Goodbye September

This weekend we say "Goodbye" to September. There is a nip in the air and all the trees are changing colors, much earlier this year than last. We're OK with that too. Fall is our kind of time. We had a pretty eventful weekend as well. We started out at a birthday party for our niece and nephew who are turning six this week. Nothing like a group of excited kids to get you going. There is hope for the nation's youth, while the children were at the table eating, we heard such things as "No thank you" and "May I be excused?"

 After a snack, came time for blowing out the candles

 Then it was time to open some presents

After the family outing, it was back to The Acre. Every weekend we think we're done canning, and every weekend we can something. This weekend was another batch of greens. We picked one bushel basket full, which made another six quarts for the pantry.

 It was a team effort until Cupcake came across this little fellow, then I finished picking.

For an action photo, we snapped a shot of Fraidy Mutt in action. Every Saturday the first six pancakes are for the dog. Rather than just feed them to her, we toss them like a Frisbee, she catches them, which is about as close to exercise she gets. Plus it's fun to watch

We had a rather big event Sunday morning. Our recently hatched chickens have been showing signs of preparing to lay eggs. They have started coming to the coop, it seemed like they knew they had to but didn't know why. Today we got our first egg from them. It's a real blast to go from hatching eggs to raising chicks, to getting eggs from them. We are officially chicken farmers now.

Since it was a slow weekend in the way of winter prep, we decided to have a few treats. Our first treat was roasted chestnuts. We took a bit of advice from our loyal reader from "Kniskern's  Knoll" and poked a small hole in each nut before roasting.

Our next treat was a little home made snack mix, this one is mostly for the children, but we help get rid of it.

Our last treat was home made caramel. We eat it with apples, so it's not only good, it's good for you.

And of course we end our weekend with "Chicken wing Sunday". Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as we did.
K&K



 

Anniversary Dinner

Yesterday was our anniversary. We dont remember exactly the day we first met in '88 but we do know we came back together on Sept. 24th. So for a low key celebration, I made a semi-special meal. It started over a week ago when I rubbed down a brisket tip with dry rub, and put it in the fridge for the usual 10 days. Yesterday morning I started Oklahoma Joe up before the sun came up, and got the meat on early.

I took the meat off and let it rest like I always do, then sliced it just before dinner time

I also made a skillet full of roasted potatoes and carrots

A few dinner rolls

And a rhubarb cobbler for dessert

It's good to be retired. Happy Anniversary Cupcake. Love you!!
Just K today

Winter Preparation

Fall fell a few weeks ago here at Arlee's Acre, but this weekend was the official calendar kickoff, so we acted accordingly. We really thought canning would be about over, but Pop's tomato plants came through for a double batch of tomato sauce. Big man got to season this batch, and it went into more rescued jars from my grandmother (Arlee).

Winter prep is not just about the human folks at The Acre, we also plan for our feather friends
as well. Suet cakes are a fun treat for chickens, but they can get a little pricy. Cupcake being the research specialist in the house looked up how to make our own, and it's really simple, plus it recycles a lot of stuff we have on hand around here.
First thing we need is wild bird seed and some small bowls. Kattie Grace loves her some breakfast bowls, so we keep the plastic bowl after she's done and use them to hold our chicken suet. We also use old pie plates and mushroom containers from fresh mushrooms. We also used two old bags of dried fruit we had lying around in the cupboard.

Next thing we recycle into suet cakes is old jars of peanut butter. Once a jar expires we keep it for chicken feed. We've even had a co-worker of Cupcakes donate a large jar. Last recycled item is fat. We have plenty of bacon grease on hand (that we pour into empty peanut butter jars) and today we used the drippings from the smoker. This is a combination of brisket, pork, rib and chicken fat, so you know it smells good.

The recipe is simple, about half a jar of peanut butter, mix in grease of choice until the peanut butter is a little runny. Then dump in a large scoop of wild bird seed and a little scratch grain, and any dried fruit that we just happened to have. Mix it up until it's a firm paste, then spoon into your containers. Thats it.

The protein, fat and bird seed keeps the birds warm when it's crazy cold outside, and they go nuts for it when you put it out in the yard. One container lasts about two days, so it's not an every day thing but we try to keep it out once a week when the weather is really cold.

Our last prep work of the weekend was smoker wood. Earlier in the spring I picked out a large maple tree and dropped it while the sap was up, I hope this gave the wood a sweeter than normal flavor. Having built in teenage labor, we went to the drop zone today and pulled the tree out where it would be easier to get to with my broken knees.

After we got it pulled out, I went to work on sawing some fresh wood. When I was Jacob's age, one of my jobs was to split dried maple or poplar wood and carry it in for my grandmother's cook stove. Now my mental therapy is taking an axe to a block of wood, and I'm a teenager again, for a very short time.

We love the smell of maple wood smoking meat, and Fraidy Mutt loves to lay next to the smoker when it's burning, like one of those hound dogs from Hee Haw back in the day.

I guess everybody wins.
So, that's our weekend prep work. The ant family is ready for whatever mother nature has in store for us, at least we are one weekend closer to being ready.
K&K

Fall Meals

There is getting to be a little nip in the air, and that makes country folks start thinking about comfort food (these country folks, anyway). This past week big man found himself with little to do around the house, so some effort was put into dinner for Cupcake.
The first thing that we had was applesauce cake. I saw a recipe for it on a chicken fan page we belong to on Facebook, and we just happened to have four dozen jars of home made applesauce from last weekend....so....

It's quick, it's simple, and it tastes great. This one didn't stay around too long.
One chilly afternoon I went with an old country staple, seared pork chops. Salt, pepper, cast iron skillet and some heat, and we have cut with a fork tender chops one night.

We also had fried catfish one night, but I didn't manage to snap any pics. I use the cast iron skillet but the fish is soaked in an egg wash and egg/flour fingers do not mix well with cameras. So you'll just have to take our word for it, they were tasty.  With most meals this week we had greens. Pop planted a big patch of greens, and we are doing what we can to help him keep it under control.

One night I smoked a rack of ribs

And Saturday night we had baked steaks. Cupcake seared the sirloin steak in our large cast iron skillet, then covered and baked them low and slow. We cut them with a fork too, and even had one left over for Sunday steak and eggs.

We also have a brisket covered in dry rub getting happy in the beer fridge, that will be a Monday or Tuesday kind of meal because big man has free time like that and we have a brand new maple tree working up for smoker wood. That leads in to a brand new update. Stay tuned.
Of course we have the weekend staples of pancakes on Saturday, and chip beef gravy with buttermilk biscuits on Sunday. Sunday is also Cupcake's favorite meal. I do my best Geico camel voice and ask her "guess what day it is?"  Chicken wing Sunday is the answer.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
K&K

Harvest Moon

Tonight is the Harvest Moon full moon, and I have spent the day hanging shelves in the basement to store our harvest, so I thought I would share our summers work. We still have a few things I'm sure we will put up, but for the most part, the ants are winding down.

Our last canning day results

New shelves in the basement

Jelly and cobbler makings in an old microwave cabinet

As you can see, we still have a little real estate left to fill. We enjoy canning. Bring on Ol Man Winter, we're ready.
K&K

Weekend update part II

Another weekend, another busy canning session. The end results look a little something like this...

We made another batch of jalapeno jelly, a bushel of turnip greens in jars, and a bushel of apples are now apple sauce. We figure we have enough for six months of Sunday breakfasts in the basement now. The best part of the weekend is, we got to use my grandmother's jars. We rescued around three cases of jars my grandmother used for no telling how long, these are older than I am, no doubt. Some are Atlas brand, and some special gems are blue Mason's.

Keeping a family tradition alive is just gravy on our grits of a good weekend.

And speaking of Sunday breakfast, today we had a special treat.

Early in the week, Critter Gitter put a sniper shot on a squirrel, and requested squirrel gravy for Sunday breakfast. Who are we to say no? Best way to fix squirrel gravy is with a tender squirrel, so while working the pressure cooker this week, I put the squirrel in a pint jar and cooked it up. This made the meat tender, and preserved it until Sunday. We started by taking the meat off the bones.

Next it's into the cast iron skillet and butter for a little browning

Then it's business as usual for gravy

We also came to the end of our Foxgrape wine making. We opened the bucket up and poured the mash into a towel, straining the pulp from the wine. We ended up with just shy of two gallons.

I don't know the first thing about describing wine to people who know something about wine, but it's very fruity and a little sweet. We like it, a lot.

Kattie Grace had a friend over this weekend, after breakfast and after the gal pal was dropped off to her family, Kattie Grace took it upon herself to give "Fraidy Mutt" a bath.

Fraidy Mutt wasn't as excited about it as Kattie Grace was.

We also tried one more new thing this weekend. Cupcake, being the research specialist in the family, found a recipe for home made caramel. And since we had a bunch of apples on hand, we figured we would give it a whirl. Making it is simple, take a can of sweetened condensed milk, place it in a crock pot full of water and cook, unopened, on high for six hours.

Ours is still cooking, follow up report later. It's also "Chicken Wing Sunday" We hope everyone has had as good a weekend as we have.
K&K

Apple and Pumpkin update

Cupcake and I hit the ground running this morning, like we do most weekends. We started our day by using the leftover pumpkin we cubed up and baked earlier in the week for pumpkin roll. We had around a cup left over, and I suggested we use it for pancakes. Saturday is pancake day around The Acre. After we hooked Jake up with his chocolate chip pancakes, we dumped the pumpkin in the batter and whipped it until it was smooth. We added your pumpkin pie and apple pie spice and off to the griddle. They were a hit.

After breakfast we got to work on our next new project, home made apple sauce. Cupcake being the research specialist in the house found a recipe and we had about a bushel of apples on hand, so we were off to the races. First we sliced them leaving the peel on, and cooked them soft in a cup of water.

 After they soften up, we take the pot to the blender, and blend the apples smooth...

Back to the pot, and add some cinnamon and mix it together. We add no sugar at all.

Fill jars with the sauce, and water bath for fifteen minutes. Thats all there is to it.

I know all of America is tired of hearing how home made is better than store bought, but people, it's true. This stuff rocks! We made half a bushel today and got 20 pints and seven quarts. We have apple sauce cakes in our near future.

A little smoker prep work went into tonights dinner, earlier in the week Big Man smoked two whole chickens. We had one for dinner, and picked the second one for tonight's meal, smoked chicken and dumplings. I used Cupcake's herb garden to stuff the chickens, then put a slap ya mama rub on the outside and off to the smoker.

We also had a container of smoked brisket left over from the last brisket smoke. Friday was our first real blast of cool air, so in honor of fall we made a crock pot full of smoked brisket chili.

We made a large batch, and instead of letting it go to waste, we placed the leftovers into Mason jars, and pressure cooked them. Three more dinners on the shelf, just open and heat. And speaking of prep work, we have a squirrel for Sunday morning squirrel gravy. "Critter Gitter" put one down earlier in the week and wanted to use it for gravy. So we skinned it and soaked it, and while I had the pressure cooker going I put the squirrel in a small jar with some water and cooked it along with the chili. Now we have a tender squirrel ready for gravy.

Check back tomorrow for results.
K&K