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Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Sister time.

If there was an upside to dad's passing, it was that my two sisters and I got to spend some quality time together.  We carved our Halloween pumpkins and went apple-picking at a lovely local orchard. 

I got mine hollowed out, but then all creative thought screeched to a halt.  I had to noodle it around for another two days before I carved mine.
I heard a lot of hissing from Slimmie and then the dogs started barking up a storm - there was an intruder on the deck!
I feel it's important to keep them on their toes...

It was a perfect day to go apple-picking and I was introduced to a new (to me) variety of apple - the Liberty.  It is a smaller, dark red apple that is very sweet and not too soft.  A delicious eating apple. You can see Connie and I hard at it in the bottom picture.


I had a bag of second apples that Marianne had given me, so I tried out a new gluten free apple crisp.  I really loved the apple part, but the crisp part was too thick for me.  A new take on flavoring the apples was to add two tablespoons of bourbon and two tablespoons of water, with cinnamon, lemon juice and a little cornstarch.  The crisp topping called for oatmeal, a little melted butter, chopped pecans, almond flour, and Greek yogurt.  It wasn't bad at all, but definitely was better eaten warm.  I'll be experimenting over the fall and winter - since I will be the recipient of many organic apple 'seconds'.  I sure don't mind a spot or two, or three - especially for cooking apples!

This week I launch into Soup Season - with a new recipe for pumpkin and black bean soup.  It also has a diced sweet potato and a little minced jalapeno, so it sounds divine.  I will report back!

Because of recent events, I am very behind on my winter prep, so I am taking Thursday and Friday off.  Of course, it will rain all day tomorrow and Friday is forecast for 45 mph wind gusts.  That will put the coop cleaning off until Saturday, when it's dry and not windy - just very cold.  Has to be done, so I am going to dig out my mittens!  Good thing I have lots to do, both inside and out, so that no minute is wasted.  Woohoo!


14 comments:

Michelle said...

I NEED that pumpkin/black bean soup recipe! Too bad you can switch your days off to ones with better weather – although I suspect any that you take will serve as much needed 'mental health' days regardless of weather. Much love!

Susan said...

Sounds beautifully autumnal and good for the soul.

Mama Pea said...

Loved the carved pumpkins. So great that you three sisters still do it.

Yep, 'tis apple picking time . . . which means all kinds of good tasting treats made with apples. I used to LOVE caramel apples (still do), but trying to curtail the amount of sugar ingested . . . well, that kinda takes the fun out of caramel apples. Grump, groan, growl. Hope your two days "off" turn out to be profitable, good weather ones.

Annsterw said...

I love that you found an upside to a very sad occasion. Also, so very sorry about your Dad's passing. You are in my prayers!

jaz@octoberfarm said...

i love those JOL's! i never thought of placing mine where i could actually see it! it's being moved to the back porch tonight!

Goatldi said...

The pumpkin 🎃 is the cats PJ’s!

Now I need apple crisp. Love the stuff. So glad you and the sisters had time. So important.

My Idaho friend is visiting. Her father passed while she is here. I shared with your blog post. Not unexpected as your experience but the timing availed her to be there.

Be brave kiss the critters and carry on.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Yes, let us know about the soup. It sounds wonderful. We are so far behind in winter prep it's not funny. Sigh...here's hoping we all catch up.

Rain said...

Happy Halloween Susan! :) Your pumpkins look great! Nice photos of the apple picking!! Tis the season for sure. And yes, soup season is upon us too! :)

ellen abbott said...

I haven't carved a pumpkin in years! I'm not a big apple fan unless it's for cooking. baked apples, apple pie...yes! it's cold here now, supposed to get to 29˚ tonight. too cole. it's either too hot or too cold. whatever happened to temperate?

Ed said...

I need to kick off soup season in our household. Thanks for the reminder!

Nancy In Boise said...

Your dogs are funny! Gotta protect Mom!!! We finally started using a light up fake carved pumpkin outside for our trick and treaters. Sad, I know. I love apples, never heard of that variety. Hoping for better weather for you! Winters here, 22 this morning, but sunny...

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Your Jack-o-Lanterns rock!

Lynne said...

Looks like you had fun in the apple orchard.Wonderful to be with your sisters. As we get older we realize how important those time together are! Apple crisp sounds good. Hopefully Friday will be the better day. They cancelled some of the Halloween activities because of the rain and high winds. xo

Jenny Woolf said...

Those are pretty apples. And the pumpkin carving is damn near professional. I would never be able to do that.