There's nothing like home-canned fruit!

10 Quarts of Applesauce, stove splatters and all. That's it. 10 lousy (OK, yummy) quarts. And only 5, I repeat, 5 of them are mine!!!

My sister Molly and I decided this week to keep up on our pioneering and homemaking skills...a couple of times a year we get adventurous and can fruit. I started a few years ago, Molly just joined me. I remember my mom doing it but then she would not want to eat the canned peaches or pears or grape juice or pickles or whatever because 1)they looked so pretty on the shelf and 2)she knew how dang long it took to get them there! We both belong to a Produce Co-op (www.bountifulbaskets.org) and besides their standard weekly produce baskets, we can occasionally buy bulk cases of fruit. This time we bought 1 case of Granny Smith apples to split. (Having never done them before, we didn't want to be overwhelmed with too much fruit.) We decided on apple sauce - both our families like it and we can always use it for the babies that come along! So luckily, I have an "All in One" apple peeler, corer, slicer which makes quick work of, well, peeling, coring and slicing! Then we had to cook them to soften, blend them to the desired texture, heat with a bit of sugar to boiling, ladle it into hot quart jars and process in a hot water bath or steam canner for 20 minutes. Applesauce does not boil like water, it explodes like the geysers at Yellowstone. FYI. So what do we get for 3 hours of work? 10 quarts of applesauce. We figure they cost us about $2 a quart for the jar and apples. What did it cost us in time? Well, luckily, we didn't have a lot else going on Saturday afternoon.

There are some things we have learned along the way with canning. This is not an exhaustive list as we only just dabble in it here and there.
1. It is a very important skill to have and maybe some day we will have gardens or yards or orchards that yield lots of fruits and vegetables and we can "put them up" ourselves!
2. There is nothing like home-canned peaches. Nothing, not even those expensive Del Monte brand ones in the refrigerated produce section at the grocery store come close. It is worth every moment blanching and peeling and slicing and processing and mopping up sticky floors.
3. Pears, well, commercially canned pears taste about the same as home canned ones. So, given that, and that they are harder to do than peaches, I will stick to buying them commercially unless I get them for free or next to nothing!
4. I will forever appreciate commercially prepared applesauce after seeing that one full case of apples only yields 10 quarts of applesauce.

I have been very homesick lately....

These past few weeks have really sent me into a "homesick mode." I miss Oregon. The Portland area to be specific. I miss the rain. I miss the clouds. I miss the gardens. I miss the bridges and the rivers. I miss the thriving yet small and intimate in scale downtown. I even miss the elephants at the zoo. I don't know what makes right now different from all other 7 years I have lived in Arizona, maybe it is the fact that my A/C kicked on today and it is November 18th. Maybe it was that my kids were hot on Halloween...and they were dressed as cheerleaders. Maybe it is finding a scorpion hiding under Lindsay's sneakers she kicked off in the family room. (Or the scorpion found in our shower or in our bed or under a pile of Polly Pockets as the girls were picking up their room...)

We are going to Portland for Christmas and will be spending a week there. It will be cold, it most certainly will be wet, and there is always a *chance* it might snow. My Grandma and Aunt have rented a beach house for 3 days right after Christmas - it will be stormy and cold - curl up by the fireplace, play games, watch the waves crash on the rocks. Wonderful. We cannot wait.
Downtown Portland, 5th Ave.
Japanese Gardens at Washington Park
Mt. Hood - view at dusk from Washington Park - the nation's largest Urban Park.
The Rose Gardens in Washington Park
The Steel and Freemont Bridges over the Willamette River
Packy (I think!) from the largest and most successful Asian elephant breeding program in the world at the Oregon Zoo.

Disneyland November 2007

Soccer Fall Season 2007

This was our first year playing soccer after a few dance filled years. The girls had such a great time and grew so much! We learned from Caroline that she loves soccer and does not like gymnastics or dance class. Consequently, we will be signing her up for the spring season of soccer. She is truly turning into our little Tom Boy!! And Lindsay, well, we really think she is a dancer and gymnast at heart - but we watched her grow so much through the season. One of the biggest strides she made was transitioning from skipping across the field to running! That was huge! At the end of the season she learned how better to place her body to actually kick a ball far and with more power - she was so proud of herself! She too wants to play spring season.

Halloween Festivities

Pumpkin Patch with the cousins - we had so much fun picking pumpkins, going on a hayride, and then, going out for ice cream with Aunt Molly, Uncle Andy, Hayden and Brynley. We also carved pumpkins for the first time too...the girls thought pumpkins were just for drawing faces or gluing crafty stuff to make designs! But really, I have to say this...the Halloween season is not supposed to be 85-90 degrees. That is wrong.

It's a "Go Heels" Trick or Treat!

Go Heels!!!! That's the University of North Carolina Tarheels to the rest of us. It is no small secret that Daddy is a huge Tarheel Fan (bye bye August to March as we get thru Football and Basketball season...). So, this year, the girls decided to be cheerleaders for Halloween and their daddy, well, was their biggest fan of course! The girls were so cute with their cheer uniforms, their pompoms, and spirit face paints!

So, we got a new van....

And we really love it. We really do! We were commenting that now we are nearly a complete family...Swingset -check. Bunk Bed... -check. Minivan... -check. Caroline commented that the only thing we are missing is a big upstairs house. I could not agree more. But another year, another big purchase. We broke it in quite well with a trip to Disneyland. (More on that later, I am sure...I have so much to blog about...) I had to put away all the cool I thought I had still left in me - we spent 4 months shopping for a car/van/truck/SUV/CUV that would work for us. Finally, we realized we needed the ultimate in convenience and comfort and there is none better than the Honda Odyssey for that. So we decided if we were getting the minivan, we would at least go all out - the color we both liked, leather, DVD, etc. We are happy. And thanks to Rush, our 13 year old neighbor across the street, we have even replaced the rear window!!!! (Something about throwing a tiny rock at a bird, it missed, bounced, and hit my rear window at just the right angle.) So we have had our first damage and I have been pulled over for the first time in it as well. (I didn't have my lights on - I had thrown out my back at soccer practice and could hardly drive, let alone remember to turn on lights! I could barely reach the glove box for the registration!) Oh, and an Orange Soda from McD's has spilled as well. (Steve, what were you thinking? The kids can get diet minute maid lemonade thru the drive thru on a trip - no sugar and no color to stain!!!) Thank goodness we got all weather floor mats. All this before we even have a license plate.