Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Some Happy Things!


Here
are
some things
that made
Kimmie
happy
this summer!
(LOVED the coconut bra my hubby made me to go to our family Luau! It was awesome!)










Honey
What a lucky thing that we have so close to us...people in our area that have BEES and so when it comes to the time of the year when they "spin honey" you can bring in your own jars and they will fill them for $1.69 per pound. I got 30 pounds of honey for $48.00. I was THRILLED to add such a yummy thing to our food storage for such a great price!
(Honey is a great food storage item...
it's one of the only known foods that never goes rancid)

Apples and Zucchini
We have neighbors who had an abundance of apples and gave us a full box of them and I was SO excited to make them into apple pie filling (to make Tracy Dutch Apple Pies through the winter)
(thanks for the recipe Mel) <----click here
and also bottled apples to make our traditional "Gumdrop Bread" during the holidays.
Feeling SO grateful to have 30 cups of shredded zucchini in my freezer to be able to make Ethan's favorite treat...Zucchini Bread!!

Huckleberries
After all of our hard work as a family
spending 2-1/2 days out in the mountains picking Huckleberries we ended up with 89 cups (5.56 gallons)
of Huckleberries in our freezer!!

PUMPKINS!!
WOW! This is the first year we have been able to grow pumpkins that were bigger than a coconut. We must have had some GREAT compost this year as our garden did amazing!
Looking forward to carving pumpkins with my kids for Halloween!

(YES, we have many plans for getting our backyard finished, but for now it is a work in progress---Someday it will be finished and beautiful)


Artichokes!!
One of the top 10 things we look forward together as a family is when artichokes go on sale and we each get our own and we don't have to share them! This particular artichoke dinner we got the artichokes for .69 each and so for $2.76 we each enjoyed our OWN artichoke!!
Yummy!
It truly is the simple things
i
n life that bring me the most excitement
and joy!

9 comments:

Camille said...

I hear ya! Very well put and I love the pictures! P.S. Your next post should be by your husband on how to make a coconut bra! :)

Connie said...

Beautiful apple pie filling! I love bottling (when it's done, of course).
You look so cute in your Hawaiian outfit. If the pumpkins stayed the size of coconuts, you could have had a pumpking bra. That would make a cute Halloween outfit! :-)
Have a good day!

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

Yay for you! The pie filling is beautiful! You'll have to share the gumdrop cookie recipe!
Wow, you did get a lot of huckleberries, way to go. That was the highlight of my summer this year was going out for berries every minute I had.
Nice coconuts!

Ann Marie said...

Love your happy post!

Love the coconuts.. and I spy the cutest mirror in the background!

I have tried Melanie's apple pie filling.. and it is the BOMB! Yummerliicious!!!

All of your harvest looks so pretty and plentiful! I love it!

Look forward to chatting with you!

wileyfamilyof5 said...

I agree with camille. I want to know how to make a coconut bra.

It is so neat to see all the things you harvested this year. I have a feeling you are going to be eating a lot of huckleberries. I am glad you were able to bottle some pie filling. I am just waiting for my father in laws apples to get ripe, then I will be doing pie filling, and applesauce.

I just love looking at a the bottles on the shelf. Have a great day.

Small House said...

Love the picture of you with the coconuts. HOW FUNNY!!! You did have a productive summer!! And now have some good things to look forward to this winter!!!! Your apple pie filling looked delicious!!!

I'm always so amazed at how much you can get done!!! You are Super Woman that's for sure. I need to learn to manage my time a little bit better.

Thanks for always sharing your great ideas.
Have a great day.
Sandra

TLC said...

Oh. My. Word.
The bra...is insanely AWESOME and you ROCKED IT!

I wish we were neighbors...I would be over all the time for recipes and cooking tips! All the apples and berries....Bring on the FALL!

Candace said...

Anyone in the Smith family really does appreciate having their OWN artichoke. I still can't believe we used to feed the whole family with just a couple. I counted our huckleberries and have 50 cups plus what we ate and gave away. We probably had around 60 cups ??. and I went 5 times! You guys did great!! Again...I love the coconut bra!

CB said...

Kimberly you look so cute as a Hawaiian woman!! Love it!!
This is a such a happy and fun post.
You did indeed have a wonderful summer - I feel like I have enjoyed all your activites with you.
Your pumpkins are beautiful - You will have some fun with those in a few weeks time.