Happy Halloween!

There he is......my little Fireman!  And our silly "Redneck" pumpkin as Rowdy calls it! 

Not bad for a $5 costume, eh?  The coat I bought at Goodwill for only 5 bucks, can you believe it?  He already had the hat, axe, and boots (from our trip to Smith and Edwards in Utah). 

We went Trick or Treating with his buddies Seth the "vampire" and James "Bumblebee" transformer.  They did really well saying "Trick or Treat" and thank you to everyone.  Seth even started scaring people with that scary face of his!  They had alot of fun!

After about 2 streets, Rowdy's feet started to hurt and he asked if we could go home.  Seth and James went with their Mommies for more trick or treating and we retired for the evening.  He ended up with a good amount of loot anyway!  It was a quick night but worth it! 

Happy Halloween!













The Pumpkin Patch Pic That Almost Wasn't

Boy, was this photo a struggle to get!  Our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch wasn't the greatest experience.  Not to mention that it was without Lisa (who he is STILL asking when she is coming back!).  We went to Freeman Farms in Chino Valley this year and it was kind of a rip off.  I should have just walked over to the pumpkin patch right away like Rowdy wanted and got the pictures.  Instead I paid an overpriced ticket for silly stuff that Rowdy didn't really want to do. 

I was able to get some cute pics but not as many as I would have liked.  I tried to get a cute one of the two of us but it wasn't to be. 

Now, this he loved!  Picking out little pumpkins!  He thought these were the coolest and picked out an orange one, a white one, and a yellow one.  These came home and got colored by my little Picasso! 

Grandma thought they were pretty cute too! 

Even though it wasn't the best trip to the patch this year, Rowdy was pretty excited to pick out his pumpkin!  So just remember, skip all the stupid crap that cost a lot of money and go right to the patch.  You will save yourself a few meltdowns from a 3 year old! 

HAPPY PUMPKIN PICKING!



Rainy Day Breadmaking

"How does this look, Mommy?"

It was a lazy rainy day today and I didn't feel like cleaning the house (even though I should have!).  I thought it would be fun to make bread with Rowdy.  I found a pretty easy recipe on the good 'old internet via google (gotta love google). 

He started out very interested as always - pouring ingredients into the bowl and dousing himself with flour!   He had a lot of fun punching the dough, too!

When it was time for it to sit and rise I thought it would be a great time for Rowdy to take a nap.  A little quiet time was fantastic!  Now don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with the little guy, but sometimes some "Mommy Time" is much needed! 

While he napped we got one heck of a rainstorm!  It was coming down something fierce!  The garden was loving it though.  Here are some of my peppers still left.  That green pepper went into the dinner salad!  And look at my gypsy peppers - I have a few that are turning red finally.

To go with our fresh baked bread, I made Mac & Cheese from the Lottie and Doof blog - a fantastic blog for yummy recipes!  It was like grown up mac & cheese.  With a salad of greens and peppers, tomatoes, and green onion from our garden it was a great meal.

The bread turned out a little flat - I don't think I let it rise enough.  But, oh well, warm with some butter it was still delish.  And Rowdy loved it!

Here are the recipes I referenced in this post. 

Mac & Cheese (Lottie & Doof Style)

http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2009/04/mac-cheese-lottie-doof-style/

Basic White Bread

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/04/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

 

Canning Tomatos and Other Stuff

Here is the last of Mom's tomato harvest (I think).  I have been staring at that bag of tomatos in my fridge my Mom gave me trying to decide what to do with them.  Should I make more yummy sauce (which I cracked open the other night and made sketti - yummy!), roast them (did that already), dehydrate them (yep that too)? 

So I finally fired up the canner and texted Mom - "come on over!".  She brought more and we got to work peeling and coring (not so fun for Mom really).  I quartered them, canned them in their own juice, and got 6 pints plus one quart of tomatos.  Not bad really.  They will be great for chili, sauce, or in stuffed peppers.

Mom also brought over some more cantaloupe from her garden.  These little guys are cute and from what I hear quite tasty (of course you won't see me eat one).  They are the perfect size for Rowdy, which he had with his orange themed lunch today (that would be mac & cheese, carrots, and cantaloupe).

Speaking of gardens, I think I am getting down to the end of mine.  I picked the only red pepper I had this year!  And look at those pathetic tomatos!  Oh well, I just sliced up the pepper and it will be frozen with other green peppers for fajitas. 

I was able to get some good tomatos this year from my garden.  I just dehydrated those and put them in a jar.  I can use these for pizza toppings, soups, etc. 

And lastly (since I did put "stuff" in my title), I stayed home with Rowdy today as he is a little under the weather.  Good 'old virus again.  Poor little guy.  He took it easy most of the day and I found him playing with his Thomas Vtech Computer alot.  This is a nice suprise as he is enjoying working on his letters!

You can hear him in the other room.  For instance, the computer will say, "J is for Jar" and he will say, "and jelly and jam"!  My kid is a genius.  But what do you expect, he takes after his Mom, right?



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!