These Are The Days

These Are The Days

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Apples

Last Sunday was such a beautiful fall day , it made it almost seem like it was still summer not September .
We thought we'd head to the orchard and pick a few fresh apples.  
The sun was shining ...
The apples were delish !
Perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon ....
The first picture of the 3 of us ....
Apples Apples Everywhere !
Our babies ....
Not so much anymore ....
Love how these go from this ....
to this ....
to this ....
Yumminess :)
Happy Fall Everyone!
It's here :)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Our BIG News :)

We are Expanding ....
Baby Blois at 10 weeks ....
Due Early April 2013

Thursday, September 6, 2012

School

We started school today !
I now have a 6th grader, a 4th grader and a little preschooler :)
So I wanted school to start at 8:00 ....
This is the time we actually got started :)
New books, freshly sharpened pencils, unbroken crayons and markers that actually work !
Love it :)
The girls got right to work . Mr. Cooper slept in until after 9, and trust me that never happens! I was not about to wake him :) So he had to fill his belly up first ....
Then he got right to work beside his big sisters ....
My new planner :)
Hoping to be extremely organized this year ....
Will get back to you on that !!!

Zucchini Relish

So I didn't feel I had canned near enough jars of goodness yet to last us through the upcoming winter. I decided to tackle making relish :)
Made out of zucchini !
My Aunt Nancy's recipe, because she has an amazing garden and cans all things! Plus she gave me the zucchini - cause you guessed it - MINE DID NOT GROW :)
It really isn't hard, though it would be time consuming if you don't have a food processor to do all that chopping for you .
Thankfully I do :)
Your going to start out by chopping up 10 cups of zucchini.
Then chop up 4 cups of onions.
1 large sweet red pepper
1 can chopped green chilies ( I didn't use these )
Throw all this into a large bowl and add 3 Tbsp of pickling salt.
Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge to chill overnight .
The next morning, drain and rinse the zucchini mixture. It looks a lot like coleslaw and smells like it too .
In a large pot add :
3 1/2 cups of sugar
3 cups of vinegar
1 Tbsp ground turmeric
4 tsp celery seed
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Bring this to a boil.
Add the zucchini mixture to the pot. Stir and simmer for 10 minutes.
Then put in your already washed and sterilized warm jars.
Seal the lids on.
Put the jars in a pot of boiling water for 5-10 minutes.
Take them out and listen for the popping :)
Voila !!!
7 Jars of Relish :)
Enough to last our little family for 2 years !
ENJOY :)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Long Weekend Recap

We didn't have a lot planned for the long weekend. We weren't going away on any last getaways or anything but somehow we managed to still pack a lot in :)
Friday night started out with a huge branch falling off one of my grandparents trees, taking out some power lines and leaving the neighborhood powerless for about 41/2 hours. The kids found this to be great excitement !!!
We had my Grandparents annual corn boil on Saturday night. Not everyone could make it, but there was still quite a few of us ....
Which means way too much yummy food ....
Hubby was away golfing ....
As you can see he Did Not take his wife's advice about ditching the white socks ....
It was a charity golf tournament for the Bible Camp hubby's friend Grant and his sweet family are the directors at.
www.ncem.ca/bible-camps/21
and that was Saturday ....
Sunday after church, we decided to hike back in to the woods on The Maliseet Indian Trail and see the beautiful waterfall ....
Which was not to impressive ....
Picture it after a summer with rain ...
Not the drought conditions we've been having ....
My girls ....
Perfect spot to wear the rubber boots ...
Of course Coop doesn't really believe there is not a perfect spot for rubber boots :)
Playing with Daddy ....
Climbing and exploring ....
On Labor Day
Hubby took the kids fishing down by the river ....
Maggey's catch ....
Cooper's catch ....
Hubby forgot to get a pic of Halley with her catch ....
Here's the catch :)
Total :
Halley ~ 2
Maggey ~ 1
Cooper ~ 1
Daddy ~  0
Which by the way are still in the fridge, because Archie the cat wouldn't touch them, and they're too small to cook ....
I'm sure they'll get thrown out when the start to really smell :)

Crisp Cucumber Pickle Slices


My friend Karen gave me a bunch of these cute little cucumbers the other day. I thought they would be perfect to make some more dill pickles with but talked myself out of it deciding that the 27 jars we already had would do :) So I started looking through some local cook books I had and came across this Crisp Cucumber Pickle Slices recipe, which also happened to have submitted into the recipe book by my grandmother Alice . I didn't think it looked too complicated, so it was the winner :)  
Wash all your cucumbers ....
Chop them up into slices ....
Add: 1 chopped green pepper ( optional )
1 red pepper ( optional )
3 medium onions ( chopped )
1/3 cup of pickling salt
Then cover with cold water and ice.
Let it sit for 3-5 hours.
Again, wash and sterilize those jars ....
Boil your lids ....
After the cucumbers have soaked in the water and ice.
Get a huge pot !
Add : 1 1/2 tsp turmeric
2 Tbsp mustard seed
1 1/2 tsp celery seed
5 cups of sugar
3 cups of vinegar
Stir those together,  then add your cucumber mixture after you drain and rinse them off.
Stir and bring to a boil.
Then pack them into your hot jars.
Seal right away and listen for the popping :)
ENJOY :)