Crock Pot Apple Sauce

Elizabeth and I visited a new to us apple orchard last week.While walking under the trees not only did we find sweet delicious apples...

But we spotted plastic snakes, used to scare off birds. My heart skipped a beat or two when we first spotted them, from a distance the snakes appear real.

We gathered 11-pounds of apples, which fit nicely in my large crock bowl. After eating several apples I began pondering what to make with the majority of our sweet bounty; and settled on apple sauce using the crock pot.

My handy apple peeler really saves times. The apples are not only peeled but sliced and cored at the same time.

The apples were placed in the crock pot with a little apple cider, also from the apple orchard, instead of water. And set on low to cook all night.

The next morning the apples were very tender. I used a potato masher to blend them instead of a food mill; so glad I did, chunky apple sauce is amazing!

Apple cake is the next item on my list, providing we don't eat up all the apples before I get around to baking.

To Sew and Sew and Sew

For the past several weeks I have been busy in the sewing room.

Making satin party dresses.

Each dress has numerous satin ribbon flowers stitched on by hand.

Fifteen dresses in all.

This dress is my favorite.

Who are the dresses for, you ask? They are a gift for 15 little girls who love the American Girl Doll.

Pumpkin Bread

Fresh pumpkin purchased from the big red barn we visited on Saturday.My favorite way to cook fresh pumpkin is in the pressure cooker.

The insides are so easy to scoop out and mash with a fork or potato masher.

And the flavored water, used in the pressure cooker, is perfect to cook with. I sometimes add powdered milk to the water before adding it to my recipe.

The house smelled wonderful while the bread was baking.

We like eating pumpkin bread with ice cold milk or hot tea.

Pumpkin Festival

On Saturday we went to Floydada for the Pumpkin Festival. The weather was perfect and felt just like fall; cool and wet.My favorite attraction at the festival was this miniature tractor that was used to churn homemade ice cream.

Just outside Floydada is a big red barn where people stop to buy pumpkins.

Stopping at the barn is so fun; they offer pumpkins is all shapes and sizes.

People use wagons and carts while shopping.

In front of the barn is a large grassy area set up for picture taking. This year it was too wet to walk to the wagon to take our picture but we had fun watching others wade through the water.

We purchased four small pie pumpkins to use for pumpkin bread. At 50-cents each they were a bargain!

A Walk and an Idea

Early one morning while walking outside I spotted some pretty wildflowers. Later that morning it began to rain and I got an idea....To make a cake using my recently thrifted cake plate and the flowers.

My plan was to arrange the flowers on the top but my top layer began sliding to one side creating a ledge. So not only are the flowers on the top but on the side as well.

The cake still turned out cute; I really liked using freshly watered, from the rain, flowers as a decoration.

And I love my new cake plate.

Pickled Jalapenos

My few jalapeno plants have really produced. This is only some of what was picked today. See the white pan holding the peppers? A recently find at the thrift store.This time I pickled the peppers using a brine of 5-parts white vinegar and 1-part water; to each pint jar I added half a teaspoon canning salt; and put in a hot water bath for 15-minutes.

There were so many peppers gathered today I was able to share with a friend and still had enough to can 12-jars!