Returning Back To My Domestic Side

Another Sibling Assignment is this:

Find a photograph you snapped last year that epitomizes 2099 for you and explain.

I have rediscovered the joy of being domestic.

I have always loved cooking, baking, canning, creating things, and sharing them with other people.

With the busyness of life and children getting older, I haven't experienced many of the things I used to do when the girls were younger.

But this last year I seem to have rediscovered some of those joys, and put them back into practice.

Canning and preserving food was one of the big things I did this last year.  We moved into our current house in the spring of 2006, and I know the stovetop at our new house has never had a canner with boiling hot water and glass jars perched on top of it.

But last summer that changed.  Last summer, as I started harvesting the garden, and picking apples off a friend's tree, I was given suggestions of what to do with the bounty, and canning was part of those suggestions.  First there was the spicy apple chutney, and the apple pie filling, and the salsa.

Then I headed to my sister's in October, to make more chutney, and grape jelly, and dry apples.

This Christmas, it was such a joy to share canned goods with friends and family.

I am also spending more time knitting.

And I am creating more home cooked meals from scratch, which has also been a delight.

I love being domestic, using my hands and heart to be creative, and share that creativity with others.

As Martha says, "It is a very good thing."

Yes oui we we Can Can

Oh can you do the Can Can?
If you can then I can
I can Can Can if you Can Can
Can you Can Can

Oh we can do the Can Can
Yes oui we we Can Can
We can Can Can
Yes oui we can Can

IEG and I are not kicking our legs up in the air this weekend at the Moulin Rouge....no, we are having a nice retreat here at her house, with me doing the "Can Can" with jars, lids and rings and lots of apples I purchased down the road from IEG's house at the Sherman Creek Orchard.

The apple fest began last night with cutting up apples and placing them in the food dehydrator, so I could have some nice dried apples.

This morning, I woke up and prepared 13 quarts of "Little Old Morman Lady Apple Pie Filling". (That is the actual name of the recipe...it is SO DELICIOUS!!)


Then I started chopping apples for the Spicy Apple Chutney. I canned 18 pints of the chutney.

And I'm not done yet....tomorrow morning, I take some grape juice JEJ made from the grapes in the garden, and make grape jelly.


Some of these things will be used at home, some will be sold next week at the Harvest Bazaar at our church to help with Mission's Projects, and some will be given as Christmas gifts.

There is something about canning that just makes me feel so domestic. I absolutely love it, and love the fact that I have taken good, wholesome ingredients and combined them for others to enjoy.

I'm feeling a bit like Martha Stewart today......Canning is a GOOD THING!!!

A Very Productive Sunday

Today has been a very productive day.

This morning we visited a new church that we are thinking of attending. It is the church I grew up in here in Kellogg. It used to be called The United Church of Kellogg, but it is now called Mountain View Congregational Church. It was fun seeing people who attended when I was growing up, and other people I know who I didn't realize were at this church. We really enjoyed the Adult Sunday School Class, and also the service. I think we may have found a new church home.

Then I came home to spend the day canning.

Yesterday, I canned Apple Pie Filling.

Today I made Spicy Apple Chutney and canned it. This is so delicious. It tastes a little like Green Tomato Mincemeat, but with a bite, because there is crushed red pepper, jalapeno and chili pepper in it as well.


Then I sliced zucchini and crookneck squash and canned some pickles.

I also went outside and did a tour of our yard and garden. Things are slowing down out there, but there are still some things on the vine.

I have about four small pumpkins growing, and hopefully they will be ripe in time to make pies for Thanksgiving!!

Still need to pick all my ripe tomatoes. I think they may turn into salsa!!
My green beans didn't do that well this year. But there are some to pick, and cook on the stove all day with some bacon. One of my favorite ways to eat green beans.
Still have a few crookneck squash growing.
And at least one zucchini.

Here is a new addition to our yard. It is a peach tree. We received as a gift from the Pastors at the church we just left, to remind us that we will be bearing new fruit in our new church. They were very generous and loving to share with us such a gift. I'm really looking forward to some peaches next year!!! And it is a kind of peach that is suppose to produce fruit in Kellogg.

Well, that is enough for today. I have some more pics of the yard, but I'll share those later. I'm getting tired, and it is almost time for bed!!