Carnival day

Yesterday we dressed up and went to the Fall Festival at Weller. Rose's class had three booths to run so I ended up working for 2 hours...thank goodness for Lily and Jennifer who came to have fun with my kids :)
Our costumes: Liam-steampunk inventor, Abbie Rose-evil rock star, Leigh-rosie the riveter

I'm melllllllllting!

Today we had some un-winter. The previously snow dusted pumpkins are now starting to ooze through the table. So, all the really squishy ones got stuffed into an empty feed sack. I am hoping the other ones will firm back up soon!

Pumpkin time!

Yesterday we had a massive pumpkin carving extravaganza! After we had such fun last year, Stan took stock of our tools that worked well and made us some really great carving tools. Smallish saw blades work well for carving intricate designs without the risk of slipping and chopping of your finger with a knife. Stan made us a range of different sizes (all with ergonomically shaped handles!) and some scooper scrapers to clean the guts out. We each got our own with one sideways guy for a joint project.

Liam measured his so It would look like a Minecraft jack-o-lantern.

Rose planned hers on paper and then chopped it herself! Only small amounts of help with the hard bits, hers was thick.

A great time was had by all and they sure do look cool all lit up! Thanks, Stan and Lorna!!!!

And they made 2 big bowls of pumpkin guts for my chickens ;)

Science

I gave each kiddo $50 to spend of their dividend, the rest goes into their investment accounts. Liam bought a new x-box game (surprised?). Rose after shopping 5 stores and online, chose to buy a kids microscope. It has quickly become her favorite activity. She has investigated most of the plants and hairs she could gather from outside and has started on any veggies I am cutting up and her stuffy hairs. She is even keeping a science journal and planning out her science fair project :) Liam has been building some new lego models also, his latest is a lock box with three tumblers. He has even gotten the robotics kit back out in preparation for this years competition. So scientifically minded, my kiddos!

EGG!

Taco?

I was going to name this post the Italian word for taco, but evidently it is 'taco'! Yesterday was national taco day, but I had a recipe for an Italian flat bread, called piadine I wanted to try. Soooooo, if a taco had an Italian cousin, this might be it:

Piadine flat bread with moose London broil and tomato bruschetta.

Or the carnivorous way, just meat.

And the boy way, light on all that tomato-y stuff.

It is the bacon time of year again! After a week long soak in the brine, we were ready to smoke yesterday. This year we tried drying the slabs in the smoker to form the pellicle.

A bungee/chair barrier to keep out bacon molesters.

Proto-bacon

All smoked and cut for packaging.

The haul for this year, I haven't weighed it yet, but it sure looks good!

In a pickle

We have been gifted some amazing produce this fall. We have gotten the usual shares from close friends and family of garden fresh veggies eaten right away for dinners (thanks again!) and some large portions of 'extras'. My neighbor planted a ton of carrots this year and gave us two big bags full; one of the guys Kyle works with had too many cabbages and gave us two big tubs full along with some celery and carrots.


Yesterday I tried my hand at pickling. The jars will hopefully be spicy carrot pickles. I canned five pints of those and made two more quart jars of refrigerator pickles, one with horseradish (atomic carrots?) and one with jalapeños added. All that and I only used up one bag! I made some carrot muffins today, but I think I will have to try some other recipes soon!

The large tub is the last big cabbage we were gifted, all the others are in the kraut bucket or eaten for supper. This is my version of kimchi. I read many recipes online and in books and finally had to combine several. It seems to me kimchi is one of those staple dishes that doesn't really have a recipe, just a plan. So my plan was: chop up the cabbage and let it soak in a mix of a gallonish of water and hand full of fine salt for 24 hours. Then drain reserving some brine.
Most recipes then call for Korean chili paste, I maybe could have found some but I did have dried chilies from the carrots, so I used some of those instead. About 1/2 cup dried chilies, 1/3 cup chili powder, 2 tablespoons of honey and 1/2 cup of rice vinegar was warmed gently to rehydrate the chilies. Then all of that got tossed in the blender with 2 heads of garlic and a 2 1/2 inch chunk of ginger and a splash of fish sauce. The resulting mix was tossed with the drained cabbage and 3 bunches of chopped scallions. When I tasted it, it was REALLY hot. I know kimchi is spicy but I wanted to taste at least a little other flavor! So I mixed 2 cups of the leftover brine with a splash of white vinegar and tossed that through the mix. Now it is just about right...I am planning to leave it out for at least a few hours to let it get a little head start fermenting. Then into the fridge, now I just need to pick something great to make with it in a few days :)

Frosty!

We had some frozen rain and a hard frost last night.

Puffy chilly chickens this morning!

Notice the white look to the ground....

Last leaves from the ninebarks in the front yard.


Brr!! About 28F when these were taken. I think winter is on it's way!!