Canned Turkey Rice Soup.....A Winter MUST!!!

My sister and mother in law have been talking about making turkey and rice soup all summer, and we finally made it! :) I love having canned soup, not only is it healthier (with only 1 tsp salt/qt. ) but it is soooo handy!!!! This summer we made beef and vegetable soup, and I love being able to take a jar right off of my shelf, and into my pan, and instantly I have supper :) I was pretty excited when they told me about turkey and rice soup, because I like having the variety to have a beef or turkey soup (for those of my friends who don't like ground beef ;) ) The recipe came from my other sister-in-law, Carolyn.

Here is a preview of the finished product.

The recipe goes like this......

1/3 Cup brown rice, uncooked

3/4 Cup turkey or chicken

1/4 Cup chopped celery

1/4 Cup chopped onion

1/4 Cup chopped carrot

1 tsp salt

1 chicken bouillon cube

This is the recipe per qt, so multiply it by however many quarts you want to make.

I chopped up all of my veggies before I went to my sister in law's house, to save some time, I knew how much meat I had, so I just chopped up as many veggies I needed to for how many qts of meat I had.

My veggies.

Add the rice to the bottoms of your jars, then the meat, then the veggies.

                                           

Here is my rice in my jars.

 This is the left over turkey from my turkey pot pie.

 And this is some pork roast that I made the day before, that I brought for lunch, but I used it to put into my soup jars, because I ended up not having enough turkey, oooops...

 This is my little helper, Jared, my nephew, and Jodi my niece, they are both such great helpers!!! :) (Notice the jars Jared is stacking up behind him!!)

 After you have added all the rice, meat, and veggies, add the salt and bouillon cube, then fill the jar to just below the bottom ring on the lid, with water. Pressure cook at 10 lbs of pressure for 45 minutes, then you will have a very satisfying turkey, or pork, soup, that is perfect for when you are sick and don't want to cook supper! :)

Buying gifts with his money????

So this is a kind of different blog for me, I'm just thinking out loud and trying to get some feed back that helps me convince myself I can buy stuff for him with his money....


Is there anyone else out there who struggles with buying gifts for their husband or spouse using their money???? I cant seem to get over it! I don't really consider it a gift to him if I'm using the money he worked so hard to earn! I have a job that pays some, but that money goes towards some specific bills, so I can't really use MY money to buy him something. It's not like we have a money tree that I can go pick off of to buy him something, and say, "He didn't earn this, so I can use it" although that would be WAY COOL!!!! :) 

We do have an account that I use for mainly groceries, that he doesn't use, but it is still money he made, I just get to spend it.


 How do any of you feel about this?? Am I just weird and need to get over it, or is there some rationality to this?

Cake FUN!

Leon's friend, and old roommate is moving away, and becoming an over the road trucker. He bought a truck and trailer, and he is gone beginning December. We had him and a few friends over before he left. I wanted to make it an extra special day for him, so I decided to make a fun cake with a picture of his truck on it, or try to :) Besides trucking, he likes, I mean LOVES the St. Louis Cardinals, who's colors are red and white, also his favorite big rig is Kenworth, who's colors are also red-burgindy-ish and white, so naturally, I made him a red and white cake!

 I put the cake batter onto a big cookie sheet, so that it will make a big thin cake, since I need 2 layers.

 This is a counter top sink cut out that I got from Leon's shop, I LOVE this thing! It is 20 inches by 20 inches, and it fits nicely in my kitchen :) It is just a piece of wood with laminate counter top on it. I use it to put really hot things, like cans on it, and I dont have to worry about making burn rings in it :)

 Here is the finished red layer, and I etched in, with a tooth pick, an outline of our friends truck, originally I was going to cut the cake out in the shape of the truck, but I changed my mind....

 Then I took some tin foil and covered my sink cut out board with it, then I put it over the top of my rad cake pan and flipped it over to put the cake on the board. I then realized that my etched drawing is now flat down on the foil, so DON'T etch the design on the top of the cake when you take it out of the oven :) I had gotten a really flimsy icing spreader, and I was unsure if it would really work on it, but it worked great!! The flimsy-ness made it so much easier to ice with than a regular knife!!

 I iced the top of the red layer to be like glue when I put the white layer on.

 Here is my white layer....ummmm...... I didn't have any good way to flip the white layer onto the red layer and this is what happened, I have no suggestions on how to do it better, sorry.... maybe have someone else to help you :)

 I think this is the reason for Icing a cake, you can cover up you half torn apart top layer, and it will still look pretty, no matter how bad the cake might actually look :)

 After I put the brown icing on, then I etched in the outline of his truck, again. I love this because if you mess up, just swipe a spatula over your goof up and try again!!! :)

Here is the finished product. At first the condensed can of cake icing came out really slow because it was cold, then it got warmed up from being in my hand and it started shooting out of the tip of the bottle (that is why there are squiggly fat lines under the windshield!) I should have put the can into the fridge because it was a lot easier to make the detail when the icing came out slower. Anyways, he loved it and that's all that matters!! I also had a lot of fun making it!!!!!

Turkey Pot Pie

Before I begin I just want to warn you that since my last post had NO pictures, this one has a lot :)

The ladies in our church are making meals for a lady who has a 3 year old boy, and just had twin boys, and she doesn't have much support to help out around the house, and tonight is my night to cook, and I couldn't figure out what to make, until my sister in law asked me when I want to make canned turkey and rice soup (we have been talking about it all summer!!) it worked out best to do it next Monday. So Leon got my turkey out of the freezer, and into the fridge, I thought 1 day in the fridge would thaw out my 13 lbs turkey, it did not....  so this morning I looked up online if you could cook a frozen turkey, and you can!!! (325 degrees for 5 1/2 hrs) I don't think this would be a good idea for THE thanksgiving turkey, but for using it in soup is just fine :) I wanted to make something for the mother with the twins that used turkey, so I decided to make turkey pot pie.

Since we have established the fact that I don't follow recipes exactly, it should be no surprise I didn't for this recipe either :) instead I looked at many recipes and took what I liked from them and made my own.

My ingredients are...

• 4 carrots, peeled and cut
• 4 celery stocks sliced in half and chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 2 ish cups of turkey
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 pint chicken broth
• and salt and pepper!

It seemed like it took me forever to cook this, probably due to having to opreform emergency surgery on my camera battery charger, and taking the battery off the charger and into my camera 100 times!......

First cut and chop your veggies, I like to slice my celery in half length wise then chop the stalks up, and for the carrots, I also cut length wise, then chop, but I had 1 big fat carrot that I cut into quarters length wise.

 Next chop up the onion, I like to cheat and chop the onion into smaller chunks and use the handy dandy chopper (below), it does wonderful things in the kitchen........

 I have been looking a lot of cooking photos, and I notice that most of them have very pretty cutting boards, well I don't. I am pretty sure my husband has made GORGEOUS cutting boards for every female in my family but me. I have never really cared to have on until now, when I see my plane Jane cutting board in my pictures. Maybe I will get one for Christmas :)

Like this (above)!!!!!!!!!! And no tears :)

Next add the 6 Tbsp of butter to a skillet and melt it on medium heat

 Yes, there is bits of carrot, celery, and onion already in the pan, I skipped a step and added all the veggies first, DON'T do that :)

 Now add the veggies, once the butter is all melted

 Here is my used to be frozen, now thoroughly cooked, turkey I started cooking at 7:30 this morning, not very pretty, but it will just fine for what I need.

 My sister in law did this with a ham and I thought it was a brilliant idea! Put the whole thing on a cookie sheet and pick through it on there, the juices stay in, and its easy to move around and get to everything! Ever since I helped my friends butcher 70 some chickens, I thought my self to know the insides and outsides of birds very well, however, in this store bought one, there were little packages inside that I kept finding! There was a gravy pouch, a giblet puch and info on how to prepare a turkey! I didn't find these until half way through the cooking, weird....... Once the turkey has cooled down a bit, and you have all cleanly and neatly picked through the turkey trying to get all the meat off, put your utensils down and use your hands!!! There are tons of little tiny, very useful pieces of turkey that you, like me, probably missed. most of the meat I put into my pot pie was the little tiny pieces i found with my hands!

 I'm not sure how much turkey I added, it looks around 2 cups, but quite possibly over. Honestly I don't feel like you HAVE to have the same amount of veggies and meat that I do, please just use whatever you think looks good (that's what I do all the time, and 98% of the time it works out just fine)

 Thankfully my mother in law found this BIG pan at the second hand store, because my average sized skillet was too small to mix all the stuff in! I am in love with this pan! It has a very nice thick bottom, and is nice and big, but not very heavy, now I just have to figure out where to put it.......

After I mixed all the turkey and veggies together, I added 3/4 cup flour, mix that in, then I added 3/4 cup heavy cream (I used 3/4 cup only because I didn't feel like getting another measuring cup dirty, kind of pathetic, and not a very good rule to use in the kitchen, but I figured if I needed more I could just add more, and I didn't lol ) 

A lot of the recipes I looked at before cooking use broth to add after the flour, I didn't have any except what I had saved from cooking a whole chicken in a stock pot a few weeks ago, I saved it, and put it into pint freezer containers, so I got one out thawed it in the microwave and poured it in the pot. I let it simmer while I made the crust, with my new found favorite, easy pie crust recipe! This one I do follow very closely because pie crusts scare me! So far this recipe has done very well for me.

Pie Crust

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup crisco
• pinch of salt 
• 1/4 cup water

I didnt take any pictures of the crus process, I'm sorry, I was running out of time.....but here is the little pot pie I made for Leon and my supper (I made a little 8x8 for the mother of the twins)

I forgot to add salt and pepper, but other than that it tasted pretty good !!!!

Who I was, to who I am, and my regrets to my friends from the past.....

So my life has taken many interesting twists and turns in the last couple years. I have pretty much always been happy with the direction my life has gone but I am the happiest and most content with my life the way it is now.

I am now married (Since June 2011) to a wonderful Mennonite man, and we go to what I like to think of as a medium conservative Mennonite church, Brownsville Mennonite Church. For those of you who don't know, Mennonite is a christian faith. They are Anabaptist, which basically means that they believe in a believer's baptism, in contrast to an infant baptism. That is just one of the big differences in their basic beliefs. (Any one reading this who grew up Mennonite, please, please, please correct me if I am wrong in any of this!!)

I met my husband through a friend who went to the same school as my husband until second grade, and she also used to go to Brownsville church. My friend and I were at the Eugene livestock sale (because I love cows, and anything to do with cows, particularly auctions!! ) and across the way she spied Bill (hubby). She knew I was single, I love cows, that Bill used to run a bunch of cows in this area, and she just can't help playing matchmaker :) She asked if I wanted to go over and say hi and invite him over for supper and games that night, I WAS NOT going over there to talk to him, I am shy with new people :) So she went over, talked to him, invited him over, he said he would think about it. O and by the way while talking to him she mention that "that girl over there in the red sweatshirt will be there" (ME!!!) I figured she would find some way to make me blush if I went over there to talk to him, which is another reason why I decided not to go. ( I still remember what he was wearing, how and where he was sitting and who he was with..... what a studly muffin.... hehehe)

That night there was probably 6 or 7 people over at my friends house and there was lots of good food, games, and TONS of laughter. Bill decided to come over (after many wardrobe changes, he later told me :) ) I remember that night thinking "what a strange duck he was", because he has dark eyes, dark hair, a black shirt on, and he didn't talk!!! I knew most of the people there, so I wasn't so shy, be he was just weirdly quiet, but to his credit, he knew no one there except my friend and her brother from second grade.....

My friend kept having people over for supper and games EVERY NIGHT that week!!!! ( she wasn't working at the time, and I was on spring break from college, so no classes for a week) Bill was there every single night...... I knew that my friend was Mennonite, and I had never herd of Mennonites, until I met her. I didn't really know what all being a Mennonite meant, but over the times we hung out she would explain some things to me, most things she told me didn't make sense at the time, but over time I could see some good ideals, and moral standards from the Mennonites. Bill and I eventualy exchanged phone numbers and would text each other on and off about random things. Also we would "happen" to end up sitting next to each other when we would all pile into my friend's boyfriend's truck to go shooting or out to eat :) I was starting to really have a crush on this Bill guy, but I was having doubts weather or not he liked me, until he picked me up from my apartment to go out to eat with everybody, in his old shiny Dodge diesel pick up, and I was starting to go to the passenger's side to get in and he said, "you have to get in on this side" I stupidly said, "why, does this door not work?", and he said, "It works, there is just stuff over on that side". So I came back around to his side to get in and O YES there was stuff on the passenger side, like his CENTER console, shoved over against the door, and a jacket or 2 and some other stuff!!!!!! Now I was thinking, "Either he likes me, or he is really messy, and doesn't understand the concept of a CENTER console...." With all of this stuff shoved over against the passenger side, I was FORCED to sit in the middle, next to him, o darn....... lol

After like 4 months of this "I knida like you, but I'm not going to admit it" , we would get into really long conversations about him being raised conservative Mennonite, more conservative than the church we attend, and also about my Christian, but non Mennonite back ground and the benefits and downsides to both sides. For him not being a big talker, what he did say was really intriguing and I loved hearing what he had to say. This whole Mennonite thing was becoming pretty appealing to me.

Some of the more noticeable bigger differences in my life (If you have known me for more than 3 years) is that I now wear skirts and a head covering/veil.

•  Mennonite women wear skirts or dresses, I was,and kind of still am a major rough edged tom-boy, if you ask anyone who know me as a younger child they would say that I would never be caught dead in a dress or skirt, I want to be out playing in the mud with the boys rather than playing pretty pretty princess with the girls! Mennonite women do this because of modesty. At first I thought that I wore some pretty modest pants, not "butt huggers" or low riders or anything like that, but I wore Wranglers (some times fancy Wranglers for women) I started wearing skirts sometimes after Bill would tell me about how the Mennonites see modesty, and how flattering he thinks it is (Yes I will admit most of these changes in my life started off as wanting to please Bill, however they have turned into wanting to please someone greater than my husband, God). 
• the head covering is something that is a very recent change in my life (like I started waering it 2  months ago maybe) There is so much too a head covering/ veil that I could maybe make a whole other post about it, for now just the basics. It is said in the Bible that women are to cover their heads when preying of prefesying (1 Corinthians 11:3-17) the Bible also says that you are to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17 ) Also it is an outward sign of being a Christian, and submitting to God, his divine order, my husband, and church. 

SUBMISSION: is not.... being a pathetic little back bone-less person who cant stand up for themselves, instead...

SUBMISSION: me willingly let my man be THE MAN of our house hold, encouraging him, loving him, so that he can make the best decisions he can, and know that I will love him, even if one of his decisions turns out to be the wrong one, because that to me is what marriage is all about, sticking it out through thick and thin. Now this all doesn't mean that I don't give my opinion (although sometimes it's just better if I don't lol), and sometimes we do go with my ideas instead of his, it all just depends on the situation.

This was a huge step for me! I have always been Christian, and whenever I had a question about biblical stuff my  mom would always tell me to go read my bible to see what it said. I understand why women wear a head covering or veil, but I don't necessarily think it is a point of salvation HOWEVER I do feel it is a blessing to know that I am trying to please God in every way I can.

Now is the part for my apologies to my friends from the past......

It may seem like I have been avoiding you all, in some way yes I have, and I am very truly positively sorry. I avoid you  because I am afraid. I am very happy with the decisions in my life, but I fear you wont understand them, and I fear rejection from you. I do love you all and miss hanging out with you guys, but I know I don't really "fit in" from the outside, but believe me, I am still the fun loving happy Chloe I always was. 

Back to my story of Bill and I.....

We did eventually start dating (July 15, 2009 to be exact :) ) and 2 years later we were married. His family is very loving an accepting of me, and I have felt that way from the very beginning of our relationship. I am very thankful for all of them, for giving me a chance, and loving me, even though I wasn't what they would have hoped for as a wife of his, in the beginning. Their love and acceptance of me is probably one of the bigger things that has helped our relationship along, that I was not what they had hoped for, but they love me and gave me a chance anyways, like Christians should do. 

Through all of these life changes I feel that I am a better person than I was, and much much much more at peace and ease with myself. I feel like this path I am on is the path  I TRULY should be taking.

Caramel Sauce Success!!!!

Ahhhh!!! OK so I don't know if it is against blogging etiquette or not, but I am going to blog today, again.... BUT I'm just so excited I  HAVE to share!!!!!!!


A couple weeks ago my friend Ruth and her husband hosted the dessert portion of a progressive youth supper, and Leon and I helped them. (the church's youth go around to different people's places, from church, and get served a portion of supper, like salad and appetizers, main dish, and dessert.) Well when I got to Ruth's she told me that she had made homemade caramel sauce, and not the condensed milk kind! (I'm going to go off on a short tangent here)......

A few summers ago Leon I and some friends went camping, including Ruth and her family. Ruth had brought a can of caramel. At this point I was new to the whole Mennonite thing and thought Mennonites could can anything in anything, like caramel in a tin can. I was amazed and asked her how she got the caramel into the can?!?!?! And she chuckled a little and said it is just a can of sweetened condensed milk that you boil for 3 hrs. I was so excited, that I too could make caramel in a can :) and I have several times since then!


Anyways back to the story... :) Back at Ruth's house, I had to try this home made, not condensed milk in a can, caramel! O MY WORD, was it absolutely DELICIOUS, and I am sooooo not exaggerating, I am 100% serious, BEST. THING. EVER!! She told me how she did it, and I promised my self that I had to at least try to make it sometime, so I did, a week or so ago....


I found a recipe that sounded like the one Ruth used and when reading it there was multiple warnings about not having any thing underfoot, like little children or pets or anything, to have all your ingredients ready to go right by your side, and to  use an over sized thick bottomed pot .All of this warning scared me, but I did as it said. The recipe also said to turn your burner onto a moderately high heat. I got my heavy bottomed over sized pan, and all ingredients and utensils ready to go!! I set my stove to a 7 (scale of 1-8) that's moderately high right???? I followed all the directions down to a T. However in the directions it said to melt the sugar until clear and light amber, then add butter. My sugar never got there, it got medium colored amber, but not all the sugar melted, so I kept stirring it over the heat, then I thought it looked clear enough and I followed the rest of the directions. When I tasted it, it tasted bitter and nasty. I cooked the sugar until it was too dark to taste good anymore.


 I was sad, I'm not gonna lie, I thought it would just be absolutely perfect caramel because I followed ALL the directions perfectly! (FYI: if you have ever talked to Leon about my cooking he will tell you that I never follow ALL the directions in ANY recipe. I really don't know why, but that is just the way it is.) 


In all my disappointment I decided to try it again, and this time I was going to wait until my melted sugar was CLEAR! (when I say clear, I mean fully dissolved) I got out another batch of ingredients and started all over again. This time when my sugar melted I kept it over the heat until I thought it was time to take it off, like when the sugar was all clear (dissolved). The sugar just kept getting darker and darker ,and I was now getting really worried..... (DUH! continuing to heat sugar on the stove will make it more and more darker, not lighter and lighter)...This time I had to take the pot off the stove not because the sugar was clear, but the color and consistency of tar and was smoking TERRIBLY BAD!!! My tiny little house very quickly got all smokey and I ran outside with my bubbly, extremely hot black sugar tar!! I didnt know what do do with it, but the bubbles were burning my hand and I didnt want to set it down just anywhere, so I ran over to my faucet and put water in it. That stopped the boiling burning bubbles, but it still smoked for about another minute. 


I was really disappointed now, we were having company that night and I really wanted caramel and apples. Looking back now though, I wish someone had a camera, It probably would have made for some really interesting funny pictures :) I later told Ruth about my disaster and she suggested putting my burner on a lower temperature.


Today was a caramel success!!! And I didn't even follow the recipe ;)


Here is MY recipe :)

• 1 Cup granulated sugar
• 6 Table spoons of butter
• 1 cup cool whip

(the recipe I kind of followed said to use 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, which I don't have.....That is also the main reason why I don't ever completely follow any recipe, I live too far away from a reasonably priced grocery store to bother most of the time)
So I turned my burner onto medium put 1 cup of sugar into a thick bottomed 3 Qt. pot. I stirred the sugar until the sugar looked like the perfect caramel color (that was also Ruth's suggestion) looking back now I think I may have jumped that gun a little too quick, because after tasting it, not all the sugar fully melted, but it is still delicious :) 


Anyways... When the sugar is at that perfect caramel color add the butter and whisk until the butter is melted. When you add the butter the mixture will bubble a lot so this is why you need an over sized pot. Take the pot off the burner and add the cool whip and whisk that until smooth. Then I poured the caramel into a pint jar and let it sit out for like 10 minutes, and then I put it into the fridge.


WARNING: I am not the best photographer, but here is my caramel success! :)

O and by the way, you may think that all of this hard crusty sugar, burned onto my pots and spoons may be a terrible nasty mess to clean up, but if you just let it soak in water for 5  minutes, everything comes out with NO hard crusty anything on it!!!! It can even be cold water too! :)

My dogs, old and new, and yet to come.....

Leon had bought me a blue heeler puppy named Duke, as a present for Christmas last year, and a few days ago he disappeared (I cried my self to sleep last night :( ...) He was my favorite dog, and he was just getting to that no more chewing on everything stage, he was getting to be good with cattle and listen very well. I am not sure what happened to him, either a nasty raccoon, or coyote got him, or maybe he got stolen, I dont know, but I miss him so much. He completed mine and Leon's new life in our little house, he was always there to greet me when I got home, and to scare away anything at night, he made me feel safe at home. I loved that dog so much!!!!!!!

This is probably one of my favorite pictures, it is Duke, Leon, and his nephew Jared. SOOOOO CUTE!!!! Duke was always around, and would hardly leave your side, such a faithful little companion, and he was great with children!! I had always dreamed of a few years down the road when Duke was older, and Leon and i had a child that would play with Duke....

Leon looked on Craigslist a couple days after Duke had disappeared, and he found a 9 month old puppy/dog that was half blue heeler and half Australian shepherd, with one blue eye!!!! (I love blue eyes on dogs!!) Leon  e-mailed the lady and she said he had tons of energy, and chewed (he sounds like how Duke was when we first got him) Since we are used to that, we decided to go see him and most likely buy him. The new dog's name is Brody, and he is pretty large for a 9 month old dog, he is bigger than Duke when Duke was a year and a half old! Brody lived in a small house with a small backyard, and 2 full time working owners, and they had a 3 year old son and another one on the way next month. They couldn't spend much time with the dog,  were moving, and needed to cut down on some expenses. So we bought Brody. He is REALLY soft and cute, with a lot of energy. What's really nice is that he came with a crate that he goes into with no fuss and will stay in there, so I can take him with me when I go places, since I dont have my pickup anymore :).
Meet Brody......

When we brought him home last night, we decided to keep him inside in his crate for the night, since this is a new place, and he isn't used to sleeping outside yet. We brought him in, and about 10 minutes of being inside, he piddled on the floor..... This was really discouraging to me :( and I think what made me cry myself to sleep last night, Duke NEVER went to the bathroom in the house, and we never even trained him not to, he just didnt, and here is this brand new dog that we were told was house trained, except for at night, that just piddled on our floor. I know he is new and needs attention and training, but I just really really wish he could be like Duke, now.....

Like I said before Brody has a lot of energy, but the two of us and the neighbors dog just got back from a brisk half hour walk and he is plum tuckered out sleeping at my feet! I think this dog just needed some room to run, and a playmate with as much energy as him, like Roxy, the neighbors dog :) I am hoping and praying that Brody will be as easy to train as Duke and become as well behaved as Duke, I just need to remember that he is still a puppy, and I have only had him for almost exactly 24 hrs.

On a brighter side of things, the guy who works at the warehouse just north of Leon's shop has a female half Lab half Australian shepherd dog, who Duke ummm.... made puppies with :) The puppies are due in about 2 weeks and the guy said he doesn't want the puppies, but he wants $150 to get his dog fixed. So Leon and him made a deal, Leon will get all the puppies for $150, the other guy's dog will get fixed, I will get the pick of the littler Duke contributed to, and the rest we will sell. This made me sooooo happy!!!!! I may have lost one of the best dogs I have had, but he left me with puppies to take care of!!!!

Mmmm Pie Filling.......

I think a key component to surviving in the country is canning. I know of ladies around here who don't like to can at all. I however, I do like to can. I canned some last summer, but I flat out CANNED this summer, except when I was getting married, and on the honeymoons :) I didn't grow up canning and have only done it for 2 summers, so maybe that is why I still like canning, and some of the ladies who have done it their whole life don't enjoy it so much anymore. I will admit it is HARD work! I fortunately had great support and help, my sister in law Janette, and mother in law, Mom Birky. If I had to do all the canning my myself.....well I just don't think I could do it all by myself, 1. It is a ton off work, and 2. pressure caners FREAK me out!!! 

One of the biggest pleasures of canning for me is that Bill really appreciates all my hard work I put into it, and we both like to look into my little fruit room, and see full shelves of food we hardly had to pay for. He likes to joke and say that this winter he wont have any work , and we are going to have to hunker down, in the freezing cold and can only afford to eat what I canned this summer.... Here is a peak at my fruit room.

I have a whole lot of pickles, jams, apple butter, and beets, on the sides of my room, but I thought this picture would give you a good idea of what my room looks like, I like to think of it as my trophy room :)

 Canning is also a good way to get to know, and bond with people. I knew Janette and Mom pretty well before this summer's canning season, but there was a whole lot of good quality time to talk about whatever happened to come up while we were all chopping, peeling, measuring, mixing, and sitting down for a rest when the caners were canning.

Ok, back to pie filling.....this morning Janette and I canned apple pie filling!! YUMMMMMY!!! I love canning pie filling because it isn't really that much work, and it is SO CONVENIENT when you need a dessert in a hurry! Just pop open the can and pour it onto a pie crust, make a delight with it, or make some sort of bars with it, very versatile indeed! I only got 7 qts. but I could have probably got 1 more if my niece Jodi and I didn't snitch so much of the yummy apple goodness while making it :)

Here are some pictures of the days events!

 This thing above is an apple-peeler-correr-slicer! An awesome tool! My mom had on when I was yonger, and I loved to use it, just stick the apple on the fork thing and turn the crank, and it peels, cores, and slice your apples!!!!

 Yummy, gooey, apple pie filling mmmmmm....

 My filled jars.

 My mother in law likes to say, " you can always tell when someone is newly married, they have all new rings and lids" :)

 The recipe.

 This is what happens when you pull the jars out of the canner too soon, the insides, spue over the top...

Janette's and my finished pie filling!