Garden Goodies

Fall time is harvest time!  And that means a lot more to us now that we have a garden.  Our tomatoes started coming in full swing about a month ago, but they haven't really slowed down much!  And now that our jalapenos are coming in too, we've been up to our eyeballs in salsa!!  Cam did an excellent job making fresh salsa for us at first. We were eating it on everything!  I even made quite a few dishes with fresh tomatoes for dinner (thank you pinterest!).  But it just got to be too much to handle.  This was a typical days take from our garden.

For a good 3 weeks, we would gather that much about every other day. it was incredible!!  So we decided it was time to can.  We don't have a pressure canner (something I WILL be investing in before next year) so we had to do the water bath version.  After finding a salsa canning recipe we liked we set to work (well, Cam did really!)  He did one batch one night, about 5 jars. It turned out yummy, and we had PLENTY of veggies left to use, so he made another batch the next day.  The boys liked helping.  We let them peel the tomatoes, since that's the least favorite job, but they really did a good job.  And all in all we ended up with about 10 pints.  And that was a few weeks ago now, so we should probably do another round! I'm looking forward to our yummy home grown salsa all winter long!

Cam picked out the plants to plant this year, and one he picked was a "scorpion pepper." We thought it was a ghost pepper, but I guess it isn't.  We weren't quite sure what to expect from this plant, or from the peppers really, other than the fact they will be SUPER HOT!!  So about a month ago, Cam picked a green one and took it into work. It was hot.  But then a few more on the plant started turning orange before we could pick them, so Cam started thinking maybe the other one wasn't ripe.  So we let the next few grow a little more and turn orange. I was making Gumbo one night about a week ago because we had gotten a cold snap, and Cam thought that would be a good dish to add the pepper to. 

So he cut off about a third of this little Inch and a half sized pepper. Chopped it up into about 4 teeny-tiny bites and mixed it into his gumbo.  I missed the first bite he took because I was still taking a picture of the second pepper, but I knew once he had gotten a bit of it!  He started coughing and choking and sputtering.  Sucking down milk left and right, and sucking cool air in over his tongue.  I was laughing.  To most people this would be painful, and a sign of too much. But not Cam. That's a sign of something good!!  I still remember when we were first married and in a store for Hot sauces. He tried the hottest one they had on a toothpick and it immediately sent him into a similar frenzy.  But the first words out of his mouth were - I'll take it! But this pepper was just a little bit much for him!  The second and third bites of pepper were just compounding too much for him and he had to dig around for the last few to take out of his dinner.  I couldn't help but laugh at him (because he did it to himself).  And frankly I don't think he's eaten the rest of it.  lol  That is definitely a first for Cam. I've never seen anything "too hot" for him! 

Another yummy treat I've been into lately is Apples.  A few years ago I found a really good recipe for Apple/Pear butter.  I LOVE Apple butter!!!  There used to be a place in Nashville (IN) that had some really good stuff, but obviously that's out of the question now!  So when I discovered Martha Stewarts version, I was so excited.  It cooks in the crockpot so it's really easy, and the pears add a little bit of extra sweetness to it.  Needless to say I've been waiting for apples to go on sale this fall so I can make a TON of it!!  (it freezes nicely, and last year I even canned some). Well, this week organic honey crisp apples were on sale, and I went a little crazy!  And I'm glad I did because they are SO GOOD!!!  I made my first batch of apple butter a couple days ago and wanted to eat the whole crockpot full right then and there!! 

And I plan on making the rest into applesauce here in the next couple days. The way my family eats applesauce though I better head back to the store and get some more apples!  (Maybe we should plant an apple tree too)  lol

Other news is scarce right now. We are just getting into the swing of the school year and have a great little system going. Riley and Jayce are both loving school!  Riley is really doing good, and Jayce hates that he has to wait until after lunch to go to school.  He wants to go at the same time that Riley goes.  ;)  Amara is enjoying herself, but naps when Jayce is gone so she usually doesn't notice that she has time as an only child.  I haven't taken too many photos of them recently, with school in session it's just a little harder. But I think this weekend we are going to go up to the mountains for a little aspen viewing and try to get some family photos at the same time. We'll see how that goes, since Mommy isn't the best photographer when she's in the photos too. It may just be a kiddo session!  One pic I do have is of Amara.  Last week we introduced her to the potty chair. She's definitely ready for potty training. She tells us when she's wet or poopy and doesn't like sitting in it.

I said I would start potty training when the boys started school, but I haven't really done that yet.  And we didn't bring it out for her. Lately, Jayce has had problems not getting it in the toilet. He's been "potty trained" for a while now, pretty much a year. He has occasional accidents, which is fine, but lately it's gotten worse. Earlier this spring he was having a lot of #1 accidents, and it took us a while to figure out how to stop that one. But starting early August he was having #2 accidents. YUCK!!!  We didn't think to much of it, but it kept getting more frequent. To the point it was happening 2-3 times a DAY!!! So I took him to the doctor to make sure there wasn't a medical issue that was causing it, and it didn't help. So we took a friends advice to put the responsibility of "teaching" Amara to poop in the potty. We told him we are potty training her and he has to be the big brother and help her learn how to do it right. AND IT WORKED!!!!  He hasn't pooped his pants in almost a week!!  (Knocking on wood here). Let's hope this is the end of the regression accidents.

Not much coming up in the future.  I think I finally decided what everyone is doing for Halloween this year.  It's gonna be a easy costume year. I've already got a lot of orders for my business and so I won't have much time to put into Halloween this year. (not that I really do ever anyways) But the boys picked out their costumes as part of a matching set, so they will be coordinated, but Amara won't be. I know I should do another family themed one since they are still young enough to let me, but I just don't have the energy this year. Hopefully next year I can convince them to do it again! 

I can't believe that September is already almost over. Time just keeps on whipping by!