In case you didn't already see it at Facebook or Twitter (where I share far too many things about myself, right, Amber?), here's what we've up to the past few days.
I finally mailed off the hand-made paper that dh's wonderful cousin and his wife pre-paid for. Unfortunately, we've not perfected envelopes yet, so I had to include store-bought ones. The dark thing on the paper is not a bug; it's a blossom on the paper that we embedded flowers in.
We froze a whole bunch of beans (I wish I could remember how many bag-fulls); here they are being blanched:
Some time last week, I tried a new recipe. I actually wanted to make the one Sherrie posted on her blog, but didn't have almonds, so I made the King Arthur Flour's Blueberry Buckle instead.
It was just O.K.
Some of you might remember that last Saturday, we got about 19 quarts of tomatoes canned. Well, by Thursday (Aug. 27th), we had to can again. Here's the pile of tomatoes right before we processed them. And you know what? On Saturday (Aug. 29th), we processed tomatoes again! This time, we did 10 pints of salsa, and 7 quarts + 6 pints of tomatoes. I'll give you three guesses as to what we'll be doing in another couple of days. ;)
Because Megan asked, I thought I'd post some photos of projects I've finally finished. Ok, this one is sort of finished. I knitted a very plain scarf (but up close, you'd be able to see the lovely multi-colored strand of thread woven through this mohair yarn...from this distance, it just looks like a scarf that a 4 year old threw together after 5 knitting classes), but what I plan on doing is weaving some lovely little beads through it to give it an extra sparkle. It's for dh's cousin who has given me and the boys many great gifts throughout the years.
I finally finished the hat for dh...and guess what? He said it feels too big and he doesn't like it. Maybe I'll list it on Etsy.
Not made by me, but by the lovely Heather...she added these goodies in when I bought some liquid soaps from her (my favorite: Peppermint Party).
Here's the salsa I was telling you about:
Oh, we canned our first green beans (we normally freeze them) using our new pressure canner...here they are, ready to go into the canner:
And here's the canner...think I'll call her Big Bertha. If I dropped her on my foot, I can forget about walking on it the rest of my life:
I also made tsukemono using my friend Grace's recipe (or Grace's mom's recipe, if you're gonna be picky). They are soooo delicious!
Dh made a pork stir fry that evening using our own onions, our own squash, our own peppers, and our own green beans. The pork was from a local farmer. The only thing that was not local or grown by us were the shitake mushrooms...which prompted a conversation about trying to grow our own again next year.
And now for something totally different: in case all that food has made you hungry, I'll help you not go gorge yourself by showing you a parasitized caterpillar. If you click on the photo, you'll see the eggs laid on it. I think they're wasp eggs...but I need to check with ds#1 or dh.
Hope you had a more exciting weekend than we did doing all that canning. ;) Did you see anything quite as gross as the caterpillar? Do share!"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams
