Relishing Harvest Home

Big Tut, Little Tut.

Crepes from Fei Fei and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from the Andersons for a late birthday Dinner.
Work can be so much fun!
Right, Fei Fei?


Hello Everyone,

We are so excited to have our family in Georgia tomorrow for Thanksgiving! We will be playing with Grandma (Gigi II), and the three little boys, Uncle Reed and Aunt Mary Ann. Aaron and his cousins Abraham and Benjamin will meet for the first time. We will take walks, read stories, and watch movies with Grandma! And play with the dog . . .

Since Delta charges for checked luggage, I won't be bringing any apple butter or Green Tomato Relish (see recipe below) to share. But we have been enjoying the bounties of the season, including the green tomatoes from our garden and Mom and Dad's. We bought a water canning kit for about $20 on Amazon, and it has been the jumpstart I needed to begin canning.

Our family has always loved Grandpa Evans' green tomato piccalilly. This is a little spicier, no-sugar version from a farmgirlfarerecipes.blogspot.com.

Farmgirl Susan's No Sugar Green Tomato Relish
2 lb. green tomatoes, cored and chopped
1 lb. white or yellow onions, chopped
3/4 lb. sweet red peppers, cored and chopped
1/2 lb. tart cooking apples, such as Granny Smith, cored and chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 c 5% acidic organic raw apple cider vinegar (or less as desired, if you are not canning your relish)
1 T Kosher or sea salt
4 T jalapeno peppers, coroed, seeded if desired, and finely chopped (next time I'll leave in a few seeds to give it a bigger kick)
2 T chopped cilantro
1 t ground cumin (optional--I didn't use it this time, but I might try it next time)

Combine the tomatoes, onioins, red peppers, apples, garlic, vinegar, and salt in a large, nonreactive pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about an hour.

Stir in the jalapenos, cilantro and cumin and simmer for 5 more minutes. Carefully puree the mixture using a stick immersion blender or in a traditional counter top blender, in batches if necessary, until still somewhat chunky. Do not overmix; you don't want it smooth. (I pureed about 2/3. The rest was chopped enough in the food processor, and I didn't want a mash.)

This relish will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.

If canning, return the pureed relish to a boil, then ladle the hot mixture into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water canner. store in a cool, dark place for up to a year.

Note: 1.5 recipes yielded 12 cups of relish for me.

Farmgirl's readers say that this is good stirred in refried beans or other Mexican food, or on a burger or with meat. Of course, we know the true way to eat relish is with a good old (but not too old) grilled cheese sandwich!

Laurelina is the concertmaster of her orchestra, Wasatch Camerata. We got to watch her walk in to her concert. I started clapping. I think it was her new glasses! And her new Young Womanhood medallion.If style could win games, East High would be the state football champs right now. They lost in the last 30 seconds! The fine fellow in these photos is Laurel's friend Derek Hardy.

I'm so grateful for the Lord's bounty, especially the bounty of friends and family.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A Bit O' Better Butter

Autumn day, autumn day, God gives richest gifts today.

When we were visiting the Maryland Marshalls last month, Ariel whipped up some apple butter overnight, quick as a winkie, using her crockpot. It was delicious! Inspired, I came home and invented an apple butter recipe for our new Blendtec. This one smells a bit like Christmas because of the orange and spices, but the orange is hard to identify in the finished product. I think it just gives a little brighter, more complex flavor. You would never know that the apples are not peeled. Thanks for the idea, Bubby!

Autumn Apple Butter

4 lbs. assorted farmers market apples, seeded and quartered.
1 T orange zest
1 T cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t allspice
1/4 t ginger
1/4 c fresh orange juice
1/3 c honey

Combine the above in a lightly oiled crockpot and set on low for 10 hours.

When the apples are very tender, process on the soups setting in a Blendtec blender. Store in jars in the refrigerator or freezer. I think the yield is about 6+ cups, if I remember correctly.

It would be very easy to bottle this, I'm sure. The apple butter was boiling after having been processed on the soups setting from being in the crockpot just earlier. I think that next time I'll experiment with less honey, the flavor is so rich.

Attached are a few photos mostly yet unpublished of our happy trip to the Marshalls. For more, see andrewandariel.blogspot.com.

We love you, A Team.

Andrew learned that I hadn't had dinner and had a veggie burrito and egg waiting for me when I arrived at 2522 Forest Glen Road. What a kind host!
The A Team looking at their first bill for the new house. Andrew regretted that it had the word "sewer" in it.
Benjamin wasn't sure what to do with the grandma from TV (or Google chat) in his living room the next morning.
He is such a beautiful boy.
At Cabin John Park, Abe and Porky had a little talk, just as Abe's mother and Porky did a generation ago. Porky has an endless (at least 23 years old) appetite for trash, and always wants to talk about it.

We begin to tackle "The Ugly Room".
Pals at Butler Orchard.

I miss my boys. And my girl.

The Best Day

We have had two beautiful October weekends in a row. The first was a cabin trip for conference. We posted one radio in the kitchen with the antennae taped to a nail on the wall above and the curtain rod, and the old "boom box" in the living room with a hanger against the window. Laurel assiduously worked on her 1500 piece James Christensen Shakespearean puzzle (perhaps in sympathy with Hope!). She ultimately finished in Sunday afternoon. Micah and Rachel, having had little sleep, took turns playing, "shhh-pat"ing Aaron in their new and helpful efforts to help Aaron sleep (thanks to The Baby Whisperer and The No Cry Sleep Solution), and napping.Laurel agreed to make breakfast on Saturday if I would make scones on Sunday, so we did. The scones were like whole wheat rolls, fried. Could have been worse, could have been better! No pictures of those, sorry. They looked like little brown knobs.

I don't have photos of the Peterson's visit on Sunday afternoon between sessions and for the last session, but it was a treat to lounge with them on the porch in the golden fall sunshine, and to have their help cleaning up lunch and winterizing both cabins. Cleo gave Morgan a little caper round and round and in and out of the cabin. It was good for Morgan, but she did not see it that way.

Between sessions on Saturday, Rachel and I headed up the Fish Lake trail to the meadow. Over and over we exclaimed, "This is the best day of the year!" We were in Weber heaven with the shimmering aspen decorating the air and fir trees, storybook clouds scudding across the deep blue sky, and heaven's words filling our souls.

Craig must have thought so too, for that afternoon when fishing with Micah he caught possibly his all-time grandest fish from that river. We decided it was a bishop's bonus and memorialized it with a boys' portrait. Craig and Micah went down the canyon to celebrate Micah's birthday at Hi-Mountain Drug in Kamas, followed by the priesthood session.While they were gone for so long, we decided that was the day to feed Aaron his first solids, so we peeled and cooked a pear on the stove in a little water, then blended it in the ancient cabin Osterizer from the cupboard. Aaron was delighted, and had no problem swallowing his food. He has joyfully been eating some fruits and veggies and a little brown rice ever since.Sunday was again the best day of the year, for all the same reasons plus the sabbath. We collected in the front room near the fire, and Rachel brought out the marshmallows. Craig and I dearly loved President Monson's Sunday morning talk. What love and faith he shows in his willingness to follow the promptings of the spirit, nothing doubting! We are striving for the same.Other favorite talks include Elder Christofferson's talk on repentance and, of course, Sister Dalton's powerful call to fathers to cherish their daughters! That was a historic talk. Which were your favorites?

This weekend, Craig, Laurel and I traveled south to Dixie so that Laurel could attend Snow Canyon's homecoming dance with her good friend Brandon Graves ("Brando" to Craig). While they hiked in the early morning and played games at the mall, Mom, Dad, Craig and I attended a beautiful session at the temple, and enjoyed multi-grain pancakes at the Black Bear Diner. It was a fitting way to celebrate Yom Kippur, but every day at the temple is holy!

I'm not sure if any of our daughters successfully pinned boutineer on their date in high school! It's not a family skill. This time Craig did the job.

I apologize for the low-resolution of these photos--I had my camera on the wrong setting.

An old song is stuck in my head: 'Time is my friend, for every time we meet, the time we spend is tender and sweet." I thank the Lord for sweet times with our family and friends!

Sift as Wheat: Internet Protection for our Families

Two weeks ago Nan, Pat and I piled in the Prius and headed to Sky Mountain Ranch outside Victor Idaho, the site of the former Bennion Boys Ranch. There, as guests of the incomparable Dick and Sue Jacobsen, we cooked, studied, painted, hiked, ran, talked, learned, yoga-ed, prayed, wood-worked and sang with other LDS mothers of teens. It was a sweet experience to share with my sisters on a stunningly beautiful late summer weekend. Nan and I shared a loft bedroom with a view of the Tetons.

Fellow mother of teens (and a baby!) Sally Linford gave a shortened version of her presentation on web safety to us. Here are a couple of quick fixes that you can do in minutes to protect your family, if they have not been done yet:

1. To protect from viewing offensive material on youtube, check into your account, or create a youtube account. Then scroll to the bottom of the page, and it will say "safety mode off" or "safety mode on". If off, then click on the link and turn it on, then lock it on and save.

2. To protect against unwanted google search results, either in photos or text, google "google SafeSearch", look for and click on the link for "search preferences page", scroll down to "SafeSearch filtering," and select "Use strict filtering." Then click the link to "Lock SafeSearch." You may need to create a google account if you don't already have one, but you probably do.

Note, these measures must be done in EACH brower used by your family, so for example in Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

If you or your children would like tips on improving filtering on your smart phones or other devices, look for:

AT&T's Smart Limits
T-Mobile's Web Guard
Verizon's Chaperone and Content Filtering
Sprint Nextel's Restricted/Unrestricted Web Access
Alltel's Axcess Web

Separated at Birth

Could these characters be related?

Eighty Notes of Thanks for my Eighty Year Old Dad

Dear Family,

Can we still celebrate our eighty year old Dad and Grumpy? Here is the illustrated thank you note we read at Dad's party. Please feel free to add illustrations/photos! I just could not find that desert marble, though I did find that it had a Salt Lake City connection! I love you, Dad.

August 26, 2011

Dear Dad, thank you for:

1. Marrying one of the most spectacular and complex women possible

2. And making her our mother.

3. Thank you for accepting the number 4 slot among 5 brothers,

4. And bringing many gifts to the DWE family which are still bearing fruit.

5. Thank you for following your very tender heart and buying a little porcelain dog for your mother

6. And for telling the truth most of the time.

7. Thank you for loving the Weber

8. And sharing that love with your children.

9. Thank you for giving it up for more time with Mom.

10. Thank you for loving her enough to become a “meat and potatoes” vegetarian.

11. Thank you for caring about your community

12. Enough to serve on many business and humanitarian boards, and teaching us to care about it, too,

13. And for running for the school board

14. And winning again and again and again.

15. Thanks for teaching us the work that goes into a campaign .

16. And letting us put up and take down lawn signs

17. And deliver flyers

18. Thanks for being a fun Young Men’s and Deacon’s quorum leader

19. A thoughtful Sunday School teacher, and

20. A southpaw chorister.

21. Thanks for teaching us that it is not where you serve, but how, and that every calling is beyond each of us without the Lord

22. Thank you for making me get the cereal out of the disposal and the peas from behind the radiator. That helped teach me integrity, which is one of my most cherished values

23. Thanks for harnessing the tote-gotes and taking kids all over the neighborhood.

24. Thanks for making me a model at an early age, and not making me keep it up when I was a teen and didn’t want to any more

25. Thanks for driving a truck where you could see the road under the wheels as we went along

26. Thanks for letting us watch geese grow up in our yard, and die at the cabin after running around with their heads chopped off, then letting us taste them (even though they were yucky).

27. Thanks for the extraordinary family Christmas cards, still cherished by old ladies

28. Thanks for teaching us to clean toilets and mow lawns (even on the riding lawn mower).

29. Thanks for getting rid of the Desert Marble client before we were killed by its fumes.

30. Ditto for the paint brushes in the freezer

31. Thanks for turkey beans and grandpa rolls;

32. Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and baked apples with red hots

33. And rice–er-raisins and whole wheat cereal with butter and brown sugar

34. And pancakes in shapes

35. Thanks for teaching me to cast a line on a lake with a worm

36. And on a stream with a fly

37. Thanks for being very good with horses and teaching me to enjoy them

38. Thanks for letting us live in Phoenix, where Mom was so happy and we had many fine adventures, including a baby boy

39. And thanks for bringing us back home again to Salt Lake when the Spirit asked you to do so.

40. Thanks for teaching me to speak up and call into Public Pulse when you were doing public relations for 19 Indian tribes in Utah and Arizona

41. Thanks for taking me to the Indian rodeo.

42. Thanks for letting me taste the cubes of cooked turkey dipped in barbeque sauce at National Turkey Federation Events

43. Thanks for your delicious stuffing and teaching me not to overcook the turkey

44. Thanks for showing me up with your garden every single year without fail (I think I am grateful for that)

45. Thanks for teaching me about family councils and what it takes to wait until your turn to speak and to accept what the family decides, even if you don’t like it

46. Thanks for showing me true Christian friendship as we waited in the car while you cleaned up your friend Bob from the effects of drunkenness more than once

47. Thanks for taking me to the office, where I could meet wonderful people like Richard and Evelyn Marshall

48. Thanks for being Grandpa’s best friend, especially in his final years.

49. Thanks for loving our wonderful Grandmother Bea all of her life, too.

50. Thanks for enjoying history, and reading it, and giving me a passion for the same.

51. Thanks for telling us about the Dairy Queen at the top of the Log Drag

52. And singing “I’m on the trail of the Big Fingerrrrrr!”

53. And “You are my Sunshine,”

54. And “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,”

55. And “Home on the Range.”

56. Thank you for writing down your testimony and giving it to us.

57. And thank you for giving us our own copy of the Doctrine and Covenants and

58. The Cannon Family Historical Treasury

59. Thanks for creating our family vacations,

60. Especially those involving mud, sand, flies and the tent trailer.

61. Thanks for loving the great west, and taking us from Hermosillo to the Wind Rivers

62. Thanks for coming back to shore in the sailboat when we thought you might be gone forever.

63. Thanks for being the strongest man I have ever known, capable of immense physical work and willing to do it (I nowunderstand why you did not want to be interrupted when you were measuring or sawing).

64. Thanks for knowing how to use a power saw safely, and for making

65. Upstairs bedrooms and swing sets and climbing toys.

66. Thanks for turning the old bike into a Schwinn, complete with a big, white basket with flowers around it.

67. Thank you for watching over Mom for fifty-five years.

68. Thank you for doing most of the driving while we were speeding through the desert on the way to California, because Mom was closing her eyes when she drove.

69. Thank you for staying active in the Church through thick and thin,

70. And for staying worthy to be in the temple with us and our children and their children

71. Thanks for being a grand friend to your brothers, especially Uncle Carl. I doubt he has a better friend.

72. Thanks for taking us to Madame Toussad’s and Ripley’s believe it or not when we were just the age to be awed by the experience.

73. Thanks for Fisherman’s Wharf.

74. Thanks for being a strong swimmer who could and would dive off cliffs

75. Thank you for serving a mission and looking so adorable in your bowler hat.

76. Thanks for getting braces. They really helped

77. Thanks for being tall and handsome to this very day.

78. Thanks for teaching us that if we could read, we could do anything (It’s worked pretty well, except for childbirth).

79. Thanks for giving me a beautiful blessing the night before I married Craig Galli

80. Thanks for loving a little girl like me and a little girl liker her, and a little girl like her, and a little boy like him.

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you!