Homemade Applesauce!

Recently I blogged about being so excited to find Transparent apples at Small's Fruit Farm in the Loess Hills on our anniversary trip (they're hard to find).  We kind of went to a lot of trouble to bring a bag of them home keeping them cool in a cooler since it was 100 degree days, and we were making stops.  This week I made them into applesauce - my first time ever to try making it!  


Grandpa & Grandma R.'s apple trees at their house were transparents.  I loved to climb those trees and spent hours up in them.  I also loved Grandma's applesauce that she made every summer from the apples.  Luckily at some point I had asked Grandma how she made it and wrote it on a recipe card.  

 
All you do is peel the apples and cut them into chunks.  Add 1 cup of water and cook slow, stirring some.  I had noted that she said Jonathan and Stamen apples also make good applesauce but NOT Lodi.  Depending on the apples, you might have to smash them after cooking to get it smooth or you can leave it a little chunky.  She added about 1/2 c. sugar per 1 qt. of applesauce.

As it was cooking, I remembered that smell too!

It was so exciting to see it start looking like applesauce - and not sticking!  And then when I tasted it - YES, it was the same!!  Yum!  Very creamy. 


Grandma froze hers in plastic containers - in pints I think.  It was always good to eat when it was just barely thawed and still really cold - sometimes with a little cinnamon.


Mom told me that she has a transparent tree.  I might have to visit next year when the apples are ready! 

Recipe - Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

For lunch with my stampin' friend, Ila, I had made Chicken Spaghetti Casserole.  When Mom was recovering from her knee surgery, Aunt Jan brought this over.  For some reason, hers tasted better than mine, but it may partly be that I was tired and tired of cooking!  It really hit the spot - we both really liked it.  It has a little bit of a kick and good taste from the Rotel tomatoes. 

I just served this with some cantaloupe and a cinnamon muffin.

CHICKEN SPAGHETTI CASSEROLE

3-4 boneless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth
4 oz. can of mushrooms (optional)
1 can Rotel tomatoes  (**see note below)
10 oz. spaghetti (cooked and drained)
half of a green pepper, chopped
onion, chopped(see comment below)
8 oz. Velveeta cheese, cut up
buttered cracker crumbs (like Ritz or Towne House)

Cook chicken and shred.  Mix together the soups, broth, chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes and green pepper.  Cook spaghetti and drain.  While spaghetti is hot, stir in the cheese until it begins to melt.  Add rest of ingredients except crumbs.  Put into a 
9 x 13 pan (sprayed with cooking spray).  Sprinkle crumbs on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 min. (until bubbly)
 
*   this time I put this in about 4 small baking dishes and froze two of them before baking  
** Bill doesn't like spicy food so the whole can of Rotel tomatoes was too much for him.  This time I used half and think it's about right (for him).  I like it made with the whole can.

A Nice Visit

Today was fun - one of my stampin' friends stopped by for a visit!  Ila was on her way from her home in southern Illinois to her daughter's which is about an hour and a half west of us.  She travels west on Highway 3 and through Pocahontas so called me and asked if I'd be home today!   Ila's been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in my group since 2006!  I haven't seen her for about 5 years.  We visited, she brought some card samples to show me, she gave me some card samples and I gave her some, we made a cute card, and we had lunch together!  Makes me miss all of my stampin' friends!  Hope you come back again Ila when you're coming through these parts!   We got 3/4" of gentle rain today so it was a good day!

This is the card we made using all Stampin' Up! products including designer paper, card stock, the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and stamp set Itty Bitty Banners.  To order, go to my web site (top right) or click on Order Online 24/7 and then Shop Now - or e mail me at ckemna@iowatelecom.net.  The pattern for the dress and a tutorial are HERE.

Storm Clouds But Little Rain

Wed. evening we had these stormy skies with lightening and thunder, but  we had very high wind first for a little bit and then just barely 1/10" here at our house.  I think Tim had 6/10" at his house north of town and the town just north of us got over an inch.  We heard of a field of corn that was flattened east of us.

Our church held a special prayer meeting to pray for rain on this night.

Bill tells me that we're supposed to get quite a bit of rain tomorrow.  We hope so!  

Freezing Sweet Corn

I've been wanting to freeze sweet corn since I moved here five years ago but every year there's been a reason I haven't.  At first, we lived in the old farm house and the kitchen was small and didn't have a vent over the stove so boiling anything made the kitchen really hot.  Then there were a couple of years that the raccoons ate the corn.  Last year I was in Indiana in August when it was ready.

Back when we stayed with Grandma & Grandpa every day, they had a big garden and we helped shuck and get the silks off for freezing lots of corn.  I remember sitting and watching Grandma cut the corn off the cob and thinking it was so neat how it fell off in "strips" like this.  

Grandma had some false teeth so she usually cut her corn off the cob - and ours sometimes - and I liked eating these "sections"!  

This years' corn looks nice even with all the heat.  Tim put up electric fence to stop the raccoons!  I was lucky that Bill picked it and shucked the corn for me out in the garden so my part was easy.  I just did 18 pint size bags.  We don't eat that much corn since it's not a good vegetable for diabetics or if you're watching your weight.  But I hope it tastes good this winter!  It has to be better than what you buy at the grocery!

   

Bill's Birthday

Yesterday was Bill's birthday and to celebrate, we went to Okoboji to the The Fisherman's Wharf.  It's fun to eat there because you can sit and watch boats going under the bridge right below the restaurant.  It was entirely too hot to sit outside yesterday so we found a nice table by the window.  

Then we went to the amusement park, Arnolds Park, to catch a ride on the Queen II at 7:00.  The boat ride was about an hour and 15 min. and 18 miles of narrated history of the lakes.  I kind of wanted to ride the ferris wheel but by the time we got back to the dock the park was closing.  

Our thermometer is saying right at 100.  Des Moines is supposed to get up to 105 today - whew!  Thank goodness for air conditioning.  Bill & Tim are working (slowly Bill says) on putting a new tarp on one of the semi trailers.  It's the kind that rolls itself automatically which will be nice.  For the non-farmers, the semis have tarps to cover the corn or beans when you're driving down the road so it doesn't blow out - or get rained on.  With our old tarps, the guys had to manually unroll the tarps or roll them up.  It's hard on the shoulders, backs and arms especially when they're frozen after cold nights.

I've been doing laundry, fixed pork loin & corn, etc. for lunch, watering flowers, plants and our 4 new trees in the yard but now heading to the cool basement to work on stamping projects.

Matthew's Turn

Peggy met Karen halfway in Algona yesterday and Taylor went home, and Matthew came for a couple days' stay with Memaw.  

We showed him the baby birds in the nest (forgot to show Taylor).  Then we went for a drive behind our house, across the creek and along the railroad track to look at the beans.  Took this picture (above blog header) of our beans behind our house.  They're looking really good so far but we need rain.  It did rain at 4:30 am today - 1/10".    

The baby birds.

Looking in the hole that Bill dug - notice no moisture in the dirt, even that deep.

Today is Bill's birthday.  We're going on a little outing.  May be a little warm - supposed to be 100.  Will take pictures.








 

Looking at the creek as we crossed it.

Buckling up for an afternoon with Uncle Bill.

Visitor

Our niece, Taylor, (Karen & Dave's daughter) was visiting Memaw the past couple of days so we had them over for lunch and a little craft time yesterday.  We had things we thought she'd like and a couple things we like.  Uncle Bill grilled hot dogs, and we had french fries, deviled eggs which Taylor thought were disgusting (said she'd never had them before but she tried them), pineapple cheese salad and a brownie sundae.

I bought these little glass dishes at the antique store that is part of the Ruby Pear Tea Room in Noblesville, Indiana - the best tea room I've been to!  (click HERE to go to their web site)  This was the first time I've used them.   Click HERE to see my post about the Ruby Pear.

 

Coneflowers & Black Eyed Susans from our yard.

 Poor Taylor had a bicycle rack fall on her so she has black eyes that look painful but she says it's not!

We're making refrigerator magnets with the flat clear "marbles"? you can get at craft stores, waterproof inks and of course stamps.  Stamp and use a clear glue to attach to the clear piece and then glue a magnet on the back! 

Taylor wanted a tour of our whole house since she hasn't been here very many times.  She had fun looking at all the things that my Great Nieces play with when they're here, and she said she especially liked our exercise ball and hand weights. 

 

Fair Time and it's HOT

Our town has been fixing up a lot next to the grocery and making it into Heritage Park, and this is where our Farmers' Market is every Thurs. afternoon in the summer.  This shelter has recently been built with a brick walkway to it and flowers and trees planted.  The last picture is what I bought yesterday.  Oops, I forgot the peaches.


Yesterday was a first for me - I helped the judge at Open Pantry at the county fair.  She was judging the jams, cookies, breads, rolls and cakes that the adults entered.  It was fun.  Another helper did the bookwork.  My job was bringing the entries to the judge.  She would cut them to see the inside texture, color, doneness, etc. and then taste.  We got to taste some of them too.  Then one cookie or bar or slice of bread would be put on a sm. white plate for display throughout the fair.  I put those in Ziploc bags, attached their ribbon they were awarded and took them to the display shelves.   The Champion of Open Pantry is a Healthy Fruit Muffin that had lots of ingredients including apricots.  They looked really nice - very uniform in size and color.  Reserve Champion was a cinnamon roll entry that looked nice and tasted good.  There weren't many entries (mostly cookies) so I'm thinking I should enter some Butterhorn Rolls at least next year.  For helping, I received a ticket for a free turkey supper for Bill and I on Sun. at the fair.  That may be his birthday dinner?????  I was in 4-H for 7 years and my favorite project was Foods - and the reason I learned to bake.  It was fun to be on this side of judging. 

Peggy has a little visitor - our niece, Taylor - so we're having them over for lunch today.  I have a little craft planned for them, and we'll have to show her the baby birds.  Time to make the deviled eggs, salad and brownies! 

Surprise!

On July 6th when watering trees, Bill found this little bird's nest in one of the trees.  There were four eggs - three blue and one white.  Last night when watering, we were surprised to see that there were baby birds in the nest1 

 

Building Site

to the east from the road

 Bill & Tim have been working on the ground where the new building will sit behind our house, to the north and east.  Tried to take these pictures so you can see where it will be from our house.  


It's going to be a 60' x 120' EPS building built by Quail Construction out of Spencer, Iowa.  Quail Construction is a family owned business and they've been in business since 1945. 

 It's thundering and we're right on the line to maybe get rain. Bill is out spraying a field and just called to have me look at radar.  As I was telling him what I saw, he saw straight up and down lightening so that made up his mind to stop.  He'll be home for lunch shortly.  

looking north from the south side of our yard

Rolfe Sesquicentennial Cookbook

the front cover - school colors Old Gold & Red

the first page with the Sesquicentennial logo

The cookbooks are here! The cookbooks are here!  After many hours of typing and proofreading about 850 recipes, we're excited to actually see the completed books, be able to have one at home and get them out to everyone else too.  We had a "Just Desserts" time Thurs. evening for those that had preordered cookbooks and for others to come to buy them and to sample some desserts from recipes in the cookbook. It was nice.  People came and sampled and visited and looked through the cookbooks together.  Here are a couple of pictures of the cookbook.

The town's Sesquicentennial celebration will be during Greater Rolfe Days in July next year (2013).  These books will be sold until then or when the supply runs out - we ordered 1000.    It's hoped that profit from the sale of these can be used to help with expenses of the celebration next year.  

Two other Rolfe cookbooks have been done in the past - in 1988 and 2002.

This past weekend was Greater Rolfe Days.  Fri. night Bill worked at the water fights at the fire station and I sold cookbooks.  He was in the parade Sat. morning and Camry & I sold cookbooks.  My friend Terri and I sold cookbooks at the rodeo Sat. night.  Sunday morning was the omelet breakfast that the firemen do every year which we both worked at (served 200).

Today was an eye dr. appointment in Ft. Dodge for me.  Bill is moving and leveling dirt where his new building will be.  I'll be in the craft room now for several days working on cards and projects for my stamping weekend with my downline in Peoria, IL in Aug.      

Busy!

Sorry I haven't posted for several days.  We seem to have a lot going on.  Bill is getting ready to put up a new machine shed behind our house so we met this week with the company that will do that.  Then Bill, with Tim's help, has been measuring to figure out exactly where it'll go and he's disked the beans in that spot and started hauling some dirt in to get it level.

We got 2/10" of rain here at our house on Mon. but farther north at Tim's - nothing.  And very little in the forecast but plenty of sun, heat and humidity.

I had lunch with friends on Mon. at Our Daily Bread in Algona and then we went on to Emmetsburg for dessert at New Shoots.  

I try to get all of the yearly dr., dentist, eye appointments done in the summer when we're not farming and the weather is good so yesterday was a day for some of that.  

I organized a new catalog swap for my downline (Stampin' Up!) and their cards were due to me on Mon.  Twelve of us participated.  I got them swapped and mailed back out.  The card I made for the swap is this one using the Just Believe stamp set and the new argyle embossing folder.  I inked the stamp with markers, stamped the image and then used the leftover ink on the stamp to stamp on the argyle background.  The colors are the new In Colors, raspberry ripple and gumball green.  All products can be ordered from my web site above right.  


Tonight was the first night for pickup and sales of the new Rolfe Sesquicentennial Cookbook.  Lots of people stopped by to get theirs and many are being bought for gifts.  Greater Rolfe Days starts tomorrow and I'm going to be selling cookbooks at several of the events like the fire dept.'s water fights, the parade and the rodeo.  Sun. the firemen (and wives) feed the town at an omelet breakfast.

The first sweet corn is ready so it's time to freeze some.  Bette Jo got some done today.      

 

First Peach Pie Ever

Bill has started asking for peach pie almost as much as he mentions apple pie!  When we were in the Loess Hills last weekend, we stopped at Small's Fruit Farm.  (click HERE to read their story and see pictures)  They had Missouri peaches which are always good - and transparent apples!  I was so excited to find these apples because they are the kind that Grandma & Grandpa Randall had - the apple trees I climbed all the time and they made the best applesauce I've ever had!  The fruit farm also had homemade apple, peach and cherry pie that you could buy whole or by the slice.  Bill had a piece of peach and I had cherry.  Mine was the best cherry pie I've ever had. She warmed it up just right and served with soft serve vanilla ice cream.   Mmmmmm!  Nice middle of the day stop!  They had lots of other produce too.  I wish this place was closer to us!

Yesterday while Bill and Tim were working on the stump removal, I baked my first peach pie (it's my least favorite kind so have never made one) with almost 4 lbs. of fresh Missouri peaches I bought at our Farmers' Market this week.  The recipe I used came from my Betty Crocker cookbook.  The peaches were really juicy so I was worried that it would be runny but was very happy with the way it turned out - and so was Bill!

 

Stump Removal

Bill & Tim are working on getting rid of the big tree stumps today in the 98 degree heat.  (you can see that our grass is turning brown)  Here are lots of pictures that tell the story.  Bill is in the borrowed payloader and Tim is in the Bobcat.  They're loading them up and taking them back to a hole that Bill dug where he'll burn them eventually.  It's looking good! 

We watered the new trees last night.  It takes 900 gallons which we get in town for $3.00!   They really needed it.