Happy Birthday, Jeremy!!

Yesterday was Jeremy's Birthday, and we had a great celebration with family and friends.

We had grilled chicken with peach BBQ sauce, hot dogs, brats, grilled summer squash (it was a great way to use some of our pile of squash!), a BLT salad, picnic eggs, chips w/ peach salsa & and more!  It was a feast that was put together by many!

What a wonderful time of year with so many fresh foods!

I believe that Jeremy thoroughly enjoyed his brownie cake!  We then made hot fudge brownie sundaes with raspberries and peaches.

Games of badminton, croquet & kick the can, and fellowship was enjoyed by all. Thank you everyone for making this such a special day for Jeremy!

Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini!!

Well, the first picking is in, and it sure is a big one!

My plans are to slice some and freeze it for soups and other cooking in the winter, shred some for baking with, and finding willing recipients for the rest.

My mom is coming over tomorrow and we will have a big bake day! We like to make up many loaves of zucchini bread to freeze. The perfect fast food :)

I think I need another freezer....

The kids used the lawn mower and wagon to haul the squash up to the house :)

Relish

Oh, how we should relish in the summer days of childhood! Well, it looks as though that's just what the kids did today, as they were helping with the making of pickle relish!

The Fruits of our Labor

Fun on the Jordan

Wednesday we had soo much fun canoeing and then swimming the Jordan River.  We went with the Friske's and Schenke's.  This was the first time canoeing for the Friske's.  We went backwards, sideways, lost a paddle, went over logs and even into trees!

 

It was a great day and perfect weather.

Fun Failure

I had this great idea!  Use an old wood cook stove to do my canning on.  There's always so much to be done on the stove during the summer, and why have all that heat in the house using expensive propane?  Well, it took about 3 hours to get the beets boiling, and I never did get the water bath to a boil, so it was brought inside, and of course only took a few minutes.  Our great attempts were certainly fun, and great for pictures :)

Home Canning

I love preserving the harvest!  All those jars look so pretty.  So far I have only been playing, nothing serious yet.

I have tried several new recipes this summer.

These are two new relishes.  Dixie Relish is made from Cabbage, Onions, Green Peppers and Spices.  Red Root Relish is made from Red Cabbage, Beets, Onions and Horse Radish.

I tried both of these last night, and was quite pleased.  The Red Root has a very strong flavor.

So far, I have 9 quart jars of Dill Pickles.  These have always been a favorite in the family.  Very simply made with a brine solution, head of dill, and minced garlic.

New for me this year are Bread & Butter Pickles.  I have only recently learned to like these, as dill were always my favorite, but I now enjoy these more.

Since I had never made Bread & Butter's before, I decided to try all 3 variations in my preserving book.  British Bread & Butter's are my favorite.

British are made with apple cider vinegar and brown sugar.  Traditional are just that, and Zesty are made with horseradish and grated ginger root.

Cinnamon & Sugar

Introducing Cinnamon & Sugar, our two doe kids that we are hoping to one day be our milking goats! Cinnamon & Sugar were about 4 weeks old when we got them and they are now about 5 months old. They have the same father, but not the same mother. They have become very friendly, especially Cinnamon, and we love to watch them play! We did have to bottle feed them for several weeks, which was so much fun!