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. :-)

The great pear adventure!

So, while on vacation in Williamsburg, Craig's parents and I stopped for a day trip to visit my grandparents. It is always great to see them for many reasons. One of which is the fact that they always send me home with yummy home made things to eat and look at. This trip they sent me with pears from their pear tree, pecans from their pecan tree, home made pear preserves, and a crocheted piece for my dinning room table. While we were visiting, I enjoyed eating some of the various pear preserves that my grandmother makes and vowed that I would try to make some. It has been about a week since my visit and since the pears were picked, the perfect amount of time for the pears to be just ripe enough to can (however, not ripe enough to eat). The week also gave me time to research, and become knowledgeable of, the preserve canning process. The following is a quick version of what I did.

Yesterday, I pealed, cored, and sliced all of the pears. I probably had somewhere around 10lbs prior to pealing. It seemed like TONS of pears. Really, it was only half of what my grandparents sent me back with. I split what they sent with Craig's parents. After I sliced all of the pears I coated them with some lemon juice and added around 4 cups of sugar to them (2 cups to each bowl which held approximately , 2 quarts per bowl). I let them sit overnight, covered, on the counter. Here is what they looked like right after I added the sugar:







This morning, when I checked on the pears, they were practically covered by the juice that they had produced. I proceeded to dump them in a large pot and I cooked them for about an hour and a half until they were translucent and the liquid that they were in became a golden colored syrup.





While the pears cooked, I washed and sterilized the jars, rings and lids. I poured the hot pear preserves into the hot jars, placed on the warm lids and screwed on the room temperature rings. Oh! I also made sure to wipe off the threads and rims VERY well. I then processed the jars according to the recipe and the jar manufacturers directions. It was about 10-15 min. of boiling. Then I took them out, being sure not to tip them, and placed them on a tea towel to rest for the next 24 hours. I was so happy when I heard each of the jars "pop"! Oh, I almost forgot! I poured the left over pear preserves, which was not enough to fill a jar, into a jar and put them straight into the fridge. It was nice that I did not have to wait 24 hours to have a sample! Here is the finished product! Pretty if I do say to myself!