Our home is spilling with yummies from the garden this week. Fresh tomatoes sliced with a bit of salt and pepper have been a staple with lunches for the last week or so, and today I had enough to make a first batch of salsa for the season...complete with garden fresh onions, assorted peppers and corn. Yumm. The jars are processing now, and the kitchen still smells of the aroma of tomatoes and spices. Earlier this afternoon I picked our meager crop of pumpkins and baked them up to make pumpkin cookies (with the melty icing on top...mmmmm!) The grapes are abundant on the vine this year and turning a beautiful, deep shade of purple. I foresee many quarts of grape juice in my near future. I think last year we put up 48 quarts, and it looks as though we may make more than that this time around. I have a half-dozen loaves of zucchini bread in the freezer with more of the shredded stuff measured and frozen to bake more bread later. I love this time of year, when a few simple items from the garden and a bit of sweat equity turn into something wonderful to last throughout the winter months. I just finished the last package of frozen apple pie filling last week that I put up last September, and it tasted as wonderful as the first. Sometimes it made its way into a pie or crisp, and other times, we just ate the baked apples plain...which couldn't be any more simple and delicious.
It was a blessing to have the cooler weather today, to keep the oven and stove going without overheating the house. I can clearly remember canning salsa just days before Frank and Rose came into this world...in 90+ heat, no air conditioning, 9 months pregnant with twins and sweating like there was no tomorrow. But it needed to get done, and I was on a mission to tie up loose ends. Funny how that nesting thing works.
Anyhow, I've got a few more items that need washed up and put away in the kitchen. Tomorrow morning the school kids and I (and maybe a couple extras) will be heading out for school shopping. Everyone needs tennis shoes again. It's that time of year when I get that mother of the year award for not realizing that the kids feet grew 3 sizes through the summer, and I've been forcing them to wear their too-small shoes to church on sundays with that "Oh, you'll be fine for an hour!" scowl. Yup. It's that time of year again. Pray for us ;')
