The Blessings of the Harvest...

I have always loved fall. Who doesn't? A break from the long hot days of summer. The beautiful changing colors of the trees. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Even school starting is a good thing for some. But I am loving fall more and more each year as I learn more and more about canning and preserving food. Fresh foods are always best but home-canned or frozen goods come in a close second. I don't grow all my own food but I usually get fresh food from farmers markets or family and friends. I can't say I am an expert at preserving yet (I tried making fruit leather and failed miserably) but I am getting better. In previous years I have made apricot and apricot-pineapple jam. I have canned and frozen corn. I have canned peaches. And this year, I dug into some apples.

This year, with the help of my amazing husband, we canned 14 quarts of of peaches, froze 12 quarts of corn, canned 14 quarts of apple pie filling and picked 100+ lbs. of red potatoes.

This was our most productive year yet.

Besides canning, I also wanted to make some snacks for the kids to have for after-school. I have a "snack cupboard" that the kids usually raid the minute they get home but with the snacks containing all kinds of ingredients I can't even read and being as pricey as they are, I needed to find an alternative. I have tried making fresh snacks but who has time to bake up a fresh batch of cookies or muffins everyday. They like to eat veggies and fruit but once in a while it is nice to have something special. I wanted to make some home-made snacks that they can throw in the microwave instead. They are healthier, cheaper and faster. I made apple-pumpkin streusel muffins, apple bread, chocolate-caramel apple turnovers, apple strudel, apple pies (which aren't really for a snack), chocolate-chip cookies (froze the dough), zucchini muffins, banana muffins and banana chocolate chip muffins.

These are apple-turnovers. I adapted them from several different recipes I saw. I put cut up rolos in them too but I think I might prefer to make them just plain apple next time. I also used Rhodes rolls and pre-made pastry dough. The pastry dough ones definitely came out better but the Rhodes rolls worked pretty good too. They actually freeze great. When microwaving them, the pastry isn't quite as flaky but still good.

This was the first apple pie I made from scratch. I looked and looked for apple pie recipes and narrowed it down to two. So I made both. They both were excellent. This first one was from America's Test Kitchen. The filling was sooo good.

This next one was from All Recipes...you can get it here. The crust came out fantastic on this one. So the next time I make one I am going to use the filling of the one recipe with the lattice crust method of the other. Then I think I will have a "perfect apple pie." recipe.

These are Apple Streusel bars from ourbestbites.com. Chris LOVED these but maybe that was because it was our first dessert in over a month. :) They were pretty good. I used half the almond extract the recipe called for and it was plenty. But, then again, I am not a huge almond extract fan.

These muffins are pumpkin-apple streusel muffins (recipe found here). Great muffin, moist and not too sweet, perfect for freezing and having for an after school snack. I haven't tasted the apple-bread yet because I just put it in my freezer.

1 year!

I have enjoyed different forms of exercise my entire life. I know for some of you, that statement may want to make you throw something at me, but it is true. I love how exercise makes you feel strong, flexible, and even more coordinated. And contrary to what some might believe, exercising does give you more energy. Exercising also helps fight off depression, stress and sickness.

Finding the time, the place, babysitters, and energy, however, is a different story all together. I have worked out for brief periods here and there in the last 10 years but life gets in the way and I stop for awhile. I think the longest period was about 6-8 months. I even got a treadmill about 5 years ago that helped for awhile. We lost it in the basement flood. :( Plus I was getting bored with it.

A year ago, Chris and I decided that we had to do something about our health. We were both over weight. We were out of shape. My family has a bad health history with most of my grandparents dying in their 60s. I was done having kids, which has been one of my many excuses for not doing something sooner. So we pulled on our sneakers and finally joined the gym. I know you don't have to join a gym to exercise or lose weight but we both figured the money aspect of it would keep us motivated to keep going. It worked. We have been going to the gym now for one full year. Sometimes we were only able to go once a week and sometimes we would miss a whole week at once but we didn't let that discourage us. We would just start again.

In the last year, Chris has lost over 55 lbs and I have lost over 40 lbs. Now, I can't let you believe that we didn't cheat a little. I call it cheating. Others may not. Chris and I did the HCG diet once in March and once in September. Chris lost all his weight from doing the diet but I only lost 30 lbs from the diet and the other 10 just from working out. But even though we "cheated," we have to work at keeping it off and I AM determined to keep it off! I would like to lose 10-15 more lbs but Chris doesn't want me to lose any more...he wants me to keep my girly figure. Gotta love him for that, right! Our gym membership lasts another two years so until then, I plan on continuing to work my butt off! Literally. :)

But today maybe I will celebrate with a piece of cake. :)

Everything Halloween!

Don't worry, Allie is OK. It is just makeup. :) A week before Halloween, their theater group showed them how to put on scary make-up. They loved it. I didn't get a picture of Austin's before he washed it off but he had a screw through this hand and a cut on his face. They actually showed them how to do it so Austin was trying to tell me but it all went over my head. :)

Asher was a puppy for Halloween.

Abigail was a lady bug... this is her without her wings.

Allison was a cabbage patch doll. This costume was made for me when I was 5 years old by my mom. She used to make all our costumes...she did awesome! (See pic below) Allison would only agree to wear the costume if she didn't have to wear the wig so I said she didn't have to. The new cabbage patch dolls don't have yarn hair like they used to anyway.

This is me with my two younger brothers in 1986.

I knew the day would come when I would have to actually learn to sew and this Halloween was it. Austin wanted to be Link from the Nintendo video game Zelda. The cheapest costume we could find for Link was $50 and it was a "not very good" home-made one. For $50 I figured we could make something cheaper. By the time we were done we did spend around $50 but it turned out better plus I learned to sew (with the help of my mom of course...she did the hardest parts) Chris worked on making his shield which is really what made the costume. He did an awesome job on it!

Don't you think it looks like him?!

We went to the school carnival where the kids danced the night away. They had a DJ that threw out big candy bags to all those who were dancing. My kids danced for a good 2 hours and all ended up walking away with at least two bags of candy plus some rulers.

Some of our family put on a "Haunted Halloween Train" and so we went and let the kids do that which of course they loved.

As it gets dark, the Haunted Train ride gets scarier for the older kids. But since my kids knew everyone in it, they loved it anyway and kept going on it over and over and over again.

John, Keith, Anne and Tyler all helped to "scare" during the Haunted Train ride.