Rowdy the "Bug Tamer"

That's my little "Bug Tamer"!  Rowdy loves bugs and has no problems just picking them up whenever he sees one.  This cool bug was found enjoying life in my Basil plant (and probably chomping the heck out of it too!).   It was climbing up Rowdy's chest and neck and Rowdy was just laughing away.  He also thought it was funny to put it on Koby and watch Koby freak out about it! 

And it doesn't stop at just bugs.  He has picked up and even kissed a snake once!  That freaked Daddy out a little bit! 

 Rowdy is so brave and I love to watch him when he finds something new.  He is so full of wonder and curiosity!  I hope he never loses that in life!

Making Garlic Dill Pickles

The cucumber plant was not doing well so it was time to pick off the cukes we had grown.  They weren't the greatest cukes this year so I decided to try my hand at dill pickles this time.  I used Mrs. Wages Kosher Dill Pickle mix and Rowdy and I added cloves of garlic to the jars for an added zing!   Since the sweet pickles turned out a little mushy (but still pretty tasty) I let the cukes soak in ice water for about 3 hours (this is supposed to help the pickles stay crisp).

Rowdy did a great job as my "dill pickle helper".  He learned how to take a head of garlic apart and how to take the skin off.  He helped put the pickles in the jars and he added the garlic too!  Zoey even supervised! 

I can't wait to try these!  They look so yummy!  But alas, we will have to wait at least a month as they have to sit for awhile.  But it will be worth the wait.  And if not, who cares, it was just really nice to can with Rowdy!  He is so much fun in the kitchen!

Preserving the (Stolen) Harvest!

"Give Me Thine Food And I Shall Can The!"

I have been a canning fool, I tell ya!  Dale is making fun of me, but oh well!  This is fun!

I canned 5 pints of tomato sauce - tomatos, garlic, and onion were from Grandpa's garden while the basil and green peppers were from mine!  I shall call it the famous "Family Affair" tomato sauce!  I also canned 3 pints of pickles.  We will see how they turn out as I didn't let them sit in a brine for 24 hours.  I might have mushy pickles but I will know better for next time.  The tomato sauce, however, came out superb as there was a little bit left so I mixed it with some penne, basil, grilled chicken, and some parmesan for dinner that night!  Delish!

Remember all those peaches I mentioned on my last post?  Well, they have been canned and creamed!  Ice cream that is!  I made 3 containers of Peach ice cream and had enough to can 2 pints of peaches in apple juice!   The canning of peaches is a little bit of a pain because it's a lot of work but I didn't want to waste them.  I think it was worth it! 

I finally ran out of stuff to can and went looking in the pantry to find something since I was on a "canning roll".  I was about to open a can of fruit to can it again (not really) when low and behold I remember the 2 bags of apples Dale had purchased to dehydrate and never got around to!  Apple butter, here I come, uh can, uh whatever!  This stuff is the bomb diggity!  I don't want to give it away!  I just want to stash it away and say "my Precious" over and over! 

Now that I feel like Mrs. Cleaver I think I am gonna go sew me a pretty apron and bake a pie.....nah!  That's too much work!