Canning

Here are a few pictures of what I canned this summer.

This was the first time I've ever canned peaches & they were a lot of work, but they are oh so good!!!

This is what I made with the peach skins--Peach Honey.  Here is the link to this awesome recipe by Gertrude Buchanan.

This was also the first time I canned pears & after all the peaches I canned, it was nice to have help from Matthew and the kids.  It sure went a lot faster with help.

I kept the skins from the pears as well and made yummy pear honey using the same recipe as the peach honey.  All I can say about all this honey is yum, yum, yum!  It's divine on toasted honey whole wheat bread.

This is the first year I grew pickling cucumbers & my plant took forever to grow cucumbers, so I only got 3 jars of dill pickles.  I think Matthew is waiting to open them because he knows he only has 3 jars & he'd probably eat an entire jar at one sitting. :)  

We have raspberry bushes that provide lots and lots of raspberries, so I was able to make enough jelly to get us through the entire year & I still have a little raspberry juice in the freezer.

*pics taken 10/19/13

Fishy Food

This is the fish that Matthew caught...

This is the fish that Matthew grilled.

These are the kids that suffered through eating it (except Carlie)...

This one in particular was at the table for a few hours,

and we found most of the fish on the floor.

P.S.  The fish was really yummy, we just have silly kids.

*pics taken July 22, 2012

Treats for School Store

Kalin's grade was having a "Goods and Services Mini Mall" & she had to come up with either a good or service to sale.

She came up with the idea all on her own to make cupcakes.

We bought a confetti cake mix and I helped her prepare the cupcakes.

She was so excited to get to do most of the baking and decorating herself.

She even got to pipe on the pink frosting.

She got frustrated a few times with the frosting, but overall she had a great time decorating them.

Lexi was a real big help too. Can't you tell?

Mostly she just wanted to eat them :)

Here she is with her cute creations, topped with bunny marshmallows.
She came home from school & said that she made the most money because she made 81 cupcakes & sold each one for a dollar (fake school money).
Too bad it's not real money, so I could have some ;)
She gets to spend that money on Thursday when other students bring items to sell, so we'll see what she comes home with.

*pics taken 4/18/2011

Easy Bake Oven Cookies

Kalin got another easy bake oven cookie mix for Christmas and she was dying to make them.

We had time on a Saturday to help her out with the baking.

It took quite some time just to make these five cookies because she could only find one of her baking pans and each cookie had to cook 8 minutes and cool in the warmer for awhile too.

Each cookie was cut in half and then topped with the marshmallow cream & chocolate cream.

Then Kalin assembled everything and it was ready to eat.

She was nice enough to share with everyone.

Everyone got their own and loved it.

We have a chef in the making. Great job Kalin!

*pics taken 1/15/11

Melted Snowman Cookies

I saw this awesome idea all over the internet and the kids and I wanted to try it.

This was our attempt at melted snowman cookies.

They were so much fun to make & a great Christmas Eve activity.

Ethan decorating with his fingers.

Lexi decorating.

Kalin decorating her cookie. She was sad that her eyes ran & her snowman looked like he was crying. It was the color gel she was using.
Lexi's final result. Mostly I helped her because she didn't want to do the details :)

Kalin's cute crying snowman.

Ethan's cookie already half eaten before I could get the picture.

They were yummy cookies for sure!!

*pics taken 12/24/10

Fig Cookies

Growing up, one of Matthew's family traditions was to eat fig cookies at his Grandpa's house.

This year he wanted to try and make them himself and see if they were just as good as he remembered.

This is Matthew trying to halve the recipe.

This is his look of "would you get that camera out of my face while I'm trying to concentrate".

This is the recipe all scratched up with new measurements.

Some of the ingredients.

The fig filling.

Matthew doing his baking thing.

And his mixing thing.

The final product.

Aren't they beautiful?

I'm not a huge fig cookie fan, but they were yummy & he did an awesome job!

Grandpa would be so proud!!

I'm a lucky woman because my man can cook and bake :)

*pics taken 12/12/10

Sometimes we eat cereal for dinner!

That's just how it goes some nights :)

And you definitely have to finish what's in the bowl!

*pics taken 12/12/10

Happy Thanksgiving

Our favorite Thanksgiving family tradition is to go around the table and say what we're thankful for. This year our children wanted to go around and around and around the table with thanks and that was okay with us :)

Every year we're so grateful for our Savior for blessing us with this beautiful little family that we get to love and spend time with! We are so blessed and so thankful!!

Matthew and I love us some good Turkey grubbin!!

Homemade rolls.


Scrammin stuffin.

Matthew's cranberry sauce and olives. I'm not a fan, but it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it.

Green bean casserole.

Marshmallowy yams

All of that needs to be topped off with pie!!
Matthew loves pecan pie, so we had some of that and some pumpkin pie too!

These are all our pictures of our Turkey day, minus the turkey picture. It wasn't that appetizing looking once it was all cut up, but Matthew makes the BEST turkey EVER!!!

*pics taken 11/25/2010