Newest Family Member

After we got back from Colorado we put in an adoption application for one of the kittens we had fostered for 2 months over the summer. Marbles is now part of the family. While we had him, he developed a limp which was eventually identified as femoral head necrosis. Greenhill Humane decided to operate because he is such a delightful cat. He still limps but it doesn't seem to slow him down.

The only side effect seems to be that he is pretty willing to be in whatever position he happens to land in or get put in. This includes being snuggled like a teddy bear.

Clearly, he is not easily upset and has a huge purr.

He also loves being between us. The picture was taken from above; my red shirt and black pants are on the left, Q's brown shirt and jeans are on the right.

Digit and Isabel are adjusting quite well to a spunky new kitten. He's kept well-groomed by the fastidious Digit and he gets plenty of exercise as he and Isabel race through the house. I'm sure there will be documentation of this photogenic kitten quite often from here on out.

The Mayflower

It's not a great picture but not bad for less than 1/2 hour. I also was drawing without anything to look at and found the angle I'd chosen more tricky than I first envisioned. Oh well. I've added the words "Early English Colonies" to the sky since this picture was taken and they're copying it for the cover of their first history block.

Q's New Sweater

I showed this project in process but now I get to show the final result. Q loves it which means I'm very happy with it. He picked everything - yarn, buttons, and pattern - out himself and I must admire his taste. The color is a little washed out in the photos. It's actually a very dark, cool purple that has flecks of color - Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride Superwash in "Northern Lights". It knit up beautifully from the pattern. My gauge was just a tiny bit off (which adds up when a sweater is 53" around) so I was glad I'd chosen the 56" size rather than the size below because it fits perfectly. I'll hopefully finish the sweater I'm currently knitting soon - this one - so I can show it off here.

Quentin's Marinara

Q got ambitious and created his own marinara recipe. It is much, much more complicated to make than my usual but it is very, very good.

The recipe...
4 lbs. Roma tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/4 c. diced onion
1 oz. diced garlic (about 6 large cloves)
1/2 oz. chopped basil (or about 2 T crushed dried)
1/4 oz. chopped oregano (or about 1 T crushed dried)
1 T parsley
4 T olive oil
2 T butter, cut into chunks
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t crushed red pepper

Here it is, ready for the oven. We cook it in a 350 degree F oven for 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

A Clean Pair of Hands

When I'm canning, I always wish that there was some way to always have a clean pair of hands in the kitchen so I could be more efficient. Q was kind enough to be those for me this weekend and we got a huge quantity of peaches put up in record time. (He was also responsible for creating a new marinara recipe, which I'll share tomorrow.)


I thought I'd give a quick snapshot of my canning process. I've got it tuned to just how I like it now. (Thanks for the action shot, Q.)

The prep station

The blue bowl is a citric acid dip with a colander in it so the peaches can be drained in situ before getting poured into the syrup. The silver bowl is compost. The white plate was whole pits. I'm saving them to try and grow my own peach trees. Putting my cutting board into a baking pan has totally contained all of the peach mess.

The canning pots

Back left is the boiling water canner. Front left is the blanching pot (it has a built in colander!). The front right has a couple of inches of water and jars upside down in it steam sterilizing as the canner is processing. The back right has the syrup. We have gotten very good at rotating them around as needed. I'm am frequently grateful for the granite countertops during this type of procedure.

We're almost done preserving for the season - and the peaches are definitely done!

Zucchini-fest

When we returned from Colorado our harvest included a very large zucchini.

Zucchini Parmesan turns out to be really scrumptious.

Zucchini Pancakes were surprisingly fantastic. We had them with plain yogurt on top. Next time, we're thinking of smothering them in mushroom gravy. They reminded Q of egg foo young. The last half pound or so of zucchini is getting shredded and frozen so we can have these again this winter.

Zucchini cookie dough has been frozen and we're baking cookies every other night or so a half dozen at a time. This recipe is really really good - flavorful and not too sweet. It's the perfect "biscuit" for our evening tea.

Root Vegetables

After school on Thursday we came home and started in on some yard work. The basil was going to seed so that got cut off, tied into bundles and hung to dry. We're packing the carrots, parsnips and beets in some straw and trying to keep them for a while. The edamame got blanched and frozen. I'm so excited about having that in the freezer ready for a quick before dinner snack this winter - 5 pounds!

Just as we were getting ready to go in, we decided to check on the potato crop. This was the first year we've grown them and a huge number got torn out before they even started growing when the back trees got taken out. We just put the cut sections on the ground and then piled mulch on top of them. They were incredibly fun to harvest - brush away mulch and there are the potatoes! We didn't get a huge harvest this year but I'm really excited to grow them next year now.

We put up 80 pounds of peaches and made marinara with 35 pounds of tomatoes this weekend. Posts will follow in the next couple of days.