Saturdays in the Fall

I'll bet you were all wondering where all the pictures of my garden are this fall, weren't you???!! Not here.  There are too many weeds out there and it's way too messy INside for photos.

Well, no pictures, but lots of hard work.

I suppose many people go to football games, or hiking and enjoy the fall that way. I stand around in the kitchen most Saturdays.  And I really love. it.  I don't particularly like the backache that comes with standing for such a long period of time.  I know I do not do nearly as much as most other women do now or have done.  But it is enough for me.

Yesterday (my Saturday in the Fall)  I picked produce from our garden and from the neighbor's yard.

I got corn, cucumbers, squash, green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, cantaloupe, more tomatoes, more peppers, raspberries, more squash, onions.  It was a bounteous harvest over a couple of days.  I left the beets and the Swiss chard and cabbage out there.  Mike picked some pears off the neighbor's tree, too.  All together, over the two days of picking and harvesting, I think there were about 3 full Avon boxes of stuff, plus a bag or so.  It was a a lot.  For us.  From two little back yard gardens.

So, with that bounteous harvest, I bottled 5 quarts of tomatoes.  I cooked another pot full of tomatoes with peppers, onions, and some squash and made a nice sauce for "whatever"and froze some and took some to one of the sisters in the ward I visit teach.  She also got squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and green beans.  She is pregnant and weary and needed a break from shopping for food.

I made my first batch ever of freezer jam (raspberry).  It did take several days of picking to get enough  berries for that one batch.  But, boy, is it good!!  Yummy.  What's not to like?  It's sugar! ha.

I washed and sorted all the cucumbers and peppers and tomatoes and beans.  I stuffed 8 of the big bell peppers and baked them with a meatloaf mixture and put them in the freezer for a future meal.  I stuffed half the HUGE zucchini with the rest of the meatloaf mixture and baked them, too, for our dinner on Sunday.  I used the rest of the tomato "sauce" with veggies and added pasta and turned it into "Hamburger Helper" with the bit of meatloaf mixture that was leftover from the stuffed peppers and zucchini.  That was our Saturday night dinner.

I grated the other half of the HUGE zucchini and put it into a large pan and a half of zucchini brownies. I actually took a plate of those to church with me to share with my Primary class after we were done in our class today.  They sang their little hearts out for the Primary Children's Sacrament Meeting presentation, so I actually brought a treat to Church (I seldom do).  They did not like the brownies.  ? huh?  Well, all the more for us.  Must have been the nuts I added, cuz I sure didn't tell them there was squash in it. ha.

I made a batch of pumpkin soup and got it ready in individual containers for my lunches this week (and Eric, too, if he wants.).

I have enough tomatoes left that are sorted, washed, ripe and ready to fill about 5 to 7 more quarts of bottled tomatoes.

Oh, and I cleaned my kitchen about three or four times.  So, yeah.  Tired.  Fulfilled.  Feeling self-reliant physically.  Read a chapter in a book at bedtime, too.  Feeling a little more self-reliant spiritually, too.

Did I mention I squeezed in a couple of batches of laundry and a lesson preparation?  No?  Well, I am mentioning it now because I like to just brag.  Because, you know, if I was HUMBLE, too, well, that would just mean I was too near to perfect, yes?

HA!!!  Long ways from there, but it's fun to make a list of stuff and then mark it all off at the end of the day, isn't it?  I marked all those off AND Mike got the swamp cooler in our bedroom window put away. Just in the nick of time, as it is REALLY cooler today and will probably continue to get that way.

I will not bore you with the list of things that did NOT get done on this particular Saturday. Happy Fall!