Dog Tag?

Well, not really because no one actually tagged us. I saw this over at The Fraker Farm and have decided that I would tag my girls. They each will tell you a few things about themselves.

First up is Samantha because she's got seniority.

Please answer the following questions:
1) What breed are you?
Golden Retriever

2) How old are you?
Just turned 4 last Friday(10/17). So if you haven't sent me my birthday gift, please do so right now, it's not too late

3) What is your full name?
Samantha Jane

4) Do you have any nicknames?
Moose, Moosey, Samsam

5) Where do you usually sleep?
My blankie but I much prefer mommy and daddy's bed

6) What is your favorite thing to do?
Fetching, Swimming, Eating, Sleeping, Playing with my little sis 7) What is something unusual/interesing about you?
Digging for rocks from the lake, as seen here: 8) Who is your best friend?
Mommy, daddy & June

9) Did you go to obedience school? If so were you "TOP DOG" or did you flunk out?
I didn't have to go to school. I am already smart, plus mommy thought me a lot at home. She's a good teacher (Thanks Sam! Love mom.)

10) Can you do any tricks?
I can I can! I can sit, stay, lay down, stay with a treat on my nose and catch it, crawl and open the sliding screen door! I would like to learn how to open the fridge and get my own food but mom won't teach me that.

Thank you Samanthan for answering the questions.

And now June's turn: Please answer the following questions:
1) What breed are you?
Golden Retriever & Huskie mix

2) How old are you?
I will be 3 in November, right on Thanksgiving day. Please plan ahead in sending me my birthday gifts! :)

3) What is your full name?
Junebug

4) Do you have any nicknames?
Woofy, Princess

5) Where do you usually sleep?
Most of the time on mommy and daddy's bed but I also like to share the blankie with Sam

6) What is your favorite thing to do?
Eating, Sleeping on the bed, Playing with my sister, Making snow angels, Eating & playing in the snow 7) What is something unusual/interesing about you?
I like to howl like a wolf

8) Who is your best friend?
Mommy, daddy & June

9) Did you go to obedience school? If so were you "TOP DOG" or did you flunk out?
I did not but mommy & daddy taught me very well, they said I am a very smart girl!

10) Can you do any tricks?
Yes I can! I know how to sit, stay, lay down, speak and make snow angels. How many dogs have you met that know how to make snow angel?

And that conclude our little interview with Samantha and June. They had requested to pass the tag on to a few friends:

Travis and Riley from Purple is a State of Mind
Marcel & Wylie from Velvet Lava
Callie from Achorn Farm
Dustin, Logan & Remington from Razor Family Farms

Please don't feel obligated. It would be really fun to get to know other dogs or cats or goats...etc

Something Fun

I saw this over at Achorn Farm last week and I thought it's kinda fun to do. The object is to answer all the questions with only one word. You are welcome to play along.

Here goes:
1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? working
3. hair color? black
4. Your mother? far
5. Your father? kind
6. Your favorite thing? dogs
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. The room you're in? accounting
10. Your hobby? baking
11. Your fear? sickness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? boring
15. One of your wish-list items? Alaska
16. Where you grew up? Malaysia
17. The last thing you did? ate
18. What are you wearing? heels
19. Your TV? off
20.Your pet? two
21. Your Computer? old
22. Your mood? sleepy
23. Missing Someone? siblings
24. Your car? outside
25. Something you're not wearing? skirt
26. Favorite Store? Walmart
27. Your summer? over
28. Love someone? many
29. Your favorite color? purple
30. When is the last time you laughed? always
31. Last time you cried? unsure

Garden Review - Part 2

Continuing my garden review(hope I'm not boring you with this):




11) Broccoli

• Planted broccoli for the first time, from seeds!
• Will definitely do that again next year

12) Bok Choy (Chinese Vegetable) - picture on right

• I grew up eating bok choy but this is my first time planting them
• Started from seeds, very easy to grow

13) Mibuna (Japanese Vegetable) - picture on right below bok choy

• Planted these for the first time, from seeds
• Had never tasted them before until now
• Strong taste, good in salad or stir-fry

14) Carrots

• Bought a pack of seeds and followed the instructions on back but did not germinate. Bad seeds maybe?

15) Radishes

• Planted only 1 row, will plant more next year

16) Cantaloupe & Watermelon

• I started these from seeds and transplanted the seedlings but none of them made it. Wonder what I did wrong. Perhaps I did not "harden" the seedlings to the outdoor climate

17) Sunflowers

• Started these from seeds, planted 2 kinds: Evening Sun & Moulin Rouge(pollenless)
• Saved seeds for next year
• Note for next year: Plant sunflowers with cucumbers. The cucumbes will climb up the sunflowers

18) Strawberries

• Purchased 3 types from Four Season Nursery
• Robinson - June bearing
• Quinault - Everbearing
• Ozark - Everbearing
• I can't wait for next season for my own fresh strawberries and of course strawberry jam!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Garden Review - Part 1

Growing season is officially over for me. I picked all the butternut squash, jalapenos, peppers and basil last Wednesday when we had frost warning(which we did get frost for 2 nights). Tomatoes and all the others were all picked a few weeks before last week.

Overall I think this has been a good year for me. A few months back I honestly didn't think the tomatoes would do well this year due to all the rain we had in mid July and early August. It rained almost every other day for a few weeks. My tomato plants looked like they were dying(which you can see from the picture above). But to my surprise the tomato plants kept producing more and more tomatoes.

I started a garden journal this year and here's what I had written down:
1) Tomatoes

• Planted a total of 22 plants, 6 varieties
• Started from seeds 1 variety: Better Boy Hybrid
• Purchased these varieties from the nursery: Beefsteak, Supersonic, Sweet 100, Roma & Grape
• This is my first year starting out with seeds and I did pretty good. Will definitely do it again next season with more varieties

2) Bell Peppers

• Planted 6 plants, all started from seeds
• Not at all thrilled with the peppers, did not get many
• This is my second year with bell peppers and again it didn't do very well, I may not try it again next year

3) Jalapeno Peppers

• Planted 6 plants, all from seeds
• Just like the bell peppers, I am dissapointed at the amount of peppers I got
• The plants are big and healthy looking, just not many peppers. What is up?
• I will however try the jalapenos again next year as this is my first year with jalapenos

4) Cucumbers

• Planted 4 seedlings I started but only 1 survived, this one did not yield many cukes
• Purchased 4 more to replace the dead ones and these did very well
• Will try some pickling cukes next year

5) Butternut Squash

• Purchased 1 plant from the nursery, this was not in my "original" plan but I had some room in the garden and decided to try it for the first time
• Only harvested 3 squashes
• Saved the seeds to try again next year

6) Onions

• First time planting onions
• Planted about 24 bulbs: Yellow onions
• Harvested all 24 but the size is quite small. Not what I had expected. The biggest one was only around 3" in diameter

7) Basil

• Started from seeds and planted 4 basil plants
• Great harvest!

8) Parsley

• Purchsed 1 container from the nursery but it was pretty big so I divided it into 4 to transplant
• All 4 did great and they are still growing

9) Green Beans

• Only planted 6 seeds
• Did not get many
• I will probably skip beans next season

10) Peas

• Planted 2 rows(twice) but those darn bunnies ate them all!!!

...to be continue

Caramel Apple Bites

The only magazine I subscribe to is Taste of Home and they also have a wonderful website that I enjoy visiting.

While browsing for recipes today, I saw this yummy looking picture of Caramel Apple Bites. I just had to share with you. This is a fun recipe to make with kids because they can help with rolling the dough into balls or dipping the cookies into caramel and nuts or even putting the toothpicks on the cookies!

So if you are looking for something fun to do with your child or children, perhaps you could give this recipe a try.




Ingredients:
Filling:
1/3 cup chopped unpeeled apple
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Dough:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
Topping:
1 package (14 ounces) caramels
2/3 cup evaporated milk
Green toothpicks
1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:
1) In a small saucepan, combine filling ingredients. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened; set aside to cool.
2) In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add egg, vanilla and salt; beat well. Add flour; mix well. Shape dough into 1-in. balls. Flatten and place 1/4 teaspoon filling in center of each. Fold dough over filling and reshape into balls. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
3) In a saucepan over low heat, cook caramels are melted. Insert a toothpick into each cookie and dip into caramel until completely coated. Dip bottoms into nuts. Place on wire racks to set.
Yield: about 3 dozen.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dutch Apple Pie

Raise your hand if you like Dutch Apple Pie or Apple Crisp....(raising my hand up high and saying me me me at the same time)

My co-worker went apple picking with her family 2 weeks ago and got a little carried away with it. "Oh this one looks good, lets pick it" "Oh that one looks good too, pick that too" "And that one" "This is a nice one, I'll pick it"...they ended up with 70 lbs of apples!!! Needless to say by the end of last week, the whole family was getting a little tired of eating apples. I had offered to buy some from her but she insisted on giving them to me free of charge. Thanks Renee!

I made the apple pie fillings from the previous post and canned them but still ended up with enough apples to make an apple crisp. Below is my all time favorite Dutch Apple Pie/Apple Crisp recipe.

Ingredients:
1 9" pie crust(homemade or store bought) if making the pie, no crust if making apple crisp


For the filling
6-7 medium apples (I like to use a mixture of Honey Crisp, Jonagold & Golden Delicious)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, I like mine cinnamony, so I always use 3/4 tsp.
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into little pieces


For the streusel
1-3/4 cups old fashioned oat
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
1/2 stick melted butter


Instructions:
1) Peel, core and slice the apples to 1/4" thick. I found out with that thickness, the filling is not mushy or too crunchy. Place apple slices in a big bowl.
2) Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon & nutmeg into the apple slices. Toss to coat. Let the apples sit in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to coat.
3) While the apple slices and cinnamon sugar mixture are "marinating" in the fridge, mix together all the ingredients for streusel.
4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5) Pour the apple mixture into the pie crust or a 9" round baking dish. Dot with butter pieces. Sprinkle streusel on top of apples. I like to pat them down as I sprinkle.
6) Bake 30 minutes for apple crisp, 45 minutes for pie. Place a sheet of alunimun foil in the bottom rack of the oven to "catch" the spillage. If not you'll have to spend some time cleaning your oven at a later time.
7) Remove from oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes before serving(unless you like burning your mouth or your guess' mouths).

The verdict:
The girls approved and gave this apple crisp an A+. Hubby and I ate 1/2 of it last night.

Autumn

Did I tell you that Autumn is my favorite time of the year? Yes it is. I love the cooler weather, fall foliage and fresh apples.

One of my plans this weekend is to make and can Apple Pie Filling. I have never made this before and have found a recipe from Freshpreserving.com. So I think I'll give that a try and I would also like to share it with you.

Apple Pie Filling
Makes about 7 (16 oz) pints

Ingredients:
12 cups sliced peeled cored apples, treated to prevent browning* and drained (about 12 medium)
Water
2-3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup ClearJel® (cooking starch used for preserving)
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2-1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice
1-1/4 cups cold water
1/2 cup lemon juice
7 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:
1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) BLANCH apple slices, working with 6 cups at a time, in a large pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm in a covered bowl.
3.) COMBINE sugar, ClearJel®, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large stainless steel saucepan. Stir in apple juice and cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, and cook until misture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice, return to a boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Drain apple slices and immediately fold into hot mixture. Before processing, heat, stirring, until apples are heated through.
4.) LADLE hot pie filling into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
5.) PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 25 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

*To treat apple slices to prevent browning, apply Ball® Fruit-Fresh® Produce Protector according to the manufacturer\'s instructions or submerge cut apples in a mixture of 1/4 cup lemon juice and 4 cups water.