In The Refiner's Fire

Phlox and Snapdragons in my garden earlier this summer. It's the first week of October this week!  I am amazed at how quickly this year has flown by.  We have a busy October, including a Wedding and helping my in-laws move to a new home.   We also have two baby showers for a my two sisters-in-law that are due with babies in January and February respectively.  It will be a busy month! Our garden is still plugging away - we harvested tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers this past week and are looking at harvesting more plus cauliflower, broccoli and carrots this coming week.  We have the end of year Harvest Party for our CSA on Saturday this week; something we look forward to each year. Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, September 29:      Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast and Raspberry-Banana Smoothies      Lunch: Waffles with Walnuts and Peaches      Snack: Popcorn      Di...

Tomato Sauce in the making! This week felt like such a busy week.  I ended up with a sinus headache the end of the week and that took up so much time.  We have settled into a schedule now, which does make things easier.  I am grateful for the weekend and some time to relax and play catch up with all the things that went undone this week. Here are the things we did this week that we count as frugal: * Made soup, two types of bread, roasted chicken and vegetables, and pancakes at home this week. * I started another Christmas gift this week.  I hope to finish it early in the week so I can make another this next week. * My husband cleaned out his office at work and brought home some unused notebooks for us to use at home. * I "canned' four more pint jars of tomato sauce this week. * We harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers from the garden. * We cleaned out two more boxes of items from the utility room in the basement. * I picked flowers from the...

Do you see the purple peppers hiding in my pepper plant?  Yum! We have so much produce in our refrigerator and freezers right now - I feel like all I do is spend my time trying to use up and preserve produce!  That is a very good thing and I am feeling very blessed by it all. Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, September 22:     Breakfast: Toast and Mango-Raspberry Smoothies     Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Cut Veggies     Snack: Popcorn     Dinner: Scrambled Eggs, Cinnamon Biscuit Twists, Fruit Monday, September 23:     Breakfast: Eggs and Toast     Lunch: Salad with Walnuts, Grapes and Mandarin Oranges     Snack: No Bake Energy Bites     Dinner: Pasta with Meatballs, Garlic Bread Tuesday, September 24:      Breakfast: Overnight Oatmeal      Lunch: Leftover Pasta and Meatballs      Snack: No Bake Energy Bites  ...

Heirloom zinnias in my garden - these have made me so happy this year! And, hopefully, they will reseed themselves for next year! We are definitely heading into fall here in Minnesota.  The trees are just starting to change color, the breezes are returning and the nighttime temperatures are starting to drop.  Summer has made one more appearance this week with temperatures in the 80's F and 92% humidity (ick!) but that is okay.  Fall is my favorite time of year - I love the colors, the temperatures and all the fall produce from the garden - and I can wait a little more if I have to. Our summer felt very short this year so a few extra days is just fine. We have had a busy week this week.  Or at least it felt that way.  Today we have our fall festival at church and the children are heading to their first school dance of the year this year too.  They are so excited about both.  Our daughter's dance line received very nice ballet shoes yesterday and ...

Kellogg Breakfast Tomatoes!  We have a HUGE number of these right now. They are delicious. I always forget - on purpose I think - how busy the first part of September is every year.  This year we have had a lot of changes: new school, new friends, a change in activities, and a whole lot of other things as well.  Whee!!!  Hang on for the ride, right?  We are finally settling into a routine and I am grateful for that. Our garden has been prolific this year.  I think we have had just the right combination of rain, sun and warm for the plants to flourish.  We only have one tomato plant that has disease of any kind and it is in a pot - I will throw away the dirt at the end of the year and start over again with that pot next year.  I have been busy preserving produce for next year and taking advantage of some crazy good grocery deals at the store as well. Here are some details and other things that we did this past week that were frugal: * Mad...

Home canned tomato sauce - success at canning! I have never, ever water-bath canned before!  I have blanched and froze, dehydrated and done freezer and refrigerator canning.  We lot a LOT of freezer space earlier this year when our refrigerator died and we had to buy a new one - the size of the refrigerator with an above freezer is much smaller than our old model.  So, with our abundant garden this year (thank you perfect summer weather!), canning it is!  This photo was my first attempt.  It was successful - all four jars sealed right away!  YAY!  Jars were labeled and put into the pantry.  Later in the week I canned 5 quarts and 3 pints of sweet cucumber pickles.  All 5 quarts sealed and 1 of the pints.  I put the other two pints in my refrigerator - we will eat those this week.  We have had an expensive end to August - our water heater broke and spilled a LOT of water all over the basement floor.  Our basement is part...

Freshly Canned Tomato Sauce We have so many fresh vegetables right now!  Between the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)  share we receive and our garden, I feel like I am almost drowning in fresh vegetables.  It is a great problem to have!  I finally broke through my personal inhibitions and tried water bath "canning" and "canned" tomato sauce.  Typically, I have been freezing tomato sauce but our freezer is full this year already and "canning" it is!   I am going to be making lots of pickles next - John really likes sweet and spicy pickles so that will be the type of pickles I make.   I was so pleased with how this worked!  This week we will be eating a lot of vegetables this week.  There were some really nice sales for meat this summer and our freezer is full with meat.  We will be eating some of that this week too. Here is what we will be eating this week: Sunday, September 1:     Breakfast: Toast and...