Ok, this kicks all sorts of bootie!!!

It's finally summer here in the Upper Penninsula of Mi. It take awhile but by golly, it's here...for the time being. We'll see what next week brings. Who knows, it may snow!!!! Anyways, the Farmer's Market downtown is going strong & each week more & more goods are showing up...which pretty much = one happy gal!!!! I'll have some recipes coming up with some of the yummalicious treats I scored while there.

But this post I wanted to tell you about a new Farm Stand I went to today. Now let me tell you this....it kicked all sorts of bootie!! Ken had told me about it last week on one of his trucking adventures. It's right outside of town so it's not far at all. We Yoopers measure distance in minutes...so roughly 7 minutes out of town, give or take. Holy bean bags!! I thought I was going there to get some blueberries & maybe a watermelon. Lemme tell you, this stand was stocked with fabulous goodies & I took it upon myself to stock up. Oh, almost forgot to mention...the prices were out-freaking-standing. Where else can you buy 2 pineapples for 5 buckaroos? Well besides Mexico. Ok, so back to what I got...here's a picture & a list...cuz I know you wanna know ;) ps...I am fully aware that my kitchen needs an update...but c'mon, that yellow counter-top rocks...you know it does.

1/2lb garlic which was 2 heads

3 1/2lb pickling cukes

1 papaya (never had real papaya...just flavored drinks)

3 1/2lb pears which was 9 fruits

2pts of blueberries

1 1/2lb sweet cherries

2 green peppers

3 kiwi

2 big cukes

2lb bananas & then the gal GAVE me 8lb FREE because they had a couple tiny brown spots. Chloe (the tortoise ) is going to be one happy reptile =) Then I'm pretty sure we'll have banana bread, muffins, pancakes up the ying yang for awhile...which totally rocks my sox!!! (p.s. I do the sox thing on purpose...it's for my Red Sox...heeehee)

An 8lb seedless watermelon

2 pineapples

4 zucchini's

6 lemons

a honeydew melon

5 limes

3 1/2lbs tomatoes (ours are not ripe yet so this will tide us over)

6 Granny Smith Apples

6 Golden Delicious Apples

10 ears of corn

3 1/2lbs baby reds

Whew...that's a lot of stuff eh!!! All for a very reasonable price mind you!! What will I do with all this in our household of 2 you might wonder??? Pickles, jams, waffles, breads, salsa, stewed tomatoes, juice, pie or tort, muffins, roasting, grilling, smoothies & canning are in this gals very near future!!

Been at it again

I just finished putting together the hot cocoa kits. Yesterday I made the mix & this morning I made the milk chocolate spoons to stir the yummyness with. I plan on giving these sets to neighbors, friends & the gals at the office as a lil sumthin fun for Christmas.

We had a small glass yesterday & it was yummy but today I made myself a cup & used one of those spoons & holy beans!! Total fantasticness!! Those spoons kick all sorts of arse! Ahhh I love having a double boiler for such tasks. Next week it will be put to work big time! Peanut butter balls will be made, chocolate covered pretzels & rods, peanut butter cups & turtles.

Last night my brother Joe called to see if I would be able to & interested in painting up some lightbulb ornies for him to give to his fellow bakery workers for Christmas. So last night I took my supplies downstairs (my craft room is a complete disater!!) and began painting. So we have 6 snowmen & 6 Santas all ready to go. Tonight I will make the few necklaces I need to finish & box them up. Tomorrow finishing picking up & tidying will be done around the house. Thanksgiving dinner is at our house. I think we're ready....LOL

If I don't post before Thursday have a safe & Happy Thanksgiving. A word to the wise if I may....ELASTIC pants!!!

Whew, it's been a long day!

I set numerous goals today & accomplished a great many of them. I have never made pumpkin puree & my to do list did not allot ample time to do this AND the other tasks. I am happy to report that 4 of the 6 pumpkins have become puree though =) The other two were so hard to cut & my hands had had enough. So those two will go for the deer.



I chopped off the top, cleaned out the pumpkin brains, sliced them up & placed onto an ungreased cookie sheet & baked at 350 for 45 minutes. See, they have a hint of brown? Oh, added bonus is that the baking made the house smell delicious!!!

After they were done baking & let sit to cool a bit I began peeling the outer skin & chopping the pumpkin up & placing it in a bowl.

Loaded up the blender & pureed the bazoinkels outta the chunks

And whaaalaaa! We have a total of 16 cups of fresh pumpkin puree for breads, pies, cookies & who knows what else I'll make. I suggest setting aside a couple hours for this. I had figured it would take a half an hour tops to clean them & get them ready to bake...WRONG!!! It took 3!!!

After that task was finished I cleaned up the kitchen, emptied & ran the dishwasher, swept, scrubbed the floor, etc. I now have a clean kitchen =) Well for the time being...

I tidied up the house a bit, did a batch of laundry. My neck is still sore since Saturday morning. I either slept wrong or dancin to "Black Betty" Friday night did me in. So I figured I'd work on my sit still type tasks.

Logan's afghan is finished...

Also made some mittens & a scarf for special lil ladies in my life while I watched a movie "Christmas in the Clouds".

Tomorrow will be a much more productive day! I plan on going to bed at a decent hour. Which means, before 5am!! Ken's on the road so that means I rarely sleep. Tomorrow I will tackle the den and take the Christmas decorations upstairs after I put the Christmas Village we painted out on display. Tonight when I go to bed my jewelry making supplies will be taken to my craft room.

Hopefully I will have some time tomorrow to work on the memory quilt. The pieces are cut & the rows have been laid out & put back in order. Now I just need to park my fannie in front of the machine.

YUM!

Today Ken & I drove out to our local greenhouse to pick rasberries. Well that was our hope anyways. The darn place was closed!! Apparently they are only open on the weekends. So back into town we went but, before headign home we stopped at a Farm Stand near the Fairgrounds. They set up there every year & sell their yummy goods. We picked up some baby red potatoes, 24 HUGE tomatoes to make stewed tomatoes with, and 6 juicy peaches.


After that we decided to tackle putting up a gate between our house & the neighbors. We have way to many wackadoodles who decide to cut through our houses as a short cut. Well that & the kids take jumps on our driveway. There's a jump from the sidewalk onto our driveway...NOT good. It seems that the kids in the neighborhood don't have ears because after we ask them to not do that they are back at it in no time. Hopefully this gate will be a solution to ours & the neighbors problem.





Once that project & the weeding of the flower beds were done we headed to the Farmer's Market downtown. I know, every single week I post on they yummy things we get there. This week was super fantastical as well!





They had blueberries this time & that sooo rocks our world. We also picked up some carrots, rhubarb, sugar snap peas, snow peas, and this twirly garlic. When the guy selling it was telling Ken what it was he said it's basically the top of the plant, sorta like a chive...but garlic.

We decided we'd use our veggies & make a home made stir fry for dinner tonight & I'd make a peach pie for desert. The stir fry turned out so delish. Ken was in charge of the stir fry sauce & he did one heck of a job creating a yummalish dish!! Oh my Smurfan heck! That blueberries & Cream pie can be substituded with peaches so I did that & holy fartan heck!!! Totally yummalicious!!!




It only took two of the peaches to fill this pie. I foresee 2 more of these peaches & cream pies with our remaining peaches ...We'll have to invite some friends over for din din this weekend. =)

How this gal gets her thrills!!

Our Farmer's Market is now starting to bloom with awesome produce & crafts & other baked & canned goodies.

Ken was home this afternoon so we both got to go. First we picked up more rhubarb, like 5 bunches of it. Ken just loves rhubarb & he has almost consumed all the jam I made!! With what I just bought we should be golden for quite awhile!! =)

I picked up some honkan HUGE radishes! Like for serious, they are the size of large carrots. The woman selling them used to belong to the Laide's Guild at Church with my Mom years ago. I recognized her but she had no clue who I was. We also picked up some romaine lettuce for us & some spinach for my tortoise =)

Speaking of my tortoise...her name is Chloe. Chloe Michelle to be exact. Ken really wanted to name her "Shelly" because of her shell skeleton. Total originality there! Anyways, my friend has been a foster Mom to Chloe for the past few months because we were on the road. Well, now with Ken back at Niagara & with me staying home more it's time for Chloe to come home!!! =)

There was a woman from a Farm in Iron Mountain selling fresh Free Range Chicken. The thought of the chickens not being penned up & not having anything injected into them totally appealed to us so we bought some breasts to try out.

Tomorrow I will be jammin 5 batches of rhubarb jam & making a big batch stewed tomatoes to can for future Ken's sketti meals. Did I ever mention what a fabulous cook Ken is? He's oober messy & doesn't clean up after himself but the dishes he makes have always been scrumptious!!

Why is it that most of the people who go to the Farmer's Market are 20 years or more older than me? Am I like one of the only people my age that get their thrills out of canning & preserving?

A pickin we will go!!!

On Thursday afternoon my friend Sam met me at my house & we headed up to camp to pick up my niece Brittany & headed to the strawberry patch. This was Brittany's 1st time ever picking strawberries so I was sure to take the camera with to document her picking adventure.

Well, the strawberry patch was packed!!! Which is a fantastic thing. They have this wagon pulled by a tractor that takes people out to the fields. Which is so nice because Sam decided to pick 3 flats, I had 3 flats as well & Brit was picking a flat for Ken's Mom. We were going to be picking fools!!!

The berries were extraordinary! We took advantage of a few picture opportunities & even tried to do a self picture of us in the wagon ride back to our vehicle all while bouncing around practically falling on each other. Ahhh fun times!!!

My niece Brittany & myself

Our self portrait didn't work too well!

On the way back into town I was sure to delight Sam & Brit with some Billy Joel to their soul! LOL I hope I didn't damage their ears or brains with my shananagins. Once again, fun times!

Once I dropped Brit back off & got home I had the daunting task of now cleaning these 3 flats of berries. I had spoke to Ken while cleaning the berries & he mentioned how he'd love to have some rhubarb. Only thing…the farmer's market does not have it anymore & I used mine up making jams last week. What to do, what to do. Soooo I called my swellacious neighbors. Why? Because they have heap loads of rhubarb in their yard of course. Just last week they told me we could take as much as we'd like. But I can't do that! So I called Tresa & asked her if we could trade. I'd bring her strawberries & she'd give me rhubarb!! Ahhh what a bargain!!! Gotta love that! I came home with an arm full of the rhubarb. But I still had a couple more flats to clean!

By the time Ken got home at 9pm I still had a half a flat left to clean & a quadruple batch of jam on the stove cooking & 2 loaves of angel food cake in the oven to take with us camping this weekend. Luckily I have a fabulous hubby! He grabbed a knife & helped me finish off the cleaning so we could head to camp for the long weekend!! =)

I've got a mystery here...

This some of what I've been up to....

Crocheted dishcloths, scarves & mittens have been consuming my free time. I've never worked with the purple fuzzy yarn before that I made the scarves with. But they stitched up fairly easily. Of course I'll make matching sets & gift them away.










Ok, so ya get to see our extremely outdated kitchen next!! I do however love my purple walls =) I fired up the ole dehydrator today & sliced up a watermelon. With only having two people in our house it makes it hard to consume a whole watermelon. I refuse to buy half a melon or pre-sliced for some bizarre reason. The fruit turns out just like candy from the dehydrator. Sure makes for a yummy non messy treat when we're trucking. After this batch I have a pineapple to dehydrate & I'll mix that with nuts & raisins for a trail mix. It's a great snack to take with when we go hiking. I also whipped up a small batch of strawberry jam this afternoon.






This is a patchwork afghan of 63 different stitches I made a couple years ago. Not long after I draped it on the den couch Allison came by & plopped her chubby self on the bottom of it. Our dog Macey is by the patio door & that's my furry fluffball Buster on the back of the couch.






Now this next afghan is a mystery stitch. My sister emailed me the other day asking me if I knew how to do this stitch & if I could teach her. She won the blanket at the Church Bizarre. Usually I am fairly good at looking at a stitch & figuring it out but this one has me stumped. Anybody know how to do this? Or what it's called? I've been a googleing buffoon trying to figure it out!!






















Tomorrow my friend Sam & I are going to go to the Farmer's Market & then on Thursday we are going strawberry picking!!! YAHOOOOO! Strawberries are finally ready in the good ole' Upper Peninsula! Bring on more jams & jellies & shortcakes galore!










This weekend we are going camping at Ken's family's camp. Not too many will be there but it'll still be fun to chillax & visit & eat smores!!! =) Is it the weekend yet????

We be Jammin'

Today I woke up feeling fantastic!! Such an awesome feeling!




Seeing today was so awesome I decided to start on making my jams & jellies. Last weekend I bought some rhubarb at our local Farmers Market. Then today I had to go to the regular grocery store’s produce department for the rest of my fruity needs. I made a batch of rhubarb jam, one batch of strawberry/rhubarb jam, one batch of peach jam & one batch of pear jam. I ended up with 7 jars of the pear, 7 peach, 10 strawberry/rhubarb, and 5 jars of the rhubarb.

I have this thing, when I make something I have to share it with my neighbors. Mrs Rinne, my step Mom, My mom in law & my neighbor each got one of the strawberry/rhubarb, a peach & a pear. still have plenty for Ken & I. I still have cherry jelly and strawberry jam to make.

Living in Upper MI doesn’t give us much of a growing season. Hopefully strawberries will be ready next week so I can get on a roll with that. We have two local strawberry patches here where we can pick our own berries. It’s pretty much a tradition.

I also am trying out wine making. I found a recipe a week or so ago. I wish I knew where I got it from. Anyways, I’ve never tried doing this & haven’t a clue how it will turn out. Funny thing is, neither Ken or I are wine drinkers much. My first batch is apple wine. I figure I can cook pork in it if I don’t feel like drinking. I’m not very patient & this recipe requires patience…not one of my strong points. It’ll take 30 days to do it’s fermenting process. Each of those days I have to stir the water, sugar, fruit mixture. After 30 days I can bottle it up & then let it sit on the shelf for up to 6 months. I reckon by the time it’s done I’ll be ready for a drink!!

My friend Sammi stopped by today on her way to a rummage sale. I haven’t been to a sale in a long time. It was just up the street so we walked there. She found a couple things & I found this stinkan adorable kitty toilet paper holder thingy for a buck & I had to have it for my bathroom!! Doesn't it look sooo fartan adorable in there!!