The big thermometer on the porch says it is 50 degrees.  That is enough to make me want to crawl back in bed this morning!  But I didn’t!  Instead I have visited my sidebar blogs and commented on some, read my E-mail, and decided to post a little about yesterday. 

On Monday Jay and I went to McDaniel’s Farm market and picked up 1/2 bushel of Roma and 1/2 bushel of regular tomatoes .

Then it was on to Millington for another 72 pint jars for holding our tomato project.

Yesterday I started around 10:30am to make Tomato Bisque Soup.  Using a Squeezo, which looks like an old fashion meat grinder with a long spout, I turned the handle until I had 20 lbs. of tomatoes pureed.  I’ll bet if I did this every day that I too could have upper arms like our first lady.  But I finally completed that task and then put the results, along with the rest of the ingredients, on to simmer. 

Jay came in from dialysis in time to help me bottle the results and make labels.  There are 17 pints now sitting on the counter waiting to go to the food room. 
I really don’t like making this type of soup but it will taste good this winter. 

Now I have to weigh the remaining tomatoes to determine how much Tomato Basil soup we can make today.  Jay will be helping because I still don’t like using the pressure canner.  Then in the next weeks it will be on to the five apple products.

My friend in California, Maria of Silver Fox Whispers has been trying to hurry October according to her comment on Mommas Corner so I thought another picture might be in order.

Just for you Maria and there are still more to come Dear heart! 

Well it is breakfast time and my favorite cook is about to create another tempting meal so I’m outta here for now.  Have a great day. 

It is a chilly 59 degrees outside, a slight wind, leaves falling all over and this Momma is in a sweatshirt!  As I walked out yesterday I saw this.

One small cluster of blossoms on the Snowball bush. Like me these blossoms do not realize that the season, like one’s life, has moved on and we cling to what was not what is.  The blossoms will die soon and I will catch up to the place I belong in my life but for now my feet are dragging on the surface of the past.

There are signs all around me that keep nudging me on.  The Fire bush is starting to blaze with the color of Autumn.  The trees are beginning to wear their yellows, reds, and maroons to signal what is yet to come. 

My Goblins are back at home now but I have the decorations and this to remind me of a very happy visit.

Also my friend on the wall is reminding me that the holidays will be starting soon!

Life will begin to come alive with plans to get together with family and friends.  Time will again fly forward as I struggle to keep up.  But that is good because it shows I still have that zest for life and the stamina will try to keep up. 

My wish to you is that you too will begin to feel the excitement that is just around the corner! 

Well it is almost bedtime and I haven’t been around all day!  My only excuse is as follows:

If you start with a bushel of fresh from the field beets.  That means some leaves and lots of dirt.  Then you work all day in a hot kitchen you too can have this.

49 pints of pickled beets is my reward.  I’m just waiting for the last batch to come out of the canning kettle then it is off to bed!

Good Night!

You already know them as my daughter Cindy and my sister-in-law Peggy.  Jay and I went to Henry Ford’s hospital in Detroit yesterday leaving our company (Peggy) in the capable paws of Brandy because Cindy was coming up for the day.

Upon returning the first clue that the Goblins had been at work was this.

Yes, hanging by the front door for all to see was the flag and on the porch were these.

Two faces just waiting for dark so they could shine in all their glory.  Hanging on the wall was the Witch is in/out sign that the girls ran to change to ‘in’ as I pulled into the drive!

Inside the pass through was tastefully done in pumpkin strings, a ribbon.and plastic images of Halloween.  There were other items placed around the rooms which I will show you as the holiday gets closer.  But overall it was a happy things to come home to after 140 miles on the road and I do thank my goblins for it!

Our company last evening was my nephew Robert, his wife, Kathy, and daughter Brooklyn.  Of course I forgot to pick up the camera (sorry)!  They were here to see Peggy before she flew home to Florida today.  ( On a plane not a broom—she isn’t that kind of a girl!)

For the last five days I have been running to appointments and then Jay’s 50th High School Reunion on Saturday, where I knew no one but Jay and our friend Richard.  I had spent my freshman year at Utica High (Jay’s Alma Mater) but then went on to graduate from Warren High in Warren, MI.  But by golly I still knew the parody of the Utica school song and was tempted to stand up and sing it but I was afraid they would throw me out!

After taking Richard home we arrived back at 1:30am and fell into bed. Sunday morning we had thawed out two loaves of frozen bread, two pans of lasagna, and almost seven pounds of chicken because my sister-in-law Peggy, Danny’s wife, was coming to stay with us for a few days before heading back to Florida and we didn’t know how many people were coming to see her.

Starting with the bread, then the lasagna, then finally the oven fried chicken legs, thighs, and breasts I managed to get every thing, except the bread, into a warming oven until meal time.

Son Lesley and wife Anne came into to do a little IT work and visit with Peggy.  Peggy’s brother John and sister Barbara drove her down from Grayling, MI so they too stayed to eat.  Thank goodness for that or we would have been eating chicken for a week. 

Les, Barbara, and John prepare to dig in and Jay was already at the table. 

John, Barbara, and my daughter-in-law Anne spent some time after eating to get to know one another.

I’m trying to find something to do so Peggy won’t be bored to tears staying with a couple of old farts!

On the dining room table are the fruits of our labor waiting to be taken down to the food room.  We still have the Apple Cider Jelly to make if Jay doesn’t drink it all up! 

This very impressive plant has been thriving in my bay window for a couple of weeks.  I thought it was a Clematis—-I was wrong—- it’s a weed.  A healthy, handsome, weed but a weed none the less.  So I bought two of the real things from McDaniel’s farm market intending to keep one and replace the one Debra lost last week.  Well I have decided I don’t want to mess with them so Debra gets them both.  Besides if I can’t tell a weed from a plant I don’t deserve them.

Now the important news—two words I was waiting to hear from Dr. Vance.  NO CANCER in either the gall bladder or the fatty tumor.  Dr said every thing was looking good and don’t come back unless I have a problem.  So Jay and I left three jars of jam with the office and came home happy! So I guess you are stuck with me for a while longer.

So the numbers for pears completed yesterday were 11 and a half pints of vanilla pears plus nine and a half pints of cinnamon pears.  Two bottles of each will go back to Edna and Bob for giving us the pears.

After that project was done yesterday afternoon Jay and I went looking for a new shirt for him for the reunion this Saturday.  Found the shirt, two more, and a couple pairs of pants to match.  Now I have to hem them up.  But he doesn’t buy much in the way of clothes so this was a good trip. 

After the pears were done this is how my ‘ripening’ table looked last night.

So this morning, when I got up at 6:30 am because I couldn’t find a comfortable way to lay, it seemed like a good time to start on the peaches.  (That is after I emptied the dish washer and moved clothes from the washer to the dryer.  By 9:45 I had the peaches ( 1/2 bushel) all peeled and sliced for canning plus my breakfast.  At 10:30 am I had to take time out from this to drive to Blueberry Lane and picked a small amount of blue berries for my daughter-in-law Debra.  She had said she had wanted to come up and pick but she is under the weather and wouldn’t make it.  It is her wedding anniversary today so I went instead. 

I got back home around 12:30 pm and started heating my peaches and packing them in jars.  I was just finishing up when Jay came in from dialysis.  The totals were eight and a half pints of vanilla peaches ( something different) and 12 pints of plain peaches in syrup. My favorite because you can’t get that special peach flavor in commercially canned peaches. 

Now a picture explaining my title.

I was looking for the last one and I finally found it—so now it is siesta time and I am going to lay my heady down for a bit!

There was just a trace of coolness as Brandy and I walked out for her morning constitutional.  Just enough to remind me that summer has started down the seasonal path and the colors of fall are beginning to appear.  I will miss the warmth of the summer days but the blazing colors of Autumn are more than enough to warm the heart! 

When I returned to the dome this greeted my eyes. 

A dining room table full of pears. I’m going to start calling the table my ripening bed!

Actually this started with a phone call.

My friend Edna called me to say that if I wanted any pears I’d better get over there before the deer ate them.  When I got there this is the situation that greeted me.

My only problem then was the recent surgery was going to keep me off a ladder.  But Edna’s in-laws were visiting and graciously offered to help me pick. 

This is Deb on the ladder and this old Momma was on the ground feeling a bit apprehensive because I didn’t want anyone to get hurt helping me.  The other picture is Wayne, Edna’s brother-in-law and his wife Deb again.  They were my two very helpful pickers and I thanked them graciously. After a little time catching up with Edna and Bob I headed home. 

This morning while Jay is watching his car shows I’ll start pulling ripe pears off the table, peeling them, and soaking them in citric acid and water.  Hopefully I’ll get enough to put up a few pints of Cinnamon Pears a day until the table is empty.  I also have to get over to McDaniel’s Farm Market for a peck of peaches to fill out the stock of plain peaches for the winter.

Now you are wondering what hubby was doing yesterday during all this and who was that dark, handsome stranger in my kitchen! 

Well I ain’t gonna tell you!!  You will have to go to Jay’s Jammin’ to find out.

Yesterday was a pretty good day after a couple of false starts we ended up with 6 half pints and 11 quarter pints of Tangy Plum Sauce for dipping or a glaze.  We also canned 19 half pints of Damson Plum jam.  The taste test proved that using this type of plum was a very wise choice. 

This morning I called my friend Edna to see if she had any blackberries.  The recipe said I needed five cups of crushed berries for one batch.  We had bought two pints when we picked up the plums.  I had some in the freezer (a not quite full quart baggy).  The problem I faced is how much full berries do you need to make five cups of crushed ( if you don’t crush them first). Edna’s patch yielded not quite a pint so I started checking the farm markets within the area to no avail.  I even stopped a a local grocery store to pick up another 12 ozs.  These berries were less that satisfactory so I took them back. 

It turns out that with Edna’s berries I had enough to make my jam so my further searching had not been necessary.  On my counter are nine half pints of black berry jam and I am off to dream land my friend. 

It is hard to believe that I have been gone for four days but it is possible if you spend part of that time sleeping off a big drug drunk I guess.  About the time I thought I could be coherent I was off on another plane.  I have spent a couple of days dreaming of ‘ghost y’ chicken finger soup.  Now what this is I have no idea.  The only thing I do know is I wasn’t going to taste it on a bet. 

I have taken pictures of my visitors but I can’t seem to put the right day with them.  So you will have to excuse me while I try to construct my holiday weekend.  I can remember telling Phyllis that two of Jay’s sisters were coming to visit and that we needed a dessert for their lunch.  So Jay made the cheesecake tarts.

Now on the morning of their visit what I thought was the driveway alarm awoke us at 7:30 am A check of the yard showed no visitors so we went back to bed for a while.  A little later I got up to take Brandy out and found this outside the kitchen door. 

Phyllis had left half a blueberry coffee cake for us to have as dessert.  Bless her heart that meant the girls had two desserts to sample for lunch.  I sent some of the leftover tarts in her clean dish back that afternoon.

I took pictures of both Emily and Linda while they were here but only Linda’s came out. 

Here she is getting up close and personal with Tiki and Chips.  They loved her voice. 

Cindy was up yesterday to trim toenails and visit on the computer.  Here she is doing what she loves to do after a bite of breakfast.

She had an appointment at 2 pm and right after she left grand daughter Jasmine came in and had a bite of lunch with us. 

Jay and I decided I had had enough lolly gagging around after our company left so it was off to Rich’s Farm market for Damson plums.

So later this morning I have plum jam and Tangy plum sauce to be canned.  We will do only one batch of each so it won’t take too long.

While at Rich’s we spied black berries so with what I have in the freezer we should get one batch of jam out of that. 

I also pick up a gallon of apple cider in case Jay wants to try a batch of Apple Cider jelly. 

Now I think this agenda should get us back into the land of the normal!!!