• Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: lefse edition

    Trying something new for this edition of T stands for Tuesday. Mini-me helped make the first batch of lefse for the season. I took a series of photos and linked them as a slideshow. Fingers crossed that this works.

    [KGVID]http://www.halleshobbies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/lefseday.mp4[/KGVID]

    It’s been a busy, weird week that has included but not limited to:

    ~an overnight dog visit that went reasonably well with Marvin the dog hater cat

    ~two turkey dinners

    ~precipitation of all kinds and in all directions: rain, snow, sleet and hail

    ~one panicky ER visit which turned out very benign

    ~one partially dislocated jaw (unrelated to the above)

    ~all four of us on vacation for 5 overlapping days plus extras on both ends

    ~late night scratch made brownies

    ~4 teen boys Black Friday shopping (for themselves)

    ~one Christmas tree set up and was still standing in the morning (amazing!)

    I’m absolutely positive there was more but that is all I am able to wrap my mind around at the moment.

    Kids go back to school after a 6 day break…and a mountain of laundry awaits. Living the dream boys and girls. Actually, that is serious! Yes, we all love to complain about the pesky chores of life but I am so thankful for every day that I am able to be home caring for my family.

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: in the ‘hood edition

    Neighborhood that is.  Over the weekend one of our neighbors hosted a chili cook off.  Eight years ago the same family hosted a similar get together but our numbers have drastically changed in that time period. The majority of the kids are either gone off to college or working now…although we have added to the adult total with new families.

    chili

    My white turkey chili was not the winner but I’m not at all sad. It was a fun day!

    A couple days previous to the party I returned a scoring plate that I had borrowed form my crafty next door neighbor.  One of these days I actually finish the card I started using the board. Anyway…I never come away empty handed from her house. She has a vast network of folk that are always looking out for each other and trading this and that.

    goodies

    She had a huge bag of stamps for me to look through, bottle caps from a former co-worker that saves them for me and some tea her DIL didn’t want. Look at the awesome stamps! Can’t wait to play in an art journal with them. The Passion tea by Tazo is a favorite of mine. The Calm I’ll likely use for tea dyeing as I don’t care for chamomile but I do enjoy lemon!!

    I’ve also been working on a couple…well, three, oh maybe four projects over the past couple of days. As soon as they come together I’ll be sure to share. To my T Tuesday gals…sorry I never made it around last week…Tuesday got away from me with numerous things including these….

    busy-night

    Mini-me’s first season of competitive volleyball is done with the exception of the end of season banquet. Choir concert season has just begun for J. The concert was wonderful.  Did I mention they will be traveling to Manhattan in the spring to sing at Carnegie Hall!?!  So excited for them.

    Today’s schedule has yet to be determined for me. It’s kind of nice to have a fairly blank slate for a change.

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: apple days edition

    Happy Tuesday everyone! This past weekend is one I both love and hate each year. It’s the weekend we help pick apples at our neighbors house. They have 5 trees that are HUGE!! As in you need an extension ladder huge.

    apple days

    (This is just a 6 foot ladder…)

    Some of their family comes over as well as several of us neighbors. We spend  the morning picking then bring our bags of apples home and usually the afternoon or next day processing.

    img_1517

    This year we didn’t make time for processing over the weekend. Everyone was going here and there it seemed. Sleepover, Manhattan choir fundraiser, fabricating and 3D printing in the garage and of course, leaving time to watch our Vikings play the Packers (the big border battle) in the inaugural game in the new stadium…SKOL Vikings! Our Vikings won-BTW!!!

    On to Monday…this was my morning view complete with coffee as fuel for the day ahead….

    apple days

    Normally I process in the garage for more room but since I was doing it solo I brought the garage can inside.

    apple days

    After hours of peeling I had every extra large container I own full of sliced apples.

    apple days

    As well as a stock pot full cooking down to sauce. And the dehydrator with 6 trays loaded.

    I ended up with 7 quarts that I canned…

    apple days

    The rest went into gallon freezer bags to be made into sauce at a later date.

    apple days

    As you can see by this photo it was now after 3pm and I was exhausted,

    apple days

    I also managed to get two loads of laundry washed during that time.

    apple days

    So my grand total for the day was: 7 quarts apple sauce canned, 2 quarts in fridge, 4 gallon bags of prepped apples in freezer, and a quart bag of dehydrated slices.

    So like I said when I started…apple days…I have  a love/hate relationship with them.

    Today I’m going to have coffee with some friends then likely come home and can a few pints of diced tomatoes…or else pull up the garden and do the tomatoes tomorrow before the next round of rain.

    What are you doing today?