Pumpkin Patch

We're off to find our pumpkins!

The first little one we found. The field had been picked over pretty well and there weren't very many big ones left.

Such a cutie!

I look like such a dork in this picture!

We wanted a big one to carve, so we drove to another place and got this guy. He's huge!

Paul and his big pumpkin

I wanted to try and show you how the pumpkin is almost bigger than the dog, but after trying unsuccessfully to get Scottie to sit next to the pumpkin I just gave up and took this picture. You can see Paul laughing at the dog and me.

Another attempt to get Scottie in the picture, he finally sat, but not next to the pumpkin or even looking at the camera, oh well.

Birthday Pics

Here are the pics from my birthday dinner last night. The family and I went out to eat at a great Italian restuarant in town. The pics look a little funny because I had the flash turned off.

Dad is the middle, John (brother) on the right and dad's girlfriend on the left.
My brother, hates having his picture taken and it's always a fight to get one of him.
Paul and I

My Favorite cake, chocolate with vanilla icing and sprinkles

John and I again, taken after way too much pasta and ice cream.

Reese the Helper

Reese likes to help us while we're in the kitchen. Here she is checking pears.

I'm not sure exactly how much help she was here, but she assured me that she was helping.

She really likes to help me get ready for work but rubbing all over my nice black pants. Everytime!!

Fall Vacation

We took a few days off this week from work and I was on fall break from school so we did up some canning. I had been saving all the tomatoes and peppers from the garden in the freezer.

Here is Hot Red Sauce - 5 pints. Everything in this but the vinegar was from our garden.

Friends gave us a bushel of apples and a bushel of pears yesterday and we spent all day processing the apples. We made two apple pies (I forgot to take pics) and put in the freezer for later. Below is 9 pints of apple quarters in a light syrup. These can be used for desserts later or just to eat. My favorite item we made - 12 pints of homemade applesauce!!!! My mom always made us homemade applesauce and now I can't stand the storebought, so I was so happy to make some. It tastes so good and I'm not sharing any of it!! We bought a really cool gadget today which helped make it, an immersion blender, that thing is soooo neat. It really pureed the sauce quickly and easily.

4 pints and 1half pint of taco sauce. This was so easy and cheap to make and tastes exactly the same if not better than the store stuff.

Thursday I cooked up two chickens and made a bunch of chicken broth and took my frozen beef broth out of the freezer to can. I think there is 6 quarts and 12 pints of broth. I highly recommend making your own broth, it's super easy, cheaper and tastes better than the store kind.

Our pantry is officially full. I'm making some caramel apple jam tomorrow with a friend and Paul and I still have to do the bushel of pears, but other than that we are done with canning until next year. It sure will be nice to enjoy the fruits of our labor this winter.

I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely fall colors and cool nights!