Happy Day

Wednesday was Hubs' birthday. Although there are many, many reasons I love that guy, I thought I would give you just a few in honor of the day he was born.

There are some men who are made to be fathers. Hubs is one of them. I have never know a man who is more affectionate and loving with his children. My girls and his son are very lucky to get to call him Dad.

He does not have a judgemental bone in his body. He gets that from his mom. He's not perfect and he doesn't expect perfection from anyone else.

He is ALWAYS willing to help. My parents ask him for help more often than they ask my brother and Hubs never complains. Need help moving? Sure! Need someone to run to the store/pharmacy/doctor's office? Sure! Need a ride? Sure! He never says no when he is able to help. All you have to do is ask.

The man can cook. If I get the ingredients and recipe, turn him loose and voila! dinner is served. And we ain't talkin' Kraft dinner here. He makes homemade pizza, delicious soup, pasta, you name it, he can make it.

He's funny. If there's one thing I look for in a friend, it's sense of humor.

And if that isn't enough, Hubs is really good looking.

I am so glad he was born.

 This picture is documenting a Trifecta of Manliness

1. Beer Drinking

2. Brake Changing

3. Steak Grilling

Apple Budda

Since I did not get the variety and type of apples I wanted last week at the orchard, I decided to try something new. And because I'm pretty lazy busy, I decided to try that something new in my crock pot.

Hello, ladies.

 I stripped 'em down,

chopped them and and threw them in the (crock) pot.

Several (like 8) hours later I had:

I added a whole vanilla bean, because....well, because I had one and I love vanilla, so why not? I pulled out the vanilla bean and took my immersion blender to pot. It turned out beautifully!

Rich and so, so smooth & creamy!

And because I mentioned my immersion blender, I will also mention that I use it a lot. It's one of my favorite kitchen tools. Easy to use, no transferring hot shit to the actual blender and you can use it right in your crock pot or pan on the stove or in a mason jar! Love it.

Frost Scare

For the past few weeks, because fall was knocking on my door, I've made a habit of pulling tomatoes before they're ripe. I have a zillion green tomatoes on the plants. I figured if I took the ones that can easily ripen on my windowsill, my plants can focus their energy on the green ones, right?

Well, then days and nights started cooling and I got a little pushy. Any tomato who made even the slightest comment about their willingness to leave the plant got snatched up. It's worked out OK, even though I can hear some of them whispering about me from the windowsill:  "Can you believe she did it? I was just trying to be nice...Did you see what she did to so-and-so?"

All I can say is that someone had to make the tough decision.

And then we got it...the dreaded frost warning.  I pulled every last 'mater that had even the faintest blush on it.

Green ones plucked by Lovie.

But then what? What the eff do I do about 200 really green tomatoes left after that?
Fried green tomatoes. OK, that takes care of 3...
Chutney? Well, I've never made it or eaten it, so I was not sure about that. And I already have a ton of tomatoes, a bag of apples and 2 dozen pears to deal with.

My beds are pretty big, so I didn't have any reasonable way to cover them.

Hubs and I took a walk, hoping to find my neighbor and ask for her Master Gardner advice, but she was nowhere to be found.

I was on my own.

I didn't want to waste food, but I decided to take my chances. I figured either they would live to see another day and have a chance to fulfill their destiny or...not.

The Red Stripe plant took a hit.

But the rest of the team held up pretty well. I just need a little more time for these guys.

I think I'll still end up with a lot of green tomatoes, but I'll try to get a plan together.

Cookies!

In an attempt to be healthier, I want to incorporate more whole grains into our food. And because there is now way we are going to stop eating stuff like cookies, I am trying to find healthier ways to make the stuff my family loves.

My mom and dad gave me this book yesterday.

My mom asked if the recipes will make us healthy. Not healthy, Mom, but healthier.  Baby steps, k?

The first recipe is for Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies. Since I had almost*  all of the ingredients, I took it as a sign that I should definitely make them.

 *I did not have bittersweet chocolate, so I used a mix of milk and dark.

 The recipe only made 18 cookies, but they are BIG. And they are delicious! A little crisp on the edge and chewy and moist in the middle. Seriously, a perfect cookie. And whole wheat!

This is the only one left. 

OK, not really. They are really rich and believe it or not one is enough. (I can't believe I just wrote that!)

So, recipe #1 is a hit. I'll have to hide a couple of these for my mom & dad.

Pear Muffins

Now that it's Fall (I know it's not technically fall for a few more days, but tell that to the frost on my windshield.) I feel like baking is in order.
Hubs likes to point out that I usually bake on the hottest day of the year, because somehow, 98 degree weatherscreams, "freshly baked bread!" Whatever, he eats half a loaf before it even cools off.

Anyway, my neighbor has pear trees and I am so jealous. Last ear, he told us to pick some if we wanted, but as I mentioned before, I was hugely preggers with Tootsie and thought I'd better stay away from more projects than my very limited energy could stand. Oh, and also I guess there is something about front-heavy pregnant ladies not climbing ladders. So, we didn't take any pears last year.

This year is obviously a different story. In fact, I've been stalking said pear trees for weeks, ever since I saw the golden raindrops appear on it's branches.
Our neighbor is a dude, Hubs is a Dude. This automatically makes any business between our houses Man Work. I told Hubs over and over to ask if we could have pears this year. Do you think he asked?
He said, "I'm sure it's fine, just pick them."

So, I did. And then I Facebooked my neighbor to tell him what I'd done. His response?

"You know I have a neighbor who is a police officer. I might have to report you."

Good thing I know that police officer and he's scared of me.

 Pear Muffins from one of my favorite bloggers.

It went from here...

 to here...

to here!

They are tasty! Lovie and Tootsie gobbled them up. My mom showed up just in time to have one and I sent a few home with her for my dad. What a nice daughter I turned out to be.

Hubs ate one when he got home and the next morning told me he thinks these are his favorite muffins. 

Hello, Fall!

 We went to our local apple orchard. I had big ideas about picking a bushel of apples for eating and saucing and pie making. They only had McIntosh and Empire, though, and I really like to have a mix of several types. So, we only picked half a bushel or a peck or whatever the hell you call it.

Lovie was in heaven. She loves apples. "More ap-poe?" She says it over and over. Lucky for the farmer, she only ate one this year. Last year when we went, I was extremely pregnant with Tootsie and did not have the energy to stop her from taking 3 bites of an apple, dropping it and going back for more. I'm pretty sure she destroyed 2 dozen last year.

The temps have dropped and I've got a cold. Not a good combo for garden harvesting and preserving. Bleh.
.

Cowgirl Wedding

 Here's the final product. After many, many cake experiments, King Arthur won. I did make butter cream frosting, per the bride's request, but let me tell you I tried half a dozen other frostings first. I was desperately trying to find one that tastes as good but isn't so much effing work. No luck, so butter cream was made.

 But I love this gal and would gladly do it again.

Some a-hole brought a professionally made wedding cake to help feed the masses. It made my cake look like the homemade dress in a beauty pageant. Boo.

 But I have to tell you, my cake was freaking awesome. And Hubs said it was not the 12 beers I drank telling me it was awesome. It really was awesome!
(I had to stop the chocolate-crazed guests to snap that picture before they gobbled up what was left.)




As a side-note, Hubs and I had a fabulous time together at the wedding and reception. We are almost never without the girls. I did a lot of cussing and Hubs did a lot of dirty talking.