I can feel Fall in the air

Hello - Hope everyone has had a good summer.  The weather is starting to turn here and I can feel Fall in the air outside.  I even wore a jacket to work today.  I love Fall...only a few short weeks until I am no longer in my 20's!  I always look forward to my birthday and this year is no different.  Since I am entering into a new decade this year, I plan to spoil myself a little more this b-day.  I took the week off work and planned a spa day...I am getting a facial, a 1 hour massage, and a haircut.  I'm looking forward to it!!!

These past few months have gone by quickly.  My wonderful husband and I were busy canning each weekend.  Here is the total so far of what he have put up for this coming winter:

On the bottom are green beans and carrots

Then we have a spicy hamburger soup, chicken stock, and pickles

Then lots and lots and lots of corn and a few pints of peas

We processed 96 ears of corn and made 43 pints!

We also have some salsa, honeyed pears, and vegetable soup

Lastly, we have strawberry and raspberry jam

We are hoping that most of this will replace the produce we would normally have to buy in the winter.  It will be nice to have some summertime vegetable and fruit during the chilly months.

Other than the busy job of preserving food my summer was filled with reading, running, biking, and work.  I read some really good memoirs/non-fiction books.  

The first was "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress", which is about a women who is facing some life tragedies and returns home for some emotional healing.  Although the title makes you think the focus is going to be on the Mennonite culture, the book is more about how the author is dealing with the recent trauma in her life.  An interesting, funny, quick read.

Sometime after that I read "The Glass Castle".  This book was really good!  It is the amazing story of Jeannette Walls and her family.  I don't even know how to describe the story, but you won't want to put the book down because you just want to know how it ends.  I'm looking forward to reading her new book, "Half Broke Horses", soon.

I also read "Into the Wild" this summer.  This also was a book that I didn't want to put down.  I already knew how this story was going to end, but reading about all that Jon Krakauer was able to discover about Chris McCandless and possible reasons why he did what he did were very intriguing.  I can really emphasize with Chris's story of wanting to be in the wild and at one with nature and life.

Aside from those great books I did read some fiction:  "Valley of the Dolls", "Heartland" books, and "Little Bee".  Currently I am reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  

With all of this reading, we have decided to get E-readers.  I bought one for the husband for his b-day/anniversary gift.  He decided to get the reader from Borders.  It's called the Kobo.  So far he says it is the best gift he has ever received.  I decided to get the new Amazon Kindle for my b-day/anniversary gift.

Even though I have been doing all this reading I do have to say that I have the knitting itch, especially with the weather turning colder.  I'm thinking of finally knitting some shawls or cowls.  I wish I was super fast and could whip up a nice cardigan or shell to wear at work...but I am not that fast.  I still have a lonely mitten that I finished earlier this spring.  Maybe when I start knitting I can make its partner.

Hope all is well in your world as the weather turns to fall.  Until next time, Ciao.

Pickles

I have been busy both with work and at home lately.  Last week I started riding my bike to work.  It was a nice change from running all the time.  I tried a new route the first day...staying on the road instead of going a little out of my way on the bike path.  I decided I did not like it...too many cars and stop lights to worry about.  So, the next time I rode I took my old route around the small lake in town.  It is a much better way to start the day.  The only bad things was that I think my bike seat wasn't at the right level and now my knee has been hurting since Saturday.  I haven't been able to run or bike and that just makes me feel so blah.  Hopefully I will be able to do something tomorrow.

Over the weekend we went to a movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  It had Nicolas Cage and we always like his movies.  It was a good family movie to go to.  On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market, as usual.  We are trying to can at least one thing per week and this week we did pickles.  We bought about 9lbs of pickling cucumbers and 14 heads of dill.  We were expecting about 9 pints.  The recipe we used was from the USDA's canning guide and it called for the pickles to soak in a brine solution for 12 hours.  This meant that we couldn't process the jars until around 11 pm.  It made for a long night.  We started canning and realized we had way more pickles/jars than expected.  The hubs had to take a trip to the grocery store to by dill seed b/c we ran out of fresh pickling dill.  In the end we had 18 jars...double of what we expected.  I think the main reason behind that is the size of our pickles.  We could only fit about 4-6 in a jar.  We have to wait 4-6 weeks for the pickles to cure before we can try them.  I hope they are good b/c we have 18 jars to eat over the fall/winter.

On Sunday we slept in late and then I even took a nap around noon.  It felt good to be lazy.  When I did get up I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and in the kitchen.  I baked a chicken and made roasted vegetables for dinner.  While the chicken was in the oven I made some leek and potato soup (also called vichyssoise).  I used my Martha book.  Martha says this is the best known cold soup.  It is really easy to make and it tastes really good.  I actually got the idea from a young boy at the Farmer's Market who was trying to sell me leeks and potatoes as a combo to make the soup.

This week I hope to get my exercise routine back in order and my body back in shape.  This weekend we will most likely be canning green beans.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world!

Peas and Carrots!

Flowers in the Garden

Flowers are blooming in our garden....hoping they turn into a bountiful harvest!

Pumpkin flowers

They only last about half a day once they bloom, but they are really big and beautiful.

One pumpkin starting to form.  We are hoping to get quite a few and are planning to make pie and possible can some for later use.

Potato flowers.  So tiny and cute.  We could harvest some new potatoes now, but we are going to let all of our tubers grow.  We have to wait until the greens dye before digging them out.

This tomato started growing a few weeks back.  So far we only have three growing.  They should get to a decent size before ripening.