Butternut Squash

Mick bought at a grocery store butternut squash, grown at a local farm, for 29 cents a pound.

 I wish I would have had him buy more than five.

I've already cooked the squash and sealed in bags for the freezer.

Have you figured out that our Thanksgiving menu includes Butternut Squash?

The antique store owner gave me a Santa ornament. I added it to my grater display. Gosh, I hope I'm not his best customer.  : )

I made homemade vanilla, a vanilla bean & vodka. It takes about seven weeks.

Don't use the container that I used. Can't get a teaspoon of vanilla out of the jar without spilling. I poured my vanilla into an almost empty vanilla bottle.

Homemade Peppermint Bark

Homemade peppermint bark in Christmas cookie cutters. I bought the cutters last year at an "After Christmas Sale." Melt down Dark Chocolate Wilton Candy Melts for the first layer and just prior to hardening top with melted down White with Peppermint Candy Wilton Candy Melts.

 We found that using a sandwich bag with a hole cut in one corner worked better than the plastic container.

 You have a nice "two for the price of one gift." Candy and a cookie cutter!!!

Herbs

The herbs that I dried are all in bottles except the Parsley. The Parsley wasn't quite dry. I hung that bunch back in the closet.

I would never dry herbs again. It was a long process, made a huge mess when I took the leafs off the stems and it was difficult to stuff each bottle. It was one of those projects that I kept asking myself, "what the heck I'm I doing this for???" Can't you buy spices for $1.00 a plastic container?

I'm going to try & have fresh herbs to use over the winter. I dug out one of each variety and will keep in a sunny window. 

OpPS

This is what happened when I didn't follow my own recipe for Pumpkin Bread.

Not to worry we ate very bit of the bread on the outside of the cans.

Did you know there is a canned pumpkin shortage? Amie went to three stores in LA before she found any and Mom didn't have any in her hometown store. The manager of my grocery store told me the bakery wouldn't be having any pies this fall season. Better buy your canned pumpkin now, you might not find any when everyone else is trying to buy it when the season really kicks in.

Arts in the Park

The 21st annual Arts in the Park was Saturday. It's a benefit for our library. The library also sells used books which looked to be very popular.

Mom and Donna came up for the day. I think it may be the fourth or fifth time they've come up for Arts in the Park. It was a beautiful sunny day!
I served a lunch of field green's salad and Ham/Cheese/Broccoli Rolls.

The rolls look really nice after baking and tasted great. Although, they were a lot of work and I'm not sure if I would make again.

Hot Banana Peppers Canned

From start to clean-up finish, three hours.

My eyes were burning, I must have sneezed 20 times.

Working with peppers inside is no easy deal.

Mick thanked me.

I won't eat anything even remotely hot.

I made pints and ended up with 13.

Per quart jar

- 1/2 teaspoon of Oregano (I used fresh from my garden.)

- 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

- 4 cloves of garlic

- 2 teaspoons of salt

- 4 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1/2 & 1/2 water vinegar solution to fill jars

Let sit two weeks prior to eating.

I dug out from my herb garden one of each herb to keep thru the winter in the house. I've had good luck in the past with a very, very sunny kitchen window. We don't have a sunny kitchen window in our current house so the pot will end up in the guest room.

There is nothing better than using fresh herbs in your recipes!!

It's been two years since we've made spaghetti sauce. We love homemade spaghetti sauce!

I boiled it down for about four hours. When using Roma tomatoes there is not much boil away.

The fun part, pouring into the jars.

We ended up with nine quarters and two pints using half a bushel.

I made Cherry Pie Cups for our hospital auxiliary pie sale. They were easy to make & I will definitely make them again.

I was in the park at the antique show for the first two hours & they didn't seem to be selling.
I thought they turned out cute, they tasted good (I know cause I kept one) and I thought $2.00 was a fair price. So disappointing.

Wheat pizza dough from Price Chopper. Delicious!

Per what I read online, I let the dough rise for an hour & a half before baking. I could NOT tell the difference. Won't do that again.

Drying oregano and sage in the closet.

How does your garden grow?

I was able to pick a few ripened grape tomatoes from my garden.
There are many more tomatoes to come!
I wish I hadn't just planted grape tomatoes. They don't work very well for BLT's. Darn. There is always the farmers market.

Obama Cookies

I didn't see President Obama but I stood in the same spot he stood. During his trip to Canada he visited a bakery in the ByWard Market & apparently after his visit they named their cookies after him. Are they giving him royalties?

They have a great marketing strategy because we had to buy one just because of the name. I'm sure that strategy would not have worked with Mick. He would not have been persuaded. In fact it would have had the opposite affect on him. The cookies are good. Although, they are not the best sugar cookie I've ever tasted and I did not care for the frosting, it's a very hard glaze.

Vanilla Bean Scones

Amie arrived to G2 yesterday afternoon. We had a nice dinner together and evening tea served with vanilla bean scones, homemade Vanilla Bean Scones, here is the recipe. Disregard the 20 minutes prep time. Ha, ha, ha. It took me 20 minutes to cut the three vanilla beans open & remove the caviar. Wish I took a picture of the mess. It took me 20 minutes to clean up everything. The time involved aside, the scones are DELICIOUS !!

Welcome back Amie!

Beef Bourguignon

Ever since reading & seeing Julie & Julia I've been wanting to make Beef Bourguignon. So much so that I asked for & received a Dutch Oven for Christmas. Since Christmas I've made a bean soup, was probably the best soup I've ever made, & a chicken & mushroom dish.

For the Beef Bourgugnon I didn't use Julia Child's recipe. I used one off the Internet. I've never had Beef Bourguignon before so I have nothing to compare mine to but, it tasted so good. It was also the first time I've cooked with or had shallots. I liked the shallots and will diffidently cook with them again. The recipe called for serving over mashed potatoes or egg noddles. I served oven mashed potatoes, which was a bit much. Next time I'd serve over noodles. Get to your kitchen & make Beef Bourguignon you won't be disappointed.

Had dinner out on Saturday night at friends. I was told not to bring anything for the dinner so I made chocolate treats for each family invited. I filled jars, pickle jars to be exact, with the treats & decorated each jar with a tag. The "B" was for the host.

I used Martha Stewart glitter on the "m." If you ever buy glitter make sure it is Martha's glitter, it's wonderful!
I tried to have each tag representative of each family.
The chocolate treats were made with Puffed Kamut, cranberries, toasted pecans & sea salt. Not sure if I would make again.

Super Bowl

Watched the Super Bowl at Mike & Bonnie's. Can't say it was a "Super Bowl Party" since the NY Giants were not in the game.

I brought dessert, football themed cupcakes. I piped on the chocolate frosting. They do not look like bakery cupcakes. My piping skills need a lot of work. I so enjoyed the game. I wanted the Saints just because I like always like the underdog. Again all the so called TV "experts" got their picks wrong. Just like when the Giants played New England. All that's left is now for sports is SU Basketball. Can't wait to see what their ranking will be today. I'm guessing TWO.

How long?

I forgot how much a healthy young man can eat. How long do you think it took to eat a raspberry pie, made with berries from Big Uncle David's garden?Oh, about six hours.
He also ate an entire pumpkin pie & just over half a blueberry pie during his four days at home. Not to worry, he's at the gym just about every night.

Book Club

Our selection was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It was the first time I think I actually read the Charles Dickens version. I believe prior readings had been story book versions to the kids. I was the host, I love hosting. I made galette. It was my own concoction with cranberry jam, apples & dried cranberries on the top. Very fallish. Keeping up with my tradition. I gave everyone a book mark. They are quite lame compared to last year.

Next year I'll be hosting two times. We have seven members and we meet nine times. It's way past my two time turn.