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Friday, October 11, 2013

October days

 
 
 
 
 



 
 




 
 




It's another warm and sunny autumn day, one of a string of many
over the past few weeks.  Daytime temperatures have been in the 60's and 70's, and still no hard frost.  Outside my workroom window, the sumac and burning bushes are turning a rich red color.  Over the weekend we headed to the woods for a perfect fall walk.

In the garden, I'm still picking some tomatoes, peppers, and raspberries--the raspberries are just enough to throw into our breakfast bowl of oatmeal, now making an appearance due to the early morning coolness.  The woodstove has not yet been lit, but yesterday was spent stacking split wood into the garage, and the chimney has been swept in anticipation.

Yesterday I also cleaned out the henhouse, which was becoming littered with a lot of feathers--the girls are molting, which means there is only a rare egg being found on my morning rounds.  It's now dark here around 7:30--time for a lamp in the henhouse to provide a bit of extra light, which should solve the problem.

This week I spent a day canning applesauce and thinking of what to bake to use up more apples. So far I've made apple loaf cake, apple puff pancake, Swedish apple cake, apple strudel, and yesterday, I made another rustic apple tart, which right now is my favorite.  If you have a link to a favorite apple recipe, please feel free to share it with all in comments--it will surely be appreciated!

The Mara shawl has seemed to knit up quickly and I finished it up over the weekend--I shall get some pictures and information up on Ravelry soon!


 

16 comments:

  1. I love the apples in the sink!

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  2. Looks like a perfect Western NY autumn day . . .

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  3. Deb those photos of autumn in your part of the world look wonderful, I especially love the second photo of the creek. Re apples: I read My New Roots by Sarah Britton, yesterday she posted this recipe which looks luscious. http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2013/10/apple-spice-sorbet/
    Have a lovely weekend.

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  4. Your photos are beautiful. Hasn't it been a beautiful Autumn? I don't know if you do much canning, but have thought of making apple butter? Its great on toast and there are lots of recipes on Pinterest for making it in the crockpot. It takes a short time in a boiling water bath and its ready to store. Its a great gift with some fresh bread too!

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  5. fabulous post! I see more todoboxes to my right youpi, and that tree is huge and so impressive I'd like to climb him. Photos are gorgeous but I do love the apples in the sink one and very impressed with all that you've made with them!

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  6. The shawl is gorgeous and all the apple recipes sound lovely. Great photos.

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  7. Beautiful fall pictures! Love the moss-covered rocks.

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  8. Awesome shots! I love the apples in the sink one.

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  9. Beautiful fall photos. Our fall colors are still a few weeks away. Love your shawl. I saw the Mara shawl on another blog a few years ago and fell in love with it. I didn't know enough to even attempt it, so I started to learn more knitting skills. Funny--although I'm a good knitter now, I never made the Mara. Seeing yours reminded me of the shawl that started it all. Thanks. Now, I really need to make one.

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  10. I love fall, however this year it came much too quickly. Today I woke up to our second hard frost since the end of September. Garden is done, just have to dig up the carrots and get them in the freezer.

    Can hardly wait to see the Mara shawl.

    God bless.

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  11. Beautiful pictures!

    Diana
    www.ManhattanImageandStyle.com

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  12. Anonymous2:25 PM

    Always love Fall, my favourite time of year. I made a second Somerset Apple Sauce Cake at the weekend, to use up a few more apples and my husband simmered up a big batch of his apple, cranberry and thyme relish, ready to use with chicken and turkey. Alas, there is no recipe for that, it's one he came up with. I've also made an apple and raspberry crumble, and a couple of weeks ago it was an apple and blackberry crumble!

    Hugs
    Brenda

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  13. http://www.food.com/recipe/apple-core-and-peeling-jelly-99636

    If this intrigues you, google "apple peel jelly" for other ideas. I used several different recipes to make apple jelly from the peels and cores of all kinds of different apples that I used for applesauce. I have one of those crank style apple peelers and really felt I should use the peels for jelly since the peeler took off a lot of the apple skin and flesh. I used fresh cider instead of the water called for in the recipe. I also used a little bit of Whole Foods Vietnamese cinnamon which is very mild and sweet. Anyhow, the jelly came out great! It's like cider in jelly form!

    I had a very elderly friend years ago who told me that during the Great Depression she would make apple jelly from the peelings. That conversation always stayed with me and I think of her every time I eat this jelly!

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  14. Such pretty fall photos. Here in northern IL, our temps have finally fallen into the low 50's during the day and into the 30's at night. We're supposed to have a hard freeze within the next few days with temps at night actually dipping down to 29. I'm not ready for this!

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  15. Love the photos and your blog. We are finally having some cooler Fall weather here. Fall is my favortie!

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  16. For years I have canned or dried apples in the Fall and not thought twice about throwing the peels and cores onto my compost bin. But I recently read a post about taking these "throwaways" and making apple cider vinegar!!! I never knew it was so easy to make your own vinegar. This year I'm giving it a try. Maybe you could too?

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Thank you for taking time to leave a comment--I love reading each and every one! I will try to answer any questions you have in the comment section. Due to the amount of spam, I am sadly no longer able to accept Anonymous comments....Kindly, Deb