moms and dads are extra bold and desperate because we lose chickens in broad daylight when we're all home. It's just when there's lots of new fresh food around and the chickens are eager to be out and about after a rainy, cold winter of sticking close to home or being stuck inside. We're planning to build a covered run for them so we can let them out during the dangerous months and still keep them safe.

Our Madrones and Walnuts have been attacked by web worms this year. Wretched beings. The boys were even willing to forgive wasps for being wasps when they heard that they eat web worms. We cut lots of web worms out to the Madrones that we could reach, and thankfully they didn't hit our fruit trees badly at all, just a branch here and there. (the chickens really liked the branches full of caterpillars we kept dumping up there for them). Our big walnut tree survived pretty well. I've seen several trees in town with no leaves left and web all the way to the ground!!

Nate's been really busy with school while working most weekends. The boys and I are always looking forward to the weeks between terms when we actually get to See him :) He's enjoying working for the fire station. He had a really fun time doing open houses with kindergartners. He said if all public relations were with five-year-olds we would Love to it :D

Gingerbread Personalities

One child decorated one side of the roof (sorry for the blurry pic, I was in a hurry at the time)

And the other child decorated the other side... :)

And both were very pleased with the beauty of their designs:D

Today so far...

Today...
I finally feel better.
For some reason I thought that once on antibiotics I'd be out of pain really fast. Silly me.


Nate is at fire academy, his last weekend. After tomorrow he'll be able to go on calls. A couple days ago he brought home a radio/pager thingy that he plopped down on the end table between the couch and the wood stove. You know, the only one I have Christmas decorations on? Yeah. Boys. Sheesh. I wisely decided to not say anything, not having a cleaned off surface to offer as an alternative;-) You could say that's why he chose that spot, but... it's next to "his" spot on the couch, near a handy outlet... And it's not like after Christmas decorations are put away there's going to be anything on that table. Just, you know, my female sense of aestheticism is slightly offended :D




I made a totally scrumptious batch of gluten-free gingerbread cookie dough thanks to Shauna over at Gluten-free Girl and the Chef. Thank you Shauna and Danny! :) I can't wait to try the baked version after tasting the dough, Yum!! I don't keep ginger around since I am allergic to it. I was thinking that cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and molasses would still make a worthy cookie. But, I wanted that heat that would be missing without the ginger. Seeing that the recipe included black pepper in the spices reminded me of chai, so I added a little cayenne as well for extra heat. I also used fresh tangerine zest since I had them handy instead of oranges. Did I mention yet that that dough is delicious??? :D



My boys made sugar cookies (also from Shauna's blog come to think of it:) with Grandma while I wrapped Christmas gifts and worked on a project for Joshua. He loves to cook and loves to get kid's cookbooks from the library and pick recipes from the pictures and beg me to let him cook them. This can be more than a little frustrating since we have several dietary restrictions that make cooking a challenge at times. And he wants to make it just like the picture. Not always possible. I ordered some blank books from Bare Books, the big hard back, spiral bound ones. I'm typing or copying and printing our favorite recipes and a few we have yet to try and making him cookbooks of food we can eat by gluing the pages into the blank books. I'm giving him two for Christmas and two for his birthday in February. They aren't the prettiest thing, but I think he's really going to love them:)


I broke up the peppermint bark I made for Nate last night. I'm so glad one of his favorite Christmas treats is so stinkin' easy to make. Melt some almond bark, crush some candy canes, melt some chocolate...


I WILL get some writing (more than this here post) done this afternoon...



And make a gingerbread house with the critters...


AFTER I take a nap...

I hope...



:D

Camping Again

For another mountain bike race :) In Sisters, it's supposed to be raining (only Friday hopefully)---wish us dry!! :D I've been cooking since 7 am. I don't think I'm going to get everything done I had planned. I should have gotten started yesterday. But, I painted instead. I needed it, needed to release the creativity, needed the intercession (painting equals praying for me). It was worth the rush today.

Back to work! ;)

Sweet Success!

A gluten-, egg-, and sugar-free cookie that is not crumbly! It tastes great and has a wonderful texture, yippee!! I don't think I've ever made a cookie with honey that was not crumbly, even in our pre-gluten-free days:) Until now:)