September Sunday Dinner

One more bit of Autumn Bliss to share.

~Menu~

Garlic-roasted Pork Loin

Applesauce

Roasted Veggies

Warm Gingerbread with Whipped Cream

Here's the recipe from Emeril Lagasse:

Garlic Roasted Pork Loin:

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound boned pork loin
8 large cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Olive oil
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Place a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to coat the bottom and heat. Season the pork loin with salt and pepper. Sear loin on all sides until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.

In a food processor, combine the garlic, rosemary, sage, and thyme. Process until smooth. Add enough oil to make the mixture a good, spreadable consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove the pork from the heat. Carefully rub the garlic/herb mixture over the pork loin.
Roast until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the roast registers an internal temperature of 140 degrees F, about 40 to 45 minutes at 375*
(This recipe also had a raspberry glaze with it, but my family doesn't like that sort of thing on their meat, so I omitted it. If you'd like to see the entire recipe, click here.)

The Roasted Veggies were just that -- veggies (potatoes, broccoli, baby onions, garlic, mushrooms, apple chunks) all chopped and tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper. I roasted them alongside the pork loin for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Now for the finale'.......
Warm Gingerbread

1/2 c. butter
2 T. fresh-grated ginger
1/4 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. black ground pepper
1/2 c. dark brown sugar
1 c. dark molasses
1 t. spicy brown mustard
2 eggs
2 t. baking soda
2 1/4 c. flour
1 c. hot strong-brewed coffee
powdered sugar

Combine butter and fresh ginger in saucepan. Simmer until aromatic, 3-5 min. Stir in salt, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, pepper and simmer another 30 seconds. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl mix spice mixture and stir in sugar, molasses, and mustard until smooth. Mix in eggs and soda until it foams. Stir in flour and beat well. Mix in coffee until smooth. Pour into greased 9x9" pan, dusted with flour. Bake at 375* for 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove. Dust cake with powdered sugar and a stencil. Serve warm with whipped cream.

And it was GOOD!

Autumn Bliss!

Autumn Corners

In celebration of Autumn Bliss,

here's a little corner of my world.....

my front porch.

The apple garland is strung

around part of an old piece of harness,

and you'll see some of the fabric leaves

that Clarice from Storybook Woods

showed me how to make last fall,

hanging on the wooden pumpkin plaque.

The white flowers are wild

heath asters that I picked from the pasture.

And here's another corner.....

A sun setting in the West corner of our yard,

taken by my son, the aspiring photographer, Seth.

Autumn Bliss!

When the Frost is on the Punkin...

When the Frost is on the Punkin
~By James Whitcomb Riley

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Tonight I went out to gather up the rest of the ripe and nearly-ripe tomatoes and then covered up the vines with blankets and sheets. My daughter-in-love brought over her ripe, orange "punkins" to store in our garage, and she'll be covering up her big, green ones that are still on the vine for the night. We're expecting the first frost of the season and then, as it so often happens out here, it's supposed to turn nice and warm again. September is the month of covering and uncovering flowers and veggies to protect them from the frost. I like to pull the pots of geraniums and baskets of petunias in close to the house on the porch for as long as I can. I enjoy s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out the season for as long as possible....

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here --
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin' birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Click here to read the rest of the poem....

Clarice at Storybook Woods is celebrating Autumn Bliss this week. Please stop by and see all her beautiful ideas to enhance your hearth and home this fall.

Tools of the Trade

Yesterday was yet another day of "preserving the apple." A dear friend came over with 4 bushels of apples from her dad's garden/orchard -- two baskets of red, sweet apples, and two baskets of little, green apples that took FOREVER too cook and soften. We ended up making 60 quarts of apple sauce and apple butter combined. Another profitable, satisfying day's work. My friend took most of the apple jars home with her since my DIL and I had plenty from our own apple processing days and she has 6 children at home to feed.

Since I'm in the Season of Preserving, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite tools. This apple-peeler-corer-slicer is the Cat's Meow. I absolutely love this tool and use it all year round to make apple pies, crisps, or just to peel and slices apples for salads. And yes, it works for potatoes too, but I rarely use it for them. One of my all-time-favorite catalogs is Urban Homemaker, where you can find lots of quality "tools of the trade" for a reasonable price. This is not an advertisement, but I highly recommend Marilyn Moll's enterprise. She really cares about home and health.

The other favorite "Apple Tool" is my Villaware Food Strainer, another great purchase I made at Urban Homemaker. You pour cooked fruit (apples) in, take a few cranks on the handle and the sauce comes through the trough while the seeds and peels come out the other end. With different sized screens, you can strain other fruits/veggies too. I mainly use mine for apples though. My son and I tried processing cherries through it and nearly locked the whole thing up with the large seed-pits. So stick to using the recommended screens on this fine tool.

Happy Harvesting!

Tea Towels

I've been inspired once again by Deb over at Homespun Living who first caught my eye with her redwork teapots and then again with her camper trailer.

I made this redwork tea towel a couple months ago and have completed another one to make a set. After seeing Deb's camper, I just knew I had to make it -- the perfect little Christmas gift for my parents who love to camp in their Mini-Wini. I'm hoping they'll take it along with them in the camper and think of me as they travel.

To think, I finished my camper-trailer project while rooting on the Family Favorite Football Team -- the Denver Broncos! And they won in the last seconds!! Yay Team!

If you like the teapots embroidery pattern, you can print it off free here at Ladies in Red.
If you like the camping pattern, you can find the pattern at Sublime Stitching.

How Many Mugs Does One House Need?

Twenty-five and five go-mugs!

FAR TOO many!

After opening the cupboard door to retrieve the mugs for our morning coffee,

the go-mugs fell on me from the top shelf so........

I decided it must be time to pick 'n' choose which ones will stay and which ones

must be sent to the storage box

(until the day when we have a small army to serve coffee to).

The problem is this:

I already have a large box of mugs down in the Dungeon.

I don't know why I don't just dump them and be done with it,

but how can I?

Some of them were gifts from friends,

some mugs I bought especially

for my Hubby and children.

Maybe if I store them long enough, they'll be valuable -- antique!

This time of year we love our hot coffee, tea, and cocoa,

so we do need several mugs -- really, we do!

Now it's time for my afternoon cuppa, and guess what?

There are only ELEVEN mugs to choose from!

~smile~

Woman's Work and a Simple Life

I encourage you to go on over to Isabella in the 21st Century's blog and read the article: Woman's Work and a Simple Life. If you are a wife, a mother, a homemaker, or someone who appreciates those who claim these titles, you will be encouraged and enlightened. Thank you, "Isabella" for sharing your heart with us.

Addendum: Another articulate and heartfelt article on "The Family" can be read over at Little Jenny Wren's blog. Pour yourself a cuppa and spend some time reading these valuable articles. Thanks ladies!

Preserving the Apple

It is finished!

(until we get another few buckets more from a friend)

My daughter-in-love and stepmom helped me in the making

of apple sauce and apple juice this week.

We counted 37 quarts of golden apple sauce and apple butter combined

and 26 quarts of beautiful crimson crab apple juice

which we will use to make jellies later.

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still.

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.

But I am done with apple-picking now.

~Robert Frost from "After Apple Picking"

Sheep

It's been a busy day on the ranch.

We started out early riding horseback to take the 2 year-old heifers back to the North Pasture after weaning their calves this past week.

The mother cows were reluctant to go,

but go, they did.

We've had some beautiful rains here in the past week and there were puddles everywhere we rode and blades of new green grass shooting up.

The pastures are freshened and growing again.

Good news for a cow.

After taking the cows out, we rode down to the Shearing Pens where we always work sheep. The shearing pens were used extensively "back in the day"

when our ranch was exclusively a Sheep Ranch.

Now we raise mostly Hereford cattle

and just a few sheep on the side.

The ramshackle building you see

was used for shearing sheep

and these weathered and worn corrals were used for sorting sheep,

and we use them just the same today.

Our Border Collie dogs, "Jessie" and "Sue" are helping us corral and sort the sheep....

and they LOVE their jobs!

The ewes here have been sorted away from their lambs

and will be turned out that gate to the left of the horses.

They'll be free to graze as they please.

Most of the lambs will be sold at the livestock yards tomorrow,

but we did keep back about 40 head of ewe lambs

which will go back into the herd as breeding ewes.

I also talked the men into saving back a couple lambs

to take to the butcher for next week.

(Can you say, "Lamb chop?")

Click on pictures to enlarge them.

Crab apple picking

Saturday I decided to walk up to the crab apple tree to see if there was going to be a harvest there or not. In the past 7 years or so we have not had any crab apples due to drought, but I figured this year we would find a little something there. Although much of the tree had died, the limbs that were left were LOADED with crab apples. Two sons and one daughter-in-love and I drove the pick-up truck loaded with buckets and boxes and a large blanket to gather our harvest in. It was one of the best crab apple pickings we had ever had! In the next day or so, we'll boil the crab apples until they pop and extract the juices. We'll strain the juice and make a family favorite...... crab apple jelly....which is the lovliest blush-pink jelly you've ever seen.

These little jewels are rich in pectin, so all we need to do is add equal juice to sugar and boil until it gels. Crab apple juice can also be mixed in with other fruit juices that are low in pectin to make jellies and jams gel beautifully.

Aren't these the prettiest color?

We took another hour or so and finished picking the green apples off another tree. These apples we will turn into apple sauce and apple butter. We've got lots of work to do here. It's supposed to get cool and rainy for the next few days, so I'm fixin' to sweeten up the house with the smells of simmering apples.