August is Flyin' By!

        Our summer has been a busy one...

We used our own onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs to make salsa and

spaghetti sauce

(I had to use my big pot for these tomatoes!)

We canned some, and we ate some :)

We purchased corn from the Amish and froze some...and ate some

Brad made cookie bars for church fellowship..yum!

I made carrot raisin salad

My sweet neighbor and friend gave me a lovely pink rose as a thank you

What a blessing!

She's moving this weekend, and I'm really going to miss her and her family!

My two little darlings are enjoying their summer

Don't they look the picture of orneriness  innocence?

It's been quite hot out, and Bingley gets bored when he can't go for long walks!

We've had several rainstorms that were downpours!

(we're thankful for the rain!)

We had a particularly lovely day...so we snuck in a day-trip to the beach

We came back with an unknown extra passenger though...

This Ghost Crab snuck in via Bri's beach bag!

We have to make another trip back to let him go!

Bri and I set him up in a temporary home

So far he is still surviving!

Well, I'll try to post more soon.

We've had a lovely August, hope you have too!

Enjoy these last fleeting days of summer!

Kitchen Happenings

Recently I had a busy day...I bought peaches and blueberries at the Amish store....

And made this cobbler...

I also bought these cukes there and...


Made these Dill Pickles Also baked this...

And picked these...

Doing the Can-Can! LOL

Yes, I was crazy enough to try to can again this year! I wound up being very hot, and getting grouchy, but it's done! (what it took me from 8am to 9pm to do--others could do in 3 hrs or so!) LOL

Here are a few pictures of my Mom, Bri and I in action! And...our results.

Above was something new for me--bread and butter pickles.

Salsa--I made it hotter this year!

This was new too--raspberry-blueberry preserves!

I know I"ll be glad I did it this winter...

From Start to Finish...

GRAPES BEFORE: GRAPES DURING:

GRAPES AFTER:

(they are in the purple jars to the left-the others are spaghetti sauce) Another new thing I learned this summer!

Bountiful Harvest!

We are being abundantly blessed here from our garden! Above is one day's harvest! We only have a small plot, so this is a huge return! :0)


Last Saturday my dear husband, and sweet daughter helped me with making salsa. Although I have made salsa before, this was a first attempt at canning it. You can see the fruits of our labor below. Neat perspective through the eye of the canning jar ring. :0)
We went on to make and can spaghetti sauce on Monday with the rest of the tomatoes and our fresh herbs. I've made spaghetti sauce, but never canned it before. Another first!