Fall Randomness

Well! I had not intended to be away from the blog for that long! It seems my to-do and to-make lists for this fall are big and mighty. Down time has not been much lately which is when I usually have time to process and post and write about stuff. I've got a bit to catch you up on!

I've been apple picking and apple processing. Full posts about apples to follow shortly.

After receiving our large cabbage delivery from my dad, Paul and I are trying out a different method of sauerkraut making. We are a week into it at this point and so far so good. When the results are ready, I will post a comparison between last year's (not very good) batch and this year's (hopefully really tasty) batch.

Along with the cabbage, we also received a cellar's full of squash, pumpkins and potatoes. There will be a lot of roasting and baking in my near future. I've also enjoyed sharing the wealth as I have lots of local friends who also treasure the tastiness of winter squash.

I've been pulling in the last of the crops from our garden and processing them. There have been a plentiful amount of small tomatoes still coming out of the garden. Those have been roasted, dried and frozen as they come in to the house. These particular roasted tomatoes were made using the recipe from Supernatural Everyday. I used some in the black bean salad recipe also from the book and froze some for use later. This book is new to my collection and I have been working my way through a bunch of the recipes.

I've also been making sure to spend a lot of time hanging out with people because as soon as the temps go low and the ice sets in, I am much less motivated to leave my house for social occasions. A few of my social outings recently include: an art opening with Jessy (photo above), attending and hosting some great crafting sessions, a dinner party where I met a whole new group of people, a yarn tasting with Jill and an open mic session at a neighborhood cafe. Paul and I have ate meals at a few new and a few favorite restaurants and we have been trying to get back on the cooking-great-meals-at-home bandwagon. It is funny how the gardening and preserving season takes over the kitchen and preparing meals takes a lower priority.

We've also been working on a lot of home and yard improvements. Rabbit proof fencing has gone up around the garden. Paint colors and flooring are being carefully selected and installed. Long researched and debated pieces of furniture and lighting are coming in and mismatched, random acquisitions from the past are being handed on to others. With each new box that appears, it must undergo the Fanny inspection. She wastes no time getting to work as this stack was in the house no more than 2 minutes before she took her perch.

With each change we make and each project we finish, it feels more and more like home here.