Anyone who buys zucchini from a store doesn't have friends

Visions of sweltering kitchens, exploding jars and botulism have kept me away from canning in the past, but circumstances this year convinced me to give it a try.  First, Eric found a prolific 

patch of wild black raspberries.  Second, our garden is really kicking out the summer squash and cucumbers this year (along with everyone else's), and no one wants my extra produce.  Being a frugal Sprague I decided that only thing left to do was make jam and pickles. The jam was encouragingly easy to make.  I created my "To Pickle" list while basking in the glow of the successful jam. First on my list was to tell everyone I knew (including the woman behind me in the grocery store, a

 few people at the farmer's market and the head librarian, who I don't really know but I was sure they were wondering) what I was going to make. Tell a woman over the age of 50 that you are thinking about making some pickles and you are guaranteed recipes, lots of 

advice, a canning story, or if you are lucky all three. My list grew from Bread & Butter Pickles, Refrigerator Pickles, and Sweet Relish to include Dilly Beans and Hamburger (dill) slices.  

I now have several treasured family recipes for each of these types of pickles, loads of advice, and a new steamer canner. I made the Refrigerator Pickles first

 (the easiest so far), the Dill Slices next and Mom and I made the Bread & Butter Pickles together (with her recipe).  Making pickles isn't as easy as jam, but it really is easy.

The kids start back to school in a 12 days (not that I'm counting).  They are excited, but that will end with the first assignment.  They both grew up and matured a lot this summer both in looks and in personality.  Corie spends more time in her room listening to music and has started taking an interest in her appearance.  She takes care of Zakary when I'm busy.

  She pours his milk, makes their lunch, helps him pick up his toys and find things he has misplaced.  Zakary is all little boy now.  Any trace of toddler is gone.  He picks out his own clothes, gets dressed and makes his own lunch sometimes (if you can call bread covered in peanut butter, fluff and mini marshmellows lunch) without me or Eric being right there to supervise. 

Eric's basement remodel is moving steadily along.  He has finally pulled out all the dry wall and is starting...  actually, I don't know what he is doing down there.  He say that he has revised the plan to include a pantry for the canned goods and a root cellar.  Isn't he the best?!

Just like Daddy...

Just in time for the weekend

Summer arrived just in time. We had a great weekend with my Dad and Pat. The iffy looking sky made it difficult to make outdoor plans on Saturday and Sunday (thus no flea market). We did a few of our usual things though... JoAnn's and Costco. I picked up a new quilting book, Material Obsession, at JoAnn's. When it comes to sewing books I often find that the best idea was the one on the cover, but this one is great all the way through. It is always a bonus to find patterns you like using fabric you love, and a 40% off coupon makes it that much sweeter.

The weather wasn't the only thing that cooperated. A few weeks ago in the clearance section of TJ Maxx I picked up Cat Cora's cookbook, Cooking From The Hip, and decided to put it to the test. I tried two recipes, the greek lamb and olive burgers and the Pork skewers with avocado tzatziki, and they were so good. I did switch a few ingredients... used 2 parts beef to 1 part lamb for the burgers, and threw some veggies on with the pork skewers, but as for the seasoning I didn't change a thing. The recipes were both easy and delicious, and I look forward to trying some more of them.

We spent Monday at Kill Kare State Park while poor Eric slaved away at work. The weather was perfect. Lots of wind = lots of waves, and Corie and Dad had a great time flopping in them. Corie's a real fish, and would be happy to spend every day swimming. Zakary didn't like water up until this summer, but now he is the first one in. Luckily the beach was empty when he gave a howl and announced that his "winky" got wet. In his defense the water was chilly. Pat and I spent the day collecting rocks. Why? Why not!

Tuesday was the usual cooking, cleaning and laundry. Yuck! We did get Coraline from Netlix though. I enjoyed it once while Corie enjoyed it three times in a row. I picked some wild black raspberries with the intention of making jam, but the combination of heat, humidity and chores left me feeling pretty crappy. Hopefully they will survive in the 'frige until Saturday.

SuMmERtiMe???

All I know is that it was barely over 50 degrees last night. Yikes! Despite the cool wet weather we are having a great summer. Corie and Zakary are getting spoiled rotten by all the grandparents. Three weeks ago Zakary spent a week with Grandma White and came home with new Hot Wheels and lots of stories. At the same time Corie was with Dennis' family getting the royal treatment. Two weeks ago we went down for a long weekend visit to Nana and Grandpa Sprague's. We had a great time hanging out and relaxing. Pat cooked some amazing food (I'm sure she is partially responsible for at least two of the pounds I gained). We finally got to meet the Amber's dog, Bear. He is so cute. Despite the fact that he digs up the yard, chews on everything and is still in the process of being house broken he has won the heart of my anti-dog Dad. Needless to say both of the kids want a dog now. Thanks Amber!We saw fireworks for the first time in years. It was a small but well done show. Dad and Eric got to do man things with power tools. I think that qualifies as fun for them. While on the road we stopped in Albany and did some shopping. We hit JoAnn's, Target, Lee's Market, Kim's Oriental Shoppe, and Harbor Freight. We topped off the shopping with a Chinese buffett. I mean, does it get any better?
Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa Smith took the kids. I can tell by the amount of wet clothes returning home that they had a blast. Zakary was a little disappointed though. He had planned to stay with them until it snowed, because as he put it "I don't get to see Ryan (his best friend and neighbor) much in the summer". Apparently Ryan is the only reason to come home. It is always interesting to see where you rate as a parent. It's a good thing he is so cute. Eric spent the child free weekend putting up lattice, and I spent it sewing a softie that was in the new Stuffed magazine. Oh yeah, we know how to have fun!

No grilling tonight

This is what Eric found when he opened the grill last night. Two parents, 3 babies (one of them still blind) and one in between (sizewise). Luckily I have a husband who prefered to let them grow up before displacing them.

Summertime

new garden fence from hubby

Maybe it's because I'm getting older or maybe it's because I live five miles from the North Pole, but summer seems to be passing very quickly this year. Corie finished school the second week of June. She is officially a fifth grader. The class got to vote and pick a different theme for each day of the last week of school. No matter what the theme was she felt it required lots and lots of tattoos, so every morning she applied a few more. While Corie is excited to be going into middle school next year Zakary who does not like change was protesting. He did not want to go to Kindergarten, or get a new teacher or leave his best friend , Ryan (who is one year younger), behind. Luckily for us our school has a Kindergarten Step-up day. He got to meet his teacher, and more importantly he got to see his new classroom which was full of new things to play with. I'm sure he will renew his protests this September, but for now he is excited.
We spent Father's Day up at Eric's parents. Although the rain kept intruding we had a great time. The kids got to swim, and I got to take lots of frog pictures.
Eric brought his new remote control submarine, but couldn't get it working. Poor Eric. The pictures says it all. My Mom and I went to the Vermont Quilt Festival, and I have posted the pictures in an Picasa album. We had a great time, and found some new fabric to add to our stash. Here is my favorite.

55 Morels

Things are coming alive in Vermont, and we have been busy, busy, busy! The sewing has been pushed aside for other seasonal projects. Eric has been doing odd jobs to the house and yard. Last weekend he completed the floor and sides to his new trailer (Thanks, Dad and Pat). His next project is the basement. Our basement looks like it should be on a Clean House episode. First it will be cleaned up and uncluttered, and then there is a big remodel planned. He is figuring on completing it this summer, but I'll bet this project will last at least 3 years. I have been on a frenzy to rid the house of clutter myself. Eric, Corie, Zakary and I are all pack rats, and we have all reached our limit. I started with the kitchen. It took four days to clear out and wash all the cabinets, eliminate the excess stuff, reorganize and put all the keepers away, and bag up for donation or price for yardsale all the unwanted items. Within the first 30 minutes of the project this is what the kitchen looked like and stayed like until the fourth day. It was worth all the work though. I ended up with six garbage bags of things to get rid of! The next two weekends were spent in Zakary's and then Corie's bedroom. That ended with four bags for the yard sale and eight bags for the Salvation Army.

The kids have been doing great. Zakary just got his graduation certificate from preschool... it seems like just yesterday he was my baby. His teacher said that he was very intelligent, but entered the classroom with his own agenda (smart and stubborn, yep that's him). She also asked us if he took things apart at home to see how they worked. Eric and I just laughed. There is a reason why all the screw drivers in our house are kept hidden.

Corie keeps getting taller and taller, or to be more specific her legs keep getting longer and longer. Most of the time she is still my little girl, but I can see the teen starting to come out. The other day she said one sentence that contained the work "like" at least five times. Ugh! Another sign of what's to come: I had to ban the Nintendo ds at bedtime, because it had taken over the nightly reading time. I am officially taking the blame for the declining health of her cyber dogs, "Mom, if I don't feed my dogs every night they will die, and it will be your fault". It's not easy being a mom. Click here to see more: family pictures

Another sign of the warm weather is Whitneys annual lion cut. I tried to get a side shot to capture her full cuteness, but she kept swirling and twirling like a swarming shark. I ended up with 16 pictures of a grey blur. It's worth the $40 haircut to avoid the clumps of tumblehairs rolling across the floor and the splats of hair balls everywhere. As soon as we get her home she starts purring and rubbing on all the house corners. Happy cat = happy cat owners.

I suppose the last piece of info that I'm going to bore you with is my foraging story. I was walking down our driveway wondering what I was going to put into the quiches for dinner, and I was wishing that I had bought some mushrooms when I was at the grocery store. All of a sudden my eye caught sight of morels. Lots of morels. Over fifty-five morels right on the side of our driveway! So I went back to the house and hopped on the internet and visited several sites that taught me how to distinguish false morels from real ones, and then went back to the morels and ran them through the test. They passed with flying colors (pun intended), but then I decided that death by quiche was not how I wanted to go... but for a little while it was kind of exciting. Obviously, it doesn't take much to excite me. I did get a taste of native Vermont when my coworker brought in a bag of fresh fiddleheads for me. Thanks Maureen. If you are hot to see some more morel pictures just click on this: Morel link.