Abby's Pumpkin Cake

This picture is dedicated to Auntie Nost. Why, you ask? Well, she finds humor in the fact that I like to match my boys' clothes.

It used to be much worse when I only had 2 boys. Back then, probably 75% of their clothes matched. Then Matty came along and I realized how expensive it really was to buy the same outfit times 3. Lets pretend I have 3 outfits that I like. I could either buy 9 (3x3) or 3 (one for each boy). Hmmm. So now, I only match them for special occasions or if its something I REALLY like. In this instance, the boys are obsessed with trains. I had Gymbucks to spend, so I got 3 of them.

A funny note about Abby's outfit...its from a company called BODEN...haha! Isn't that cool? Her own last name in the label! Its sort of funny, when I have to call them for some reason about an order, there is always a long silence after I tell them my name :) I'm still working on trying to convince them that we need a discount since they are using our last name in their label. No luck thus far :)

After we got home from dropping Ty off at preschool, Matty posed for me.

Then my Buggy wanted in on the action. He wouldn't smile but wanted a picture. So here he is, taking off his shoes.
I had to show you Matty's Caboose. Isn't that the cutest thing?
Abby's school is having a Family Fun Night tonight. At school today, they had a cake decorating contest and then the cakes will be given away tonight during a cake walk. How fun!

Abby knew she wanted a scary pumpkin cake. I let her do the decorating. Normally I'm kind of controlling about that, I guess its one area in my life that I am a perfectionist. But since it was supposed to be done by her, I let her loose. I think it turned out cute! Its supposed to resemble our Jack outside; triangle eyes, eyebrows and a big open mouth.
Abby and her cake
I'm so proud of her that she did it all by herself! Pete took her to school with her cake today and said that it was obvious most of the cakes had parental help. Kind of a bummer, as its supposed to be something the kids did, at least thats how I understood it. Even if she doesn't win a prize, she can be proud of the fact that she did hers by herself!

The Making of a Very Scary Pumpkin!

So last night was deemed pumpkin carving night. We only got one pumpkin to carve and the rest, they will get to paint faces on. Why? Because I'm a cheapskate :) After Halloween, the ones that are painted will be baked and pureed to make yummy bread and pie!

Here are the kids with their pumpkin
Giving the pumpkin a kiss before the scalpel touches him

Uh Oh...here comes Daddy! He looks dangerous!
Now that the top is off, time to dig out the insides. Since this was their first carving experience (the past few years we've just painted them), they were a little timid. Abby went first...

Then Tyler...
And then Aaron smelled it...that's as close as he got!
After they each dug out one handful, they were sold. They decided despite it's oooey gooooooey grossness, it was indeed fun!Matthew was busy doing other things, he couldn't be bothered with a silly pumpkin.

Time to draw on the face! The kids decided he needed to be scary.
Aaron decided he'd rather play with his horse.Here is the guy before:

And after!
You can thank Pete for the lovely lit pumpkin picture. Had I taken it, I would've used the flash, which apparently wouldn't have shown the candlelight. That's why he's the photographer, not me! We put the pumpkin on the rock wall facing the house. If we put him facing the street, well, no one would see him since our driveway goes downhill. So we put him facing the house so WE can enjoy his scary little face!

Pumpkin Sledding

Well, here is what I really should be doing. Yep, its Laundry Mountain. Still there! I hate laundry. At least the rest of the house is clean. That laundry is clean too, I just need to hang it up. I hate laundry. But I love shopping for clothes. Wierd.

After Pete went back to work after lunch, Abby wanted to play outside. I go out there to find her playing with scarecrows, gourds and pumpkins. Oh, and a sled. In October. A sled.

Sledding in October...only if you are a pumpkin!Just a cute shot of Her Cuteness. While I was out catching Abby's fun on camera, His Stinkiness decided to dump out a bottle of water that either His Turdness or His Naughtiness left out. Fun! Now he's all wet! Well actually he was...he's napping now.

Just for fun, here is one of 4 cedar planters Pete made for me this summer. I need to take out the flowers, I'm actually surprised they look as good as they do. It was really hard and frustrating because all our pet deer liked my flowers for snacks. They would get to the point where they were getting bushy and pretty and flowery then one of them would come along and prune them for me. How thoughtful!Kind of hard to see, but here are the other 3 planters.
Wow, that is REALLY hard to see. Now you know what I mean about Pete being the supercallefragelistic Photographer and I'm not.

Carver Farms

This morning my MOPS group went to the pumpkin patch at Carver Farms. MOPS is short for Mothers of Preschoolers. Its a christian ministry centered in many local churches. I go to the group at the Spokane Valley Nazarene Church. I have been going since January 2006. Its been fun. I was a Discussion Group Leader for 2 years and this year 'scaled back' to an Assistant.

Anyways. Tyler was at preschool and Abby was at school too. Well she actually was at the same pumpkin patch with her Kindergarten class on a field trip, how random is that? So I just had Aaron and Matthew with me. I strapped Matthew to me with my Moby Wrap but let Aaron run freeeeeeee as a bird.

Going through the corn maze. He kept turning around, saying "C'mon Mom!" or "This way Mom!" So cute!
Off he goes!
We got to pick some popcorn too. They are actually ears of what I've always known as Indian Corn, you know, the really colorful kind? All you have to do is peel the husks down and let it dry for 6 weeks. Supposedly then the kernels fall right off and you pop it like normal. That will be fun!

Not really sure what is up with this picture. That is why I keep Pete around, he is in charge of taking fabulously awesome pictures! So if they're crappy, I probably took them, but if they are nice, he's probably the photographer. There are actually more reasons that I keep him around though ;)

Here is Aaron with our haul of Pop Corn.
A really bad picture of the 3 of us. Aaron was crying because I made him sit on my lap JUST for the picture. We were in the wagon for our 'hay ride' and he wanted to sit on the hay bale. Oh lookeee, I just noticed, there is a LOVELY background!
When we got to the pumpkin patch, Abby's class was really far away. If you look closely, she is 2nd from the left in the pink coat!
There is her ride...she is in the left corner, next to the hooded Dad.
There's my girl waving and yelling at me! So cute, if I might say so myself!
Thanks to Jack Frost, all the pumpkins I saw were like this. Yucks. Abby did find a good one though. We now have a collection of 7 big pumpkins, about 12 gourds and 4 mini pumpkins.
My little Buggy Boy!
Can't forget Matty Matt!! It's hard holding a big Canon D-something camera and trying to point it at the baby strapped to your chest.

Making Applesauce and Apple Butter

So I've had a lot of people ask about how I make my applesauce so here is how I do it, out there for all to see!

First, you need apples. I like to use a variety, preferably 4-5 types, when I make applesauce. It just makes it taste better. I like to use Empires, Jonagold, Gala, Rome, etc. Try to pick apples that are sweet, so you only need to add minimal sugar. So don't go trying to make applesauce with Granny Smiths...save those for your pies. We get ours at a local orchard but you could use grocery store ones too.

Wash your apples. I just put mine in a colander in the sink and wash them that way.
Here is where your method might have to differ from mine. I have an attachment for my kitchen aid that separates the peel/core from the flesh. So all I have to do is quarter the apples and put them in a big pot. You could also use a food mill.

If you don't have either of those, or if you want a chunky sauce, then you would also need to peel and core the apples at this step. I have an apple/peeler/corer slicer thing from Pampered Chef that I use when I do chunky sauce.

After the apples are in the pot, pour in about an inch of apple cider or water. Cover the pot and let it simmer. I also like to put in a couple of cinnamon sticks.
Here is my bestest friend. You can buy this for about $90 and it is SO worth it. I just got mine about a month ago and I used it to make pear sauce and pear butter too. Like I said before though, you don't NEED this ;)
Here is the whole contraption. How it works, is you put the simmered apples in the top 'bowl' thingy. They go down and then in the housing thing on the right, the peel, core, seeds, stem, etc are separated and spit out the end. Since mine is over the sink, I just let it go in there. Then the sauce slides down and falls into the blue bowl.
Back to the sauce. Turn the burner on high and when it starts boiling, turn it down to low. Simmer the apples until they are nice and soft and mushy! Usually this only takes 20 minutes or so. Depends on how many apples you have.

This is a picture of my apples when they are ready to be sauced...is that a word? If you want to make chunky sauce, you would now mush the apples with a potato masher and skip down to the picture of the sweet little boy with peanut butter and jelly on his face.

Now, use a spoon to scoop the apple mush into the tray. If you don't have a neato gadget like I do, you can use a regular hand food mill, you know, the kind that you turn? It's hard work, but you might get big muscles. I can see it now..."Wow, Sarah, you are RIPPED!" "Thanks, I make a lot of applesauce." Okay, maybe not so realistic.
Use the included plunger stick thingy to push the apples down into the hole. Keep scooping and plunging until your pot has no more apples in it.

Isn't this gross? This is the hole where the yucky stuff comes out...peel, seeds, etc.Here is a picture of the whole thing. You can see the yucky stuff getting pooped out on the right and the sauce dripping down the bottom left, falling into the bowl.

Ew. This is what the sink looks like when I'm done. Good thing I have a garbage disposal.

After a while, you have a nice big bowl of sauce! My big pot actually fills 2 big bowls with sauce.

If you are contemplating buying a neato gadget like mine, I will tell you, it probably saves literally HOURS. I used about 20lbs of apples for this and it would have taken me probably 2+ hours to peel and core them. It probably took 30 minutes combined to quarter the apples and put them through the food grinder.Here is my helper. He had been eating his lunch, can you tell? MMMmmmm, PB&J.
So, now put your sauce back in your pot. It's pretty runny at this point. Now is the time to add spices and/or sugar. I use cinnamon, cloves, allspice and, if necessary, sugar. How much? I usually do it to taste.

I would guesstimate 2ish TB cinnamon, 1/2-1 tsp cloves and about 1/2 tsp allspice. Sugar just depends on how sweet your apples are and how sweet you like your sauce! I always do SOME unsweetened for recipes.

Then all you do is simmer the sauce until it gets to your desired thickness. You can then freeze it or can it. I prefer to can it...my freezer space is at a premium! I need to store 40 loaves of bread and 30 things of Coffee-Mate in there at all times. Canning it is daunting, but easy. Scroll to the bottom for how to do that.
Apple Butter...taking applesauce a step further! This is a delicacy that will make your tastebuds dance! So yummy! It is good on toast, biscuits, etc. My family also likes it in place of jelly/jam with PB sandwiches. It is very time intensive but thanks to the crockpot, SUPER duper easy.

Take some of the unsweetened applesauce you just made and dump it into your crockpot. Mine holds 7 quarts.
Add 2 TB Cinnamon, 1 tsp Cloves, 1/2 tsp Allspice and 2 cups of sugar.
Stir and cover. Cook on high for about an hour or two. Then turn to low and let it go for a long long long long time. I usually do mine overnight. It can take 12-16 hours. I TOLD you, a long long long long time. In the morning (after about 8-10 hours) I open it and vent it with a spoon so that the liquid can evaporate and it can get thick.
I also dump in 2 more cups of sugar. And top it off with more applesauce. When all is said and done, I use about 9 quarts of applesauce. You can obviously make a lot less too, don't be intimidated by my huge pot :)
Oh here it is, yummy!
I didn't take a picture of the actual process, but I use an immersion blender to make it smoooooth and creamy. You can even tell in the picture before and this one after that there is a consistency difference. At this point, the consistency is just a super thick applesauce.
Now I can it. You can freeze it too, but I prefer canning. If you've never done it, its easy!

Go buy some jars, I prefer wide-mouth quarts for sauce. They come with rims and lids. Sterilize the jars in boiling water. If you're lazy like me, run them through a sterilize (HOT water) dish cycle. This keeps them warm till you need them too. Put the lids and rims in a bowl of water and boil in the microwave for 5 minutes. Then just let them hang out in the hot water.

Use a canning funnel and ladle the hot sauce/butter into hot jars. Wipe the rim with a wet paper towel and put a lid on each one. Screw on the rim. Now you need to process them in a boiling water canner. For the 1/2 pints and pints I have pictured, I do them for 15 minutes. For quarts, 25 minutes.

Now, you can feel accomplished. At least you READ about it, and THOUGHT about it. Oh, and if you make any, I do accept samples.