Just Catching Up

Summer is in full swing here in our house.  July and August are always crazy months around here.  The garden is doing awesome.  We are eating fresh veggies out of it every day.  I'll do a post on that another time.  The kids have been busy visiting family and hanging out with friends.  Alaina started marching band at the high school. (it still boggles my mind that she's starting high school....) So, she's gone Monday through Friday during the days until school starts.  Rachel has been reading like crazy and crafting.  Cael has been bug hunting and playing with the neighbors. Liam has been crawling, babbling, and just generally being very very curious.  And, he has his first tooth!  Curtis just started a new job. Yeah!  And, me... well.... I've been just trying to keep up with everyone else.  I've been canning summer goods, running kids around, holding a teething baby, looking for bugs, doing house chores and knitting every chance I get.

That's what I really want to post about today.  The knitting!!! I've finished more socks and some other goodies.  I'm knitting dish clothes and matching dishtowels for Christmas gifts.  I finished a pair of socks, two bandana cowls, a fat robin and nest toy, three star child mini dolls, and started some more things.

 Bandana Cowl For Aunt Megan.

 Bandana Cowl For Aunt Shannon.

 Bellatrix Socks

 I Beleaf Socks (I call them Falling Leaves Socks)

 Fat Robin And Nest

Some of the dishcloths.

I have to take photos of everything else still.  More to come soon!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds and Yummy Puree

I went to the grocery store wanting to get a few cans of Pumpkin puree to use in some recipes.  I usually have a few cans in my pantry, but last year pumpkin was hard to find and pricey, so I didn't have any.  My jaw dropped when I saw the price.  The bigger can was over $3.00!  And, the little one was close to $3.00.  There was no way I was paying that.  It's soooo not in my grocery budget.  I went home thinking maybe I could can some myself.  And, sure shooting... you can!  But, I would need a pressure canner which I still don't have.  But, I can freeze it like I do my butternut squash.  In the end I got just under 4lbs of fresh pureed pumpkin.  I immediately made some yummy pumpkin bread with it.  It was amazing!

 

Down at the grocer store yesterday I saw some sweet pumpkin / pie pumpkins for $1.00 each.  I bought 2 and brought them home to cook em up.  What fun we had!  I wanted to use the whole pumpkin, so I decided to try making some toasted pumpkin seeds too.  I sliced up the pumpkins and took out all the seeds.  Roasted them in the oven at 400' for about 40 minutes.  As they were cooking and cooling I asked Rachel to help with the seeds.  She had so much fun getting them cleaned and ready.  After cleaned and dried they went into a 400' oven.  I cooked them a bit to long so some of them were very brown. (I was distracted by the canning of asparagus) Hubby loved those, but next time I'll watch closer.  I sprinkled them with some kosher salt and we all loved them.  Even the kids.  They were eating them by the handful.  You can bet I'll be using seeds from all my squashes from now on.

 

Oh, The Canning Love!

I finally got brave enough to try my hand at canning.  And now I'm addicted!  I look at all my fruit and veggies in a new light.  I wonder....  " How can I can that?"  I don't have much canned yet.  But, as the apples come into season here, I'll be canning more and more.

In the above photo I have applesauce, salsa, and pickled dilly beans.  Blow are some pickled asparagus I made yesterday.  (I'll post that pic in a few minutes) My favorite thing to do is pickle.  I want to pickle everything! 

Canning is one of those dying arts.  I know it's coming back a bit due to the economic issues all of us are facing now.  It just seems silly to me now that I've started canning that this was ever something that lost popularity.  When did preserving food for your family become an unimportant thing?   I guess canning goes hand in hand with long term food storage.  Something that almost everyone I know does not do.  Most of the families I know have only a few days worth of food in their pantries.  I'm hoping to spread the long term food storage love by handing out some home canned goods during the holidays.

As my supply of canned goodies grows I'll post more pics.  Soon to come (hopefully) will be canned meats, beans, and other pressure canner needed goods.  We haven't bought one yet, but I think we will be very soon.