Harvest Time

So earlier this year I wrote about our garden expansion. When I wrote and posted pictures then little did I know the bountiful harvest that we would start pulling from this little bit of land.

We had a garden full of squashes, berries, carrots, beets, parsnips, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, pumpkins, cucumbers, and more items I just can't remember right now. We have been blessed with a great harvest, our one pumpkin vine alone produced about eight pumpkins.  It has been a fabulous garden and we've enjoyed much of the produce. 

This is a picture of part of the garden after we had pulled about half of what was growing.in those boxes, yup we are well blessed.

One item that we tried this year was cabbage. We are not big cabbage eaters and the only reason we tried it was Eve was given one at school as part of a project, so we planted it to see. We don't have the best track record with cabbages. Laine was given a cabbage a couple of years ago for a school project and we killed it in a week. I wasn't expecting much of Eve's but it surprised me.

 Having never grown cabbage successfully we weren't quite sure when to pull it so finally in August we decided to take that baby out...we might have waited too long.

Half of the cabbage looked great, the other half was molding. Eve was still proud of what she had grown and we decided that if nothing else, those leaves make some awesome hats.

With all the harvest it has meant that my weekdays are spent canning all the produce we can't eat. So far I have canned pickles, watermelon jelly, jalapeno jelly, raspberry zucchini jelly, peach zucchini jelly, tomato sauce, and tomato soup.   Still on the menu beets, more sauce oh and a few more batches of frozen parsnips and carrots.  I feel like a pioneer woman here. 

So the garden this year was a success, we love the produce and the added space. Already we have plans for next year, items to plant, new spots for growing, and more canning ahead. 

Having fun in the kitchen

We have been working a lot in the kitchen lately. The kids have been having  a riot helping make some fun dinners and delicious treats. 

We've made home made noodles and tortellinis for Sunday dinner...they were delicious. 

I have also been making the kids homemade bread. I have loved trying out new recipes and the kids have loved having "good" bread around the house. 

We have nine tomato plants that have been producing like mad. To make good use of them we decided to make marinara sauce. So far we have canned six quarts and that was after using the sauce on pizza and our homemade noodles last weekend.

Then I have been trying out a few new cookie recipes.  We have made Rocky Road Cookies....

 And golden oreo truffles.

We have kept busy but find we really do like cooking and baking together. 

While the kids are away mom will....craft?

Recently my three oldest kids went on vacation with their mom for two weeks and I was home with just Matty. It was odd, I have never had just one kid. Since I was married I have had at least three kid at home. With only one child at home now, and that being the one child who usually took two naps a day, I had a lot more time.  I read three books, went shopping at the mall with my mom, cleaned the house top to bottom, and actually did a few craft projects.

First one that I did was the girls quilts. There were problems after problems with those. Eve's took me forever to sew for two reasons: 1- I didn't get the double flap on the binding so I had to fold it over myself which was difficult. 2- After pinning the quilt a whole bunch I realized that the pin heads were too big to go through the machine so I had to stop every few seconds and pull out the pin. Needless to say there was a lot of sewing and resewing this one.    Laine's was a bit easier but then the bobbin tension went off and I didn't know that until I was almost finished. Yeah. They turned out pretty well though.

Then I made a few banners- one with Back to School activities 

 And one as a Welcome Home banner for the kids

 You can read the full story about these banners on my personal blog.

When I was finished with those I made James and Matty some quiet books for church. To get the story on these easy babies you can check the personal blog too.

So it was nice to have a bit of extra time on my hands, but I am so grateful they are home.

Training domestic princesses

I remember one fall while I was growing up hanging out at my Aunt Rita's home while she and my mom tied a Christmas quilt for my dad. It was a large red and white checked quilt with a hand stitched University of Utah logo in the middle. I was so entranced with the quilt. I loved watching my mom and aunt make the stitches they needed. I loved sitting under the quilt and I wished that I could join them.  

Many years later I learned to tie quilts while in young women and then later I went on to tie countless quilts while in college and for many years after. 

I love making quilts and having hand-tied quilts on hand. The quilt that my college girlfriends made me after my engagement is still on my bed. We have quilts made of t-shirts, quilts that were gifts, quilts made of old jeans, and quilts that were pieced together. 

I have made a few quilts since I got married but every time I put them out the girls were entranced. I remembered that feeling and decided that this summer I would teach my girls to tie a quilt.  I took them each to pick out their own fabrics and then we got out the quilting frames. 

Eve was up first  she picked a delightful cup cake pattern.   

 The girls were quick studies and a great quilters. They understood very quickly how to tie the quilt and they did a fantastic job.

Matty especially loved the quilt when we started to take it off the frames.

Eve with her quilt.

 Laine went a bit brighter and more Lainey with her fabric. It was tie-dye all the way and though I wasn't sure they matched turns out she has a pretty good eye for fabrics. This quilt was one of my favorites when it was finished.

James enjoyed laying under the quilt and making it his own personal fort.

And the girls thought it was nice to snuggle in even before I had a chance to finish it.

The girls left on a trip so as a surprise when they get home they will have a surprise waiting for them. I finished their quilts last week.

They are so proud of their work and I am proud of them.

The presidential cookie test

I grew up in politics. I could rattle off how many electoral votes each state had before I knew all the capitols. I attended so many conventions that I thought that everyone did. I think I have walked in more parades in support for a candidate than I have actually watched. Election day to me was like Christmas. So yeah growing up it was a rather big part of my life. 

As I've gotten older I've become a tad more jaded and tend to stop reading news articles and watching news programs the closer it gets to the final election. 

Though I have cut most news programs I still read my magazines- Self, Family Fun, Parenting, and Family Circle- What? I am a stay at home mom and read magazines that apply to such groups. Oh who am I kidding I would probably read at least Self and Family Circle even if I wasn't a mom and Family Fun is by Disney so I might have been inclined to pick it up on that alone. Okay so I read awesome magazines. 

While I was perusing the August edition of Family Circle I saw that they were having their Presidential cookie bake-off. Now, there are things that are very tempting while on the elliptical, watching yet another TLC wedding show, and reading a magazine and cookies are one of those things. I was in and was even happy that I had all but three ingredients already in my pantry. 

So this past Saturday afternoon I set down to baking. If you want the recipes check out my personal blog for all the yummy goodness. 

Then we did a blind taste test. I was the only one who did not know which cookie belonged to which candidate.  So everyone else was going on taste alone. 

 It was a close race with the kids participating in that favorite political pastime of flip-flopping (they changed their answer once dad reveled his vote). Though we all agreed that both cookies were fabulous we ended up deciding the Romney cookie was slightly superior.

Now after giving away 3 dozen cookies to neighbors we were still sitting on close to 9 dozen cookies the next day so we took them to my parents house for a second blind taste test. The Romney cookie won yet again in a vote of 7-1. Now my brother did express some distress when that vote was cast.  I believe "are you kidding me?" was shouted as everyone voted and something along the lines that there was no way that was a Romney cookie because it was healthier than the Obama cookie.

So there you go. We placed our vote on Family Circle's website and now we will just watch and see who wins the bake-off.

On the Road to Domestic Goddess- part II

So last year I wrote about my goal to become a domestic goddess. Though my sewing still only consists of sewing a straight line I am making huge strides when it comes to canning. This year we put up 27 quarts of peaches, 18 pints and 12 quarts of salsa, 15 quarts of stewed tomatoes, and 24 quarts of applesauce.

Applesauce was the new addition this year. We hadn't made it before and I thought it would be good to have some on hand with four kids. Having never made it before I was unaware of how time consuming it could be . We were saved from a lot of work by a very nice lady in my water aerobics class. I happened to mention in passing that we were going to be making applesauce and Jan offered me her Foley Mill. She dropped it off, showed us how to use it, and saved us so much time.

I got up early and bought two boxes of apples from the Farmer's Market and then that afternoon we started on the project. It was a family project with some of the kids sorting the apples and pulling the steams, while the others were washing them and getting them ready to be cut. The kids worked really hard and were great helpers.

Christian operating the mill with some help from Laine.
Eve pulling the steams and putting the apples in the water.

There are times I am very grateful we have two kitchens, this was one of them. While the prep work went on upstairs the actually canning went on downstairs. That was really helpful when I accidentally broke two jars and Christian and to come and help sweep it up.

The apple sauce turned out perfect and it is rather healthy with little sugar and spiced perfectly. I think it is something that we will repeat next year.

On the road to being a domestic goddess

When I was in college I found some great friends and together we decided that our goal one day was to become a domestic goddess. Not quite sure what that entails, we decided one day that it meant we became Martha Stewarts (as she is the ultimate domestic goddess) but we quickly realized that her staff makes her job quite easy. So we have each pursued our goal in hopes that one day we would reach our goal. Well, this summer I have made some pretty good strides in my road to domestic goddesshood. For Mother's Day Christian got me a sewing machine. My sewing skills consist of sewing a sort of straight line, but I was determined to win. I made a levi quilt top and only broke three needles. I also made Laine and James curtains...with a little bit of mom help.


James' curtains, he will be getting a quilt and pillow case out of his chosen fabric too.

Laine's curtains. She wanted blue and with fairies. Thank you Wal-mart fabric gods for providing.


Having proven my sewing skills I turned to my knitting. I have now completed the lovely pink afghan. I also finished a lovely purple baby sweater for a friend.

Then to finish the trifecta of domestic goddessesness I took on cooking.

I only wish that I had taken pictures when my 14 loaves (12 were mini) of zucchini bread were done, the twelve jars of jam, the three lasagnas, and the decadent chocolate cake with homemade fondant. Though the jam seemed to present a few problems all turned out well.

Next up- Canning!!!