Still here

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking. With it being summer and having all the kids home I've just been really busy and find it hard to find the time to sit down and type out a thoughtful post for you all. :)

Granny's garden is coming into full swing. So far she's sent zucchini, peas, and now the cucumbers are starting to come. We love cucumbers and they make a yummy healthful snack. I've been making zucchini bread, today I need to shred some and put it into the freezer.. I don't want anything to go to waste... I am so thankful for my grandma. I feel bad because we haven't been able to make it over and really help with the garden this year, but she still is kind enough to share her harvests with us.. THANK YOU GRANDMA! LOVE YA!

Were also in the process of buying our house. It is a learning experience as we don't have a realtor. The lady at the bank is being very helpful though. Money is tight around here as always....were making due though. I cant wait until the beef we are buying is ready, that will be a huge help for us when it comes to buying groceries.

Thanks to everyone that still drops by here to read my blogs... most don't comment so its hard to tell who reads this but I know of a few loyal readers. Have a wonderful day!

Menu plan and brekfast burritos

This morning hubby and I put together some brekfast burritos! We used sausage, potatoes, onion, eggs, and cheese! Yummy! Total we had 20, the family ate 5 and we had 15 to put in the freezer. With Ben going back to work tomorrow morning this can be an easy option for him if he wants some brekfast to grab and go. Just get one out and pop it in the microwave! Here is how our little assembly line looked this morning.

And as far as our menu plan for the week, Here ya go!

Sunday: brekfast burritos

dinner at mom's

Weekday meals:

*roast with potatoes and carrots

* bean chili mac ( we never got around to having this last week)

*crockpot roast chicken with potatoes and corn

*cheesy chicken enchiladas

*spagetti and garlic bread

Saturday-pull out some breakfast burritos,,, be in Ft.wayne by 11am for Gary's dentist

*lunch in Ft. Wayne

*free for all if anyone wants dinner :)

Do you know what this is????

I have been a busy girl today! Do ya know what this is????? Apple butter! Yay..first ever made. I put everything in the crock pot last night and then canned it this morning. Then I went on to the juice that I got from the apple peels and TRIED to make apple jelly... stress the word tried...I'm very sad. I don't think its going to turn out. The first time I did it this morning it was so runny. and I read that you could try again with another package of pectin, so I tried and guess what it is still looking pretty runny:( It is pretty in the jars but when you pick up the jar its just like water... I know what happened, I was stupid. I was working away at everything this morning and I had my juice and pectin working on the stove waiting for it to boil, I looked at my water bath canner and was worried I wouldn't have enough water so I went and filled up a container with water to add to the canner...well my brain had a lapse or something and I poured the water into the apple juice~~~~~VERY BAD!!!!~~~~I knew immediately what I had done,,, so you know what I did,,,I didnt know what to do so I just scooped out some of the liquid from the apple pot,,,now I know that there was pectin in it and I don't know exactly how much I poured in or how much I scooped out....I was freaking out here guys...I panicked! So I just thought well maybe it will still turn out and kept on going,,,,and as I already said it didn't work....then I saw you can try again if it doesn't set so I tried again, but I'm thinking its not gonna work either....So while it looks beautiful in the jar, I'm not sure if I could do anything with it. Here is the apple jelly one the left and the apple butter on the right... The apple butter is very yummy by the way, it turned out great.

So here is the question I post to anyone who might know... can I do anything with the not turned out right apple jelly? Is it okay if I use it as like apple syrup or something? Any help would be appreciated. thanks,,,,,,,,,,,,,

In about an hour I get to take Emma to the doctor for her 9 month checkup.. I will let you know how it goes, she has a little cold right now, so I'm glad he can check that while we are there too.

Apple and pumpkin picking

Sunday Gary was feeling better so we decided to go to the apple and pumpkin place. Emma seemed cranky but it was such a beautiful weekend and we know that there arnt gonna be many more weekends like this before the snow comes! We had never been to this place before. I was very impressed. It was so much fun. You go and get your buckets then its off to the apple orchid.
This is what I call team work. Most of the apples on the bottoms of the trees had already been picked, so we had to reach up high.
We picked around a bushel of apples, probably a little more. It cost us $33.00, but it was so worth it because we know where what we are eating came from.

Her is Emma amongst a bunch of pumpkins, it was a little set up they had to take pic's but she wasn't very happy. She was hot and cranky. But I think this picture is so cute!

We all got in a hay filled wagon then and rode to the pumpkin patch. We let the kids pick there pumpkins, Emma even picked a little one.


It was a great day. When we got home I was so excited and made my first batch of applesauce! It is so yummy! I didn't even have to add sugar. So I'm really excited cause I can give Emma this also! It is so much tastier than anything in the store!

I still have about 1/2 a bushel left. I'm trying to decide what to do with them......maybe apple butter...or more applesauce,,,,I don't know yet.

Grape Jelly

When I do things like this it makes me feel wonderful! Like a real live homemaker:) I made grape jelly today for the first time. All by myself!! Here's all my stuff on the stove.
The juice and pectin and sugar in the pot. I was getting worried here because I wasn't sure how long I after I added the sugar it would take for it to really start boiling again, and it felt like it took a long time. But eventually it started a rollin, and took off like crazy,,,,,SO EXCITING!!!!
And then after their little water bath, here they are, the awsomest thing was I heard each and everyone of them pop after I took them out of the bath, so I know they sealed. I am so proud of myself!!!

I have did a lot of new things this summer when I comes to preserving food, I made salsa, crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Froze green peppers, green beans, zucchini, and corn. And now I have made grape jelly!!!! I was amazed at how easy the jelly actually was to do, now I would like to make more,,,like strawberry or something, maybe if I seem some on sale I could buy some extra to try strawberry jam!!


Today has been a pretty good day. Jess had a soccer game this morning, and she won 6-0!! She is really improving. Bennie did his first speech at school today and said he was scared to death, and his hands would not stop shaking, but after it was all over with he felt pretty good about it. Then we had a family reunion to go to, those are always interesting. After that we dropped Gary off at a friends house, he had a birthday party sleep over thing. Its always scary to me when the kids are with other people that's not me!! And Jess decided to spend the night with grandma. So its just me, Bennie and Emma. I came home and made the jelly, now I think we might go out to eat somewhere. Kinda like a date, but we will have Emma, but shes little and doesn't talk back yet so that's no to bad:) Then were gonna come home and probably watch a movie or something. Fun Fun. Its quiet here without the roar from the older kids arguing with each other. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Corn

My grandma brought over a bunch of corn yesterday for us to eat/freeze. I had a whole laundry basket full. We waited until Emma went to sleep for the night to do it so it would be easier due to she has been extra cranky in the evenings for some reason. So we were up until 10pm boiling and cutting corn of the cob to bag it last night. It was kinda fun though, hubby helped so that was super nice of him, I would of been doing it til eleven if he wouldn't have helped. Jess wanted to help cut it off the cob but I was afraid she would cut her fingers, I told here maybe next year. We got 12 bags, I put about 3c in each bag. So I thought that was pretty good. It was so pretty all yellow in the bags stacked up on top of each other, I know I'm goofy but I get a kick out of simple things like that. Plus it was free!!!! So that was a blessing, she said we might get some later in the year. She is bringing me some green beans today,, so guess what I'll be doing today:)