It's the little things...

I've been needing a pair of mud boots for awhile now and this past weekend I found the perfect pair at Academy! Check 'em out! They had cheetah print, zebra, hounds tooth...then I spotted these mosaic print boots...and they were clearly made for me! Now I can wear them when I muck out the chicken coop this weekend!! ;-) I'll be stylin', huh?

Crazy Busy...

We've been crazy busy around here the past few weeks. Field trips to the pumpkin patch, a brand new batch of adorable puppies, baking...baking...and some more baking..., lots of projects at work in progress, and beginning to work on my General Exams for my PhD. So, you haven't heard much from the OAH lately, but it's for good reasons.

This is the time of year when I am drawn back into the kitchen and I've been baking bread and muffins along with making pots of beans, stew, chili, and cornbread. Tomorrow I plan to make up a double (maybe triple) batch of bread dough, shape it into loaves, and freeze it for the coming month. This will allow me to take a loaf out of the freezer at night, let it thaw/rise overnight, then bake it in the morning. We'll need this "homemade convenience" while I frantically work on General Exams.

I'm also hoping to have a leeetle bonfire out in the garden to burn all the dead growth from this past summer and make some nourishing ash to spread on the garden for next year. Gotta wait until it is all nice and crispy and the weather is just right, though.

So, don't give up on me...I'm still here.

Fall is my favorite canning season!!

Because Fall is when the apples are on sale at our local grocery. Final count...18 jars of applesauce! One batch each of cranberry applesauce, chunky apple pie spiced applesauce, and skinny applesauce (applesauce with skins included :)



Chunky Applesauce:


Cranberry Applesauce:


Skinny Applesauce:

The View from Here...

Apple Pie Filling

The apple pie filling won out! I used this recipe from Recipezaar. After doubling the recipe to account for the amount of apples I had, my yield was 10 quart jars of apple pie filling with some syrup left over. Here are some pics:



The coolest thing about this canning session? The jars! These are the jars that Homestead Man's grandmother gave to me. One of the is a Mason jar with the liberty bell with the dates 1776-1976 on the side. Another is an Atlas jar. It's so awesome to think of all the things she might have canned in these jars.

The Energizer Bunny Garden

This morning, I put up another gallon size bag of breaded okra and summer squash (mostly okra), fresh from the garden. I sliced up a zucchini for stir frying and sealed it up with the food saver...then it went into the freezer. I'm also drying a tray of cherry tomatoes...which have just, finally, taken off.

The chickens are not missing out, either...I left several cukes on the vine to fatten up and have been throwing them in with the chickens each day. Aside from red, ripe tomatoes and soft bananas, the cukes are their favorite treat.

I've also made two batches of chicken stock recently and frozen it in ice cube trays. Here are the instructions I've been using for chickens stock, except that I use my crockpot. The stock makes a fantastic, healing soup and adds tremendous flavor to canned veggies.