A break from the house updates to bring you...Harvest 2008!

I know, I know. I am corny. But you love me...right?

So, here is what I did today and yesterday.

Here we are at Rousters Apple Orchard. The apples were already picked for the year so we just picked up a 10 lb bag and some cider.



Us with our loot.



Enjoying some hot cider.



Craig couldn't wait to wash them...I hope they were organic.



Here we are at Shaw Farms, just down the street from the apple place. I couldn't go without a pumpkin this year. We picked up a "spooky" variety pumpkin for $1! Yay!








So, we brought home a TON of apples yesterday. Craig desperately wants me to can them. I have been researching various recipe to can/cook them. Today I decided just to do some plain old cooking/freezing. Tomorrow I may tackle the canning.

Making homemade apple sauce is easy!
Step 1. Skin, core, chop apples.
Step 2. Cover halfway with water in a large pot.
Step 3. Add any sugar, cinnamon, or other spices you like.
Step 4. Simmer for aprox. 30 min.
Step 5. MASH
Step 6. Can, freeze, jar, refrigerate, or EAT!



Here is what the apple sauce looks like during the mashing process.



Canning some of the apple sauce to be refrigerated. Some will be frozen, and tomorrow I am actually going to make a batch to can for the pantry.



Making apple slices to freeze.



Ready to be frozen.



Is the bag half empty or half full? You decide!



Here is the pumpkin I bought at Shaw Farms.



This was my first attempt at carving and "sculpting" a pumpkin. It was tons of fun! I probably could have gone a bit deeper with the cat but, I like it. If you look closely you can see that I gave it eyes and a heart! ;-)





I always hate cleaning up...



I couldn't let the seeds from my pumpkin go to waste. I toasted them with worcestershire, seasoned salt, onion power, olive oil, and chili powder. YUM.



I don't know why I bothered to bag these. They will likely be eaten today. :-)




Ps. If anyone knows a faster way to put pictures on here PLEASE tell me. Even if it is a slide show or something. This one at a time thing is killing me. :-)