Canning and Cooking

We haven't turned our heat on yet so the mornings have been chilly.

If it ain't November the heat isn't going on.

I've started having Meadow help me prepare breakfast. I cut up vegetables and she moves them over onto a plate or bowl. She does a pretty good job. 

Brooke has become a potatoes o'brien expert. She throws in whatever else we may have in fridge to add some variety.

We have one sippy cup we use for milk and it's usually dirty because its annoying to clean. I just give her a glass and straw then she drinks out of the cup once she can't get everything with the straw.

Meadow still has an elevated lead level. Vitamin C among other things is good to mitigate the lead. Hopefully next time around she will be in the clear.

Today I had planned to do a lot of cooking and cleaning up the yard.

I was to make this massive head of cabbage into sauerkraut. I got started early.

Meadow helped me with dishes. Really she just plays with the water. I wish we had a learning tower so we didn't have to be right next to her all the time.

I think we'll be making one soon.

I came to realize, that even with my two large jars, I wasn't nearly going to be able to fit all the cabbage. 

After realizing we needed a bigger container we checked the Eggplant Urban Farm Supply store website and they had crocks in all sizes. Scott and Meadow were going to go without me, but I wanted to come too. I quickly heated up milk to make yogurt before we headed out.

I find us going to St. Paul a lot these days.

This store is great, it has everything you can think of for being self-sustainable. 

We stopped by Menards for a tree trimmer. Our Elm tree getting a little close to our garages power lines. Meadow and Brooke checked out the Halloween aisle.

Meadow was afraid of the Halloween decor. 

As part of an early Anniversary gift for Scott we got a 2 gallon crock at the Eggplant store.

While Meadow took a long nap and Scott was outside cutting down tree branches and cleaning out gutters I was inside making lots of salsa.

We've finally become canning experts after all these years.

I had originally planned on making a tomato sauce of sorts to can, but figured we would get more out of the tomatoes by making salsa.

Meadow was excited for some salsa and chips.

It seems like we never left the kitchen today.  I put together a brussels sprouts, pasta and blue cheese bake. We din't have enough  brussels to make the recipe so I supplemented the recipe with brussels sprouts greens.

As you can see I've become a little addicted to canning lately. So far I've canned strawberry rhubarb jam, crushed tomatoes, applesauce, apple butter, kimchi and now salsa. I don't know why I waited so long to try it. 

While my salsa was getting sealed I also made granola. 

Another successful canning attempt.

After Meadow went to bed we watched our new favorite show Boardwalk Empire.