August Blues

Not letting go

This is how I feel about back to school in response to the Daily Post, August Blues.

I love my children being home, not on a schedule, playing, being outside exploring, working on the farm, staying up late around the campfire or having a great night of family time swimming or boating.  We celebrate their last day of school. August blues hit me right after our local County Fair ends.  I start feeling the pit in my stomach and heart of another year coming to an end and the reminder of my children being another year older. 

As a child I enjoyed the summer.  I didn’t dislike school but I knew financially it was a burden with 4 children getting new clothes that were much needed, supplies, extra food for lunches, and the schedules of different start times, bus pick up times and returning home times.  It meant extra work with homework, less play time, and more stress.  The first few days of school were exciting times but it quickly fizzled.

Times are different with our 2 children but the familiar sadness of another summer come and gone is not.  There is also the fear of the world today and the worry of something bad happening while they are away from home.  I have found myself over the past few years counting the time between summer vacation and Christmas vacation when I know they can be relaxed, not scheduled and have their play/explore time outdoors at home with our family.

So knowing my children will be starting back to school in a week I try to pretend I am excited for them.  But inside I am feeling the pit and screaming…I’m not ready!!!  But there is only 114 days until their Christmas break 🙂

Crabbing

Chance with bucket of crabs

Our neighbor is a charter fisherman.  He works year round taking customers all over Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Niagara River to catch fish.  Sounds like a dream job but it is a huge load of work driving to make sure your customers from all over the country are catching fish in all types of weather including snow storms. What you catch has to be fileted and you must spend many evenings wrapping bait, crabbing, and drying the boat out for the next mornings trip.

We are surrounded by some of the worlds best fishing with Bass, Perch, Walleye, Salmon, and probably others I have no idea about.  Sadly I have never acquired a taste for seafood of any type.  We have a few fish fry picnics a year.  I am told there is no better fish than what he brings as it’s fresh!

Last night his family went “crabbing” (turning over rocks in shallow waters and on the shore) to catch some crabs for bait.  They took my son along to help.  He had a wonderful time and loved every minute of it!!  Here are some of the pictures of their trip to the shore of the Niagara River surrounding our island to crab.   Photos courtesy of Julie Cinelli (his wife).

How lucky are these kids to have this life!! 

 

Caprese Salad

A nice light salad is perfect for lunch or dinner on warm days.  Tonight I decided to make a caprese salad.  Most places leave the tomatoes whole, but I like to chop it all into nice size chunks and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.   This was a great side to serve with our leftover Pork Roast (recipe here). 

Tomato season is right now so get those tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar and give this is a try.  Chop it all or slice it and drizzle with the balsamic.  You can add some fresh ground pepper if you like.  You can also chop it very fine and serve as bruschetta on crusty bread.  It’s a great summer food 🙂

Oh so true…

Can I at least put some peanut butter on it???? Have a terrific Tuesday 🙂

Original Crock Pot Pork Roast

Planning ahead is key in our lives with taking care of animals and the kids sports which have started up.  Monday and Tuesday are busy nights this week so I took out a pork roast from the freezer to thaw and put in the crock pot this morning.  We have been eating out A LOT so I wanted to bring everyone back to a wonderful basic home cooked meal.

Using the crock pot or a roasting pan in the oven is the best way to keep pork juicy, flavorful and tender. Below are the pictures of how I prepared it and how we served it with my original pork roast recipe.  I have many different recipes for preparing a pork roast from sweet to spicy to asian style but today I just wanted the original flavor.

You do not have to follow this perfectly.  Adjust to your cut of meat.

4 lbs pork roast

Season with 2 chicken bouillon cubes, garlic powder (1/4 tsp), Salt and Pepper, 1/4 tsp. dried parsley flakes and a few red pepper flakes (these are optional)

Place the roast in the crock pot or roasting pan.  If there is a fattier side, place that facing up. 

Chop one medium onion and place in with the pork. 

1/2 tsp. sesame oil drizzled on the pork

2 cups of chicken stock with 3 Tablespoons of cornstarch mixed in thoroughly

cover and cook in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or in the oven at 200 degrees for 6-8 hours.

You will have port that pulls apart with a fork and an awesome gravy to serve atop rice or noodles.

We like peas on top of ours also but you can use any vegetables you’d like on top or as a side.

The glass bowl is leftovers for tomorrow.  I will reheat that adding in 4 Tablespoons of sour cream to make it a creamy pork and noodles so it’s a tad different than tonights!!

Easy delicious homemade dinner!!

 

 

Yes it’s true!!

Monday always requires an amazing cup of coffee!!  Let the games begin 🙂

Flash Freezing Peaches

Flash frozen and ready to store in the freezer

It is peach season and they are so sweet and juicy right now the whole house smells wonderful from them.

I had bought a bushel on Thursday to can on Sunday.  The bushel had 31 peaches in it.  My children at 12 of them!!  YES 12!!!  So we had to run to the farmers market again on Saturday to get another bushel.

The farmers market is a great place to get low priced fresh vegetables and fruits.  There is a stand that sells cakes and of course the tween begged me to get a pound cake to try.  We are driving in the car and this is what I see:

She unwraps and bites the pound cake like a cookie and the boy in the back seat has somehow reached into the back and gotten himself a peach!!!

So guess no one else is going to eat that cake and if there is traffic I am going to have to head back to the market as the boy will surely get himself another 2, 3 or 5 peaches before we make it back over the bridge home!!

So I salvaged 27 peaches out of the bushels from Saturday until Sunday morning when I canned 9 jars (will put those in another post) and I flash froze 2 gallon size bags to use for peach cobbler, smoothies, and frozen treats later in the year. 

You can’t find a good peach in our area after October and by December they are not even in the stores.  It’s a wonderful feeling to pop open a can and have some of that summer goodness during a winter storm or relaxing by a cozy fire.  My children love them right out of the freezer bag letting them thaw just slightly.

Flash freezing helps to ensure your fruit will not stick together and become a big clumpy mess in the freezer.  You can pull out one peach or ten as they will stay individual.

lemon water

laid out ready to freeze

four hours fully frozen

Here is how I flash freeze the peaches:

Peel the peach and cut into slices (TIP on how to peel and slice peaches below)

Put the slices into a bowl of water with 1/4 cup of lemon juice (should be a large bowl).

Keep the sliced peaches in the lemon water until you are done slicing as many as you are going to freeze.  The lemon water will keep the peaches their beautiful yellowy red color and not let them brown.

Once they are all sliced line a cookie sheet with a heavy duty paper towel (I use Viva or Brawny as they hold up better).

Using a slotted spoon or your hand remove the peaches and lay them on the cookie sheet not touching eachother. 

Once they are all on the cookies sheets use another paper towel to pat them dry.

Place them in the freezer or at least 4 hours.

Remove them and they should be frozen through.  Remove them from the paper towel and place into a gallon freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 8 months. 

TIP FOR PEELING PEACHES

Slice the peach all the way around the middle

hold each end and twist until the top pops off

top has no pit, bottom as pit.  Peel them both

use knife to cut pit out

will look like this

Slice into size you want

Summer sweets all year long!!

Canning & Season Preparations

We are well into our canning process.  Tomorrow I will can our peaches and we are set then until the apples, pears and tomatoes are ready in September. 

Canned we have strawberry jam, raspberry preserves, canned cherries, dilly beans, dill pickles, and blueberry sauce.  We will do peaches, applesauce (plain and berry), carrots, and tomatoes in the next few weeks.

In the freezer we have flash frozen peppers, onion, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, beans, peas and soon we will have butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and a few tomatoes.

Frozen we have cherry pies, blueberry pies and will add apple pies when season hits.

Potatoes should be about 30+ lbs of white potatoes and 20 of red potatoes when we harvest in 2 weeks.  I grew these in containers and they are so heavy now I can barely lift them.

We purchased a meat package from the local butcher today and stocked the freezer.

This week we will get 10 cord of wood dropped and will spend a night with a few friends treating them to some beers and pizza and stock the woodshed. 

And who says life is boring!!  It sounds like a lot of work but we fit in our play time too!!

Take me out to the ball games!!

Buffalo Bisons 2nd last home game of the season

The past few days have been all about ball games as in Baseball and Football!!  Thursday we met friends and went to the 2nd last game of the season for our local Buffalo Bisons team.  It was a lot of fun.

And today the tween had to cheer for our local junior football team, Grand Island Jr. Vikings

And while she was cheering the boy and man of the house went to our NFL football teams pre-season game, The Buffalo Bills!!

So lucky to be able to take in all these great games.  We are a sports family and love this time of year!!  Next month HOCKEY!!  Can’t wait!!

 

Well….Well

Wouldn’t this be a fun morning cereal……Enjoy your Saturday!!!!