I love Pie

Pie is so good.
Probably my favorite thing to make.
d'Veers is opening up Elbing tomorrow!
The grand opening of the Bakery and Coffee shop!
I get to make pies for it!
So far I have those 2 pumpkin pies in the oven baking,
and have already made today
2 caramel pecans,
2 apples,
and those 2 empty pie crusts are going to be Banana-Strawberry.

Next up is tollhouse pie (my own version of it anyway) and triple berry pie.

So come on out to d'Veers in Elbing tomorrow! Open 8-5, serving breakfast from 8-11 and lunch from 8-2, with all the muffins, coffee cake, goodies, pies, flavored coffee and more that you could want!

Check us out on facebook for more information!

Grapes

My mom has a beautiful flower garden at her house! Dad and Mom added a Concord grape vine a few years ago (I actually have no idea how long ago!) and it has grown so much! This year I got to get the harvest of grapes!
There were so many grapes for just one plant!

They are kind of growing in with an ever green tree. Lillie was going to help pick them but it was too "pokey" for her=)


The picture above is the bowl I filled as I washed them and picked them off the stems. It seemed to take forever! And it is a giant bowl!

And this picture above is the grapes left on the stems that I haven't cleaned up yet.

I looked through several grape jam or grape jelly recipes and it seemed to me that it would be easier to make jam instead of jelly.
So I separated the skins from the grapes (which is actually way easy just time consuming), then pureed the skins with some sugar, added more sugar and a little lemon juice and the grapes (with seeds in them) and cooked them all up for awhile.
Then strained them (by pushing through a sieve with a spatula) to get the seeds out and the bigger skin chunks. Then cooked it some more to thicken it up and bam- homemade grape jam! Of course then I used a hot water bath to seal up the filled jars.

I actually figured out with the second batch that I didn't need to separate the skins and grapes-just puree everything and the seeds were hard enough that they stayed together, so I could proceed just as before. Just much less time involved!

This is what I got from my first day's labor=) That was only two batches. I didn't have a very good stock of jars because I didn't really have any idea how much it would make. I probably still have about 3 or more batches worth of grapes left. And all that from one grape vine! Amazing! And oh so yummy!!

Little Helpers

Last Friday we spent the evening getting all the last minute details put together for the craft fair. We had lots of help. Titus is helping Daddy put the display together and Lillie is helping put hair bows onto the cards. What help!

And Lillie is modeling the head bands that I am selling this year along with the hair bows. She is quite proud of the one she gets to wear!



And these next pictures are the booth we had at Whitewater. We will be having another booth at the Berean Country Fair this Saturday the 1oth. This is always a fun fair with the German food that is served. I love verenika!!


Aren't those little Tutus adorable! Those are something Natalie made! So fun! Lillie can't wait to get hers.

And lest you think that it is ALL girl stuff, it is NOT! There are little cloth shoes, burp cloths, bibs, binky bibs, onesies, diaper/wipes carriers, tag-a-long toys, blankets and other fun things for the little man! Also for mommy this year, there are some earrings for sale! So come check it out!
There are lots of other booths as well! I'm sure you'll be able to find something you just have to have. My in-laws have their Kansas Country Blessings booth, and my sister will have her debut with her Little Apron Strings booth featuring adult and kid size aprons plus some other fun things. Also, I think this year there will be new activities for kids to participate in. There is something for the whole family. Food for Dad (okay, for Mom too), Shopping for Mom, and activities for the kids! See you there!

Applesauce

My sister Krista and I made LOTS of applesauce the other day. She was kind of tired of freezing/canning things because she has been doing a lot of that lately. But it was fun for me. I have never made applesauce before!
Here she is stirring the apples up that are cooking.

After they are cooked you put them through this nifty little gadget she has for her kitchen aid. It pushes all the 'good stuff' out through the hole in the cylinder and out the bottom into a bowl. Then it pushes all the 'waste' (and let me tell ya, it really looks like waste, haha, pretty funny) out that hole on the end and into another bowl. Kinda snazzy.

Here's the cooked apples. With her handy gadget we only had to quarter the apples and take the stem off and then put them into a couple inches of water and bowl for awhile. Then we just scooped it all into the applesauce maker attachment. Krista uses it for all sorts of different fruits and vegetables too. She made her own pumpkin and made fresh pumpkin pie and froze a lot of it too. This attachment got all the stringy-ness out of the fresh pumpkin! Awesome!

Here is the counter where she was washing and I was cutting the apples. She also got the idea of using these tubs from her friend Ruth. They were really handy and just the right size. She used them when she picked the apples and then she emptied them into the sink to wash them, then put clean water in them and we put the cut apples into the water until we were ready for them to cook. We only had 2 pots so we couldn't cook all that many at a time. Krista had started washing the apples before I got there but I was there for probably 4 hours or so and we got, I think, 56 pints frozen. I should have taken a picture of all the applesauce on the table when we were done.

It was a lot of fun though! The kids just kind of played while we worked and were perfect little angels, didn't make any messes, no fussing or anything. HA! Just kidding. Actually Krista came back upstairs, after going down to tell them it was time for lunch, and said she was pretty sure the basement had never ever been that messy before. And Titus even pushed his little cousin Caden over onto the floor. And while Zethan was laying on his blanket in the kitchen, Titus decided to pull him around on it... But they keep our lives interesting=) We wouldn't trade them for anything in the world=)

Happy Applesauce eating!