Homemaker Holiday

Monday was a glorious day.  I enjoyed almost every minute of it.  I cleaned my whole bedroom top to bottom and put new sheets on the bed.  I did all of the laundry and put away what was dry.  The towels will be put away after they come out of the dryer. 
I made applesauce and apple butter and canned it.  From a local Asian market, we get amazing fuji apples.  They're huge!

A quick applesauce/apple butter how to:

Peel the apples.  I've done it with and without peeling, and I definitely peel from now on.

 

 Cut them into quarters and core them.

Slice the apples up.  If you want chunkier sauce/butter, leave them bigger.  If you want smooth sauce/butter, dice them.

For applesauce, I threw them into a big pot on medium/high with half a cup of water and the lid on.

After twenty minutes, it's mushy.  I use a potato masher to get it to the consistency I like.

I do a hot pack, so I pour the sauce straight into sterilized jars from the pot.

Yum!

With apple butter, instead of using the stove, I put the apples into the crockpot with 2 cups of sugar, three sticks of cinnamon, and enough ground cloves and pumpkin pie spice to cover the top.

 The finished products:

Please excuse the messy counters.  If I always waited to have the kitchen clean to make things, I'd never get anything done.

For dinner, I made a turkey roast with mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables, and snap peas.  With the leftovers, I made turkey shepherd's pie for later in the week.

We also managed to get some garden work done. Though I've let it go a bit fallow, this is our main flower bed:

*B* was working on composting old plants.  We've cleared out a good bit of our garden and planted potatoes.  Wouldn't you know it, when we cleared it, the squashes started producing.

On our neighbor's side of the fence, there's a ton of pokeberry.  While it's poisonous (though some eat it anyway), the berries make a really nice ink to draw with.

 This little guy was eating our carrots.  I think he's a black swallowtail. We let him live.

While out in the garden, I deadheaded my marigolds.  I remember my mom doing this when I was a kid.  The seeds store really easily.  Any savings is a good thing!

Check out the Tuesday Garden Party over at An Oregon Cottage.