Time is a tickin' ~ Boozy sauce topped pear pie ~ This is it . . .

Monday we woke up to lots of fog.  Although school was delayed, our youngest still had to be up at her school (33 minute drive) earlier than normal bus pick up time.  She was heading to her first hair show.  I'm gonna assume next year she'll be going and spending more money as she learns more.

The temps heated back up again, but it came with rain.  So frustrating as I cannot get in the garden to get the garlic planted.  I don't want to say it, but it may be the first fall we do not plant garlic.  This year has taught me that planting too late is just not worth the work followed by loss of harvest.

I remembered I had pears in the freezer, so those pie crust crumbles came in handy.  

It was my very first time to bake a pie using frozen fruit vs. fresh.  I thawed them completely, but they didn't look like the normal 2 1/2# fresh (meaning not enough).  I thawed 5# of frozen and drained them.

It turned out perfect.  Although the pears much softer, it was still delicious.

Of course I whipped up a batch of homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce to top it with too.

It was a busy day in the kitchen, whether I wanted it or not.  Things needed done - eggs boiled, breakfast scramble make with greens, and bake and flake some Michigan salmon. 

I had to refill my jars of nettle and oat straw, wash dishes, and whatnot. 

The rain gave me a ton of lemon balm, so more filled the dehydrator despite the temperature 94° outside. I'll have a post soon on the lemon balm.

This is it. . . 

. . . the green bell pepper harvest.  They will not be getting bigger and the blossoms that were on are off.  Pitiful harvest and disheartening.  The weather heated up, but the cool down (less than a week) is coming and they won't be in the garden much longer.  

First Snow

As Hubby made my breakfast, I glanced out the window and said, "it's snowing!"  He didn't believe it either, but the kids came downstairs and told me it was actually snowing for three hours Saturday night.   Our first snow.

Our pouring down rain on Saturday turned to snow by late evening.  It snowed most of Sunday, and it was cold.  Nothing on the ground this morning though, but a chilly 28° F here.

The pears are disappearing again.  I rolled out  a pie crust.

Look who was "eye-spying" that pie crust too!  Ha ha!

While the guys (we had help arrive) worked on replacing the two year old wheel bearing, I baked another pear gingersnap pie.  They were drooling over it and couldn't wait to cut a piece.  

While the guys worked outside in the bitter cold, I worked on some crochet work until the pie was done.  Meatballs went in for dinner right after that.

Hubby's nephew had his first piece of pear pie, and he asked if I sold them, ha ha!  I sadly told him no, and that there were no more pears, but a few (aside from what I froze).  I'm sure he enjoyed his piece slathered with homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce.

I would have slept in a bit more this morning, had I known that school break started.  I went to get Youngest up, and she told me in a groggy voice, "on break Mom." 

 Look what we were gifted!  Cute, right?   Well, I may join the Happy Homemaker post today later.  I guess we'll see. I am glad I have helpers today, and the remainder of the week too.
 

Craft Bazaar Prep ~ Sweet Potatoes ~ Pears

I had 5 mugs to start with, and finished them all.  The top left has a black mug, and the Christmas cozy has a red mug.  I love the blue and purple one.  They all have two buttons on the straps.

In hopes to find another mug, I started a fall colored cozy/coaster set to add to the inventory.  I had enough of the yarn to make the same one I made myself.

I spent an entire afternoon, about a week ago, emptying my boxes and totes and taking count of my inventory.  I now have a list and inventory sheet produced from my hard work, and found a few items that need ends sewn in.  There are many more items I could make, so I hope to get some done in the next few weeks.  I have one daughter eye-spying another slouchy hat in my pile, so I'm off to see if I have more yarn of that color. 

Oh, and now my youngest daughter wants a double wrap infinity scarf for Christmas.  Of course I won't wait until then, so she can use it now.  I just won't start on it until the craft show has started.   She wants Harry Potter colors.

I chopped up some of our garden sweet potatoes and made a crock pot of sweet potato/cauliflower and garden kale soup.  I used a recipe I found online and added my greens to it.  Gotta have those greens!

Tried a new recipe, Gingersnap Pear Pie , and we topped it with homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce.  Hubby said it's now is favorite of all pies.  It bubbled over like crazy, but oh my it was good.  Hubby said it was so good, he wants me to make two for him to take to work.  I told him he was crazy.  He'd be lucky to get another from me this week, ha ha!  Recipe is from a Country Woman magazine, but also online with Taste of Home:  here  (hence wanting a homemade crunchy gingersnap recipe).

A jar of homemade vanilla extract was strained.  I use this in many recipes.

The weather is turning on us again.  More rain.  Can you believe it?  It's in the 30's at night and 40's days, but yesterday we had a full day of sunshine.  Hubby suggested a motorcycle ride, but stayed in, ha ha!  Just a bit too cold for me.  I made a crock pot of salsa chicken (boneless organic chicken, garden tomatoes, garlic, cayenne, broth etc) and we topped mashed pinto beans with it - delicious!  We can use it on breakfast/lunch/dinner burritos too.  I had some cream leftover from making the whiskey sauce, so I thawed some corn and made pan of creamed corn (Mmmmm!). 

My free loader hens gave me one dinky egg yesterday.  They were out and about, but geeze.  The kids are the only reason I haven't put three of them in the stew pot.  I'll have that talk with them again (to the hens) and see if I start getting those eggs again.  They have gotten some treats too, but to no avail, they free load the organic feed.  They love the pear peelings.

Rain is to start at 1pm and continue the entire day until 11pm tonight.  I will be in my kitchen for more of the time, and hope to gravitate to some crochet work.  I had a sore throat yesterday, so I don't want to over do anything this week.  I'll be posting the tea I made soon.  I took a long soak in the tub with Epson salts, and tea tree/eucalyptus oils.  I'm feeling pretty good today.

Oh, and it's a bit disconcerting when one of your children has to go to work where it was recently robbed.  No gun, but this past few weeks there have been several gun point robberies.  

Good news (maybe).  Our "Vet Tech" daughter bought a new car.  Our "Grad" Daughter is getting her old one.  The only problem is finding affordable insurance for her now.  Crossing my fingers (and saying a prayer) it all works out for all of us.