Busy day in the kitchen.  I was busy making stuff for the GEMS bake sale and soup/pie supper. I made 2 batches of Bonnie's Buns and some Lemon Blossoms. I baked an apple pie.  It sure made the house smell good.  Rich thought it looked good enough to take a picture, so here is my pie:

Rich stayed home with Chas while Austin, Madison and I attended the Soup/Pie Supper.  Madison had to work from 6-7 pm so we ate first and while Madison worked, we visited and went to the house to retrive a few things we needed at the farm.  The Gems Club had a huge turn out, the fellowship hall was packed and the bake sale goodie tables were emptying about as fast as the girls could put stuff on them.

Rich made a call and our precious wethered goats, Booger and Jack/Alex, will be on their way to the butcher tomorrow. Madison is saddened by the thought of Booger leaving but she still has Gunner (who is her favorite).  Gunner was our one and only spring bottle baby goat kid so he's pretty special to us.

Speaking of butchering, they are saying it's going to be close to 50 tomorrow so I think we will butcher our turkey with the bad legs.  I'm afraid this might be our last "warm" chance to process him.

My mom called today.  We will be celebrating turkey day without the large family gathering.  My sister canceled her hosting of Thanksgiving this year as they will be celebrating with other family.  That meant I could host but I can't do it here in the trailer, there just isn't enough room.  I am unable to host in town as we no longer have a frig in that house, so it will be just the 5 of us this year.

Lemon Blossoms Recipe
Paula Deen's Recipe from the Food Network

18 1/2 ounce pkg yellow cake mix
3 1/2 ounce pkg instant lemon pudding mix
4 eggs
3/4 cup of vegetable oil (I use applesauce)

Glaze:
4 cups confections' sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon. zested
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray minature muffin tins with cooking spray.  Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil (applesauce) and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Turn out onto a tea towel.

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl.  Add the lemon juice, zest, oil and water.  Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they are still warm covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon te glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat.  Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips.  Let the galze set throughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight fitting lids.

The recipe makes alot of bite size yumminess! 
Enjoy!!  Carol

I woke up to a snowy icy day.  It wasn't cold but not exactly nice.  The snow will not stick around as its just a weebit too warm yet.

I finished canning the caramel apple butter I started yesterday.  I have 8 pints.  Its simply yummy!  I do believe I found the recipe over at SimpleFolk.  Thanks Amy! That should be it for my canning this year unless I decide to can some potatoes or meat.  Rich wants me to try canning either rabbit or venison.  Ayone have pointers or tips for me?

I also started baking for the GEMS bake sale at church.  I made pumpkin bars.  That's as far as I got.  I still have 2 pies to bake and a few other things I'll work on tomorrow.  I feel like I was busy all day but have nothing to show for it, lol.

I'm trying to use recipes that use eggs. We have over 12+ dozen in the frig and the chickens/ducks are laying 14-18 eggs a day.  Time to make a sale sign for the road.  I might freeze some of these older eggs.  I understand it works well to freeze eggs and use them for baking.  I figure as we head into the deep freeze, my fresh egg supply will decrease.

Carol

But I bet tomorrow we will be gone so I thought I'd do my entry a little earlier than normal.  I had a productive day in the kitchen... I have apples in the crockpot to make caramel apple butter and I put 28 cups of pumpkin into the freezer.  I also made chocolate chip cookies.  I baked 20 cookies and froze the rest of the dough in balls so I can make fresh cookies whenever I have the urge.  Plus, we like raw cookie dough .

Nothing new in the barn except that Madison's jr. hotot buck isn't eating his pellets.  This is abnormal for this breed as they normally act like they are starving to death.  He will eat apple peel, apples, carrots and corn.  So I'm not sure what's going on with him. 

No new babies.  We lost 3 chicks in the last 2 days in the chicken brooder.  I'm not sure what's going on there either.  So Madison and I spent a little time this am cleaning the brooder just incase something was going on with the litter.

Rich is up at his grandparents farm getting a chicken pucker that his sister, Shelly, found.  I hope it works.  It sure would be handy come butchering time.

Tomorrow I will be working on goodies for Madison's Gems group's Soup Supper and Bake sale on Wednesday.

I guess that's about it today.  Oh, Rich made a call today and I think we'll have internet back next week!  WOO HOO!  Until then, bye bye!
Carol

Oh yes the wind and the snow came and left today but not without a bit of damage.  We had winds gusting at 60 mph.  It looks like the wind tree snapped off a tree near the chicken coop and another tree is uprooted.  Temps have been in the mid 30's all day and it suppose to get cold tonight, into the 20's I believe.

My afternoon was spent at the movie theater watching High School Musical 3.  Madison is a huge fan.  Oh I hope this is the last one.  All the music sounds the same in all 3 of those movies!  The best part was spending time with Madison and eating lots of popcorn.

The last of my curly parsely is in the dehydrator.  I have one plant of flat leaf parsley still in the garden.  I'm not sure I'm going to get to it.  I also have some rosemary out there as well.  I'm wondering if I can hang rasemary to dry.

I put some of my mint aside to make jelly.  I also have jalopenos wait for processing.  I thought I'd make jelly from some of them and give as Christmas gifts as we have friends and family who like spicy hot stuff.

I hope the weather warms a bit this week.  We still ahve a few things to do before winter hits us.

That's it for today.
Carol

Here's what I made today and I'll share the recipe:

These were so delicious and easy to make.  I found this recipe at Marlene's Blog as I was surfing for bread recipes.  I can proudly say, we only have 2 buns left tonight .

Bonnie's Buns:

Using a bread machine:

• 1 cup warmed milk
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 2/3 tbsp. white sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. yeast

Put in bread machine in order of ingredients.
Set bread machine to dough cycle.
After mix time, form into buns and put on a pan to let rise. (I used a 10 x 15 inch pan, did not grease the pan and they stuck just a little bit.)
Bake about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Yield: 12 buns

Enjoy!
Carol

I went out shopping today at Good Will and the Thrift shop looking for items for Chas.  Her new therapists have given me tons of ideas of what to get for her that will be helpful.  I found a couple of things and she really liked them once she got home. 

I found a few other things, 3 interesting jars for the kitchen, a pair of jeans and pants for Madison along with a table runner.  I also found a couple skirts for myself as well.  I spent $15.00 between the 2 places.

Then I headed over to JoAnn Fabrics... they are clearancing out the store as they are moving to a new location.  I found some fleece to make pillows and pj's.  I'm thinking Christmas gifts.

I have such an abundance of sweet peppers in the garden that I made Sausage Pasta Supper tonight.  Its one of our favorite dishes.  Isn't it pretty!  This picture is before its served with the pasta and looks just as pretty on the plate.

I thought I'd share the recipe with you.  I found it in a Taste Of Home Publication.

Boy, was the kitchen busy today! It was too cold and windy to process chickens so I headed for the kitchen after visiting the garden. 

I managed to can 13 pints tomato sauce, 11 pints of italian tomato sauce and 4 pints of raspberries.  The kids were a big help.  Austin loves to grind up the tomatoes in the Sauce Maker.  I decided to make crockpot apple butter so Madison peeled the apples with the apple peeler I bought at good will for $2.  It worked great. 

With my canners running and the oven on, the house was pretty steamy and warm.  It smelled so much like fall.  I made mashed potatoes with chicken gravy and corn for supper.  Delicious!!

Well, I need to start the crockpot with the apples so it can cook overnight.
Carol

We tackled the chickens again today.  I thought maybe it was too windy to keep the burner running on the gas grill but it worked just fine.  We managed to get 10 chickens processed before Rich's back couldn't take any more plucking so we stopped.  It was 12:30 and time to eat anyway.

Rich then headed out to bale the grass hay he cut a few days ago.  Madison and I worked in the kitchen a bit and did some laundry.  Madison made some caramel apple dip to go with all the apple we have.  Yum Yum!  She made it all by herself.  I was so proud. 

Here's the recipe from Simple and Delicious:

1 pkg (14 ounces) caramel
20 large marshmallows
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Apple Slices

Place caramels in a microwave safe bowl.  Mircowave, uncovered, on high for 1 minute. Add marshmallows; microwave for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted, stirring occasionally. Whisk in butter and cream until combined.  Serve with apple slices. Refrigerate leftovers.  Yield: 2 1/2 cups.

Enjoy!
Carol

Today, Chas had a speech and occupational therapy appts.  So Austin and I ran errands after Chas was though with her evaluations.  We arrived back home about 2 pm and tackled the tomatoes I picked the other day.  As Austin put them though the sauce maker, I headed to the garden to see if we had more tomatoes rready.  I came back into the house with a bushel full. 

So we put all those through the sauce maker as well.  Right now, the sauce is reducing in the oven.  I put the sauce in roasters ana place them in a 225 degree oven sand let the oven slow cook the sauce overnight.  That way I don't have to babysit it on the stove top.    Tomorrow, it will be ready to can.  I also have a pot of tomato juice and a pan full of cherry, jelly bean and pear tomatoes that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with.  I'm sure I'll figure something out.

I also noticed that will the rain this weekend, my green beans have started blooming again.  So I'll probably have beans to process again in a few days.  Not sure that a good thing, my canning list is getting long!

Carol

Today I managed to can all the tomato sauce I made yesterday.  The house was smelling pretty tasty this afternoon.  I'm hoping to harvest more tomatoes tomorrow and get the green peppers into the freezer I picked yesterday.  I have a lot of jalapeno peppers as well.  I'm thinking a jelly might be fun to make with them.

Madison has a total of 15 chicks in the brooter as of tonight.  The little one she was worried about who was so weak, it up and running around like the rest of the chicks so I think it will be fine.

Good Night!
Carol