Harvest...Genesis 8:22

Brrrrr.

The mornings and evenings are starting to get chilly.

I enjoyed my sweater all day today.

I think it is safe to say that summer is over.

I'll miss it

I won't miss riding in my van with no air conditioning in 110 degree heat...but otherwise, I'll miss summer.

I canned some tomatoes on Sunday and I have a few more to put in the dehydrator. 

I don't think there will be many more this year as the frost has already nipped part of our valley.

Last week a patient brought me some gifts.  

Aren't they cute? Too bad they aren't toddler friendly. I'll have to find a place for them other than the dining room table where Goldilocks likes to play.

I do like pumpkins. They are pretty and practical. I found this one tonight.  

I'll enjoy its prettiness for a few weeks then I'll throw it in the oven and bake it. I bake my pumpkins whole.  I just take out the top rack in my oven and poke a few pumpkins with a fork a couple of times. I bake them at 350 for an hour or so until tender. When they are cool enough to handle I cut off the top and scoop out the seeds (season & bake for a treat) then cut and scoop the flesh. I use it right then or freeze for pumpkin soup any time of the year. Yummy and easy. My kind of baking. November 1 I'll start looking for them at a deep discount and spend a day baking pumpkins.

It is really not practical to keep a huge pumpkin on my table, though, so I was excited to see a picture on a local facebook site of a canning ring pumpkin. Cute. Fun. Easy. Cheap (free!). Toddler friendly.

After raiding my canning lid and ring drawer, I collected a few dozen rings.  I specifically looked for ones that were dented or a bit rusty. I chose to just use the golden colored ones and left the silver and white for another time.

A bit of scrap ribbon from the craft box and some cinnamon sticks from the cupboard and the pumpkins were complete.  G and Goldilocks LOVED helping gather up the rings and threading them on the ribbon.

The photos don't do them justice. I really like them and I'm thrilled at how easy and practical they are.  When the season is over they'll go right back in the drawer until next canning season...or until we make apple sauce in a few weeks.  The wonderful thing is that I won't care a bit if I have to take a pumpkin apart to use the rings and then put it back together a week later.  They were that quick and easy to do!

His good promise...1 Kings 8:56

Goldilocks just reminded me of another word that she knows: moon!  We just came outside to wait on the rest of the family to get home. I'm so glad it cools off so well in the evenings.  She's picking a bouquet of tea roses, watching the birds, and scolding the dogs.  "Dogs! No, no, no!"  I'm not sure what they've done that she thinks is so terrible. They are just lying in the yard waiting for the van to drive by and into the driveway.

 

Tonight is the last installment in the 8 Steps to Wellness program our church has put on the last several months. This morning I thought I was well enough to go, but about lunchtime I figured out that I only wanted to spend time in bed or on the couch.  Right before they left I took some mediation so I could be upright and take care of Goldilocks while they were gone.  The Man is one of the presenters tonight, so I didn't think it would work out well for him to take her along.

We don't have as many helpers with this month's program so last night I was asked if I had any thoughts for a centerpiece.  The meal has a oriental theme, so this morning I got up and made these (yes, I'm fully aware that the origin of these is here in America).

They are "promise cookies" and each one has a Bible verse tucked inside. 

Since the food served at the wellness seminars is always vegan, I followed/adapted this recipe.  The instructions didn't say anything about them not being crisp!  After a few trials and temperature adjustments I got something that looked like a fortune cookie, but they had the texture of a crepe.  A gummy crepe. A few were crisp.  A few were too crisp. It was agreed that they need more experimentation, but considering I've probably only eaten a dozen fortune cookies in my life, I don't think we'll spend a lot of time on it. 

It's a good thing they are just for looking at.  They are edible and quite tasty.  However, with the broad range of textures, none of which resembled a fortune cookie, I told The Man to forewarn everyone that they may not wish to actually eat them.

"Are those for me?" asked G.  So, when I was finished with the ones for the centerpiece.  I threw together a gluten free/flax free/soy free version of the vegan fortune cookies for G and J to eat or not eat.

Sometimes we joke that we eat food with nothing in it. Heh.

The dogs tell us the rest of the family is home. Good night!

Eat and be full...Deuteronomy 11:15

The Man was quite shocked to see me standing in the kitchen making 4 different recipes on Wednesday. He was used to coming home and finding me on the couch the past few weeks, as I haven't been feeling too well. I suddenly got a burst of energy and a craving for a lot of different foods, so I managed to fill the freezer. I hope to be able to eat some of it, but everything has smelled and tasted funny to me lately.

More often than not, our recipes have been leaning towards gluten-free since both G and J are on a gf diet now. I wanted something else. I wanted bread, homemade gluten, and gluten roast. Those are divided up and in the freezer for when I want a bit of gluten for my meal. I also made some gf oat burgers for J (G is allergic to oats) to have when the others are eating garden burgers.

I think The Man is glad I can make my own food again. He was trying to cater to me, but between the time I would request some food and he actually brought it to me, I would sometimes change my mind. Fortunately, he's dealt with that a few times before, so he didn't take it too personally.

Today The Man brought home a little machine from the office and we got to hear the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of our newest family member. He (if G gets a baby brother) or she (if Sacagawea gets a baby sister) should be here around the beginning of October. We are so blessed!

Sweet to thy taste...Proverbs 24:13

The Man's brother called last week and asked me if we wanted any blueberries. That's kind of a silly question, don't you think? I placed our order and last night he met The Man up in the city to drop off 50 pounds of organic blueberries.

While The Man was eating a late supper, I got started on taking care of the berries. I gave them a quick rinse and placed them in a colander to drain while I removed a few stems that were still on the berries. After letting them drain for a bit, I placed the berries in quart-sized freezer bags. Then I ran into a problem. I realized that we weren't going to get many in the freezer if I kept popping them into my mouth!

I told The Man that I needed some help. He was more than happy to oblige. I rinsed and drained the berries while he filled the bags. Then I realized that he was having the exact same problem that I had been having...except he didn't view it as a problem!

We put 10 pounds of the berries in the refrigerator to enjoy fresh, 18 very full bags in the freezer, and several trays that we will let freeze before we bag them. Yum!

Give them something to eat...Matthew 14:16

Food has always been important to my family.

When M was 2, he started learning his Bible memory verses each week. Not just learning them to recite to his teacher at church, but actually using them to convey messages to Mom and Dad. Once when he wasn't doing something he was supposed to be doing I gently reminded him of one of his memory verses. "Children, obey your parents." (Ephesians 6:1) M immediately countered with another one of his verses: "God is our...help in trouble!" (Psalm 46:1)

Like most 2 year olds, when he was hungry, he asked for food. One time I agreed with him that it was supper time, but first...he needed a diaper change. But he didn't want the diaper change, he wanted to eat right then. "Jesus replied, 'You give them something to eat.'" (Matthew 14:16) He still got the diaper change first, but we marveled at how well he was applying the Bible to life.

Last year I started putting together a new blog for my recipes, menus, and other food stuff I wished to save for posterity and to share. I even made my first post in January...but then something happened. The last few months I haven't wanted to dwell on thoughts of food. Now that I'm well into the second trimester and I'm starting to regain my appetite, I'm going to try to start posting some more over there. All recipes will be vegetarian, and most will be vegan.

Give them something to eat...

Enjoy!