The Bug is Back

Apples!

Friday morning Ella and I had the opportunity to pick apples out on a friend's property. They have 4 neglected apple trees and a whole huge group of moms and kids went out to pick the fruit. It was very fun to spend the morning with some great ladies, let the kids play and spend time climbing in apple trees. We're very thankful for all the apples we brought home. By getting them this way even Seth can eat them! Yay.

As you can see from the picture, most of the apples are either bruised or have little baby bites taken out of them... thus I forsee gallons of applesauce in our near future. Happily, I have all our canning supplies still out from the salsa adventure (our final count was 25 pints, by the way!), so the applesauce should be an easy (but time consuming) task.

Yesterday I also picked up a 26 pound box of peaches to can. Seth is taking his Hunter's Safety Course this weekend and then going hunting with a couple of friends, so Eleanor and I needed a project. I think this (along with a scheduled 20 mile run) will do just fine. :) We'll keep you posted as this new adventure unfolds.

P.S. I have another 6 pounds or so of fresh, ripe tomatoes on my counter from our CSA share again this week. Now that we have all the salsa we could possibly want, what should I make using them? Any suggestions? (I'm not planning on canning any more, but I might freeze extras of whatever I make). They are heirloom tomatoes of all shapes and sizes...

Washin' Beans

Ella continues to be a great help in the garden and kitchen. She loves picking veggies and loves to play in the water with them even more!

The Little Garden Bunny

"Bunky" Ella:

Eleanor used to eat vegetables like crazy. She loved everything we fed her - when pureed. Now that she's transitioned into mostly toddler sized chunks of food we have trouble getting her to eat veggies. The fabulous thing about our garden, however, is that she can pick peas, beans and carrots all by herself and this somehow promotes eating them as well. She is definitely quite the little vegetable monster ("bunky" in her words) when she gets the idea in her head!

This day Ella was sharing her carrots with Daddy:

They ate all the carrots we picked in one sitting... I think next year we'll have to plant a whole lot more!

Butterfly

A beautiful butterfly came to our house the other day. She flitted here and there and everywhere. She even went for a treasure-hunting walk and got called a "fairy" and an "angel" before informing people, "No. But-ter." Fun stuff.

The Great Salsa Endeavor

I haven't blogged in a while because we've been sort of sick, tired and busy. Eleanor picked up a bug her second week of daycare that has held on for the last 3 weeks. She is definitely better, but her nose continues to run and she has a cough when she wakes up in the morning. Seth and I have wondered if we've caught the same lingering sickness, not because we're seriously ill but because we seem to just drag these days.

Along with a general sense of sluggishness, I'm in the peak period of training for my marathon, so our days are filled with long, long runs. I'm really enjoying the training, the time outside and a sense of great accomplishment, but it's tough to spend so much time on the road and frustrating when I feel like I'm using all the energy I have some days out there and not on our family.

We also decided to embark upon a salsa making adventure. Neither Seth nor I have made much salsa, but we consume quite a bit and have been disappointed in the quality of salsa to be found in north central WY. So, when we received 6 pounds of tomatoes from our CSA share the same week that romas went on an awesome sale at Albertson's, we decided to seize the day! So far I've chopped, cooked and canned 19 pints of salsa. Yum! And we still have around 10 pounds of tomatoes on the counter... that's a lot more salsa to be.

(Now, I realize this picture would be TONS better if I'd taken the tomatoes out of their bags... but we're talking about our entire counter covered in tomatoes, peppers and onions... and a slightly-over-one-year-old who can now reach just about anything she wants off the counters.)

Oh, the salsa possibilities!

Batch #1: Fiesta Salsa
tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, anaheim peppers, jalapenos, green peppers and spices

Batch #2: Zesty Salsa
tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos, onion and spices
Batch #3: Jalapeno Salsa
tomatoes, jalapenos (equal to the tomatoes!), onion, garlic and spices
Some of our finished goodness!

So, our current taste testers (me, Seth and Amanda) agree that the slightly spicy Jalapeno Salsa is the favorite. Thus, after a trip to the store for another 3 pounds of jalapenos we'll be ready for many more hours of chopping, cooking and canning bliss.