Sad News

Well... we have a couple of pieces of sad news...

First up... Grampa had to go into a long-term care home last week. It's been coming for a while but... it's hard to believe. We are visiting him as much as we can. Bear hugs are beary important for a transition like this...

Second bit of news... Spooky, do you want to tell them? No... OK... I will...

Do you remember my cousin Daisy? Rose's dog?

This is her when she was a young pup...

She got diagnosed with late-stage canine lymphoma in August and was put on some meds to help her quality of life. They said that it would keep her up for longer (rather than a slow decline) but that the end would then come very quickly. Yesterday she was fine... and today Rose and her Dad had to take Daisy in to be put down. Rose's mom is away in Saskatoon on business... We are all beary sad... bear hugs are in serious demand here...

Sandy's Preserves Factory

Hullo... Cousin Astrid was here a few weeks back and she had fun picking fruit from the trees in the backyard... prune plums and pears... lots of prune plums... lots of pears. Good thing it was a rainy weekend.

I supervised while the humans cut up the pears... into lots of bowls...

Many bowls...

On the stove... we have the water bath ready to go on the right... and the stock pot has...

Pears burbling away...

And the soup pot has... pears steaming away...

Did I mention we have lots of pears?

 We also have some freshly made plum chutney... a perennial hit with anyone who tastes it...

Squeezo is ready to go and process the pears...

And over here we have the crock pot...

We have lots of plums so we are trying plum butter...

The plums have been cooking on high for 4 hours... now we are going to whizz them up (as Beanie would say)...

 There we go... now we cook them on low, without the lid, for a few more hours.... (many more hours)

And... at the end of it... what did we have...

Well we had some jars... but you're going to have to back up a bit...

Nope... back up just a wee bit more...

There we go!!! Whaddya think?

Not bad, huh?

We made apple sauce, pear sauce, plum chutney, plum butter and canned some tomatoes. Whew!!

Sandy's Apple Sauce Factory

Hello! Today it was raining... and cool... so we are going to do some kitchen work.

We got a bunch of apples from friends... three big grocery bags full...

And cousin Astrid is here from the old country and she loves harvesting and processing so... let's make sure she has a good time!

Lots and lots of apples...

And lots and lots of jars...

First we put the apples in a big pot with a bit of water and then wait until they go mushy...

Then we add some cinnamon and mush them up some more...

While Astrid keeps on quartering the apples. We aren't peeling or coring them (unless they have hitchhiker worms) because we are going to use the Magic Squeezo machine!

Have you heard of Squeezo?? It's like a meat grinder... except not...

The mushy apples with seeds and peels go in the hopper at the top...

Then you turn the crack madly... and apple sauce comes out of the sieve that covers the cork-screw blade on the inside...

And it comes out fast too!

And out of the end of it poop out the seeds and skins... it is a magical wonderful machine!

Then we ladle apple sauce into jars... put the lids on...

 And then they go in a water bath for 10 minutes of boiling...

At the end we had 8 1-litre jars and 10 500-ml jars.... that's a lot of apple sauce!!!

And because we were on a roll and had all the equipment out... we decided to can some tomatoes because we are drowning in them...

So blanche them and get the skins off...

Then squish them into jars and top with a bit of boiling water if required... put lids on... into the water bath and...

Voila... canned tomatoes!

Drool Alert...

Warning!!!

 Carnivore DROOL ALERT!!!

Mama came and said she had a surprise for me... Hmmm... I think she might be bucking for a boost in her sekrebeary evaluation marks...

I wonder what it could be...

In here? I hope it's not a puppy....

Oh... apples... fresh organic apples from a friend's place. Nice... ummm... really nice...

Oh? There's more... OK! (Good... cause apples might turn a vegetarian's crank but really don't merit a Carnivore Drool Alert!)

A pot of water...

And a bag of fresh...

Prawns!!! Oooohhh... big huge juicy fresh Pacific prawns...

Oh yum...

Our friends caught them this morning... and now they're in the water... they don't take long... drool....

Are you drooling???

I'm drooling... mmmmmm

And voila... they are done...

So many prawns... so little time...

We're going to eat now...

***burp***.... Those were soooo goooooddddd!

And we even had six left over cause, believe it or not, we were all full! I'll just put those in the fridge for a snack later... or an unexpected house guest maybe...

Cause you never know when a hungry stuffie friend might drop by... especially if they read this post!